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. . .

Giving Directions

I was walking to my car downtown and was stopped by a lady in her car who asked me how to get to N. Franklin St. She was on S. Franklin St and only needed to cross over E. Washington Ave to get to her destination. I informed her of that small piece of information and then we both headed on our way. Later I started to think about that, how even though she was less than 2 blocks from her destination, she was completely lost. Without someone to offer her guidance, she might have continued to wander around and possibly give up trying to find her destination. It took me less than 2 minutes to give her the information she needed. She was very grateful and I felt good about helping a stranger.

I then wondered why is it so difficult to share directions that point toward the Cross? You are surrounded by people who often need direction in their life and probably ask you and anyone else that will listen. The people I interact with throughout my day share about how they don’t know what to do in this situation or that situation. They sometimes even ask for my advice or opinion. I usually try to give them the best advice I can come up with, short of pointing them to Jesus. Why? It is so easy to give directions to a location or help a stranger on the street, but difficult to give Godly directions to the people I am in relationship with.

During this last Tuesday night Mad City Church prayer meeting, there were some prayers that appealed to the Lord to help whittle away the fear of man that causes us to pause when we are faced with sharing or displaying the Truth among unbelievers. We carry this fear of what others may think of us and it causes us to hold back sharing the Truth. We all have it to various degrees, but in those moments where that fear rises up, we must submit our fear to the Lord and he will give us the courage to speak. Paul specifically asked for help in this area in Ephesians 6: 19-20. He asked for people to pray that he would be given the words to speak and to speak them fearlessly.

I am not saying that we need to beat the people around us with the Truth, because it is kindness that leads people to repentance, rather that we should use the trust and friendship we have earned with our co-workers and those who we are in relationship. If you have worked at the same place for a number of years, you most likely have developed a friendship or co-worker relationship. We most likely already have the avenue to speak Truth when the opportunity arises. We must just trust that the Lord will give us the words to speak during those moments of opportunity. We must be willing to offer directions that point to the Cross, because we know how to get there, we have traveled down that road. I believe we are not in relationship with the people around us by chance, God is orchestrating divine appointments for us each day, let’s keep an open, willing, submitted heart posture before the Lord so we can see them.

Here is the challenge, that we would pray the prayer that Paul asked for and that we would pray this prayer for each other. We are the ambassadors of Christ and I know we desire to speak the Truth of Jesus Christ fearlessly; we just need to seek it. Let’s stand together in this.

Strength and Honor