I was reading a book last night that had a really neat story in it. The story was of a sleeping boy home alone in his house that woke up to find his home on fire. He went outside and got his garden hose to attempt to put out the fire and noticed a firetruck outside of his house with lights flashing and the big fire hose ready to go, but all the firemen were asleep. What do you do? Do you choose to put out the fire with your little garden hose or do you point the garden hose, take aim and spray the water at the firemen to wake them up and help you fight the battle?
There are countless people out there trying to begin their own ministries in an attempt to change the world, while at the same time there are countless people that are sleeping because the people beginning their ministry, already in ministry, or running their church are too arrogant to become a dying star and lean down and wake them up and do ministry together. An old proverb for you: “Many hands make light work….”
When I was in school I was part of a fraternity that had a special group of guys that were selected as “Low Men” each semester during induction. Although it was very much an honor to be selected, it did come with sacrifice. During induction the Low Men had to keep going physically when others couldn’t. They did the most work and held others up. After induction, the Low Men became the anchors of the fraternity. Usually very quiet, but very wise, they kept other robust members grounded to the vision and truth of what the fraternity was.
The other night when I was getting ready to play Bass for worship, there were some things going on spiritually that I felt weren’t exactly grounded in what I interpret as the main focus of Christianity. My wife immediately could tell what was going on in my head and she gently prayed for me and said “Be The Anchor”. When she said this, I knew it had a dual meaning. One was of being an anchor as a Bass player in worship and holding things together, while the other was to stay grounded to the vision and truth of Jesus when surrounded by chaos. We need more anchors today, ones that are unwavering in truth, strong and steady, and cannot be swayed for they are anchored deep in their relationship with God.
Mark 6
He left there and returned to his hometown. His disciples came along. On the Sabbath, he gave a lecture in the meeting place. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. “We had no idea he was this good!” they said. “How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?”
But in the next breath they were cutting him down: “He’s just a carpenter—Mary’s boy. We’ve known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. Who does he think he is?” They tripped over what little they knew about him and fell, sprawling. And they never got any further.
Jesus told them, “A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child.” Jesus wasn’t able to do much of anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that’s all. He couldn’t get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of the other villages, teaching.
I have noticed in many churches and fellowships how people who are incredibly gifted are not allowed to walk in their giftings because people are blinded by what, who they were or what, who they thought the person was. Ironic to me is that we look outside our local bodies for our “pastoral” leaders and do not allow people in our local bodies to grow into the leaders that God has called them to be. We need to learn to have faith and believe. Let the people that are within your fellowship learn to walk and grow in their gifts and stop ministry outsourcing.
Cool thing about God is that he sees who we will be and puts us in situations to get there and confounds the “wise” in your home churches. Keep your head up, he has called you to something and no man controls your destiny.
You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.
I originally was given this at the end of May and I thought I had blogged it, but as I was going over my journal today, I realized I hadn’t. Enjoy…..
I have been thinking a lot lately about the life that water brings and how we need it to exist. I found myself looking at a glass of water that I held in my hand and was captured by the fluid motion it made as I swirled the cup around. It reminded me of the spirit of God, for the spirit moves in a fluid fashion as well.
With this revelation in mind, I though of days long ago when I would paddle out past the breaking waves, sit on my board, and wait patiently as the smaller waves gently rolled past me while lifting me up and down. You see, as a wave moves the level of water is lower before the wave and also after it. When I was out there I was waiting for a perfect wave for that time. The spirit is similiar to this.
As the spirit of God has been poured out it has been like a wave or a set of waves and very fluid in nature. Sometimes the volume of the spirit would be at a lower level, sometimes higher, but alway there.
There is a wave of the spirit that is coming that is the perfect wave for you and God is about to release it. We want to catch this wave, “we want to remain in the spirit,” we want to get on this wave and surf the spirit and ride the new things.
There used to be a slogan by Instinct, an old surf merch company, that stated “Surfing is life, the rest is details.” I say surf the spirit, let that be life, and let God handle the details.
What a week it has been. Feels like Monday was 2 weeks ago. Work has been extremely hectic this week but there has also been a lot of excitement in the air outside of work as people are getting ready for “The Call”. Hopefully in my day to day tasks, I brought some of that needed excitement to the work place. Had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine about some things that may begin to take shape in the next few months. Just pray that God will be the lead in the coming decisions and I will not strive as I had once before.
I probably will not be able to blog again until July 9th as I have a lot of work to get finished before the 4th, then we are leading worship the 5th and 6th, and my parents are coming up also on the 6th, so needless to say, I will be very busy.
Blessings Friends,
Gene
Seems that the last 2 1/2 years have brought countless new things to our lives. For those of you who don’t know, in April 2005, I took a step of faith and resigned from my job at God’s direction. Since then we (my wife and I) have been growing into a newness that suprises, excites, and scares us beyond belief. Growth, although continual, is not always continuous and constant. As you grow, you go through seasons and some seasons are harsh and some are thriving. Survive the harsh seasons and you become stronger with more fruitful growth, much like a pruned plant. The source of your growth is God and your spring of water will be his love, similiar to a sun for the plant, so seek after him so that you may never die and grow into the creation he knows you to be. Let us all become a new creation….”I make all things new”
I was thinking of the different blogs I maintain and the different facets of my life that are representative by those blogs or sites. I also think of the different friends I have, each one that may have a different view of life and some that are very disinterested in any form of Chrisitianity. Some people can present themselves the same way no matter what company they are in. At this time, I cannot, but I am learning too. I am slowly learning to merge all of who I am into what God created me to be. I was thinking of how excel merges all the cells into one big one, so I started writing down some of the major roles I play in life and my different identities. When I wanted to get the warning alert message graphic above for this blog, I noticed that the left hand cell would be the only data left. I knew this from working with Excel before, but I didn’t think about it this time when I was putting different roles in the cells. So after I merged who I am into one person I got this:
This doesn’t mean that I do not still do those roles and have those other identities, but my faith guides them and I find new joys with those roles. As a surfer back in the day: “I once worshiped the waves, now I worship the source of the waves, the wind, and the ocean.”
This is a repost from a blog a few months back. With ”The Call” just around the corner, I feel it is timely for this season.
Acceleration
Acceleration of vision.
We were comfortable at one time. We were fine there. We took and we gave.
I feel that we have stepped out of that comfort, similar to the comfort of a warm house on a cold winter day. We have been placed in the wilderness where there is no heat. We feel an urgency to find heat to warm ourselves. He is calling us to warm others as well.
We feel the need to start a fire. We need to heat it up.
So we look for kindling. We are to help gather this kindling to aid in the combustion of the flame. So we start gathering it and as we do we see that some of the kindling is wet, some of it is rotten, and some of it hasn’t seasoned yet and will not combust readily.
In the South, our kindling was known as “fat lighter”. Fat lighter is known to burn very hot and fast. It comes from a tree called long leaf pine and there are two ways it is made naturally:
1. The first way is when the stumps and roots of a long leaf pine become saturated with resin as they age over years. You can find these stumps buried in fields and it is in high demand because of the wood’s high combustible qualities.
2. The second way to obtain this wood is from the HEART of the tree. The heart wood of an old tree is usually saturated with resin in the same way as the roots. This resin keeps the wood from rotting and decomposing. Out of the HEART comes very strong, heavy boards that will last forever without any man-made treatment.
Since this wood is very strong and with-stands the elements so well, it is sometimes used to build houses. What one achieves is an irony of sorts, for it is a strong and everlasting house that withstands and endures what the world gives out to it, but also a house that is highly combustible that burns hotter and can quickly ignite houses next to them.
Do you want to be like that house? Do you want to burn hot with God’s love and spirit and ignite others? It’s okay if you haven’t aged yet. It’s a process. We are the kindling. God is starting a fire. But we are to help gather that kindling. And he will season it, he will dry the wet wood, and he will change the kindling, the person, into what and where he has them to be.
It’s time to start gathering, building, and burning for him.
This past week I have been going through our older photos and selecting many for archival scanning. This task has brought a plethora of emotional baggage with it. Thing about historical mediums, there is a story to tell and sometimes the story is less than happy. I look back at these memories and negative feelings put in the past seem to arise and stiffle my passion for life. Obviously I wish things could have been different in some aspects, but I am aware that these negative feelings and circumstances that I have walked through have created and molded who I am today. I have risen above it through faith in God and have walked out of darkness and it has brought him Glory. I have peace through him. I am history in the making. I have purpose and I press on. He is writing my future.
When my alarm went off this morning the traffic report was on. It just so happened the route that I normally take to work had a major accident so I would have to take an alternate route to get to where I needed to be in a timely manner. The usual hour of hitting the snooze button from 5am to 6am was not to be as I had to get up due to the incredible congestion that happens on the alternate route when everyone is DC bound in the morning. It took me out of my routine, it was uncomfortable for me to be up that early, and I am now extremely tired with St. Arbucks at my side.
Detours can do that to you. You hit them in life when least expected. They will make you uncomfortable and they will exhaust you. Life path detours remind you to look to God for your strength. You will get to the place where he wants you to be and in the perfect timing, but it may be different than you expected. So suck it up, awaken sleepers, and get moving toward the call.
For the past few weeks my outlook has been extremely negative. I have been angry at all the choices I have been given and not having the choices that I wanted come to closure. Questioning the reality of God due to illusions created by well meaning zealous individuals….Interesting. A song just came to my mind that Upton sings. Don’t know if it’s the name, but the phrase “A Better Way” keeps coming up in my spirit.
Your outlook needs to be on a plane higher than whatever it is on now. We need to continually seek out a better way, or perhaps the better way is God’s way. Life will start to soar as issues bounce off of you and your response of God’s love to others will actually start to surprise even you.
On the way to work today I started thinking about baseball. While not a big fan of America’s past time, I do appreciate it. There is something about having a hot dog and a coke at a baseball game that just feels right. Anyway, I was thinking of the different types of pitchers and their roles in the game. (The starter, the relief and the closer.) The starter begins the game and usually has the endurance to last for the majority of the game, but many times near the end of the game the starter gets replaced with the relief pitcher. This may happen for a variety of reasons. The relief pitchers are usually very good, but do not normally have the endurance to last a whole game at the performance level they need to. A relief pitcher who pitches for the last inning is called a “Closer”. A closer specializes in closing games, usually games that are on the line. They are chosen by not only their pitching ability but also for their ability to maintain their composure in high-pressure situations.
We wear many hats and play different roles in life. Sometimes we are like the starter pitcher and have endurance to keep up the day to day tasks when everything is going okay. Sometimes we are a regular relief pitcher and we only need to dig in a little to get over the hump. The hump being when things are not all together but we know if we just get this and that done it will be okay. Often though, we need to rise up and become a “closer” and maintain our composure and our faith in God in a high-pressure or stressful situation. Remain steady and let him steer the boat for he is faithful to do what he said he would do. When you are a “closer” you know the game is just about over and if you do well the reward will be great.