This much, O God, I want You ...

As the year 2011 comes to an end I am not reflecting on the year behind me, nor am I looking ahead to the new year to come.  Instead I am trying my hardest to focus on today, to do well what the Lord has asked me to do today.

My tendency would be to look back at the year that was and to tally all my failures and shortcomings and conclude that 2011 wasn't that great.  Or, I could reject my negative tendencies and could note all the great achievements of 2011 and conclude it was a really good year for me and my family.  Of course, when I had finished beating myself up/patting myself on the back for the past year I could begin dreaming about 2012.  Today, I will focus on today.  I love Paul when he writes "I want to know Christ - yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death ... Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me... But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

The greatest desire of Jesus for me today, is that I would be with Him.  I feel Him wooing me so strongly into deeper love and fellowship with Him.  My desire, like Paul's, is to know the power of the resurrection and participate with Christ, becoming like Him.  For all of you who know me well, you won't be surprised to know that I haven't attained to that yet, far from it.  But, that will not deter me from straining forward, pressing on toward the goal.  The goal of knowing Him, being known, and becoming like Him.  These 3 things will not just happen over time.  The only way is by being deliberate and intentional.  I'm not going to get better at soccer by wishing I was better at soccer and by hoping I get better.  The only way is to practise, to train, to engage.  That is where I am today, and tomorrow, and every day after.

Instead of making a new years resolution this year, make a decision to be resolute.   Resolute that you will grow in holiness.  Resolute in dying to yourself.  Resolute to cultivate (insert here everything you wished you had in Christ but have been to lazy/busy/lazy/apathetic/lazy to work toward).  I've been reading Piper's book "Hunger for God" lately, in it he writes "The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison, but apple pie.  It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world".  The issue :  Anything and Everything that is, or can be, a substitute for God.  Piper goes on to say "God wills to know the actual, lived-out reality of our preference for Him over all things. And He wills that we have the testimony of our own authenticity through acts of actual preference of God over His gifts".  If your looking to make a new years resolution you can be proud to be resolute about, I would urge you to join me in taking Piper's advice and get Hungry..  Really, really hungry... for God.

Thanks for Journeying with us,
The Schafers

Jesus gets me in a headlock ..

One of the hugest blessings of being sent to Gainesville is that St. Andrews doesn't just do healing a little bit, they do it BIG.  There are so many wonderful people at St. Andrews who do healing prayer, and we have been able to avail ourselves of a little of the healing anointing that permeates everything that is done here.  The thursday night soaking and healing prayer nights have been a really awesome time to focus in on the Lord and to focus in on inner healing.

Shayne and I have been getting so much healing lately.  Our sessions with Ken have been very humbling and liberating times, learning to re-program and to keep ourselves free of the debilitating influence of demonic oppression.  One of the biggest keys I feel I've received from Ken is a powerful statement he makes about our inability to make ourselves better and our utter need and dependance on God to free us from the hurt and wounds that put the strangle on us.  For anyone who has ever had the pleasure being in a session with Ken I'm sure this phrase won't be new to you.  But the first time I heard the words come out of His mouth I was floored.  He leaned back, looked at me and said, "When you work, Jesus rests; When you rest, Jesus works".  WOW, I knew in that moment that I had been trying to ride the highway to healing all by myself.

I had been praying and praying all alone, striving and working to change myself and my behaviour.  I was desperately trying to achieve inner healing without the help, support, guidance, and anointing of others, let alone letting God into it.  Since that time I have been mindful of the Holy Spirit leading and guiding me in  my healing journey.  When I stopped fighting and allowed myself to rest, Jesus went to work and He has been mopping the floor with me, spiritually speaking, ever since.

Thanks for Journeying with us,
The Schafer's

The Enjoyments of Technology

Last night after Shayne and I finished watching the ROL Podcast we received "The Message"from Dave and Missy Stroeve...   "Hey, you guys wanna FaceTime!"  Who doesn't want to FaceTime with some of the most awesome people at ROL, not to mention close friends, when we've have been away from home for 2 months and are fast approaching the Christmas season all alone in a strange place.  Needless to say FaceTime, phone calls, emails and texts are our lifeline.    Technology has been a real blessing for us as we journey.  Some of you will know what I'm talking about.  The feeling after we watched Ryan, Jep, and Lawrence's Ordination on the Podcast was very special.  As I sat there with tears in my eyes, I couldn't help wishing we had been there.  It is so nice to get a message or call from home.  Last night after FaceTiming was very emotional.  Seeing our friends children growing up so fast, hearing all the awesome things going on in their lives and knowing we were missing it all.  Then times that by 20 as the reality sets in that were not only missing everything in their lives but in all of our friends and family's lives back home.

Last night as I lie in bed I cried and prayed.  My prayer has always been and always will be "Your will be done".  Anything that the Lord would do in my heart breaking me of my selfishness and my flesh is welcome, although the pain not so much.  Of course, I realize that everything we are experiencing on this trip is for our good and His glory and we yield to it willingly.  The Lord has given us so many great people around us on our travels, and I don't want to demean that.  We are really, really blessed but sometimes if we don't guard our hearts we can yield to the loneliness.  We are human after all.

Now more than ever we are aware of the value of community.  If you are not in some type of community group or bible study regularly, doing life with others, you are robbing yourself of one of the richest blessings the Lord offers us in His body the church.  Also, on behalf of all in the Lords service who will be spending the holidays away from friends and family, I would strongly urge you to write a letter, make a phone call or send a message to a Missionary or Kingdom worker encouraging and blessing them.  At a time of year that can be so lonely, the Father's heart is longing for all His children.  Longing to draw them in close and love them, and you may be the hands and feet of the Father for some person in your life.

In the next few days we are gonna get some video of us and the kids for ya'll back home, Christmas greetings and what not.  Stay posted.  Sorry for the sporadic-ness of the blog updates, I'm going to try to be more diligent.

Thanks for Journeying with us,
The Schafers

Come One, Come All ...

Friends, Family, Animals of all ages, The Schafer Family Circus is HERE !!!

Well, not really, but that’s how it feels sometimes.  When I sit back and watch the 5 kids playing with Ava (mommy) and the 3 puppies, Shayne doing her fire twirling routine at the Stove, and all of us trapped inside a 144 sq. ft. cage, I begin to wonder if its closer to the truth than I know.  Remember visiting the zoo as a kid?  Passing the exhibits admiring the animals behind the bars, did you ever feel a twinge of sadness that the wild animals would spend the rest of their lives trapped in their cages of steel never able to run free again.  As they peered out at you between the bars, their sad faces expressionless, lacking the passion you’d expect to see in a wild creatures eyes, did you ever have pity on them wishing you could set them free.  

At this point I’m tempted to say that sometimes I feel like we are the animals trapped inside our Motor-home cage.  Bound to a fate of endless wanderings, wishing for someone to set us free from our cage and release us to go back to the world we’re used to.  But I wonder if it would be closer to the truth to say that we are free, and that maybe it’s actually you who is trapped inside your cage.  Maybe you’ve been in your cage so long that you don’t recognize the bars any longer.  Everyday, waking up to an existence of bland mediocrity.  Trapped by the constraints of a world that sucks the life out of you and gives you no thanks, bound by the expectations of others.

It’s a bleak picture to paint, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

I am not in a cage, although sometimes the demonic forces of this world would do their best to deceive me into thinking myself so.  I am free.  Free to be who God has called me to be, and free to pursue Him to ends of the world and back.  

And you are not in a cage either, although sometimes it may appear to be so.  There is nothing in this world that can contain you, nothing that can hold you back and suck the life out of you.  There are no bars that can contain you against your will.  

Sometimes I lose hope.  I confess my imperfection, and my sinful lack of faith.  But thanks be to my loving heavenly father who picks me up, dusts me off, and sets my feet once again on the solid rock of freedom.  When I become blinded, He removes the scales off my eyes to see that there are no bars, just truths distorted into lies.  Being a child of God and a follower of Christ sets us free both to live and to die.  We constantly die so that we can live, but sometimes I focus too much on the dying and not enough on the living that death leads us to.  

Thanks for Journeying with us

The Schafer Family