The Champion

You never forget the first times. Like the first time you ate ice cream that was so good, or that first time you see the mountains. I will never forget the first time I heard “The Champion” by Carman.

The Champion - Carman

I grew up in the Muhammad Ali era. I remember the fights that he had with Larry Holmes. I remember Sugar Ray Leonard and the new guy named Evander Holyfield. Boxing was one of two sports that was my main entertainment, besides Football, loved the Cowboys.

But there was just something about Boxing that I loved. You never knew what was to be expected. Some fights were one or two rounds and then you have ones lie Ali’s last match that went on for  ten rounds. I do not remember one draw, not even the local fights in Tulsa Convention Center in the 80’s that my brother and I went to with one of his friends, Tony Garcia a local middle weight boxer/ bus driver at the time.

So with all this in my life seeing these fights in 1985 I heard for the first time this song that started with the eighties style ominous synthesizer minor key. The song  was The Champion, I heard it on the local Christian radio station KXOJ, at the time it was owned and run by a Christian man and they only excepter donation to keep the radio stations going.

I was hushed in awe. So much so my brother decided to buy the Champion for me on Record, I still have I believe. I listened to it and learned to love other songs like, “Saved, Delivered and Healed”, “Fear not my child”, well all of them. I played the album until I had all the songs memorized. It’s really cool now my kids know these songs and they like Carman’s songs as much as I do.

“The Champion” came to me at a time when I was still trying to grasp the importance of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. I mean I knew the story, the wisdom of it for the deliverance of our sins. He became sin on the cross so we could live and not go to hell. I knew it but it wasn’t until this song I learned the Love and heart of what God gave us.

It was then in 1985 I learned that Love God has for us. And that we can see modern symbolism in songs and learn that we learn from these ways as well as The parables Jesus taught us by; modern day parable set to music, if you will.

It’s a great memory I have, and it has taught me that Jesus is the Champion and no one NO ONE will unseat this Champion in my life.

Thanks

Kevin

His name is Holy Spirit

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. John 14:26

Through the evening yesterday, I was scrolling twitter and I came across a tweet. which read:

"You can have the Holy Spirit inside of you and never use it"

I underlined the word ‘it’ they did not. I have been taught through the bible that the Holy Spirit is the third of the Trinity of God. My dad reminded me lots of times that The Holy Spirit is a person not an it, correcting me when I used to say ‘it’ instead of He. It is important that we have a grasp of who He is, Who the Holy Spirit really is.

First Scripture is above when Jesus mentions Him. Jesus said, “...the Father will send in my name, HE…”

Jesus proclaimed that The Holy Spirit is a person HE!

Next we have Luke 12:10 -12 which reads, “10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (emphasis mine)

If The Holy Spirit is a thing, then how can it teach. So this is another example of Jesus’ proclamation of The Holy Spirit as a person.

All  through Acts we see Him, The Holy spirit, in action:

• In Peters in Acts 4
• In Stephen in Acts 7
• In Paul(Saul) in Acts 8 and 9
• In Acts 10: 38 Peter said of Jesus being anointed with the Holy Spirit and power- explaining that the two are different

1. Person- The Holy Spirit

2. A thing- Power from God

• In Acts 13 He sent them… (Barnabas, Simeon and others)
• In Barnabas’ letter in Acts 15 saying what The Holy Spirit said to Him about what to abstain from (sin). He, the Holy Spirit is a teacher.

The one that stands out to me in my morning study of The Holy Spirit, is in Acts 16:

“6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.”(emphasis mine)

This clearly teaches us that not only is the Holy spirit a person it is THE Spirit of Jesus, The Spirit of God.

John 14: 1,8-11  “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him,“Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

Since The Father and Son are one, and the Holy spirit is The Spirit of Jesus, then The Holy Spirit is a He not an it. Make sure to keep this clear when teaching.

Thanks

Kevin

My plans

I have been re-reading Francis Chan's "Crazy love". He says in it "I get nervous when I think how we've missed who we are suppose to be." And I know there is something wrong.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8- 9 (ESV)

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11(ESV)

Many have seen me and Dee try. We go into the church on Sunday morning a bit early, along with the band and get set up to record. Then later in the week some see us working Tue. or Wed. sitting at the desk at edit until the sermon is edited down to what sounds complete and good. It is always a pleasure to record and then later edit down listening to the sermon a second time. It’s always easy to get a good sermon, when you have Holy Spirit filled men like we do at WellSpring Bible Church.

But I knew something was wrong inside. I kept on recalling a memory back to when I was working with Mike Harris at KDOR-TV 17 “The All-American Network; subsidiary of The Trinity Broadcasting Network. I remember when The stations, at the time owned by Sonny Arguinzoni   and Nikki Cruz, were sold back to TBN. This was a great time personally for me and Dee, we were expecting our fourth child, we had rumblings that All-American Network may become its own network without TBN, so we were thinking of trafficking 24 hrs a day 7 days a week programming.

Then the news came we were sold for a profit of eighty plus Million dollars to TBN. My hours went down, my colleagues moved to different employment. And the station was going to have a new General Manager from TBN, to say the least things went downhill from there.

As a newer employee at the TV station, I had my hopes set that this would be the one big break for me to spread my wings and fly, to set off on a new venture. I told my manager Mike Harris, and great brother in Christ, that I was scared, mad, and didn’t know what to do. Why did God allow AAN get sold and ruin all our plans. He said we may never know but know that God is in control of all things and wasn’t surprised by this news. God will make a way for all of us.

The year’s flew by it is now 16 years since I left TV Broadcasting. Last year in March of 2015. We were given an opportunity to record for WellSpring Bible Church, with the hopes of reaching more via web and social webs. It was going great at the time, but still I knew something was not right.

For months of planning and strategizing on how to market WellSpring and the Pastors there to get more views online was my only focus. Only focus! My life is not a bed of roses, I suffer from Dissociative Identity disorder (formerly called Multiple personality disorder) with this I have moments of flashback pain and memories, anxiety and depression. Some of the time I was not even able to make it out of my bedroom let alone go out to edit. And this is where I am now, I have been all week thinking about the plans i have made and now knowing there is still something wrong.

Just like my time at the TV station this is not my full potential. There is something else God has planned for me and my wife to do. It was my first thoughts as I was moving my family from Oklahoma to Alliance, Ohio in June 2012. I had a friend of mine in Tulsa say to me that I have always thought too little of myself and the limitations I put on myself is awful. And it has limited my, demeanor, my consciousness, my reality, my walk with friends and family but most of all it has placed God in a box, keeping Him safe for just me. Only allowing God to shine through others and other things staying in the background. I have been hiding the light that Jesus died for, hiding the light The Holy Spirit has been working in me.

I am blogging this to publical say that I repent of hiding the Light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, from all  around me, all people God places in my path to shine the light of Jesus Christ to. This is my way of saying that I am going to go from this day forward where God allows me to go. I may have these mental issues, and a body that is not working with me, mainly my legs, in which I am starting physical therapy Monday the 15th of August.

It is time for me to prepare myself for them mission God has sent me here to Alliance to do. Please pray with me as we go forth on this journey.

Thanks,

Kevin