Tag: Paul

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Back in the Day

He was seven, maybe eight and he was eagerly listening. Trying to understand a book my wife was reading to the class, he raised his hand and said “back in the day things were different.” Mary nearly lost it in laughter. Back in the day for him was preschool, kindergarten, or first grade, but in the moment, it was the best way he could articulate how much easier life was back in the day.

We all have back in the day syndrome. We romanticize the past, often forgetting the problems, difficulties and stress. Reflectively we reminisce on how good the past was. As a pastor I don’t how many times I had to deal with back in the day ideology. Back in the day we didn’t have loud music. Back in the day we did stand all the time. The back in the day list was longer than Mary’s to-do list for me. I hear it from my parents and even my kids who are in their late 20’s. To be honest, as hard as I try not to be one of “those people,” I catch myself talking about back in the day.

It’s human nature to look back, to reminisce and romanticize yesterday. There is a healing balm in the past. Pain, hurt, and disappointment often fade and we are left with a warm cup of how good things were. It’s really a false narrative, but often the past is salve to the soul.

Truthfully, few of us would trade the past for the present. Do we really want to go back to some of the trials we walked through? Do we really want to go back to a time when there was no air-conditioning? As much as we despise cells phones, internet and social media, are we ready to dispose it? GPS and cameras are everywhere, eliminating privacy, but I would gander to say very few would give up the convenience of hitting a few buttons and finding a Starbucks or Chick-fil-a. When is the last time you pulled out a paper map?

The back in the days is valuable though. Though the seven-year-old had gleaned a limited bank of experiences, he had experienced enough of life to appreciate the past. As we age, we experience more life and gain more wisdom. Sometimes it is a surprise two-by-four to the back of our head. We are surprised by a job firing, a friend’s betrayal, or a sudden medical report. Other times it’s good; a kind act, an unexpected promotion or miraculous moment.

I’ve learned we all have a back in the day love affair that shapes how we view life. What we experienced creates wisdom. It changes how we frame life, how we tell our story. It’s important to understand how someone’s experiences shape how they tell their story. Cancer shapes a story. Divorce shapes a story. Unexpected promotions and financial blessings shape a story. Having children shape our story. The lists of impacting shaping events are limitless.

Spiritual Application:

When we look at the Bible, especially the New Testament, it’s important to realize most of it was written reflectively. Authors told their story through the lens of past experiences, may I call it, “back in the day writing.” It’s critical that we read it that way. Unfortunately, many pastors and people read it as though it as a diary, a play by play as events happened. This model of reading and teaching skews everything.

While exact dates may be questionable, there is scholarly consensus that the earliest New Testament book, 1 Thessalonians, was written around 50 AD. The first gospel written, Mark, will be written some 15 to 20 years later, around 65 AD. This is critical. By the time Paul writes the first book of the New Testament, the events of Jesus’ life; His life, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven had aged by 20 years. By the time Mark is written the events of Jesus’ life are at least 35 years old. They were writing from a reflective and experiential view.

Going beyond Jesus’ life, Pentecost has happened and is continuing happen as Paul, in the middle of his second journey, writes 1 Thessalonians in 50AD. Writing to new churches, as he notes at the beginning of each letter, he’s writing to people who have and are experiencing Pentecost yet struggling to totally understand their new found experience. Paul writes each of his letters with the reflective experiences of his past, his Damacus Road conversion and many other overwhelming experiences.

When we read the Gospels it’s important that we view it through the back in the day lens. The authors have spent three years with Jesus, faced His death, burial and resurrection, and experienced the Spirit in the Upper Room. They’re writing their narratives, their books through the lens of experiencing and re-experiencing the infilling of the Spirit. They wrote while seeing people experience the Spirit for forty years. These men wrote their books between 65AD (Mark) and 90AD (John), making events they were reflecting on and writing about, some 35- 60 years old. They told their stories about Jesus through the lens of the experience of the Spirit. They wrote of miracles through the understanding of the Spirit. They told parables and stories with a Spirit filled bias.

Some say the Upper Room was a one-time back in the day experience. I would submit that all of Paul’s writings involved a back in the day perspective. He wrote through experiencing the Spirits infilling and having its power operate in him. Check out his question as he starts out on his third missionary journey, not first, in 54AD. He questions John’s disciples, (Acts 19;1-6) asking, have you received the Spirit since you believed? He laid hands on them and they began to speak in a language unknown. His back in the day experience was impacting people 25 years after he first experienced it.

How has life events skewed, impacted your perspective? If you’re over 60, how did the moon landing impact you? Over 40, how did 9/11 change your view on life? In your 20’s, what did COVID do to your life lens? We cannot help but be changed by back in the day events, they alter our life and how we translate it to others. If these events impact how we live and see life, how we tell our story, isn’t it important that we grasp how the disciples and Paul experiences impacted their stories?

My challenge. To pastors, ministers, to those who love the Bible, to those who want to grow and experience more of God and His Spirit. Turn off the religious heritage. Unplug from your denominational dogma. Go read the Bible with a back in the day view. Over the past four years I have. It has been life altering. You will see the writings through experiential and historical perspective. You will read the Bible knowing nearly every author experienced Pentecost, spoke in languages unknown and saw the power of God work mightily through their lives. You will get back in the day clarity.

Willing? It’s risky. It could be the catalyst that starts one of the greatest transformations of your faith and will start you on a life altering journey in your walk with Jesus.

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Tap into the Two-Thirds

Watching and trying to wrap my intellect around so much that is happening in our society right now, my mind went to Ephesians six where Paul warns the church in Ephesus that they were not battling against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness. It’s a warning that there is another world beyond us, a world where there is spiritual war transpiring, and it’s real. It’s Satan and the third of the fallen angels fighting a losing war against God and the two-thirds of angels that fight with Him. This warning wasn’t just for the church in Ephesus, but for ages to come. 

I have no doubt that this world, the one we live in today, is experiencing this darkness, and that a portion of society has tapped into the darkness around and above us. It’s obvious by Hollywood’s incredible fascination and ability to bring mind-bogglingly dark themes to our minds, hearts, and homes. I have no doubt that they have tapped into, become enamored, and captivated by evil. To be able to create such vivid, detailed, vile, and demonic creatures and bring us such intense violence and evil concept to our eyes can only come from those who have tapped into darkness. Beyond Hollywood, our world is being forced to accept the immoral and repulsive values of a few. The depravity that Paul described in so many of his books has captured much of academia, corporate offices, and governments entities. It has moved into ordinary citizenry, to the point we don’t want to turn on the news, for fear we will see another demented person has shot up a restaurant, mall, or public place. Our major cities are war zones and entire streets are filled with zombie-like men and women, so strung out on drugs, that people are having to leave to find safe havens. The picture I’ve painted is dark, but it is not hopeless. I believe there is hope.  

I believe that though Satan, his angels, and those who have embraced his wickedness are having incredible success, that there is, as Elisha said in 2 Kings 6:16, a spiritual army that is much larger than the one we’re feeling overwhelmed by. I believe darkness is limited and that God and the two-thirds of His angels are far superior and ready to engage and take over this battle. I believe our world is desperate to see and experience it! I believe that there are young men and women who are coming on to life’s stage that have been anointed and put in place, for such a time as this. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul is preparing a young Timothy, and I believe young men of today, for the last days and the perilous times that would come. He described the wickedness and baseness of their hour, but I note that his greatest fear and warning was there would be religion that had a form of godliness, but no power. Understanding Paul’s concern, it makes it imperative, that we pray for those who are stepping onto life’s spiritual stage today. We must pray that they have courage, that they will step out of conformity of religion, and take us where many are afraid to go. We must pray that they have the resolve to step away from traditional, model, and franchise Christianity, that they will lean into their anointing and calling; that they go rogue! They must tap into the power of God, and gain access to the two-thirds of the principalities and power that is around them. I am absolutely confident that there is a realm of untapped spiritual power. I’ve tasted it and seen a sampling, but I long for, and believe there is so much more. 


There is a power in God and a force of angels that are at their disposal that is as real as the darkness their world is experiencing. I know because I have tasted it. Once I was in a Sunday service that was as bland and as normal as could be, but suddenly, without warning, with no manipulation, no musical hype, no cheerleading preacher, an overpowering move of God sent me and the entire audience to our knees, overwhelmed by God, I crawled off the floor spiritually exhausted some six hours later. I often reflect on a conference that Mary and I attended where we experienced God’s overwhelming presence so strongly that we couldn’t do anything but fall to our knees. I remember hours later, well after midnight, rising from the floor, forever changed. At Life Connections, where we pastored for 20 years, we had many Saturday night prayer services when God’s presence moved into the room, and we would be arrested by God for three or four hours. I sensed it again at Asbury this spring. 

These are but a few of the samplings that we have experienced, and I believe that we only scratched the surface of God’s power, and that God has so much more for this generation. I believe that this generation, IF they reconnect to the power and absolute necessity of prayer, and IF, they will tap into God’s power and the forces of God, has the potential of experiencing one of the greatest demonstrations of God’s power ever seen. God said there would be a generation that would do greater things than He, and I believe that this generation will tap in, go rouge, and follow the Spirit, has the opportunity to be that generation. That they could see something grander than the Great Awakenings or Azusa Revival.


For this to happen this new generation of leaders must experience what they have read about but few have seen. It’s what an older generation has seen little of, but what some has longed and prayed for. We must be positive, encouraging, and believe with them that they can tap into God’s power and the realm where God’s army is two times as large and unquestionably more powerful. We must be diligent in praying that Gods young leaders of today get so hungry for a move of God that they are willing, if they have to, to go alone to a place like Moses did. We need to pray that they will have the courage to stand like Elijah, with confidence and boldness to believe that fire can still fall from heaven and call it down. Their world needs a demonstration of the almighty God. We must have the courage to pray that they will have the passion to take us from our comfortable hour and fifteen-minute services to what Solomon experienced, a wall shaking, cloud filling, inability to stand in God’s presence experience. We need to pray that God takes these generational men and uses them like he did the three Hebrew children, where after a fiery furnace experience, an entire nation said, “the Lord, He is God.” 


There are some incredibly passionate young men in cities where I pray God uses them in such a way that leaders of those cities say like they did of those in Acts 17, “these are they who have turned the world upside down, and they have come to our city.” Is it possible? I say yes. We got a glimpse of what is possible to those who tap into this power a few months ago in Asbury, Kentucky. A few young people started praying, tapped into something supernatural, and within a few days they had the attention of the world. People took vacation days to come, entire churches visited, national news media set up stages, all to see a move of God. The crowds swelled so large that there were traffic jams to get into the small town, people waited for hours in line to get into the chapel, additional meeting places had to be set up, and the city finally had to ask the college to close it down because it was overwhelming and crippling their community! 


To every God believing person I’m inviting you to begin to pray passionately. Pray what Mary and I have been praying, for a move of God that is indescribable, yet undeniable. Pray that the spirit of the powerless church that Paul warned of is defeated. Our world, our churches, and we as individuals need to see God bring to the world stage His signs, wonders, and miracles. Pray for yourself, for your pastor and his wife, that we all will have the courage to go beyond conformity and tradition. Pray that that we all will tap into the two-thirds.