Friends,
Stephen Shirley's dad got me on a mailing list for this dude that LOVES Thomas Merton. He includes excerpts from his writing.
I liked the questions this one raised, thought you would too. How do you handle/approach the Word of God?
"There is, in a word, nothing comfortable about the Bible -- until we manage to get so used to it that we make it comfortable for ourselves.But then we are perhaps to0 used to it and too at home in it. Let us notbe too sure we know the Bible just because we have learned not to beastonished at it, just because we have learned not to have problems withit. Have we perhaps learned at the same time not to really payattention to it? Have we ceased to question the book and be questionedby it? Have we ceased to fight it? Then perhaps our reading is nolonger serious."(OPENING THE BIBLE, page 37)
11/6/06
6/30/06
X3 Church
Brothers,
Check out the blog entries from www.xxxchurch.com regarding EROTICA, the LA PORN SHOW. They attended their 4th year at EROTICA, the LA Porn Show. They handed out THE MESSAGE New Testaments with a JESUS LOVES PORN STARS logo on it. Got 3000, YES 3000 Bibles into the hands of folks in the porn business and at the porn show. WOW!!!! Read their three day exploits below....Incredible stuff. Guys, the truth is the ENEMY OWNS the sexual territory of our world's hearts, and a lot of our own. Read about these guys, pray for these guys (Eric, Brian and I met Craig in Clermont, we can vouch for them, great hearts), support them. Order a JLP bible, contribute online......I allowed the enemy to destroy a family and hurt a community and demolish my own heart because of porn....I DO NOT want to see that happen in others lives.....I just love these guys, not in spite of their kooky antics, but for who they are INCLUDING their seemingly CRAZY approaches.
Let's face it fellow warriors....This battle IS radical, and we are going to have to RADICALLY change our approach to it. We are going to have to quit telling folks to just ACT better, to just QUIT participating in sexual sin and TAKE THE HEART OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST TO THEM. Just sharing my heart. Love to you all..
Check out the blog entries from www.xxxchurch.com regarding EROTICA, the LA PORN SHOW. They attended their 4th year at EROTICA, the LA Porn Show. They handed out THE MESSAGE New Testaments with a JESUS LOVES PORN STARS logo on it. Got 3000, YES 3000 Bibles into the hands of folks in the porn business and at the porn show. WOW!!!! Read their three day exploits below....Incredible stuff. Guys, the truth is the ENEMY OWNS the sexual territory of our world's hearts, and a lot of our own. Read about these guys, pray for these guys (Eric, Brian and I met Craig in Clermont, we can vouch for them, great hearts), support them. Order a JLP bible, contribute online......I allowed the enemy to destroy a family and hurt a community and demolish my own heart because of porn....I DO NOT want to see that happen in others lives.....I just love these guys, not in spite of their kooky antics, but for who they are INCLUDING their seemingly CRAZY approaches.
Let's face it fellow warriors....This battle IS radical, and we are going to have to RADICALLY change our approach to it. We are going to have to quit telling folks to just ACT better, to just QUIT participating in sexual sin and TAKE THE HEART OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST TO THEM. Just sharing my heart. Love to you all..
4/3/06
Don't Hang Around in Graveyards
(posted from our Dec. Newsletter)
A friend recently shared with me the theme of what God has been teaching him. It was this, “Don’t hang around in graveyards.” This clarified some of what God had been teaching us as well. While God does have a knack for resurrections, he also specializes in life. Isn’t life the whole reason for resurrection? LIFE… He breathed it into Adam. He came to bring “life abundant”. His Son is the “way, truth, and life, the bread of life”. The word life is mentioned over 500 times in the Bible (NIV).
Life breeds life. To share life is to share our stories. That is how life is revealed. Through the highs that we easily recognize as life and the near death lows we learn to recognize life in its fullness. However, to share our stories, we must first know them ourselves.
Knowing our own stories is what a lot of this last year and a half (and really the last 3) has been about for us. We are really learning to search through our own stories and look through the themes God has allowed to unfold to fully understand where and who we are. And it has been tough at times. But somehow it brings life. Not the problems-solved- in-thirty-minutes-sitcom-life, but life nonetheless.
Graveyards make us think gray. But life is wholly beautiful when painted with the full palate of colors and emotions. We don’t always like that, but it is true. We like the bright colors, but try to avoid the darker ones. But often times they are the ones that give life definition. They provide the contrast, the edges, and the borders that make a life robust and beautiful.
Are you hanging out in a graveyard? How do you know? Have you ever taken a real look at your environment? Look around. What do you hear, see, taste, smell, and feel? Do you hear the rumblings of death? Do you smell the stench of it? Do you taste its sourness each morning when you awake? Do you feel its weight as you walk through the day? Are you living in the land of fear, darkness, and whispers? Does all around you seem gray, stagnant, and devoid of life? Are those who surround you digging graves? Is cool clear water hard to come by? Maybe you think this is just how it is. But it’s not the way it was intended.
OR….Are you experiencing the transformation of life? How do you know? Are you growing rather than wilting? What about those around you? Are they experiencing life? Do you see colors? Are they ever increasingly vibrant and deep? Is there plenty of water? Do you find laughter, tears, smiles and scowls? Are there birth pains? Yes, life is painful. Abundant life is demanding.
How will you know if you don’t look around?
Most likely, if you are like us, your life seems to be like Pleasantville. Parts of it still seem gray and unchanged. BUT much more of it than ever before is coming alive in full vibrant Technicolor ® And somehow as your life becomes more….well…ALIVE, those around you do so as well. Yes, your life gives us life. And hopefully, our lives give you life. And all of this comes from The One who is life and gives life. We find it interesting that another word for the Holy Spirit is breath. Necessary for life, not so much for death.
What are we saying? Take stock of where you hang out, where you live. Look back and see how you got there (look all the way back to your beginning). Look forward and know that where you live today directly affects where you will live tomorrow.
Ask God for insight into all of this. Then ask him to move you ever increasingly toward life. Know your story. Share your story. Share in the stories of others. Give life. And live in places that give life.
A friend recently shared with me the theme of what God has been teaching him. It was this, “Don’t hang around in graveyards.” This clarified some of what God had been teaching us as well. While God does have a knack for resurrections, he also specializes in life. Isn’t life the whole reason for resurrection? LIFE… He breathed it into Adam. He came to bring “life abundant”. His Son is the “way, truth, and life, the bread of life”. The word life is mentioned over 500 times in the Bible (NIV).
Life breeds life. To share life is to share our stories. That is how life is revealed. Through the highs that we easily recognize as life and the near death lows we learn to recognize life in its fullness. However, to share our stories, we must first know them ourselves.
Knowing our own stories is what a lot of this last year and a half (and really the last 3) has been about for us. We are really learning to search through our own stories and look through the themes God has allowed to unfold to fully understand where and who we are. And it has been tough at times. But somehow it brings life. Not the problems-solved- in-thirty-minutes-sitcom-life, but life nonetheless.
Graveyards make us think gray. But life is wholly beautiful when painted with the full palate of colors and emotions. We don’t always like that, but it is true. We like the bright colors, but try to avoid the darker ones. But often times they are the ones that give life definition. They provide the contrast, the edges, and the borders that make a life robust and beautiful.
Are you hanging out in a graveyard? How do you know? Have you ever taken a real look at your environment? Look around. What do you hear, see, taste, smell, and feel? Do you hear the rumblings of death? Do you smell the stench of it? Do you taste its sourness each morning when you awake? Do you feel its weight as you walk through the day? Are you living in the land of fear, darkness, and whispers? Does all around you seem gray, stagnant, and devoid of life? Are those who surround you digging graves? Is cool clear water hard to come by? Maybe you think this is just how it is. But it’s not the way it was intended.
OR….Are you experiencing the transformation of life? How do you know? Are you growing rather than wilting? What about those around you? Are they experiencing life? Do you see colors? Are they ever increasingly vibrant and deep? Is there plenty of water? Do you find laughter, tears, smiles and scowls? Are there birth pains? Yes, life is painful. Abundant life is demanding.
How will you know if you don’t look around?
Most likely, if you are like us, your life seems to be like Pleasantville. Parts of it still seem gray and unchanged. BUT much more of it than ever before is coming alive in full vibrant Technicolor ® And somehow as your life becomes more….well…ALIVE, those around you do so as well. Yes, your life gives us life. And hopefully, our lives give you life. And all of this comes from The One who is life and gives life. We find it interesting that another word for the Holy Spirit is breath. Necessary for life, not so much for death.
What are we saying? Take stock of where you hang out, where you live. Look back and see how you got there (look all the way back to your beginning). Look forward and know that where you live today directly affects where you will live tomorrow.
Ask God for insight into all of this. Then ask him to move you ever increasingly toward life. Know your story. Share your story. Share in the stories of others. Give life. And live in places that give life.
3/24/06
GO, DO, TAKE ACTION
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genuine power…in it. Begin it now.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Many of us are often paralyzed by the scope of our hopes, dreams, and calling. Why is this? One reason may be that these things are so far beyond what we think can actually be done. We believe that they are beyond us, or require more faith than we have. When, in fact, they may only require the ACTION that we have yet to take. A bold movement FORWARD. Some of you are reading this and feel as if I am writing it to you. Maybe even feeling a little picked on or singled out. Well good. That means you are probably stuck too.
Yes I said “too”. The reason I even began typing these words is that I need them. And if they are something I need, since we all share remarkably similar themes within our stories, it is probably something we both need.
Wounds, lies, and vows (agreements, contracts) with and from the Enemy are what keep us from moving. We are paralyzed by them. But that need not be. How might you feel toward a man sitting in a wheelchair unable to move his arms and legs? Pity? Compassion? “Bless his heart”? Picture that same man in that same wheelchair because he was unwilling, not unable to move his arms and legs. A man that had been healed, or never actually paralyzed, sitting there immobile. How would you feel toward that man? What advice would you give that man?
We are “burning daylight”. There is a “whole stream of events” that will issue from a choice to move that will raise “in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way”.
I find it telling that Jesus’ invitation and direction usually involved movement, action. “Come follow Me.” “Go into all the world, making disciples…baptizing….teaching” Paul encouraged boldness in Timothy for we did not receive a “spirit of timidity”.
While there is great value in silence and introspection, and “waiting on the Lord”, all of which there is biblical direction for, we can often call our inaction some or all of the above. There are hopes, dreams, projects, and life callings that are awaiting us to say the word “Yes” and get up and do the word “GO”.
So “…Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genuine power…in it. Begin it now. TAKE ACTION.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Many of us are often paralyzed by the scope of our hopes, dreams, and calling. Why is this? One reason may be that these things are so far beyond what we think can actually be done. We believe that they are beyond us, or require more faith than we have. When, in fact, they may only require the ACTION that we have yet to take. A bold movement FORWARD. Some of you are reading this and feel as if I am writing it to you. Maybe even feeling a little picked on or singled out. Well good. That means you are probably stuck too.
Yes I said “too”. The reason I even began typing these words is that I need them. And if they are something I need, since we all share remarkably similar themes within our stories, it is probably something we both need.
Wounds, lies, and vows (agreements, contracts) with and from the Enemy are what keep us from moving. We are paralyzed by them. But that need not be. How might you feel toward a man sitting in a wheelchair unable to move his arms and legs? Pity? Compassion? “Bless his heart”? Picture that same man in that same wheelchair because he was unwilling, not unable to move his arms and legs. A man that had been healed, or never actually paralyzed, sitting there immobile. How would you feel toward that man? What advice would you give that man?
We are “burning daylight”. There is a “whole stream of events” that will issue from a choice to move that will raise “in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way”.
I find it telling that Jesus’ invitation and direction usually involved movement, action. “Come follow Me.” “Go into all the world, making disciples…baptizing….teaching” Paul encouraged boldness in Timothy for we did not receive a “spirit of timidity”.
While there is great value in silence and introspection, and “waiting on the Lord”, all of which there is biblical direction for, we can often call our inaction some or all of the above. There are hopes, dreams, projects, and life callings that are awaiting us to say the word “Yes” and get up and do the word “GO”.
So “…Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genuine power…in it. Begin it now. TAKE ACTION.
2/23/06
SITES TO SEE!!!!
Some sites I suggest cking out.
www.xxxchurch.com (great, annointed effort to fight the battle against sensuality and porn)
www.randomshirts.com (cool, funny, pointless t-shirts) good laugh My favorite is "FACT: Ninjas hate Pirates" and a close second is the one on Calvinism....ck it out.
www.besafeonline.com (good filter for your internet surfing)
www.xxxchurch.com (great, annointed effort to fight the battle against sensuality and porn)
www.randomshirts.com (cool, funny, pointless t-shirts) good laugh My favorite is "FACT: Ninjas hate Pirates" and a close second is the one on Calvinism....ck it out.
www.besafeonline.com (good filter for your internet surfing)
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