I was reading the Jerusalem Post (Kudos Tamara) and found the following article. I really have nothing to say having read it... It's an article by Benny Morris on the Second Holocaust.
Read it here: http://tinyurl.com/2waqfr
Friday, January 26, 2007
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
God is ....
I am a deep-thinker. Contemplative. I love to sit here and think deep meaningful wonderous thoughts. And right now all that is in my head is...
God is
Not God is beautiful, marvelous, wonderful, glorious, lovely, gracious, forgiving, merciful, mighty, powerful, great, awesome, majestic... Not any of those and yet all of them and more...
I'm stuck on this... God is. I'm letting this just wash over me. God is. I love to be in the presence of the Lord Almighty! Who was, and is, and is to come. Whoa... God was. God is. God is to come. God was. God is. God is to come. (I love meditating while I'm blogging.) God was the Alpha and He will be the Omega. Before creation, there was God in perfect communion with the Son and the Holy Spirit. Just sitting there, taking up all of ... all of Them... being in communion with each other. Outside of space and time. God was. God is. God is to come.
So much of the Bible comes back to this fact. God is...
Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
I would love to take a theology class on "God is." I would love to have deep philosophical conversations on this topic. I need to have more deep philosophical conversations on this topic. I need to have more deep philosophical conversations on this topic with Jesus. (No offense to anyone who wants to discuss this with me other than Him.)
God is
Not God is beautiful, marvelous, wonderful, glorious, lovely, gracious, forgiving, merciful, mighty, powerful, great, awesome, majestic... Not any of those and yet all of them and more...
I'm stuck on this... God is. I'm letting this just wash over me. God is. I love to be in the presence of the Lord Almighty! Who was, and is, and is to come. Whoa... God was. God is. God is to come. God was. God is. God is to come. (I love meditating while I'm blogging.) God was the Alpha and He will be the Omega. Before creation, there was God in perfect communion with the Son and the Holy Spirit. Just sitting there, taking up all of ... all of Them... being in communion with each other. Outside of space and time. God was. God is. God is to come.
So much of the Bible comes back to this fact. God is...
Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."
I would love to take a theology class on "God is." I would love to have deep philosophical conversations on this topic. I need to have more deep philosophical conversations on this topic. I need to have more deep philosophical conversations on this topic with Jesus. (No offense to anyone who wants to discuss this with me other than Him.)
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Abortion Strategy
Another vision...
I'm beginning to think that my abortion strategy and my strip club strategy are and will overlap tremendously... And the wonder of it is that I'm still downloading.
Call a Joel 2 solemn assembly. This is not just the "sacred" assembly that the Church of Fort Wayne had last week, but a truly solemn one. One where there is literally weeping and gnashing of teeth!!
Anyways, I've thought of the solemn assembly as a one-day, 24-hour IHOP-style prayer meeting. I know we aren't 24/7 yet by any means but I believe that God would release the right pieces to bring one 24 hour set to fruition. This would be followed by 40 days of prayer and fasting, and perhaps a literal taking-on of sackcloth and ashes. I believe we need people committed to 40 days straight to pray and fast in both the foreground and the background; those willing and able to mount physical and spiritual protests at the doors of the abortion clinic as well as those who would pray for them from across town in the prayer room. God wants us to go after the closure of the clinic.
I believe this must be a none-stop 40 day event - not partial, not half-hearted. It must be a complete, total and utter statement of the people's belief that this place should close down. This will not be a "weekend warrior" event like those in the past who held weekend protests, went to jail for the cause, received their own glory and honor from man, and were bailed out to return to work on Monday.
I believe God is asking for a continual 40 days. And I believe he wants to use this event to raise up a generation of teens and young adults into passionate pursuit of the Bridegroom. God wants to use them because they are not afraid yet of what the world thinks of them. Those who are willing, if it comes to it, to be arrested for protesting the abortion clinic and joyfully go off to a weekend of bible reading, prayer and fasting in the jailhouse. If you're arrested and bailed out (I believe God would also set up financial supporters throughout the city to aid this effort also), then you walk out of jail, get picked up and go right back to praying, petitioning, fasting and protesting in front of the abortion clinic. So shall it continue to 40 days. 40 days of unstopping, unrelenting, uncompromising, uninterrupted expression of desire to bring life back to Fort Wayne through prayer seeking God's favor, His forgiveness, His justice...
In your majesty, ride forth!
Come to us. Victorious!
I'm beginning to think that my abortion strategy and my strip club strategy are and will overlap tremendously... And the wonder of it is that I'm still downloading.
Call a Joel 2 solemn assembly. This is not just the "sacred" assembly that the Church of Fort Wayne had last week, but a truly solemn one. One where there is literally weeping and gnashing of teeth!!
Anyways, I've thought of the solemn assembly as a one-day, 24-hour IHOP-style prayer meeting. I know we aren't 24/7 yet by any means but I believe that God would release the right pieces to bring one 24 hour set to fruition. This would be followed by 40 days of prayer and fasting, and perhaps a literal taking-on of sackcloth and ashes. I believe we need people committed to 40 days straight to pray and fast in both the foreground and the background; those willing and able to mount physical and spiritual protests at the doors of the abortion clinic as well as those who would pray for them from across town in the prayer room. God wants us to go after the closure of the clinic.
I believe this must be a none-stop 40 day event - not partial, not half-hearted. It must be a complete, total and utter statement of the people's belief that this place should close down. This will not be a "weekend warrior" event like those in the past who held weekend protests, went to jail for the cause, received their own glory and honor from man, and were bailed out to return to work on Monday.
I believe God is asking for a continual 40 days. And I believe he wants to use this event to raise up a generation of teens and young adults into passionate pursuit of the Bridegroom. God wants to use them because they are not afraid yet of what the world thinks of them. Those who are willing, if it comes to it, to be arrested for protesting the abortion clinic and joyfully go off to a weekend of bible reading, prayer and fasting in the jailhouse. If you're arrested and bailed out (I believe God would also set up financial supporters throughout the city to aid this effort also), then you walk out of jail, get picked up and go right back to praying, petitioning, fasting and protesting in front of the abortion clinic. So shall it continue to 40 days. 40 days of unstopping, unrelenting, uncompromising, uninterrupted expression of desire to bring life back to Fort Wayne through prayer seeking God's favor, His forgiveness, His justice...
In your majesty, ride forth!
Come to us. Victorious!
A Strip Club Strategy
January 11, 2007
A vision...
The Lord said we are as Joshua. We have crossed the Jordan and entered the Promised Land. The Lord has promised us this land! It is only up to us to claim and maintain it. But I also heard the Lord say, "There's still Jericho..." There are institutions and strongholds of demonic activity in our city. They have a synergy just like we do. There are demons working together to bring down individuals, families, neighborhoods, and communities and on up the line. The strip clubs are manifestations of this demonic activity. They are not the walls of Jericho, but are representative of those who are on or within it's walls. All we've been doing in praying and working against the strip clubs is shooting arrows over the wall. We are not attacking the wall itself - the foundations of sinfulness that have led to the expansion of the strip clubs. Be it personal, private sin; broken relationships; sexual immorality; lust; divorce; economic hardship (for the girls who work there); these walls need to be broken down.
The point... God says we need seven days of corporate prayer and fasting in which groups will prayer walk around the strip clubs of the city praying strategically that the walls break down upon which the strip clubs rest. There would be prayer also for how God's people can train their hands for war - so we could learn what we ourselves can do... Perhaps God will show us of the need for physical picket-line protests? Perhaps there are business owners who would give good-paying jobs to these girls?
What a wonderful picture of Fort Wayne Transformed!
Picture it... Divorce lawyers choosing not to take divorce cases or (better yet) having to find alternative practices because they aren't getting any business. Strip clubs razed to the ground and, in their place, dance studios where young girls and boys can learn to dance before God! The closure of the abortion clinic!
The Lord is asking us for - and we, as a Church, need this - SEVEN DAYS of prayer and fasting for wisdom and revelation about our role and our ability to close these places down and cleanse our city.
Another thought... Think about this not as doing what's right, as servanthood, as another volunteer effort... No, think of this seven days as an act of WORSHIP before our God... to cleanse our land, to cleanse the House of God (Bethlehem / Fort Wayne, See Previous Post), that the name of our Lord may be known throughout our region and our nation!
EDIT:
God gave me this other picture tonight (1/16/07) of just what the SEVEN DAYS could be and could mean. God wants to raise up warriors; He wants them called out to this event. As God has shown that his desire is prayer for loneliness, broken relationships, sexual immorality, lust, divorce, etc., God said that he not only wants to heal our land but he wants to heal our PEOPLE through this event. God wants us to call forth warriors to prayer and fasting. Those he wants are the people who come from the broken relationships, men and women who've gone through a divorce, children of divorced parents, men who've looked at porn on the internet... people who have been hurt, weighed down and burdened by the sins (represented in the strip clubs) that rae rampant in our community. He wants to use them to pray down these walls and, in the process, to break down their own walls, allowing the River to flow into them and heal their hearts and their souls as He heals our land!
A vision...
The Lord said we are as Joshua. We have crossed the Jordan and entered the Promised Land. The Lord has promised us this land! It is only up to us to claim and maintain it. But I also heard the Lord say, "There's still Jericho..." There are institutions and strongholds of demonic activity in our city. They have a synergy just like we do. There are demons working together to bring down individuals, families, neighborhoods, and communities and on up the line. The strip clubs are manifestations of this demonic activity. They are not the walls of Jericho, but are representative of those who are on or within it's walls. All we've been doing in praying and working against the strip clubs is shooting arrows over the wall. We are not attacking the wall itself - the foundations of sinfulness that have led to the expansion of the strip clubs. Be it personal, private sin; broken relationships; sexual immorality; lust; divorce; economic hardship (for the girls who work there); these walls need to be broken down.
The point... God says we need seven days of corporate prayer and fasting in which groups will prayer walk around the strip clubs of the city praying strategically that the walls break down upon which the strip clubs rest. There would be prayer also for how God's people can train their hands for war - so we could learn what we ourselves can do... Perhaps God will show us of the need for physical picket-line protests? Perhaps there are business owners who would give good-paying jobs to these girls?
What a wonderful picture of Fort Wayne Transformed!
Picture it... Divorce lawyers choosing not to take divorce cases or (better yet) having to find alternative practices because they aren't getting any business. Strip clubs razed to the ground and, in their place, dance studios where young girls and boys can learn to dance before God! The closure of the abortion clinic!
The Lord is asking us for - and we, as a Church, need this - SEVEN DAYS of prayer and fasting for wisdom and revelation about our role and our ability to close these places down and cleanse our city.
Another thought... Think about this not as doing what's right, as servanthood, as another volunteer effort... No, think of this seven days as an act of WORSHIP before our God... to cleanse our land, to cleanse the House of God (Bethlehem / Fort Wayne, See Previous Post), that the name of our Lord may be known throughout our region and our nation!
EDIT:
God gave me this other picture tonight (1/16/07) of just what the SEVEN DAYS could be and could mean. God wants to raise up warriors; He wants them called out to this event. As God has shown that his desire is prayer for loneliness, broken relationships, sexual immorality, lust, divorce, etc., God said that he not only wants to heal our land but he wants to heal our PEOPLE through this event. God wants us to call forth warriors to prayer and fasting. Those he wants are the people who come from the broken relationships, men and women who've gone through a divorce, children of divorced parents, men who've looked at porn on the internet... people who have been hurt, weighed down and burdened by the sins (represented in the strip clubs) that rae rampant in our community. He wants to use them to pray down these walls and, in the process, to break down their own walls, allowing the River to flow into them and heal their hearts and their souls as He heals our land!
The Week of Prayer... Jesus and Our Lampstand
I was given this picture last Thursday I believe as we were in the middle of the week of prayer over Fort Wayne. We had been praying through the seven churches in Revelation and I was given this picture.
The Lord is walking among you, Church of Fort Wayne. He has turned his gaze toward you. He has seen your Lamp, sometimes strongly burning, sometimes wavering to and fro ready to go out. Jesus wants you to know that He has turned to you to give you what you need. He is looking upon you, evaluating you. He has found only one thing lacking - Oil for your lamp. Where is the oil for your lamp, Church of Fort Wayne?
The Lord wants to pour oil onto and into your lamp, Church of Fort Wayne, so that you may shine brighter, stronger, cleaner and purer than you ever have before, and your light will not waver and not go out, ever.
I believe the Lord is seeking a Psalm 23/133 reality. He wants to anoint our heads with oil until our cup overflows and then
SET US ABLAZE!!!
The Lord is walking among you, Church of Fort Wayne. He has turned his gaze toward you. He has seen your Lamp, sometimes strongly burning, sometimes wavering to and fro ready to go out. Jesus wants you to know that He has turned to you to give you what you need. He is looking upon you, evaluating you. He has found only one thing lacking - Oil for your lamp. Where is the oil for your lamp, Church of Fort Wayne?
The Lord wants to pour oil onto and into your lamp, Church of Fort Wayne, so that you may shine brighter, stronger, cleaner and purer than you ever have before, and your light will not waver and not go out, ever.
I believe the Lord is seeking a Psalm 23/133 reality. He wants to anoint our heads with oil until our cup overflows and then
SET US ABLAZE!!!
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Catching Up... One Thing
So I seem to be the last person in my household who has yet to blog about my fascination with One Thing. There's so much still downloading into my brain and (more importantly) into my heart that I don't really know where to begin.
I must say I preferred the teaching above the worship. Wow. I don't really know how I could say that, given the exorbitant party held for Jesus on New Year's Eve. But, yeah, the teaching was profound, intriguing and thought-provoking (very good for a 2L, deep-thinker that I am). There's just so much there. Tidbits...
I attended all four sessions on Leadership (two tracks on Full Time Ministry and two on Called to Leadership) because I think that is where God wants to take me. Anyway, there was one on the Five Fold Ministry (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Preachers, Teachers) where the instructor spent almost two hours and didn't even get to the evangelists, preachers and teachers. The most powerful thing he stated at least to me was at the end when he stated that the key to having, attaining, and/or maintaining one of these "offices" in the church was a foundation in the Sermon on the Mount, on essentially character development before leadership. He talked abit about the book God's Generals and Ted Haggard and other leaders in the church that messed up, forgot their oil, and ended up ruining their respective churches, movements, etc. So I decided that since I am essentially in none of the five roles right now, though I would like to attain to some (apostleship seems the most me), I believe that I will simply focus on character development and filling my cup with oil.
I love Mike Bickle's sermon on the ten virgins, the five with ministries that went out in the middle of the night because they had left their oil behind and the five with lights that never went out because they maintained oil in their lamps. I SOOO was given direction from there in our prayer time back to Psalm 23: Thou anoint my head with oil until my cup overflows. I had a song in my head that was slow and melodic asking the Lord to anoint me with oil followed by a very fast transition to the words "and then SET ME ABLAZE!" God gave me so much at the conference I still don't understand most of it. Two more things, both from the solemn assembly... I felt like three times that I had oil on my hands. Second, I saw this picture of me kneeling down and praying and very literally being a ball of fire, not one that consumed me but one that emanated from me while I was praying. That was cool.
More stuff... Allen Hood talked twice and I love his preaching and I would love to go to the FSM to sit under his wisdom but the more I think about it the more I ask God to simply fill me with His wisdom Himself that I might live out a life of meekness before God and be given my own stories and own experiences from Him. One of the things Allen talked about was preaching in the End-Times and how much the stereotype needs broken of pastors leading small (500 or 1000) member congregations for 30-40 years and then retiring without ever actually doing anything for the Kingdom to true, passionate, bold preachers to the nations who will not stop with the limited scope of 1000 member churches but will truly minister to the nations. Allen also talked about why we aren't that way now, specifically mentioning how lies and deceit have worked their way into our lives and into our churches. For me personally, I can say that when I was growing up I wanted to be a preacher. This was back when I was like seven and saw my Dad and other role models doing it. But then the disqualification came, with me accepting things like how I don't talk right, I'm not eloquent enough, etc. Things like a deacon in my church telling me not to read Revelation because "it's too confusing and you won't understand it" at age 10, a year after I was saved. Anyways, long story short, I believe that I have been told to reclaim this calling to preach (though the whole apostle thing might come later). I want to do things like go back to the church I grew up in and scold them wretchedly about how wrong they were/are and how they need to repent. But I can't do that in love yet so I'm going to wait until then to do that. I'm interested to see what Ben needs of me as part-time/full-time staff.
Oh, when I reach heaven and God asks me what I did during my 70 year internship, my answer will now be "I love Jesus." Not I did this or that (obviously because works don't do it) and not as much "I claim the blood of Jesus" because that mentions Him but now my response to what He did. I will now say "I love Jesus!" (Can I get married now? When does the honeymoon begin? :-)
I must say I preferred the teaching above the worship. Wow. I don't really know how I could say that, given the exorbitant party held for Jesus on New Year's Eve. But, yeah, the teaching was profound, intriguing and thought-provoking (very good for a 2L, deep-thinker that I am). There's just so much there. Tidbits...
I attended all four sessions on Leadership (two tracks on Full Time Ministry and two on Called to Leadership) because I think that is where God wants to take me. Anyway, there was one on the Five Fold Ministry (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Preachers, Teachers) where the instructor spent almost two hours and didn't even get to the evangelists, preachers and teachers. The most powerful thing he stated at least to me was at the end when he stated that the key to having, attaining, and/or maintaining one of these "offices" in the church was a foundation in the Sermon on the Mount, on essentially character development before leadership. He talked abit about the book God's Generals and Ted Haggard and other leaders in the church that messed up, forgot their oil, and ended up ruining their respective churches, movements, etc. So I decided that since I am essentially in none of the five roles right now, though I would like to attain to some (apostleship seems the most me), I believe that I will simply focus on character development and filling my cup with oil.
I love Mike Bickle's sermon on the ten virgins, the five with ministries that went out in the middle of the night because they had left their oil behind and the five with lights that never went out because they maintained oil in their lamps. I SOOO was given direction from there in our prayer time back to Psalm 23: Thou anoint my head with oil until my cup overflows. I had a song in my head that was slow and melodic asking the Lord to anoint me with oil followed by a very fast transition to the words "and then SET ME ABLAZE!" God gave me so much at the conference I still don't understand most of it. Two more things, both from the solemn assembly... I felt like three times that I had oil on my hands. Second, I saw this picture of me kneeling down and praying and very literally being a ball of fire, not one that consumed me but one that emanated from me while I was praying. That was cool.
More stuff... Allen Hood talked twice and I love his preaching and I would love to go to the FSM to sit under his wisdom but the more I think about it the more I ask God to simply fill me with His wisdom Himself that I might live out a life of meekness before God and be given my own stories and own experiences from Him. One of the things Allen talked about was preaching in the End-Times and how much the stereotype needs broken of pastors leading small (500 or 1000) member congregations for 30-40 years and then retiring without ever actually doing anything for the Kingdom to true, passionate, bold preachers to the nations who will not stop with the limited scope of 1000 member churches but will truly minister to the nations. Allen also talked about why we aren't that way now, specifically mentioning how lies and deceit have worked their way into our lives and into our churches. For me personally, I can say that when I was growing up I wanted to be a preacher. This was back when I was like seven and saw my Dad and other role models doing it. But then the disqualification came, with me accepting things like how I don't talk right, I'm not eloquent enough, etc. Things like a deacon in my church telling me not to read Revelation because "it's too confusing and you won't understand it" at age 10, a year after I was saved. Anyways, long story short, I believe that I have been told to reclaim this calling to preach (though the whole apostle thing might come later). I want to do things like go back to the church I grew up in and scold them wretchedly about how wrong they were/are and how they need to repent. But I can't do that in love yet so I'm going to wait until then to do that. I'm interested to see what Ben needs of me as part-time/full-time staff.
Oh, when I reach heaven and God asks me what I did during my 70 year internship, my answer will now be "I love Jesus." Not I did this or that (obviously because works don't do it) and not as much "I claim the blood of Jesus" because that mentions Him but now my response to what He did. I will now say "I love Jesus!" (Can I get married now? When does the honeymoon begin? :-)
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