Back to Basics

This is it. I am on the ferry right now on my way home from Patmos. Its been an amazing week, but I’m ready to go home. I’m walking away so much richer than before. At the beginning of the week I was anticipating a lot of blessing as the spiritual warfare was high during the organizing stages - my anticipation was rewarded. This week has been a leap of growth in my spiritual walk as the Lord humbled me by taking me back to the basics. Bottom line, no matter how much work we do for the Lord, if it’s not followed by heartfelt prayer and spending time with Him in His Word, the work is getting dangerously close to becoming meaningless. The Lord doesn’t want our work He wants our hearts. In the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2, the Lord found no fault in their work:

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that
you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to
be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered
and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”

The church of Ephesus were hard workers for the Lord, they persevered, fought battles for Him, found out false prophets and kicked them out, they did not grow weary, all in all they were generally good Christians BUT the Lord found one fault with them:

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love."

They had lost their first love. They were working FOR the Lord not WITH the Lord and He does not like that for He keeps on going:

“Remember the height from which you have fallen!
Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, 

I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place.”

The Lord views it as a fall, a matter of which that needs repentance - a complete turn around. If our heart isn’t in the right place - in tune with the Lord - no matter what we do for Him, it wont be pleasing to Him, so much so that He will remove our lampstand from this place! Working for the Lord, out of tune with His heart, is a dangerous place to be.
Mark 12:33 says:

“To love Him with all your heart,
with all your understanding and with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than
all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

To love Him is more important than offerings and sacrifices. What are the offerings and sacrifices of our day, since we don’t slaughter lambs and bulls to Him anymore? Our offerings and our sacrifices up to the Lord are our lives with all of our deeds and works. Yet if we do it without loving Him completely everything we do is meaningless. Non-believers do a lot of good works too, yet our salvation is not by works, but a gift from God. A gift He gives us in exchange for our hearts.
I really feel like the Lord was telling me “ Janet you are Ephesus, come back to me” Recently a couple of people have called me a workaholic, that’s how much I work for His Kingdom, but in all that, prior to this week, I can’t remember when was the last time I spent time with the Lord in His Word or in prayer. I really feel like those verses in Revelation 2 were directed right to me. Another blow to me during this week was when all of us HMers, that were in Patmos, got together for about 30 min every night to pray. As we were praying I was finding it very hard to stay still before Him on concentrate on His glory and love for us as my mind was always racing to the next thing that needed to get done. During those times the Lord was telling me “You see Janet you cannot even be still before me and know that I AM God”
Through all these experiences I really feel like I need to slow down and spend more time with Him in prayer and studying His Word. Not because I have to but because I want to for I do love Him with all my heart.
Please would you pray for me in this? I need to find a delicate balance between the work that I do and spending time with Him.

6th Day on Patmos

As our time here is drawing to an end it feels really sad. The first part of the group is actually leaving the hotel in the next 15 min. Its been the most amazing time of rejuvenation for me, I’ve just really appreciated getting away from the craziness of life and just taking a break and focusing on the Lord.
As I drive the group back and forth in between the places we need to be in I invariable spend part of the trip on my own, where I usually sing my heart out (as I have no radio to keep me company). One of the songs which I keep singing over and over again is an Icelandic favorite of mine which goes like this:
Ég vil dvelja í skugga vængja þinna
Trúfesti þitt er skjöldur minn
Ég vil finna þann frið er færir þú
Nóttin nálgast en ég mun ekki hræðast
er ég dvel í skugga vængja þinna.

:,:Í skugga, í skugga, í skugga vængja þinna:,:

Which means

I want to dwell the shadow of your wings
Your steadfastness is my shield
I want to feel that peace You bring
Night will come but I shall feel no fear
for I dwell in the shadow of Your wings

:,:In the shadow, in the shadow, in the shadow of Your wings:,:

As I’ve been here it really feels like I’ve been dwelling in the Lord’s shadow. Being rejuvenated by His presence in my life and digging deeper into who He is. I really am not ready for this to end but as I look forward I can’t wait to start tackling all the things He has for me in the next few months. He has been preparing me for something and I can’t wait to find out what that is.

UNBELIEVABLE!!! OK I’m picking up from where I left off about an hour and a half ago. So I took the four people that needed to take the ferry tonight, Bill - who needs to catch a flight on Friday morning, Helen, Sarah and Andre - all of which have business to attend to in Athens. We get down to the port in good time, it’s a quarter to two and the ferry was supposed to leave at ten past, we’re 25 min early at this point. So we unload the car and get comfortable inside it in the heat. Helen is out for a walk at this point talking to people. All of a sudden she comes up to the car and announces the news - the ferry that is coming now, at 2:10, is from Blue Star Ferries and is going to Rhodes while the ferry that we are waiting for is G.A. Ferries to Athens at precisely the same time. OK this is odd and slightly worrying. So I get out of the car and start investigating. Helen comes with me and ends up going to the port police with the tickets. Yes, there is no ferries going tonight to Athens! Excuse me? We have tickets here that prove that there is a ferry going to Athens at 2:10. You’re tickets are wrong. I’m sorry, did I miss something, how can tickets be wrong? Have you ever bought an airplane ticket and it be wrong? So a long story cut a little shorter, we reloaded the car up with all the luggage and I drove everybody back up to the hotel. I simply cannot believe that this happened! I have never heard of this happening to anybody I know, absolutely unbelievable! So hopefully tomorrow the ferry that was promised to us will leave on time and arrive on time in Athens because Bill will only have maximum 4 hours, and that is cutting his check-in time by an hour, to get to the airport.

Well I wasn’t ready for the group to be split up and to go home and so for this whole experience to end, well I got my wish!

Absolutely inconceivable!

5th Day on Patmos

We went to see the Cave of the Apocalypse today which, as legend has it, is where John received and wrote down the Lord’s revelation. It was interesting to see it, but somehow there was an element of lore about it. Did John really stay there? We don’t know. Is this truly the cave he received the revelation in? We don’t know. As we were visiting the cave a guardian told us a bit about the history of it. He told us about where John slept, where he would put his hand to rise up from bed (ehem you know that how exactly?), where his scribe wrote (another tradition, we don’t know if John wrote or somebody else acted as a scribe for him), the guide told us where the Lord’s voice came from, apparently it came out of the rock etc. They left nothing out, they explained every little detail and I couldn’t help but sit there in the damp darkness and go “How do you know all this? Where you there? Did you ever meet John and ask him? Did YOU get a revelation about what happened there?” The whole cave experience was just about speculation to me. I don’t know, I’ve been really excited all week about going to see it and now that I’ve seen it I’m walking away disappointed. The reverence for the place that I had is totally gone - they’ve explained it all away somehow, with false knowledge. Plus they’ve changed the cave into a small church taking the cave aspect of it all away. Anyway it’s a nice memory, and it’s neat to be able to say, “Yes I’ve been there”, but that’s about it. The real mystery, the most interesting part and the most exciting, is not the cave, but the result - what John wrote. The guide was focusing on what John did in the cave and all the things that happened there but he totally missed the most important part - the book of Revelation itself. People, let’s not ask about the meaningless where’s and how’s but lets get back to the basics, lets get back to the Scriptures.
What I’ve been thinking about all week, and what the Lord has been convicting me about was just reinforced today; we need to stop in the busyness of life and just stop - we need to come before the Lord and be still. I love the Scripture verse in Psalms 46:10 that states “Be still, and know that I am God.” I don’t remember the last time I was still before the Lord and just knew that He is God. Just sit there in the silence, in the stillness and know Him. Come to think of it, the last time I stopped was last summer in France when I was on vacation - that’s 7 months ago! I haven’t been still before the Lord in 7 months! It just reinforces the notion that I am the Church of Ephesus I am a doer but not a listener that has lost his first love. I focus on what I can do instead of whom I’m doing it for. I need to learn to stop. I took a 10 min walk tonight on my own to pray and gaze up into the starry hosts, and just those 10 min were the most rejuvenating time I have had in a very long time. He longs to fill us up with His peace and serenity if we would just let Him.

Oh God this is my prayer for tonight, help me to be still every once in a while. Give me wisdom to say no to the things You don’t want me to do and instead go away, tuck up somewhere and be still before You. For You are holy and worthy of our time. You long to be with us but we don’t give you of our ourselves. Lord I am so sorry. Please Lord, remind me, knock on the door of my heart and let me know when I need to stop and just kneel before You, my King, in Your presence. I love you Lord and thank You for everything You do for us, Amen.

4th Day on Patmos

Ok so today was supposed to be our day off. We were going to go down town, that is, to the port Skala, which we did, and rent motorbikes. Now, we all got down there with high hopes and soaring spirits but as we start asking around we quickly realize that nobody’s going to rent us a bike! First none of the guys had their international driving license on them and second we needed to have a motorbike license, which none of us except for Andrew has, so dejected we decide to have class instead. Unfortunately since this was unforeseen, Bill isn’t ready and Mr. G is off doing his own thing with no cell phone on him. So we go out for lunch instead. We’re all hungry for a gyro.The first place we stop and sit down at doesn’t have any, so we keep on moving, I think we must have looked for a good 30min for a gyro place, and it wasn’t until we got smart and asked a local that we realized that none of the gyro places are opened for lunch! What is this place?! No motorbikes and no gyro, is this island Greek or what? Anyway we find a nice little place and have pizza. Now as we’re sitting down, Andrew and Nate come over to us and low and behold with a BIKE! Andrew had been able to rent a motorbike. Anyway that created a whole bunch of jealousies, which faded fast. Now as we are sitting down at our table and the guys are drinking their beers as they are waiting for the pizzas, we are all just minding our own busyness talking Nate all of a sudden sprays the table with beer - no warning, no nothing just sprays us all with beer

Oh boy we had an amazing dinner

Fish for dinner

What a blessing to have learned about finances in HM it’s helped me out today
The dog, walking to Insoo’s for lessons, see it pat it, drive everybody home, walk up the stairs, see the dog again, go down stairs tell the story come up he’s in my room!
tell the girls, they’ve seen him
guys know about him he followed them home we’ve all given him seperate names

3rd Day on Patmos

This morning was really cool, it was Sunday today and so we had church. I went to pick up Insoo down in Skala, the port, and he joined us for our services. Bill shared and then we had communion. There’s just something neat about being in Patmos and doing all these things, knowing that John was here. What am I talking about?! It’s just cool that we’re here in Greece where a lot of this began!!!!
Today was painful. The Lord convicted me of so many different things. The first thing was when it came time to start class, I had just finished my last drive down, everybody was in Insoo’s house and I had just parked the car when I realized “Where’s Helen?” Helen wasn’t there. So I asked Mrs. G if she had seen her, no she had not. So we called her and she said that she was walking! She didn’t inform anybody just took of - that was my thinking then. Later I found out that she was in her room and the “last” people didn’t know about it. So as I was on my way up to pick her up I was grumbling inside of me. As I was driving up I saw my dad walking down the hill and offered him a ride to wherever Helen would be, which at the time I thought was the Cave of the Apocalypse half way up the hill. I get to the cave and no Helen, meanwhile I had been complaining about this whole situation to my dad. We finally found Helen, right outside of the Chora, which is the main town where we’re staying. She had barely started to walk! I couldn’t believe it! I was so upset that I was made to drive all the way up to pick up one person who didn’t have the good sense of letting people know she was still around. So I pick her up and we start driving down, then came the first blow “Janet why are you so impatient with me?” POW “Well Helen because they have started the classes and everybody was meant to be down there, I had just parked the car and was getting ready to enjoy class” lame excuse. As I was driving down I started pondering of how I had and have become the worst version of myself. Usually I am a patient person, ready to help anybody and go out of my way for “anybody” “Are you really Janet?” “No” Am I really the servant that everybody pictures me out to be? A servant is a servant to anybody not just to a select few and the Lord showed me today that I have been a servant in my life, yes, but only to a select few - who is worthy of my time? OK I’ll serve them. But that is not what true servanthood is all about. Servants serve the unlovable also. That is one lesson I have learned today, the meaning of loving and serving the unlovable. My prayer now, is that I will be able to put that into practice.
Another blow was in class as Bill was teaching. He stared talking about spending time in prayer thanking the Lord and as the first person is praying the second one is going “oh man he took everything, now I’ve got nothing to thank the Lord about!” POW - nervous laughter. How many times do I sit and listen as people are praying and think to myself, oh man what can I pray about?! As Bill was making fun of that and I was laughing nervously along with the joke, the Lord was telling me “now Janet is that truly what you want in your spiritual walk?” “No” as I was driving back from taking one of the first groups up to the Chora, the same feeling as yesterday came over me, a desire to spend more time with God. Again that same thing, I am not spending enough time with God. I do, do, do, work, work, work to the point where two people have called me a workaholic recently. I resent that comment but then the Lord brought back a description that Johnathan recently said about me, “she works like 3 missionaries”, the question is now - can I cut anything out of my schedule and then what should I cut out of my schedule? There’s nothing, everything I do has a heartfelt commitment to it. The Love Meals, the Worship Events, the Morning Star, being Alex’s assistant, Operation Joshua - it’s a lot but can I give anything up? I don’t know , I truly don’t.
Another thing the Lord showed me today is my lack of patience. As I was frustrated with that whole thing with Helen, (it’s funny how little things can really get to you isn’t it), the Lord reminded me of my road rage that I never used to have. I am a lot more aggressive person than I used to be with a lot less patience and that is something that I need to be prayerfully working on.
I also had a couple of scares today as my laptop’s battery stopped working for a few hours. At one point, in the middle of the class if it was not plugged in it died. Then a few hours later, and as I am typing this, the computer works just fine on the battery. I have no idea what happened but it was not OK! At the same time my computer wasn’t working I was unable to take pictures on my camera! All of a sudden it would not snap a picture. Again I have no idea what happened but it all works fine now. It was really weird, like a demon got into it and then left.
Through all this that happened today and all the conviction I was placed under one major encouraging thing happened, as I was getting ready for the last session of the evening, a session on leadership, dad asks me if he can read my Bible! Peter Grant had told him on the last day of the conference in Glyfada to read Ecclesiastes and he asked me tonight if he could read it! Hem I was not about to say no, “Of course you can dad!” I have no idea where he got to or how long he read for because when I came in he was sleeping and is still snoring merrily next to me as I am typing. But what a blessings for me to hear my dad ask that question! Thank you Lord!
Another thing that was brought to my attention tonight is the importance of being yoked to a believer. The lady from whom we are renting these rooms is married to an unbeliever and just tonight she was telling us of her guilt and lack of willingness to keep on fighting. I think she is broken woman because she made the decision of marrying an unbeliever. It’s hard enough to stand up for your faith in everyday life situations outside of home but when even your home cannot be a safe haven where you fill up your batteries, the fight is close to lost. My friends, if there is one thing you take away from today’s blog let it be this: we are called to be in the world but not of it. When you marry somebody you become one with that person and if that person is not a believer he is in the world and so you become one with the world, and that is a very dangerous place to be.

2nd Day on Patmos

It’s been an interesting couple of days. Yesterday, which was my first day here, was a good and productive yet restful day. I got up at around 11 and dad and I went out to hunt for food. We found the local (to our hotel) supermarket and bakery, got ourselves some eggs, bred and butter, and a couple of Won Ton noodle soups for dinner. Went back to the hotel and cooked ourselves some eggs. By the time we were done it was around 15:00 and since everything on the island is closed at that time, I decided to go for a nap. Man did I need that nap!!! I slept for about 2:30 when I finally got up at 17:30 dad and I walked down to the port, it took us 1:30 but it was nice walking with him and spending some time alone with my daddy. I really feel like I haven’t capitalized yet on him being here. Like everything I do is on the go and he just follows, my poor dad. Anyway we get down to the port, I located the AB store and went hunting for a car. I found the local car rental and found that a car for the day was only 19 euros so I took it. Then we located Imsoo’s house, a Korean missionary here in Patmos. We are going to have our lessons in his house while we’re here. So my mission accomplished - I had located everything that I needed to locate for our week-long stay here AND had acquired a car. I think I did pretty good - if I do say so myself. That night I was pooped and we went to bed early, if for no other reason than the team coming in about 5 hours later, at 3 in the morning. So I got up at 2:45, by 2:55 I was walking outside towards the car and by 3:20 I was at the port. I basically parked the car as the boat was docking. Perfect timing! So I started shuttling everybody up to the hotel, which is a good 7 min uphill drive. Andrew and Mike, of course (for those of you who know them), started walking while I drove the rest. Anyway as I’m getting the last people Sarah Wheway calls me and tells me there are some problems with one of the rooms. Two of the guys are not happy with sharing a bed, I can understand that, so I figure out what to do and solve that problem, then Popi - the wife of the owner of the hotel - comes up to me and tells me that somebody had come up to her and wanted to know if there were any other hotels he or they could stay at. I couldn’t believe my ears! Somebody walked up to the person who has graciously opened up her hotel for us and asks if he/her can go somewhere else! Anyway that is when it started. I was lying in bed and going over all these scenarios in my mind and imagining all these different fires I would have to put out in the morning and I basically tossed and turned for an hour in my bed! I never do that, I am not a worrier - and then it hit me, this is Satan planting seeds of doubt in my mind, and not only that, but depriving me of sleep!!! Once I realized that I prayed about it and went right to sleep!
This morning when I woke up everybody was enchanted by the place, the loved being here and they were thanking me for everything! You see how Satan can work in our minds, if we are not careful. We need to have our guards up constantly. Constantly alert against the fire darts of the enemy. Today was such a blessing. We had the most amazing brunch, as soup with potatoes and carrots and lamb, and not the stingy type of soup where you hardly have any meat at all - it was abundant. After a hearty brunch we went up to the monastery to look around and then off to class down in the port at Imsoo’s place. Class was wonderful, I really have missed going to school and being part of that class setting. The one thing I am taking away from today’s lesson is from Revelation chapter 1, the Ephesus Church. The Ephesus Church was perfect in all aspects, they worked hard for the Lord, found out falls prophets and cast them out, reached out to the poor - they were Christ like but then came the blow. God told them BUT there is one aspect I do find at fault in you - You have LOST your FIRST LOVE. That was a blow to me. I am a doer, I do things for the Lord, I do ministry, I work 12 hour days frequently, I reach out to the poor and needy through the Love Meals, I’m involved with discipleship through the Morning Star, I give of my services at the Worship Events, I give, give, give but when was the last time I actually sat down and read my Bible? When was the last time I sat down and prayed? When was the last time I had quality time with the Lord? I can’t remember!!! Have I lost my first love? I think yes, I am guilty of the same thing that the Ephesus Church was guilty of. And what happened to them? They are no more. God took them out. He told them if you don’t stop and get right with me I’m going to stop you. Now this is something that I’ve been feeling for a while now but I have never before heard it with that ultimatum, “get right with me or you’re out” What was interesting is that all of us in the HM team that are here felt it drive right home. They thought about it on the more corporate level, the individuals within HM need to be spending more time together in prayer and worship and fasting, as a group. It’s interesting that we all feel the need to be spending more time with God on a personal but also on a corporate level. After dinner and worship that we had together, us from the HM team, got together and discussed the issue and prayed about it as well as for HM. It was a good time that we all needed.

I really feel as sense of spiritual warfare going on around this program, more so than any other I’ve been involved with. Maybe because this is the first time I am completely responsible for a program, I don’t know, but I really feel like Satan is not happy about us being here. I think that there are going to be major decisions made here this week for the Lord and that something great is going to happen in all our lives, something, after the first day, already is happening.

Lord I just pray that you might please protect us from the evil one. Keep him at bay so that You might minister to our hearts unhindered by anything. Mold and shape us this week and let us be all of one mind, seeking your face and your will for our lives. In Jesus name I pray AMEN.

By the way went to see the monastery in the Chora today and it was really cool.

On the way to Patmos

As I am writing this I am on a ferry to Patmos, one of Greece’s many islands. Finally the big moment has arrived. A few months ago, Johnathan had a vision for a new ministry, the Omega Course, one I later volunteered to organize. It’s been a fun challenge and a huge battle, I don’t think I’ve ever had as much spiritual warfare as I have organizing this particular event! I can’t wait to find out what the Lord has in store for us.
In this course we are to go study the Bible in Biblically relevant locations, in this case, Patmos. Many of you know that Revelation was both revealed and written in Patmos by John. Now we are on our way there to spend a week studying Revelation with Bill Vassiliou and John Gianopoulos as lecturers. During this week we will also be studying Daniel as the two books relate to each other as well as being eschatological in nature. One of our main aims is to challenge the young people that are attending the course to go into missions, as we are living in the end of times (we believe) and who knows how much time is left?

I feel so blessed to be part this course and I can’t believe I’m going to be studying a book of the Bible where it was actually written!!!
I’ll keep you posted.