(disclaimer) [to those of you who have been faithful to visit this site in my absence of writing, i offer this debt of gratitude. your patience and grace truly do inspire me.]
i truly do not know where to begin. so much has transpired over the past 8 hours that it would be rediculous to even try to tell you all that has occurred over the past three weeks.
allow me to give you the reader's digest condensed version before beginning what i truly feel God wants to say.
i have begun to settle in down here in concord, nc. i have stepped out on faith and entered fire school of ministry- now we'll see if the provision is there to continue (let me insert that i have not one iota of doubt in my mind any more that i am not where i am supposed to be at this very moment doing what i'm supposed to be doing.)
i am still vehicle-less and living on a borrowed couch, but by the grace of God, i am alive and healthy and i know that He is good and He has His purposes.
tonight there was a small fellowship for the first trimester guys hosted by three graduates. it was a form of "what you can expect at fsm*" and "what you can expect from God while at fsm."
i think they wanted give us a glimpse of God's glory and a taste of the passion that He has put in their lives for the sake of His glory, but God had a slightly different agenda.
after the time of eating and chatting, we moved into the living room to pray.
then it happened...
[God showed up.]
the word of the Lord came forth from isaiah 64: oh that you would rend the heavens and come down; that the mountains might quake at your presence... and from psalm 24: who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his hands to any vain idols... such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of jacob.
and a holy silence covered that place. the internal groanings of the spirit. a meeting with the most high God. a kiss from heaven. and worship was poured out.
the message is this: the King is coming. get ready. don't hold back. don't be found without oil. don't be sleeping. be ready. He is coming and He will pour out His Spirit in this place. and we will never be the same again [not that we would ever choose to be the same].
who wants to remain? who wants to live the revolution?
[for the world-wide renown of His sovereign glory...]
*[fsm= fire school of ministry]
11 January 2006
19 December 2005
[a new generation of children]
i have recently moved to north carolina to finish school and to become a part of the FIRE community in concord. thank you for your patience in awaiting my newest posting.
i came across this file on the internet and i want to share this with you. it is very powerful and i pray that it touches you.
a new generation of children in america
for the world-wide renown of His sovereign glory...
i came across this file on the internet and i want to share this with you. it is very powerful and i pray that it touches you.
a new generation of children in america
for the world-wide renown of His sovereign glory...
04 December 2005
[life, liberty and the pursuit of selfishness]
the scriptures are clear that Christ Jesus came to give us life. not just life, but abundant life. the truth is freeing- the truth sets us free. so, our life and freedom is contingent upon the truth of Christ. no believer doubts this. the problem, though, is with what it actually means.
the christian-living section of many bookstores offer up titles that serve non-religious christianity, or a geo-centric "me-ology" where we are the central figure of the gospel- after all, He came with me in mind. "because of the freedom we have in Christ," they write, "and His grace covers our sin when we make mistakes, we can live like the world, without it being sinful, because it has already been washed away." there are many truly freeing titles worth reading but there are just as many, if not more, that throw true christianity out the window with the bath water. the reasoning is that as long as it doesn't cause anyone else to stumble, then you should go for it! after all, you're only living life to the fullest!
that is, unless you have to be convinced that it is ok... our consciences are given for a reason. God had a purpose for putting a voice of reason within us. the Holy Spirit will often use our consciences to speak to us when we are faced with a moral decision. if we have to rationalize a decision to do something immoral then we are doing little more than making rational-lies.
God doesn't exist for our pleasure. we exist for His pleasure. He doesn't need us to remind Him that He is God. He knows it; He will never forget it. what are we then? we are His creation and we are supposed to be reflections of Him. with this knowledge, what are we reflecting if we drink alcohol? what are we reflecting if we smoke? or if we surf the internet for pornography? or steal office supplies? or lie? or covet? or lust? who and what are we reflecting?
our freedom didn't just come for free. our freedom wasn't just paid for with some great cost to someone that we just inherited. our freedom wasn't merely the cost of one man's life. it wasn't the price of a good man's life. our freedom wasn't simply purchased by the death of a holy man; it was paid for by the death of a holy God who became a man to pay the penalty for sin for once and for all for those who choose to believe.
if a tree is known by it's fruit and Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, is our fruit desirable? is our fruit accessible? and, most importantly, is our fruit edible? if our fruit is none of these, then either the branch needs to be pruned off, or we are a part of the weed that is wrapped around the vine... is Christ worth it? is God worth the effort to remove ourselves from the grasp of selfish pursuits?
once we realize that the Gospel is not centered around us and our needs, wants, desires, and lusts, we will begin to see the larger picture. to grasp the idea that how we act impacts how people hear what we have to say. their attenuation is based off of our lifestyles. for many, we may be the closest they ever come to seeing Jesus, and if they see more of us than they do of Him, then we are offering them no hope. we tell them that by saying certain things and acting a certain way one day a week, then they will be putting on invisible fire suits to play in the raging forest fire for the rest of the week. the emporer will pay an incredible price, but he will have nothing but his undergarments to show for it. he will be exposed for all the world to see.
our freedom isn't the liberty to do whatever we desire. our freedom is the liberty to live outside the shackles of sin. we may still stumble and fall, but as long as we're willing to get up again, He is right there to help us; to wipe away our tears and kiss away our pain.
for the world-wide renown of His sovereign glory...
the christian-living section of many bookstores offer up titles that serve non-religious christianity, or a geo-centric "me-ology" where we are the central figure of the gospel- after all, He came with me in mind. "because of the freedom we have in Christ," they write, "and His grace covers our sin when we make mistakes, we can live like the world, without it being sinful, because it has already been washed away." there are many truly freeing titles worth reading but there are just as many, if not more, that throw true christianity out the window with the bath water. the reasoning is that as long as it doesn't cause anyone else to stumble, then you should go for it! after all, you're only living life to the fullest!
that is, unless you have to be convinced that it is ok... our consciences are given for a reason. God had a purpose for putting a voice of reason within us. the Holy Spirit will often use our consciences to speak to us when we are faced with a moral decision. if we have to rationalize a decision to do something immoral then we are doing little more than making rational-lies.
God doesn't exist for our pleasure. we exist for His pleasure. He doesn't need us to remind Him that He is God. He knows it; He will never forget it. what are we then? we are His creation and we are supposed to be reflections of Him. with this knowledge, what are we reflecting if we drink alcohol? what are we reflecting if we smoke? or if we surf the internet for pornography? or steal office supplies? or lie? or covet? or lust? who and what are we reflecting?
our freedom didn't just come for free. our freedom wasn't just paid for with some great cost to someone that we just inherited. our freedom wasn't merely the cost of one man's life. it wasn't the price of a good man's life. our freedom wasn't simply purchased by the death of a holy man; it was paid for by the death of a holy God who became a man to pay the penalty for sin for once and for all for those who choose to believe.
if a tree is known by it's fruit and Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, is our fruit desirable? is our fruit accessible? and, most importantly, is our fruit edible? if our fruit is none of these, then either the branch needs to be pruned off, or we are a part of the weed that is wrapped around the vine... is Christ worth it? is God worth the effort to remove ourselves from the grasp of selfish pursuits?
once we realize that the Gospel is not centered around us and our needs, wants, desires, and lusts, we will begin to see the larger picture. to grasp the idea that how we act impacts how people hear what we have to say. their attenuation is based off of our lifestyles. for many, we may be the closest they ever come to seeing Jesus, and if they see more of us than they do of Him, then we are offering them no hope. we tell them that by saying certain things and acting a certain way one day a week, then they will be putting on invisible fire suits to play in the raging forest fire for the rest of the week. the emporer will pay an incredible price, but he will have nothing but his undergarments to show for it. he will be exposed for all the world to see.
our freedom isn't the liberty to do whatever we desire. our freedom is the liberty to live outside the shackles of sin. we may still stumble and fall, but as long as we're willing to get up again, He is right there to help us; to wipe away our tears and kiss away our pain.
for the world-wide renown of His sovereign glory...
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