The Tabernacle

I was inspired the other day, I was watching a ‘Wiggles Space dancing’ DVD with my son. They were talking about Space and what was out there, The Wiggles answer was ‘well, Space’. Then it dawned on me, that in creation the thing that God made the most of, by a huge amount is Space, ie nothing and emptiness. As I pondered this I was impressed by the importance of space to God, and humans seeming inability to be able to handle it. ie give an average human an empty room or space or empty time and they will just want to fill it. Space is so important for us to be able to encounter God, clutter and lack of space is death to being able to hear His voice and dwell in His presence. This applies to time as well, business is also death to intimacy with God.

What is important to us we make space for, sometimes though space is stolen. I have just returned from a trip to Adelaide, we were Blessed to be able to stay in two homes as we travelled, both had large LCD TV’s in the lounge area which was open and flowing into the kitchen and living areas. Both had the TV on a lot. In Adelaide it was on before we got up and it was still on when we went to bed. It reminded me of a visit to a pastor’s house here in Melbourne just recently where again the large screen TV was on. We were invited around for tea, yet before and during the meal and after the meal the TV was on and blaring.

Helen & I work very hard on the atmosphere that we live in, we not only have worship music playing 24/7 in the Tabernacle space we also have it in our home. Our sons room has had 24/7 worship playing every night of his life, we have maintained this on many trips and in many countries. This I know makes us very sensitive to atmospheres that we are not in control of such as shopping centres and other people’s homes. Grace is required as you enter other peoples ’space’ but it also makes you aware of what people allow to have such a dominate influence.

What are you choosing to fill your atmosphere?

I have just read two articles in the paper online, one saying that 2009 will mark 150 years since the publication of Darwin’s “Origin of the species” and another on some legislation before the Victorian parliament today about legalising abortion.

It makes me contemplate the connection here. The article points to some specific assumptions about life, either there is some order and purpose, ie a creator or there is not, and everything is just random and by chance. I see a clear connection with this science, or actually it is not science which by definition is a reproducible provable event, but an ideology of no creator and the thought that a woman’s right to choose can make it Ok to kill an unborn baby. I remember being in Russia and told of some abortions in Eastern Europe where as a baby was being born (full term) when the head first became visible then a hole would be drilled in the scalp of the baby and the brains pulled out with a hook, this of course killed the baby which was then born dead. I feel sick as I write this but as the baby was never born this was considered OK. You have got to be kidding.

The legislation before the Victorian parliament is talking about legalising the killing of a foetus in the mother’s womb as being OK if it is before a certain number of weeks and not Ok if it is after that point???

A woman’s right to choose, I really think that at the point of conception then the choice has been made and I will clearly state right here that I think it is murdering a human being to take that new life by any means at any time. In our world travels we have discovered that the Koreans have two numbers that they can give you if you ask how old they are, the Korean way is to say your age from when you were conceived but they also can answer in the western way of their age since their birth. I like this a lot, not because it makes me older but clearly as it shows that life begins at conception.

When our child was in the womb we decided to discover the gender and release the name of our child before he was born, this was amongst a pro abortion climate that we are in and Doctor’s suggesting screenings of our child in case there were defects that we might choose not to live with. I remember being given this choice once with a cat in a vet’s office I was comfortable with that but I was very uncomfortable with this offer in regards to a human.

As I write this I remember another little controversy surrounding circumcision. There were voices saying it is not Ok for parents to choose to cut their young child in this way, he may not want that in adult life. Yet now I am hearing it is going to be OK to kill a child just so long as he is only a certain number of weeks in the womb, I do believe that in every case the child would have preferred to live, to at least have the chance to choose to breathe.

It should be pretty obvious to everyone reading this Blog that I am a Christian, I believe that there is a creator and I believe that He (God) is actually very involved and very accessible. I also believe that life begins at conception and that it is not Ok for anyone to step in for any reason and to end that life.

There is one more article from today’s paper that I would like to mention it talks of a little premature baby born in Israel at 23 weeks, that came back to life after 6 hrs in the morgue. I think that God is saying something with this and I think that God has some very special plans for that little life. As I now go back to check the link I see that she has died. But I also noticed that her stories is the No1 link in the world news most viewed stories. Born tiny, died, rose again then died again and the world hears the news all in the day that it happened. What a story, what a life, she has undoubtedly impacted more people with her couple of hours of life than many people will in the entirety of their lives. Today’s legislation wants it to be Ok to kill babies up to 24 weeks, it seems in Israel today that maybe life can begin before full gestation.

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Throughout life there seem to come moments of examination. These past weeks have been as such for me.

A few weeks ago, I sat looking at my Father’s coffin. I was in hot, steamy Manila in the middle of honoring the Filipino people that Mum & Dad grew to love & give much to. We were observing a wake Filipino style. It was at this time that I had a profound moment with the Lord. He took me back to a time when as an 11 year old. I sat in the conference room at Wycliffe Bible Translators in Kangaroo Ground Australia, having just heard an invitation to world missions from Joanne Shelter (who interestingly was doing a bible translation in the Philippines). I remember being deeply impacted by this challenge. I responded to God declaring that I wanted to be a part of world missions. Now as I sat there gazing around the Filipino church with Dad’s coffin at the front, 7ft flower arrangements spanning the sides of the room having been sent from many different Wycliffe entities around the world & watching people arrive, I pondered again before the Lord my involvement in world missions.

Barry Borneman (Director of Wycliffe Australia) flew in for the wake. Within moments of meeting my Mum, myself & my two brothers, he shared with us the last email he received from Dad. It was sent hours before his cardiac arrest. Dad had left Barry with one question after his report of what he saw God doing in the Philippines & the needs there. The question was, “What are you going to do about it?” This question was now clearly haunting Barry.

He was not the only one.

During the Australian funeral, my Mum shared some reflections of her life with Dad. She closed with a question. This question I have been repeatedly asking the Lord since. “The question is not why did Geoff die, the question is why am I still alive?”

God gave us something in Europe. He gave us something that has always been the heart of his relationship with man & then man’s relationship to the world. This is the concept that the presence of God would dwell with us & that in this ‘dwelling’ he would transform ordinary men to transform the world. This dwelling is what we have felt to call ‘The Tabernacle.’ Over these last years, God has taken us on a journey in so many ways, but especially historically to understand some of his ways. In taking us to Europe & Israel, we saw what God’s spirit had done when groups of people pray & worship him intentionally & desperately. Bangor Ireland, Herrnhut Germany testify to what God did in Acts 1-2. The world that was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles was witnessed to & God’s spirit was given to the Gentiles, Bangor released a wave of Monks that transformed barbaric Europe to Christ, & the people of Herrnhut sporned the Moravian Missions movement. In all cases, ‘being together in prayer & worship’ preceeded a move of God that transformed the world of the then time. Psalm 77 says, “Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?” (77:13) Today God’s spirit is stirring again & ‘dwelling places’ exist in Israel, Germany, England, India, USA, Indonesia…

In all the camps that my Dad ran over the 25 years he was with Wycliffe, I witnessed a vital, non-negotiable ingredient in every single one of them. The ‘quiet time’. This is the heart of Tabernacle. This is the dwelling place, the dwelling moment with God & this would always be in the camp program. Other things were not always part of the program, but this always was. This was a fundamental part of Dad’s heart & Dad’s passion. He knew that it was from this place, this time in the presence of the Lord, that the world would be reached. As I have sat with these questions coming out of this time of Dad’s death, this is what I have felt the spirit of God stir in me & answer.

I want to be part of the ‘final sprint’ in world missions & this is the part God’s called me to play at this time.

This is why I am still alive. How about you?

Please first read the July 17th entry and the endorsements given to Todd.

I received an Email yesterday from God.TV confirming that Todd had separated from his wife, I have just checked the fresh fire website and it confirms this, then very sadly a quick look at some Blogs on the internet to see many people ’sticking the knife in’ to Todd and what happened at Florida. Why the ‘christian’ world does this I do not know.

I distinctly remember one speaker in my time at BCV The Bible college of Victoria, he was a guest who just spoke the one time. He told us that he had had the honor of being present in the Pacific on three separate occasions when revival had broken out, he said each time it was different and that the one very sad common thing was that on each occasion the established church missed it. It seemed that we had ‘god’ so defined that we were closed to any other expressions of Him. I distinctly remember at that time vowing to myself that I would never be so closed or proud of my thoughts or theology that I would shut out that which was different to my preconceived ideas.

I fully admit that when I first saw Todd this was a struggle he is ‘out there’ but you know what he is an American ministering mainly to Americans, so my reserved Australian opinion is extremely irrelevant. I received an Email from a western Australian pastor a couple of weeks ago and he was ‘warning’ people of Todd and what was happening in Florida. The guy had not been to Lakeland, he had never met Todd yet here was a mass Email throwing unsubstantiated doubt and suspicion all over Todd’s name, why would Christian leaders do this? If you don’t particularly know anything why say anything? Why throw muck? I suppose it is pretty hard when there is nothing supernatural or reflecting the presence of God happening in your church it is very confronting and threatening to have someone claiming that people were being raised from the dead and that people were getting out of wheelchairs and there were thousands of medically confirmed healings. Thousands.
I don’t want to rant or rave here just to say I saw the very strong personal endorsement of Bill Johnson, who said that he knows Todd and the family and his ministry well and personally and that IS enough for me. This is endorsement is available to listen to from www.ibethel.org look for the June 22 podcast and the actual commissioning can be seen on God.tv look for the June 23 meeting.

So let’s actually stop and pray for Todd and his wife. Prayer points can become gossip columns. There are casualties of front line battle here, do people sometimes take bullets when they find themselves on the front lines. YES I can personally attest to that. So let’s find ourselves in the group Loving and caring and supporting showing compassion, not the group that thinks a cheap shot and a few bad words will in some way lift them up or promote themselves. There will be many people throwing mud and saying ‘I told you so’. I want to be one found focusing on the God of the move not the man God used, and I want to clearly state that if the man of the move is found to be human and vulnerable, who should be surprised at that? The God he loves and proclaimed isn’t human or vulnerable. Thanks Todd for standing up and proclaiming loudly and with enthusiasm the name of our King.

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In 1 hour I leave to go and say goodbye to my Dad for the last time. I did not expect to loose him from my life so soon or so quickly. But my Father in Heaven who is now my only Father here on earth, is good & he prepared me just days before Dad died in Manila Philipines. He took me again as he did 5 years ago to the Book of Haggai in the Old Testament & left me with these words… “Once again I will shake the heavens & the earth, the sea & the dry land; and I will shake the nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory, says the Lord.” (Hag 2:6,7) The Lord left me that day with one question, “Are you ready for this?” Days later, I was in Manila watching the life support machines being turned off. My Dad was dead. He was now in heaven. The shaking had begun again. The point of the shaking is that all the nations would come to the ‘Desire of All Nations”,who is Jesus. He is the Desire. He was my Dad’s Desire. And He is mine.

I want to share with you what I am about to share in an hour’s time at my Dad’s funeral. This is his legacy. I pray it will be mine also. And if you knew my Dad, he would be asking you, “What will yours be?”

“You will hear lots of what Dad did for God but I want to share with you how I saw him love God. Because this is the greatest impact that Dad had on my life. He showed me how to love my Father in heaven. It was not what he did for God that inspired me, invited me & wooed me to know God for myself, it was all those times I saw him sit of a morning in his ‘den’ reading & talking to Jesus, it was all those times he prayed with me, with Mum, with whoever else was there. Dad pursued God & God pursued Dad. It was a mutual love affair that impacted me, the generations & the nations around me.

In one phrase it was impressive, inviting, compelling.

One of the highlights in our home growing up, was that precious moment when Mum would pull out a freshly made, hot loaf of bread. She would carry it over to the bench, where us kids would be lined up with knife in hand, plate in the other & taste buds jumping in delightful expectation of eating it. Not long after we had begun that joyous journey of cutting a slice of hot bread, covering it with butter & vegemite, Dad would inevitably come bursting in the door, eager for some of it himself. It was a common experience in our house, for an entire loaf of bread to be eaten in one sitting. Such was the wonder of Mum’s bread! Infact, Dad would eat bread with everything! He would have it for breakfast, lunch & dinner. Even for an afternoon snack. Dad & good bread were inseparable. Such was his passion for the ‘bread of life’ also. He devoured this book of God with the same enthusiasm & hunger that he would eat the bread made of wheat with. It intrigued me as a child seeing him spend hours over the ‘bread of life’ & ‘wheat’… it called something out in me… hunger.

Bishop J Garlington Sr once said, “Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It’s as if they were showing you the way.” Watching Dad love the presence of God awakened in me the desire to do the same. He indeed showed me the way & this is the greatest legacy & inheritance he left me…. left us all. For it is not about what he did, not about the task that he gave his life for right to the end, it was always & firstly, about loving Jesus… about loving the presence of God. It was out of this place he lived… he loved… he gave… he cared…

Watching Dad love the presence of God, this is the greatest thing he left behind. It’s the greatest thing we can leave behind. No one can argue with our testimony. No one can ignore a life lived in the presence of God. No one in their right mind would turn away from the sweet beauty that is left on a person loving Jesus. Dad was romanced by the heart of God & it was from this heart he spoke & lived. Of all the moments, all the memories, all that was part of his life & my life with Dad, this is the one thing. This is the one thing I will take with me till I die & it will be the one thing that I will impart to the children of my flesh & the children of the spirit that I am given.

Thank you Dad for showing me how to love Jesus. Thank you for loving us. We will so miss you.”