Preachin to the Choir

One good thing about Mt. Vernon is that even though it is a University based off of the denominational institution, The Church of the Nazarene, it still practiced diversity in its faculty and staff. I remember in one week I heard four sermons on diversity: three in chapel and one in a seminar. In fact I could have labeled that whole month as "diversity month." They practiced what they preached when it came to hiring staff and faculty. Even in the Religion and Philosophy and Christian Education departments there were plenty of teachers that were not Nazarenes. It could have been easy to only higher Nazarenes but they didn't.

The Living Entity

The Church is one entity, and one entity alone. No institution(s) is one with the Church as God has made it. The Church today if displayed as a structural pictograph might look like a lopsided latter. On one side is a living entity of God known as the Church. The Church is one piece, people and God fused together as rungs and column. God as the major column that holds and connects all believers, and the believers are individual rungs. All are one organization (and I cringe at using that word), the Church. On the other side are all sorts of corporate institutions, man made, nailed into various rungs on the latter. This side is very large and uneven. We have created and channeled into these institutions because we believe the lie that we are unstable without them, when in fact all we need is God and each other (and revelation).
Let me be very discrete. Being connected to an institution or worshiping in association to an institution is not sinful. However, putting the institution above God is. That is not what I'm getting at though. What I am getting at is sometimes we can be so consumed and absorbed in the institutional church that we only have our feet in the water, when we should be swimming in it. We should be completely engulfed in the world, though not one with it. House churches are not exempt either, and that is one thing I am worried about. This is why Jesus prayed that we would be in the world and not of it, because even Christians seem to have a tendency to group together so much that they cut themselves off from the world, the people whom they must minister to.

At the Crack O' Dawn!

I had the pleasure of waking up at dawn and seeing the sunrise this morning. Il était très beau. My windows face the sunrise, even though they are north windows, I can see the sunrise very well from my bed, and I can look down on the expanse to the horizon. mmmmmmm. A knewly blue lit sky with the colors of pink, magenta, and purple siting above the horizon, one ontop of another. The centerpiece, the worm red sun greated me with a "good morning" as I leaned my head on my hand in bed. Just under the horizon, the the beautiful colors of the horizon and sky were reflecting off the surface of the mist creating red, pink, magenta, purple, and blue tints to it. Just below that, the suns rays went throught the mist and reflected off the crops of the fields and back up through to the surface of the mist creating a green tint blending with the blue. Finally the green slowly blended with the pure whiteness of the mist. As I watched, the misty fog slowly vanished, traveling towards the horizon, and it was swollowed up in the great invisible drop off, as if the sun was drawing it to itself.
Blue
Purple
Magenta
Pink
Red
Pink
Magenta
Purple
Blue
Green
White

Thoughts

The world is crying help, but we don't listen because we are in our churches singing
We wonder why the world calls us hypocrites
Why does God not heal the righteouss? Because we don't believe! If we don't believe, then we are not truely righteouss, for "the righteouss will live by faith" But God does heal those who do believe, and He does use those who do believe to heal, by His athority, to heal those who do not believe in order that many may believe who had not yet believed.
Yes and God is using the unwise of the world, those in Asia, to shame the wise, europe and america. It is those unwise, that God is choosing to heal, because they have faith, and the wise that do not have faith, are not healed.
(Obviously I'm speaking in generalizations, because God does heal some people in the US)

Funny Video...suprise, you have to watch it to find out what it is

Go to this site and watch this awesome funny video...it has some cuss words in it, so if you don't like that sort of thing, don't click it.

Raindrops Taping On Your Window

I am the raindrops taping on your window
Slipping down the clear
Resting on the sill

I am the thunder crashing in the far void
Echoing in the empty
Compressing in the clear

I am the gentle evening breeze
Revealing in the curtains
Running through your hair

I am the soft grass beneath your naked feet
Cushioning your step
Making your skin green

I am the trickling water on the streambed
Speaking through the trees
Singing musically

I am the shalom pax and shlama
The lips that speak p’ing
Shanti in your ear

I am mir paz and frieden
The Vrede before the storm
The paix in the night

I am peace rest and harmony
Oceans gentle waves
Sand between your toes

Find me where I am
I am here
I am true

Extra Credit: Concept Question (5 pts per answer): Name as many other possible titles as possible.

Currently reading...










Other possible titles:
"How God Grows His Church"
"Church In Its Natural State"
"The Church Universal"
"It's Natural!"
"In the World but Not of It"
"Acts Contd."
"How Jesus Is Teaching People How To Be the Church"
"Church...It's Not Just a Club!"

Dang man! and I thought I wouldn't have to do concept questions anymore! Those English classes were actually good for something. Yay fourty points? 

My Five Year Plan

Once I had my life all planned out step by step. I even thought it was God's will. The truth is I was "in" God's will, but what I was doing didn't matter, it was all still "my" plan. I just didn't know God was taking me somewhere else. Later God would knock down all my misconceptions about his call on my life, what I thought ministry was, and all my ideas about the church. Then re-taught me what I already knew in my heart to be true but had not yet acknowledged completely as ultimately important. I'm still learning and don't know where I'm going next, but it's better than knowing where I'm going, and in my ignorance, not going there, but somewhere else. Now, I know where I am going in the end, but know not how to get there. If I did, then I would surely not go for I would try it on my own and fail. However, since God is leading me step by step, I will go, for the road is surely too hard for me alone.

Thoughts Reviewed

I was just reviewing my last post, man sometimes I'm just a little to emotional. God is so much bigger than that stuff. My dad is doing better than I thought he would, though things could change at any minute. Man I just need Jesus.

These past few days have been tough. heck these past couple of weeks. No avail at finding jobs, and even when I widen my options it seems hard to get one. Marble Slab: come back later we don't have any apps...Pet Co. the online app took 2 hours and the tests I've been unable to take, yah 87 questions each. It's a stinkin pet store!!!!!
That's not the most of my wories. My dad is in a terrible cycle. It's either congestive heart failure or kidney failure.I just feel helpless a lot.

10 Things I'm thankful for...
1Dan thought of me, bought me SoulCalibur
2Blue skies, white clouds, and green grass make Adam smile (so I'm a romantic)
3good bike rides and seeing old friends again.
4old best-friend whom you've lost contact with pop up on myspace all of a suden
5having Church without "church"
6hearing big-G's voice...amazing grace how sweet the sound
7someone told me I was needed
8campfires
9having people who care...I just wish I could be ao free as to let myself be weak
10I actually got something done. Now mom has sufficient airconditioning

Gonads (I hope I spelled that right)

I have to add one thing. Today I learned that if the church is going to reproduce, then it needs gonads. People laughed at me when I said it, but I really meant it for two reasons. when I think of gonads, I think of two things:
The first is sex, or in our case procreation. The second is, well...have you ever seen a truck with balls? I have. People put balls on their trucks cuz they want people to say, "that truck has balls!" That's what people should say about the church, "that church has gonads!" cuz it takes some brave souls to be the church.
You know who has the biggest gonads? Jesus does! Think about it, his family is the biggest ever, and it took some pretty darn big gonads to stay on the cross and die for us.

Seminar

Seminar
had the Simple Chruch Seminar today. It didn't seem like a seminar so much. Chruch was happening right there, that and I heard God's voice several times. A year ago, the thought of being a minister without being ordained was just a silly afterthought that most likely wasn't an option. I wish I didn't have to unlearn all the false presuppositions I've been taught over the years.
Some of my current assumptions...
the american church will never experience a deeper presence of God without small clusters of interdependant believers.
it is nearly impossible, no matter what the church looks like, for a church to experience the full grace and power of God without persecution.

bike ride

on wed, I tuned up my bike. It took some time and a couple of aha! moments, but I finally got all nine gears to work. Last night I went on a six mile trek, and broke my right shifter. It still works and all, all six gears, but it pulls back just a little too far. It's allowed to break, cuz its at least ten years old. I think it's time for another bike. It's my baby bike, but someday I will have to let it go.
My ideal bike...
26" mounten tires
dual suspention
18 speed (c'mon its NWO you don't need fifteen gears (26 speed)
trigger gearshift
light alluminum frame
painted steel rims
disc breaks (hard stops with v-breaks mess up the rims and make for ruff stops in the future. Trust me I know)

Water Bottle Holder

Nalgene Holder: this creation is actually the result of me breaking the water bottle holder that originally went to my bike. I wanted to go on longer rides and keep myself hydrated
Things needed...
a 1x1 cut to 12 inches, or wood of similar size
2 1/2 to 3 feet of 1/8 inch wire or similar gauge
Two flat ended screws (either to the fit the holes that are already in the bike, or to fit the holes you will make) 1 inches to 1 1/4 inches long would do.
One drill bit fit to the gauge of the wire
One drill bit fit to the gauge of the flat ended screws
One drill bit wider than the head of the flat ended screws (to sink the screws flush or lower than the surface of the 1x1).
One drill (obviously)
One screw driver
a couple pair of pliers
spray paint of your choice
In order for the wire to bend 90 degrees, it has to be thin and soft enough, but too thin and to soft and the structure will be too flimsy. I don't remember for sure, but I believe I used the base wire of an old lampshade. I designed it to fit around my Camp Adventure Nalgene, I think it was 48 ounces, but I don't remember. So far I managed to lose them both when I took it off to spray paint it (I was too lazy to put it back on right away).

Life's Ironies No Pain, No Gain

note: idividual pics are not my own origianal work

Corrections

So I want to correct myself on one note. It wasn't quite so harsh as I got kicked out. I was really asked to leave politely from the youth staff. On another note, my purpose in the previouse post was not to just criticize the corporate Church of the Nazarene. Instead, I hope that I will provoke change in the Church of the Nazarene as well as other corporate churches. And yes all corporate churches (but not just corporate churches) have problems, and doctrinal problems that cause disunity.

They Will Call Us Brothers, But Still They Will Turn Us Away At the Steps of Temple

They Will Call Us Brothers, But Still They Will Turn Us Away At the Steps of Temple
Saw the naz YG the other night at P. Joel's house. Had a great time eating and throwing Frisbees. Did I say I got kicked out? I don't remember. Well not really kicked out, cuz I was going to bug out as soon as they got a new YP.
Of course the Church of the Nazarene's reasoning for turning people away who practice neopentacostalism (consciously or not) is to preserve unity. They say that disunity often follows neopentacostalist behavior (speaking in tongues, slain in the spirit etc.) This is true, but what they don't say (or fail to realize) is that it is not those behaviors, but the attitude toward such behavior, that is directly responsible for bringing disunity to the Church.
Of course there are such cases of people faking the speaking of tongues, being slain in the spirit, and even healing (which of course is not prohibited in the Church of the Nazarene). On the other hand, out right banning these practices is not a proper solution. Such behavior should be investigated, and then if such things are determined farces, action should be taken. The people or believers should not be immediately rejected from the body, but the appropriate biblical method should be used; the one in which a believer, and subsequently the whole church is to confront and persuade repentance. Only after all persuasion is used should the person be rejected, for the unrepentant are not believers and they have rejected the church.