February 2011 Blog Posts (42)

Hear the words of the Lord:

I love it when you search my word to know Me.  It is your desire to know Me as a friend that brings great delight to My heart.  When you understand that I too have emotions then we communicate heart to heart.  Your crises and joy brings tears to both our eyes.

It is My desire that you know when to approach Me as a friend and when to approach Me as authority.  I am the God of authority and friendship.  I relate to you on both levels I am God but I am…

Lord God, Your Holy Spirit helps me in weakness. I do not know what I ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for me with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches my heart knows the mind of the Spirit, because Your Spirit intercedes for me in accordance with Your will. ( Romans 8;26-27)

An interesting experiment has been taking place in Melbourne, Australia around the creation of generative spaces for strengthening neighbourhoods and tackling challenging issues.

The experiment was started, perhaps rather unexpectedly, by a church but most decidedly it was not an attempt to try draw people “into the institution.” Instead it asked how might we create more neighbourhood spaces for authentic engagement, person to person? It worked on the assumption that we can…

 ⁴The LORD hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.

 ¹⁷And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

Father Your part of our partnership is to hurl great winds, and appoint great fishes to emerge.  It is Your task to keep me on task.  It is You that determine the boarders of my free…

Obadiah 1

    ¹¹"On the day that you stood aloof,

         On the day that strangers carried off his wealth,

         And foreigners entered his gate

         And cast lots for Jerusalem--

         You too were as one of them.

Father its seems to me that You are not interested in what I say I think, You are interested only in the thoughts that transform into action.  For when I stand aloof, in Your eyes, I am as guilty as…

Jesus has a table spread Where the saints of God are fed, He invites His chosen people, “Come and dine”;

With His manna He doth feed

And supplies our every need:

O ’tis sweet to sup with Jesus all the time!



Refrain

“Come and dine,” the Master…

I was born and raised in Columbus, OH as a Jehovah's Witness. At the age of 18 I left our religion to face a world from which I had been greatly sheltered. For 14 years after leaving the nest I wondered if there even was a God and if there was ... I didn't think I wanted to know Him. I found myself ostracized from everyone I ever knew or loved, including my parents; except for a handful of neutral relatives. I quickly had a bitter taste for "religion" and the glaring hypocrisy I saw in…

Several years ago, along with a few other adults, Gary and I had the honor of taking 70 teenagers into the poverty stricken mountains of Mexico on a working mission called UKANDO.



Prior to departure, we were provided a detailed packing list which included moist wipes. Shortly after arriving at the ministry headquarters, there was no question about their necessity. There was no running water! In fact, the only useable water available was that which we hauled up the mountain along…

I blogged recently about the question of how to define church. The post was more of a stream-of-consciousness list of questions and observations than a definite statement about anything.  It was my starting point for thinking about this issue, a rough sketch of the motives behind my interest in this forum.

There’s one easy solution to my dissatisfaction with church-as-we-know-it:  I could simply drop out and…

I'm guessing that this question is a common denominator of those of us who end up here.  

What should the expression of corporate worship of our God look like? 

Should it be liturgical, driven by top-down Biblical exposition and a programmed schedule?

Or should it be freeform, directed by the Spirit and participated in by all?

Should it be culturally relevant, with the message accommodated to the unregenerate heart?

Or is the message itself timeless and…

As I weaved through the heavy traffic in Malleswaram in Bangalore to get to Mr. Kesavelu’s’ house, I was grateful to God for the manner in which God had opened Mr. Kesavelu’s heart to the gospel and how he had now opened his home in this predominately Hindu area.  During the festival season ‘gods’ placed on carts and pulled by devotees invariably  stop by Mr. Kesavelu’s house  as they make their way to the temple which is situated down the road.

Mr. Kesavelu comes…