my wife is in on the blogging action now. check out her words at angelbiscuits.

may you savor the goodness of the Father today.

Rest is an action word

the irony is that for me to rest, i have to work really hard at it. i am reminded of my need to rest quite often - most recently from a friend across the atlantic. the Father told her to tell me because i wouldn't stop long enough to listen to Him tell me. anyway, i was driving around town last night and this song was on a CD i made a long time ago. i guess he knew that i would need this song when the time was right. not the world's greatest song, just the one to minister to me at the right time. the song is rest by skillet. may you rest in the shadow of the almighty

still, soft quietly spoken voice, that persistently calls my name
and quickens my heart to come

and I rest in the shelter of Your love, and I rest in the wonder of Your Grace
and I rest in the shelter of Your love, and I rest in the wonder of You

embraced in the promise of You, is rest for the weary soul
releasing all that is mine, i reach for You

take all the old and You make it new, everything I give to You
you're the hope that can pull me through, hallelujah

i'm sitting here at my desk sending some last minute emails listening to a distant scratchy radio play "I hope you dance" by martina mcbride. (not my choice of stations, but then again it's not my radio) here's my rambling thought...sometimes i think that we as believers forget to dance, to suck the marrow out of life, to be alive, you get the point. we should dance with life, dance with our families, dance with the journey that we are on as believers, dance just because it's fun. if we are ever going to have anything to give the world, let's figure out how to dance and enjoy ourselves. we already know the final score, and we win. this is a little different than the joy ramblings down lower, but kinda in the same vein. anyway, grab your family, head to the country, smell the flowers, and dance.

ask the Father to lead.

My soul thirsts for you

when scripture talks about abundant life, does anyone think they have a handle on exactly what that means? surely jesus didn't waste words in john 10:10 when he spoke of it, but what exactly does it look like?

i'm not sure to either of the above two questions, but i know that i want it and i will seek to find it. maybe this whole seek and find, knock and the door will be opened thing is part of the young lover romance part of the equation. the Father wants to be pursued as in a love story and whether we admit it or not, each of us want to be part of a real love story.

whatever this looks like and feels like i'm betting it is pretty good.

Joy

we were talking in our family group last night about joy and it almost seemed the consensus was that seeking joy is a lot of work. we couldn't help but wonder if joy should have been part of the package deal. you know, the stuff that osmotically just happens. I'm a believer, therefore I'm joyous.

Of course we do understand the reasoning behind the process that our faith takes us through, but still we wonder.

Quack, quack - waddle, waddle

as believers, can we learn to see things as they truely are, but pray for things to be as they should? you know if something looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, and quacks like a duck - then don't call it a rabbit. if a rabbit is what you believe it should be, then pray for a rabbit, but don't just ignore the duck and pretend he's a rabbit.

this probably doesn't make any sense at all...

if it's dark in your house you turn the light on, right? if it's cold outside you put on a jacket. you don't sit in the dark and talk about how nice the wall paper is - hello, you can't see it in the dark! let's don't do the same in our families, churches, ministries or whatever God has called each of us to do. if something is broke - acknowledge it through prayer and with your prayer community. pray for it to be fixed or for you to see it in a different light. pray for the glory of the Father to make it's presence known in the situation you are in.

last thought - if your ministry is visible to others and they know it's broke, be real and acknowledge the situation. bring those people in while you are trying to fix it and allow them to be a part of God's resolution. don't wait to reach them until everything is perfect and don't pretend like everything already is perfect while you're reaching them. show your faults so that the Father may be glorified through you. ...and keep praying.

Thoughts from across the pond

read these thoughts from andy and go to their site to read the rest.

i hate the idea of preaching if i think of it as standing in front of a church and talking. but if i think of it as writing things on a blog that others can read and comment back to me on, then cool. its makes me read the bible, look things up, think about what it says, "meditating upon scriptures" if you will. and all this in a way that's me, that allows me to worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth.

andy and bea

Why Pray

Because we need miracles more than we need strategies
Because the world is a vacuum waiting to be filled
Because the MTV generation is lost in space
Because we've seen the end of the movie
Because this is not the dress rehearsal
Because the poor are getting poorer
Because we're aliens in the world
Because we're too sensible
Because boredom is sin
Because the Father
is worth it.

copied from 24-7 prayer. go take a look.

p2p community

it really is fun to see an idea develop among a faith community and then find that someone else has already gone there and prepared the way.

last night our community/family group got together to discuss vision. it was completely fascinating to see the vision develop as one person would talk and another person's face would light up because they had a similar idea. God at work.

today at the phone company, i was reading the new articles on gink and i found one that was exactly what we were discussing - church, in a p2p context. apparently i am not the first to want a church/community with 1/3 less calories, most of which being the established leadership hierarchy. i'm not looking for someone to control me - rather i'm looking for someone to empower me to cut loose - to step out into the darkness and be guided by only the light of the Father. this concept of p2p communities is exciting and i look forward to developing community with folks anywhere in the world that want to be a part of it.

back to gink to read some more stuff. Blessings!!!

Warning

i was watching my fill of The Learning Channel this morning when the following notice came on the screen - WARNING, GRAPHIC BIRTH FOOTAGE, VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED!

now why do i immediately think corporate church when i read that? why is the church so afraid to see something new, a new spiritual birth, to experience a new move of God, to reach people who have never been reached before? why does the church only want to go as far as the money will allow?

will our God not provide? if we seek Him will we not find Him? and might it look a little graphic compared to the air conditioned, pressed, perfectly lit sanctuaries of our predecessors?

i will seek!
i will find!
my God will provide!
let's get graphic!

Another addiction?

just what i need...something else to be addicted to. this blog thing is way out of control for me. ever since the first episode of survivor, i have been sucked in to the real life, messy melodrama as seen on tv type stuff. actually i was fine with the blog thing until my buddies nathan and shannon got involved - now i must also.

now i can't wait to log on (yep, still have dial up) and see who went to the store or who has posted the latest bit of meaningless trivia...and i love every minute of it.

i better stop here and call for that shrink appointment on monday. happy saturday to all.

Open our eyes

Father open our eyes so that we may see people as you do. Forgive us for being lazy and not sharing the hope we have found in You.

so what do you do? you see a whole group of folks that are are blinded by the light of mediocrity - as if that was really a light? come on! taste and see that the Lord is real - and that the Lord is good! quit buying meals that have sat under the heat lamp way too long. quit buying meals that have sat under a heat lamp at all! get real, get dirty, pull the charcoal out and light a fire.

do we as believers have to follow someone else's vision where they are the hero and we fulfill their dreams and hopefully somewhere along the way we get to do something for God too? why, when we are obedient to follow the Father do we get criticized because we didn't check in with the local clergy first. in the great spiritual pyramid, doesn't God sit up top somewhere? or was he supposed to check in with the local clergy too?

no more middle ground, no more ruts, no more be careful what you say, no more inquisitional tongue lashings for agendas that i don't support and never will.

you will turn back to Me and ask for help, and I will answer your prayers! -the writings of jeremiah

it was for freedom that Christ has set us free - no longer to be subject to the yoke of slavery!

that being the case, why does church, the very institution created by man for seeking Christ, seem like such slavery? maybe i answered my own question in the asking, that being "the institution created by man." i struggle with the feeling of freedom that i now have, being currently separated from any organized church corporation. why don't i feel like i'm missing something, when in fact i've never felt more alive. i'm free. that really bothers me and maybe that was the point the Father was trying to show me.

i desire to be free in Christ. i pray that i will be obedient to lead others to the same freedom. i am free.