Last week's Coffee Break apparently hit a nerve with a few folks, so let me begin by saying that it was not my intention to offend any of my Russian Orthodox friends or readers by my remarks.

When we paused in this discussion last week, we were talking about the presence of the Lord as it manifested in the cloud. This is a discussion that could take us way off track if we followed the rabbit trail, but I'm really just wanting to draw some illustrations for you to help in understanding what Jesus means when He speaks of "the pure in heart."

Let's get right to our discussion today. This concept of being "naturally supernatural, and supernaturally natural" is rooted and grounded in the following truths.

Need to share a personal story with you as a lead-in to today's Coffee Break. It was December 5, 1960 that I joined the Army. Not long after completing Basic Training at Fort Ord, I was standing out on the tarmac, duffle bag in hand, awaiting being boarded on an aircraft with orders that would send me to Ramstein, Germany, with ultimate deployment to Laos.

For those of you with children who are running from God or who simply ignore the call of Holy Spirit in their lives, let me share a quick story of encouragement before we begin today's sharing.

In case you're wondering where #26 went to, because it still was so much a part of the flow of this continued teaching, I decided to incorporate last week’s Easter or Resurrection in the Aphiemi Healing series as #26.

And a Good Friday Morning to you! Like that pun! Sorry 'bout that! We will take somewhat of a break from our Aphiemi Healing series today (although it may very well seem like we're still there) because of the significance of this Passover season which includes Jesus' death and resurrection. I will probably run a bit long today.

Just a couple of quick reminders before we get started today: Folks have been asking about the conference calls for our Sunday gatherings, and if the messages are being recorded for later playback.

This morning brought us an interesting phone call with a brother who has been struggling with depression, anxiety, and physical pain in his back and legs partly as a result of the stresses he's been under with his job. For the sake of discussion, let me refer to him as "Ray."

Rich Warren and I have just returned from a three-day FGBMFI men's retreat where we led worship for roughly 120 men. This was our third year of being involved with this particular retreat, and it is safe to say that we saw and experienced a dimension of the presence of the Lord in worship the like of which we've never seen in a corporate setting like this.