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I’m having trouble doing two things (blogs) at once. And though I do appreciate the readership here at GatePost, I’m trying not to feel guilty about the infrequency. The battle for LIFE in South Dakota has begun again and my free-time is mainly focused there. If you miss regular posting here from me you can read the latest from me on my LIFE blog - voicescarryblog.com.
Here are three recent but very important posts that you many find interesting.
Planned Parenthood Gets Religion
Let’s have FUN kicking off our Campaign to Kill
More “Fun” with South Dakota Planned Parenthood’s new slogan - Let Families Decide
My son Caleb put up a nice little pic on his blog that you may appreciate. He gets to vote this year for the first time. You’ll note he’s starting to lean toward one side : ) Caleb has some strong views. I don’t know where he got this from. We move him to KC for school NEXT WEEK - I’m not sure how I feel about this chapter of life coming to a close.
For a few months my son Thomas and I have been looking for a Mustang ($3-4K range) so he can drive to school this fall. He’s pretty set on a Mustang and has been for a while. He’s got some pics on his blog of one that we found ($2K over budget). I know he’d appreciate the traffic on his blog - so be sure to check it out. He finds blogging discouraging because “nobody reads his.” He’d even more appreciate others joining him fasting and praying for this extra “miracle money” to somehow appear so he can buy this car. He knows we won’t be making a covenant with a creditor.
Funny story… I told him the only thing I don’t like about him getting a hot car like this is that he’d get into popularity/girls and his relationship with God would really suffer. He said, “no, if he had this car it would really help his relationship with God because he’d wake up every day praising God and drive down the road with praise music everywhere he went.”
We just had a little excitement with a tornado passing by our place. We lost a few big limbs and got really blasted with wind and rain. Thomas and I went out and perhaps got a picture of it here - they said the tornado itself wasn’t visible because it was surrounded by rain, but I don’t know. The power of God is awesome. Thomas and I prayed the blood of Jesus over our place, commanded the winds away from people, etc. The girls were a little more timid. Caleb was driving home from church during these moments and we made him turn around and wait a while. In the pic below we are just north of the blue dot near Ellis, SD just beneath the two tornado circles on the map. This weather map was after it had passed us.
We are getting ready at the Hickey household to send our kids to Kansas City. I’m really wishing I could go - a few uninterrupted weeks in the prayer room would do me good - and, even after being away for 18 years, in a sense, it’s still home. Thomas went down last summer to STI (now called ATC… what’s with the fixation with acronyms at IHOP-KC?). ATC stands for Awakening Teen Camp but I still slip and call it STI (which, last summer, stood for Summer Teen Intensive). Now the kids correct me when I say STI… “Dad?! Hello?! STI stands for sexually transmitted infections and that’s why its ATC this year.” Anyhoo, his sister is going this summer as well for this annual two-week summer intensive for high school students. But the big thing we are gearing up for here is sending Caleb in 60 days to start a four year program in Apostolic Preaching under Allen Hood at FSM in KC. (See what I mean about the acronyms?)
Here is an 11 minute taste of Allen Hood preaching at the OneThing conference. You will see why I’m excited to get Caleb to FSM. And, for what its worth, this clip alone nullifies all the smack talk against IHOP-KC. This is indeed a strategic equipping center for the Kingdom of God. Any who’ve said they preach another gospel are simply bearing false witness (one of the Ten Commandments by the way). The evangelical seminaries I went to didn’t preach this message with this boldness.
Thanks to Zack Hensley for finding this on YouTube. The video is a bit odd as the images really don’t relate to the message but it’s better than audio only.
God revealed himself to me today as Creator while I was sitting outside in a lawn chair. Thomas and I picked a little group of trees to sit under - Thomas has plans for that spot as soon as he gets an extra $47.
I looked to my right to see one seed left on this dandelion. I thought to myself, “there is no freakin’ way that evolved. Oh the fantasy life of the evolutionists! To think that the first dandelion plant had the sense and ability to perpetuate itself, and then the genious to produce near-weighless seeds atop a launch pad each specially rigged to a umbrella/parachute-like lift system designed to catch the wind to transport the seed… ugh!” A fool says in his heart there is no God. If this doesn’t reveal the brilliance of a Creator I’m not sure what does.
That this was designed by a Designer is a plain fact - you hear that science community? Fact! Your theory is ridiculous fantasy. It’s remarkable to me that there is even a debate on our origins. The existence of a Creator is not religious dogma, it’s just a plain-as-day, open-your-blind-eyes fact. There isn’t even a remote chance this seed or anything else evolved. Please don’t offend my intelligence or force the children of the world to accept your fairy tale theories.
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- Where's waldo? Can you find Caleb?
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- Can you identify the trees behind Caleb? How about the white one blooming over my left shoulder?
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- Thomas loves this one because he's tallest - really we are standing on an incline :)
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- With Kristen's mom and dad
Last night was Honors Night at Patrick Henry Middle School - Kaitlyn is wrapping up eighth grade there today. The fact that she is hitting high school and already old enough to drive in South Dakota (14) is a bit weird for me. Kristen has driven to PHMS every school day for nine years with one of the three kids. An era is over. (Funny… I typed PMS and just caught the missing H - thank God I caught the missing H)
Thomas makes the switch now from Lincoln High School to Roosevelt High School since we moved closer to Roosevelt. Caleb graduates from Lincoln on Sunday. He’s thinking about that - today I’m thinking about how do I preach a shorter message in the second service on Sunday so I can get to the graduation ceremony by 1 P.M.. Kristen is thinking about getting food prepared and tables, etc… big graduation party here at the compound this weekend. You can read my earlier tribute to Caleb on his 18th birthday here. I’ll add just a few thoughts here…
Caleb is bigger than I and he’s proud of that - but I always retort with… “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man… stature without wisdom just makes you a big dummy.” I’m happy to report the wisdom growth is notably catching up. He still throws the cats in our creek but, even there, lessons are being learned… they scratch him so badly he won’t go near them and the end result is he doesn’t throw them in the creek. I think he’ll fare fine in the adult world.
On Monday, I gave him his graduation present - a black MacBook. Kristen thought I should wrap it. I decided to put it in the fridge right before he came home from work. I briefed the other residents of the home and we acted like nothing was different and sho-nuf, the boy went straight to the fridge - smiled, took out his cell phone to snap a photo, grabbed the computer and some string cheese. Years ago I used to trap raccoons and muscrat. Same basic process… set bait carefully in a frequently traveled spot, back away and wait. Snap! Only this time Caleb got caught in my blessing trap.
He’s a blessed boy and a great blessing and he’ll affect many people’s lives.
So much is going on. We are watching the Florida outpouring and have plans to go dip in the stream there on May 21-24 with numerous other CATGr’s. I have more to say about all that but I’ll let it cook a while longer.
We had great services this weekend and, like I said in one of them, it’s getting harder and harder to step up after the worship time and transition to the next thing. Can anybody say - linger? How about “let loose?” For years I’ve seen myself as the leader of our weekend worship services. It’s quite different now. About halfway into the second/third song I’m typically relegating my role there to Him and telling Him to let me know if I’m up next or He is. It’ll be interesting to see where we are in a few months if this continues. Am I the only pastor who wonders… who will stay if He does come? We had someone leave our church recently because, get this, they loved our church but are leaving because they didn’t know week to week what would happen in a service. God bless them but that comment seems a compliment to one who has been summoning the Wind of behalf of the dead that they’d come alive a vast army. Isn’t there a verse about “the wind blows whereever it pleases… you can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going.”
After the CityChurch service on Sunday night, I stayed up real late with Thomas making a catapult that can launch a pingpong ball size object 30 feet - a project for school. Yesterday I really tried to slow down some. I’m not sure I succeeded. I mowed, got sunburned forearms, worked some more on the chicken coop - only two of our 120 broiler chicks have died here in the first week. The rest are happy and strong. Last night the boys and I cut up a huge dead tree and then entertained the girls with the mother of all bonfires. Surely it was visible from the moon.
It’s a bit of a scramble today with appointments and getting ready to head to DC tomorrow until Friday. A wedding is on the slate for this Saturday and Mothers Day services are coming this weekend. Then Caleb’s graduation the next week which means… a day or so to get the place ready for a big celebration. Then the following week I’ll go check out what God is doing in Lakeland. Oh, and we are about to break ground for our home addition.
Here’s my 525 page slowdown plan for the plane tomorrow. Thanks to Nicole O. for the tip on this new book which looks like it goes right in the flow of what I’ve been hammering on from the pulpit. Like I need more fuel for that fire. Kristen still thinks a fiction book will relax me more and says things like… “a book shouldn’t make you mad.” I don’t know about her but I get a baptism in God-infused energy and zeal when I read about the war we are in for LIFE.
Had a great Easter at CATG! Music rocked! Many many new people. Salvations! Particularly I was blessed by Travis & Jessy Miller sharing their testimony… it really and deeply blesses me to hear how CATG is being used by God to reach people for Christ, restore marriages, change the destiny of kids.
There was much talk at our home this Easter weekend about eggs. Not Easter eggs per say. What’s happening is we are resurrecting “Hickey’s Egg Farm.” In high school I had 500 chickens and an egg route delivering farm fresh eggs. The baton is getting passed now to Kaitlyn. Maybe she will call it “Kaitlyn’s Country Fresh Eggs” or something like that… stay tuned. Have you noticed the price of eggs lately?
Preparations are in high gear. I roped in Ben who serves so faithfully as THE trustee overseeing the church building addition. Like he didn’t have enough to do… I now have him making new windows and a door for our chicken coop. I’ll be sure to take before and after pics because this thing is getting fully restored. Also had CATG’r Clifford over this afternoon to talk chickens. Unexpected development there… initially it was about putting new shakes on the coop roof for the layers. But we decided to partner up to get 100 chicks this next week and fatten them up over the next couple months to fill the freezer. BBQ anyone?
Big birthday in the Hickey household tomorrow… Caleb turns 18. You can check out his blog to see a few of his comments about what that means he can now do. I bought him a pretty expensive gift with some money that came to me unexpectedly this week (Thanks Billy!).
I have about a dozen different names for each of my kids. My dad called me Bubba, I called him Bud, my brother was Slick. When I was real little I was called Poo Bear, my brother was Rabbits. When Caleb was born my dad offered to buy me a lazy boy recliner if I’d renamed him Thomas - he thought “Caleb” was too trendy. Back then (1990), we never heard of anyone named Caleb (besides the Biblical Caleb). When number two came along, I really wanted the recliner so “Thomas” it was! (that’s how I tell the story when I want a laugh, he’s actually Thomas for other reasons.)
Little Thomas called Caleb… KEE-UB. So we still call Caleb Kee-ub today. Also, Caleb is GongPie. This came to me after seeing a few of his toddler pictures where it looked to me liked he was part Chinese. More often than not Caleb is Buzz - this came from his trademark hairstyle. He also goes by Weezie. Not sure the origin there. All these are great terms of endearment, including Big Dummy and Meathead which we love to call each other after watching reruns of Sanford & Son or All in the Family.
A few years ago the orthodonist called our house to remind Caleb of an appointment the next day and on the answering machine said… “This is a message for KAHLEEB...” So, that stuck and we frequently call him Kahleeb (of course except when we are going through airport security- you know how they perk up when arabic people check in). He’s never been “Cal” which we hoped people wouldn’t shorten his name into. One clueless Cub Scout leader never figured out his name wasn’t Cable. Enough with the names!
The Biblical Caleb was a warrior, not intimated by giants. He stood with God even when it meant standing alone. He didn’t complain or shirk from the task at hand. He stayed faithful during the forty years in the wilderness. The Bible says he was one “with a different spirit.” He didn’t go with the crowd. He possessed the land. Caleb means faithful and loyal. These are all things we’ve watched emerge in our Caleb these last 18 years. These are things we pray for him and love about him.
Happy Birthday Caleb!
With it being St. Patrick’s Day once again, I thought it appropriate to post a pic from our 2004 trip to the Hickey homeland - County Clare. Here we are in Limerick. Note the name of the pub we are standing by - PREACHERS - conveniently located just down the street from the church.
Most contemporary Protestant churches today skip Lent altogether and jump in for the Easter celebration. This is fine as there is nothing written that says you have to reinact this all every spring - preachers should really be preaching the cross twelve months a year. I want to devote a few posts these next few weeks to the ugly side of Easter - the betrayal, the blood, etc. Buckle up.
Some good stuff for those who’ve known betrayal…
Here we are in Easter season and I had the thought to watch the Passion of the Christ again last night. Instead I just decided to read it right out of the Bible. Judas popped off the page at me and the whole pain of betrayal thing. Probably because I had read this earlier in the day:
“Embedded somewhere, in each act of betrayal, is the purpose of God waiting to be discovered.” Garris Elkins
My two sons (17, 15) are excited to follow my steps into ministry for which I’m grateful, but recently my daughter (13) announced she wanted nothing to do with it. Not that she wants nothing to do with God, far from it. Her comment was in specifically in reference to ministry - and hearing her explain why made me want to send a couple of “thank you” cards to a few people who’ve “kissed” me as Judas did Jesus. I don’t know how to explain or justify to her how it is people you try to bless and help so viciously turn on you and even orchestrate an aggressive and unbridled but Scripturally-forbidden slander campaign with the hope of ruining you. It’s nothing short of evil. Every Christian leader deals with it, though those on the front lines more than the rest.
The danger for the betrayed is to succumb to the spirit of vengeance and seek your own vindication. Again to quote Elkins, “the spirit of vengeance wants to attach itself to betrayal and lure you into the betrayer’s dark place. It’s the strong desire to see the betrayer punished. Hell wants to help you tailor a plan to punish your betrayer. Darkness wants to lure you into the hardness of heart where an unwillingness to forgive exists. You don’t have to go there.”
Twice the Apostle Paul mentioned how he had to “turn [someone] back over to Satan.” Wow. I’ve never been able to do that. But I have prayed, “Lord, I’m hurting too much to deal with this in a Godly way, I release them to you. If you want to show them mercy - praise be your Name. If you decide to discipline and deal with them harshly, I can certainly understand.”
My secret over the years is to stay in a place of prayer and pray Psalm 64. There have been seasons where Kristen and I have done this daily for months on end.
Elkins has this to say to the betrayer, “know the sin of betrayal plans to take you somewhere. For Judas, John 13:30 tells us that betrayal took him “out into the night.” Betrayal repositions you into a dark place. The only way back into a lighted place is through confession and repentance.”
February 14, Valentine’s Day. Weather guy says 14 below zero tonight. Thought of a good line to insert here basically about how, no matter the temperature outside, I’ve not been “cold” on February 14 since Kristen graced my life in 1986. But she threatened me if I didn’t leave that line out. Actually she didn’t say anything, I just felt the cold wind.
Here we are in a warmer setting this past summer right after Jerrid & Emily’s wedding in Jamaica…
“Nugget” keeps watch over my desk during second service today
Here’s a couple pics related to Friday’s post about the arrival of our new rooster! His full name is Colonel Campbell McNugget. Kristen wasn’t smiling in the one picture because she was mumbling some Scripture about something bad happening if this thing crows three times. I’m feeling like Noah must have felt - just grateful to God to be able to host his creation. Had a fleeting thought about what’s next.
I head to DC Monday night for a couple days of meetings and rallies on the LIFE issue. Meeting #1 is at the Family Research Council with other pro-life bloggers. Second is a Bound4Life rally on the steps of the Supreme Court that you can watch live on God TV or online (airs Tuesday at 3 P.M. CST). Lou Engle is speaking and God TV is broadcasting it internationally. Third is the annual March for Life. I’ll drop in a few pics and perhaps comments so stayed tuned.
I have some concern about the wisdom of getting the rooster and then immediately leaving town. Had a dream last night about it getting out and Kristen having to chase it down in ten degree weather and what that would do for our marriage. Now I can’t get the song out of my head…. should I stay or should I go.
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