September 1, 2003
Email: David
Benrexi
Hello beloved readers,
I hope each one of you is having a
wonderful day. I have been relaxing like you're supposed to do on Labor Day, putting
off until tomorrow assorted tasks that
are calling me to tackle them. I'm
keenly aware that God loves me and that
I don't have to prove I'm not lazy any more.
I made breakfast for my girlfriend
today, Jo Benrexi. It was French Toast,
or what some call Freedom Toast, but
personally I don't expect every other country to want to go to war with
us.
Anyway, I have a friend who teaches math at one of the
local schools,
and he was stopped at the Pittsburgh
airport recently and detained because he was carrying
a compass, ruler, and protractor. The
authorities charged him with attempting to
transport weapons of math
instruction.
Last year in January, I decided to leave
the Teen Challenge
ministry and pursue the vision God had
established in my heart. It seems like
nowadays, you need to give everything a
name and explain yourself over and over again.
I asked God to help me
write the
vision down for Zephaniah 3:17 Ministries (Does that
sound more impressive than "My
Life"?), and I wrote it down in some detail, and
looked at it often for three months while
I continued to work at Teen Challenge. Jo and I left at the end of April and moved
into the house where we live now in the
little town of Tarentum.
In the final three months at Teen
Challenge I was very
diligent to give my employer quality
work and seek to be at peace with my co-workers. I
knew I could never accomplish God's goals
for my life
with all the responsibilities that job
entailed, and I knew God had only brought me there for a season. It was a wonderful
time in our life, but I'm glad it's
over.
Now I don't have a job.
I have a calling, and I'm walking in it, and seeking to be faithful to live the life I'm called to
live and obey my Lord as He leads and
guides me.
I want to share a word He spoke
to my heart in March of last
year, while I was still in the Teen
Challenge ministry. I consider it to be
the most important prophetic message I
received last year.
A visionary is a dreamer that I
connect with the right
people.
I wrote it down.
I
shared it with my wife. I meditated on
it often. I only shared
this word with a handful of people, as
God directed me. Tonight I am sharing it with a few hundred people, through
this newsletter, because He wants me to
share it with you.
I believe when we receive a
prophetic word from God, it is
life-changing, and always in a positive
way. His word to me about visionaries
and dreamers has helped me and
encouraged me. It creates a sense of
expectation. Now expectation
is like a two-edged sword. We expect some
things to happen and they don't.
We expect people to do certain things or they expect us
to do something,
and then disappointment comes when
it
doesn't happen. What I'm learning is to expect something good to come from loving God
and listening to Him and obeying Him and
believing Him. That is the expectation
that makes everything I do a joy. You see, I'm literally expecting God to do
something good right now, because I love
Him, I listen to Him, I obey Him, and I believe Him.
That's a BIG payoff to know
something good will happen
(Romans 8:28).
In our world where false humility is seen
as such a
virtue--Oh, I'm just a rotten old sinner
saved by grace-- I'm willing to take the heat if some people are
offended that I believe all my sins are
washed away and that I can be a holy
person just by giving my life to my Lord on a moment by moment basis. The way
to be holy is obey that command to be holy.
Don't say, "No, I can't be. You can't make me!!!"
I find myself wanting to pray for people
who have been
robbed of their vision.
Satan wants them to think they failed
God. He wants to put his lies on their skin like a cattle is branded. If the brand says "failure" or
"loser" be assured that's who
satan is, not who you are. God has given
you a vision for your life and He wants
you to walk in it. He will connect you
with all the right people.
He also will give you discernment to shield
your mind from the self-defeating
thoughts that many well-meaning people will unwittingly speak into your life.
If God has given you a vision, write it
down and share it
with someone who loves you and has
faith. If you don't know what God has
created you to do, ask Him, and He will
answer. Then, write it down, etc and all
that jazz.
I want to thank God for connecting me to
many wonderful
brothers and sisters. With
a family like this, failure is
unthinkable. I love and appreciate you, and as always I welcome you into my life and
look forward to hearing from you. Here's a song from our second CD.
You'll hear my dear friend Tim Daniel on the
clarinet at the end. It's song #10 on
'Draw Near to God'. You'll find it at
www.MyDaddyLovesMe.org
I want to give You tears of joy my LORD/ I
want to give You
tears of joy my LORD/ I want to give You
all of my heart/ All of my mind and all of my strength/
My LORD/ My LORD/ I want to give You
all of my heart/ All of my mind and all of
my strength/ My LORD/ My LORD
I want to know You in all Your holiness/ I
want to lay my
life down at Your feet/ At Your feet/ I
want to lay my life down at Your feet/ Give You my hopes/ And give You all of my dreams/ All of my
dreams/ I want to lay my life down at
Your feet/ Give You my hopes/ And give You all of my dreams/ All of my
dreams
If anyone is interested in helping us to
reach more pregnant
young women with a powerful message of
God's love, we have unlimited opportunities available.
Just
write or call if you'd like to know more.
It's an exciting project you can
read about at our web-page. I'll be
posting more about the ministry opportunities
very soon. If God wants to connect us,
it's for something good!!!!
Please feel free to share this message
with someone
else. If it helps or amuses
you I'm glad. If you didn't like it, you
don't have to tell
me, because I'm very sensitive. You can if
you want. If you need prayer, I'll pray
for you.
Need someone to talk to, I'll give you my ears. Just
remember, God loves
you and I love you, too.
--David
Benrexi