It is amazing how fast God can flip a switch in your life.  After church on Sunday I went out to lunch at Indian Cuisine and met a young woman who mentioned going on a two week trip across the country filming a documentary called “Finding Jesus in America”.  Three days later I am going on this trip with sixteen other young people. 

It was so clearly a God ordained encounter and opportunity for me.   This type of thing basically pinpoints a major portion of my heart and vision for sharpero ministries.  We’re leaving today at 8am (less than an hour away) from Virginia Beach and we will be cruising down the southern border of America through New Orleans and Texas until we get to Los Angeles, California.  Then we will head up the West coast with the final destination being Portland, Oregon.  I was born in Portland, Oregon and lived my first 14 years in that state.  The schedule has many exciting stops  to serve in various forms of ministry.  A few things included are working with a snake-handlers church, helping Hurricane Katrina victims, praying with orphans and encouraging adoption ministries, going to an Indian reservation and a homeless ministry.

Since I began the Sermon on the Mount drama in 2007 a documentary has been a part of the vision, for a number of reasons but primarily because you can reach a larger audience with the TRUTH.  In fact in June of 2007 while I was still in Boise, Idaho I outlined a Sermon on the Mount road trip that started in Boise and went to Seattle and then straight down I-5 to San Diego doing scheduled services at church and spontaneous open air portrayals capturing the footage.  That never happened but the idea never died and the Lord has brought me a long ways since then and now this is the appointed time for implementation. 

I believe the gifts and ministry the Lord has entrusted to me will be a valuable component to this adventure and a spiritual secret weapon of sorts against the enemy.  Please pray!  These people are bananas for Jesus.  Yeah!  The more I think about it, the more I get stoked out of my mind

Follow the link below to view a short film I wrote. 

filminfo.php?film=109HOWMET

I have to thank Mark Manuel for producing it and Ben Dyer having the courage to direct it.  I will make another post soon about this script and short film.

After an effectual one year sabbatical from my blog I’m back. I plan to retrospectively summarize significant events from the past year through a number of update. I got hired in July as a prayer counselor with the 700 Club and continue to work there. I finished two more semesters of graduate school do thanks to great grace. Each semester I had a short script produced by other Regent students, “How We Met” in the fall and “Over Easy” in the spring. I continue to minister the “Sermon on the Mount” drama where doors opened via word of mouth. Two nights ago I dramatized John 15 and 16 for the first time. The www.sharpero.com came into existence in 2009. The vision for it continues to expand. The opening video is the promo for the eventual documentary that we hope to complete and distribute. I will go into more detail on all of these things in future blog but on this one I would like to share a testimony from a phone call I received while working CBN’s spring telethon.

The call occurred on Thursday May 23rd around 3pm. During an eight hour shift a CBN prayer counselor can receive up to 80 calls or more. Every call is personal but many are typical. The priceless rewards come when you receive a call that reminds you of the sovereignty of God. Calls seemingly custom made for you. Those calls fan the fire of the Holy Spirit in your heart and remind you how powerful the name of Jesus is. These calls you feel the fear of the Lord and the stakes of a living soul in the voice of the person on the other line.

The May 23rd memorable call was from a young man named Tyrone from Saint Louis. He called to pledge $20 dollars a month to the 700 club. As I recorded his information the grit and tension in voice became more and more evident. There was a hardness and coldness about him. It’s easy to assume those pledging money to a Christian ministry are indeed Christians but that it not always the case. We are supposed to ask a ministry question but sometimes it is either unnecessary or inappropriate. Still it is the most the important question in the universe “What is your relationship with Jesus?”

I asked Tyrone that question after his pledge went through. He responded with a downtrodden, “I’m trying. I’m trying.” He was trying to be a good person. He did call into give money to CBN. Yet his voice was distressed and burdened. Out of the mouth speaks the heart. He said he was trying. His heart was trying but he was not trusting. There’s a huge difference between trying and trusting. It’s the difference between life or death, light or darkness, the spirit or the flesh. We cannot manufacture the fruits of the spirits. They come from trusting Jesus and remaining in him (John 15:5, Romans 15:13).

After Tyrone said, “I’m trying. I’m trying.” I paused and then spoke to him in a customized way. I connected to his heart and said, “Would you like to surrender to Jesus, stop trying and start trusting? May I lead you in a prayer of repentance to receive him as Lord?” He paused and then said a definite “Yeah.” I gave him the offer and he paused for a few seconds on the phone before saying “Yeah.” Then I led him in a prayer to the Lord. At some point in the prayer the countenance of his voice changed. The grit became smooth and the hardness was softened. The burdened of sin was life and he felt a tangible forgiveness. It was one of the palpable and authentic immediate changes I have ever heard in a person’s voice. I feel like I heard his spirit get born again and the Holy Spirit come into his heart. Glory to God!

In obedience to the Father, the Son of God was crucified to set man free from the devil, death and their sinful pride.

“If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” (Matthew 5:41).

During the time of Roman occupation in ancient Israel, a Roman soldier had the legal right to literally force a Jew to carry his belongings for a certain distance. The Jew would not dare to say no because of the punishment that would result. What the Jew did have a choice in was the attitude he took in this outrageous yet lawful demand.

Roman soldiers were certainly used to Jews grumbling and complaining with hate in their eyes as they were forced to carry the Roman’s possessions. Seeing this Roman soldiers must have thought, ‘I’d be angry to, if this task was forced upon me, he’s just like I am.’ This gives some context for Jesus’ seriously radical and radically serious statement about going twice as far from what is asked of you; not out of it spite but love.

Talk about exploding the conditioned expectations of a Roman soldier. Seeing this Roman soldiers would probably think, ‘what kind of man is this, who acts in overwhelming kindness in a personally unjust situation?’ It may even provoke him to inquire the man about his life. At the very least it would be something he could never forget.

It is amazing how rarely our whole hearts are required of us in this world. It is easy to get by in mediocrity. But extreme is part of what it means to be salt and light in a dark and dying world. The truth is that no man or woman will go the extra mile out of their own humanity. That type of walk only happens by the power of the Holy Spirit experienced through a yielding to the Messiah Jesus.

As for the Sermon on the Mount, it is expanding to further texts and God is doing a deep and slightly painful work in me. I thank Him for it and trust Him in it. I’ve surrendered to this walk and I will persevere until it reaches completion going the extra mile with Jesus.