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February 9, 2009 Annie Johnson Flint once wrote: "Have you come to the red sea place in your lifeWhere in spite of all you can doThere is no way out, there is no way back,There is no other way but through? Then wait
on the Lord with a trust sereneHe will
send the wind, he will heap the floods,When
he says to your soul, “Go on!” In the morning, watch, beneath the lifted cloud,You shall see but the Lord alone,When He leads you on from the place of the SeaTo a land that you have not known; And your
fears shall passed as your foes have passed,You
shall no more be afraid;You shall sing
His praise in a better place, A place that His hand has made."
Sometimes the only thing we can do during the storms
of life is learn how to dance in the rain. Our family has been through many storms in the last 3 years, from my near
death experience with a golf club, to resigning from a church that the Lord allowed us to pastor so that they could experience
true integrity and a call to genuine repentance and obedience. Like Moses, Abraham, Jacob and even Saul in the New Testament,
as believers we must realize that God is still in the business of being a name changer (Nehemiah 9-10). No, of course
I don't mean physically like in Biblical times, but spiritually as we fight for the kingdom of God. It is in these
times of trial, when we anchor ourselves in the mercy, lovingkindness, longsuffering and compassion of God that we trust
the sufficiency of Scripture, the sufficiency of our great Advocate (I John 2:1) who leads us and guides us into all Truth.
Tonight I just want to remind all of you that we have the God who is a warrior in our midst, who exalts over us with singing
and quiets us in the peace of His love. I'll write more tomorrow but for now remember the old story of the captain
who had a 1st time crew member who was nervous about going out and so he said to the captain, "How do we know if we will
make it back?" The old captain looked at the rookie sailor and said, "We will never know if we'll make
it back unless this ship leaves this harbour. But if this ship never leaves this harbour then we will never feel the
romance of the sea, the power of the wind and audacity of the current. We may not make it back, but at least we will
have gone out." The great lesson here is that too many of us never leave the harbour, we stay in comfort zones,
complacent, comfortable, apathetic, always waiting for God to say something to us when He already has, He said, "Go".
Shoulder to Shoulder,
yours in life and death,In what other than the name of Jesus, Michael E. Stringer II
JULY 1,
2007 Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there's just something about that Name Master, Savior, Jesus, like the fragrance after the rain Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, let all Heaven and earth proclaim Kings and kingdoms will all pass away, BUT THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT THAT NAME So
the other night I'm tucking my son into bed and this song comes to my mind. I start singing it softly as I'm
tucking him in and he whispers in my ear that he wants to hear the song, for daddy to sing it again. I began to sing
the song and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, in the middle of singing it the second time, Michael starts to sing it
right along with me, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there's just someting about dat name"...so I'm like trying not
to lose it and of course that doesn't work so now I'm crying and trying to sing at the same time, which also doesn't
work, when my daughter decides to start singing also. All of a sudden, my children's bedroom becomes a sanctuary,
the most holy of all holy places and I finish the song, get outside the room (still crying like a baby) and I just bowed down,
prostrated myself before God and told Him that I would never, ever forget the privilege of being allowed to experience that
moment in eternity. And then it hit me, what do you think the Father sang upon the Son's resurrection. The
Father had heard those dreaded words, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" He sees His son in His
resurrected state for the first time since the crucifixion, the angels are singing Revelation 5:1-12 and then all of a sudden
the saints are singing, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there's just something about that name, Master, Savior, Jesus, like
the fragrance after the rain..." I'm going to tell you guys the secret of ministry: never forget, always meditate
on and speak with your mouth the name of Jesus; there is power in the name of Jesus, rocks cry out at the name of Jesus; mountains
bow down at the name of Jesus, seas roar and are stilled by the name and words of Jesus, families are restored in the name
of Jesus, addicts and the afflicted are healed in the name of Jesus, the mundane becomes the mountain top in the name of Jesus,
the tomb's stone is rolled away in the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess in the name of
Jesus, angels and the saints sing in the name of Jesus, the lame walk and the blind see in the name of Jesus, the poor are
rich and the rich are humble in the name of Jesus, the lost are found and the enslaved set free in the name of Jesus, the
Word of God is revealed, received, agreed upon and believed in the name of Jesus. The ages were created in the name
of Jesus. The saints are chosen in the name of Jesus. Salvation, justification, sanctification and glorification
occur in the name of Jesus. Worthy, worthy , worthy, holy, holy, holy, all these are found in the name of Jesus.
Disciples are made in the name of Jesus. The prodigal returns home in the name of Jesus. Pharisees don't know
what to do in the name of Jesus. False prophets will be judged in the name of Jesus. Those who have fallen asleep
will rise again in the name of Jesus. We can know the Way, obey the Truth and experience true Life in the name of Jesus.
There is power in the name of Jesus. I love Jesus, I will serve Jesus, I will yield to at all costs and any cost, Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, the Word of God, the Great Shepherd...the Great I Am Who Was and Is and Is To Come. HEAVEN ON EARTH? I
have decided this week to share with all of you a quote that has challenged me to live quite differently of late, to live
as though I am already in Heaven. Oh, I know it sounds crazy, but that's why you're in this ministry, if you
didn't want a little craziness you should have stayed at lifeway or family christian instead of venturing into the great
abyss of Shoulder to Shoulder, hehehe. But
seriously, take a look at this quote and then evaluate your life in the sense of how parallel your life is to the thought
herein: "I think I shall
never praise my Lord in Heaven more sincerely than I often praise him now, when my mouth cannot speak for the overfloodings
of my soul's delight and joy in my God, Who hath taken me up out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay, and set
my feet upon a rock (Ps. 40:1-3 he's quoting here), and established my goings, and put a new song into my mouth.
The deep obligations of every day overwhelm me with indebtedness; I cannot but praise my God, when I think of dire necessities
perpetually supplied, multiplied sin continually pardoned, wretched infirmity graciously helped." Brothers, are you so overwhelmed with indebtedness to God that
you could say you doubt you will ever praise Him more sincerely up there than you do down here? And does the thought
of the fact that He paid a price He didn't owe and debt we could never pay, does that inspire us to be "flooded
over" in our heart and soul? Are you overwhelmed or underwhelmed? The mundane is the place where saints learn
to sing the greatest love songs in the universe to our King. When's the last time you wrote God a love song?
When's the last time you praised Him so sincerely that you could have sworn that you were with Him? When's the
last time that love song flowed over to the person in the check out line in Wal-Mart or perhaps at Chili's, Appleby's,
Roadhouse, Chick-Fil-A, the mall...etc. If the song in your heart never becomes the song on your lips, then it was never
a song in the first place, it was simply a thought that you thought was too insignificant to share with anybody else other
than yourself. And that friends, is a great tragedy. BUT, if while you were in that line, you took that song and
you sang it with all of your heart and with all of the Spirit of God within you to that person who could be lost and going
to hell, then may God bless you and make His face shine upon you for praising Him so sincerely in the here and now instead
of waiting for the there and then. The Bible says in Psalms 63:1-8, "(NASB) O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 Thus I have beheld Thee in the sanctuary, To
see Thy power and Thy glory. 3 Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise Thee.
4 So I will bless Thee as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Thy name. 5
My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips. 6 When I remember Thee on my bed, I meditate on Thee in the night watches, 7
For Thou hast been my help, And in the shadow of Thy wings I sing for joy. 8 My soul clings to
Thee; Thy right hand upholds me." Look with me at this Scripture for a moment and let's pick out some characteristics of a love
song: 1) Verses 6-8, there is a time of meditation which leads to a time of praise for provision and protection 2) Verse 1, The
first thought here is of possession, God is my God, my possessed thought, He is my God. Second, there is a thirstiness
that is manifested by seeking satisfaction. This is earnestly seeking or seeking with diligence, discipline and constancy.
3) Verses 2-5, Here there is the benevolence of God in granting satisfaction to His children:
Because God's lovingkindness is better than life, there is a song on David's lips which says, "I will bless Thee
as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Thy name. 5 My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips." This word satisfied means to be saturated, to have a super abundance,
to be full to the point of gluttony. Now, check this out, watch this, don't miss this: We need to be gluttonous (is that even a word, hehehe) in the glory
and praise of God. That's right, we need to get fat, overly full, satiated, saturated, drenched, boiling over, pouring
out the glory of God by singing Him a love song. Remember guys, we pour out what we drink in; so go out and get drunk
in the glory of God and see what kind of love song He gives you. I'll be posting mine on the website under sermon
audio in the next couple of days, I look forward to reading all of yours.
Shoulder to Shoulder, yours in life and death,
Singing
my love song, Michael E. Stringer II
SEPTEMBER 1, 2006 Mark 3:24-27 24 "And
if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 "And if a house is divided against
itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 "And if Satan has risen up against himself and
is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! 27 "But no one can enter the strong man's house
and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house." I want to share with each of you what God has been teaching me
in the last couple of weeks. Let me first start out with a quote from Oswald Chamber's book, Moral Foundations
(His Dedication and Our Discipline Section), "One of the dangers of present-day teaching is that it makes us turn our eyes off Jesus Christ
on to ourselves, off the Source of our salvation on to salvation itself. The effect of that is a morbid, hypersensitive life,
totally unlike our Lord’s life, it has not the passion of abandon that characterised Him. The New Testament never allows
for a moment the idea that continually crops up in modern spiritual teaching—"I have to remember that I am a specimen
of what God can do." That is inspired by the devil, never by the Spirit of God. We are not here to be specimens of what
God can do, but to have our life so hid with Christ in God that our Lord’s words will be true of us, that men beholding
our good works will glorify our Father in heaven. There was no "show business" in the life of the Son of God, and
there is to be no "show business" in the life of the saint. Concentrate on God, let Him engineer circumstances as
He will, and wherever He places you He is binding up the broken-hearted through you, setting at liberty the captives through
you, doing His mighty soul-saving work through you, as you keep rightly related to Him. Self-conscious service is killed,
self-conscious devotion is gone, only one thing remains—"witnesses unto Me," Jesus Christ first, second and
third." Paul says to the Colossian Church,
"3:1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the
right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For
you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you
also will be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality,
impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is on account of these things that
the wrath of God will come, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But
now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, [and] abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not
lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its [evil] practices, 10 and have put on the new self
who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him." The verses from Mark, the Chamber's quote and
the verses from Paul in Colossians all highlight several important aspects of the Christian life in harmony with one another.
Please join me for a moment as we follow these three lines of thought. In Mark's thought there is the idea that
before Satan can plunder a house, first the life of God in the house must be quenched and the Holy Spirit grieved, thus the
word picture of the strong man in the gap being removed so that the house and all the life in it can be strangled. In
Chamber's line of thought the dominating theme is Jesus first, second and third, which in totality says to meditate on
the personage of Jesus Christ period. His successive thought is that the saint must have tunnel vision, or a consistent,
disciplined, persistent, sanctified line of thought that always ends up with the question, does what I am about to do make
Jesus Christ famous or glorify His name in trying to make Him famous in the situation? In Paul's line of thought,
Chamber's and Mark's thoughts are meshed into one theme: are we hidden in Christ? Hidden in Christ is
often preached, taught, used in "church language" but rarely ever grasped nor intentionally meditated upon.
What does it really mean? Well, to grasp its depth let us consider the aforementioned lines of thought. In the
Mark passage to be hidden with Christ means to lead your family in persistent integrity and with a courageous, sacrificial,
warrior type heart. What this looks like is monitoring the things that you allow to come into your house (your sanctuary)
and leave your house and then be hidden with Christ. Does my daughter need that skirt? Does my son need that cd?
Does my house need that t.v. program or that particular internet service. What is taking the place of church in my house?
What do we do instead of church where the body of Christ has established a time of meeting together, in essence, what's
more important than meeting with God and fellowshipping with His children (our brothers and sisters)? What is more important
than praying with my wife (sleep, working out, espn, internet poker or gaming, hunting, fishing, golf..etc, hobbies?) and
reading God's Word with her daily (Eph. 5 brothers--we are commanded to be in God's Word with our wives daily)?
Essentially, what is more important that my family being hidden with Christ? In Chamber's thoughts, to be hidden with Christ simply means
to be consumed with the passionate ideal of making Him famous every second of every day and in doing so to not take credit
for any part of looking like Him. We simply become invisible and the Son of God in us becomes all the world sees, thus
we become "hidden". Chambers actually echoes Paul's thought where Paul writes that being hidden is a process.
Stay with me here because we're about to drop anchor to the vast depths of this line of thought. In Colossians 3,
Paul starts with the saint being what, raised with Christ. So, in our humanity, pre-Christ we are all that is visible
to all that is around us. All the world and everything in it observes our carnality, the expressed manifestation of
what life looks like without God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. However, when we are drawn up out of
our depravity (our spiritual death or life without God) into this marvelous, phenomenal, indescribable life that we
as brothers call being "born again" in Christ Jesus by His blood, we experience what is the beginning of the process
of learning to be hidden in Him. And that's just Colossians 3:1!!!! Paul continues his thought in explaining
that when we are raised in Christ (in newness of life), we are to set our minds (in Greek this word set means to search out,
be wise in, to seek an advantage on behalf of something, to strive for, to seek with all one's being, to take a stand
on an issue, to be mentally dominated by the thought of, to agree with, to show concern for) on the things above, which is
a curious phrase because the "things" mentioned here is Christ and all the ideas that come with Him reigning supreme.
So, here's what this looks like in practical application: A lost person who does not know Christ (is dead spiritually) is drawn
by the Holy Spirit (revived out of this spiritual death), bought by the blood of Christ and adopted into the Kingdom of God
over which Christ is the one and only King. Christ, according to Paul's thought, raises us up from His death on
the cross into His victorious life. Thereafter, THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF THE LIFE OF GOD IN THE SAINT IS TO SET HIS/HER
MIND OR BEING, to seek out, to striver after, search out, be wise in, to seek an advantage on behalf of, to take a stand on
the issue of, to be mentally dominated by the thought of, to agree with and to show ultimate concern FOR THE MIND OF CHRIST
AND HIDING BEHIND HIS BEING THAT REPLACED OURS AT THE MOMENT OF CONVERSION!!!!!!!!!!!! BROTHERS, IF YOU LOOK IN THE
MIRROR AND SEE ANYTHING OTHER THAN CHRIST IT IS TIME TO CHANGE YOUR APPEARANCE, PERIOD! WE MUST BE MEN THAT ARE MORE
CONCERNED ABOUT CHRIST BEING MADE FAMOUS THAN WE ARE ABOUT OUR OWN AGENDAS OR OUR OWN PRIORITIES OR HOBBIES. WE MUST
BECOME REVIVAL IN THE MIDST OF DEPRAVITY, JUSTICE IN THE MIDST OF OPPRESSION, DIGNITY IN THE MIDST OF TREACHERY, HONOR IN
THE MIDST OF AIMLESS, PURPOSELESS WORDS AND ABOVE ALL FRIENDS, WE MUST BECOME INVISIBLE AUGUST 16, 2006 I Corinthians
16:8-9 8
But I shall remain in Ephesus until Pentecost; 9 for a wide door for effective [service] has opened to me, and
there are many adversaries.
I want to thank you guys for fasting
with me concerning this ministry and where God is taking it and my family in our calling in this great and glorious joyride
with the Lord Jesus Christ. I am so awe-struck by the Lord in each of you and what He is doing in your lives and how
I have seen you "grow up" in Him. It brings me no greater joy in life than to know that you are flourishing
in the courts of our God and enjoying what is the satisfaction of knowing Him intimately and being found in His phenomenal
mercy and grace. I am praying for you all that as we pray for each other, God would continue to speak to all of us concerning
how we can be better stewards of His Word, His mind and His disposition. I am beginning to understand how Paul
missed Timothy so often in his journeys and longed to see him. Indeed, it will be a joy when we get the video conferencing
part of the site up and running.
One of the things the Lord has been continually gracious to remind me of lately is His faithfulness in all things. He
is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, for blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall
be filled. Our part is to humble ourselves and seek His face and pray with the continual intention of being heard and
answered (Isaiah 58:9, Isaiah 65:24). What father, when his son has asked him for bread, would give him a stone?
I think one of the biggest things the Lord has taught me about prayer lately is that sometimes while we're waiting for
an answer, we forget that time itself can appear to be a stone. It's not, but in waiting we must fight the fight
of the mundane in the valley of drudgery, where Oswald Chambers says the true character of a saint will show through every
time. Crisis reveals character but character in the midst of crisis reveals Christ. When we are squeezed by the
hands of time or while in the valley of the mundane, what comes out of us? Remember, from out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth will speak. I want to remind us all that James 1 is as true now as the day you were first taught about
it: we must be slow to speak, quick to listen and extremely slow to anger for the wrath of man does not produce the
righteousness of God. May God bless you for your diligence and sacrifice and may He continue to grow you up in the fullness
of His grace and awesome knowledge. I love you all in Christ and will talk to all of you soon should the Lord decide
to tarry. Shoulder to Shoulder, Michael E. Stringer II
AUGUST
7, 2006 If I believe the character of Jesus,
am I living up to what I believe? The
danger of pietistic movements is that we are told what we must feel, and we can’t get near God because we are so hopelessly
dependent on pious attitudes, consequently what is seen is not the New Testament stamp of saint, but the mixture of an insubordinate
intellect along with an affected clinging to Jesus with devotion.Whenever a Holiness Movement raises its head and begins to be conscious
of its own holiness, it is liable to become an emissary of the devil, although it started with an emphasis on a neglected
truth. We must continually take stock of what is ours in Christ Jesus because only in that way will we
understand what God intends us to be. If you preach Holiness, or Sanctification, or Divine Healing, or the Second Coming,
you are off the track because you de-centralise the Truth. We have to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, not on what He does. “I
am . . . the Truth.” If I am going to know who Jesus is, I must obey Him. The majority of us don’t know Jesus
because we have not the remotest intention of obeying Him. Our deadliest temptations are not so much those that destroy
Christian belief as those that corrupt and destroy the Christian temper. The great paralysis of our heart is unbelief.
Immediately I view anything as inevitable about any human being, I am an unbeliever. There is a difference between believing God
and believing about Him, you are always conscious of the latter, it makes you a prig. If by letting your beliefs go you get
hold of God Himself, let them go. Beware of worshipping Jesus as the Son of God, and professing your faith in Him as the Saviour
of the world, while you blaspheme Him by the complete evidence in your daily life that He is powerless to do anything in and
through you. The
greatest challenge to a Christian is to believe Matthew 28:18—“All power is given unto Me in heaven and
in earth.” How many of us get into a panic when we are faced by physical desolation, by death, or war, injustice, poverty,
disease? All these in all their force will never turn to panic the one who believes in the absolute sovereignty of his Lord.[1] Jonathon
Edwards once wrote, The
emanation or communication of the divine fullness, consisting in the knowledge of God, love to Him, and joy in Him, has relation indeed
both to God and
the creature: but it has relation to God as its fountain, as the thing communicated is something of its internal fullness. The water in the stream is something
of the fountain; and the beams of the sun are something of the sun. And again, they have relation to
God as their object: for the knowledge communicated is the knowledge of God; and the love
communicated, is the love of God; and the happiness communicated, is joy in God. In the creature's knowing, esteeming,
loving, rejoicing in, and praising God, the glory of God is both exhibited and acknowledged, His fullness is
received and returned. Here is both emanation and remanation. The refulgence shines upon and into the creature, and
is reflected back to the luminary. The beams of glory come from God, are something of God, and are refunded
back again to their original. So that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God; and He is
the beginning, and the middle, and the end. Brothers, this web-site is here to make Jesus Christ famous to the ends of the earth. This ministry exists
to wash the feet of those who may not even know their feet are dirty. If we are to be successful in this endeavor, we
must not ever forget that it is His fame and His name that we are seeking so passionately to exalt. He is the beginning,
the middle and the end and upon His thigh is written, "The Word of God" (Rev. 19:13). I am praying for you
all, that God would make His very face shine upon you, that He would endow you with the power of His Holy Spirit from on high,
that He would continually lavish upon you the grace and mercy that His Son, Jesus Christ, brings to us as High Priest and
lastly that His right hand would guide your right hand as we all seek to thrust our swords into the part of our enemy's
camp that will do the most damage. May we never forget that he and the demons of hell seek to kill, to steal, to manipulate,
to destroy and to deceive. I know one thing friends, I'm not buyin it!! As for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord!!!!!!!! Grace and peace brothers, pray for Laurie and I as we seek out God's next step for our lives and
as we talk to different churches. Please feel free to post your comments to the blog and your prayer requests to the
prayer request section of the blog. Shoulder
to Shoulder, Zephaniah 3:9, Michael E. Stringer II
[1]Chambers, Oswald, Disciples Indeed, (United Kingdom: Marshall Morgan
& Scott) c1955.
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