Disappointment

5:01am, my alarm still screaming at me to get up. I finally manage to lift my head out of the pillow. My eye lids feel as though spring traps, snapping closed every time I open them. I do my usual morning prayer thanking God that I’m alive, and to have grace for the day. I sit on the edge of the bed with my head in my hands trying to remember why I agreed to help lead the prayer room so early. I love the prayer room, but 6am? Then a subtle rouse of excitement hit my heart… The Suns played last night! And they were up in the 4^th quarter when I went to bed at 11pm! I jumped out of my lethargy, and grabbed my laptop to look up the scores. The page can’t load fast enough. I feel like it’s 9^th grade all over again, and I’m waiting to see if I made the basketball team. Then, the anticipation stops and I really feel like its 9^th grade when I didn’t make the team; Suns lost.

My first thought is; I told you so! I felt like google-ing Steve Kerr’s home number, calling him up and asking him how he thought the trade for Shaq went now? I felt like calling up Jerry Colangelo and begging him to take the team back from Robert Sarver. I felt like finding Steve Nash’s house and asking him what happened to the fire he played with those to MVP years? For 5 out of the last 7 years we have lost to the Spurs in the playoffs. This is disappointment.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nothing of true consequence. After all it’s only a sports game. Yet I thought this was the year. Grant Hill showed flashes of his Detroit days all year. Shaq was slower, but still looked more dominate then most centers. Amare was stepping it up, and the prospect of him and Shaq down low sounded like a defensive nightmare for anyone trying to guard them. Turns out The Spurs, as usual, were up to the task. I’ll say one thing about the Spurs, though Tony, Manu, and Tim are all exceptional players, don’t make the mistake of underestimating Kurt Thomas. He was the difference maker on the defensive end. He made the Shaq/ Amare duo look more like The Tick and Arthur than Batman and Robin.

Well what can I say… it’s over. Next year Shaq will be even more slow, Grant will have given those surgically repaired ankles another year, and Nash will finally began to do what all players do in their mid 30’s- age. My best of luck to these guys as they watch the rest of the playoffs from their couches. I’m going to root for the Hornets the rest of the way. Chris Paul looks like the second coming of Kevin Johnson. I miss ol KJ.

Ok ok back to reading I Peter.

Shakesphere?

So today it’s 7:49am and my blog has gotten 52 hits from people searching Shakesphere. Some how getting to a post I wrote a year ago mentioning Shakesphere in it.

What’s the deal? is it like national Shakesphere day? Is it his birthday? I just thought it unsual that all of a sudden 52 people this morning decided that searching “Shakesphere” was important. How they got here, I don’t know. Either way I thought it strange.

Orginalist Evangelist Scalia

If you didn’t get a chance to watch 60 minutes yesterday. (stopping…pondering the demographic of my audience) errrr so you probably didn’t watch 60 minutes yesterday but you should watch it.

They interviewed Justice Scalia. It was remarkable and very telling as to who the man behind the bench is, and his views on the constitution. After the piece I fell in love with him. Check it out.

Most of the clips are here: (clips)

You’re welcome…

The Need for Revelation – a series

I want to take the next couple of weeks working through the topic of Revelation. I not only find the subject relevant, but pertinent as there is a growing rise of cessasionist camps speaking out against current Holy Spirit revelation, and camps making things not inspired by God “Holy Spirit revelation”. I don’t come to set both sides straight, I don’t write to answer all the questions. I simply find what I’m reading in scripture to be somewhere in the middle, so I’d like to share my view point based on my personal searching of scripture. This will be the first in many posts over the next month.

So let us start by outlining some basics of Revelation.

It is impossible for us as finite and created beings to reach and comprehend the infinite and Creator God without some form of revelation that is distinctly from Him to us. Now that we are in Christ and have become sons of God, heirs with Christ, hidden in Him until we appear with Him in glory, we in our finite minds want to understand the infinite things that have been freely given us. As people saved from the fires of Hell, with grateful hearts we want to know and worship the God who gave His life for us. We want to give His Son the glory He is do. We want to live out our lives in ways that please Him. Not out of religious obligation, but out for holy affection for the one who gave us life that we did not deserve.

I Cor 2:9-10 & 12
“as it is written ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love’- These things God Has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God… Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God”

There are 3 types of Revelation that God has given us as invitations to know God, and those things we have received through redemption in Christ.

1. Scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is breathed out by God.” Scripture is the very Word of God. It is God’s revelation to us about himself. None of that which is written in the 66 book library of the Bible is the wisdom of man. Instead it is living revelation orchestrated to be imparted through man by God. In scripture we have a wealth of wisdom and understanding as to who the Triune God is. Not just His being, but also His personality, character, and heart.
2. Jesus. Col. 1 “He is expressed image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” After quoting that, I don’t feel I need to add any more exposition, kind of speaks for itself. Jesus is the great prophet, great high priest. He is the mediator between God and man. I John 1 and John 1 tell us that Jesus is the living word of life. His words, his life is the living expression and revelation of God. He is God.
   
3. Special revelation. Dreams, visions, trances, angelic visitations, prophecy, audible voice of the Lord. All of these are well documented expressions of God revealing himself to men and women in the Bible. We can test the authenticity of these encounters by using scripture. As stated above, Scripture is God’s revelation to us about himself, and He will not contradict Himself. His Word is constant and steadfast, therefore all special revelations can be held to the integrity of scripture.
   

   However special revelation is extremely important. Without it, Paul who had scripture memorized would have never been saved on the road to Damascus. Without it Joseph would have left Mary when he learned she was pregnant. Without it Timothy would have lost heart in his ministry. Without it Peter would have never accepted the gentiles. Without it the Nicene Fathers would have never deciphered the Cannon, Martin Luther would have never revived the church, and the Awakening lead by Wesley and Edwards would have just been an intellectual event. Special revelation from the Holy Spirit of God within us is gravely important.

Revelation is important, in fact it is vital. Without it we have vainly constructed systems and opinions that have no real eternal value. Without revelation we have vanity.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Eccl. 3:11

I’m going to chew on that. More to come…

Video Blogging debacle

Sooo… I’m not that good at video blogging just yet. So far the only philosophy I’ve employed is press the capture button on my laptop then press upload. It’ll get better. In fact I’ve been playing around with informal video blogs for the purpose of something I’m working on. Based on people’s response I kind of answered my own question. It’s the answer most people never admit but always rings true: People want structure.

So structure in video blogging you shall have. We can only go upwards from here.

peace

still painting

So here we are, and here is a little clip i recorded as a break in the action… enjoy!

If my people who are called by my name…

If you haven’t thought about joining us at The Call DC, you should think about it. Having been on days the last month or so I’ve been able to witness something I’ve always known about Lou Engle; He’s for real.

I’ve often stated my thoughts on the church getting involved in politics (It should never happen) Yet this is how we can be a light, this rally.

God desires to end abortion. All across the nation people are being raised up by God to be a voice to stop this injustice. This rally is a chance to make the ending of abortion glory for His name, as opposed to glory for human effort. (though human effort is important) The gathering at The Call is hundreds of thousands of people joining Jesus in intercession for the 50 million babies that have been slaughtered. What we are doing is joining our Great high priest as He petitions our Father in Heaven. In doing so, when he acts, we act. This increases the possibility for Glory for His name and gives us a chance to know the Heart of God as he allows us to partner in His government by joining Jesus in prayer. This rally isn’t about us changing God’s mind about abortion. God hates abortion and injustice but (Luke 1 He works righteousness and justice for the oppressed for those who cry out day and night, if we pray and not lose heart. Just a little theology behind it from those who were going to ask

watch the video, and come.

Random Rantings Friday #84

Greetings folks and welcome to the 84th edition of Random Rantings Friday! I went back and counted, I can’t believe I’ve done 84 RRFs! Can’t wait until edition 100… I plan to make that the longest one ever! ok ok on to the randomness:

My Beautiful sister took Carrie and I’s Engagement photos Sunday. They turned out really good. Sarah really may have a career as a photographer ahead of her. If she wanted to be one that is. I will post some of them on a page here later… so look for it.

A man mowing his lawn in Cedar Rapids, Iowa found a 7-10 foot hole in his back yard. No Joke. He said he always noticed that that part of the yard was soft, but he had always just blamed the rain. As he was mowing his foot sunk into the ground up to his calf. He grabbed onto the mower so as not to fall all the way in. He dug around the area and found a giant hole nearly 10 feet deep. Wonder if thats what happened to Hoffa?

I’m so excited about ATC this summer . Its going to be so much fun working with teens again. There is something that is rather heavy to me about it. I taught a class for a group of teens at IHOP last week. I was hit with the brevity of teaching a group of impressionable young people. It makes me want to be that much more sound in my understanding of the Word so that I can help guide their young hearts to Christ properly.

So Martin Luther left the Catholic Church and started the reformation. Not because of just doctrinally beliefs, but the “church” wasn’t actually a church. They weren’t preaching Christianity, so he left. Today there are those who think the reformation is still going on. That we need to “reform” every area of doctrine to their expression. I plead that we need to unite in our common belief in Christ so as to present a unified front to the lost. I want to see the gospel preached with power. It’s hard for that to happen if we are always divided. Least the cross of Christ be emptied of it’s power…

Spam turns 30 on May 3. I hate spam. No…not hate loathe. I find that “food” disgusting. No… repugnant. In Highschool for some reason Spam was cool, because it was so gross. We did things like held “spam sculpting” contests. Or “Spam-O-lympics”. It was weird. Well uh, happy 30th Spam! May you continue to be repulsed for ages to come.

So the last 6 or 7 decades our society and culture has been driven by marketing. Now days, it’s not only the most graduated field out of college, it’s the thread used to weave the fabric of our society. Turns out we aren’t the first ones. 8,000 years ago the Mesopotamians also were a brand and advertisement driven society. Wonder if they used Taradactels to carry banner ads in the sky?

How the Texas Polygamist thing went down is very interesting. On one hand I’m grateful that they went in, because I don’t like what was going on. On the other hand (WARNING: I’m going to sound like a liberal here. Please don’t call Rush) Constitutionally, the police had no business going in. Now I only have the reports I’ve read, so I could very well be wrong. But they had one informant tell them that something fishy was going on. They had women and children in their homes, wanting to stay in their homes. The women wanted to stay and the men were willingly coming out, and the police had no warrant. Did they need tanks? Artillery? Tear gas? Had the police in that state learned nothing from the debacle of Waco and how they burned and killed tons of innocent people to get one psycho? Was what was going on right? No. Should it have been handled differently? oh heck yes.

I have the nicest finger nails on the planet. No joke. Somehow I got blessed with remarkably beautiful finger nails. Girls always see my nails and wish they had natural nails like mine. Weird eh? They are always shiny, the tips are always perfect white, and they are straight and strong… yeah I know I just lost like 5 man points.

Christianity Today did an interesting article on something that I’ve always wondered about; the story of the prostitute that Jesus forgives in John 7. The “He who is without sin cast the first stone”. The thing is the story isn’t in any of the first manuscripts of the John letter. In other words, most believe John didn’t write it. It started getting tacked on at the end then found it’s way into the book. It’s interesting to me concerning the stories significance.

Obama the Anti-Christ? Well apparently in the secular world that rumor is flying around. Which is simply amusing to me. Here is an urban myths site refuteing Obama as the AC: here

UM… so hypothetical question. Say you are stealing a car from someone, and you are forcing them to drive you around at gun point. Do you think it would be a good idea to make the driver stop so you can ask a side walk news reporter on TV for directions? Well thats what this 19 year old car-jacker did. As you guessed- he got caught. Next time plan ahead bro… by that I mean get a job and save up for a car!

I hope to finish remodeling the kitchen tomorrow! When I say kitchen, I mean dinning room and office as well. See the project started out as one thing buuuuuuut carried over into other things. Good news though! I’ll have a wonderful looking new living area soon, ready for my beautiful bride to move into and enjoy!

To all who read, including the nice guy that said hi to me this morning, bless you all! Happy Weekend!

Here is one of the pics from our engagement photo shoot!

ATC meeting

I’ve been sitting next to my buddy Junior in this chair planning the Summer Teen Camp or “Awakening Teen Camp” this summer for the past 6 hours, and we’re not done. We’ve been discussing every possible detail for a camp expect a few thousand. I love meetings like this.

Though they are rigorous.

I could use a Sonic Cherry Lime-aid.

peace

Revival in Lakeland??

So I’m going to come out of the closet, the skeptics closet that is. I’m a non-Charismatic in a Charismatic world. What do I mean by that? Where I love prophecy, and do have prophetic moments where God has spoken. I believe in the gifts in a very real way. In fact I love praying in tongues and love listening for the Holy Spirit’s voice… I just am not very “charismatic” about it. So when I hear Todd Bentley is having revival in Lakeland Florida, and hear and see people coming back healed, and have a real heart change in their gratefulness for the blood of Christ, I both cringe and rejoice.

Honestly the same thing happened to me a year ago when Bill Johnson came to one of our conferences. I was actually on a camera helping broadcast the conference. One of my friends Heath gets healed. I can’t deny it because I was on camera 2 zooming in on his leg as it happened. Plus I saw him later after the conference. My happiness for seeing a healing happened, while skepticism occurred because I didn’t agree with what Bill was saying. Mahesh Chavda comes through IHOP 2 years ago, and I left the auditorium because I couldn’t handle the message. Not because it was so bad, I just didn’t know what he was talking about. I had set up the room before hand, and had been helping out with the conference so I was there the whole time. I say that because when I came back, Mahesh was singing on stage. Then the most offensive thing in the world happened to me. Gold dust began to fall from the ceiling. Gold dust, on everyone. The room wasn’t even in a weired yelling, barking, manifesting state. In fact everyone was standing with hands high just worshiping… and gold dust fell!?!? I know that it wasn’t a trick because I would have to have been in on it, as I was helping with the service, and would have seen someone plant gold dust on the ceiling. Despite what people may think that kind of stuff never happens around IHOP. So for me it was a shock.

Now I hear that Todd Bentley is having revival. See I pray for revival everyday, but because Todd is weird my skepticism grows. I want the things of Christ, I want many to know the prefect love of Christ. I want people to know the power of His resurrection and how its that same power that sustains us until the day of His coming. I want the gospel preached in downtown Kansas city where I know hundreds in prostitution and drug dealing. I so greatly want to see their hearts turned to Christ and to that end I labor. But instead revival is in Lakeland? Todd Bentley?? The guy with all the weird tattoos and piercings? A guy who mentions offensive things like renewing the calling of William Branum, who was a known and is accepted widely, even by those here as a total heretic? There is something not right here.

What’s not right however is with me. Instead of rejoicing and glorifying God for the great things happening, I discredit them because they don’t line up with the way I think things should happen. Because they don’t line up with my doctrine. Does not God heal for his glory? Do these things not happen so that Christ can be exalted? Sure men take some credit and do it wrong but are they to be infallible when I’m not? I have to say I can do nothing BUT rejoice in what is happening in Lakeland. Sure Todd Bentley is weird, and I don’t agree with a lot of his message, but I don’t agree with a lot of things. Right now one thing is undeniable to me as I watch this thing live on the Web, and hear the personal testimonies from people close to me, God is having revival in Lakeland. In fact I may even drive down there with my buddy Brent next weekend, just to kick my skepticism in the face. Plus I’m a show me guy. I got to see it for myself, not just hear about it.

Did you know someone got raised from the dead last night? I know someone who was there. People are getting healed from long held diseases, and have had doctors confirm the healing. Friends I know even.

I don’t want to be found judging what God is doing. The fruit I see in these people’s lives is glory to God. I see them beholding and blessing the Lord because of what is happening. Do I understand it? no. But do I have to? Plus the Word does say in Mark 16 that these are the signs that follow those who believe: “they will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover.”

Bless Todd Bentley, Bless those in Lakeland Florida. I pray that the Lord continues to give him a spirit of wisdom and revelation, that they would know the hope of which Christ was called. I pray for all those touched by the Lord in healing and salvation that He would complete the work he has started in them. That they would be counted worthy of His calling and that the grace and peace of Christ would sustain them until the end. amen