The Furnace – Madison’s Prayer Chamber

The Furnace, located at 555 W.  Mifflin St, celebrated it’s 1 year anniversary at the Mifflin St location.  This prayer and worship center has been literally fueling the Fire thru abandoned worship and praise of the one true God.  The name of Jesus is lifted up, glorified, and praised throughout the week.  They have internship classes where people from all over southern Wisconsin have been drawn by the Spirit to attend.  The first and third Friday night of every month is called Encounter Night, where people from all around gather to sing, dance and soak in the presence of our Father.  His thick presence has been known to result in many physical healings, restoration of relationships, and freedom from addictions.  There is no doubt that these amazing things are happening because of the desire of God’s people to worship, adore and exault Him and Him alone!

There are prayer meetings held throughout the week where spiritual warfare is done on behalf of the city of Madison as well as our national leaders.  It has become very evident that the Spirit of God is moving and has been becoming increasingly more discernable active over the last year.  He is preparing His body (us, the collective church body) for His return.  The spiritual atmosphere is very active with demonic strongholds being challenged and overtaken by the Kingdom of Heaven thru the body of Christ via their warring praise and worship and prayers.

The Furnace is a place for ALL those who desire to pursue Jesus Christ and want more of His presence and desire to see this city become a city on a hill that points the way to Jesus, who is the Way, the Life, and the Truth!  I highly encourage all believers to visit and worship and pray.  You will be drinking from the fount of Living water where you will be filled to overflowing and can take back the refreshing power and presence of our King to your houses of prayer and worship and bring forth the unity of the body of Christ.  The Furnace is another place where we, as the body of Christ in Madisona and southern Wisconsin, can gather in one accord and seek the face and right hand of our King!

The Furnace hours are available at their website, www.advancek.com, click on The Furnace.

For the Glory of the King!!

A True Expression of Christ

Last week a man I would consider a good friend died unexpectedly. Rick Horstman was a man whose life was changed dramatically after he was introduced to Jesus Christ. I would say that he was a True Expression of Christ. The main goal of being a follower of Christ is that we would become Christ-like in everything that we do. When Jesus walked on this earth 2000+ years ago, he set the standard of how to live. He showed us what it looks like to love your neighbor as yourself; how to love your enemies; how to have compassion on those less fortunate. Jesus was a servant leader and led by example.

I knew Rick for a decade or so and had the privilege of knowing him on a more personal level as a friend and mentor. He came to Madison with hardly anything to his name. He hooked up with Shane Holden as Shane was just starting Mad City Church. Rick knew Jesus intimately and believed in what the Bible had to say. He had tough times in his life, but he always trusted in Jesus. His faith had no end as far as I could see. Rick would never say that, but his life shouted it as you hung around him. He was always encouraging me to go after my dreams 100%. He asked me countless times, “What have you got to lose? The Lord will take care of ya, go for it!”. I must have told him a hundred times that he was crazy. I knew he wasn’t crazy. . . I just didn’t have the faith to take that leap. Rick was a great inspiration in that respect. He knew that he knew that he knew, no matter what he did, the Lord would see him through. Circumstances did not matter, only that you keep your eyes on Jesus.

It is hard to write about someone knowing that you won’t get to enjoy hanging out with them anymore, at least not until the return of Jesus or your own death. But Rick Horstman’s life is one that needs to be shared, even after his death. His life plan was simple, love Jesus and seek first His kingdom, and then go for it. “It” being whatever passion the Lord has placed inside of you, go for it. Jesus loves us without end or boundaries. His love should inspire us to live life to the max, because we know that we are loved right where we are.

That is the beauty of Jesus and His pursuit of us. Someone who has been living their life without regard to God or anyone else can suddenly become aware that Jesus laid down His life for them and loves them completely, right where they are in their life. They myth that someone needs to get cleaned up before they can step into a church without getting struck by lightening is so utterly false. The Bible says that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. While we were enemies of God, he sacrificed everything so that we would have the option to know Him. That’s right, Jesus sacrificed himself to give us the option to follow Him. Because of our free will, we can choose to deny Christ or we can choose to embrace Him because of His deep love for us.

I think the best way we can honor Rick’s life is to continue to tell the story of his life, about how Jesus Christ radically changed him and how Faith in Jesus will see you through anything this life can throw at you. It is not a religion, it is a relationship, getting knowing Jesus just like you would get know your own spouse or mother or father. As Rick would say, what have you got to lose? Nothing but the loneliness of this world. Seek out Jesus Christ. . . read the book of John in the Bible. . . go to Mad City Church, Damascus Road Church, Door Creek Church, Lake City Church, High Point Church, Blackhawk Church, or any other Bible preaching church like these. Seek out other men that you can see are “going for it” seeking Jesus. Surround yourself with them and get counsel from the elders and leaders in your church. Get involved in a men’s group, go to a men’s retreat, volunteer time to your community, or coordinate neighborhood cook-outs.

All of these things will help us become like Jesus and help us leave a legacy like what Rick left. Most, if not all, of Rick’s family moved back to the Madison area as the Lord blessed Rick and Rick was able to share Jesus with them all. Because Rick was close to Jesus, being close to Rick felt like you were closer to Jesus. That is the legacy I want to leave. . . .

Rick, I will miss you. . .

The Sin “Option”

If you’re like me, you get a little tired of dealing with recurring sinful desires. As I continue on my pursuit of seeking first the Kingdom of God (Matt 6:33), the Holy Spirit is gracious enough to show me areas of my life that need repair. I know that I have a long way to go, and there seems to be no end to the depth of my fleshly desires, but I am learning how to surrender those areas of my life to the Lord.

Most of us have secret sins, or areas of our life that we know we gravitate towards frequently or at least have identified those areas as a known weakness. Shane Holden preached at Mad City Church last Sunday on Fighting for Freedom. (You can go here to listen to that sermon when it becomes available, look for 10/21/2007). He talked about how maturing in your pursuit of Jesus Christ doesn’t mean that you will no longer have weaknesses. A sign of a mature Christian is the ability to identify your weaknesses and then take action doing whatever you need to do to keep yourself protected from those areas and to avoid the triggers that lead you toward sin.

I have a significant area of weakness in my life I have identified early on in my pursuit of Jesus. I had developed bad habits in this area due to years of engaging in this activity unchecked. It is also I believe a generational issue that has plagued my family for generations, maybe you can relate to a similar issue in your life. I have repeatedly, earnestly confessed this area to Jesus, to my closest friends and yet still seemed to fall prey to its trap. If I compare what this area in my life looked like before I was pursuing God to what it looks like now, this area looks like it has been pretty much been taken care of and eliminated, but there are still times I get tripped up and fall. Why?

I have sought the Lord’s help and confessed it (repeatedly), I have confessed it to my closest friends. I have felt that I have totally surrendered it to the Lord in every way. . . then the Lord spoke to me directly. The funny thing about Jesus, is that when you ask Him to speak to you, He will! I have recently started writing in a small journal after years of mentors telling me you should try it, it really is helpful. Well . . . they were right. I started journaling ideas for songs that I am working on writing, and that lead to just writing letters to God which also led to the use this notebook to take notes on Sunday’s and write out scriptures and any dreams that I may have. It is a useful tool so if you are going to try and start one, don’t get bogged down on what you should write about, just use it for anything God related in your life!

Back to the Lord speaking to me, I was on the Alpha weekend away last weekend, I had wrote in my journal Friday night, Lord give me dreams from You tonight. Amazingly, I did have a dream and He did speak to me. Why is that amazing? Because even though I know that God is active in my life, every time it happens in such a tangible way, it amazes me. He gave me this dream. I was in a public common area looking through my backpack. I saw several folders in my backpack and opened them up and found my secret sin right there in the open, all over the pages. I immediately shut my backpack, fearing someone around me might see. I then went through and crumpled up all the pages because I am done with that stuff and have been for a long time. I then felt the Lord saying to me (still in the dream), it is good to crumple up those things, but that is not enough. Even if it is crumpled, you still have the “option” of un-crumpling it and looking at it. You need to crumple it up and then throw it into the fire so that it is destroyed forever.

The next morning, I remembered my dream. I usually don’t remember any dreams, except when God speaks to me. We had this large fireplace at the location we were at for the Alpha weekend away. I felt that God wanted me to physically write down my secret sin onto a piece of paper and then crumple it up and toss it into the fire. You see, the Lord was telling me that even though I felt I had fully confessed this area, I had actually in my deepest parts, kept the “option” to run to that sin again. Thus the sin “option”. Previously in my life, I did walked away from that sin and re-arranged my life so as to not get tripped up into it, but I still kept the option there mentally. Somewhere deep with in me, I wanted to be able to go there and satisfy my desires. I had not given it up completely and that is why I occasionally stumble and fall in this area. The Lord says to make the necessary changes in your life and then let His fire consume that area and remove the “option”.

That was an amazing revelation in and on its own, but there was more God wanted to show me. Here’s how he showed me. I did end up writing those things down and then crumpled up the paper and sat in front of the raging fire in the fireplace. I said a prayer, and tossed the paper in. It hit the top of the fire and bounced to the back corner of the fireplace and just sat there. I am thinking come on, burn. . . burn!! I sat there for like 5 minutes before ever so slowly a red ribbon worked its way through my crumpled paper consuming it. It took like 5 or 10 minutes. I felt that the Lord was saying to me, that even when we get to the point where we are ready to allow Him to consume our secret sin, it can still take time for it to be completely consumed. Why? I am not sure, but I do know that He will consume it completely when He is finished, and that is awesome news!

So let’s not get discouraged, let’s be obedient to what the Lord is telling us. If you have an area of sin that you have been faithfully trying to eliminate from your life, but seem to get stuck with the occasional stumbling, take a minute and write it down on a piece of paper, then crumple it up and toss it into the fire and let the Lord’s all consuming fire destroy it. Does this now mean that I won’t ever be tempted in this area? No absolutely not, it still is a weakness, but I have actually declared to the Lord my intention of no longer have this as an “option” to run to! By His grace and through His strength, I won’t.

The Lord is faithful to complete the good work He has started in you, so be encouraged that as you surrender all areas of your life to Him, He will accomplish the awesome plan for your life!

Strength and Honor