Explode or implode....

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who live outside-in and those who live inside-out. The outside-in folks allow the world to saturate their thinking. They are sponges, absorbing the agendas of this world without a filter. Like the Roman Empire, they are destroyed from within. in contrast, those who live inside-out change the world with what’s inside them… It’s the difference between a black hole and a burning star. It’s more beautiful to explode in light than implode in darkness. And we all know that there are enough black holes in this world already.” -”Godology: Because Knowing God Changes Everything” by Christian George (lifted from http://www.joethorn.net/)

Sex & Jesus....?

Nightline's report "Sermons with an Edge" Sex & Jesus; about Mark Driscoll and the church Mars Hill in Seattle.

Good morning master....

There I am making French Toast for my lovely wife on her day off and in comes the 99 pound family beast, named Kona, our black lab. She looks at me at the stove, makes a retching sound...I in slow motion shout at her to get outside...she scrambles, left, right...pause....puke. A big pile of eggs, water and half eaten dog food, right on my linoleum kitchen floor.

Whew...at least she didn't hit the carpet...I yell again: "GET OUT" but instead of going to the door which was two feet in front of her, she spins around and heads to the dinning room...NOOOOOOOO!!!! I scream....Wretch....gurgle and....puke. A big pile of vomit, right on....the carpet.

I'm yelling mild, almost child friendly obscenities at the 1/2 lbs of emptied bile juice and table scraps that my blasted Canis Lupus Familiaris offered up for her master to enjoy.

Animals...you got to love em, especially the ones you allow to live inside your home....

Oh, and then LeeElla cleaned it up...you got to love marriage. :)

Where will you carry your light...?

The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.  “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.” - Luke 10:17-20

The first visible sign I saw of the Kingdom of God advancing in power in this East Central neighborhood was when another brother and I, drove out a demon from a tormented woman and mother. The demon had visited her son at his window. The boy would tell her that he saw him. Then one day it possessed him. In her motherly concern and fright, she told the spirit to enter her instead...it did. When we entered the room, she was against the wall and visibly not in her right mind. We ushered out some of the family that had gathered, closed the door and in the name of Jesus told that demon to leave her. Instantly she slumped to the floor and came into her right mind. After ministering to the gathered family, we left. The healed family started attending the church we were ministering within. It was an amazing moment and story of the power over devils that is available in Jesus.

It was the first encounter with snakes and scorpions that I had in this area and when we moved here to plant a church, I didnt expect it to be our last.


Jesus said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." (Mark 16:15-18).

The church is called to move into the dens of scorpions and serpents. To exercise the dominion of the resurrected and triumphant Lord of glory who "...disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross."-Colossians 2:15.

We are not to fear darkness but expose it with light, bind it, drive it out and crush it by the living and ever powerful One who lives within us. We are living out the prophetic words of our Lord who said: "Now judgement is upon this world; now the rule of this world will be cast out and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself. (John 12:31-32). He spoke of a day of plunder after the "strongman would be bound": “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. “If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished! “But no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. (Mark 3:24-27).With such marching orders, can we do less than dare to enter the strong man's house too? Isn't the ache to see those men and women drawn to Jesus motivation enough to put oneself in harms way? Is there danger? Yes. The odds are against us, the willing are few, the audacity of our God inspired and awakened faith is lamb like in comparison to the foe's that we face.

"After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. "Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves." (Luke 10:1-3).

We more than likely will die in the war but even death has been conquered...and what better way to die than standing in dark places...among snakes, scorpions and overwhelming odds?



I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than a land flooded with light.
-John Falconer

so true...

"The word 'no' is the way you keep your commitment to the people you have already said 'yes' to."
- Phil Schroeder

What gender does your blog lean towards...?

We guess http://www.fcb4.blogspot.com is written by a woman (60%), however it's quite gender neutral. So says Gender Analyzer.

Frozen dinners....

This is cold.

I Love Jesus, But I Drink A Little...

RAW NERVE....Wins & heads to the final 4 competition

Raw Nerve won their round of competition in the metal category and now head to the Rawk Final 4 competition at the Service Station on February 21st.

Obama is the Anti-Christ...?

In response to the "Obama is the Anti-Christ" people...don't you know that Bush IS the Anti-Christ? It's proven right here.

Notice the 3 upside down stars above the elephant...The 5-pointed star is a symbol for man, and the points were originally associated with spirit and the four elements – earth, water, fire, and air. When the point or head of the star is facing up it’s symbolic of spirit ruling over matter, and when down, it symbolizes humanity overcome by our most destructive instincts like greed and violence. Facing up towards the heavens we are under God’s authority, and when reversed, under the devil’s rule. As you can see the stars in the Republican Elephant are pointed down...proving that we've just went through the administration of the Anti-Christ and though his "headship" has been slain though political change...he will most assuredly rise again to political life...so...Obama is probably the mouth piece of the dragon and will usher in a return to power of Bush.“Symbologists (like that idiot Robert Langdon in “The DaVinci Code”) agree that the five pointed star, or pentagram, is an ancient symbol for the number “6”. Let me spell this out. Three pentagrams (on the Republican elephant) equals 666. This is the symbol for our arch-enemy, Satan, or his minion, the Anti-Christ. Why in the world would the Republican symbol have the emblem of Satan on it?”

So you see Bush is the Anti-Christ, the Hitler of our era, because that is what we have been constantly told in the alternative media and through the deep teachings of our internet prophets...

Or....you can see that the scripture foretell a cyclical reality: 1 John 2:18: "many antichrists have made their appearance."

History reveals that..."the (anti-christ) concept has evolved bewilderingly throughout biblical history. As definitively explained in Bernard McGinn's Antichrist: 2,000 Years of the Human Fascination With Evil and Robert Fuller's Naming the Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession, the character can be traced to Old Testament authors' horrified response to the oppression of ancient colonizers. When Alexander the Great's conquests led to a statue of Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem, Jews envisioned a final conflict story wherein the Syrian Greek tyrant Antiochus, reimagined as a beast, got burned in God's "fiery stream" on Judgment Day.

Early Christians grafted the Roman Emperor Nero onto the tradition as the Beast from the Abyss in the Apocalypse, known to current Christians as the book of Revelation, the Bible's astonishing finale about the final days. Nero dressed in animal skins to ravage men's and women's genitals, burned Christians in ghastly dramas, demanded to be worshiped as a god, and was rumored to have disappeared to the East, threatening to return one day to rule the world from Rome, or Jerusalem. Actually, he killed himself, but he lives on in beastly legend. To this day, the word for Antichrist in Armenian is "Nero."

Though the story of the Beast and various other biblical verses are associated with the Antichrist, the word itself, "Antichrist," only appears four times in the Bible, in the letters of John.

Christians have eternally argued about the Antichrist.

Revelation was nearly banned from the Bible, and permitted strictly on condition it should never be used as it is by fundies today.

Church father Augustine ordered Christians to quit reading apocalyptic Left Behind–style scenarios into scripture and think of the Antichrist as anyone who denies Christ—and he said the first place to hunt for him is in your own heart."


But I could be wrong...becasue:

Obama hails from Chicago whose zipcode is: 60606 (do you see the three sixes ?

...(remove tongue from cheek...here.)

Russian mission fields....

These pictures are tragic...they show me that the gospel is needed wherever humanity dwells.

9

This looks amazing. You can watch the trailer here and watch the film short below, which is also amazing...but the short is with no dialogue but sets up the trailer a bit, even though the trailer has more action.

More abortions on the way...

"President Obama not long ago told the American people that he would support policies to reduce abortions, but today he is effectively guaranteeing more abortions by funding groups that promote abortion as a method of population control," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee."

Well now that the good feelings are over...the reality sets in...reducing abortions seems to be a great vote getter but not going to be actual policy. Read the article here.

A weeping thirst....

Thy mind, my Master, I will dare explore;
What we are told, that we are meant to know.
Into Thy soul I search more and more,
Led by the lamp of my desire and woe.
If Thee, my Lord, I may not understand,
I am a wanderer in a houseless land,
a weeping thirst by hot winds ever fanned.

-George MacDonald (Diary of an old soul)

Wash you hands after going to the...

"It is unclear how the peanut products were contaminated with salmonella, which is carried by animal feces. Foods can also become contaminated by infected food handlers who do not wash their hands with soap after using the bathroom.""Major-label peanut butter is not suspected to be contaminated with salmonella and is considered safe to eat, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Several major brands, including Peter Pan, Jif and Smuckers, are worried that panicky consumers will stop buying their products and have been taking pains to point out that their peanut butters are not part of the outbreak. Salmonella bacteria can cause an infection that often produces diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts four to seven days. While most people recover without treatment, infants, elderly people and those with compromised immune systems can develop severe illness that can result in death if not promptly treated with antibiotics." The Washington Post

Ummm..."not suspected" wow...it makes me feel so confident....bye bye peanut butter.

No damsels in distress here....

Wired magazine wrote this article about the butt kicking, strong female characters in Battlestar Galactica. It's one of the reasons I dig Science Fiction, you can break the molds, the stereotypes, explore alternative paths of human existence and extrapolate on current cultural taboos or stress points. Religion, power, war, race, gender, sex, greed, ecology, ethics, morality all get a through exam in this series...which makes for some controversial and explosive story lines. I hope this season delivers. I'm sure hardline complementarians would have a hard time with these ladies but I sure think its more dignifying than a lot of the belittling eye-candy roles most women get in tv/films...I find this refreshing. Warning: show is for mature audiences only.

Tip of the hat....

No, no, no...Mr. President...You're THE man! Great speech, I will be praying that you will succeed in living out those ideals and that this nation will rally together and live up to the standard you called us to live. God bless you and your family and the days ahead.

I missed Warren's prayer but I thought the best part of the ceremony was the Rev. Joseph Lowery's benediction prayer. That was a work of art, faith, passion, love and history....Dr. King would have been proud. Rev. Joseph Lowery is considered to be the dean of the civil rights movement. Lowery began his work with civil rights in the early 1950s in Mobile, Alabama, where he headed the Alabama Civic Affairs Association. In 1957, Lowery and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

I was also thrilled to see the poet Elizabeth Alexander, getting to be part of the ceremony, with her poem: "Praise Song For The Day" Elizabeth is only the fourth poet to read at an inauguration, following Robert Frost in 1961, Maya Angelou in 1993 and Miller Williams in 1997. Her poem was average in my humble opinion, but I was still grateful for the act of including poetry into the historic event.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

What a moment...wish I could be there.

Click on the link below and watch this short video where MLK JR gets prophetic about the future possibility of a Black American President.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/7838851.stmAmazing.

Snatching them out of the fire...

"Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. -Jude 1:21-25

Living on the edge of mission is going to be more dangerous than living in the center.

You can and more than likely will get burned, if you choose to live close to the fires of hell instead of the comforts of heaven. You will smell of smoke; and many won't like it, in fact they may even mistake you for one in need of being saved. But you will learn to strip away much of what one would normally choose to wear for daily life...because of the mission, you choose to let it go. That includes praise, understanding, sometimes a reputation and often that warm glow of appreciation and approval.

But all of that is forgotten, when you are able to grasp that soul who is clothed in polluted garments in an embrace of redemption. Yes, you hate the vileness that they are stained by, the smell, the sin, the corruption...the flesh; but in all the uncleanness of it; you are overwhelmed not by the stench of falleness...but the object of the Son's love.

Love is often blinded by what personal religion, hardened indifference, numbing, self righteous complacency can so vividly observe with such harsh judgment.

Relgion often shouts; "Unclean!!! Unclean!!!....but Jesus, my savior...says: "I am willing...be clean"

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”
Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. -Mark 1:40-45

Filled with compassion...oh that is my desperate prayer for myself and our church....so desperate, I am willing to embrace the stigma of leading and journeying down such smoldering paths.

Put your hand to the plow...

"No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." -Jesus (Lk 9:62)

Sunday's are days of miracles for those who have eyes, hands and hearts to see....I watched a man weep as the Holy Spirit embraced him in gentle resurrection power...I knew he had recently attempted suicide and failed....because God is saving Him. I watched tears roll down cheeks of friends who are parting ways, as life sends them in different journeys but know that love will reunite them again. I heard adopted daughters laughter, from lips that had undoubtedly prayed desperate prayers for a family to be part of and now are within. Music was made, reviving prayers were said, words burned, love won out, honey was tasted, heavenly wine for those who are willing to drink. Grace overtaking the creeping darkness....the Kingdom coming on Earth.

"We sense that something magnificent is afoot. We are intrigued by the chaos. We are willing to risk significant change in order to create local expressions of the kingdom of God that are burning with missional passion and practice. We want to explore the meaning of the chaos, the vision of a preferred future, the challenge of being "church."- John Frye

I think back to moments when in church planting you collapse on the dry, hard ground...feeling the heat of reality bearing down on your vision bearing head and wonder if the labor is going to destroy you. Your hands and hearts are blistered by forces that do not release their hold easily. You are tired of the grunts and disapproving groans of the oxen that don't see the purpose of going around and around the same field. The voices that murmur all around you and tell you that the way you plow, the plow you use, the field you have chosen...are all wrong; can if you let it, undermine your confidence. But you press on...you know, what is to come, even if it seems like you are chasing a mirage. You wrestle with the natures and the knowing that greater powers are at work and that you cannot control the outcome of your labors. You are at the mercy of the unknown...you truly plow in hope and faith.

"This process is like the old analogy about an ancient plow pulled by oxen: on the first pass over the field the plow just barley makes a line in the dirt. But as the ox is carefully steered so that the plow passes over the exact same line, there is after the second pass, a slight rut. After several additional passes there is a clear groove. Finally, after many passes the soil is fully ready for seed that will bear fruit." -Todd Hunter "Christianity Beyond Belief: Following Jesus for the Sake of Others" from NextWave