God has done amazing things since we last talked and I am looking forward to the miracles He has yet to perform. So many praises as well as an abundance of prayers to report, it’s hard to know where to start.  Actually…it’s not.  Let’s start with some praises that we all can be excited about.

Praise #1…We have a confirmed city permit and have been given the green light by the health department, fire marshal, and the state.  In other words legally, we are on track.

Praise #2…Our furniture is on order and we got a great discount on it.  Actually, because of the discount, we were able to get a little better quality of furniture which is sweet.

Praise #3…Found out that our monthly lease is $800 a month cheaper than originally thought.  Amazing!!

Praise #4…We have ordered our coffee equipment and found out that we do not have to pay the entire amount up front.  We have been allowed to make four monthly payments with the first being due when we order and the remaining three to begin when the equipment is installed.

Praise #5…Employment applications are coming in for positions at Ethnos…just through “word of mouth.” We have not officially put anything out there yet (that is coming very soon).

Praise #6…People are praying and people are excited.  Continually and consistently I have people letting me know how excited they are regarding Ethnos and even more have said that they are praying.  That is a huge encouragement for me and the others involved.

I could go on and on but will save that for another update.  God is good and all that has been accomplished up to this point is only because of Him.  In the midst of the praises though, we still have some serious prayers that do not need to be forgotten about.

Please pray that I am thorough in discovering and understanding what needs to be done and when.  This is new territory and there are many details to keep track of all at the same time.

Pray for my manager.  Shortly she will be leaving her old job and moving to the Shreveport/Bossier City area.  As with all of us when we move there will be amny things to adjust too in a very short time.

Please pray for more finances.  God has provided tremendously and has used you to do it.  Your generosity is humbling.  And in the midst of this miracle we continue to pray for more money.  Needs have been met but there are more needs on the horizon.  All in all, when all is said and done, to be able to pay for everything (buildout, equipment, initial inventory, and initial salary base) we still will require approximately $50,000.  With that, it would put us near our original required investment of 104,000.

I believe.  And to keep myself in that spirit of belief I am constantly reading and rereading Scripture concerning people who have been called to walk by faith.  Never does God provide that which they need early.  Never do men and women of faith get the luxury of “coasting” through God’s plan and or call on their lives.  There’s has been an active faith (and mine needs to be an active faith) where there is no doubt in my mind and in the mind of others, that God alone has accomplished this task.

Satan is doing his best to play on my fears and insecurities.  He is and has been attacking me spiritually day and night.  But the Holy Spirit has been faithful in comforting and reminding me that God is in control and He has the ability to plant Ethnos and the church (where the gates of hell will not overpower it).

I leave you with this reminder…the passage of Scripture that God used to initiate this whole call of starting Ethnos and the church plant at the Villaggio.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”

Acts 17:24-31 ( NIV) 

Grace and peace,

Jerome

If you have ever been to a church that uses the Lord’s Prayer as part of their liturgy, then you have prayed this as the ending to the prayer. This closing is not part of the original manuscripts. Most scholars believe that this was a closing that early churches repeated after reading the Lord’s Prayer. After time, what was placed in the manuscripts as a “side note” eventually worked its way into the text itself. Even though this closing sentence is not part of what Christ had taught, it is still a theologically solid statement or prayer. This statement is a reminder that it is all about God, it all belongs to God, and it is all because of God. It is HIS Kingdom, it is HIS power, and it is HIS Glory. The danger comes when we take what God is doing through us and begin to treat it as if it is our own. If Ethnos has any value at all, it is because it is God’s and it is His will to establish this entity. If God is not the one that is motivating the establishment of Ethnos and thereafter, the church plant, then it should not be established. If Ethnos exists for anything other than God’s Glory, God’s Kingdom, and God’s mission, then pray that we will no longer exist as an entity.

Today pray that we would be reminded that God is sovereign and He is Lord. Pray that we would always remember that He will establish His church and His Kingdom, and we are called to be tools by which He will accomplish these things. Pray that we would trust in God’s power, not our own, to accomplish His will. Pray that Ethnos would truly be established for the Glory of God and not for our own glory or recognition. Pray that we would truly be His and that we would truly become that which God intends. We are so very grateful for you faithful prayers over the past 40 days. Please continue to keep Ethnos in your prayers as we seek to join God in His mission to bring restoration to Bossier City, Shreveport, NW Louisiana, the nation, and the world. Regular updates will continue.  God Bless!!

“You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” 2 Corinthians 1:11

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

It is critical to remember that our ultimate enemy is not physical, but spiritual. This is something that has become quite real as I try to plant Ethnos. Though the attacks of Satan that we have faced have been hard at times, there is also a bit of encouragement found in these attacks. The reality is, Satan is not God. He is not omnipotent or omnipresent, and he is limited in his resources. So if he is using his resources to attack me, he isn’t using those resources somewhere else. So in other words Satan will not waste his time with me unless I are a threat. So even though I have seen many attacks coming from the enemy, I’m encouraged because this means what we are doing is a threat to the enemy. With all that being said, the frequency and amount of attacks have been taxing. There have been many days in which I have been left worn out, beat up, and ready to quit. There have been days in which all I could do is drop to my knees and ask God for the strength to endure and seek Christ for protection from the enemy.

Today pray against the attacks of the enemy. Pray that God would provide protection for all of those involved with Ethnos, along with those who will come along side of us in the future. I ask that you would please pray also for my family, that Caleb, Kaitlyn, and Callie would be protected, and that Andrea and my marriage would be guarded from the attacks of the enemy. Pray that we would not be discouraged by the attacks that will come, but be encouraged to press forward giving no credence to the enemy.

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Paul tells Timothy to not only keep watch on his doctrine but also to keep watch on how he lives. Teaching sound doctrine is important, but living a consistent life is also very critical. We live in an age where we have witnessed the destructive effect caused by ministers whose lives do not follow the message they preach. There are very few things that can hinder the Gospel more than the moral failings of those who stand as representatives of the Gospel. When our lives reflect the restoration found through Christ, our message has power because the audience has actually seen that which we proclaim.

Today pray that God would protect us from temptation and sin. Pray that our lives would be a testimony of the transformative power of the Gospel.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

I believe that what Paul is speaking about is occurring now…and has been for a long time. We live in an age where churches and ministries have grown immensely by “slightly” altering the Gospel in order to meet the desires of our culture. Right before this passage, Paul commands Timothy to “preach the Word” and to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. It is not as hard to exhort, but it is slightly less pleasant to reprove and rebuke according to the Word of God. The question we must ask is, “Is it God’s desire for us to establish ethnos and the church plant at any expense, or to proclaim His Truth at any cost?”

Don’t get me wrong, I believe God’s word proclaimed clearly is very powerful and many churches and ministries have grown immensely while unashamedly preaching the word of God. But ultimately our responsibility is to be obedient to God, proclaiming Truth and staying true to His vision, even if it may hinder us in some fashion.

There were many prophets spoken about in Old Testament times who had many followers because they spoke what the people wanted to hear. Yet the true prophets often spent their entire lives proclaiming the word that God had given them without even one person ever repenting. Even though they did not have success like many of the other false prophets of their day, they were not a failure because they were faithful.

The temptation will always exist to accommodate the message to appease the masses. But if Ethnos and the church plant is truly going to be what God intended, then we can never compromise the message and the vision to fit the desires of the masses. The question should not be “does it work” but instead it should be “is it true”.

Today pray that we would remain faithful to God’s Word and God’s vision no matter what the cost may be. Pray for me that I would preach, teach, and serve the whole council of Scripture, even the parts that are less appealing. Pray that we would never sacrifice obedience to God’s Word for the sake of “success.” Pray also that we would see success due to obedience to the vision and the Word.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

As believers, there seems to be two ways in which we respond and or react to the world around us.  The first way that we may respond/react to the world is to retreat.  There are some that say that the world is so evil we must separate from it in order to remain pure. Those of us who do that often refuse to go to secular establishments, refuse to have non Christian friends, and often create a parallel “Christian” culture so that we will not have to involve ourselves with the messy secular culture around us. This response/reaction has an appearance of wisdom, but it forgets that God has not just called us to be holy, but also to be on mission.

We make another mistake at times and that is to respond to culture with a mentality of compromise. It may be that we feel a need to relate to the secular world in order to reach the world. In some ways this is true, but often for the sake of being “accepted” by the surrounding culture we accept many of the fallen aspects of the surrounding culture. In the effort to “connect” with the world we begin to “conform” or resemble the fallen world around us.

This verse is part of a larger prayer that Christ prays for His disciples. In this part of the prayer Jesus is praying that we would not be separatists, yet also that we would not be conformists. In other words we are to be like Christ, who did not remain distant but instead came into the fallen world walking among fallen men and women. Though Christ “incarnated” or came into fallen human culture, He also remained pure, reflecting God’s perfect will “within” the culture of His day.

Today pray that we would not retreat from the messiness that will surround us daily in and around Ethnos. Pray also that while in the midst of the fallen culture we would remain distinct, reflecting God’s intentions not the world’s intentions.

In this passage Paul also requests that the churches would pray that he would be able to speak with clarity. Like Paul, I can tell the story of Jesus all I want, but if what is said is not understood, then what is proclaimed will be of no use. If, through Ethnos, the telling of the most important story ever, has any lasting effect, it will be because the Spirit has enabled us to share the gospel with clarity and power.

Today pray that when the opportunities come, I and everybody else will be able to share the story of Jesus with full clarity, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray that God would equip all of us with effectiveness and clarity.

The big prayer has been for God to provide the monies needed for us to start Ethnos.  We need to purchase furniture, equipment, initial inventory etc.  We have been praying for about $94,000.  That has been our ideal, shooting for the moon figure.  We can start the with less but for it to be what my dreams have been, we need an additional $94,000 on top of the $13,000 we already have thanks to so many peoples generosity.

A moment ago I received an email from an individual.  I knew this person was praying and seeking God about giving to Ethnos.  They had stated to me about a month ago that they could not get Ethnos off their heart and mind and felt God calling them to give.  They wanted to spend time in prayer and then get back to me.  Today they did.  The individual stated that they will be donating, by God’s direction, $50,000!

DID YOU READ THAT….$50,000.  Praise God and Amen Glory Hallelujah.  Are you as excited as I am?  I hope so.  God is so good.  Our faith is coming to fruition.  God is providing for the dream that He has placed inside my head and heart.

This amount allows us to definitely move forward.  We will be progressing with the initial purchases and begin the next phase in establishing Ethnos.

But we still need to pray and lift up Ethnos.  We still need to raise the rest of the monies.  As you know we have a golf invitational that will happen November 14^th.  Please visit www.ethnosinvitational.wordpress.com for info on the invitational.  Know the info will help you pray specifically and participate in other ways if God so calls you.  Please, lift up the invitational.  I believe God will use this event as a source for the additional funding.

Again, may God alone be praised.  As always He proves Himself faithful and true.  Amen and Amen!!!