August 2014

Dearest Beloved Family, …… Jesus is standing before you. His eyes are piercing you to the uttermost depths of your soul. His presence feels like liquid love and every breath is refreshing to your spirit. Every exhaled breath is cleansing. He is holding a sword. It is long and sharp. It is glowing with a blue heat like the hottest part of fire. This sword is pointed at your heart. You can feel the warmth of the point radiating through your chest and going down your body and out your toes. Your eyes meet His and with a voice of gentle persuasion he says, “My beloved, come here.” Everything in your natural mind would say, “No! Move the sword! It will hurt! I will die!” However, there is this underlying vibration that bellows throughout the depths of your spirit. It is made from light, purity and hope. And without hesitation or thought, you take a step. It takes your breath away and can easily cause you to wince in pain, taking your eyes off His. You stop - You have a choice. Will you choose to step back, look down and forever feel the sting of the sword, but never increase in intimacy with Jesus, despite suffering? Or… Slowly the pain subsides and your eyes can focus on His, allowing your heart to gain the perspective it needs to go beyond courage and into desperation to take another step. You must be near Him, you must be with Him, and you must know Him!

This season for us has been one of walking through the sword of Jesus. And just like King David was given Goliath’s sword, the very thing that was supposed to be his destruction, is what was used to protect him

from Saul and consecrate his victory. This sword at our chest, the enemy tried to use for our destruction BUT all that has happened is we are more passionate about the call the Lord has placed on our lives, more desperate for His heart, more anchored in His goodness and more determined to see His face shine on a broken and hurting world.

                 

I am less than 30 years old and both of my parents are in heaven. At times, I feel like an orphan. In the past 18 months we have mourned the loss of my mom and dad, four babies through our failed adoption attempts, the home that I was brought to from the hospital was sold (with all of its contents being dispersed among family and friends), sold and left empty and our littlest, sweet Sadie Tate was born profoundly deaf. This, along with injustice in the area of finances, has been woven throughout our recent days. I do not take you down our path of walking through the sword to compare your story to mine. I do not share it with you for pity or empathy. I absolutely share it to say two things. First, and don’t miss this… With each painful step closer to my Jesus He wept

with me, His eyes were filled with hopeful compassion and righteous truth that all will be made well. Despite knowing our tomorrow and our future, He felt what we felt through the hardship. Second, never in my l i fe have I been surer of the goodness and faithfulness of our God. He absolutely did not cause one of the things that happened to us. If you think He “allowed” it, I would say, yes, He did. Thousands of years ago in the garden when He gave Adam and Eve the ability to make choices, He allowed our free will. But please don’t blame the One who has saved me on being the one who caused my pain. It is not in His nature and He simply cannot go against His nature. He desperately longs to be brought into our pain, because He is the only one who can truly guide us out! He doesn’t hold the key to freedom, He IS freedom. He doesn’t hold the key to hope, He IS hope. It is up to us if we choose to look up and allow our eyes to meet His, or if we choose to step back in our fear and pain. Look up; look at His eyes. Can you see them? Rest until you do, because once you do, you will be able to step forward, closer to Him and the closer you get to Him, the more you are changed in every way. The very cells in your body are shifted to have heavens perspective on life around you. You trust Him completely. You know him as Adam knew Eve and conceived a child. There is freedom. His name is Jesus. There is hope. His name is Jesus. There is life and future and His name is Jesus. Call upon His name and He will run to you.

                 

We will have several exciting things to announce in the months to follow that are the unfolding of our forever “yes” to our Jesus that has captivated our hearts in a way we didn’t know was possible. This Jesus, that once our eyes are locked on His we can say nothing but “We will go anywhere, do anything Just take us to the center of your heart God, we trust you completely.” On a practical note, we have several financial needs that are in front of us at the moment. If you feel led to sow into BKJM, we would be so thankful. We don’t typically put out blanket statements such as this one, but I felt I was supposed to. The rest of the letter is pretty raw so why not end that way? J We love you all and thank you for continuing to sow into our ministry,

Wil l iam L. Parker, M.D. – My daddy – My hero. He fought in WWII in the US Navy. Graduated top of his medical school class with a wife, two kids and two full time jobs! After practicing medicine in Amarillo for many years, he went on to be the founding medical director of Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation in Dallas, Texas and was truly loved by all who knew him. He met and married my mom in his late 50’s and because he loved her so deeply, he agreed to have a baby at the age of 59… me! He was 88 years old when he died and if I had to say the main thing I learned from my dad it was simply, “Don’t worry. Don’t stress.” Stress and worry are useless. Simply choose not to do it.

You have a choice. Choose to focus on Him. Love Ya’ll! Kimberly & Bob Johnson

1095 Hil ltop Drive, Suite 369, Redding, CA 96003 www.bobandkimberly.com