[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...

[understanding thomas...]

i've been thinking about thomas recently. what do we really know about him? we know he was called by Jesus to be more than a follower. we know that he was hurting when his rabbi was crucified. we know that he refused to believe the testimony of his fellow disciples when they claimed that Jesus had risen from the dead. and we know that he went to india and was killed there.

really, that's all the records we have of the life of thomas aside from the gospel of thomas, which many scholars doubt was actually written by the apostle. regardless, we, christians have, for centuries, clamored up the back of thomas and beat him with every generation for being a doubter. we teach our kids not to be a "doubting thomas." yet, with every generation, we doubt God just as much as we believe satan. really. if we started believing God at same level with which we believed the lies of satan, our lives would be much different.

back to thomas...

is it unfathomable that thomas was hurt that his rabbi and his friend with whom he shared three years of his life had been crucified at the hands of his own people and made a mockery of by the roman occupants? wouldn't you be hurt? and if your friends who, historically, have fought among themselves, all come to you and tell you that your friend is alive, how would you react? thought so...

so, what makes our doubting generation better than thomas? the only thing i can come up with is that we have the benefit of hindsight. but that does little to prove that we are better, on the contrary, it only goes to show that the only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history...

it is similarily astounding that we miss the fact that thomas still gathered with the other disciples despite his "monsterously" overwhelming doubt. not only this, but when Jesus did appear to thomas and the others, he didn't need to do what he said would prove to himself that Jesus was alive. he exclaimed, "my Lord and my God!"

the very next historical record we have of thomas is in india. he left jerusalem during the great persecution in the first century. Jesus spent three and a half years with thomas as his rabbi and friend. thomas turned around and spent the rest of his martyred life for his rabbi and his friend. thomas, was commissioned by an indian king to build a palace. while he was working and being a living testimony, he was killed by a dart or a spear.

what makes us better than thomas? it can only be that we have lived longer after our revelation of who Jesus is; and that is nothing that elevates one person over another.