By Cyndi

As I was looking out over the ocean the other day the Lord impressed upon me to focus on the waves. I felt like He wanted me to describe them. “Well,” I thought, “the sun is shining through the transparent waves beautifully, their sounds are boisterous, and the movement of the emerald green water flowing in and out is simply breathtaking.”

After dwelling on the waves a bit, my focus moved to the deeper water and how it differed from the shallow area. Further out from the shore the water is a deeper blue. It’s much calmer, more tranquil. There’s still movement, but not as impetuous as the crashing waves surging upon the beach.

Then the revelation came upon me: most of us Christians are living in the shallows, not the deep. Our lives seem beautiful, even breathtaking, to the onlooker. But they tend to have an extreme swelling up and down — a wave action — sometimes causing us to experience violent crashes and collisions. The shallows can be a dangerous place.

Think about boats, for a moment. The shallows are not a safe place for them. Running aground can wreck them to pieces. Sand bars, which are common in inlets, are some of the trickiest areas to maneuver for boats. Timing is everything. If it’s wrong, you may ruin your vessel. Much anxiety results from the shallows.

Now think about ships in the deep. There’s plenty of room to maneuver. It’s a big wide ocean! Lots of space. In contrast, this is a very safe place for them. In fact, during hurricanes here in Florida, the Navy actually takes their ships out to sea so they won’t come ashore during the storm. Currents and swells are much smoother where it’s deep.

Psalms 42:7 says, “Deep calls to deep,” and I believe that’s the Lord calling us today — to go deep. As the waves crash over us and our lives get vehement with circumstances, we are called to go into the silence of the deep. Yes, we cannot touch our feet on the bottom, but there we are wholly in the arms of our Beloved. It’s a dive of faith.

Coming back to my chair as I overlooked the ocean, I glanced back and forth from the waves breaking on the shore to the deep blue horizon. Am I living in the shallows or the deep? The waves are beautiful, but it’s noisy. It’s looks more peaceful further out.

I believe Father God wants us to be at rest in Him, in quietness and confidence. (Is. 30:15) We have to move out of the shallows to find that place where deep calls to deep. The world is getting more tumultuous day by day. Let’s go deep, my friend. Let’s go deep.

By Cyndi

I think we all have our little phrases we use when we’re overwhelmed. You know, like when there’s more month than money, or the kids are more than we can handle, or life just isn’t turning out the way we’d hoped it would. My phrase is, “I’m done.” I’m just done with it all. I’ve had enough; I can’t do it anymore. That’s when I’m heading for the edge. I start losing my effectiveness; I’m mentally and/or physically worn out and feel like I just can’t do it anymore. Now I’m not on the verge of suicide or anything extreme like that, so don’t be worried, but sometimes the pressures of life, well, they put pressure on me!

And I think most of us, if we were honest, feel this way at times. We can all get that angry edge; we all have a “breaking point” somewhere. After all, we’re human, we have limits. And that’s when the Lord told me, “You can either break down, or break open.”

Ps. 34:18 says, The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. And Ps. 51:17 says, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. This word broken here is ‘shabar’ which means “to break, break in pieces; rend violently, crush, quench, rupture; to shatter.” (Strong’s #07665) But why in the world would God want to smash us into little pieces and crush us to bits?

Well, I’m no Bible scholar so this is just my personal revelation. I believe it’s the same principle that the military use in training recruits. There’s a breaking down of a person so a rebuilding can occur–one that they want. They want a soldier who is well trained and prepared to fight, protect, and serve their country. Now flip this back to the Word: God wants us to be well trained, able-bodied ministers of the Gospel.

What if we opened up to what God wants to do in our lives, letting Him mold and shape us? We give Him our brokenness – all our shame, our faults, our mistakes, our frustrations – and He rebuilds us. Unfortunately, many of us (including me) don’t give these things to Him until we’re at our breaking point. If I would only open up to Him, prying all my deep dark secrets and pain that I’ve wrapped up tightly inside my heart. If only I would let go of my clenched-fisted shame and let Him heal me.

It is then that He can rebuild me. Oh, He uses the same talents and giftings that I had, but now they are ready to be used the way He wants for His kingdom. Usually when I’m on that verge of breaking down it’s because I’m the one trying to do so much and I’m not daily looking to Father for my marching orders. When I’m feeling overwhelmed I have a choice: I can keep trying to hold it together, or I can break open, be healed, and walk in liberty.

Open Your Toolbox, God is Giving You the Exact Tool You Need

Last week we had a wonderful night of worship. We sang some encouraging songs and some uplifting prophetic words came forth. In the midst of it God was speaking to me and I kept hearing the verse that says He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Then I heard, “You have everything in your toolbox.” My toolbox? What is that supposed to mean?

toolboxIn a flash the Holy Spirit revealed to me a picture of a toolbox behind me with everything I needed. It is like this: if I come upon something that needs to be cut, I get a saw out of my toolbox. If I have a plumbing problem, I pull out the wrenches and PVC pipes that I need. Other problems might just need to be hammered down or screwed in tight with the appropriate apparatus. Now, of course, I am not referring to actual problems in the natural, but in the spiritual realm.

In the days that we are living in, we are all facing challenges from many directions, but what the Lord was encouraging me with is the fact that we already have all that we need to face them. We already have every “tool” necessary to overcome, He has given them to us—His divine power has given them to us, the verse says. It is our job to unpack them, to open up our toolboxes and take them out. This may take some discernment as we do not want to bring a sledgehammer to work on a computer virus; or a needle and thread for cutting a tree down. But this is our part, taking the time to listen and find out what resource we need to accomplish the task and get the job done.

These tools may be used as weapons against the enemy, or ways we can stay encouraged, or even ways we can find a solution to the problem—look for a strategy and find a gadget tool for it. In addition, do not forget that the Word is one of the best devices we have. Jesus says in John 16:33, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” It is no surprise that we have troubles. However, He has given us everything we need to overcome. Therefore, open up your toolbox and see what you have.

Consider a Pastor’s Life

• Most pastors I know work a lot of hours for very average pay. They are there for people in their times of crisis.
• Pastors work with mostly volunteers and so have to have excellent people skills in their leadership.
• Pastors give out continually but don’t often have enough opportunities to receive.
• Most pastors don’t get enough time off.

Bulgarian Pastors

Many of the things I’ve shared above are even more prevalent in 3rd world nations.

On October 3rd Cyndi and I leave for Bulgaria. We will bring a group of Bulgarian pastors and their wives for a full week to a beautiful retreat hotel. We will fellowship, minister, pray over, prophesy over and in general love on these ministers.

Wouldn’t you like to be a part of this?

Well, you can. The Bible says that those who send “part alike” of the reward with those who go.

Click Donate Here if you would like to sow a seed into this good soil.

Robert

We are deep in the heart of summer with steamy days that culminate in afternoon showers most days. Things are marching along at a rapid pace with Fountains of Life and Robert Hartzell Ministries. Yep, we are now using two names.

FOL will continue to be the missions side of things that we’ve done since 1998. The month of May found us in Cambodia and Malaysia, which I’m sure Cyndi will tell you more about. And we will teach a pastors retreat in Bulgaria in October. Into 2014, we have the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Philippines and India on the horizon.

Robert Hartzell Ministries will focus on tools and training for Christian maturity and emotional health.

This includes a new book. For the past several months this has been a major project. Final edits are being done with a release date to be announced soon.

We are also loading up the website with many free resources such as devotional worksheets that guide you through resolving those stuck places that seek to arise in your life. There will also be instructional eBooks.

On a more personal note, Cyndi and I have enjoyed doing tons of yard work this summer and doing some surfing.

 

Cyndi

We have enjoyed having our son, Darren, with us for the summer, especially when we traveled to Cambodia. He thoroughly enjoyed his internship in Phnom Penh and is ready to go back anytime. We managed to see him a few times while we were there (like at church services) but we stayed busy with meetings most of the time. He was off working on other things.

After saying goodbye and leaving Darren in Cambodia, Robert and I left for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nothing like being woke up at about 4am every morning to a Islamic call to prayer from the mosque across the street from the home we were staying in. It takes a little while to get used to being in a Muslim nation.

I was asked to lead worship at the meetings Robert was speaking in and was very excited to be joined again by some of the same singers and musicians from the last time I lead there. They are such a wonderful group of people and it was great to worship with them again, especially in their new sanctuary.

After our trip, I jumped into teaching a class at our church‘s VBS, which I have not done for several years. I taught on missions so needless to say, I loved it. A few of the adults even said it was their favorite class. It’s always exciting to expose others to the life of missionaries and to see how God is moving all over the world.

And for those of you who know I run, I’ve taken off for the summer and gotten more into surfing and swimming; however, I’m thinking of starting up running again in September. For now I am enjoying the beach and being in the water during these hot months.

Darren goes back to Tallahassee in a couple weeks to start his fall classes at Florida State, so we’re gearing him up for his junior year right now. Once he leaves it will be back to just me and our cat, Orlando, working in my office. Hopefully though, we’ll be able to catch a football game with him on one of these weekends. Go ‘Noles!

 

In His Service,

Robert & Cyndi