En Route to Texas

I'm going to start this off with this. The devil hates you. He hates you and your family and wants you dead. So, if you're the kind of Christian that just goes through life going to church once a week to give God a quick nod, then you will NOT be able to relate to anything you read here.

If you're not doing anything to advance the Kingdom of God, then you're no threat to the enemy whatsoever, you'll hardly ever get attacked by him, and he'll still be able to kill you, but it'll be through quiet desperation. Your life wont be filled with wonder, awe, suspense, adventure, excitement, and thrills. If you let him, the devil will fill it with dread, repetition, depression, and fear. Don't let him. Take action.

First Stop, STARBUCKS!

We headed out at around 3:30pm and made our our first stop to get some fuel... AT STARBUCKS! It was so hot, so Christina and I got cold drinks. She got a coffee frappucino and I got an iced latte. I also grabbed a double shot and throw it in the cooler. Something tells me it's going to come in handy.

Lexington, VA is approximately 5 hours from Trenton, NJ so I drove the first half and Christina took the second half. At the point Christina took the wheel, it was already night and it had started to drizzle a bit. Then, it rained harder. Then, trees were starting to fall down! Seriously. Cars had pulled off to the side of the road and others took refuge underneath overpasses but not Christina. "I am NOT pulling over. We are driving through this!", she said. It was very windy and very scary. At least for me. Christina loved it, but then this is the girl who loves driving in the snow. So, I was, literally, along for the ride at this point. Scary? Yes. But, it was also very exciting, too! As the night sky lit up with lightning, more evidence of it's wrath was exposed. We drove past fallen tree after fallen tree. Amazing.

We finally arrive in Lexington, VA to a dark hotel. My first though was, "where is everybody?" Most people and businesses in the area lost power due to the storm including our hotel. "I'm sorry, but I can't check you in. I have no electricity to make a key card for you", the front desk person tells me. "We just drove in from NJ, we're very tired, we're getting a room", I informed the front desk person. Needless to say, within 10 minutes, we got a room. Thank you, Lord.

As we head to our room, everything is dark. The once operational elevator now stands with its door 75% open. For some reason, this was a particularly creepy sight. We get to our room, and wandered around it with only the glow from our  iPod screens. We go to bed with the door chained but open.a few people actually slept outside their rooms on the balcony. The room was free.

Day 2 - Lexington, VA to Nashville, TN
Saturday, June 30, 2012

We leave at 5:50am and head for Nashville, TN. It's early, we're tired. I remember the double shot in the cooler! Christina grabs it for me as I'm driving to, where else, Starbucks. (Which, by the way, should fund any and all of our future trips-we certainly earned it) As we pull into Starbucks'n parking lot, we see that a fallen light pole has crushed the top of someone's car. We find out later, it was due to the storm the previous night. The one Christina was determined to drive through! The pole fell, bounced off the car and laid beside it. We also find out that this storm ripped through a few states as well causing major damage and power outages! "I am NOT pulling over. We are driving through this!" rings in my head as we find out the news.

We met a guy named Chip while at Starbucks and hung out with him for a while. He told us about his life while we sat in the lot drinking our much needed coffee. Christina and I pray that Chip receives such revelation about the Lord Jesus and that him and his whole household are saved.

On the way to Nashville, we stopped off in Knoxville, TN. Our first stop was for some well needed, you guessed it, COFFEE! Christina looked up coffee house on yelp.com (check out her reviews here) and found 2 contenders. "Old City Java" and "Remedy". Remedy won only because of the mention of their barista, Matt, and his notable customer service. We were not disappointed by Remedy or Matt. One of the BEST iced lattes Christina has ever had. Remedy is a really cool space to check out if you ever find yourself in the historic district of Knoxville, TN. EXCELLENT reuse of an old warehouse space. As we sat sipping our drinks discussing the Lord, as well as our trip, Angela, one of the frequent patrons came over to chat. She was opinionated, highly energetic, loud, friendly, and... she was 4 years old. We hung out with Angela for the rest of the time at Remedy discussing important matters like the birthday party she was going to, the presents she had to buy, how her brother cancelled his boy scouts meeting due to the heat but wasn't QUITTING boy scouts, and her stuffed dog also named Angela. As we were leaving, Angela raced around our legs and blocked the door so we couldn't open it. We were able to outwit her, and opened the door. Promising to come back the next time we were in Knoxville, we said Goodbye to her and Matt.

We arrived in Nashville, TN hours later, check in, and head downtown for dinner. Downtown Nashville is hopping with activity, unfortunately, a lot of the activity is no good. There's this one thing called the Pedal Tavern. Its  different take on a pub crawl. You pedal around town, with 16 other people, while someone in the middle of it serves the group drinks. Christina and I honestly couldn't figure out how Nashville can even allow this thing. It seems like a major liability. They pedal this thing right alongside moving traffic...while drinking!!!

As we were eating dinner, we saw an Elvis impersonator walking around the street. He wasn't singing or anything, he was just walking around talking to people and taking pictures with them for tips. After dinner, as we were going to get some ice cream, we saw "Elvis" and started talking to him. We found out his name is really Chuck, and that he is also a Christian, told him we would pray for him, (hint: We didn't ask him, "would you like us to pray for you?", we told that we would pray for him. And we did. Right then, on the spot.) and after we prayed, we hugged, and he said, "That was the best tip I got all day."

Day 3 - Nashville, TN to Little Rock, AR
Sunday, July 1, 2012

Look, we're in the south, and when you're in the south, the ONLY place you go to have breakfast is Waffle House. Thankfully, there was one across the street from our hotel. Breakfast was, as always, fantastic. (as you can see below.) The coffee was not our usual 90 octane so I still felt a little groggy.

As we were pulling out of the parking lot, Christina says, "Wait. I need to go back inside for a minute." She does. She comes out about 3 minutes later and gets into the car as we leave. "There was an older woman in there named Eva who is the manager, and I just wanted to encourage her and let her know that God loves her." That made that woman's day. That's my wife's mission in life; to let as many people know how much God loves them and to not have one drop of anointing left in her when she meets Jesus.

We arrive in Memphis. About 20 years ago, I was in Memphis on business and after work I has decided to visit Graceland. The home of Elvis Presley. It was a very strange tour, to say the least, but it was also very interesting, nonetheless. I also got to record my own rendition of "Teddy Bear" and "That's All Right" in my best Elvis voice. This time around, no Graceland, no singing, but Christina and I DID do the Sun Recording Studios tour which is where Elvis got his start. I mean THIS is the ACTUAL place where he started. He recorded his first record here and he took off. Not only him, but also, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, etc. The studio is still in operation today doing tours during the day and recording sessions at night. Beale Street is alive and well. Music blares from every other restaurant along the strip and on the street, and nearby parks, bands perform for tips and people are generally just having a really good time.

We drive to Little Rock, AR, check in to the hotel, and call it a night.

Day 4 - Little Rock, AR to Ft. Worth, TX
Monday, July 2, 2012
We arrived in Little Rock late so we didn't check out the town at all. We just checked in, went to sleep, woke up and left the hotel. Now, there WERE 2 really cool things that DID happened in Little Rock. 

Cool thing #1 - We stopped at the gas station across the street from the hotel to fill up. As we did, I got some windshield wiper fluid out of the trunk to refill the washer tank with. I finish, put it back in the trunk, close the trunk, replace the gas nozzle, get in the car and put her in gear. While I'm about to drive away, I notice my trunk light is on. "I thought I closed that", I think to myself.

Now, before I share the next part, I want you to understand something. Any and all of the testimonies we share, we give the glory and the credit to Him. To the lord Jesus. What He does for one of His sons or daughters, He will do for all of them. There is nothing special about Frank and Christina Sasso on our own. God is not a respecter of people and He has no favorites that He does special things for. He loves you just as much as He loves us. The reason we share these events is to testify to how good God is and to encourage you. The Word says in Revelation 12:11 -  that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.

That said, I get out of the car to close my trunk,  and on my way to get back into the car, I noticed a folded $100. dollar bill on the ground by my tire.

I say to Christina, "Look! A hundred dollars!! "See if anyone lost anything", she says. "Grrrr, ok." So, I go up to this one guy and asked him if he lost anything. He tells me that he didn't but his brother might have. "Where's your brother?", I ask. "Here he comes now", he says. I walk up him as he's coming out of the store in the gas station. He tells me he didn't lose anything and then says, "Why? Whatcha got? I lost $5.00, I think I lost $10.00!" I tell him that it was neither 5 or 10 and I return to the car. In the meantime, Christina was in the car thinking, "ok, we just heard this message from Andrew Wommack about money being 'the least thing', are we ready to put it to the test? Are we going to trust Him, or are we just going to say we trust Him. Because God does say in Malachi 3:10 to 'to test Me in this'." The word "this" meaning money. I get back in the car and tell Christina that nobody is claiming it. Nobody lost it. Then she says, "I think we should give it to them." I asked her to repeat herself. "I think we should just give it to them. Wouldn't THAT be radical?!" As my hand slowly reaches for the door latch, I say, "That WOULD be radical". I get out of the car, walk over to them and hand one of them the $100. I told him that it was from Jesus and that He so loves them. he looks at me in unbelief and says, "nobody does this, I'll never forget this!"  THAT was cool thing #1. With that, Christina and I leave the gas station for additional fuel...STARBUCKS!!! We found NO Starbucks and we decided to settle for McDonald's. We pull into McDonald's and as I finished parking, Christina spotted a Starbucks across the road! Oh, Happy Day!

Cool thing #2 - We're at Starbucks and while we're drinking our lattes, Christina says, "I think you have a word for that man". She points out a guy talking on his cell phone in his van. Now, in the past, anytime Christina would say that to me, I would ask the Lord if there was a message He had to give somebody. Sometimes He would and sometimes not. If He didn't, then I would leave it alone, if He did, I'd deliver the message. Now, whether the Lord has a specific message or not, I will go unto the person and bless them. Whenever my wife thinks I have a word for someone, I will go to that person and bless them. This was one of those times. I went up to the guy, told him that it's possible the Lord has a word for him, he was very accepting of it, and I blessed him. He suffer from some lower back pain. It turns out he's a pastor for a local  church. 

(more to come)

Love Letter No. 2 - by Christina Sasso

This story is chronologically before Love Letter No. 1 but came to me after I wrote No.1.

I remember wondering and questioning God about this; How did Jesus, being human, how was He able to really love everyone? I mean really...people are not the most lovable creatures. At the time I asked this I really had issues with people. I found them extremely annoying and obnoxious.

I would pray God please give me a house in Maine on 10,000 acres, so I dont have to be near any people. Animals, no problem, people...Gark!

So, one day, years ago, I was watching Oprah. Dr. Phil was on trying to help this couple. The woman (I still remember her name, Rachel) was a, let's see how can I describe her...controlling, nasty, the b- word comes to mind.

Her husband, on the other hand, was a handsome man. He seemed very nice and mild-mannered.

As the show progressed, it was obvious the audience was not liking Rachel. She was extremely hard to like. And there I was right on the band wagon with them...I hated her. She was unloveable, unlikable.

Then the Lord answered my question...remember it? "How can You love everyone?" He said, "I can love everyone because I can see their hearts. I know all their wounds and scars. I know the hurts they suffered that make them unloveable in your eyes."

Then Dr. Phil did his thing and probed into Rachel's life. She told a story of a girl living in a home with a father who berated and ordered her mother around. Rachel, at an young age, decided never to allow a man to treat her that way. She decided she would be the dominant one in a relationship. At that point, my heart broke for this woman. There it was; the hurt, the wounds from a harsh father. I ended up weeping for Rachel, and thanking God for this revelation.

It stopped me cold. It changed everything. My whole perception shifted...Yes, that's it! People are hurt, scarred, wounded...look at the hurting people. What do they need? LOVE! Not love as the world sees it. GOD LOVE.

So simple, so clear.
Enjoy.

No More Will You Wander!

While on our annual Anniversary trip to Philadelphia, Christina and I went on a 4 hour walking tour of the city. One of the stops was at the Pennsylvania hospital. In the center of the front lawn is a statue of William Penn. The tour guide, Jennifer, told us that John Penn, William's grandson, found it in an antique shop in London and presented to the Hospital 1804. In 1751, the Hospital managers purchased half of the block that bordered Spruce and Pine Streets between 8th and 9th Streets. Several years later, the John Penn and his family donated the other half, a little less than 1 acre, to give the Hospital the full block. 


Why do I mention all of this? Well, "legend" has it that William Penn's "ghost" leaves the perch it's on and the statue walks the grounds of the Hospital at night looking for "his creator". When Jennifer said this, Christina and I looked at each other and knew the truth. This statue doesn't have a ghost. It's a demon! 


Christina and I came back the next day and decided to cast the demon out of the statue. What kind of demon was it? Well, if the statue is always found in weird places in the mornings. (i.e. his feet sticking out of a bush)  


We discerned that it was a demon of mischief.
   

No long, drawn out thing. No asking permission from anybody. No finding out if this was our "area of influence". Just simply exercising Authority over something we have a right, in Jesus, to exercise Authority over.


Plain and simple.


What do you need to take Authority over in your life today?

What Are You Missing?

The following entry is a true story and was sent to us by Greg L., one of our ministry members. Thanks, Greg!

Enjoy!
---------------------------------
A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars!

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: 

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

From Frank: WOW! What a story! It made me wonder — how much is God trying to show us that is just totally going over our heads? We expect to hear God, we expect Him to talk to us and He tries to. I just think we put Him in such a box sometimes, that while He's SCREAMING to get our attention, and since we expect Him to speak in a certain way, we miss Him. Since we never expect to hear Him in an unexpected context, we miss Him.

Expect God to talk to you however He wants. He wants to speak to you. He wants you to hear Him.

Selah.

Love Letter No. 1 - by Christina Sasso

I remember the first time God gave me a tiny taste of His love for people. ALL people. For God so loved the WORLD, He gave His Only Begotten Son, Jesus. The WORLD. Not the saved world, not the "holy" world. THE WORLD! It was about 7 years ago, we had recently moved into our home and were doing restoration work. I was sitting in our backyard, just sitting and thinking. (I do that a lot) My neighbor was in her yard screaming about something I don't really remember. What I do remember is I hated her. Yep, HATED her. I was praying her out of the neighborhood. (I really have to laugh at this now, and weep at the same time). So, as I'm sitting there, wishing her to the cornfield, I literally feel the Holy Spirit rain down love on me. This is hard to describe... It felt like a huge, drenching bucket of water over my head and body, but it wasn't water. It was overwhelming, all-encompassing LOVE! I couldn't take it. I started crying uncontrollably. I was repenting and weeping. How dare I hate her. (I'm crying now writing this) How dare I hate her when Jesus and The Father loved her so much. In that moment God changed my heart. I fell in love with my neighbor. I prayed, "Lord, give me another chance to show her friendship and love". Well, God, ever faithful, gave me that chance. It might have been that very same day when my neighbor came stomping into my yard, uninvited. (which, in the past, would have ticked me off to no end) This time, I thanked God. It was not easy or "natural" for me then (I've gotten much better at it) but I was determined to be loving, kind, and patient with whatever she (and God) had in mind. An hour and a half later, I was back home after getting a tour of her house. (basement and attic included) Seeing her vast "collections" and then having her choose something from that collection to give me as a house-warming gift. Coming up on 9 years later, I now know her, prayed with her, stood with her and her family, and love her. Yep, LOVE her.

Ok, What Needs To Come First?

Character or Transparent Relationships. What do you think needs to come first? Well, if you have character, then relationships, (especially transparent ones) are really easy. If you have no sin in your life, and the person you’re talking to has no sin in their life, then you can talk about anything you want to talk about because you have nothing hidden. You’re both walking in total righteousness and transparency and it's easy in that kind of environment. Unfortunately, we’re not born mature. We're born immature and we have to go through this process of becoming mature.

The reality is that we become mature by God and other people helping us to see the immaturity in our lives and fix it.

We don't do Christianity alone!

It’s not possible. You don’t do Christianity with just you and Jesus! That is not possible. In the garden, Adam was alone with God and it was not good. (Genesis 2:18) So, He made woman. In order to grow and develop the God kind of character, we need to have transparent relationships in our lives.


James 5:16 - Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.


We're supposed to share with one another the problems we're having and the fruit of that is that we'll be healed. That word "healed" means "to make healthy, whole, or sound; restore to health; free from ailment." In other words, no more limping. If you want freedom, from some of the things you're struggling with, you need to confess it to the Lord and to one another. It's in that confession that we're made whole. It's not some magical thing! It's a character development thing! When you share with someone what you're struggling with, you provide them an opportunity to help you. This is, of course, if you're confessing it to someone you can trust. You don't want to tell someone something and then have that person go and share that with other people.

For example... 

I struggled with lying for a long time. I lied as a kid, and a I lied as an adult. I thank the Lord and my wife, Christina, for helping me overcome it. It was a stronghold in my life. And the only thing that can truly take care of a stronghold is getting a revelation of what the Word of God says. That doesn't always happen overnight. Now, if I had a child and he lied to me, here's how I would handle it... by blessing him. "What? Blessing him? You obviously don't have kids, Frank! I'd show him the back of my hand and punish him!" Yes. I'd bless him. I'd say to him, "Son, do you know why I'm about to bless you?" He would probably say, "No?" I would answer him, "Because you lied to me".


The reason I would do that is to show my son that there is something more important to me than his behavior, and that something is the relationship he has with my wife and I, his parents. The thing my wife and I would want to guard and protect is the connection our son has with us. Not to mention, the safety that our son should have in communicating with us and coming to us with what he is struggling with. If he can come to us, then he can get help. If he can come to us, we can instruct him on the finer points of behavior. 

God is the same way!

He is a lot more interested in protecting our relationship with Him, so that we can come to Him and we can grow. That's how the environment should be with one another. If the consequences for confessing your sin is so high, you would never confess them. I mean, who would ever share what was going on in their lives?

Why? Here's why!

Because the consequences for being transparent were so high, that he couldn't possibly be transparent, and when it finally did come out, he lost everything.


So, in our relationships, we have to guard in setting the consequence for transparency so high, that transparency could never happen, because what that does is instill fear. Am I saying that you have to go around all the time confessing your sins wherever you go or just spewing them all over someone you just met? NO! Have some balance. But, when you're allowing thoughts like "I can't let anyone find out about this!" or "If anyone finds out about this, bad stuff is going to happen!",  that's not going to produce fruit and...

...when you have that attitude, you can't grow!

A Helpful Prayer Guide

While in church yesterday, the pastor gave out this little card with a very helpful guide printed on it. 10 helpful tips on prayer. I thought it was great, so here it is for your edification.

10 Helpful Tips on Prayer

1. Set a starting and ending time for prayer. I have found it helpful to place that time on my daily calendar. It is the time I have reserved to be with God.

2. Find a quiet place where you can be alone with God. God blesses the undistracted pursuit of His presence.

3. When you pray, pray aloud. We have grown accustomed to silent prayer, but praying aloud helps us to concentrate more on what we are praying.


4. Take time to pause before you pray over each request. This allows God to show us how to pray.

5. While patterns of prayer are helpful, allow for freedom when you pray. Some days you may want to spend your entire prayer time in praise and worship. Other days you may spend your entire time praying over your personal needs, while other days you may spend your entire time praying for others or waiting in silence before the Lord. Be flexible!


6. When you pray, play worship music in the background. Worship helps to fill our hearts with faith.


7. If you miss your "scheduled time" with the Lord, trust Him to give you time elsewhere in your day. Remember, God is bigger than time.


8. When you pray, be as specific as possible. This will allow you to see how God answers your requests and you will be encouraged.


9. Take your Bible to prayer. There will be times when God will have you pray through scriptures about your life or the lives of others.


10. Remember, it is ALL about relationship. God wants you to know Him and know His ways. Prayer is not just one more thing to do; it is about spending time with our Best Friend.