New Directions, Next Steps.

Posted on January 2, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles

At this time last year I was preparing to visit the Philippines for my son’s wedding.

I had also just embarked on a massive lifestyle change, the seeds of which had been planted in November of 2018. Way back then the Lord had spoken to me about embracing a lifestyle of faith with my finances that would involve me giving up my salary from the church. I did this in November of 2019 and received my final check from the church on Dec. 31st 2019.

I still work for the church as a pastor and as a volunteer.

One of the things the Lord told me in January was that this move to a lifestyle of faith was about a personal shift which was going to take a year to complete. I was launching on a journey. I had the method of travel. I just didn’t know where the walk of faith would lead me.

Here I am one year later and my life has totally changed. I have shifted from a life schedule to a life rhythm. My prayer life has deepened and changed from intercessor to watchman on the wall. I have finished my book. I have learned much more about my office in the church as a prophet. My leadership style flows chiefly from prayer (rather than from a church schedule) and manifests more as a caretaker than as a facilitator.

As 2021 dawns I am posed to take the next steps of this journey: Next steps in ministry; Next steps in publishing my book; Next steps in being the co-owner of the Vicarage; The next steps in my family; The next steps financially.

I don’t know what all of those steps are yet, but I do know they will take me in new directions. I have tried to follow the threads prophetically so I can see my future but they vanish a bit up the road into a bank of fog God has created to keep me on the pathway of slow constant intentional living by faith in the day to day.

Here are the things I know: The world is not done with its troubles just because it is 2021; America is in the cross-hairs; Prosperity is still possible; Faith is more necessary in the days ahead than in the days past; It is time to operate in my God-given authority; God has equipped me with what I need for the road ahead; I need to focus on the step I see not the ones I don’t; It is time to write; It is time to publish; People are more important than programs.

New directions, Next steps. Anything could happen and probably will. Isn’t that exciting?

Good bye 2020! Welcome 2021!

Posted on January 1, 2021 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles, Uncategorized

I don’t think many of us will miss 2020. It was a year of challenges the world has not faced in several generations, and for which we as a global community were woefully unprepared.

Yet I am thankful for 2020 too. First for the fact that it showed us our cultural soft spots. We cannot fix what we do not recognize. I am also thankful for what it has stripped away from my personal life and for what it has stripped away from the church. This year has certainly showed me what was important and what was just so much frivolous packaging.

2020 also had its own beauty. In the forced slowing down of life, many of us learned to watch the birds, to enjoy nature, to watch the sunrise, the sunsets, the moonrise and the stars.

Some of us also learned to prioritize family. We learned to sit on our porches, and tell our stories. We engaged in game nights and learned the Sabbath rhythm of life again. For all that we complained a lot about it because we had become culturally addicted to the race-pace of our corporate existence.

These last few days of 2020, I have not been blogging much because we have had a visitor to the Vicarage. My daughter Melanie is ready any day to give birth to my second grand daughter. Since we are so far away from her and James, we decided to have ‘Lella come and stay with us for the last days of Melanie’s seclusion.

Having ‘Lella with us has been so much fun, but it has been a long time since this house was graced for longer than an overnight by a two-year-old. The schedule of life has changed even if the rhythm has remained. The new priorities have made themselves felt. Things like blogging have been temporarily interrupted by activities like legos, throwing pine cones into the brook and plinking the piano.

Every December I ask God for a word or phrase to base my next year on. Last year my phrase was “shift focus to wonder.” There was wonder in 2020… We were awe struck by the magnitude of destruction a one celled creature could wreak. We were dumbfounded by fires and storms and earthquakes….and all these things have made me wonder, what comes next?

My word for 2021 is “Seperate”.

How can I curse
    those whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce
    those whom the Lord has not denounced?
⁹From the rocky peaks I see them,
    from the heights I view them.
I see a people who live apart
    and do not consider themselves one of the nations. Nu. 23:8,9

This will be a year of becoming holy, a year of becoming new and different. More change is in the air. New challenges await. Like 2020, 2021 will have its own wonders and its own things to wonder about. That said, I am ready to leave mourning behind and to embrace the beauty of spiritual battle. I am ready to stop being shocked to dumbness by the fresh horrors of the world. I am ready to summon the beauty of God and His creation to the forefront of my life and ministry. I am ready to bring that beauty to fight against all this darkness which has consumed 2020 and to speak forth the FAITH HOPE AND LOVE which remain no matter how the darkness grows. I am ready to be separated from the hopelessness of the world and to become a creature of the Son who brings beauty to the twilight of this age. Good bye 2020. Welcome 2021!

Evening Meditation 12-29-20

Posted on December 29, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles

²Good people obtain favor from the Lord,
but he condemns those who devise wicked schemes.

³No one can be established through wickedness,
but the righteous cannot be uprooted.

⁴A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown,
but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.

⁵The plans of the righteous are just,
but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.

⁶The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood,
but the speech of the upright rescues them.

⁷The wicked are overthrown and are no more,
but the house of the righteous stands firm.

⁸A person is praised according to their prudence,
and one with a warped mind is despised.

⁹Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant
than pretend to be somebody and have no food.

¹⁰The righteous care for the needs of their animals,
but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.

¹¹Those who work their land will have abundant food,
but those who chase fantasies have no sense. PROV. 12:2-11

What are the disadvantages of fame?

Mid Afternoon Meditation 12-29-20

Posted on December 29, 2020 by joseph elon lillie under Pastor Wrinkles