The Grace House

I want to share something with you all.

I first began this blog post some months ago, but only wrote the first line, but the Lord has goaded me today to remind me that it is time to write for He is removing the obstacles .

This morning I shared in my (almost) daily Facebook post this scripture.

' "...But he who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land and will possess My holy mountain." And it will be said, "Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstacle out of the way of My people." For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy...' [Isaiah 57: 13 -15]

The Lord is removing the obstacles and one of those obstacles has been me!
This is very important and I respectfully request that you read and then pray.

What I share is something that has sat in me for a long time and I believe the time is right to loudly proclaim it.
I believe that the Lord requires me to open my mouth and proclaim the things He has promised.
He desires that His promise be lifted up because lifted up all men will be drawn to Him. [John 12: 32]
Jesus is the promise and 'He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.' [Colossians 1: 17] Another version says that all things consist in Him, things that have no substance, yet, already CONSIST in Him.

What I want to share with you is the Grace House.
It was the 29th April 2005; ten years ago.
I was in Cambodia. It was night and I was sleeping.
As I slept the Lord showed me something.
When I awoke I recorded it in my journal as follows.
It came like a bullet-point presentation from God.
This is what I wrote in 2005.

'The Lord gave me a vision. A parcel of land. An orphanage. An old people's home. A hospital. A school. A church. The gospel is preached. People are gathered in. The connections are being prepared. My role? To administer Jesus.'

The next night the Lord showed me the building. In plan view as it lay on the ground it was in the shape of a cross; a crucifix lying on the ground. It was surrounded by a wall. The main gate had an arch over the gateway. Written on the arch were the words of Jesus, 'Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.' Within the walls were gardens where people walked and children played. The gardens had the beautiful sugar palm, so indicative of Cambodia, but also flowers and trees, with places to sit in the shade.The elderly shared their wisdom with the children, the sick recovered and were ministered to, children received education and the place was a haven of rest. The sick were ministered to in the hospital. The elderly with no-where to go had a place to live and meet together. Disadvantaged and abandoned children, some orphans, lived and played. A school provided education and future for the residents but also for the street children who came to receive the goodness of the Lord. The centre of the crucifix was a church, not a place of religion but a place dispensing grace. All will gather there, released prisoners will come, members of the armed forces will come, families will come, the elderly and the children, the rich and the poor, the important and the humble - all will come and all will be welcome. All will find the only answer worth finding, and they will find ministry to their needs and desire. Everybody who comes to the Grace House will receive good news of Life - His name is JESUS. Please understand this - WTL have no interest in establishing religion in Cambodia, our only interest is to bring LIFE and the Grace House is a kingdom-building, life-giving, grace-providing place that will be seen not only in Cambodia but will be a beacon of Hope to the world for from this place Jesus will be administered to the world. A flag will be raised here that respects Cambodia and her people but declares that 'JESUS is LORD.'

The building itself showed respect to the tradition of Cambodian buildings in its design. I was in Cambodia in 2006 and I drove past a building and my heart skipped a beat because it was much as I had seen, even the colouring was the same. I had to take a photo of it. Here it is.

And then, a year or two ago I was driving in Phnom Penh and I saw a wall and over the wall was a tree. The wall enclosed a large block of vacant land in Phnom Penh. I have no idea who owns the land, or what it is for, but it is unusual to see large vacant land in PP and I felt my spirit quicken as I saw it because I thought 'here is our land.' I mentioned a tree; I could see a tree over the wall. WTL has a logo, it is the tree of Life. It is watered by the spring of the Holy Spirit, that never-ending flow of God - LIFE. WTL means 'Way, Truth, Life' for the centre of all we are is Him, the Way, the Truth and the Life, Jesus Christ our Lord. [John 14: 6]

I could write at great length for I have 'seen' this building in my heart for ten years now. When I received the vision I asked the Lord what my role would be and His reply was, "YOU WILL ADMINISTER JESUS."
The Mission Statement of WTL is to 'show the love of Christ in word and deed' - www.cambodiawtl.org.au and to 'Bring freedom to the people through radical Grace.' - www.wtlcambodia.com and this building will be the 'doing' of those things but if you want a 'reason' for this building then the only one I can give you here is just this - to 'administer JESUS.' From this place Jesus will be administered to the world. They said of Jesus 'can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' They may say of Cambodia 'can any good thing come out of Cambodia' but the Lord has shown us that this little Asian country, that has seen so much death, from it will come LIFE, real life and it will be a light to the world in the darkness of last days before the Lord comes. He is the answer.

So how will this happen? I do not know but the Lord tells me that this is not my question to ask. That question is His. The cost to build this building is beyond me but it is not beyond the 'riches in glory in Christ Jesus [Philippians 4: 19] so I place that question there for I do know this that He has already provided all that is required and it is out there...it is provided in you.
If you would like to chat more about this I am always ready to hear from you. My contact is via the website or you can email me at graemeshephard@cambodiawtl.org.au.

Blessings,
Graeme Shephard
14th May, 2015

Glory...

It is said that the Old Testament is Jesus concealed and the New Testament is Jesus revealed. Either way, Old and New, it is Jesus. Wherever we look He is there.

Moses was raised in the palace of the Pharaoh and taught the ways of Egypt and when he was called to lead he tried to do it in his own strength. The result was that he found himself in the desert and he was there for forty years. Why was he there for forty years? Because it took forty years for him to be turned aside; it took forty years for him to be turned aside by the burning bush, the bush that burnt but was not consumed. [Exodus 3: 2 – 4] The bush that burnt but was not consumed, what is that?  Jesus endured the fire of the wrath of God against our sin even to death but He was not consumed. He bore it even to death and He rose again. Jesus was forty days in the wilderness in Luke 4 and at the end ‘He became hungry.’ [Luke 4: 2] For Moses it took forty years for the hunger to come and for him to be turned aside by the burning bush. It took a long time for Moses.

I think it is obvious that the leadership call upon Moses came much earlier than the call that he received from the Lord in the burning bush. Moses knew the burn of his call (it revealed itself as his zeal took the life of the Egyptian [Exodus 2: 11 – 12]) but as he pursued it in his own strength it very nearly consumed him and he ended up in the Midian desert for forty years. Finally, he was turned aside from himself to see the ‘marvelous sight’ of the burning bush which was not consumed. Here was a power other than himself and it took Moses forty years to see it. It sometimes takes us a long time to turn aside. But turn aside we must.

If you then come to Exodus 33 we find Moses outside the camp. He took his tent and he pitched it outside the camp, ‘a good distance from the camp.’ This was where he met with God. He called it the ‘tent of meeting.’ If anyone wanted to ‘meet’ God they must go outside the camp to the tent of meeting. Having turned aside to the burning bush that is not consumed it is then necessary that we go outside the camp. This is the ‘let us go over to the other side’ of Mark 4: 35. The meeting place with God was outside the camp. Do not forget that Hebrews 13: 12 – 13 says, ‘Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.’ There He is again, Jesus, our meeting place, outside the camp. Whenever Moses went to the tent of meeting outside the camp the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the door of the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses and ‘the Lord used to speak with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.’ [Exodus 33: 11] The Lord is willing to speak if we are willing to go outside the camp to meet with Him, and He will speak to us face to face. Hold that glorious thought.

Yesterday, in my Facebook post, I shared a scripture from Exodus 33: 12 – 23.  Think of all that Moses had seen. He had seen the mighty hand of God and yet he is asking the Lord to show him His ways and that he might see the glory of the Lord. The Lord says that you can’t see My face and live but He says to Moses to come stand ‘in a place by Me’ on the rock. And as God passed by Moses was hidden in the cleft of the rock and he was covered with the hand of God. There He is again – Jesus, our Rock; Jesus, the Hand of God who covers us and in whom we can declare in truth that we are the righteousness of God. [2 Corinthians 5: 21]. Moses was to stand on the rock which, God said, was ‘in a place by Me.’ [Exodus 33: 21] God passed by and Moses saw His back only. Moses could only see His back and yet he came down so aglow with glory that the people could not look upon him. He covered his face; why? So the people could not see the glory passing away, for it was passing to give way to a greater glory.

There is so much to receive here and I can only touch it.

Let me ask us some questions.

Do you desire to see the glory of the Lord? Do you desire His ways? I desire these things without doubt! We must turn aside to the Burning Bush that is not consumed. We must go outside the camp to the Meeting Place with God. We must stand on the Rock. He will hide us in the cleft of the Rock. He will show us His ways and He will show us His glory.

Now the Bible is clear that a greater than Moses is here. Moses was only able to see the back of the Lord, but what of you and I? Can we only see His back? Is our view of His glory just His back? I learnt from my pastor, John Woolhouse at Dorrigo Life Springs Church, just last weekend that the word in the Hebrew for ‘presence’ is the same word as for ‘face.’ There is no separate Hebrew word for presence and so the presence of the Lord is to see His face.  My goodness!  Our advantage is that whereas Moses had Christ concealed we have Christ revealed. (I hope I am making sense!)

More questions. What is His glory? A friend asked me that question this very morning. Wow! What a question! I feel that it is impossible to declare and even after eternity has run its course (which is impossible) we will still be amazed at His glory. The only description I have is the four living creatures of Revelation 1 who declare’ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty’ perpetually for all eternity. Each time they look up they see more glory, more revelation of Him, more, and more, and more for all eternity. That is His glory, so how can I describe it? But it is a good question, despite the difficulty of the answer. For Moses it could be suggested that the glory of the Lord was His goodness and His name because as the Lord passed by he saw the back of God and He revealed to him ‘all His goodness’ and He proclaimed ‘His name.’ But for us is His glory limited (if that could be described as limit!) to His goodness or does God want us to see more?

Another question.  Is it possible for us to see His face? Well, certainly it isn’t possible to see His face and live, God’s word never changes! So, then it must be possible to see His face if we die. In Christ, and it is declared in our baptism, we died and we no longer live to ourselves but Christ lives in us. [Galatians 2: 20] So to see His glory we must die. I do not speak of physical death, although if we die in Christ we will certainly see His glory! But I speak of death to ourselves. Someone said to me recently that ‘it is hard to receive Jesus 100%; what do I think?’ My response was that it isn’t hard to receive Jesus 100% (because He is more than willing to reveal Himself, by His Spirit) but it is hard for us to die 100%. So are we to work hard at dying 100%? No. It is pointless because the harder you try the more of you rises. What did the Lord say to Moses in Exodus 33? He said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ [Exodus 33: 14] Wow! Glory is to see His face and His presence went with Moses, so how much more for us? And for Moses it wasn’t in his striving to die but more in his resting to receive.

So what do we see when we see His glory? What does He want to show us of His glory? Yes, we see His glory in His goodness as He calms our storms. [Mark 4: 39 – 41] We see His glory in His greatness as He brings liberty from the legion of enemies that seek to bring us into bondage. [Mark 5: 15] But He wants us to see His face. His face, His presence, this is His glory. There He is again - Jesus, the revealed face of God declaring His glory. Read on with me. Certainly His character and His nature as described in Galatians 5: 22 – 23 are glorious and are a declaration of Hisglory but these things are fruit of the Spirit, they are fall-out of us seeing His glory. And as we see His face, His presence, they are by-products that we cannot contain as we fix our eyes on Him. But, how can we see His face and live? We must die to ourselves and live to Him.

Listen to this. ‘For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I am fully known.’ [1 Corinthians 13: 12] We are fully known but it is also possible to fully know. Many would say this is only a heavenly experience but I disagree. The Lord wants us to see His glory and I want to see it. It is in His face, His presence – same word. As a child we seek our own way and we live on milk but when we feed on meat [Hebrews 5: 13 – 14] then the veil is lifted and our dim view becomes a face to face view and face to face then I will fully know. If you read 2 Corinthians 3 carefully you will see clearly the veil, it is the Law. What is revealed when the veil is lifted? Grace. Read on in 1 Corinthians 13 and you will see the glory of His face to face presence. Listen. ‘But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.’ [1 Corinthians 13: 13] Hear this also, ‘After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.’ [1 Peter 5: 10] It is His grace, His love that calls us to perfection and strength, in His grace are we confirmed and established. Why? Because we are sons.

We have a Father. He wants to be our Dad. He wants us to see His glory. It is His love. He wants us to pitch our tent there. Pitched there we will lack for nothing. In fact pitched there we will have five times more than our brethren. But that isn’t the point either. There we see His Love. That is the point. He wants us to live in His glory, His glory is His LOVE.

How can we perceive the magnitude of living in this place but as we see His face can even logic say that there is any limit? Does lack live in the face of God? No way! I don’t know what to say now. Maybe the Lord will show more another day but for me now I must just get up and move forward into His Love, move forward into His presence, move forward into His call and move forward into His provision. Obviously His greatest Love expression is Love, the person, Jesus Christ spared not and in Him how is it conceivable that with Him freely given all things could not be ours? [Romans 8: 32] But even that, for me, is not the point. I just want to see His glory and to walk in His ways. To see His glory is to walk in His ways. Walking in His ways suggests something I do but totally absorbed by His glory the walk is guaranteed.

For me, for my family, for WTL and the families of WTL it is time to stand up and walk in His glory, His LOVE for us. This is the key that opens the lock.

If you are reading this it is no different for you.

Have a great day.

The modus operandi of Love...who is our mother?

These are just thoughts...not a definitive document, just beginning thoughts. I can see a sunrise, the first rays of a new day have crested the horizon of my life. I am excited. I need to write because that provides me with an outlet. I have no other, no one I can unload on, so writing is my only pressure release. I say pressure release, not a bad pressure but a pressure like something immense that cannot be contained; I can identify with Jeremiah when he said,

'But if I say, "I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name," then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones: and I am weary of holding it in and I cannot endure it.' [Jeremiah 20: 9]

 I wrote in my journal this morning...

'God is the source of love but its essence is the love of the Father. A father’s love is God’s love in operation.'

God is love but the modus operandi of His love is the love of a father. He is our Dad. Jesus came to introduce Him and when He did He said, "Let me introduce your Father." Not God, but yes God, but the Father. He is God but He wants you to know Him as Father. The immensity, and it is incredibly immense, of this is just dawning. It's something I have known but I am only just beginning to 'see' it - like the dawning of a new day. Days have dawned before but no day like this day. It's funny but only a few days ago I was think of Aragorn. My family loves the 'Lord of the Rings', the great books of  J. R. R. Tolkein and the movies that have been made directed by Peter Jackson - great stories full of meaning. Lord of the Rings people will know some of the great quotes but recently, for some reason, I was thinking of one from Aragorn. Aragorn has led his armies to the black gates and as the enemy comes full of bluff Aragorn says,

"Hold your ground, hold your ground! Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

This is the day. This day we fight. This day I bid you stand. This day we stand in the immensity of truth - the Father's love. We have a father and His name is GOD.

I am sure the revealing Spirit has much more to say about our Father but just now I feel constrained to speak about our mother. As I contemplated these things over the last twenty-four hours the Lord reminded me of a scripture in Luke 13.

Jesus speaking, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under wings, and you would not have it!" [Luke 13: 34]

We speak of the Father's love but what of our mother? Who is she?
We could think much on the love of mother's and as I observe my wife there is no love like that of a mother for her children. I will not begin to analyse it because I would fail dismally to even touch its magnitude or scope! The Bible shows a small picture of it in the gathering hen, gathering her chicks under her wings.
But if God is our father, who is our mother?
Jacob had two wives and many sons. One wife he was tricked into having, her name was Leah. She was very productive, she produced a great multitude. Leah's name means 'weary.' But Jacob loved Rachel. She only had two sons, Joseph and Benjamin, in fact, Rachel lost her life to produce Benjamin - wow! Can you see it?  Rachel's name means 'lamb.' Joseph saved the world, Benjamin received five times as much as his brothers. I could give you Bible references for all of this but better if you search it out for yourself. What does all this mean? How does it help us to see our mother?
Leah is Law. It is wearying to seek God via the 'doing' of the Law but many, a great multitude, pursue it - even Christians! Law demands! In Mark 4 when Jesus invited the disciples to go over to the other side, and when they got there they found freedom from the legion of demons of bondage, they left the multitude behind. To cross over from Law means leaving the multitude behind.
Rachel means 'lamb' and that is Jesus and He is Grace. Grace is our mother. Not grace, the spiritual fruit, but Grace the person of Jesus, the expression of the boundless, limitless favour of God. In our mother we have one brother, His name is Jesus, our Saviour (sozo salvation) and in Him, and Him alone, we are Benjamin who enjoys the five times more favour, this is the favour available to us when we have of Grace as our mother.

God is our Father but Grace is our mother.
Jacob was father to both Leah and Rachel's children and so it is possible to have God as our father but still have Law as our mother but our Father, through our brother, Jesus, is calling us to go over to the other side and meet with freedom and see our true mother, Grace.

'On that day, when evening came, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in their boat, just as He was...' [Mark 4: 35 - 36]

You make the choice to take Him along with you in your boat; He doesn't force you. You invite Him in and He comes 'just as He is.' How is He? He is Grace.

Jesus came and introduced you to His Father. He said in so many places, "Let Me introduce you to your Father..." We will undoubtedly see more of this as the sun of the new day rises.

But, I, also, have a role to play and this is the high calling of WTL. (I say that for the family members of WTL - your call is immense.)
So, today and tomorrow, I say to you through the words of this blog, and my Facebook posts, "Let me introduce you to your Mother, her name is Grace."

How you respond is up to you.

I know them...

Can I tell you a couple of true stories?
Years ago I was preaching the gospel in a place called Memot. I thought my sermon was pretty good because I used the preaching of one of the world's greatest preachers, the Apostle Paul, as my guide. I was using Paul's sermon at the Areopagus in Athens in Acts 17. I preached from it but I didn't realise it at the time that this wasn't the most successful of Paul's sermons. Years later the Lord showed me that very few people actually received Jesus that day and that as Paul travelled from Athens to Corinth the Lord taught him and when he arrived in Corinth he could later write,

'For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.' [1 Corinthians 2: 2 - 5]

Paul, that day in Areopagus, debated Jesus on the basis of his not inconsiderable intellect with a bunch of intellectuals but the Lord showed him a better way as he walked towards Corinth. No condemnation, just the gentle staff of the Good Shepherd.
So I used Paul's ineffective sermon on Mars Hill as my guide that day at Memot and it got to a point where I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to ask the people to respond to Him. So I asked them if they would receive Jesus. Not one person moved! Nothing! If someone had dropped a pin, except for the fact the floor was the ground outside, it would have sounded like someone had rung the Big Ben bell!
What happened then felt like it took hours but was in fact only a few seconds.
I said to God, "Thanks very much! You bring me here to make me look like a fool!" His response? "Graeme, you can preach all you like but one thing I want you to know is that you do the preaching, but I DO THE SAVING. Now ask them again." So I asked again and hundreds rose up to receive Jesus. The time that had elapsed between the first asking and the second was only a few seconds at most (although it seemed like an eternity to me) and only the Holy Spirit could have effected that shift in that time. I do the preaching but He does the saving.

You know the name of Jesus is enough. It isn't based in our carefully crafted sermon. I was asked to preach to 205 prisoners in a prison in Cambodia. I was given a very difficult restriction of two minutes to speak - very difficult for me! I have many words! I said that I felt I had many things I needed to say but all I had time for is this and I raised up my hand and I said, "JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, JESUS. If you will receive this Jesus raise up your hand." Two hundred and five prisoners raised their hand to receive Jesus!

More recently I was in Cambodia and I was speaking with some children. You can see a picture of the day I speak of as the cover photo on my Facebook page. As I shared Jesus with the children they willingly received the gift of God. As they did the Holy Spirit was speaking to me. I was preaching here and having a conversation with God there, at the same time. He said to me, "You ask them to receive Me but I want you to know that I RECEIVE THEM." I was stunned with the beautiful simplicity of the truth. He is the faithful One, not us. If our salvation rested in the quality of our faith then we are doomed! But it doesn't. It rests in His faithfulness. Hallelujah! I was reminded of this again when I was asked to share with a bunch of children at my old primary school in Dorrigo. I showed the children a picture of me blessing children in Cambodia. I asked them if I could pray with them in the same way and they readily agreed. I was praying and the Lord stopped me and said, "Now ask them to receive Me." I was hesitant but I obeyed. I said something like this, "If I hold out a gift to you what must you do?" One girl answered that they must take it. Good answer! I went on, "God is holding out a gift today, His name is Jesus Christ, and if you will receive Him then put up your hand." A number of children did so and we prayed. As I prayed with them the Lord reminded me of that day in Cambodia. Those Dorrigo child may not walk in that moment for much of their life but who are we to say that their response was meaningless when He is the faithful One. Does He forget? Not a chance! Later I was meditating in John 10 and here it says this,

Jesus speaking, '"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand."' [John 10: 27 - 28]

I could say much but what impacted me were these two statements - there are no misplaced and inadvertent words in the Bible!

• I KNOW THEM.
• No one will snatch them FROM MY HAND.

I see nothing there to say their security rests in the voracity of their faith or in their faithfulness to Him. I only see Him, the faithful One.

I can hear Him speak even now, "You can preach all you like but I DO THE SAVING."
And, "You ask them to receive Me but I RECEIVE THEM."

My sheep they hear My voice and I know them...and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

I know them.