Resurrect: Spring Update

          

Greetings Beloved!

To begin, here is a poem Elena wrote about the resurrection and rebirth.  The word perihelion means the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is closest to the sun.

Perihelion

I wasn’t there the day the stone rolled away,

but it took our planet with it.  And just now,

I think I heard the old sound, the same gritty strain

of music that woke you up, somehow

on the inside of me: the intelligence of love

in the brawn of time, the force of gravity defied

by the force of glory, the center of the globe exchanged

for the center of the sky, the surrender of a tomb

that opened up and never stopped opening,

the trajectory of hope that sank like a stone

into the fault lines of human history and the human heart,

that races round and round until the orbiting earth halts for good

before the sun.

Elena Kazmier

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Family Update

The Lord has been so gracious to us these past six months.  Our noble Olive is full of love.  We discern rivers of it in her already.  She is six months old now, recently burst into high speed crawling, very affectionate, steady in joy, beautiful in and out, and the happiest girl we know!  No one makes her laugh so well as her brother, our fiery Owen, who is full of light and beginning to hear Deep calling unto deep in his heart.  Owen attends the Lighthouse Academy of Fredericksburg now, a Christian Montessori school in town where Elena taught years ago and which is owned by our dear friends the McClung family.  Elena spends her mornings there with Olive, baking and making tea for the teachers and staff, while Owen works in his classroom.  Then Elena, Owen, and Olive often join me for lunch at The Prayer Furnace, sometimes staying for the afternoon internship teaching.  But when the weather is as pristine as it has been lately, they are usually outside at our house all day until I join them in the evening.  I love my family!

We are currently recording a single, Your Blood Has Brought Me Near, a song co-written by Elena and myself.  Look for it in the months to come on a compilation album we are making with other musicians from the Prayer Furnace.

Soon we hope to pursue two side-businesses that may help us meet our budget: Elena’s fine art and Medicare insurance (those phrases should never be in the same sentence).  As always, we are still looking for those who feel led to partner with us on a monthly basis financially and in prayer support.  If any of you would like to help us with start-up capital for these ventures, please let us know.  Also, we continue the search for a music patron for our Owen.  A gift of $100 per month would pay for him to study the violin with a Suzuki instructor.

College of Sacred Scripture

We are nearing the end of our Spring Semester at the College of Sacred Scripture, and I believe much fruit has come of it for students and teachers alike.  The CSS sponsored our first Saturday Seminar one month ago, an entire day of teaching through the Book of Revelation culminating with a public reading of the text verse by verse to the sound of live music.

Awaken the Dawn/The Call Virginia

We have called Virginia and the nation to a corporate fast for the purpose of repentance and turning back to God.  Today marks the fifth day.  The crisis of our nation is not economic hardship or a vacuum of political leadership.  The crisis is this:  we lack revelation of the true Jesus and worship tailor-made christs instead.  Our fast will crescendo into a remarkable gathering of the saints in Virginia during the week of Memorial Day: an African American prayer event for the rights of the unborn, our annual Awaken the Dawn conference, the Call Virgina, and the Global Day of Prayer.

From our website:

“The greatest answer to the crisis in America and the central strategy in awakening a generation is the true revelation of Jesus. Our goal at Awaken the Dawn 2012 is to encounter Him for who He truly is in all His beauty as Bridegroom, King, and Judge. His presence satisfies the deepest cravings of the human heart. He is terrifying and wonderful.

Awaken the Dawn is a gathering to mobilize the end-time prayer and missions movement on the east coast of this nation. There are four primary mandates of Awaken the Dawn. We believe that the convergence of these expressions will release an awakening in America and abroad:

• • The worship movement – intimacy with Jesus, creativity, and the 1st commandment.
• • Prayer for justice and day and night intercession.
• • Prophetic and supernatural ministry.
• • Acts of justice and compassion.

We are excited to announce our partnership with The Call this year! On Saturday, May 26, will be The Call Virginia with Lou Engle. God’s remedy for a nation in crisis is gatherings of prayer and fasting in response to Jesus’ great zeal for mercy.

This will be a historic gathering. At Awaken the Dawn, we will grow in understanding of what the Spirit is saying to the church and be equipped for a prayer and missions revolution. At The Call, we will contend with prayer and fasting for mercy for America in the place where more blood was shed brother against brother than any other place in the nation during the Civil War. God is gathering the nation to Virginia, which has been a womb for the nation, to give birth to a third great awakening in this nation!”

We recently sent out a team from our community to tour the major cities of Virginia to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus and to mobilize for the tremendous events we believe God has called for Virginia and the nation in the coming weeks.

Additionally, many of the regions’ African-American leaders are gathering prior to the conference to hold a prayer event, particularly targeting the ending of abortion in the African-American community.

Please come and join us during this historic week!

We are grateful for you all and your continued support in prayer and giving.

May the Lord speak well to you!

Mark, Elena, Owen and Olive

January Update

I.  Waiting for Messiah: The Life of Simeon

In Samuel Becket’s famous existential play Waiting for Godot, the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait in vain for someone named Godot.  They have never met Godot, nor do they know for certain if he is really coming.  Still they wait.  At the close of the play, Godot remains absent, and their patience is not rewarded.

There was once was a man who lived in a generation in which the wait for the Jewish Messiah seemed as futile as the wait for Godot.  His name was Simeon.  Four long centuries had come and gone since the last prophet invoked hope in Jewish hearts of the coming Messiah.  In the silence, the assurance of some quavered.  Was there really a Messiah to come, a flesh and blood Messiah to come, or had the Jewish people been duped by figurative language?  Many grew faithless under the burden of delay and exchanged the groan of waiting for the fleeting but immediate satisfaction of powerless religion.  This man did not.  His name was Simeon, and even in the silence, he kept up the wait.  Luke describes him as a man “full of the Holy Spirit.”  To me, it is no wonder.  Only the Holy Spirit (and those possessed by him) can endure the pain of waiting with steadfastness and overcome the grief of patience by perceiving far-off fulfillment with present-tense joy.  To the natural man, this kind of faith is insanity.  To the supernatural man, it is the prerequisite for all real wisdom.

Consider Simeon.  His life could be summed up as one, long wait for “the consolation of Israel,” the consolation of his own heart, the foretold “Annointed One,” the Christ.  It was promised to him that “he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”  Sages wait, as did Simeon.  And one day, as he came to the temple “in the Spirit,” he saw a boy and a girl offering a pair of turtledoves, the sacrifice of the poor, and in the girl’s arms, a child.  An infant in fact!  He saw a 33-day old, nursing, crying, helpless, diapered infant.  But in this infant, Simeon saw the Christ.  In a mere second, the travail of a lifetime was gratified.  How the scoffers must have scoffed!  And how they scoff now as we wait, spending our lives in the “temple,” believing that one day, like Simeon, we too will see lifelong patience vindicated in the “twinkling of an eye” when Christ comes again, this time on the clouds in glory.  Take heart beloved!  Our wait is not in vain.

II.  Family Update

As most of you know, we welcomed Olive Clare into the world this October.  She is lovely in every way and a delight to our hearts.  She is a reward, and we are all taken with her.  It has been a challenging transition for us as a family though; please pray for us as we learn to abide in the vine day by day.

III.  Bible-reading Marathon

Prayer Room

This November we hosted our second New Testament Bible Reading; a 16 hour public reading of the entire New Testament.  Over 40 men and women read in continuous 10 minutes cycles.  Musicians accompanied all 16 hours of the reading.  The result was a remarkable sense of coming into contact with the Living Word, Jesus, through the written word of God.  The letter to the church of Philippi no longer seemed abstract.  We were in Philippi.  And nothing can compare to the final chapters of the text of Revelation.  We were all ready for His return when we cried together in union, “Come Lord Jesus!”

IV.  CSS Update

The fall semester was especially rich for me as I encountered God in the scriptures.  I trust it has been the same for our students.  I taught a survey course on the Old Testament, and I am increasingly stunned by the revelation of the Messiah.  From the sacrifices, to the Son of David, to his strange appearance before an unnamed mother when he ascends in smoke, to his appearance as the commander of the Lord’s army (naming only a few), Jesus is in every book and on every page.

Another element of this semester that was particularly fruitful in my estimation was our weekly chapel gathering.  These times facilitated student-led worship and exhortation and culminated in remembering the Lord through communion.

V. Tehillah and Israel Mandate Conferences

The Prayer Furnace hosted two conferences this fall, a worship and the arts conference called Tehillah (from the Hebrew word for praise) and the Israel Mandate conference, which focused on God’s purposes for Israel in the last days and our “mandate” to intercede and act on Israel’s behalf.   I enjoyed teaching two workshops at Tehillah; the first on the art of biblical songwriting, the second focused on the Songs in the book of revelation.  I highly recommend the sessions Dan Juster taught at Israel Mandate, which are available for free here.  I personally believe the Israel conference was a tremendously significant experience for all who attended and for the calling of our missions base due to the soundness of what was taught and the authority of those who taught it.

VI.  Burn Internship

Thirty students just graduated from our fall Burn internship.  Many of them will continue here as full-time students and staff this January.  Please pray for them in this transition.

VII.  IHOPU “Ex-tern”–Kyle Newby

As a part of our relationship with IHOPU-KC, we invite fourth-year university students to come to our missions base as part of their practicum, something that is essential to a holistic theological education.  It is has been such a privilege to have Kyle Newby with us this fall; he is a remarkable man of faith, full of the word of God.  We pray he returns.

VIII.  Request for patron of the arts

We believe it is time to begin to foster the gifts of our beloved son Owen.  We have clearly discerned his love for music, and that he has a real aptitude for it.  We would like to steward this gift by giving him violin lessons, something we cannot currently afford.  If anyone would be willing to support Owen in this way as a “patron of the arts,” let us know!  We believe it would be a great investment.

Here is a video of Owen reciting the Lord’s Prayer:

Thank you for your devotion to the Lord and to us!  May God visit you in 2012. We love you all.

Mark, Elena, Owen, and Olive

September Update

A Meditation by Elena Kazmier

“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee (Mark 1:9)…”

Who knew so much could come of a man stepping out his front door.  The Father knew.  And from the secret communications Jesus enjoyed with him (as I am sure he did walking alone in the hills before sunrise or chiseling the wood of an olive tree in his workshop at noon), I think the Eternal Son must have known as well.  As he matured, Jesus “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52).”  He began to see Himself in the prophetic scriptures.  He poured over Isaiah 9, 52, 53, 61.  He hid Psalm 22 in his heart.  The words of Genesis 22 and Exodus 12 were like food to him.  Jesus was no orphan.  He knew his father and he knew himself.  And when he turned his back on the familiar rooms of his Nazareth home, setting his face towards the door and the wilderness of Judea and his wild-spirited cousin John, Jesus knew that he was ultimately setting his face towards Jerusalem.  He knew the path of cost and glory that was about to commence with his next decisive footstep over the threshold.  But Jesus of Nazareth stepped anyway.  In a moment he forsook the comforts of earth as selflessly and resolutely as he had once forsaken the comforts of heaven.  It cost him greatly to take on flesh.  It would cost him greatly to give flesh up.

But Jesus had Isaiah 25 in mind.  He saw the coming collision of heaven and earth, the marriage feast, the demise of death, the tearless ages.  He could taste the Edenic wine.  He could hear already the shouts of his eternal companion, his bride, a redeemed Israel joined by men from every tribe and tongue, swirling into his ears like a symphony in surround-sound:  ”‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us[!]  This is the Lord; we have waited for him;  let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation[!]‘ ”  The sum of it was irresistible.  There would be no wife, no children, no career for this man.  Indeed, he would continue to serve the human race by the work of his hands and the sweat of his brow, but the work was changing.  There would be no more motherly affection, no more camaraderie of brother or sister, no more reputation of decency, no more dependable meals, no more bed, no more pillow, no more home.  Jesus, in a moment, laid aside everything the world languishes to gain and guard.

Consider that the next time he set foot in his home town, his family would say “He is out of his mind (Mark 3:21),” and the scribes who were visiting from Jerusalem would declare “He is possessed by Beelzebul (Mark 3:22).”  Furthermore, Luke records that after Jesus fulfills Isaiah 61 in the hearing of the local Nazareth synagogue, they question among themselves saying, ” ‘Is not this Joseph’s son (Luke 4:22)?’ ”  And after Jesus compares them with the people of Israel in Elijah and Elisha’s day, the religious pride and gross unbelief of their hearts is exposed and “they [rise] up and [drive] him out of the town and [bring] him to the brow of the hill on which their town [is ]built, so that they [can] throw him down the cliff (Luke 4:29).”  All this could have been prevented had Jesus not stepped out of his door.  Yes, and all the world would have been fettered forever in captivity to sin, bondage to earthly decay, and ultimately, in a paralysis of eternal death.  ”Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God (Romans 11:33)” displayed in the decision of Jesus to leave Nazareth in Galilee! What he must have felt in his body, soul, and spirit on that day with every human muscle submitted to the divine assignment, every thought sharpened and clear, and every emotion locked at its apex.  For the joy set before him, Jesus stepped out of his door and never looked back.  And where did he go first?  The scripture says that “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan (Mark 1:9).”  Very simply, Jesus went to his forerunner, to his friend, possibly to the one man on earth who would see more in him than the supposed bloodline of Joseph.  Similarly, may he come soon to us as we see and love him rightly and declare with one voice in our own present wilderness, “Come Lord Jesus!”

CSS Update

The second week of classes has come and gone, and already the momentum of the fall semester seems to characterize itself with vigor.  We are grateful to say that our student base has grown with the advent of this term to a total of approximately 80 students (nine full-time students) with  fourteen stellar classes are currently being offered to them.  It is my personal privilege to teach a first-time survey course on the Old Testament.  I must confess that it gave me particular pleasure to tear out (albeit scandalously) the dividing page between the old and new testaments on the first day of class in a sudden impulse of zeal regarding the perfect continuity of the testaments and the perfect uniformity of the God presiding over them.  On the first day of my Writing and Composition class (another first-time effort), I am sorry to say that the element of drama was lacking in comparison, however my pleasure in being there was not.  This class is designed to teach students how to read and write critically through a disciplined pattern of exposure and response to the beauty of Biblical literature, classical literature, and the great literature of church history.  In addition to these two new classes, the CSS is now offering courses devoted to the study of Biblical Doctrine, Joshua, and Daniel for the first time.

This semester our full-time students meet every Friday morning for a student-led chapel service which includes prayer, worship, the public reading of scripture, and communion.

If you are interested in hearing a message I gave recently about developing a burning heart for Jesus from the scriptures and the vision for the CSS, please do so HERE.

Children’s Camp and Teen Conference

This summer we hosted over one hundred children between the ages of 6 and 12 for what we called the Signs and Wonders Camp.  Let’s just say it was more than a vacation bible school.  By God’s grace many children encountered the love of Christ, felt their hearts come alive within them (which is the greatest sign and wonder of all!), and were empowered to share the gospel.  Then on the final night of the camp, the children hosted a healing service and prayed for all who were sick to be healed.

Teen Conference

Later this summer, in early August, we hosted a conference for teenagers called Marked.  These young men and women were not cajoled by flesh appeasing messages, but heard “Christ and Him crucified” preached with all openness and authority.  I was reminded that nothing makes us more relevant to this generation than the difficult, glorious Truth.  The relevance of the saints to a dying generation is never its sameness but rather its difference, the distinction of Jesus Christ in us–the hope of glory.  The highlight of the conference was a “solemn assembly” during which time this band of teenagers repented with sincerity of heart for the sexual insanity that presently distinguishes their generation and prayed with fervor asking God to send a great awakening.

Internship

About 40 interns from across the nation (and nations!) recently arrived at our FPF missions base for the commencement of the Burn Internship.  The primary focus of the internship is to train and release young men and women into their personal assignments regarding the fulfillment of the biblical mandate to exalt Jesus through incessant prayer and worship.  Some of these interns are encountering Christ for the first time; some are deeply mature in their walk with God.  Pray for them all if you think of them.  This past week I taught on the Cross and baptism, and next week I will spend time with the young men, dwelling with them on the kindness and severity of God as we discuss overcoming sexual sin.  Many of these saints have not received baptism, so we will be jumping into the Rappahanock River again next week!  These interns will also take our core CSS classes this fall, and subsequent to the conclusion of the internship will have the opportunity to continue as full-time students the following semester.

Song Writing

The main thrust of our ministry at the Prayer Furnace is prayer, worship and intercession.  To that end, Elena and I help lead worship in our prayer room, at our community services, three Thursdays out of the month when the saints meet in our home, and during our student chapel gatherings.  We have written several new songs this year.  The most recent song is adapted from a scene in the great epic poem by John Milton, Paradise Lost.  The scene centers around the words of the Eternal Son as he speaks to the Father about humankind’s future disobedience, culminating with the moment he volunteers himself as the sacrifice that enables every detail of the sublime effort of redemption.  The lyrics of our song are as follows:

I

Atonement, man can never bring

Indebted and undone, nothing

Behold me then, I’ll give it all

On me let all your anger fall

Account me man

I for his sake will leave

Your side, and to a future glory cleave

II

On me let death wreak all his rage

Not long will I lie vanquished

Though a moment in the grave

Your holy one will not decay

Death’s mortal sting disarmed

I through the air triumph high

Shall lead hell captive and the darkness bind

III

Atonement, man can never bring

Indebted and undone, nothing

Behold me then, I’ll give it all

On me let all your anger fall

Behold me then

Me for him

Life for life and breath for breath I give

Kazmier Family Update

Owen and his beach boat this summer

New Baby is almost ready to greet the day, and we cannot wait!  Elena is due to give birth in our home in early October.  Owen is convinced that baby is a boy; we are not so sure.  He is also very pleased that although we will have a cake for Baby’s birthday, Baby will not be able to eat it.  Owen is therefore self-appointed to the laborious task of eating the cake entirely by himself.  Well, we’ll see.

We do have a number of extra expenses related to the home-birth which we currently cannot meet.  If you are a regular supporter, would you consider something beyond your regular giving for the month of September or October?  Or if you have not given to us before, would you consider partnering with us for Baby’s birthday?  If you would like to give online, you can do so HERE.  If by check and for tax deduction, write checks to FPF and send to Mark Kazmier/43 Blair Road, Fredericksburg, VA 22405.

Thank you so much for hearing our requests and considering them.  You are all so good to us.  And Abba is good to us through you.  The next time we write, we will have much more to say about the precious person now twirling in Elena’s womb.

Until then and forever, may God draw you.

We love you!

Mark, Elena, Owen, and Baby

The One

Elena Kazmier / New Jerusalem One

Greetings to you from the Kazmier Family!   

A Meditation: Leaving the Ninety-nine for the One

Recently I have immersed myself in the gospel of Mark, enjoying the vibrant language and the present-tense picture of the Son of God found in it.  A few weeks back in the prayer room I came to a particular story in the fifth chapter (Mark 5:1-20), saw anew my God of Love, and stopped.  This is why.

After speaking the word of God in parables to the multitudes, Jesus says to his disciples, “Let us go across to the other side [of the sea].”  One may imagine the questions which then entered the minds of the disciples:  Why?  Why now, at the onset of evening?  Why leave when so many are still here, eager and willing?  What could be more urgent than ministering to a crowd of this size?  How could there be a more fruitful venture elsewhere?  What about a meal?  What about sleep?  And yet the disciples are learning to “wait and see” as they follow their Master.  His orders are often invitations to glory.  So they obey, taking Jesus with them in the boat, “just as he was.”  One may also imagine the questions of the crowd: Where is he going?  What is he doing?  Why across the sea?  Is it really time for a reprieve, Jesus, when so many are waiting for you?  Have you lost your mind?  All the people are hanging on your words, and perhaps at the height of the enthusiasm, you choose to depart? Don’t you see the people need you?

This is what Jesus sees.  He sees what his Father is doing and does it with him.  In fact, he only does what he sees his Father doing, and he sees his Father leaving the ninety-nine in search of the one.  I can imagine Jesus asking the Father, “Abba, where is the one today?  Where is the one?  Show me the one, that I may go to him.”  The divine communication between Father, Son, and Spirit is mysterious, but it enlivens my heart to further imagine the Father’s response to his Son’s prayer.  Perhaps the Father gave Jesus a view, in the Spirit, of something like this: nightfall, the other side of the sea, the country of the Gerasenes, a shoreline, the tombs, a man.

So while the crowd pressed around him with its demands and as his disciples looked upon him with perplexity, Jesus proceeded to leave the multitude and cross the sea in a state of perfect confidence.  He even sleeps on the journey when a storm assails the boat and all the disciples believe they are perishing.  Why?  Why this confident, undisturbed resolve?  Because Jesus could see a man on the opposite shore perhaps already in route to meet him, a man he knew the Father had waited all of eternity past to apprehend, one man–naked, crazed, tormented, bound, sleepless, homeless, without identity, without God, without hope, wailing in the tombs and on the mountains night and day like a sick beast, so energized by demonic power that he tore chains and shackles apart, and through the use of stones, even bruised and gashed his own flesh.

How did the world feel about this man?  I imagine the world felt as many of us might feel if such a man made his haunt in a graveyard near our neighborhood.  The world felt disgust and dread.  And dread producing what it inevitably does in the human heart, the world felt hatred.  But hallelujah!  There was One Being in the universe whose heart was consumed with love for this man.  This Being is our Abba, Papa.  And at the appointed moment, he sent his Shepherd Son away from the fold and into the tombs to recover him.

“And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.”  Jesus begins very sensibly.  He commands the unclean spirit to come out.  He then discovers the man is overcome not by a single demon but by a legion, and upon request, gives this legion permission to enter a herd of two thousand pigs.  The pigs are consequently filled and directly plunge themselves over the banks and into the sea.  The herdsmen flee, telling the news in the city and in the country, and people come to see the reality of the report for themselves.  Mark records that “they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind…”  Demons heretofore made this man a public spectacle of terror and shame.  Now Jesus makes a display of his dignity.

So what happened during the night, during the hours between the exorcism, the flight of the herdsmen, and the coming of the people to witness the scandal?  The scriptures are silent.  But one can imagine the tenderness of Jesus’ address as he spoke for the first time to the one he had been sent to save and no longer to the legion which had subdued him.  What did he say?  With what tone of voice?  Did they weep together?  What counsel did he give?  What words of love did he speak to undo the dehumanizing work of years of slavery?  Oh to have been there to witness the Lord of Love in the midst of this miracle, to have seen Jesus touch this man, not with hands seeking to injure or bind him, but with hands so clean, the cleanness transferred.  Jesus clothes this man with righteousness and perhaps even with the outer robe off his own back.  Indeed Jesus so covers his nakedness, that when people arrive from city and country to see what had happened, to see the drowned pigs and the beast who lived among the tombs, what they find instead is an image-bearer.  Whether they perceive it or not, they are presented with a son of God.

The scriptures tell us that the people “were afraid” due to what they saw and heard, and that  “…they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region” presumably on account of the economic disaster concerning the pigs.  As Jesus gets back into the boat (and it is a wondrous thing to consider how much can come of Jesus getting in and out of a boat!), the free-man pleads to accompany him.  Jesus knows he has gained a disciple, but he does not permit this man to join his party.  He does assign to him a glorious commission: “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”  The man goes (returning to his village fully restored, noble, dignified, a new creation), and the scriptures affirm that because of his testimony in the Decapolis “everyone marveled.”  When Jesus returns months later, he finds (to his joy, I am sure!) that the entire region has heard the story of the one who came out of the tombs.  Of course, this is my story too.  May I make it known as he did.

Elena Kazmier / New Jerusalem Two

CSS Update

Life at the College of Sacred Scripture shifted at the end of May with the commencement of another semester.  Our students fared well on their exams, and as usually happens, I was inspired to worship as I heard and read certain revelations in their presentations and research papers.  A few of the topics for research from my New Testament Survey couse included the Atonement, the Symphony of Romans, Pacifism, and Reconciling the Genealogies of Christ.  To close the semester, Elena and I hosted full-time CSS students at our house for a late lunch and homemade strawberry shortcake.  The students and I sat outside under our big oak tree and read the final chapter of The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a work we have been studying together throughout the semester in a seminar devoted to full-time students only.  One of the students present at this gathering, Janie Woodard, recently made the following comments regarding her first year of study at the CSS:

“Before starting the College of Sacred Scripture I did not know much about the bible, but I was excited to learn. In my first semester at the college, I was provided with an environment that guided me in deepening my understanding of the knowledge of God .  . . This school is perfectly suited to what I was looking for.  It is a very unique school in that the Spirit of God is truly present in the classrooms and in the lives of the staff. Our teachers give us an example of how to walk out a life of taking what we learn from the bible and putting it into practice.”

This fall we will continue to expand the CSS curriculum and additional programs for our students.  We are especially  excited to continue the development of our full-time student base.  We are also offering the following classes for the first time, along with our core curriculum: Old Testament Survey, Revelation, Joshua, Writing and Composition, and Biblical Doctrine.

Elena Kazmier / New Jerusalem Three

House Churches

We have the honor of leading a small gathering of the saints at our home at least twice monthly.  We seek to model these gatherings according to the passage of Scripture in Acts that describes the Jerusalem church in its infancy.  This is our hope: that in our house the saints may dwell together in solidarity, devoting themselves to the apostles teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.  It is a dream of my heart, and I feel a depth of honor, joy, and gratitude regarding the humble assembly of saints at 43 Blair Road which I find truly difficult to articulate.

Awaken The Dawn Worship

Awaken the Dawn

Our major annual conference, Awaken the Dawn, proved to facilitate another period of awakening for our region.  We set up a tent city at a local farm and braved four days of thunderstorms and even a few tornado warnings.  The word of God was proclaimed with authority, many were healed of physical illnesses, and several individuals put their faith in Jesus for the first time.  It is difficult to measure the impact of such an event, but our trust is in God who alone is able to do more than we can ask or imagine.  We believe He will cause the word of the Lord to grow to full maturity in the 2,000 people who attended the event.  Elena and I were honored to lead worship, and I had the privilege of tandem preaching with Scott Bradshaw regarding Israel at the end of the age.  If you are interested in the Mp3s of the event, you can purchase them here.

Praying for a Burden for Israel

Family Update

Elena is now six-months pregnant, Owen is two-and-a-half years old, and our garden is yielding cucumbers, kale, and swiss chard even now at the beginning of June.  We are so happy!  We are planning a home-birth, and Elena is bartering a large-scale painting for the services of our midwives.  They are building a birthing center in Northern Virginia, where the painting will be displayed, and so they feel the mutual blessing of the exchange. Both our families have graciously invited us to join them during their holidays this summer, and we are impatient to be with them.  The first trip will take us to North Myrtle Beach and the second to Kitty Hawk.  Owen has grandiose sand castle blueprints forming in his head at this very moment!

The Fam

Partnership

Thank you for your partnership, to those of you who support us financially and prayerfully.  And to those who do not, please consider us.  We thrive in need, if that makes sense.  Our plates are full and most of our bills are paid, but it is a constant discipline of waiting and trusting.  If ever you feel moved in heart to help us, we do require it.   For online giving, you can do so here.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.  May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.  May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.  He loves you. He is the only God who goes after the one.

Mark, Elena, Owen, and Baby

Renaissance

Greetings Beloved!

We are so grateful for this season of Spring, ever a reminder that God is faithful to His promises.  He causes the seasons to continue, and the sun to rise and set on the just and unjust alike.  But the spring, though it makes us feel more alive with its deepening of green and softening of the earth, is not enough. Behold, He will make all things new, permanently new.  For God has come in the flesh; everything is different now.

The world is on fire.   The Japanese reel from earthquake, tsunami, and now radioactive crisis.  Unrest and war dispel the myth of repose in Libya, Yemen, Egypt and Syria.  North Korea is as volatile as ever.  And yet above all this, on an untroubled sea of glass, stands One who is called the “Ruler of Kings on Earth,” our sovereign King, Jesus.

Beloved, the sum of these events is a severe but merciful entreaty.  We must incline our ears and turn.  Jesus instructs his hearers in Luke’s gospel to respond to disasters, such as the news of those killed by Pilate or of those on whom a tower fell, with repentance–lest they find themselves caught unprepared in a similar hour of crisis and therefore likewise perish.  Repentance precedes renaissance.  Of course this rebirth will only fully manifest when Christ splits the Mount of Olives with a single footstep, coming back to the planet to judge it in righteousness.  But oh how the measure of our joy on That Day will vindicate the wisdom of a life of repentance by faith beforehand versus repentance by sight face to face.

Prayer Room

The core of our ministry at the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace is what we call a prayer room, a place where believers gather and minister to the Lord through worship and intercession.  Priestly service to the Lord is offered in this room 18 hours a day, five days a week.  Our hope is to extend these hours round the clock, that we may imitate the culture of heaven where worship and intercession rightly fill the atmosphere night and day.

Music and Awaken the Dawn

In this context, many of our musicians, including Elena and myself, have been writing new songs and resurrecting old ones.  We hope to have a new compilation album completed by this May, in time for our major yearly gathering, Awaken the Dawn.  Elena and I also hope to complete an independent full-length album by the end of this year: more details to come as we gauge the progress of this project.

CSS Update

We are nearing the culmination of another pioneer semester at the College of Sacred Scripture.  Our hope is for God to establish a full-time training and equipping center here in Virginia that will touch the ends of the earth with the gospel.

 

CSS Students

Currently I am in the midst of teaching a course on the foundations of our faith as displayed in Genesis, a New Testament Survey Class, and a seminar for our full-time students hinged on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book The Cost of Discipleship.  In mid-March, I finished directing the Apostolic Leadership Practicum as well, an “externship” program for our visiting IHOPU students.  I also co-teach one additional class entitled Apostolic Preaching.   My labors with the CSS are often rigorous.  But the hope of a new breed of students, a generation of living martyrs who abound in love and in the knowledge of God, is a reward that makes any cost incurred by me seem like nothing.

Practicum

Our two-month pilot Apostolic Leadership Practicum, referenced above, was highly successful.  These students were immersed in various leadership roles in our community, under the direction of the CSS, as a practicum offered to Seniors from IHOPU.

IHOPU Students

The students taught the book of Acts, led worship sets, discipled interns, engaged in our outreach ministries, and led a Virginia Campus tour.  On this tour, the students visited six college campuses to preach the gospel, pray for the sick, and hold “solemn assemblies” for repentance on the campuses.  Powerful stories came forth from this tour, including physical healings, the salvation of a man about to commit suicide, and the preaching of the gospel in places like University of Virginia’s cafeteria.  I visited Kansas City two weeks ago and spoke to IHOPU’s third and fourth year students about the practicum we are offering this fall.  I was able to share from my heart about the purpose of theological education: preparing the next generation to embrace the cross of Christ.  I was greatly refreshed by my time in the prayer room and my visits with some of my friends there.

New Testament Reading

Revival came to my heart several weeks ago.  This is how it happened.  The Word of God exhorts the saints to devote themselves to the public reading of the scriptures.  The CSS responded by hosting a reading, and for the first time in my life I heard the entire New Testament read aloud in one day, from the genealogies in Matthew to the corporate plea of the saints, “Come Lord Jesus,” at the close of the book of Revelation.  We read for fifteen hours straight.  Many from the community were with us, and the New Testament resonated as we listened to it filtering like light through the voices of over fifty different saints.  Though all was precious to me, I was undone by two moments in particular:  when, after some fourteen hours of reading, the voice on the microphone said the words “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” inspiring a deluge of cheers from the expectant, waiting saints, and when, an hour later, another voice rang out with the favorite cry of the Church through the ages, “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come,’” at which sound the whole room burst into singing and travail for the return of the Lord Jesus to the planet.

Family Update

Hallelujah!! God has rewarded us with another child!  Elena is now three months pregnant, and we are all overjoyed.  Owen has very affectionately named our new baby “Jack,” and insists that baby is a boy.  He enthusiastically tells most everyone that “Mama, tummy, baby!” and that he is a “brother!”  The due date is 8 October, and already our hearts are filled with longing to meet this beloved person, this precious son or daughter who God has waited all of eternity past to introduce.

Finances

I’m not sure why this part always comes last, but nonetheless, here goes.  It is a privilege to give.  It is a privilege to receive.  Please know how grateful we are to those of you who give to us, and to those of you who receive from us.  It is an honor to labor alongside you in the fields of the Lord.  As regards our finances, I must be honest; we still need monthly financial partners.  That said, if you feel from the Lord to give to the Kingdom by giving to us, please do.  Our needs are genuine.  You can donate HERE.

Beloved!  We love you and pray that all of you would be brought to full maturity in Christ.  You are the saints.  You will shine like the sun in the kingdom of your Father.  Hallelujah!  Come Lord Jesus!

Mark, Elena, Owen, and Baby

A New Year

Beloved,

Happy New Year from the Kazmiers!  It is a new year for enjoying the privilege of breath in our lungs and blood in our veins and the revelation of the eternal God.  We are so grateful and thankful for another year, for it is not merely an other year; it is one year closer to the consummation of all things, heaven and earth uniting themselves in the person of Christ.  One year closer to the hour appointed from ages past when the God-man splits open the sky upon the wings of the dawn as the harbinger of the hope of the redemption of all creation and the glorification of the crown of creation, the Image-bearers, the Sons of Adam.

The hours are counting down.  Israel is in the land once again after a 2,000 year dispersion, thus providing the context for the literal fulfillment of the Scriptures about the end of the age and one of the conditions Christ gave for his own return.  Missions leaders believe the gospel may be preached to every ethnos on earth in our lifetime (ex. Wycliffe Bible translators are committed to begin the process of translation of every language on earth in the next 14 years), thus providing the context for the other major prophesy Christ gave about his return.  Both evil and good are reaching their maturation.  This is an hour for action; this is an hour for a radical return to apostolic Christianity, for anything that is not truly apostolic will not stand in the hour of trial that is about to come upon the whole earth.

To that end, Elena, Owen and I are continuing our labors in intercession, worship, teaching and discipleship at the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace.  We believe that crisis is at our doorstop, both for our nation and Christendom, and the only commensurate answer is to gather the people in solemn assemblies of fasting, prayer and ministry to the Lord.  The namesake and glory of God are at stake.

The College of Sacred Scripture

One of the primary roles we have been laboring for at the Prayer Furnace is the foundation of teaching and the prophetic to be properly laid.  In the church of Antioch, when the prophets and teachers were functioning and the people were ministering the Lord with fasting and prayer, the Holy Spirit released the greatest missions movement the world has ever seen when he sent Saul and Barnabas like an atom bomb into Turkey and Europe.  This is what is motivating me every day in raising up the College of Sacred Scripture: equipping messengers sent by Holy Spirit.

By God’s grace, the College of Sacred Scripture is continuing to expand in vision and scope this New Year.   The College of Sacred Scripture embraces a paradigm of theological educational in the context of encountering Jesus in the place of prayer.  Our goal is for every student, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, to have their hearts burn within them as the risen Christ encounters them and reveals to them the things concerning himself in the Law and Prophets.  To that end, the Prayer Room is always the central ingredient for our academic approach to the theological education.

Full-Time Students

This spring we have the privilege of hosting two “pilot” programs.  The first is a group of five students devoting themselves as full-time students.  These students are giving themselves to a full-time academic workload at the College, in addition to serving as missionary staff at the missions base.  Many of them will be working towards either two-year or four-year degree diplomas.  These students have the joy of being “first;” God-willing, they will look back in ten years, when the school has grown to hundreds of students, as the “forerunner” student body that laid the foundation for years to come.  Our official full-time student base launch will be in the Fall of 2011 and our goal is to enroll 20 full-time students by that time.

Apostolic Leadership Practicum

The next “pilot” program we are launching this Spring is what we are calling the Apostolic Leadership Practicum.  This practicum is specifically designed for third or fourth year students from IHOPU, the university connected with the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.  The design of the practicum is twofold: to provide the context for receiving missionaries sent from IHOP KC to help build the house of prayer in Fredericksburg, and secondly, to give the IHOP KC students practical training both in a leadership seminar and through hands-on ministry opportunities.  Last week we welcomed two married couples from Kansas City who we believe will lay the foundation for this “externship” in the coming days at the missions base.  The CSS is facilitating this practicum, as the students will have assignments and training that will transfer to their degree programs.

In addition to the nine classes we have offered in past semesters, we are also excited about new classes that we are launching this semester which are open to the community: Survey of the New Testament, Biblical Foundations of Israel, Sermon on the Mount, and Biblical Foundations Dance.  In total, we anticipate approximately 70 full-time and part-time students this Spring semester.   I have the honor of teaching and facilitating three classes and two seminars this semester.

Apostolic Preaching

One the classes I teach is called Apostolic Preaching.  This class is really more of the opportunity for the students to teach.  At the beginning of the class, I assign the students a chapter or book from the bible.  The students spend the next month studying and meditating upon their particular passage, prepare a sermon, and then preach the revelation the Holy Spirit has given them.  Here is a five minute video with the summary of the 31 student’s messages, if you are interested: http://player.vimeo.com/video/18129176?portrait=0

House Churches

This week we also launch several house churches that will be connected with the missions base.  One of these churches will be meeting at our home.  Our prayer is that these house churches will focus on the breaking of bread (communion), prayer, the apostles teaching, and true fellowship.

Mothers on the Rock

Elena met this past summer and fall with a group of intercessors, primarily women, called “Mothers on the Rock.”  Mary Washington, the mother of George, used to intercede for her son and the nation on a rock in downtown Fredericksburg.  In the same manner, this group of women have met to cry out for the “children” of our nation.

Worship Ministry

We continue to devote time to the worship ministry in leading intercession prayer sets, worship with the word sets, and Burn Service worship sets.  We have both been writing new worship songs; I have been rewriting some ancient hymns of the church: currently I have written two from the third century and one from the eighth.  This week, Elena and I begin leading a worship with the word set, where we sing the scripture spontaneously for two hours with a team of singers and musicians.

Personal Update

Our family life has been rich these past months.  Our joy in our son ripens every day.  We have had a bit of a bout with sickness, however.  Owen had pneumonia for a month and his breathing is still strained.  Please pray for him.  Owen’s love for music increases everyday, especially for the violin.  I was able to do some construction before the holidays which enabled us to purchase a real 1/10^th size violin for Owen.  We will never forget his look of delight and very real astonishment on Christmas Eve when he received a violin from “Gee-Zus.”

Financial Request

We are still trying to make it in the green with our budget.  We need approximately $800 more a month.  If you feel led to support us financially, please contact us.  Please pray for us.  We are utterly dependent on Him.

Under the Mercy,

Mark, Elena and Owen

Fall Update

Family and Friends,

Greetings in the Name of the Lord!

Before I share with you a brief update of the past two months, I want to give you a window into one of my meditations on Christ as I was reading through the book of John in the prayer room:

He Was Spending Time with Them

John 3:22  “After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing.”

After going down to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, Jesus leaves the clamor of the streets of Jerusalem for the wilderness of Judea.  Jesus returns to the place where he had recently overcome the tempter to spend time with his disciples and to release them to baptize with the baptism of repentance.

There is a remarkable statement here of the condescension of the Son in His incarnation: and there He was spending time with them.  According to the flesh, Jesus had a lifespan.  The Father numbered the hairs upon His head and the heartbeats within His chest. Jesus knew his hours were drawing to a close.  What did the Almighty God-man do with His time, with the last three years of His life on earth?  What did the Timeless One do when He submitted himself to time?  What did the Eternal One do when His eternity took into itself the lifespan of a natural man subject to corruption and death?  He spent his time with his disciples, with his friends.  He “wasted” his life on us.  Far away from the pomp and finery of king’s palaces, He made Himself the servant of all.  He wasted His life to talk with us.  To laugh with us by the fireside as fish cooked over glowing charcoal.  To eat and drink and recline with us.  To sleep in the same room with us.  To bathe in the same river with us.  To be with us.  To be Immanuel.

The CSS and IHOPU

In early August I traveled to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City with the director and assistant director of our missions base.  There we met with the leadership of IHOP University to discuss possible integration with the College of Sacred Scripture over which I have the privilege of presiding.  The relational connection we experienced with the leaders was powerful.  The outworking of this relationship is still in its infancy; however, we believe this relationship, whatever form it takes in the future, will bear much fruit.  This trip was also a great gift to me personally, as the Lord was pleased to draw near to my heart in a profound way during my times in the prayer room.

The College of Sacred Scripture is training approximately 80 students this semester.  Our instructors are teaching nine classes.  It is remarkable to see the students, the majority of whom are young adults, full of hunger for the revelation of God in his word.  The students not only have the opportunity to receive instruction, but the context for fueling encounter with the living God in the prayer room.  Our goal is to build a full-time student base and a four-year degree program by next Fall.

A Time To Stand

In mid-August, our missions base sent teams to stand with the Christian Defense Coalition over the unlawful arrest of Rev. Pat Mahoney for praying on a public sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood in Washington D.C.  This marked the first time in the history of our nation’s capitol that public prayer and First Amendment activities have been banned and prohibited on a public sidewalk, and significantly, it was related to the issue of abortion.  Our teams led worship and took their stand to pray on the public sidewalk, whatever the cost.  The result was that the city of D.C. dropped it’s charges, overturned this restriction, and the next week at least two women on the way to have abortions chose to keep their babies after speaking with believers on this same sidewalk.

Unite for Life: Virginia Tech

In response to the rising youth crisis in which at least 96 percent of this generation has no engagement with Christ and in response to the tragedies of death which have distinguished the campus of Virginia Tech in recent years, our missions base joined with the campus prayer groups of VA Tech to engage in a public solemn assembly on the drill field of the campus.  Under a clear blue sky and a warm autumn sun, we spent an entire day crying out for God’s mercy to eclipse the students of Virginia Tech and all university students on the East Coast.

Baptism

This past Wednesday I had the high honor of baptizing seventeen young men and women who are currently in our Burn internship.  The icy Rappahannock river was a fitting place for these precious saints to display publicly the awesome inner reality of rebirth.  This was their anthem: dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ! There is nothing like the great gasp that comes after the burial! Life now and life forever, hallelujah!

Prayer Room

The central mandate of our missions base is to minister to the Lord through corporate fasting, prayer and worship.  By God’s grace, this fall we expanded our prayer room hours from 6 AM to 12 midnight, Monday through Friday.  I assist in the leadership of our “morning section,” or the people dedicated to facilitating worship and prayer for the first six hours of the day.  I can say unreservedly (though I am often very tired!) that God receives much glory and I receive much joy from the sight and sound of the saints worshipping God and praying together for revival in the church and justice for the oppressed at 6:30 in the morning.

Personal Update: Prayer Requests and Financial Needs

The Kazmier family is doing well, though the last month Owen suffered from a chest cold that developed into pneumonia.  Despite the setback, Owen is back at it!  He is truly the happiest person I know besides Christ!  He smiles and runs, dances and sings, and talks about “violinininys (violins)” and tools and “joy, joy, joy, joy” and Daddy from the time he wakes up till the time he sleeps!  Elena and I wrap our arms around each other and marvel.

As I mentioned before, I was greatly refreshed by my time in Kansas City.  Then our whole family was refreshed by a Canadian adventure for a week in August with the extended Kazmier family.  Elena had her first experience with cliff jumping and thrilled to take the plunge off of a thirty foot limestone pillar into the turquoise Georgian Bay!  The two of us sailed together until we couldn’t figure out how to get back to shore!  And Owen put us all to shame by his extreme prowess as a dune-jumper!  A meteor shower was the finale.

As regards our needs, we must issue again our request for monthly financial partners to join us in this ministry.  We have raised approximately two-thirds of our monthly budget currently.  If you would like to partner monthly with us, you may do so online HERE or you may contact us directly (540-419-1298).  To those of you who are supporting us already through prayer and financial giving, thank you!  It is an honor to labor alongside you.

Please pray that we would be strengthened in one mind and for one purpose.

May Christ be your light,

Mark, Elena and Owen