hey every one, i came across this article by kevin dedmon and i thought that it would be beneficial to post it here. it challenged me and i pray it challenges you as well.
DRUNK PEOPLE DO CRAZY THINGS!
written by Kevin Dodman
It is true, drunk people do crazy things. They will say the craziest things to anyone who will listen (even if they won’t listen). They will laugh out loud, oftentimes for no apparent reason, and without any sensitivity to their surroundings whatsoever. They will dance, fall on the ground, sway as they walk, and completely sacrifice their personal dignity. Why? Because they are drunk.
They are not concerned with what people think about them at the moment. They have lost all fear of man, not concerning themselves in the least with the aftermath of humiliation that is sure to follow their actions. They therefore express themselves freely. They will even attempt the dangerous, like driving a vehicle or jumping off cliffs into shallow water, crazy things that they would never even dream of doing if they were sober. Why? Because they are drunk. Drunk people do crazy things!
In Ephesians 5:18, the Apostle Paul gives this instruction to Christians: “Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (NIV).
This word “debauchery” means to be so influenced by the effects of alcohol that one loses all inhibition, so that they do things of negative and evil consequence that they would not do if they were sober. In other words, debauchery is doing crazy things that you are really ashamed of the next morning.
Being filled with the Spirit, on the other hand, causes one to do crazy things, but the difference is that those things are things that you are proud of the next morning. Interestingly, the phrase, “be filled”, is not a one time event. In the Greek, this is a present tense verb, which has a continual sense associated with the action. So, more accurately, Paul is instructing the Church to “be continually filled with the Spirit”; to drink everyday, the “new wine” of the Spirit. Why? Because drunk people do crazy things!
On the Day of Pentecost, in Acts chapter 2, the Church was filled with the Holy Spirit. In verse 13, the crowd made fun of them and said “they have had too much wine”. Peter’s response to this accusation is found in verse 15: “These men are not drunk as you suppose...”. Notice, he does not deny the fact that they are drunk, or at the least, acting drunk. He simply lets them know that they are not drunk in the way that they think that they are drunk. The source of their drunkenness is not due to the wine of the world, but rather the new wine of the Holy Spirit. He explains all of this in verse 17, as he outlines the fulfilled prophetic promise of Joel that God would pour out His Spirit on all people.
Notice that Peter got out of the box, crazy, as he found the courage to stand up to address the crowd of onlookers. This is the same Peter that denied the Lord three times! And now he has unabashed boldness to preach the Gospel to the same angry crowd that had earlier crucified Jesus. The only thing that can explain this uninhibited behavior is the fact that he was drunk. Drunk people do crazy things. And I’m sure he was very proud of his actions the next morning, especially when he realized that 3,000 people had been saved as a result of his boldness under the influence of the Spirit!
Jesus has commanded us to do crazy things like heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, and cast out demons; to preach the message of the Kingdom (Matt. 10:7,8). He has commanded us to be His witnesses in the whole earth as his ambassadors (Acts 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:20). He told Ananias, through a supernatural vision, to go to Saul’s house on Straight Street and lay hands on him to receive his sight, which was a crazy proposal given the fact that Saul was arresting Christians and giving approval for their executions (Acts 9).
I used to never pray for the sick. Not because I didn’t believe in healing. I taught on healing. I just didn’t believe that I had what it took to pray for people for them to be healed. I used the excuse that I just didn’t have the “gift”. Interestingly, after learning to let the Holy Spirit influence my mind, I began to live under the influence (LUI), I began to do things that I would ordinarily never try like praying for someone to be healed. Amazingly, people started getting healed. I started to drink and drive, and when I would get to my destination, I would find supernatural boldness to step out and take crazy amounts of risk to pray for the sick at supermarkets, airports, or at family gatherings. And guess what? People started getting healed.
I have found that most people have a hard time stepping out in risk in the Kingdom because they are too intimidated by what others will think. I want to suggest that you try getting absolutely drunk on the Spirit of God until you have no inhibitions left, and just see what kind of great “crazy” things God can do through your life. Remember, drunk people do crazy things!
10 February 2007
08 February 2007
[tried and proven: adding meaning to your bible]
life has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you're not looking. i mean, in less than a year, i met a beautiful young woman, started dating, met her family, fell in love with her family, made some mistakes, grown a lot, abruptly stopped dating, grew some more, moved out on my own, and started working in a hotel.
now i'm probably moving away from north carolina out to california for a change of schools and a change of scenery. and yet through all of the tumultuous times, God has proven faithful.
God is faithful. He has always been faithful, and He will always remain faithful.
to illustrate:
a few years ago an elderly saint passed away. she lived alone in her house and she had outlived all of her closest friends. her children came in from all over the country for the funeral. her pastor who only knew of her in passing, came to ask her children about their mother so that he might say some kind things about her at her funeral.
her children informed him that they really had no information that he might find useful, but they handed him her old, well-worn bible. he thanked them and got into his car. when he arrived at his home, he pulled out the bible and began to explore. pen marks and hand-written notes were everywhere. tithing envelopes and bulletins spilled from the covers. bookmarks seperated out the most often visited locations in the bible for easy access and one thing kept catching the pastor's eye.
on the margins of the page next to the verse numbers, two letters kept appearing. tp followed by numbers. perplexed, the pastor called the woman's eldest son and asked if he could help to sort out what these letters and numbers may have symbolized. he told the pastor that he had no clue but one of his sisters may. after asking each of the children and no answer given, the pastor committed to continuing searching through this bible.
as he flipped through the psalms, he began to see a pattern. the letters frequently appeared by promises and by descriptions of who God is. but this still gave no indication as to what the letters meant.
finally, the pastor caught a break when he saw the words tried and proven next to a particularly strong promise in isaiah. this revelation challenged the pastor. it was also then that the pastor realized that the numbers were not random, but dates. here he was looking into the life of a woman of strong faith. she had dared to take God at His word and hold Him accountable to proving He meant what He said. and God had proven every single promise to her.
at the funeral, the pastor rose to give the eulogy, and something began to happen. as he recounted how he did had not taken the opportunity to get to know this saintly sister, he suddenly realized that her greatest legacy was not something that could even be measured by man.
she had a thick bible. a bible full of meaning and proofs. a bible that was more than a collection of revered words, but precious promises.
do you have a thick bible full of meaning and proven promises or is yours thin and lifeless?
now i'm probably moving away from north carolina out to california for a change of schools and a change of scenery. and yet through all of the tumultuous times, God has proven faithful.
God is faithful. He has always been faithful, and He will always remain faithful.
to illustrate:
a few years ago an elderly saint passed away. she lived alone in her house and she had outlived all of her closest friends. her children came in from all over the country for the funeral. her pastor who only knew of her in passing, came to ask her children about their mother so that he might say some kind things about her at her funeral.
her children informed him that they really had no information that he might find useful, but they handed him her old, well-worn bible. he thanked them and got into his car. when he arrived at his home, he pulled out the bible and began to explore. pen marks and hand-written notes were everywhere. tithing envelopes and bulletins spilled from the covers. bookmarks seperated out the most often visited locations in the bible for easy access and one thing kept catching the pastor's eye.
on the margins of the page next to the verse numbers, two letters kept appearing. tp followed by numbers. perplexed, the pastor called the woman's eldest son and asked if he could help to sort out what these letters and numbers may have symbolized. he told the pastor that he had no clue but one of his sisters may. after asking each of the children and no answer given, the pastor committed to continuing searching through this bible.
as he flipped through the psalms, he began to see a pattern. the letters frequently appeared by promises and by descriptions of who God is. but this still gave no indication as to what the letters meant.
finally, the pastor caught a break when he saw the words tried and proven next to a particularly strong promise in isaiah. this revelation challenged the pastor. it was also then that the pastor realized that the numbers were not random, but dates. here he was looking into the life of a woman of strong faith. she had dared to take God at His word and hold Him accountable to proving He meant what He said. and God had proven every single promise to her.
at the funeral, the pastor rose to give the eulogy, and something began to happen. as he recounted how he did had not taken the opportunity to get to know this saintly sister, he suddenly realized that her greatest legacy was not something that could even be measured by man.
she had a thick bible. a bible full of meaning and proofs. a bible that was more than a collection of revered words, but precious promises.
do you have a thick bible full of meaning and proven promises or is yours thin and lifeless?
01 February 2007
[confronting humanness]
"to err is human, to forgive is divine"
i don't know who wrote that and right now i don't really care to do the homework on it. but while it surfaces as humility, the core smacks of hubris, contempt and self-efficacy.
the root of the problem is hiding behind our ability to be human. the counter argument is that we are human beings. or, in the most literal definition, we have the very nature of all that is human. while i am not saying that we are not homo sapiens, i am arguing that as christians, we are born again and because of this, we are no longer bound to the rules of being human.
i guess the greater question is if we associate errors with our humanity and forgiveness with divinity, are we, then, both human and divine? the biblical answer is complex and is in no way easy to explain. to write off and say that we are solely natural with spiritual attributes is a start but it diminishes the depth of our inheritance as heirs of Christ. to flat out say we are divine would be paradoxical at best, heritical at worst, and it does little more than elevate our minds to a point where we believe we are divine and we answer to no one.
genesis recounts that God created man in His image out of the dust of the ground, then God breathed into man. creation and animation. but we are the more than the sum of simple creation and animation.
we have been endowed with power from on high, empowered to do the will of God through the Holy Spirit, and encouraged to follow the example set by Christ. so what are we afraid of? what are we hiding behind?
it is true that we may find ourselves afraid of what others think of us, however, the only Person we should be concerned about is God-- and He has told us what He thinks of us. He has shown us what He thinks about us. He loves us. more than that, He adores us.
if the Creator of all things adores us, then what is there to be afraid of? if God be for us, then who can stand against us? not even the gates of hell will prevail against the ever increasing kingdom of our Lord.
to err is human. it is a part of human nature. an almost unreconcilable fact in our lives. we will make errors. but will we allow those errors to define us?
to forgive is divine. we have been gifted the ability to forgive- to be unable to forgive would be a death sentence of eternal guilt. by granting forgiveness, we are not elevated to a divine status, we are partnering with the Uncreated One to release others (and even ourselves) from the guilt of condemnation and the weight of judgement.
is it a divine skill? no. it is a right of the Divine that He has allowed us to partake in. as such, the freedom one experiences in both the act of forgiveness and being forgiven certainly can certainly feel a lot like divinity.
i don't know who wrote that and right now i don't really care to do the homework on it. but while it surfaces as humility, the core smacks of hubris, contempt and self-efficacy.
the root of the problem is hiding behind our ability to be human. the counter argument is that we are human beings. or, in the most literal definition, we have the very nature of all that is human. while i am not saying that we are not homo sapiens, i am arguing that as christians, we are born again and because of this, we are no longer bound to the rules of being human.
i guess the greater question is if we associate errors with our humanity and forgiveness with divinity, are we, then, both human and divine? the biblical answer is complex and is in no way easy to explain. to write off and say that we are solely natural with spiritual attributes is a start but it diminishes the depth of our inheritance as heirs of Christ. to flat out say we are divine would be paradoxical at best, heritical at worst, and it does little more than elevate our minds to a point where we believe we are divine and we answer to no one.
genesis recounts that God created man in His image out of the dust of the ground, then God breathed into man. creation and animation. but we are the more than the sum of simple creation and animation.
we have been endowed with power from on high, empowered to do the will of God through the Holy Spirit, and encouraged to follow the example set by Christ. so what are we afraid of? what are we hiding behind?
it is true that we may find ourselves afraid of what others think of us, however, the only Person we should be concerned about is God-- and He has told us what He thinks of us. He has shown us what He thinks about us. He loves us. more than that, He adores us.
if the Creator of all things adores us, then what is there to be afraid of? if God be for us, then who can stand against us? not even the gates of hell will prevail against the ever increasing kingdom of our Lord.
to err is human. it is a part of human nature. an almost unreconcilable fact in our lives. we will make errors. but will we allow those errors to define us?
to forgive is divine. we have been gifted the ability to forgive- to be unable to forgive would be a death sentence of eternal guilt. by granting forgiveness, we are not elevated to a divine status, we are partnering with the Uncreated One to release others (and even ourselves) from the guilt of condemnation and the weight of judgement.
is it a divine skill? no. it is a right of the Divine that He has allowed us to partake in. as such, the freedom one experiences in both the act of forgiveness and being forgiven certainly can certainly feel a lot like divinity.
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