[musings from a distant land]

alright, so let's be straight-up, i'm not in a literal distant land, and it's been way too long since i updated this thing. it's not a big deal, i suppose since any one in their right mind would have stopped visiting long ago. however, i will resurrect this blog regardless of who is or is not reading it.

the distant land of which i speak is metaphorical. it is, in short, my own mind.

there is no doubt that i am a moderately travelled human being. having spent time in seven countries on three continents (and God-willing it will not end there), and my intracontinental travels has not concluded either.

it looks as though, i may be moving again, it will be a great move indeed as it may be a cross-country move.

why move again? i will be transfering to a different school, and as has become a standard theme in my scholastic career, i will begin again from the beginning.

a comical side note: a friend of mine whom i graduated high school with is graduating from med school this year. yes, seven years have gone by and i still do not have the degree that i desire to have.

in all fairness, i can't really say that i actually desire a degree. maybe just the chance to say that i finished school. and then to go on into ministry. that would be nice.

nice. it's the american dream. to have a nice job; live in a nice house, with a nice wife and nice kids; have nice pets; drive a nice car...

i guess after thinking about it, i don't want nice. after all, aren't i a self-professed revolution clarion? how can i serve coffee and donuts when paul was accused of throwing the then known-world into a riot? but this isn't about paul is it? i mean, if the apostle paul were around today, he'd probably be stymied by the fact that we preach a gospel so devoid of power that most of the anointing on a service is in the preceeding free coffee in the front lobby.

that sugar rush or caffiene fix is more powerful and more moving than what occurs in most services every weekend. oh, the music may be good, and the preacher might be able to get out a few good words, but the full weight of the glory is felt monday through saturday. it can be measured by the heaviness of a blue monday for a pastor or by the actions of the church attenders throughout the week.

forget hurting paul's feelings for a moment. what would more modern church leaders have to say? simply running through a short list of names would be enough to make us squirm in our seats. yet, these are not the ones who are being let down by our inaction and impotence.

rather, we sell short those in the world around us when we do not live as we are called or according the purposes for which we were called. but let's go one step deeper.

what does it say about us if we focus the thoughts and opinions of men? well, for one, it makes us human. and that's part of the problem. while we are human, we are not heirs of this world. that is, we are not heirs of this world if we believe what we say we believe to the point of action...

[pause for effect]

that being said, the only One we should be concerned about hurting, humiliating or misrepresenting is the King of all kings Himself.

with this in mind, we should remain mindful of the premise that what is done in the name of Christ and what is actually commissioned by God are not always identical. it has been a great travesty that many atrocities have been committed under the guise of doing the will of God. this is nothing more than a broad scale self-justification. it is weak and does a great injustice to God Himself.

His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. But that does not mean we are not capable of having the mind of Christ. paul encourages us to have the mind of Christ; to renew our minds; to make an impact on this world, not with earthly wisdom, but with the power of the Holy Spirit. it is why paul proudly proclaims that he came to the corinthians not with strength of speech so that their faith would be in their words, but with the true power of the Holy Spirit, so that their faith would reside solely in the power of God.

make no mistake about it, the pen is mightier than the sword. when benjamin franklin wrote that he could conquer the world with 26 ready soldiers he was not referring to a company of men- he was referring to the characters in the english alphabet. words are greater than blade or bullet, but the power of God is even greater still.

and it is this power of God that we have access to as heirs of Christ through the person of the Holy Spirit. why aren't we accessing this power? what are we to do with this power?

tomorrow we'll explore the treachery of hiding behind human nature. saturday we'll explore the purpose of this power.

for the world-wide renown of His sovereign glory...

[revival or riot.... take your pick!]

Jesus cast out 10,000 demons with one command. we use 10,000 commands to cast out one demon.

isn't that a bit strange? what was Jesus' secret? He was the Son of God? ok. so what do we say about the early church believers who had great signs, wonders and miracles occur?

i want to see what is real, just seeing with the natural eyes isn't always seeing what's real. we live in an illusionary world. our eyes are tricked by what we think we see. when we see Jesus in all circumstances, we can see what He is up to. when we see what He is doing, we see what the Father is doing. when we do what we see Jesus doing we WILL see results! the secret lies in doing what we see the Father doing and not what we think we should do...

brothers and sisters, kingdom life isn't just offered to us! kingdom life is in us! it's exciting to just think about that all day. we are called to be stewards of the mysteries of the kingdom that God has placed inside of us.

let's go a bit practical, shall we?

as citizens of the united states (for you who live in other countries, insert your own country's name), we cannot be denied the rights our citizenship affords us. we cannot be denied access into our own country.

we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven (and we know this because Paul wrote about it and Jesus actually said it). if we are citizens of the Kingdom, and we have the Kingdom within us and we have been charged to have dominion on the earth to fill the earth and subdue it, then we should naturally express our kingdom culture wherever we go.

let's take a real look at what we are producing. are we really reproducing something we can be proud of? are we reproducing strong christians who are effectively reaching their world for Christ? or are we reproducing people who are get lost in the christian sub-culture? is their christianity anything more than bible-based self-improvement? or are they active in communicating the gospel to those who are perishing? i fear that if they are the former, then we must deal with the issues in our lives. we reproduce who we are. if those we continue to produce bound-up believers then it's time we look at their teachers. perhaps our attitudes and issues need to be dealt with so that they do not develop our problems.

we either need a full-scale revival in the church or we need a riot against the four walls of the established church. we need to rethink our "strategies" for reaching the world. madison avenue marketing doesn't work too well in light of eternity. we should not jeopardize souls to fit our growth schedules. we do not need to tell people what they want to hear. we must tell them what they need to hear.

i don't know how to finish this post. really. so, perhaps i'll leave it as is. comments are welcome.

[for the world-wide renown of His sovereign glory...]

[up to speed...]

every so often we come across someone or something that truly blesses us and serves to alter our perspective slightly. sometimes this is good, sometimes the results are less than desirable.

it is true that i have been slacking in the posting department here on this blog, but i hope those of you who have been faithful to read this still continue in here from time to time (it would be different if this were a paid position and i were operating on a deadline...) i haven not forgotten any of you.

i wanted to post to let you all know that things are going well here at FIRE School of Ministry and that the rumor has some truth to it. there really is a girl in my life, her name is sabrina, and i'll be posting some more about her later.

but on to what i really want to share with you all.

a man named sean dietrich stumbled across my blog after a websearch and sent me a link to his website. he's a musician and i really think most of you would be blessed by his music. click here to visit his site.

thank you.

for the world-wide renown of His Sovereign Glory...