Dear Friends, 
 
I am excited to report that God continues to prove Himself FAITHFUL by doing Great Things at our "Renaissance Gatherings" and beyond!  Almost weekly, as Mindi and I speak with those the Lord allows our paths to cross there is a marked interest in what we are doing with "Renaissance" and what is going on in our world.  Wednesday night we had a guest family with us, who has shown much interest in how we differ from their traditional religious background, and the Lord touched them in a deeply.  Last week Mindi began walking every morning with a group of ladies and one, who is a Mormon, began to ask her about our beliefs.  I believe the pattern for growth is simple - the ONLY method the First Church, in the Book of Acts, ever employed for Evangelism was PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS.

We've faked the power of Pentecost long enough. Let's set aside the imitations and reclaim the real deal.

Shortly after Elijah was carried to heaven in his fiery chariot, a group of young prophets asked Elisha to go with them to build new living quarters near the Jordan River. While one of the young men was cutting down a tree, the blade of his axe fell in the water and sank into the murky depths of the riverbed (see 2 Kings 6:1-7).

This morning, my deodorant ran out – well, nearly ran out at least. So I scooped the remaining piece of white goop out of the plastic canister it was nestled in and rubbed it on my armpits by hand.

(That’s because I’m cheap. Waste not, want not. Etc.)

It worked well: full coverage. The only problem? The next act in my morning ritual is to floss my teeth. I strung out a nice piece of floss (fingertip to shoulder – the perfect length, just like my friendly dentists says), and got right to work. Halfway through, I noticed that my tongue felt weird.

I didn’t wash my hands in between the acts of applying the deodorant and flossing my teeth; and I had deodorant on my tongue.

For those of you who are still reading, there IS a moral to this story. Deodorant doesn’t belong on my tongue – or yours. My deodorant is one of those hyper-manly, super-strong, tested for 48 hours on a sweaty, curmudgeonly camel in the Sahara desert kind of deodorants. It’s an anti-perspirant too; a dry up your sweat no matter how hot it is miracle of modern ingenuity.

Whatcha gonna do today? Susan and I are going to tithe. Praying this morning, I realized how cool that is: we’re going to tithe. We do it because God commands it; because God honors it; and because we trust Him. I sent Susan this email about it right before I went online and tithed. 

Want to join us in this act of faith? After all, if Jesus hasn’t gained access to your cheddar yet, chances are good He’s not gaining access to much else that matters in your life. If you’re a tithing believer (is there any other kind?), let’s celebrate our act of faith together – whether it’s for the first time or the thousandth – and tithe today.

Susan,

We’re going to tithe today. We’re going to give a tenth of what God has given us back to Him.

You got paid yesterday. We’re going to tithe on that today – 10%, offered back to our Father in Heaven. I’ll be paid this Friday. We’re going to tithe in advance of that, because we just can’t wait to give. The money you received for your birthday last week? We’re going to give a tenth of that back to God. The cash your dad kindly slipped us Sunday to help with our car repairs? 10% - today; returned to Jesus who redeemed us. And we’re not just keeping track and “following the rules” as we give… we’re transcending them with hearts anxious to pour what we have into Christ’s cause.

The story is told about the baptism of King Aengus by St. Patrick in the middle of the fifth century. Sometime during the rite, St. Patrick leaned on his sharp-pointed staff and inadvertently stabbed the king's foot. After the baptism was over, St. Patrick looked down at all the blood, realized what he had done, and begged the king's forgiveness. Why did you suffer this pain in silence, the Saint wanted to know. The king replied, "I thought it was part of the ritual."

We have all experienced painful situations throughout our lives. People have hurt us, and to certain extent we have suffered self inflicted pain. There’s a lesson to be learned in the midst of pain…some learn quickly, others take longer to realize that there is a lesson to be learned. Pain is a test. I’ve seen individuals lying on a hospital bed paralyzed from the waist down and the doctors would perform pain tests to see if the nerves would respond. The hope would be that pain would be present to indicate life.