The Worship Bucket LIst

Found a great blog post through LinkedIn.

10 Bucket Wishes for Worship Before I Die

How often do we just go through the motions of church. The Sunday morning pre-game rush. Personally, I dislike the Sunday-get-ready-for-church-hurry-up-eat-your-breakfast-we're-going-to-be-late routine. Not the best mood to be in when I get to church service and need to get ready to worship.

#11 Arrange ahead of time to meet in the woods or at a farm (non-church member's) and through the week, secretly get the word out to where to meet and when, but there's one more catch..... everybody needs to arrive at different times and from different directions, so it's a secret meeting. Perhaps meet under the cover of darkness at night. Welcome to how many of brothers and sisters meet to worship.


What's on your Worship Bucket List? Get out there and do it.

The BibleStick

Just in time for Marine Corp Day & Veterans Day

As we take the time to remember those who sacrificed for our freedoms, lets give back to those who are serving now.

Christian ministry plans Veterans Day salute

USA (MNN) -- November 11 is Veterans Day, an annual American holiday honoring military veterans. It's a good time to remember the troops who face danger daily. The love of Christ is bringing hope. Troy Carl with Faith Comes By Hearing says the "iPod" generation is responding positively to the military BibleStick. In fact, "We really hope that people will take this opportunity to sponsor a soldier, provide the pure Scripture that meets their challenges and helps give them comfort in their time of need." A BibleStick is a digital audio player loaded with an Audio Drama New Testament, specially geared for combat zones. The response? "Over 22,000 military BibleSticks have been distributed through chaplains all around the world, and it's having a tremendous impact. Of course, now they're saying, 'Give us more!'" Hundreds have requested one, only to find that they're already gone. How can you help? Carl says, "You can sponsor a soldier with a military stick for $25, and that also includes our ministry providing an audio Bible on disk to their loved one."

Re-immergence

It's a little ironic now the last post was entitled "The Vanishing Point" and that of all the blog posts here, that one got a comment.

There is too much to update, so here is a summary: Life is almost back to normal. I'm not sure what that is, but it sounds good. It won't be normal for long. We are having another baby!

I hope you're still breathing and reading. We've taken the mantle of the kids program that runs concurrently with Mom2Mom, twice a month. Elaine is also spearheading Good News Club at one of the Syracuse Schools.
I'm going to assist with the Wednesday night and run games. Our studio is still willing to help out your church ministry, same as always. In fact we'll be looking to shoot some video very soon on a project for Syracuse Alliance.

October is here, and October is Clergy Appreciation month. So in appreciation of our clergy, we are offering a free professional portrait of the pastor, him and his family and a headshot. The portraits will be available for free download and printing. If you are in the Syracuse area, or could be, or in central New York and not far away from Syracuse, give us a call.

The confused role

I started writing this post in a kilt. The traditional garb of the Gaelic warrior. I felt a connection to those long faded memories of warriors. The Scots fought in WWII in their kilts and routed Germans in their fierceness. They fought off the English for years in the cold highlands of Scotland.
I did several Google searches for "kilt" and found it fascinating.
Until very recent men wore unbifubricated garments and in some countries they still do, just not in America (the western hemisphere).
No I don't have a camo kilt. It's a utilikilt mocker.
Our youth today are bombarded with sex. It's has worked its way into everything around us. It drives advertising, whether it is overt, or subtle. We also want to sanitize our gender play. No guns, dolls and dress up are for both boys and girls. We can't accept that we are inherently wired completely different. Girls want to nurture and boys want to hunt and conquer. By the way, that's no girly man in the picture, that's all masculine man competing in a Scottish games.

This is our confusion.

How do we clarify?

Well as I wore my kilt and let the visions of Celtic and Scottish warriors battle an intriguing idea came to me. We as a church have not come to the place where we celebrate boyhood and manhood. Do we take time as men to interact with the boys, man-to-male? Do we mentor them? Who teaches the boys at church? Men? Or is it a few dedicated older ladies? How about our teen boys. At the time they most need men and are stumbling along fledging away from their parents, who is reaching out to them? When they come of age, do we celebrate their manhood? Many cultures have a coming of age celebration. The Jewish boys have a bar miztva. The Aborigines have a walk-about. The Native Americans had a vision-quest.

Perhaps we need to reach into our deep past and create a modern-day celebration of manhood.

Here's some interesting links about rites of passage: Circle of Life and Rite of passage. I do not necessarily espouse their beliefs or opinions.

I just finished reading Jon Krakauer, "Where Men Win Glory" a biography of Pat Tillman. "Pat Tillman walked away from a multi-million dollar NFL contract to join the Army and became an icon of post 9/11 patriotism. When he was killed in Afghanistan two years later, he became a tool for the White House propaganda. Thus a legend was born. But the real Pat Tillman was much more remarkable, and considerably more complicated, than the fiction sold to the public."
Spoiler alert: This is a raw telling of war and life in war. It as much a political statement against the American leadership at the time as a biography.
Krakauer quotes Lee Harris' "The Suicide of Reason" in the post script.

"The problem is not that Fukuyama is dead wrong; the problem is that he is half right. Unfortunately for us, the wrong half. In the West, we are perilously getting down to our last man. Liberal democracy, among us, is achieving the goal that Fukuyama predicted for it: It is eliminating the alpha males from our midst, and at a dizzyingly accelerating rate. But in Muslim societies, the alpha male is still alive and well. While in America we are drugging our alpha boys with Ritalin, the Muslims are doing everything in their power to encourage their boys to be tough, aggressive, and ruthless... We are proud if our sons get into a good college; they are proud if their sons die as martyrs."

What do we want for our boys? Good college and a comparable lifestyle, or do we need to shun the status quo and foster in our boys adventure, courage, discipline, ruggedness and devotion to follow God's call, even to martyrdom?

Vanishing Point

I stumbled upon a soul searching question in a writing/marketing blog.

"If your church disappeared from the neighborhood, and in essence didn’t exist in your community, who would notice?"

Let that question sink in and grab a tall cup of coffee to plumb its depth. Here's the article by Ryan Imel at Copyblogger. Take a few minutes to read it and then come on back for a few thoughts about disappearing churches.

This post has been on the back burner a long time.

Is my church effectively reaching it's target? If we closed up "shop" would people miss us? Would they find another place to worship God, or would they fall away? That's a test of depth of ministry.
Is my church different that the 2 dozen other evangelical churches in the neighborhood? Am I reaching a culture group effectively, or am I broadcasting and hoping someone is listening?
Is this ministry filling a need of ministry or a need for me to feel important?

Do people really listen. An interesting survey was just released and people are very comfortable being invited to church (especially around Easter) by a friend. Do we invite friends? Do we have friends that don't attend church?

Many are concerned about the political movement away from conservatism and judeo-christian ethics. We've got no one to blame but ourselves.

I had an interesting conversation with an old friend. His kids were so busy playing church, they fell off the boat. They both have children out of wedlock and are not attending or involved in a church. From my generation about 1990 to the present we have lost our focus. We have played church so long, we don't know what the real thing is. Our youth have suffered. They have lost their way and are adrift on the open sea of relativism and moral ambiguity.

Man the rescue boat. We need to venture out on the high seas.

Ichabod

"She named the boy Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed"" I Samuel 4:21

It. You got to have it as a ministry. You can't buy it, you can't earn it, you can catch it, you can realize one day that you've had it, or you can realize that somewhere along the way you lost it.
That's where I find myself. Having just read It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It, by Craig Groeschel. I find myself having lost it.
I've been flying by the seat of my pants, stressed out, missing appointments with God and I'm flat out grounded and broke. I have tried for the last two years to read through the Bible. I made it about half way through. I've decided that I will press on, I hope to read the second half in half a year, but even if I finish in a year, I've done it, straight through once.
I feel as though the creative juices have dried up, but I know that's not entirely true. They're just drier in the desert, the well has to be cleaned out and dug deeper. The past 9 months have seen a lot of struggles and changes in our lives and I'm just starting to get a handle on some of them. I plan to write something each week in each blog. Our photography studio is off to a slow start, but I am hopeful with some of our unique marketing, we'll grow our market share.

Snowmen

As another snow event comes through and I contemplate shoveling its good just to stop and reflect: We love and hate the snow. It's beautiful and has a calming action in our life. Things tend to slow down. We hate because we have to go and move, we drive slower, we have accidents, things get canceled. The kids love it, they whiz down hills on their sleds, pelt each other with snowballs and build snowmen.
We are a lot like snowmen. We are short lived, temporal beings. We are stubborn (ever try to move a snowman?). We let the world around us make us who we are, and put the smile or frown on out face. We can be looking good on the outside, but we're still dirty on the inside, a snow flake forms around a tiny speck of dirt.
Snowmen have all different personalities, short and fat, tall and lean, large and small, straight and crooked. Some hat top hats, some baseball caps, some long pointy noses and some short squatty noses, some where sun glasses and scarves and some just a pair of mittens.
We are like snowmen in how we are all different in shape and personality. We are all unique and special to God. Next time you see a snowman, remember were a lot alike. Maybe when it snows round up the kids and build a snowman or two.

Family Day!

I took Saturday off from everything to spend a day with all my girls. We went on about a 200 mile odyssey around central New York. Here's some of the sights we saw along the way.

From Fall Falls Tour

Mesmerized.

From Fall Falls Tour

From the bottom.

From Fall Falls Tour

Old meets new in the wind farm.

From Fall Falls Tour

Cascades.

From Fall Falls Tour

What a view!

From Fall Falls Tour

Dunes in CNY?!?!

From Fall Falls Tour

Golden Harvest.

From Fall Falls Tour

I don't see any salmon!?!

From Fall Falls Tour

Daddy and his girl.

From Fall Falls Tour

A beautiful end to a beautiful day.

From Fall Falls Tour

Sunset. Time to go home.

Diversity and Community

I attended the world premiere of Tales from the Salt City. Thanks to Syracuse.com for the picture Here's what Syracuse Stage had to say about the production:

Tales From the Salt City
Conceived and directed by Ping Chong October 14 – November 2
World Premiere
A powerful exploration of the changing face of Syracuse
through an interview-based theatre work, Don't Look Back
presents the first hand narratives of citizens of Syracuse—both
recent arrivals and long-standing residents—who are in some
way living outside the dominant culture. Created by theatrical
innovator Ping Chong and constructed as a chamber piece of
storytelling, the performance features real people telling their
personal experiences of creating cultural identity out of rich
and complex histories. Ping Chong continues the compelling
work he has done throughout the United States exploring the
divergent lives that make up our communities. These stories
will carry us around the globe and bring us home with a
more complete understanding of how the world out there
is the world right here.

It was really very good. It's about how each of us bring our past and culture to where we are now and it forms us and gives us a framework for social interaction. From a missions perspective, we are missing the boat. We have not done a good job understanding the mix of culture and "old world community" that these people have. Here's a short list of who's who in the play. Some of these people have been here for a long time and some haven't. But if we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus, we forgot some people groups: Hispanics, Latinos, Blacks, Cambodians, Eastern Europeans, and First Nation People. in all of their cultures there is an element that leads into the goodness of the gospel. In these seven individuals, there is an event that Jesus can heal their wounds and calm their life storms. The other underlying theme is the lack of good community in Syracuse. In some way they each expressed a loss for the community they had before and didn't find in Syracuse. It's a report card on Syracuse, we failed.
I'm no Ping Chong, but I'd like to rewrite the play to have seven martyrs/prisoners (Jesus freaks) and then take it to churches for missions education and motivation.

The moment it converges!

Coincidence, no. Divine convergence, yes. Several things have converged in my life, I attended a seminar "Breaking the 500 Barrier", I really got know and understand the words of "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath and I read "Who Stole My Church?" by Gordon MacDonald.
First of all, if that title, "Who Stole My Church?" is something you're asking yourself, then you need to read the book. If it intrigues you, then you need to read the book and if you're a leader, then you need to read the book.
What are we doing to re-focus the church to go beyond the four walls? The church is not for those inside it's fold, but the lost still outside. How do we get them inside? We need to have Jesus' eyes and Jesus' arms and Jesus hands to see them, love them and serve them. We knock down the barriers by making our church a place of relevance to the lost. The message doesn't change, but the way we reach out, changes.
Ours is a post-modern world, a scary place where people don't have a basic understanding of Judeo-Christian thought patterns. They are wandering in the dark, and their are many lights that beckon them. The question is what is our local light doing to attract them?

"Let's go for a ride!"

I saw a motorcycle going down the road one day and on the back was a girl, maybe 10 holding on to her dad, her head was turned and she was clinging to the one thing she could. She couldn't see where they were going, she could only see what was going past and hear the motor rev, and feel the bike race along. Sometimes when life doesn't make sense, God's just revving the motorcycle and telling us to hang on to Him. It has been an amazing, scary, faith building last four months. It feels like our family exploded in size. It did almost double with Gwen and Shaniah coming. I changed jobs, and started two small businesses. God has provided at just the right time all the way through, we were getting low on diapers for two and a friend has helped us out 4 times! To our friend: Thanks, we really appreciate it. Our one small business is picking up and generating the income that we need from that. We pray that it continues to grow. As for our other business, it's a crowded market, it's going to take awhile, but we're looking at some creative marketing ideas and doing some pro-bono work to hopefully generate some interest.
As we head into winter, we are excited to see where this wild ride is going.

Working with one hand

A shovel in one hand, a defense in the other: Armed with an umbrella in my left hand, and a camping shovel in my right, battled the rain. It came down in buckets which is why I was out there, one tent was on one side of the campsite, the other tent was on the other side, but the rain came down the hill, crossed the road, and drained all across the campsite. The water was pooling up on the uphill side of the tents. It was only a matter of time, before my girls were sleeping in water. I trenched around the tents, but it was much like New Orleans during Katrina, there was so much water the trench was full and levees couldn't hold back the water very well. I trenched again, and again, I was soaked, but the girls slept on in the tents. I worked at it for a long time. When I was done, my hand wouldn't open up. It had gripped the shovel so firmly, it was nearly frozen in place.
It reminded me of Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem. The people were under the threat of attack. He armed the workers, a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other to keep rebuilding the wall.

Nehemiah 4:16-18
"From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me."

That's hard work, using only one hand just to scratch a ditch in some hard packed sand, they were carrying boulders and rock and mortar! This was not a human effort, only God could have sustained the work one handed. For He is able His strong arm is our shield and our refuge in a time of need.

II Samuel 23:9-10 (NIV)
"Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty men, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim for battle. Then the men of Israel retreated, but he stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead."

My hand didn't save many, or a whole field of grain, but it saved three girls from sleeping in water (and myself).
When your strength gives out, God's strength begins.

God's Fireworks

In ancient times they were considered omens. Some cultures saw them as bad and some good. I think it's easier to think of them as God's fireworks. In this case, I didn't even see it with my own eye! I've enhanced the image, so you could see it better.
It reminds me of how small I am and how big God is. He's taking care of us each day at a time.

Psalm 19

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

God is so big, and so good to us. He's still holding the world in the palm of His hand and has not grown weary or old. To me, there are no accidents (just convergence - that's for another post), there are divine appointments. I actually had two pictures back to back of a meteor! Two meteors, wow!
This summer take time to get away from the busy life, get away from the lights and see the awesomeness of what God has created reflecting the awesomeness of Him. Take a drive out into the country on a clear night, and gaze up into the open heavens.

C.S. Lewis wrote "Perelandra" the second book in his Space Trilogy. The king and queen there, the first man and wife (an Adam and Eve typology for you theological seminarians) were facing a very difficult temptation with the introduction of humans in the form of an evil physicist and his rocket.
Ransom, the main character is transported by "spiritual" beings to Venus to deal with mess that is about to occur, which will corrupt another planet forever. In essence Venus is a second Eden.
In Perelandra, the king and queen could not fathom looking beyond the golden dome of the sky to see the naked heavens and the greater universe that they live in.
It has a great ending, but I recommend reading the trilogy in order for it too make the most sense and even though they can stand alone, their is a far greater story by bringing them together.
Get out and enjoy our naked heavens, where God is the master artist who paints in fine strokes, the wonder and grandeur of the universe.

Cardboard testimony

A sermon about an indescribable, unfathomable, incomprehensible, all powerful God who comes into our lives and does what cannot be done to bring glory and honor to His Name.

This begs the question: If we did this at at my church, what would happen?

Unfocused Eyes

I was holding our new little Gwen, (7 lbs 11.5 oz, 20 inches) She finally opened her eyes so we could see more than a slit. She was searching for my voice, Dad was somewhere out there, just beyond sight. It is an interesting fact that babies can only focus their eyes a few inches out.
Here she was searching for the voice of her father, who loves her and will care for her, more than any other man in her life. I have her matching ID bracelet. Only her parents can access her and take her from the hospital. If anyone tries, the whole floor gets locked down! The elevators stop working!
There's only one relationship that has more love, more safety, and more security that than: God as our heavenly father loves us so much that no one can take us from His hand. His hand never grows tired or weak, and nothing has the power to snatch us away.
As gazed into her eyes of slate blue gray, she wanted to see me, she wanted to know who loved her so much, it hurt. Do I want to see God like that, knowing that He's there and loves me, holds me and cares about everything about my life. I can't focus on Him, because I can't see Him.
Do my spiritual eyes improve as I grow? Yes, but I'm myopic. Myopia which is the noun from which we get the adjective is defined by Miriam-Webster's as 1 : a condition in which the visual images come to a focus in front of the retina of the eye resulting especially in defective vision of distant objects 2 : a lack of foresight or discernment : a narrow view of something.
I'll admit it, I am. God take away my myopia and focus my eyes on You.

Hope for the future

There is hope for the future. As I sat in the hospital holding our little Gwen Adele, I cried. I thought of who she might become. A woman someday who loves God. For now, her little eyes just peeked open, unfocused, trying to understand this new world of light, cold, and swaddling. I got on my spiritual knees and prayed that I would be the father she needs, that I could slay the dragons at the beginning of her life and protect her from evil with God's help.
April been a very difficult month for our family, but God's timing is perfect on everything. He has never let the righteous go hungry (or eat cat food). But holding my new little girl, who barely opens her eyes, there is hope for what God is going to do. April may have been a dark canyon, but May is the golden morning sunshine of a new chapter.
As I drove into the hospital and listened to KLOVE. I heard a listener story, she had lost a baby at 5 months and she gave it all to God. God gave her the peace that what had been taken away would be restored of her future daughter-in-laws, one has the same name of the daughter they lost and one's birthday was the day she was due. I remembered how we lost the first pregnancy very early on, and how many times we nearly lost Moriah during her pregnancy. God has been very good, no real complications, a great OB office, we had an awesome midwife, and got a 2 for 1 deal on doulas. Those two doulas worked hard and stayed with Elaine the whole the time. The early labor was long, but the end was quick and Gwen has a whole head of curly brown hair! Dad finally got to cut the umbilical cord. Elaine got to hold her prize, Gwen, a few seconds after birth.
It seems to me, what the locusts have eaten, God is beginning to restore.

Joel 2:24-26
24 The threshing floors will again be piled high with grain,
and the presses will overflow with new wine and olive oil.
25 The Lord says, “I will give you back what you lost
to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts,
the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts.
It was I who sent this great destroying army against you.
26 Once again you will have all the food you want,
and you will praise the Lord your God,
who does these miracles for you.
Never again will my people be disgraced.

This is what God is doing in our life. He has begun to restore what we have lost. Sometimes this is hard to see, when we're in the midst of turmoil. I had to sit and hold Gwen to slow down long enough to see God working, to hear Him speak in a still small voice. Yes, its been that busy.
Is the road ahead free from trouble and easy? Probably not, but for a moment, I was offered a glimpse beyond the here and now to where my family is going in this adventure called life.

Train for Battle

Psalm 144:1
Praise be to the LORD my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.

When I first stumbled across this verse, I thought, "Wow, cool verse!" Then I began to think more about it, and then I wondered what translation they had used, this is the NIV for those that like to keep track. I wanted to be sure that I had a solid translation, so I could understand it, and the context, why would David write it?

Are we trained? Have we allowed to God to train us? How do we do battle? How do we fight? We fight not with physical swords and shields (lots of fun to play with sharp pointy objects, check out the nearest Renaissance Faire), but we wrestle with powers and principalities that we cannot see.

It is a spiritual fight. Actually its easier than we think, but it's the toughest thing we'll ever do:

• It's easier than we think because the battle's already been won. The penalty has been paid by Jesus on the cross.
• It's the toughest thing we'll ever do, because we are so easily fooled into complacency by the enemy, lured into compliance with sin by our old nature.

What's this contrast, then and how does letting God train our fingers for battle? For me it is the gift of a sharp technical mind combined with a gift of writing (not world class like Solzhenitsyn), but hopefully improving. One of the things I set out to do about a year ago was to write a story for our daughter explaining the deeper truths of being a child of God. She is a full heir to the kingdom, because she has accepted Jesus as Savior. What the project became was a story, Princess Afeicta is Named an Heir, a renaissance princess (her alter-ego) is named an heir to the kingdom, even though she is a daughter. I've posted it to WordPress so you can access it, personalize it and print it out to read to your daughter(s).

What's your fingers trained to do?

Bruised, but not destroyed

Isaiah 42:3
A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

Here I am sitting at my home computer, just a couple of days after being let go from where I worked. Actually as I work through the shock, I feel the gorilla is off my back. I don't know what tomorrow holds, or where I'll be working, but that's ok. God's taking care of us and doing a fine job.

* Thank you Lord that we have all the baby items in hand and paid for, before she comes.
* Thank the Lord that we have paid off 2 debts and if work is found, will pay off the third by June.
* Thank the Lord, that we can pay all the bills to the end of the month.
* Thank the Lord that our doctor's office gave us a 4 month supply of asthma medicine for Moriah ($400), and wrote out a prescription for 1 month as well.
* All the prescriptions and 3 doctor's visits were covered on the very last day of coverage.
* I can look forward to my weekend, with my girls(2 1/2 and one on the way).
* My wife is at a ladies retreat, and they are just loving her and lifting her up.
* I was able to back up any critical items on the laptop, to other media, so that we lost very little data.
* Already there are employment options opening up.
* Believers are rallying around us, and let us know they care.

The specter that has loomed from the end of last year has left. I was getting drained quickly, having been on the go, for far too long. Perhaps, I'll find some job that I like even better, helping people with their energy use. Perhaps, God will lead me out of this field altogether and into full time ministry.

I'm a blind man, led by the Lord, Himself. Waiting is hard, but He has only plans to prosper us. Prosper not to wealth and fame, but prosper in the faith. I rest in His love and grace. Tomorrow the blind steps of faith will come, and we'll set off on a new journey.

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Update 4/11/07

It's been a week. God has been good. I have had a couple of interviews. One might pan out to something.

Praises:
*Health Insurance is still in force, covered a doctor's visit and prescription.
*Generous friends have helped us along the way.
*Part time/Consultant work is something I can do immediately.

Prayer:
*We are going to try and maintain the health insurance through a COBRA until the baby is born, through some generous friends.
*Business sense to understand how to run a business of my own if this is one of the next steps.
*Return calls from other contacts I've left messages with.
*Waiting is hard.


Waiting upon the Lord is very hard for me, I'm a go do it kind of person.

Psalm 130:5-6
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,

I know the path is dark, but the light will come in the morning and then we'll see clearly and know the way to take.

Jump to the update.

The Ripple Effect

The world focus has been on the Middle East. The rippling has gone out from there. Turkey, India, Tibet, Lebanon, Algeria, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Iran, and Papua New Guinea have been in recent mission headlines. It is interesting to note that most of these countries are in or touch the 10-40 window.
The clash between major world cultures, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism seems to have increased. As we have our men in harm's way to build a democracy in the middle east, there are many that would like to crush the freedom. I'm treading on dangerous ground, politics and religion, so bear with me:

God's Spirit is on the move, He will bring people from every tribe, every nation, every tongue into His kingdom and when we sit paralyzed at the thought of danger, God's plan keeps going without us.

Matthew 28:18-20 The Great Commission

18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

The command is go, through out the history of the world God has used those who went, despite the circumstances, the finances, the dangers, the sacrifices. Those that went wholeheartedly, sacrificially, determined, and called by God -- those He has raised up, and blessed them, through generations. Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Brother Andrew, Jim and Roni Bowers, these are people who made a difference in the world and their children, their disciples children have been blessed by the sacrifice.
The announcers on the Christian radio station were having fun, seeing who was related to famous people. To be part of the legacy is exciting, but how much greater is it, when we leave a legacy for our children, and their children. Yes, I am blessed to be related to Roger Williams and all that he stood for in his day and all that he did, he was a righteous man, but how much greater is the legacy that my daughters will take from me and give to their children.
I had a long conversation with a ministry friend, he asked a lot of tough questions about ministry. We need to have passion, calling and desire to stir up those around us, to make waves, to further the kingdom. We should be making waves in our world, that go out to those around us, they will see that we live what we believe, we trust in a God that we can not see, but we know

Are you floating in the ripples or are you making waves?

The Power of a Name

I was reading in Mark 1 about Jesus casting out a demon.

21They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24"What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"

25"Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

27The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." 28News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

What's in the power of a Name? Jesus knew this demon, because He had created it as an angelic being. They knew each other intimately from before Satan's rebellion, and casting out of heaven. The lines are blurred from the natural to the supernatural: Jesus sees the man, controlled by the demon, and he sees the demon, a rebellious angel. He speaks to the demon, and they converse briefly. Redemption for angels was not in the plan.

In today's world, this conversation between Jesus and the demon may have been like this:
"Jesus, what do you want from us? Please don't send us into eternal condemnation yet. We know who you are, even in the human form."
"I wanted to esteem you, but you rebelled. For you there is no hope. Do not speak my name. Leave that man, for him there is hope, there is salvation through me. Your time has not yet ended. My Spirit is over this man, now."
Upset, but grateful the demon still had it's life intact, it shrieked and came out of the man in search of another host.

God is intimately knowledgeable of His creation, for though He spoke it into existence, each creature is uniquely made by Him. Each creature is designed and brought to life to worship God. Sadly, not all have wanted to return His love.

Whose name do we whisper? Whose name do we draw power from? Whose name do we obey? Who do we listen and heed when He calls? Do we obey because of love, or because we are compelled by His power?