We wake, if ever we wake at all, to mystery. -Annie Dillard

RED MOON RISING
I finished "Red Moon Rising" a book about the 24-7 prayer revolution. I really want to discuss it with someone but don't seem to know anyone who has read it yet. If you have, I would really be interested in your thoughts about it. I bought the book on Wednesday and finished it this morning (Sat), that is a record for me for a book with 255 pages. I devoured it!

I identified deeply with this book and my own journey fit right into the story as well. I was amazed at how it was so in line with my own spiritual pulse. I am going to seriously digest this book. I have been looking for the "wine skin" for this season's "wine" and I really sense that the skins are in this book. The last lines of the book resonated with electricity in my spiritual gut!

C'Mon!

THE MEATRIX
This site is awesome! What a great use of modern culture, humor and current movie interest to ram home your passion. Kudos! I was raised by a vegetarian and resonate with the issues raised here.
go: Here
Thanks Jon for the link.


80's Lyric Test
I come from the ______ _______under....
Go here if you are up to the challenge.

God & government
In light of the ten Commandment monument issue...check this out: Pics

The worse moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.
-G.K. Chesterton

1. List five things you'd like to accomplish by the end of the year.
* Self-publish one of my mini-books.
* Hit some of my fitness goals.
* Nail down the exact travel plans for this summer's mission trip.
* See break through in youth church
* Find the wine skins for the new wine that the Lord has been pouring out.

2. List five people you've lost contact with that you'd like to hear from again.
* Ken
* Michelle
* Cal
* Darin & April
* Clancey

3. List five things you'd like to learn how to do.
* Play better guitar
* Play the decks
* Better web design
* Rebuild engines
* Check email on my cell phone

4. List five things you'd do if you won the lottery (no limit).
* Travel
* Fund worthy ministries
* Establish educational opportunities for family
* Take care of family better
* Spoil my wife

5. List five things you do that help you relax.
* Work out
* Burn incense
* Play music
* TV
* Play guitar

What Would Jesus Play?

Urbana Trivia
How many people in the world live on less than $1 a day?
The Correct Answer is: 1.3 billion.
That’s one out of every five people in the world.

That is an amzing statistic to me, mind boggling.
Then I read this stat and I am left with a troubled heart.

Girls ages 13 to 17 wield a $100 billion global economic impact.

Where is the justice in this?
What responsability do we have as western people, as young people?

Are you G, PG, PG-13 or R?
What are you rated?

This young woman is amazing.

This is cool

This is what the "spiritual type test" said I was like. Do you agree?:

You are a Mystic, known for your imaginative, intuitive spirituality. You value peace, harmony, and inner silence. Mystics are nurtured by walking alone in the woods or sitting quietly with a trusted friend. You may also enjoy poetry, meditation, wordless prayer, candles, art, books, and anything else that helps you connect with God. Mystics experience God best through rich images and symbols. You are contemplative, introspective, intuitive, and focused on an inner world as real to you as the exterior one. Hearing from God is more important to you than speaking to God. Others may attribute human characteristics to God, but you see God as ineffable, unnamable, and more vast than any known category. You are intrigued by God's mystery. Mystics want to inspire and persuade others, and need to live lives of significance. At times you push the envelope of spirituality, helping the rest of us imagine who we might become if we followed your lead. Sometimes you may feel a bit guilty about your need for solitude and silence. If so, you probably have bought into the American myth that says being alone and doing nothing is lazy, antisocial, and unproductive. Stop it -- now. Give yourself permission to retreat and be alone. It's essential for your well-being. On the other hand, don't get so carried away retreating that you become a recluse. That only deprives the world of your gifts and deprives you of the lessons that come from being with others. Some Mystics may have a true vocation for solitary prayer, but the rest of you need to alternate retreat time with involvement and interaction.

Go here and take it too...
Spiritual Types test

Near-tragedy: patrons of Bible bookstore found unconscious, overwhelmed by sheer boredom

OMAHA — In what police are calling a disaster narrowly averted, 12 patrons of Valley Book and Bible store were found unconscious Saturday afternoon, overcome by unbelievable boredom as they browsed.

"I was heading over to the bookmarks and Bible covers when I must have passed out," said one man, still drowsy, as police led him to an ambulance. "My mind went totally numb. The last thing I remember was staring at shelves of commentaries and devotional books."

Neighboring businesses phoned police after nobody left the store for several hours. Police arrived to find every person in the store asleep, snoring or in a half-conscious stupor.
"It was like they'd been gassed," said an officer at the scene. "We aren't letting our guys go in alone. It's still a dangerous atmosphere."

The clerk was found slumped over the register. Patrons lay in the aisles near the Gaither Christmas Homecoming and VeggieTales displays. Police were extracting them one by one and returning them to family members.

One victim's wife became worried when her husband failed to come home on time. Then she remembered he'd mentioned he might visit Valley Book and Bible.
"I just had a cold chill," she says. "I knew what had happened."

All 12 victims were treated on site for symptoms ranging from ennui and stuffiness to excessive prudery, poor taste and soporifera extremus. The city council is considering a rule requiring Bible bookstores to warn patrons of potentially harmful levels of tedium. �

http://www.larknews.com/october1_2003/secondary.php?page=1

This is soooooooooo Spokane. When it comes to book stores we stink. It's one of the biggest thorns in my flesh about this town. It seems nobody has a unique bone in their body when it comes to expanding your mind and soul. Carbon copies...I simply have no words to describe my inner frustration...I might need to see a therapist.

Hope carries stars in her eyes;
her lamps are not dependent on oil from without,
her light is fed by secret visitations of God,
which sustain the spirit.
-Charles H. Spurgeon (The treasury of David, notes on Psalms 42).

This part of his exposition on Psalms 42 ministered to me. I have found these "secret visitations" to be heavenly perfume. I pray that the fragrance of such encounters would permeate my garments and be carried with me, everywhere I go.

As some of you know, we recorded a live worship CD at our last BLAZE youth conference this year.

We have enough tracks for 2 full CDs and have one CD in the works. We have been stalled in the project because of no money to do the rest of the mixing for the CD.

But this last weekend someone in our church
sowed a $1000 seed into the project!

Now we will be able to complete the CD and will have it for sale at this years BLAZE on March 26 & 27th, 2004!

Isn't God Awesome! :)

We have already completed 2 tracks for the CD and even though I am biased, I really think they are anointed and have been done with excellence. I know you will be blessed, ministered to and ushered into precious moments of high praise and deep worship.

God laid this phrase on my heart in prayer a while ago, as I was receiving light on the current move of God in our life: "Music for the Movement".

God is birthing His purposes for us right now and we are being taken to the next level in the spirit and seeing fruit in the natural as a result. It is exciting!

As the money comes in we will move towards releasing the second CD as well.

Thank you for all your prayers and financial help, it is going towards advancing the purposes of God for this generation!

Fire

Fire burning from the outside to the inside out.
There's a feeling leading, pleading.
Follow where it goes,
Excess baggage falling, crawling.
Throw it all away.
My redemption actual, factual.
Happening today.

Holding on, to everything we have.
Say goodbye to everything we love.

I, I, I believe,
That the fire is here today.
I, I, I believe,
Now the smoke in my eyes,
Has blown away. (That the fire is here to stay)

Digging deeper there's a well,
The years have tried to hide.
Blood red freedom in my veins,
Get ready for the ride.

Tide is turning, yearning, burning,
Urging us to go.
Freedom people moving, grooving,
Never turning back.

Feel it, feel it coming on.
Have some fear, 'cos the heat is on.
Watch it comming from the sky,
He's riding in on his chariot of fire.
Feel it, feel it don't give up.
We're holding up this burning cup.
Hear it, hear it shake the ground,
The freedom people make their sound.

-By: Delirious
Written by Stuart Garrard/Martin Smith ©2001 Curious? Music UK

I prayed with a young man the other night in Martin Hall (a youth detention center), he had cut marks on his wrist.
When I asked him what I could pray with him about, he just said...I am lost.
It was an interesting moment, reaching out and grabbing the hands of a young man who had obviously attempted to end the life I was about to pray for.

Those moments leave tattoo themselves on your soul.

After times like that, I deeply long to touch God or be touched by God that there may be something tangible in the moment of prayer. I long for the "power going out" experience of Jesus, like when the woman with the issue of blood reached out and touched Him. He said He felt "power" go out from Him. What a thought.

As I sat there in that cold, bright gym, I was surrounded by a mass of offenders, rejects, recently redeemed and seekers. It was loud, chaotic and hard to hear but I know that as I held those recently hacked wrists, that Jesus was holding them too. My prayer is that His "power" was released as well; that power went out from Him to that young man. Power to change, to heal, to awaken and come to know his purpose for life. Power to come to know Jesus and His love for broken kids...

What God had intended to be a means of experiencing grace, we have changed into a means of earning grace.

Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through obedience to God.
-C. J. Mahaney