Written on 8/21/2019 - one day after Matthew's birth. Let me preface this with some information regarding my other two boys. Long ago I realized God uses names (or changes them!) to define the purpose and/or giftings of His people. He still does this today! They were each given their names through the process of picking out names my wife and I liked from a list of family names, and then praying over them asking God to direct us to the name He wants to give them. Our newest member is Matthew Ray. These are family names. However, the story you are reading is unique and wonderful to those who know the heritage of our family lineage and the man who chose to follow God - and in doing so, is now being honored. The name Matthew comes from my wife's family. Its meaning is "Gift of God". The name Ray comes from my grandfather's middle name and the name by which he is called. Ray means "light" or "counselor". As is our custom, my wife and I went through family names to find a name for our next child. Unlike other times, we struggled to narrow it down. We had around ten names picked out with at least two of them not being family names. We prayed and prayed about these names and never could come to that place of peaceful conviction that God has given us our next boy's name. I even entertained the possibility that God might have wanted me to name this child and He would honor that name's meaning and purpose and breathe this purpose into the personality and giftings of this new child-to-come. But shortly after praying over this idea, God helped me realize He has already picked out a name for this boy and will reveal it in time. I reassured my wife of this conviction when she would remind me that we are getting closer and closer to the birth of this unnamed baby. One morning I woke up realizing I had a very vivid dream. I do not typically remember my dreams - much less recognizing that I ever have dreams. What I remember and still see to this day in my mind is this: I dreamed that the baby had just been delivered and we were still in the hospital. The boy was laying down and sleeping peacefully face up. His hair was shimmering bright as if it was light itself, and his ears were large and older looking. These ears were akin to an old man's ears, grandpa-like ears. I turned to my wife and told her about my dream. She said, "that's funny, because I also had a dream about our new baby-to-be. In my dream, his name was Matthew Ray". We had never considered Matthew Ray as a name. I simply said, "huh, I wonder if this is meaningful." I then received a message on my phone from a friend and my High School teacher of now ~77 years young. He sends verses daily to many people. This is the verse he sent: Matthew 5:14-16: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." The meaning of the names: Matthew "Gift of God" Ray "Light/counselor" I shared this with my wife realizing what was happening. "I think God is giving us our boy's name." We agreed to pray about it and immediately we had a peaceful conviction about it and no doubt in our mind that God had given us his name AND a "life verse" for him. Honoring My Grandfather I had entertained the idea early on of naming my child after my grandpa - who in my eyes is a very humble man that puts his faith in the God of the Bible; a man I deeply respect and who is respected by all his children and his children's children. However, in seeking that God would name my children, I was ok with not naming my child after my grandfather - even though he deserves such an honor. What is most interesting to me… God honored my grandfather by naming my child after him. That is amazing! Was my grandfather perfect and "deserving" of such an honor according to his perfection? NO! I'm sure of it! He has even told me some of his imperfect past! Abraham in the Bible (the book of Genesis) was not perfect either. All Abraham did was to say "yes" to God's calling - and he has now been honored by the Christian and Jewish world for millennia! This too is all my grandfather has done. Because God loves us, this is all it takes for God to honor us in some capacity - even if only by letting us into Heaven! "Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness." - Genesis 15:6 (NIV) Let me paraphrase/explain this verse: Abraham believed in God, and he was saved! Abraham believed, and in turn so did imperfect Isaac, then Jacob, Joseph, and the Israelites. This speaks to the tremendous impact one man has on the world when he simply believes in God's amazing destiny for him. My grandfather believed, and now his belief has certainly had an impact on my life. Matthew Ray not only has a wonderful name given to him by God with an accompanying verse to live by. He also holds family names and should understand who his great grandfather is. But more importantly, he should know who God is. I know God would not entrust me to care for such precious spiritual significance unless He thought me capable. I pray that I do well to train all of my sons in God's ways and to know God personally. I hope to do so by opening my heart to my family and letting them see the deep relationship I hold with my Father in Heaven through His Holy Spirit. The "bright hair" I talked about in my dream refers to the Ray (light on a hill). The "Grandpa-like ears" - well, that was God telling me he is honoring my grandfather. To accompany this story, there is another story that shows how God loves unconditionally despite our flaws that I would like to share. This was originally handwritten in a prayer journal and transcribed here. The entry is from 8/21/2019… Matthew's Birth - a written prayer by his father As I witness my boys interact with love in their hearts towards their new brother with the utmost (and entirely genuine) love and respect for him, I see my boy's hearts of love. These are good men in the making. I see the freedom my wife has been endowed with since she surrendered her struggles to You about 1.5 years ago. I recount the incredible relationships You have given us through a good church; and the amazing influence You are having on my students at work, the people at the church, and the community I serve. A supportive, understanding, and selflessly loving family surrounds us… I can only be amazed at Your handiwork as I wonder at it all… And then You speak into my soul these words… "I just like to see you smile." Tears run down my face every time I think about what You have declared to me through these words… Even as I write hours after you spoke to me… God, You are beyond good… You did all of this… Your words to me are not a declaration of a goal You want me to fulfill using these blessings you have given me. It is not a blessing meant to empower me to some great ministry ahead. I do not "owe" you for this excellent work You have done for me and for those I dearly love. Your entire reason for blessing me this day: "I just like to see you smile." Having loved dearly my wife and my kids, I know what you mean by these words. I understand the deep relational meaning expressed through these words - in as much as I am humanly capable. I have no words left except to open my arms to You, hug You dearly, and with excitement in my heart and joy written all over me declare that You are my God, and I am Yours.

God asked us to leave a good (but tumultuous) job in favor of raising our new family around our extended family. Here is how... I came home from a tough and troubling day at work to seek God's counsel. As my wife and I sat in our living room, we tried to quiet our spirits and be sensitive to the impressions of the Spirit. We did not have a plan other than this. We only asked Him to aid us as we attempted to be sensitive and "hear" the Spirit "speak". I felt an ardent desire to get my son's chalk board that was across the room and ask specific questions. I wrote down the questions. At the same time as I moved to get the chalk board, my wife felt a desire to get her Bible and start looking through it. She was led to specific scriptures. Although we were sitting next to one another, she could not see what I had written, and I did not know that God had led her to specific scriptures. After a few minutes, I broke the silence to ask what was happening. She said, "I don't know, but I have some scriptures that might be helpful, but seem meaningless to me." I shared what happened on my end, and then she read the scriptures in the order she received them. The scriptures she received answered my questions in the order I wrote them down... Questions & Answers Explained Where do we find peace? 1 Peter 2:4-12 At the time, this spoke directly to the tough days I had been having at my job. We interpreted this to mean that we must live a life of faith and honor in Christ who will bring about peace if we trust Him along the way. Reading this again and now - five years later - I notice other significant reasons God chose to give us this verse... Read "Build Faith in People" to understand what else God has directed us to. Read "The Reason for The Stone Altar" to know how this site came to being so quickly, efficiently, and wonderfully. Should we stay here, or leave this city, or move closer to the business, or...? Joel 3:14-21 God knew I considered the business I managed to be as Egypt was to Joseph and later to the Israelites. Considering this was the second scripture my wife read aloud, I can easily see how God was using the Bible and my wife to tell my stubborn heart it was time to head out. It just so happened that a job opportunity arose back home, and we also later prayed about this and then moved back home. Do you enjoy speaking to us in this way? 1 Timothy 4:13-14 First, let me say that if you notice the picture above (taken on the day of this event), it has written "1 Timothy 4:11-14". Although the entire paragraph is part of God's specific instructions to us, the main part of the answer came through verses 13-14, which I will now explain... Let me reiterate what we were doing, then paint the picture. We prayed, then waited for direction from the Holy Spirit. I was led to write questions, my wife was led to find and read scripture aloud - all this came about through prayer. That is the act of conversing with God in such a way as to speak less and less and listen more. The translation we had said in verse 13 "do not neglect the reading of scripture in public." As two believers seeking God together, this is what we were doing. Verse 14 says "do not neglect the prophesy spoken over you." A few years prior to this event, a fellow believer told my wife and I that we would be substantial prayer warriors in the Kingdom. I thought little of it at the time, but was reminded at this time. I understand that this verse is not directly saying, "I [God] enjoy speaking to you in this way". The timing and method of this verse coming to our attention is undeniable evidence that God was using Paul's words to Timothy for our benefit - knowing we would understand this to mean "yes, I enjoy talking to you in this way." When and how do I leave my job and move my family? 1 Chronicles 17, especially verse 2. This question came after we knew we were going to need to leave town and my job. God giving us this set of verses is more significant now than back then for one reason... Later in our life, God used verses about Solomon's temple to direct us to buy the house we are now in. Click the image below to read more about this... It is clear God used this scripture to direct us to go ahead and get our affairs in order and move out.

For about seven months my wife and our two boys lived with my parents while I worked a new job. We had to move here suddenly and had little time to look for a house. While getting settled in, our previous house sold, and we were on the search for another house. The reason it took seven months is that we could not find a good house in our budget in the area because of an inflated housing market. Or it was because God had something else ready for us. Either way, we kept searching... We expanded our search to surrounding cities and found a couple of homes we thought would work well for our growing family. In fact, the first house we visited would become our house. However, we saw several we were interested in. This was a big decision to make. The house we were most attracted to was also at the top of our price range. It is a big commitment, one which we did not want to take lightly. We decided to consult our friend, the Holy Spirit. He is a wise counselor we have come to trust and increasingly understand. And quite frankly, we don't know what the future holds for our family. We were traveling to a family get together that was out of town. On our way, I asked my wife if we could go ahead and consult with God. She agreed, and so as I drove, we said a quick prayer. My wife opened her bible and was led to 1 Kings 9:2-9. As we read these verses, we understood the Spirit to say in our spirits, "yes, buy that house. It will be used to build faith in your children and others." Part of the Temple's purpose was to provide a permanent place of worship for the followers of YHWH. I wonder if this is our permanent home. It provided a way for His people to commune with Him. It was there to bless the followers of Jah with His presence. It was God's way of blessing his children with all the gifts of the Spirit. This place I am now writing from - it has hosted many significant conversations that focus and teach about God - and not by force. Many times have my children been made aware of His presence... such as when my young son prayed a prayer that was immediately answered. I did not realize it until now that God had this planned for us before we ever stepped foot in this town. Before leaving my old job, He used a verse earlier in the Bible (when God was talking to David about building a temple) to tell us to leave our current home and job in favor of working and living where we now reside. Update 7/18/2023 Season's later, God is still directing our efforts with the commission to "Build Faith in People" At the beginning of this summer, my wife and I were moved to start a home church. With the blessing of fellow members of the Greater Body of Christ, we are in the process of starting this venture. I did not know this is where this would lead, but God has other plans. Neither of us feel equipped to complete such a task - but we both trust God in the efforts and will see where it all leads.

In my college years, my wife and I had sponsored children through Compassion International thanks to Mark Matlock's Planet Wisdom conferences. We gave up this expense due to budget concerns - being newly married and in college. Lately, we have had plenty of extra resources on hand to start this back up. We decided to sponsor three boys plus a yearly gift on their birthday. We let our boys pick out who we would sponsor. For a while, I kept getting the idea that we needed to sponsor more. I was willing to sponsor an army - if God wanted... but knew that wasn't what He had in mind. I was on my way home from work praying about it. As I pulled into my driveway, the Spirit clearly told me, "Take your full savings, plus the amount of your stocks, divide that by ten, and plan on giving that amount for the next five years." I walked in and told my wife what I thought the Spirit told me. We decided to pray and think more on it after the kids were in bed. That night, I sat down at the computer, did the math, then figured out how many children I can sponsor over the next five years with that money. Turns out, it's one child plus a yearly gift for her on her birthday. Meet Agness. My wife and I were amazed at how precise the calculations God gave us were. Ten percent of the amount we have in savings plus stocks almost matched up (to the penny) to the amount it would take to sponsor this child for five years. There was only a little left over that we decided to donate.

I inherited a dog from a workmate. She was just a pup. Her name is Jade. She's an amazing dog. I only took her because I knew she would bless this family as a dog would. You see, I have a kid with high functioning autism. I thought it might help him cope with life a bit better. Being that she was just a pup, I spent a lot of time wrestling with her and playing with her. She loved to play. Every night, we pray as a family together. Volunteers only. My son volunteered to pray after I prayed. As he prayed, Jade started to try and wrestle with me vigorously. I attempted to subdue the situation quietly without distracting my son. My son then said as he prayed, "make Jade stop fighting with Dad." Suddenly she stopped as if she were not just excitedly wrestling with me. A sense of calm and peace came over her immediately. He got wide eyed. I did also. I looked at my son and said, "I think God just answered your prayer! It seems that He wanted to show you that He does listen and answers prayers!" He remained excited about this event and recounted it for months after. He even attempted to ask the same thing a few times during prayers to "test" the spirit. I had to teach him that God is not a person to be tamed like a circus lion. He will do what is best when it is best for us. I invited him to appreciate what God did. And my son appreciated it... for months... :-)

The following story seems like an odd coincidence, but nothing like it had ever happened before or since in my life, and the timing seemed non-coincidental... Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" came to theaters when I was in high school. My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I went to watch it together. After having watched the movie, my girlfriend (who drove) brought me home. We sat in the car for a time talking about it. We were both impressed by the depiction of His sacrifice that brought to life things we struggle to understand. As I walked into the empty house, my two dogs excitedly came up to greet me like they always do. Just before reaching me at the front door, they turned around in unison, went about seven feet away from me, and with their backs turned away from me, looked up as they greeted something I could not see. They did so as if they were greeting me! With the same joy and exuberance that dogs typically exhibit, they wagged their tails while looking up at something I could not see. After a few seconds, they turned back around - again, in unison - and came back to greet me. I noticed that they showed a little less exuberance than I typically received from them. This was Jesus showing me in that instance - as the movie, Martha, and Mary all exclaimed: He is risen and alive, and He is with us!

This pivotal moment turned aside all doubt now and forevermore for me and my wife. It is a chapter in our history. I hope it serves to encourage you to listen for His calling. We are both lighthearted deep thinkers. We prefer evidence, logic, and understanding above feelings, insights, and notions (though we do not neglect the place of feelings, insights, and notions as meaningful). We have an ardent desire to have an undeniable understanding of the presence of God that could only come from God and not through the logic or evidence presented by well-educated apologists, teachers, or anyone else. Our understanding and experience of a person is based on having an encounter with that person, not on hearing about them. Hearing about Thomas Jefferson in school is different from living with Thomas Jefferson. My wife and I were living with God, but we desired something concrete that we can forever share with family and friends that would support our convictions of Him. We desired for God to reciprocate on a meaningful (to us) level. Imagine going a long time without meaningful communication from a friend. Would you wonder if they really cared? We were getting to that point with God. This is not to say that God was not speaking to us. This is to say we were not hearing Him lately and desired to do so in a concrete (to us) way. So, we sought the Lord for a few nights. We desired for Him to tell us for Himself who He really is. I was asking for Him to officially introduce Himself. We sought to know this God who has been part of our lives for so long. We wanted to not just know of Him, His ways, and witness His handiwork in our lives; we wanted to experience Him as if talking to a friend. We decided we would come together in prayer every night to seek Him as best as we know how - in whatever way is required. In any relationship, self-sacrifice is required. We knew that God valued when we "humbled" ourselves, and so we attempted to do so. The First Night After the first night of intense seeking/praying/pondering, I had a dream that I saw Jesus... I was walking down a church hallway checking on rooms along the way. I turned the corner, and there He was. Somehow, I knew it was Him, and I could barely look at Him before my knees buckled and my head bowed as I exclaimed, "Oh! My Lord Jesus!" This was a powerfully frightening encounter within a dream. As I awoke, I felt the continuance of what I felt in the dream. I still, days later, have a distinct memory of this dream. Those that know me are aware that I do not recall any of my dreams. Rarely if ever do I even realize I dreamt. This experience was impressionable, but no doubt a dream. It very well may have been God, but dreams can be what we want them to be. I filed this experience in the "well that was something" box - because it was not concrete evidence (to me). I was left unsure. The Second Night The second night, my wife was up taking care of our baby. As she did, deep distress enveloped her as she attempted to seek Him. She had some tough questions for Him about the world and its evil workings. Instead of asking the "universe", or her own intellect, she was acknowledging Him by attempting to discussing her anguish with Him. Suddenly, while bending over the crib to lay our baby down, she saw a fantastic light fill the room that seemed to originate from the corner of the room behind her. The light lit up the entire room as if a lightning bolt had gone off inside of the room (there were no storms that day). The glow from the light faded slower than any real bolt of light would. She went to investigate where she thought the source of the light originated and felt what she described as a peaceful terror (an oxymoron, I know, but feelings (https://sway.office.com/lHpXnbkuB0shNivx?ref=Link&loc=mysways)are that way). She found nothing - not even electrical machinery, outlets, cords, nothing... This did not make sense to her or me, but it was another experience to log away. She was not sure what caused the light. She is a nurse. Her medically educated mind thought it was either a pinched nerve in her spine as she bent over the crib which would cause her mind to play a trick on her; or it was God showing up in person. She stowed this away in the same "well, that was something" box, but was left unsure. The Third Night On the third night, she and I sought for Him again, attempting to pray and humble ourselves (as He would like us to do... Remember that a relationship is fully successful if there is complete give and take. We know from scripture that He delights in a humble heart, so we attempted to humble ourselves according to what He would like). We opened our hearts to His arrival. We were not sure what to ask or do, so we simply asked for what we wanted; "Show up and tell us who you are." After this quick prayer, I decided to look back at recorded instances of when we believed God spoke to us miraculously. One instance is when God asked us to leave a good (but tumultuous) job in favor of raising our new family around our extended family. Click on the photo below to read that story. My son's chalkboard After recollecting this event from our past, I said to my wife, "If He enjoys talking to us in that specific way, let's do something like this again..." Because we had a deep desire for God to introduce Himself to us and tell us exactly who He is, our question was "Who are you?" Let me preface this question with a key insight into our state of mind. We were not asking Jesus who Jesus was. We were asking this loving God who seems to be directing us in specific ways who He was. We have much evidence to believe in Him because of many events from our past. But who was this invisible person we catch undoubtable glimpses of? We wanted to meet the reason for the effects, the cause in a "cause-and- effect" relationship. We wanted to meet what came first (...was it the chicken or the egg?) We were open to whatever He wanted to tell us - even if it was something entirely unexpected such as, "I am Allah, you fool!" We were even open to Him not telling us anything. It would be difficult for us to become atheists since we are so limited in our understanding as humans. However, we are sure that if there is a God, He would be fully capable of meeting us where we are - if we let Him. Upon asking, Candice did what we did in the past, except this time she was not led to specific scripture. She placed the Bible on its spine and let it open - to alleviate all potential preconceived input on our end. The book opened and she began to read. She looked puzzled and I asked her what she was reading. She said, "It is just a list of names..." She appeared disheartened by it. I was not looking over her shoulder during this process, since I also did not want any input into this method to which God has spoken to us before. However, looking from the side, I noticed she was near the New Testament. I had to ask where she was reading from. She told me, "Luke 3". I was stunned! I told her, "That's the lineage of Jesus!!!" Suddenly she realized the significance. That lineage was placed in that book for the specific purpose of proving to the disbelieving Jew that Jesus is the Son of David, who was the Son of Adam, who was the Son of God. The prophets in the Old Testament spoke that the savior of the world would come through the line of David! That was Jesus' Birth Certificate, so-to-speak. We asked Him who He was, and He showed us He is Jesus, the Son of God! The Son of God * The painting above is not what He looks like... but it comes quite close based on the extremely brief glimpse I got of Him in my dream. I could not make out details, but I remember a long and skinny face and dark-ish hair. In my dream, he had on a Jewish headdress and robe that was like ancient Egyptian royal garments, but with a Jewish twist. The clothing was white with thin blue horizontal stripes grouped in random amounts (for example, three equally spaced stripes, a gap, then seven more... etc. It was like a Jewish Prayer Shawl but within an Egyptian headdress.) Details of His appearance are fuzzy... I was not able to lift my head or do anything other than be on my knees when in His presence. Exclaiming "Oh! My Lord Jesus!" was also involuntary...This experience reminds me of Romans 14:11 "Every knee will bow, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God"...) I then said, "Ok, I hate to be the doubting Thomas here, and this is undoubtedly deeply significant, but I want to ask for confirmation of this again... let's do this again..." Except, before we did, Candice added to the question: "...and where do we go from here?" (as in, "what do we do now that we know You?") She did the same thing, kind of just opened the Bible to allow the Lord to physically show us what He wants us to know... (BTW, we do not recommend doing this sort of thing unless you are led to do so by the Holy Spirit... Seriously... The Bible is not a magic 8-ball...) She landed on Psalms 13 & 14. Go and read it!(https://my.bible.com/bible/116/PSA.13.NLT) Psalm 13 (https://my.bible.com/bible/116/PSA.13.NLT)exclaimed similar feelings we were having. We believe this was God saying to us, "I know how you are struggling." Psalm 14 (https://my.bible.com/bible/116/PSA.14.NLT)says; 'Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” And it talked more about belief in God. It was Him saying, "Now, believe! It is indeed I!" In Conclusion... I know skeptics will want to say, "Maybe Candice had subconsciously turned to those specific passages" To which I will reply that at this time in history, she is not that acutely aware of what is in the Bible. She knows a lot, but not so much that she can easily turn to specific scripture with specific answers to our questions in an instant - of which this process we adopted resulted in instantaneous answers. We did not need another form of confirmation. We were happily satisfied and loved the conversation we had with the Lord. We are immensely thankful to Him for using a concrete tool (the Bible) to answer our questions directly - alleviating room for misinterpreting His works. And quite honestly, when we look back at the many moments, He has proven His presence to us, we feel a bit foolish having ever wondered who He is. P.S. I can recall one instance of being acutely aware of His presence. This story seems like an odd coincidence, but nothing like it had ever happened before or has ever happened since, and the timing seemed non-coincidental... Click the image below to read more. The face of one who has seen Jesus...