Here is "Kona" our latest member to the Blauer family. She is a black lab and as sweet as honey! Good choice fam, since I was away in Europe when they bought her! 

Open the door...

Last Day in Europe.

My heart and spirit are so full right now, as I prepare to say goodbye to this region of the world. The need here is so immense...the lost souls, the weakness that seems to permeate so many conversations that I hear.

The very Spirit that so many shun, question and seek to keep controlled is the very One that offers the power needed to prevail, prosper and penetrate the very culture that needs touched. I am mystified that many seem to shy away from the very source that contains the antidote to the ailments that plague their spiritual momentum!

Don't get me wrong, there are many amazing workers and churches here that are doing an awesome work but there are more that are languishing in irrelevance. There is much here that has a form of godliness but denies the power...but that will change.

Potential is the word of the hour here. So much potential, I just pray that it will be activated. There are great victories awaiting those who will dare to believe and allow the Holy Spirit to move freely, powerfully and unexpectedly. He is a wind of truth and activity not a mountain.

I pray, no, I weep and plead that you will open up your sails to the possibilities that the wind of God desires to move you towards. Embrace His unexplainable ways, His mystery, His wildness. Open up your sepulchers and let the breath of Life breathe upon your dry bones again. Open up your ears and listen for the pleadings of your heavenly bridegroom calling you from your comfortable bed chamber. Abandon the comforts and excuses of cleanliness and feigned holiness and get your feet dirty following God again. Can't you hear his voice calling you? Can't you see His hand extended through the opening in the door that you have closed and locked. His hand is on the bolt...beckoning you to arise and come out into the night of the unknown walk. You will have to leave your security, your familiar...your bed. But sleep is all it has given you anyway and though you are asleep...your heart is awake and it longs for more.

I pray that fiery rain will fall again, voices will be baptized with heavenly songs again.

It is time...

HAMMER OF GOD, ARISE!

Last day in Norway...

What a place, Oslo is quite a city and the Norwegian are intelligent, handsome & beautiful, high tech, industrious and obviously prosperous but the one thing that has been painfully absent is faith. I have yet to encounter a witness for Christ in my excursions around the city. Even in Amsterdam I have found that!

In a land that has a striking and powerful mythological history, you would think that a strong presence of Jesus would be encountered.

The city is full of testimony to the Vikings era...it's conquests, strength, courage, adventure and mythology. It's in everything, it pulses in the air and is smelled on the salty winds. The sea, the harbor, the sail boats, the thick stone, the gushing fountains and countless statues with their faces to the heavens.
The place is waiting as much as it is remembering.

It's strange how the Scandinavian countries have been a region that produces the majority of black metal, a hard core, often satanic, nihilistic music genre that is loud, dark and turbulent. It's massively popular here and I can't help but wonder at the roots of such fascination and focus. What historical ground does such a message rise from? What is behind a generations voice that contains such melancholy and dark spiritual matter. Why the hatred of Christianity and faith?

This region is ripe for a strong community of prophets and apostolic people who have fire in their blood. This is a place where the spirit and power of Elijah needs to be released. Jesus prophesied that before the great and terrible day of the Lord the spirit of Elijah would be active and I sense that need here.

The Norwegian don't need a gentle, soft, feminine dominated expression of Faith. Not a balanced, predictable, tame palatable spirit. They don't need nice little quiet times, inspiration music, pastels, veggie tales and frilly bible covers.

They need something raw, virile, potent and wild.
They need men in goat skins who eat insects.
They cry for blood, fire and smoke and One whose feet are burnished bronze, a Deity who walks in the furnace of fires.
They need a God who has eyes that smolder and burn with holy flames.
They need a Lord who has a two edged sword in His mouth.
They need a tattooed God, whose legs bear the tribal markings of "Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords".

This people need spiritual Vikings that will stir up the God given spirit of dominion in their blood. They need those who can blow the spiritual horn of war that will awaken a long silent voice of spiritual conquest and vengeance.

They need the prophetic voice of God to summon a generation out of meaningless hedonistic pursuits and sacrifice all on the cause of Christ.

There is a hammer of God for this nation and it's clarion call can be heard for those that have ears to hear.
Not the mere hammer of a shadow myth named Thor but the Hammer of God's mighty WORD. A HAMMER OF THUNDER that contains the eternal voice of God almighty that smashes hard hearts and demolishes the sinful prisons and shackles of bondage.

My spirit weeps for such a generation to arise here, for such adventures, wild men and women to launch again from these shores. I know they are here, I sense their drum beating hearts in the ground as I walk these streets. I feel the breath of prophesy on the winds of the sea as they blow on my face. My prayers mingle with the wind of God and blow on the embers of destiny in this nation...

ARISE, HAMMER OF GOD...RISE!

The land of the Vikings

Well, I made it to the land of the Vikings and I love it already. Oslo, Norway is a lot like a big city in the USA and its not. Norway is beautiful, rolling hills, deep green forests, tons of water, fjords and clean air..finally.

Oslo is a very clean, slick and modern city with a very Icelandic flare. Huge fountains, giant statues a lot of women statues so far, everyone of them is nude so a lot of breasts in this city...strange indeed, even on the advertisements, which was a bit surprising since that isn't even the case in Amsterdam.

There are lots of parks, and American restaurants (which isn't the case in Amsterdam). The people are beautiful, tan skin, dark hair and real blue eyes. The men are tall and big like me...Vikings are large...not fat, but big, I finally fit in :)

We are being escorted around by a friend named Anja. She is 25, Norwegian and an artist from a small town in Norway. She loves God and has a wicked sense of humor, a tough chick.

Today, we take a ferry across a fjord and visit an Island that has a Viking museum and a bunch of tourist sights, castle, etc...

It's a beautiful day here, so it should be a great day for pictures. It's nice to slow down and recoup after such a busy trip, I think the sea and the air will do me some good.

Holy tears, the spirit and the father's love...

I really can't put into words how much the lord has blesses me this trip. It has been a whirlwind tour, I have hardly had much time to myself at all, which is really different.

Christa has served me and help put together a trip that went beyond my expectations. Arranging housing, meetings, retreat, lunches, dinners and travel...she has been amazing. It is awesome to see how the Lord has taken that first meeting years ago in a church service here in Amsterdam and turned it into a door of ministry and friendship in this city.

I have had soooo many deep talks, so much heart to heart stuff that at times I am left feeling completely depleted. The questions here are so deep and there are so many people struggling with purpose and many that know about God but are starving to experience Him.

Here is a glimpse at some of my most treasured moments:

Ministering about the power and person of the holy spirit at the retreat for three power packed but gentle times of teaching. Seeing the Lord move by His power and love and melt resistant hearts and break in on them and bring them to tears. Seeing relationships being restored and sons reaching out to a loveless father and mother. Seeing Dutch minds grapple with the mysterious ministry of the Holy spirit has been awesome. They are so logical and critical thinkers but they are desperate for love too.

Seeing a young Dutch woman weep tears of gratefulness as I ministered a word of encouragement and helped her see her gifts that had been in operation all weekend but she had never had them recognized. Watching those tears spill over her cheeks as we drove through Holland was so holy. He truly binds up the broken hearted.

The conversation with a Dutch girl who was not a Christian, she kept asking questions, more and more and more...my testimony, my work at martin hall, my doubts and about other faiths, my family, Alicia, on and on she kept soaking it all in.

Sitting in a cafe 11 floors up in the sky cafe, gazing over all of Amsterdam on a cloudless day, while I ministered destiny, purpose and the fathers tender love to a dear Dutch young man that has quickly become a friend. Seeing his hungry and searching soul in those pericing eyes, as clear and deep as the skyline behind him. Holy moments in beautiful places.

Deep talks with missionaries, the kind of talks that if you only had just that one...it was worth the whole trip.

Friendships with Dutch people finally...I can't tell you how precious that has been. A card from those that participated in the retreat...wow, the words written in it were soooooooo precious to me. Their expressions of love and thankfulness were worth more than gold.

Worshiping God in my room overlooking central station and the masses of souls that need Jesus...man, words can not contain the depth of tender love and passionate embrace that came from the father's heart and out of my soul...

There is so much more but I have to catch a plane to Norway for the next part of this adventure. God has opened amazing doors and answers to prayer that have long been prayed. He is a faithful God that goes beyond anything we could "dare ask". What an amazing God!

Eric

Skin, puke, madmen and fear...

It's a difficult thing to try to explain Amsterdam.
It's a mix of so many different experiences, people, smells, sights and sounds. But one thing is for sure...it's not what I am used too.

I think you become used too almost anything once you are around it for a while. I think that can be good and bad.
There is a lot here that slaps me in the face but hardly fazes others who live here.

Here are a few things I have seen in the city. Most of them while walking at night, which is what everyone does. The streets are full of people at evening and night though usually for different reasons than the day.

On a walk the other night from an evening of conversation with a friend I encountered a wildly drunk man stumbling towards us, waving his hands and bearing the eyes of man slightly crazy, lost and dangerous.

I passed a person laying in a door way, covering up with a light jacket for a night in the cold. They didn't look like a street person. I passed and looked and then my heart caught up with me and I wondered about the how, the why and...kept walking.

A madman dressed in shorts and wearing a belt with a chain and the head of tweety hanging from it, was talking to a garbage can. He was deranged, mumbling something that made sense only to himself...but he was on a mission for sure.

People sitting drinking their beers on the canals of a beautiful city with their significant others. Just sitting...not talking. Blank looks on their faces. Cold, detatched...empty.

A crowd, a puke covered street, a young man losing his life with a face as pale as death. A policeman trying to awaken someone's boy who had been stung by satan's stinger. Drugs claiming another soul. The people just walking by as someone's little boy was spewing vomit and dying, a mere spectacle for tourists. We just kept walking, past people, some laughing.
I was horrified.

The metro at night is enough to scare a strong man into a weenie. Dark paths, mumbling drunks, beggars, too man people meandering for your own good. People following you at a distance that makes you look backwards more than forwards. Every corner the home of Jack the ripper. Men cursing in the blackness...

Dirty streets, filth, empty beer cans, the smell of marijuana kicking you in the nose. Body odor and clouds of cigarette smoke clinging to your skin. Humidity and lots of sweat.

So many people, jostling together, murmuring voices, uninviting eyes except from criminals and predators.

Scantily clad women on every corner, earning a buck on the normal streets, a few euros and a drink and a show for the restaurant and those walking by...skin is in.

Everything presses in on you like a sauna and you don't realize you have been holding your breath until you shut the door and lock it and realize you exhale a little too loud...

God help this city, it needs you desperately.

Amsterdam update

Wow...it's already been 3 days!
A lot has been going on and I have been really enjoying myself on this trip. I have been staying with Jeremy Isom at his house while his wife is away on a trip to the states. He has an awesome home right in the center of Amsterdam. So I can walk to everywhere I need to go. We have been hanging out each night over coffee and talking like a bunch of conversation starved women :)
We are both at similar crossroads in life and ministry and have had a lot to talk about. This trip we have really been able to cut through all the superficial stuff and really talk about our lives and ministries, family and marriages. Good stuff! Definitely a God thing. I look forward to seeing this relationship grow...you don't get a lot of these kinds of friendships in ministry, so it's refreshing.

I have been hanging out with Christa too. Again having a lot of real deep conversations and planning the weekend retreat that I am speaking at. I went to her Alpha group last night which is the group that will be at the retreat. It was really awesome. There is about 20 of them form various different spiritual backgrounds. All of them are there at this course to learn about Christianity. There are many at various levels of commitment to Jesus and some exploring or just looking. It was a great night. We watched a video on "God's guidance" and then broke up and discussed it. I had a lot of good conversations and was able to share my testimony with a young adult Dutch guy who said he was a believer in God but not yet a believer in Jesus. The night was rich and it looks like its going to be a great weekend.

Pray for me though because the topic of the Holy Spirit is a sensitive one over her and there is a lot of misunderstanding and apprehension about spiritual things.
Plus I most likely will be sharing with a Dutch interpreter and that always is a challenge in communication.

During the meeting I had a really interesting thing happen.
a young man name Danny was sharing some of his struggles to the small group and in his conversation he mentioned that he needed God to just give him a hug. When he said that, the Holy Spirit leaped within me. I was instantly moved and kind of surprised my the suddenness of it. This morning while I was studying the alpha material for the weekend there was a portion in the study that said:
Being filled with the Spirit is like walking with your father hand in hand and suddenly he stops and looks at you, leans down and picks you up and hugs you! it's like a smothering embrace of love form your heavenly father. I instantly had a confirmation that the Lord is going to "hug" us this weekend. It was really a cool little thing. I can't wait to share it with Danny this weekend after God fills him with His Spirit!

Wait till I show the pictures of the YWAM cafe in Amsterdam center. A way cool cafe, totally modern, and they are reaching out and touching all kinds of people and they serve beer. LOL! Only in Amsterdam! I laughed my butt off...oh how people would freak in the states. Ministry is quite different here! The neatest people though. I will be staying at the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) building that has the cafe later this week. I met the lead guy(BART) who runs the youth ministries for YWAM here in Amsterdam, he is letting me stay there for free...very nice price indeed!

I will be heading up to Norway next Tuesday-Thursday and be staying in OSLO. I've always had a heart for the Scandinavian countries and have an awesome window of opportunity that just came up, so we will see what is going to happen. Jeremy is trying to hook me up with a leader there who runs a ministry called SUB-CHURCH, an edgy alternative ministry run by a bunch of Christian head bangers. Just my style!

So keep me in prayer...I already feel great and the sore throat is gone that was plaguing me for the first 3 days. Thank God...I thought I might of had strep because Austin came down with it. But today is good.

Well, thank you for your prayers...
I'll write more about my walk through Amsterdam the other night and how it was like walking through Dante's inferno! Very tragic and surreal...

Whose throwing these kids in?
Whatever else the Gospel may be, it may clean up your marriage, it may solve your drinking problem, it may do all kinds of other wonderful things, but if it isnt good news to poor people, its not yet the Gospel.

Wallis is adamant that the Church needs to do more than give money to their favorite charity when it comes to following the teachings of Jesus in regards to the poor. Its not enough to write a check and throw money at your favorite faith-based organization, its also not enough to roll up your sleeves and get on the ground and work directly with and alongside the poor. You cant keep pulling bodies out of the river, and not send someone upstream to find out whos throwing them in.
-Jim Wallis

I am searching up river now...and God seems to be showing me the way. Be careful when you take notice of burning bushes and take your shoes off because a "Go Finger" is coming your way...

In the arm of a Junkie

We were driving up to Martin Hall, having a pretty deep discussion about life, purpose and the mystery of an elusive and sometimes hidden God.

He said he was looking for God and I said...
"If you find Him, tell Him I'm looking for Him too."
I found Him yet again that night in the arm of a young junkie.

Her name is Chelsea. She is 14, "almost 15" as young girls like to always say. She is as pretty as a puppy. Kind of looked like Avril Lavigne without the toughness until you looked at her little arms.

One arms was a mass of little black pin pricks...needle injection holes...she's a mainliner. On the other arm was a host of cuts, small little cuts running up and down her soft little skin...she is also a cutter.

I talked on Mark 5, the demon man who lived in the grave yard and spent his time cutting himself self with stones, screaming at the moon and lived among the dead. I talked about a generation that were dead men walking, that had a legion of demons with names. I shared about how no one could shackle this generation, they were mad, in agony and full of rage.
And I talked about how Jesus came to him and confronted his demons, named them and drove them out. We ended the night talking about being clothed in your right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus and then going to tell your friends, family and relatives about the good things God has done for you.

God was in the house.

I asked for those who wanted prayer. Many raised their hands, so did Chelsea. After prayer I asked who wanted to talk one on one...Chelsea's hand jumped up, her eyes were alive and face almost shining. I sat next to her. Her first words: "you almost made me cry with that prayer..."

We talked, she shared, she wanted to pray but not after sharing that she was from Spokane and had no where to go when she got out...no where to go. What do you tell a girl that says that? I asked if I could pray for her and I did. I leaned as close as I could to a inmate and gently touched her shoulder and whispered prayers into a little girls ears. Prayers that I prayed to God had the power of creation at their beckon call. Prayers that I begged would draw heaven's attention to this little junkie.

When I stopped there were tears on the table. God have mercy I wanted to hold that little child. I told her if I were your daddy right now...I would hug you and hug you and hug you and hug you. Oh how I meant it with all the love of God found on this cursed planet.

I wanted to hold a child that had been raped by her own father from when she was 11 to 13. I wanted to hold a junkie and pray that poison out of her little veins. I wanted to touch her arms and see those scars disappear.

Oh, how I wanted...but couldn't.

After that as I drove home...God spoke to my heart about my future. I will share more about that soon.

No Man hands

"Is that your minister in immaculate broadcloth and shiny boots, turning the leaves of his Bible with lily-fingers? Pardon me that I did not recognize him. You see I have been reading of John the Baptist with his raiment of camel's hair, of Christ with his single garment, tramping barefoot, unshaven and unshorn over Judea's blazing hills."
- Brann's "Iconoclast"

One of the most humiliating moments of my life...

There was a woman leader I had in a youth ministry I used to lead that had a serious infatuation with me. She had discussed her problem with my wife and I and we had known about it for a while. it was a strange and awkward thing because she was married and we were all pretty close. I wasn't sure what the answer to the problem was going to be.

Then one day after a service we were all closing in prayer and she was next to me on one side and held my hand. I didn't think much about it but later that year she confessed something.

She said the spell had been broken.
What was it that shook her from her madness?
Holding my hand.
She said it was a weak and lilty hand, feeble not strong.
It turned her off.

Well, problem solved for her...but not for me.
That one comment was like a blow from Thor's hammer upon my poor fragile ego...I didn't have man hands...Arghhhhhhh!

I was spiritual, bible bred, could converse, discuss, think and debate. I could write, sing, play guitar and preach with passion. I was visionary, insightful, caring, loving and in touch with my feelings.

But...I didn't have man hands.

The church had taught me how to connect with spirit but not with earth.

As we explore the path ahead for this Saturday night service, one of the things I know one thing I long to see. It's a place where men can learn to be men and be spiritual too. Not a feminized man...not a metro-sexual but a godly MAN. Not a He-man girl hating club but a balanced man friendly environment.

Rom 10:15. "How beautiful are the feet of those that preach the gospel of Peace."

I'm heading back to Amsterdam for my 6th ministry trip. I will be joining Christa and the Pump for a weekend retreat. I will be teaching on the Holy Spirit. Please Pray. I will be gone from the end of May until June 11th if all goes as planned!
 

Sometimes my feelings are so hot that I have to take the pen and put them out on paper to keep them from setting me afire inside; then all that ink and labor are wasted becasue I can't print the results." -Mark Twain
 

Austin come here, it's a beautiful world! -Micah
I overheard this being shouted through the house on Saturday morning of 5/22/04.
Everyone should be able to hear that in the morning...it brings good perspective. -Eric

 

I'm reading a biographical book on Mark Twain and it has some great photos of him. What awesome hair and mustache! 

"What luck for rulers, that men do not think."
- Adolf Hitler

Well this quote made me think...

Stale bread...I'm still hunting for good tunes...Listening to "A Beautiful Let Down" by satisfied right now on recommendation of Mike and Scott. It's ok so far.

But I heard a couple of Judas Priest songs on the radio (Heads Are Gonna Roll and Turbo Lover) today and they ROCKED! 100% pure enjoyment, it made everything else seem like stale bread...I hate that.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

This quote has captured what I fear is taking place with the whole war on terror. I am having serious reservations about the use of the sword by government. I am really trying to reconcile my faith and the spirit that it creates and demands and the place of citizenship, patriotism and justice.

I feel like James and John and I don't know what spirit I am of...

I'm tired of men who smell like girls

What is a man?
What makes a man feel like a man and why does he want to feel like a man?
What person do you think of when you think of a manly man?
Who do you admire and look up to and your consciousness grabs as the image of a man?

Is he a goody goody? A soft man? A pure and sweet guy? A gentle and pretty fella?
Clean shaven, cropped hair and pressed clothes, a disciple of the Fab Five...a man in panties?

That is what I see in the church and of late, it is grinding on my mind.
What kind of men are we wanting to see emerge?
Do we want a bunch of Mr. Rogers in sweats and sneakers, shuffling around playing with play doh and singing nursery rhymes?

I'm tired of men who smell like girls, who talk quiet and walk with their heads down.
I'm weary of soft hands, clean clothes and faces with no wrinkles.
I want to take a sledgehammer to the men's product isle...curses on hair dye, face creme, moisturizer, hair pieces and plugs! Can't anyone face the fact that men look like men and boys look like boys?

We are rasing a generation that can't build anything, work on a car or plant a crop. Boys that don't know how to work hard and don't sweat anymore. They have been raised by women and spend more time crying than fighting life. They need band aids for every little cut. They have been taught how to be amicable and tolerant and in a short time we have feminized a generation of boys. You can take the shirt, tie and fancy pants and shove it!

In the end I find myself wanting to hang out with my grandpa Warren sitting in his Jimmy in a cloud of tobacco smoke, heading up into the woods to fall a tree and drag it out of a ravine than anything else.

I miss the smell of a chainsaw, fresh cut wood and dirt. The sound of a hammer. The smell of an old truck cab and the feel of worn out vinyl, a 76 ball shift stick with the letters rubbed off. I want to feel muscle not fat.

I want a man to sing me the Marine Core theme song like Warren used to do, as we would drive out of the mountains back to town where the prissy boys lived.

Man! I miss those days...

ps. None of the above was a personal slam on any of you who may do the above mentioned things. The thoughts are to be taken in a meta view not micro, k?

Meet Dan, the lead singer of "Hanging Judas" a gut busting garage band from the ghetto's of Aloha Oregon. Hard core fans say: "They wail..." 

Justice doesn't sleep

"My name is Nick Berg. My father's name is Michael. My mother's name is Suzanne," the man, seated in a chair, says. "I have a brother and sister, David and Sara. I live in ... Philadelphia." After the statement, the assailant directly behind Berg takes a large knife from under his clothing while another pulls Berg onto his side. The tape shows assailants thrusting the knife through his neck. A scream sounds before the men cut Berg's head off, repeatedly shouting "Allahu Akbar!" — or "God is great."

I don't ever want to know that God. God have mercy on those who serve such a heinous vision of faith. It makes my stomach churn. I've been a prayer warrior for the world of Islam for years and shed many tears over the crescent moon but this is beyond me. I pray mercy and grace for the Berg family. I look forward to the day when every man will have to give an account to the Lord for his deeds done in the body. Your day is coming Nick...justice doesn't sleep.

A golden tongue

Here is great article on culturally relevant communication:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2004/002/1.24.html

Wrong...Thong

Time magazine reported that last year alone, girls between the ages of 13 and 17 spent $152 million on thong underwear.

 

My head hangs in shame to be a part of a culture that perpetuates such stupidity and waste in a world that sees thousands of children die each day from aids, hunger and preventable diseases.

Girls, put the slingshot back in the garage and go out and put that money to use instead of being a pawn of Victoria. Her secret by the way, is that you're a sucker and she's laughing all the way to the bank.

 

Boxers are more sexy anyway...

 

 

Ghastly

"Forty percent of Americans have never visited a dentist."

 

Wow, how can that be? That's frightening...

Ouch...

"I can't stand your religious meetings.
I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice -- oceans of it.
I want fairness -- rivers of it.
That's what I want. That's all I want. "
-Amos 5 (The Message Bible)

 

Wow sounds like lyrics right out of Godsmack or something, but nope...it's 100 proof bible.

It left me reeling the first time I read it. Can you get any more straight edge than that?

Bullseye Amos, you nailed it!

Bad ophthalmology

When the two grandest preachers, D.L. Moody and Charles Spurgeon, met each other, Moody asked Spurgeon, "How is it possible for a servant of God to smoke a cigar?" To which Spurgeon responded, "In the same manner that a servant of God like you can have a stomach so big."

 

Fascinating piece of history...I love this topic.

People usually get all tied up in illogical thinking when trying to pull out splinters from other peoples eyes, I know because I own a plank or two.

 

Interactive prayer altar at our BLAZE youth conference. Cool focal point for prayer. It was lit overhead by a blue light and when the lights were low in the room, the candles added a reflective element. The white things are fake bones from our theme of "You see bones, I see an army." 

A real pest

A REAL PEST

"For we have found this man a real pest
and a fellow who stirs up dissension
among all the Jews throughout the world,
and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes."
-Acts 24:5

LOL what a reputation! Not something you would want to add to your ministry history resume. Oh to hang out with such people...know any?

They are wild people...they eat strange stuff that others wouldn't find a meal within...grasshopper poppers.

They can extract a message out of life not the other way around.
Their voice is often found in desolate places not palaces and temples.

They wear odd things...skins and such. You can easily mistake them for a madman if you are not attune to the voice within the voice that is crying. They often are mistaken for drunkards, blasphemers, sinners and compromisers.

They are hairy people...they haven't had the wildness shaved off.
They are earthy people, friends of dirt, rock, water and wind.
They find a way to bring people back to the water...to feel it, taste it and be submerged in it again. They are at home in deserts and have to be sought out...they don't advertise.

They are not safe.

They have away of messing up the status quo and leaving you scratching your head.
They are often on the move or being moved on.
They don't fit in to well...they stand out and that often means they are easy targets for the tongue waggers.

They often lose their heads.

Ok...this was 15 years ago...This July LeeElla and I will have been married 14 years!  

Pixs are online

I dig this new Blogger re-format.

Cool new features...like picture upload and posting from email...

like this post if it worked :)

Fat guy in a little float... 

Monkey butt (my pet name for our youngest) bit through his tongue. He had to show it off. 

me again 

Natural evangelism

"We give people who we are much more than what we do. The Latin saying had a clever ring to it: 'Nemo dat quod nor hat.' No one can give away what they do not have. And transformed people tend to transform other people -- just by being who they are."
-Richard Rohr, the founder of The Center for Action and Contemplation.

I like this quote because it captures the reality of sharing the Christ life as it is supposed to be shared...natural and honest, not contrived and forced.

What a great article on books

I quit too...

"I quit," said Charlie. "I walked out. I don't want to teach anymore. Every time I walked into that classroom, I died a little bit."

Tony Campolo says: I could understand him. I'm a teacher, and I know what it's like to go into a class and pour out your heart to students, to let every nerve inside you tingle with the excitement of your most profound insights. I know what it's like to passionately share the struggles of your existence, to lay your soul bare in an attempt to communicate your deepest feelings.

Then, when it's all over, some student in the back of the room raises his hand and says, "Do we have to know this stuff for the final?"
(from a Tony Compolo story)

Oh how this conversation captures my irrepressible apprehension about the way we try to capture God through church services. The more I wrestle with it, the more I find myself coming to the same conclusions...it's so much vanity.

Almost sacrilegious ... this attempt to re-share truth, it's like trying to regurgitate a meal into some recognizable form that someone would want to eat.

It's like trying to explain sex to a virgin...vs the mystery of two lifelong lovers making love...a sacred bloom of passion, with a depth of knowledge that makes your knees weak.

It's like a picture of the grand canyon vs standing on the edge of it and feeling it's ancient winds lift your small spirit off the ground and into the clouds.

A strawberry flavored candy vs one plucked fresh from grandma's garden that when tasted, sends a bolt of flavor right into your socks!

I've concluded that all I can really do is take off my shoes in front of this small burning bush and hope that it will continue to burn...and hope that I can remember the way here and pray that my face will still burn when I get back...

Oh the tragedy and mystery of it all.

Am I really?

Someone said that stuff I have been writing is "Iconoclastic"

icon·o·clast
Etymology: Medieval Latin iconoclastes, from Middle Greek eikonoklastEs, literally, image destroyer, from Greek eikono- + klan to break —more at CLAST
Date: 1641
1 : one who destroys religious images or opposes their veneration
2 : one who attacks settled beliefs or institutions

I'm not sure what to think about that...

Here is my response to the question asked to me on "why should we plant churches, when there are so many in most big cities?"

Life gives birth to life. It's God's way in nature and in the spirit. If something is alive it gives birth. Birth is not only God's intend means of keeping the species from going extinct but also the means of perpetuating culture, faith and family.

One church in a region, many congregations so that "church" can be cared for. Most people are not cared for because our churches are too big or structured in such a way that real relationships and Jesus style life together isn't surviving the religious agenda and calendar.

Do your statistics and you will see that most regions are not significantly encompassing many non believers at a very healthy rate. There are thousands not being touched. It's not about who isn't doing it or why they are not but how can we. And if we can than we should in God's timing and way.

What If we narrowed the conversation down to this statement:
How come there are so many Christians gathering together to worship the Lord and love each other and serve their neighbors? And should more gather?

You would say: Go for it! Most likely, right.

Thinking gets all complicated when you start saying: where should they gather...and that has been one of the most sterile producing conversations going on in the church.

Jesus had the same conversation with the woman at the well...she was hung up on all the same religious mumbo jumbo about...who & where. Thank God Jesus said a day was coming and now is...that is different from a "place & who" centered church.

I got all screwed up in my thinking when the church got a hold of me as a young Christian. I lived out the "natural" result of following Jesus as a teen. I got saved, connected with the ones the Lord brought into my life as friends and mentors and began learning and loving on Jesus. I also started sharing Christ...around me and in different places...I simply went. The result...we began to grow. Church life began to happen in small but potent places and times. If maturity could have helped father it and breathe life on it...something amazing could have happened at times.

Simply stated: we make it all too complicated.

Money usually makes it complicated. It's like art and music...if the only reason one seeks to "do art" is because they want to make a living at it...then they are going to be a frustrated artist and probably starve too. Most don't make much money at it. But if you do it because you have to do it, because you would die if you didn't...than you are a true artist.

Take a walk down the street on a typical Sunday morning...you will find your reason for the Lord's call to gather...the harvest is plentiful.

Great little thoughts on big stuff:

"Being controlled by the opinions of others is a guaranteed way to miss God's purpose for your life."
-Rick Warren

"I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Everyone there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes."
- C.S. Lewis

"To risk is to lose one's foothold for a while; not to risk is to lose one's self forever."
-Soren Kierkegaard

"When the old wineskin is dying, the new wineskin is created by those who are not afraid to be vulnerable."
-Graham Cooke

Cicero once said, "A room without books is like a body without a soul."

"When the old wineskin is dying, the new wineskin is created by those who are not afraid to be vulnerable." -Graham Cooke

You’re just seeing a fresh soul vein opened up of late.

It's flowing pretty freely, a bloody mess maybe, but it had to happen.

I love one of the parts of an article I sent out the other day where the pastor said: "Every few years he has to reinvent himself a bit or he will die a little."

That's defiantly taking place right now. I'm owning my thoughts, daring to share them more and truly seeking to walk out a more authentic walk...or at least daring to try to find it.

The old dress shoes just don't fit anymore and walking in them has cramped my toes and furrowed my brow...I'm taking them off.

Yes, it may stink a bit, i've been smashing my feet into these things for way too long...I wish I had listened to the pain sooner.

I'm a bit sensitive (a better word might be raw) right now too; at least until I get some callousness on these feet.

I'm not sure what or if, I will wear any shoes in the future...but right now, free toes are marvelous!

Yep...it's quite difficult trying to do this as a "leader" but in the end I think that's a better quality of leadership than not doing it. But the fact is...life demanded it. I had gone as far as I could go in those shoes...they served me well for the time they were intended to protect me.

But everyone comes to their own burning bush sometime and hears the command to..."remove your shoes...the ground you are on is holy ground."

Moses heard it and so did Joshua.

I'm hearing it right now and like Joshua it comes right as I'm being commissioned to lead a "new generation" into the Promised Land. It's a strange time to hear a call to get naked feet. No call to strap on some trusty army boots. No seemingly wise command to clamp on some steel toes butt kickers...no, simply let your feet touch the cool grass of the earth.

A leader with bare feet...strange indeed.

Does it scare some people? Yes it does.

Does it scare me? Yep!...but that’s ok…at least I am coming alive again.


"To risk is to lose one's foothold for a while; not to risk is to lose one's self forever." - S. Kierkegaard

Remedies for Radio Rash

Here are a few more thoughts on the stuff that is causing me Radio Rash:

* Don't try so hard, just make music that you like and that is honest about who or where you are.

* Don't feel like it has to be a complete novel in one song...sometimes the beauty in life is when you are "caught a moment," The first breath after a first kiss...the taste of something not the whole meal...

* Let me wrestle with the words...you don't have to make everything so clear. Ambiguity allows me to interact with the music and allows magic to happen. Each song can mean something different for everyone.

* Don't produce music that always smells like it just came out of the wash...the story of the jeans is how they got dirty too. Scars make for great storytelling.

* Quit acting like a choir boy...if I wanted to listen to a girl I would...be a man.

* Remember Jesus chose a wild man to baptize him into public life not a priest...beginnings are important...where you start can define where you end up sometimes.

* People live in the world, a world which God made and owns, tell me about how you live in this place without losing your center. I've not been to heaven but I live on earth. Talk to me about the stuff that I see, hear and feel everyday but need to hear about it through other eyes, so I can see my world anew.

* Be influenced but be you...crossdressers make lame musicians and poets.

* I need to hear the war cry again...much of the music out there seems created for the nursery. Give me something that changes the temperature of my blood, makes me want to yell like a man not whisper like a woman.

* Be creative...God isn't monochrome. With a world full of instruments and cultures you would think Christians would discover that music is far more than a keyboard, bass, guitar and drums. Discover sounds, explore more, dare to trust sound more than lyrics. The typical moment of instrumental pause is about as long as the typical spontaneous praise in churches...short, awkward and hurried. We need to linger more, allow music to marinate on us. There is power in sound, the ocean heals not by words but sound.

* Uncork the passion please. If God is love and passion is the very flame of the Lord, than why do Christians seem like the prudish icicles around? Can't we write about anything that most of us think about most of all anyway...sex. Sure, you don't have to get all graphic but why can't someone write a song like Dave Matthew's does; that makes you want to find your wife and show her why you married her! Come On!

I've got Radio Rash

I've got a bad rash and I picked it up from listening to Christian radio.

I know as a "pastor" some would squawk that I shouldn't be slamming "Christian" radio but I must confess...it really sucks. I am sorry if that offends you but my head goes numb listening to that stuff. Sure there is an occasional; bright spot like a shaft of sun that breaks through on a maddening long run of cloudy days but that's rare.

I love music but I have not been able to hear that much good stuff in my day to day life.
I am musically anemic I think.
It is the result of a poor music diet that I picked up from some bad influences in the church.

I need help.

Could anyone please recommend some good tunes that won't make me sleepy or leave me feeling like I just was serenaded by my grandparents?

I don't want some plastic Christian copy culture stuff either.
No over the top, syrupy sacred, gospel bloated, message heavy stuff.
I like my doctrine to come primarily from the pulpit or books not the CD.
I listen to enough worship to sprout angel wings, so I am not worried about...balance.

I need something that engages me, catches me by surprise, moves other parts of me that have rusted from lack of cultural oil.

I feel like the church has turned me into the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. I've been plated over in armor to protect me from the culture but in the end I lost my heart.

I know that just because I gave my heart to Jesus that it doesn't mean it gets turned to stone. So much of my life came alive in Christ but not so for poor old music.
It got circumcised and I think they took to much off the top...it looks more like a castration.

Why is that?

Why did music's legs get amputated in the church?
We've had to exchange audio razor blades for religious butter knives.
What used to electrify...now petrifies.

Oh! The horror of it all...

We need help...any suggestions?

How long have you been alive?

Tony Campolo tells a story about how he challenged his students by asking them, ‘how long have you been alive?’ They responded by reciting their birthdays, almost without thinking. Then he turned to them and asked again, ‘how long have you really been alive?’ and went on to tell of a time that as a child, he stood on the empire state building and for a few brief moments, as the wind whipped his hair and the panorama overwhelmed him, felt fully alive. Then he turned to his students again and said, “now, how long have you been alive?”

Some years ago I went skydiving with my friends Fergus and Wendy in Fort McMurray, Canada during an impending rain storm. It was one of those days when you could see the vistas of the horizon and watch the heavy grey clouds roll in like a blanket. It was undoubtedly not a pristine skydiving opportunity but we were anxious to get in a jump, despite our best interests. As we rose to meet the sky the clouds extended over us like
A cotton canopy. We levelled out at approximately 6500 feet and flew just under the chouds. I was able to stand outside the door, hold on and wipe my hands through the fluffy billows, splaying them behind me. For that moment, I was truly alive.

I remember vividly the day I sat with Marianne in the pre-op ward awaiting her first cancer surgery. As I sat on her bed, our hands clasped together, we began to share in an intimate few minutes of mutual love and joy. We reflected on our lives, the fun and happy times, the pain and the sorrows of what we were experiencing. I confessed to her my fear, and she to me. We laughed and cried, kissed and hugged, wishing this moment would go on for eternity. For that moment, I was truly alive.

I once heard it said that if I had my life to live over again I’d live more moments. Just time after time of nothing but moments. Too much of my time has been spend in dismal boredom, fleeting days of just living but not being truly alive.

lifted from a great blog at:
http://scott.newheights.bc.ca/

So much of evangelism to me is so plastic, insincere, agenda driven, statistical and icky.

Plus so much of the push for it is simply unrealistic. It lays a burden upon people that becomes something they can't live up too. It's high pressure sales, it's door to door product pushing, it's dinner time phone calls, it's Amwayish insincerity.

I hate it, I don't do it.

Simply ask people" "How many people have you led to the Lord" and the truth will be out. It simply doesn't happen that way. You can act like it does, preach like it does, demand that it should, impress others with your stats, guilt the shy with your stories but in the end...it doesn't happen that much.

Plus you get a lot of guilty people that become a poor tool of outreach.

Insincere, guilty, pressured people stink as evangelism agents...period.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting. - e. e. cummings

I read that out of a little book called Posers, Fakers & Wannabes, by Brennan manning & Jim Hancock.

In the first little chapter was a story about Brennan as a monk in his earlier years. He described an episode during a catholic ritual where at the outloud reading of Psalms 51 by a superior, they would enter their cells and whip themselves with coiled telephone wire to rid themselves of their lust.

He shares how he scourged himself in religious fervency and zeal leaving blood blisters on his back and buttocks. He recalls hearing a fellow penitent lashing himself rigorously in the cell next to him. The man was so zealous Brennan was sure the man was going to wound himself severely, so he peeked in the man's cell.

To Brennans horror, bewilderment and dismay, there the man was sitting on his bed with a "bemused smile and a cigarette in his left hand. It was the wall he was whacking, not his own body, thwack, thwack, thwack..."

Oh, how I laughed! Oh how I cried...

Strange reaction, I thought to myself about myself, as I sat there on my couch feeling all to guilty for loving such a display of religious defiance.

The apostle Paul said there are those who teach a version of Christianity that creates a mindset that revolves around "do not handle, do not taste, do not touch" type of discipleship. It lifts up those who can live out "harsh treatment of the body." They are the "extremely zealous" they make you go "wow they are committed." He says they often have a lot of "regulations...human commands and teachings" and that on the outside and to the ear not attuned to Jesus life, they have "the appearance of wisdom."

But you know what? You can whip your butt until you bleed with the biggest, baddest, ugliest religious cat of nine tails you can find in your current hyper spiritual toolbox and still not "restrain sensual indulgence."

Lust doesn't extinguish that way...it actually grows.

Sorry to throw water on your spiritual superman fever that is burning you up but the heart can't be changed by such ways.

You can chain a wild dog to the porch all you want but soon as that little noose is loose...he's gone!

Paul said such thinking that permeates so much of Christian example, conversation and teaching is really "the basic principles of this world." It's not wisdom from above but from below. It's a way of living that Paul says we have to realize that we died too. That's not our path anymore. In fact Paul goes so far as to say...Why do you submit to it's rules?"

Why do we?
Why do you?
Why do I?

Paul call some of their hyper false spirituality tactics "self imposed worship."

How much of what we call "worship of God" is self imposed stuff versus God imposed? How much of our daily Christ life is merely the fruit of human thinking, man made rules and traditions that have arose out of religious minds of the earth not spiritual minds from Jesus?

How much of this dog like butt sniffing that goes on in religious circles is of God?
People sniffing around making sure everyone is in line, being good and not an impostor. Paul called such people "The dogs" in Philippians 3:2. There is a whole lot of uptight Pharisees checking our shorts to see if we are circumcised or not. It's chronic...spoken or unspoken it's there. I know because I have been one for a long time and I am tired of living that way.

I am tired of the pressure to judge, fix, correct, straighten out, spank, corral, frighten, pressure, guilt, condemn, and look down on others. I know nobody says they do that but I have and I see it all the time.

I'm weary of feeling like I have to save the world and that for others to stay saved depends on me and my ability to be good enough. This constant feeling that everyone is teetering on the edge of God rejection and that one slip up from you and their eternal soul's blood is on your hands is too much. My God! That's a massive weight to bear...who can handle such pressure? I don't want to impose such a ball and chain on believers.

Right now, evangelism with big meetings is in a very hard place—not only in trying to keep it going, but because of its results. Three out of four people who make professions at crusades never show up in any church. That’s partly due to the fact that in our notions of evangelism today, being converted has nothing to do with community; it just has to do with your “personal relationship” with God.
-Link via Jason Clark

"One of the many things this story tells us is that Jesus was not brought down by atheism and anarchy. He was brought down by law and order allied with religion, which is always a deadly mix. Beware those who claim to know the mind of God and who are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform. Beware those who cannot tell God's will from their own. Temple police are always a bad sign. When chaplains start wearing guns and hanging out at the sheriff's office, watch out. Someone is about to have no king but Caesar."
-from Bruderhof

The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work that you need most to do and that the world most needs to have done. The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

Frederick Buechner

The question is not what you look at but what you see.
-Henry David Thoreau

EARTHSHAKERS!

There is an immense resistance and opposition in the spirituals around us at this moment. I can sense it, feel it and almost taste it. The constant mental hammer blows on my mind have been tiring to say the least. I know that we are moving into occupied territory and that much hangs in the balance at this time.
I know that what we say and what we do matters.

The prophet Joel spoke of "the earth quaking before those who are the army of the Lord" (Joel 2:10). I know and can sense that quaking taking place in the depths of lives and the course of the future right now. I can almost feel the deep fissures that are moving and the sound of old earth breaking and giving way to something else emerging. The ground isn't stable right now, it is moving and that is an uneasy and a dangerous and yet, exciting time. Things won't look the same after a quake. People's lives change after a quake. Somethings die in earth quakes too.

God uses earth quakes, He swallows some in quakes and opens doors that no man could have opened for others.

There are two prophetic men who has been chained in a prison.

There are those who are not saved that can only be saved by an earthquake.

Destiny hangs on a shaking.

I believe this shaking is going to result in a harvest.

I also believe that this shaking is going to result in a releasing of shackles that have held us bound.

The result is that "whole households" are going to be saved.

Our wounds are going to be washed and great joy is going to be released.

I'm just trying to hold on in the "midnight"...(Acts 16:25-36)

Please pray for us.

Scripture is bold and my prophetic inspiration is not:

NEW GENERATION ARISE!

It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds and deep blackness. Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains, a mighty army appears!
How great and powerful they are!
When the rains of God's purposes are about to pour it is often like the dark thunderclouds of a storm that arise. They can be ominous and a little frightening but they also speak of a great outpouring coming. It has been very dark in your life, the storm has been brewing and you are not sure if it is the end or not. But the Lord says to open your eyes and see that the storm is good...it is bringing the rain!
The dawn of God's purposes for your life are unfolding even now, will you see it? A great work and a powerful force for good is marshaling, will you believe it?

The likes of them have not been seen before and never will be seen again.
A NEW GENERATION is arising that will accomplish and do things that have not been done before. There is much ahead that requires a willingness to go into the future with new eyes and an open mind. The church will have to fold up her tabernacle and be willing to move with the cloud and fire of God's purposes. Will you be mobile? Will you be flexible? Are you a wanderer or a settler on this planet?

Fire burns in front of them and follows them in every direction! Ahead of them the land lies as fair as the Garden of Eden in all its beauty.
Behind them is nothing but desolation; not one thing escapes.
The passion that is smoldering in the depths of this company is scorching. They burn and the results of their burning are devastating to all that is safe, comfortable and lukewarm. The fire on them is uncontrollable. It races across states and oceans on the wind of God's Spirit. It leaps across stateliness and ignites on any heart that is dry and ready for a spark of potential. What starts out small grows fast. Nothing the fire touches is the same...it either joins or is consumed or left altered as the fire sweeps by. Many won't know what hit them until it passes.

They look like tiny horses, and they run as fast.
Look at them as they leap along the mountaintops!
Listen to the noise they make - like the rumbling of chariots, like the roar of a fire sweeping across a field, or like a mighty army moving into battle.
Like wild horses they run and what they do, happens fast. They are children of the wild wind not temples of stone. They move unpredictably and quickly. You turn and they are off and running. They move on mountaintops and often leap over valleys of trouble and despair and religious gullies that have many trapped and stuck. They dwell in high places. They abide in mountain mists where God speaks and walks. Look to the hills and you will see that their hearts are up in the burning mountain. A battle is what they are looking for. They make noise. Those who like it quiet better move on because the roar of the fire is deafening at times. The sound of God is a trumpet in this hour and the Lord is crying out with a LOUD VOICE to Lazarus.

Fear grips all the people; every face grows pale with fright.
Fear of loss, fear of losing the known and having to face faith.
Predictability is comfortable. Sin hides in the familiar.

The attackers march like warriors and scale city walls like trained soldiers.
Straight forward they march, never breaking rank.
They never jostle each other; each moves in exactly the right place.
They lunge through the gaps, and no weapon can stop them.
These are warriors not consumers. They are wild men and women who long for something that makes their blood tingle in their veins. They want gasps not yawns.
They long for a company of warriors that guard each other's back. They revel in the skill of their comrades. The stronger each is, the more they accomplish. They abhor the skill of only a few…what good is it? They train for war not peace. They serve one who came with a sword and offered them a life of service without the assurance of peace.

They swarm over the city and run along its walls.
They enter all the houses, climbing like thieves through the windows.
They have a heart for the city not just churches. They are in the city more than in a church building. They know that God has called them to houses, homes and places where the people are living. They don't wait for them to come…they go to them. They have no affinity with butt sitters but ache for the swarming ones.

The earth quakes as they advance, and the heavens tremble.
The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars no longer shine.
You know when they come and when they leave. They don't slip out of services, slump in chairs, cuddle with quiet. The earth moves and the heavens respond to their presence because there is a God weight on them. He has inhabited their feet and the weight of His glory is on their mouths. Stone yields water to their whispers. The ground swallows the enemy at the sound of their dancing feet. Natural lights go dim at the brightness of their joy. Worldly lights fall from the sky of idolatrous hearts and the true SUN rises in their midst. HE IS AWESOME in their midst. He steals all the attention. They are simply the boring moons and HE is the GREAT SUN. All things revolve around the powerful force of HIS presence. All things are pulled and held together by HIS all consuming presence. You can't compare with HIM. Your fancy pants, your bling-bling and all the shinning lights, colored smoke and charisma you can muster is dung in their eyes. They won't settle for a gold calf in the valley of man's creation when the GOD OF ETERNITY beacons them to ascend the mount of GOD. They don't want Moses or Aaron they want GOD.

The LORD leads them with a shout! This is his mighty army, and they follow his orders. The day of the LORD is an awesome, terrible thing. Who can endure it?

God is leading this generation of the shouting one. They hear His voice and are on the move. A new day is emerging.
-Joel 2:2-11

Rejoice in the Lord your God!
For the rains He sends
are tokens of His forgiveness.
Once more the autumn rains will come
as well as those of spring. -Joel 3:23

I received a word form the Lord last October about the autumn and spring rains that were spiritually falling in October and would come in 2004. My life was dramatically flooded in October and November of last year. The Lord sent some amazingly reviving rains in the autumn of 2003. A good deal of the prophetic inspiration in that downpour was from the book of the book of Joel and Mark 5, as well as Daniel & Esther.

One verse that was spoken like a trumpet in my spiritual ear was in Mark 5. The whole part where the Lord said that the dead girl had to die but was just sleeping and would surely rise but only by the power of the word of the Lord Himself.

There was only a father and mother, a few disciples, Jesus and a dead girl in the room.
A gathering of generations focused on one thing...another generation coming alive.
Little did I know that in the spring of 2004, we would be launching an all church Saturday night service at New Hope Christian Center. Little did I know that the Lord had a gathering in mind of multi-generations with a heart to empower, disciple and father a new generation to arise and take the land of promise.

The dead girl won't arise without fathers and mothers.
She won't awaken without disciples in the room.
There will be no resurrection life without Jesus, the lord of Life in the room.
There will be no miracle without driving out the unbelieving crowd.
Only those who long for her love will see LOVE awaken her again.
The natural rains are falling outside; can you hear them watering the seeds of autumn?

This last weekend was our 4th BLAZE youth conference and it was so powerful!
Dead things came alive.
Destiny was set in motion for many.
Youth, young adults and adults were impacted by the Spirit and Word of God.
Some were saved, some were healed, and some were called.
Fresh vision for families and lost loved ones was imparted again.
God broke in on clouded minds and hearts and pulled back the veil of the future and showed many the next steps in their journey to apprehend what God apprehended them for.
Cold dead hearts that had given up on loving and being loved were melted and revived.
Drug paraphernalia was placed in my hand in faith that a life of forgetting would be replaced by a life of purpose and passion.
The holy armor of purity was strapped on with renewed passion and zeal.
The shield of faith was taken up and the sword of the spirit was gripped with boldness for the fight.
The troops were brought into ranks and new leaders were born.
Vision was restored spiritually and naturally.
New lands were tattooed on the souls of new missionaries.
Another new worship project was born with a generous and sacrificial gift.

God sent the rains…

To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world. -- Karl Barth

Prayer is dangerous...

Beware...Prayer...

63 percent of the world’s population is under 34 years of age.

That fact should awaken us to do whatever is needed to see Jesus planted within their world.

Will we, can we, should we?
How can we not?

Karsten Wolff, leader of the 'Kraftwerk', an intercultural youth church in Dresden, explains: "I don't see it primarily as focusing on youth church, but on building tomorrow's church today."

Amen! I couldn't of said it any better.

WHAT HAVE WE BEGUN?

What have we begun?

What have we done when we pray like this?

When we play like this?

Can we ever know-the seeds we sow-
the lights we show-the dreams we throw?

Playing like kids in dangerous places
quietly burying atomic seeds (hidden graces)
radiation kingdom come
What have we begun?

And here we see angels burn like the sun
here we juggle destinies
what is this thing we've done?

What passion finds expression when wounded soldiers pray?
What army gets commissioned kneeling in this way?

What hand is writing on the wall
what wonders hem me in?

When we lit that three way candle
what fires did we begin?

Are nameless heroes rising tomorrows chosen ones?
Carriers of Jesus what plague have we begun?

A poem from www.24-7prayer.com web page

"Work hard at living in peace with others."-1 Peter 3:11

Well, I guess that sums it up doesn't it?
Living in peace with others can be plain old hard work!

Not easy work, but hard.

Most of today's spirituality buzz is humming in soft and sweet tones like elevator music.
It's fantasy land spirituality.

Real spirituality is often tough not easy. Real relationships can't exist very long with hush tones, fake smiles, trite religious cliches that seem better suited in a fortune cookie than the day to day world we really live in.

Jesus didn't have His head in the sand when He called us to live for peace.
He wasn't talking about some puritanical, down south, Sunday school dress up kinda Christian walk.
Not some white glove, clinically clean type of walk that never gets it's hands dirty.

Much of church our relationships are so prissy.

We are a bunch of babies that can't handle real relationships.
We hide from each other, we pretend and we frantically try to avoid any conflict.
To make it all the more difficult, we talk in strange religious language that never really let's on what we really think or feel.
It's crazy, nobody really lives this way in their personal life, why do we do it corporately?

We take the easy way. We self medicate with walks in the park, aroma therapy, frequent massages, exercise, shopping, sports, work, food, movies, video games, sex, reading and TV. We try to convince ourselves that everything will be OK, if we just take a bath or breathe deeply. We hide under the proverbial covers instead of facing our relational monsters. We think by emotionally hiding they aren't there. But they are, and until you face them, they won't go away, even if you close the closet.

Peace doesn't come from pretending the issues aren't there.
Peace doesn't always come from "just praying about it."
Real peace has to be maintained and it can be tough to do.
Having peace doesn't mean we can't disagree or have to see eye to eye or can't debate.

Peace can exist in the midst of the storm and walk on unpredictable waves.
Sometimes we think the true peace is found in the safety of the boat; when in reality, it is out there on the dangerous waves of uncertainty.

Let's leave behind the fantasy that true spiritual life together is easy.
If you want easy...don't follow Jesus but if you want true life than dare to live for real peace.

FILLED or FULL?

Live a life filled with love for others...
-Ephesians 5:2

When I was a kid, I remember one act of service that my Dad took me to do for an elderly lady he knew. We went to her house and cut wood and stacked it inside her home for her. I remember her house because it stunk and was filled with cats.
I also remember her thankfulness and the feeling I got from being able to help her out.
It was a simple act of service but it made an impression on me for the rest of my life.
Simple acts done in love are the most meaningful.
When I think of my Dad these kinds of things are what come to mind.

You know a lot of people, as I do too, how many of them stand out as those who live a life of love? I mean when you think about them, that is how you would sum up their life.

How many of us would have these words carved into stone to forever sum up our lives:

"Here lies _______________who lived a life filled with love for others"

What comes to your mind when you think of a life filled with love for other people?
Does the very thought exhaust you?

Does a schedule packed to the brim with endless activities, countless meetings, a host of volunteer positions, full offering plates and empty bank accounts, endless ringing phones, long talks after church or before, always moving people with your truck, being asked first but not really asked but expected. Does a life filled with love mean always saying YES, come to your mind when you think of a "life filled with love"?

I think the words of Mother Teresa best capture the reality and heart of the above verse:
"It's not what you do, but how much love you put into it that matters."

The truth about love has to do more about the quality than the quantity alone. I know many people, myself included, that can jam pack a life full of activities, even ministry, and still not live a life FILLED with love.

We can be full and not be filled.
Our life can be busy but not satisfied.
One can know a lot of people and still be lonely.
You can do a lot and not get a lot done.
I can do a lot with little real love.

Jesus was not pushed by the immediate demands of life, people or emotional or even physical pressure. He did what He was supposed to do, when He was supposed to do it and how He wanted to do it. He had control of His life, even when it seemed it was out of control. The Father's will was the guiding compass of His day and life. He lived each day with purpose and His purpose was to be able to love.

Much of what the world (religious or secular) demands of you in the end doesn't produce a "Filled" life but a full life and that will leave you burned out and empty.

I love Jesus' words in Matthew 11:28-30:

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened,
and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good--not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

I want to live a love filled life, which to me means being able to make sandwiches with love or preaching or combing hair, stacking wood or simply saying yes.

40 Days: Day 15

"Since you are His Child, everything belongs to you."
-Galatians 4:7b

Wow, I didn't know I was so rich!
Did you know everything belongs to you?

"So don't take pride in following a particular leader. Everything belongs to you: Paul, Apollos and Peter, the whole world and life and death; the present and the future. Everything belongs to you and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God." -1 Corinthians 3:21-23

Does that verse make you think at all?
What does it mean?
What are the implications for someone who really believes that?

I am not sure I really understand what this fully implies in the here and now or as Paul puts it above "THE PRESENT."
Did you know that the PRESENT belongs to you?

What are we doing with the present? Do we live as if we own it? Do we go through the day with any kind of confidence that reflects such a knowledge of this truth? Does knowing this truth really have any effect on the immediate present.
How would you act differently if you knew that the Lord had given you the present and the future?

What are you currently going through that seems to contradict this truth?
How could you face those challenges differently within your own heart or mind?
How many decisions could you finally make if you really believed this verse?
Imagine how many dreams would be born today if we really lived like we owned the present and the future.

Imagine the holy audacity, the daring boldness, the confident courage that would be unleashed.
Imagine a people that thought they could win, should win and will win.
Think about how your life would be different today if you actually thought that God was for you not against you.

We live way below our privilege in God.

"Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves great wealth for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had." -Galatians 4:1

Are you better off than a slave this morning?
Do you live like it?
Do you act like it?
Do you think like it?
Does you conversation sound like it?
Do you dream like it?
Do you plan like it?

Do you know you are a daughter or a son of God?
Or do you have a slave mentality?

The scriptures command us "to get rid of the slave..." -Galatians 4:30

Let the truth of God liberate you from anything that is telling you something different from the truth today.
Live like you own the world. It will liberate you from fear, worry, anxiousness, timidity, neutral, indifference, disillusionment, cowardice, fear of man, prayerlessness, unbelief, bitterness, limited thinking and a host of other crippling thinking viruses that cause spiritual amnesia to the truth.

God's word brings freedom and it has the power to set you free today, first internally and then look out world!

The Lord has hidden Himself...but I trust Him -David (Psalms 8:17)


Trust is hard.

I remember as a kid going spelunking a lot in central Oregon with my family and friends. One of our favorite caves was one called Lava River Cave. It was massive underground cave that ran over a mile under the earth.
It was scary and exciting all at the same time to descend into the depths of the dark with only a small flashlight.

It was amazing how ink black it was and how pitifully weak our little lights would seem to be.
You really couldn't see much with them because soon as you tried to look around at the cave with your flashlight, you would stumble on some rock. You had to walk carefully and attentively with the light right on your path, so you wouldn't fall down some subterranean ravine or smash into a sharp rock.

I remember the claustrophobic feeling of being at the very end of that cave, having walked for it seemed hours, deep into the recesses of that black hole. I can still feel the suffocating fear of being so far in the earth with such a small light and thinking "what would happen if this little light went out?"
YIKES!!!!! It was worse than any horror movie goose pimples.
It would cause your heart to race and sweat to start to bead up on your paranoid face.

All of a sudden that little amount of light was extremely important!

To me living in this world seems to make trusting hard.
There is a lot of darkness here.
It is easy to look at all the pain and suffering, all the horrors of war, the greed, the disintegration of familles and morality and feel overwhelmed by the darkness.

Even though the Bible clearly says:
"The light shines through the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it." (John 1:5.)
It is often a tremendous struggle to believe in the power of light over darkness, not only in the world but within our very souls. The struggle, the battle, the war is never ending. It is a wrestling match to the end.
Darkness is always present.
God didn't remove it, hasn't extinguish it yet.

Can I trust in the face of things I don't understand?
Will I hold on when I don't feel anything?
Will despair and hopelessness rule when I can't seem to see the promises of God come to pass?
Can I trust in the dark?
Can I relay on this simple little book to get me through?
Is His word enough?
What happens if my feelings start to dim?

One of the main things that always got me through the moments of personal terror in those spooky caves was the fact that I wasn't alone. I often relied on other people's light to help me find my way. Their voices definitely were a source of encouragement and helped scatter away the boogie men that I was sure were following me down there. I was never the last in the line for sure! :)

The fact that the Lord has promised that He will NEVER leave us or forsake us, is one of the most awesome scriptures to me. No matter how dark it gets, I will never be left down in that deep, dark cave, all alone...the light, as little as it may be, won't go out.

That's something we can all trust.

Love...God...- Jesus
(Mark 12:30)

"God gave you emotions so you could worship him with deep feeling"
Chapter 13, pg. 101 of the Purpose Driven Life

Ask yourself: If you looked at the whole of my life, everything I think and do, what is the one thing that I am most passionate about?

Would "being a lover of God" be the first thing someone would mention about you?
Does your love stand out?
Could people tell that you are in love with God?
Do you love God with "deep feeling"?
How soon does someone find out that you are a "lover of God" by being around you?

Not the forced evangelism stuff, not the pushy religious jargon, not the suffocating moral judgment that often accompanies religious people like bad gas.

I am talking deeply sincere, tender, passionately faithful, move the heart kind of love.

God gave you emotions.
Are they working?

I am not talking weepy, gushy, over the top hyper-sappy, I've got Jesus pumps stuff. But the powerful internal wild river that when you encounter it, no matter where you are, it has the fearful and yet exciting sense that it's going to pull you under like some kind of holy undertow.

Sometimes I weep in my times with God because I long to love Him with a love that is worthy of Him. I want a desperate love.

A love life in God that is as permanent as a soul tattoo, as strong as death, as voraciously hungry as the grave and flesh searing hot as burning coals. (Song of Solomon 8:6.)

Don't just give me a calm, soft and cuddly precious moments kinda love...
I want thunder and lightning, smokey and fiery passionate love!

Jesus trumpets the call in Revelations too "Love me like you mean it, love me with fire, burn with love!" (Revelations 3:15.)

Save the tepid stuff for Hollywood chick flicks, steamy romance novels, rabid shoppers and golf enthusiasts. God wants the real thing.

The sad thing is that such people are painfully rare or pathetically weird; that the authentic lovers get sent to the background, driven out or burned at the stake.

Jesus' passion was a powerful display of love...desperate love.

I want to live a life of love that is ignited by such holy flames.

Since we were restored to friendship with God
by the death of His Son
while we were still His enemies,
we will certainly be delivered
from eternal punishment by His life.-Romans 5:10

Here is are some amazing truths that should grab your heart and mind and shake you like a rabid puppy with a squeaky toy!

God has restored you.

His arms are wide open right now, there is nothing that stands between you and God.
There used to be a barrier, a huge chasm, a gigantic veil that kept little ole' you on one side and BIG Ole, Him on the other.

If you even took a peek around or under that massive curtain that hung within the holy tabernacle something frightening would strike you!
Were talking spooky stuff, like your skin would start to rot!
You just didn't go near to God or you would be snuffed out like an insignificant bug on one of those scary blue bug zappers. Poof! Gone, bye bye...you dead.

God was Like a holy nuclear reactor core...you just couldn't go near Him.
Look at Moses, He was one of the only few that did and his face was like Hummer headlights afterwards. He couldn't go anywhere without attracting all the bugs around camp.

But Jesus changed all that on the cross.
Jesus fulfilled God's ultimate desire which was to be able to fully embrace His children. Through the cross God was able to get His arms around you again.

On that amazing day when Jesus was spilling His blood and it was running down that wicked cross; God was tearing that old veil from top to bottom in the temple.
He was doing it with an excited smile, I am sure.
He was about to adopt a whole lot of kids!

It was a great day.

And just think, He did that for you before you even gave a rip.
In fact, while you were still lost, dead and His enemy.
Imagine what He will do now that you are friends....

The last thought is sooooo amazing to me:

I can now with CERTAINTY
that I am gong to be saved
from eternal punishment.

Only one Son is going to the cross, it was Jesus.
I am going to my Father's house when this is all said and done.
No punishment for me because Jesus took all the punishment I deserve.
I have nothing between me and my Father.
No sin, no guilt, no fear, no anxiousness...I live in a complete certainty of His love and acceptance of me, right now.

That rocks my world.

Time is the best teacher; unfortunately, it kills all its students.

Youth putting thier butts on the line in Burma:

Draw close to God,
and God will draw close to you.
-James 4:8

I remember when I first became a Christian and how easy it was to just accept this simple truth as fact: God wants to be close to me.

He was inviting me, compelling me really, to come to Him.

It was a mysterious and deeply moving invitation because I was aching inside to be loved. I was broken hearted and needed a true friend desperately. I was constantly being smashed and thrashed on the rocks of unhealthy relationships.

I was like a piece of water logged wood in the ocean waves, being constantly thrown here and there by every unwise choice I made. I was searching for something in people that I couldn't find and it was seriously battering me to death inside.

I couldn't find the acceptance, security and affection that I so longed for. I was sure that another relationship would satisfy, another party, another job, another night out, another trip, another toy would ease the internal frustration. I was empty.

I was always looking horizontal and inward but I never thought about looking vertical.

Until I was told that I had a spiritual need and I had to look to God.

Not long after that, I heard the above invitation, not like Moses on the mountain but like the smell of fresh bread on the wind. I sensed something drawing me and it was a new fragrance not like the earthly perfume that dissipates the longer you wear it but a celestial scent that seemed to grow stronger the longer I drew it in.

I was intoxicated...and I fell madly in love with GOD!

Here was a relationship that wasn't based on outer things.
Here was a safe place that offered me friendship that wouldn't abandon me, even if I sinned. Here was an invitation to a future that wasn't based on how good I was or if I did everything just right but was a free offer.
God offered me everything in exchange for my pitiful life, that I had done marvelously at wasting. He wanted my life and I was sooooo willing to give it to Him.

But above that, He wanted my heart and that was a mystery to me. I wasn't good at loving people very well, in fact, I almost always gave up on people first before they could leave me. I couldn't promise Him anything more than who I was and yet...He chose me.

His choosing me, had a profound impact on my life. I felt special, more special than I ever had felt by winning the temporary affections of the latest girl.

Those were crazy days.
First love is amazing.

I am so glad that His love doesn't end but grows deeper and deeper and hotter and hotter the closer you get to Him.

Kinda like the Sun, the closer you get...it burns you up.

I dare you to draw near today.
Take a chance and drop everything and open up your arms and embrace Him. He is waiting to draw near and you can probably smell the fragrance of heaven around you even now...

Thoughts from chapter 9 of the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren...

"The righteous are glad
and rejoice in His presence;
They are happy and shout for joy."
-Psalms 68:3

I wept through most of this chapter.
Strange when you read the above verse but even so, it's true.

God's word is such a mirror to the soul, it reveals our hearts, our thinking, our immediate moment in loving but painful clarity.

I found myself touched by an acute sense of God's overwhelming goodness and abundant blessings while reading this chapter. When you stop to think about the countless small and large things that we have to enjoy that are free and produce simply pleasure...it's amazing.

Pleasure for pleasures sake is a goodness from God that rocks the overly religious mind. We can get so spiritually constipated that we can't enjoy much of anything without complaining or whining about something.

Such a life doesn't bring pleasure to the Lord.

"God...generously gives us everything for our enjoyment." -1 Timothy 6:17

You can't get much better than that!

The part of the chapter where pastor Rick explains that:
"My children didn't have to do anything for me to enjoy them..." really struck my heart as well. It is SO TRUE.

So much of the enjoyment of having children is watching them enjoy all the little things in life. Watching them explore and experience all of creation's little treasures is an intoxicating pleasure.

Childhood is packed full of the simple enjoyment of finding pleasure in them.
Life then shifts more and more towards what they do and that is when the trouble starts.
In fact that is when the enjoyment begins to be something that we have to remind ourselves to keep in mind.

We can get so focused on them doing what we want
that we lose the pleasure of accepting them
for who they are.

As they grow into individuals we have to learn to let go and let them become.
That is an art.

Often I find myself having to stop and take a huge breath and remind myself of what is most important right now, and it is usually a call to simply love them for who they are right now.

The farther away from that I get, the less "happy and glad" I seem to become.

God, You are good...and I really mean that God.