If God had a ringtone...

would you answer it or press the silent button?
Before you can decide to answer it or not I guess it would be important to recognize what the ringer sounds like.

Sometimes God speaks through other people (but be careful, not everyone who says "God told me..." is speaking the unadulterated prophetic word of The LORD.) Scripture recommends having others to "bear witness" with the words spoken over one another. Check it with your own spirit and with words that have been spoken over you before, and most importantly measure it up against the precedent of scripture.

Sometimes God speaks through Jesus, "The word (of GOD) made flesh and dwelt among us"
His words, actions, character, words etc...

God can speak through other Scripture as well, "All scripture is given for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness..." There is good stuff in there just give it some time to marinate. Reading it in a more common language translation like the message can be helpful for getting the story, and there is a story to be read. More common scholarly translations like NASB (new american standard) or NKJV (New King James)

And believe it or not God can speak to you directly, it may not be thunderous James earl Jones voice your expecting, but as you get to know God's voice through these other means, you will soon start realizing the types of things God says and be able to dis cipher between your thoughts His thoughts and the voice of the enemy .

And when you start hearing things let me encourage you to be faithful with those words and write them down, share them with friends and remind yourself of those words. Or if your a friend remind me of what I shared with you. If we are faithful with the words we are given, how much more will God want to keep speaking to us when he doesn't have to repeat himself over and over.

to be continued..

Separation of Church and Steak

...Sipping on milk instead of salivating for meat

I feel like every church event these days is centered around some type of food, or at least coffee. Eating eating always eating. Not just literally but spiritually as well, we love being discipled but cringe at the thought that we might have to pour some of that God-knowing goodness back out.

It seems the more we buy into the me mentality that has become so status quo, we forget about community and about putting the community over each other. Forgive me for sounding like a hippie but it's true.

We eat out instead of pour in and call it fellowship. Might I suggest a little intention in our time together, building relationships is great and necessary but watching two movies in a row and have snacks is not discipleship. Our
DVD-discipleship, or maybe PrayStation 3 (a cell group of 3 males who "fellowship" over video games) just don't seem to be cutting it.

What do you think?

I love the world

and so should you.

Here's a medley of verses strung together for my personal enjoyment
God our father showed his love for the world in this way that he sent his most beloved personal possession and in spite of our sin nature Christ died for us. There is no greater display of love than than this.

The love of God is shed abroad by the spirit according to Rom. 5:5, Holiness (walking in the spirit) is the key to showing the love of Christ to the world. Walking in the spirit comes out of doing what we see the father doing. Christ in his model prayer asked his father for daily bread.
So it seems to break down like this
1. The father gave away (put to death) his most loved possession (his son) as an act of love
2. We are to do what we see our father doing
3.We are to give away (put to death) our most loved possession (our selves/life) as an act of love.
4. This is a "daily bread" thing its every day all day long if your not holy 9:15 -9:30 on Tuesday morning get over it eat some more daily bread and continue on.
5. Jon 13:1 says Jesus loves goes until the end (of which with Christ there is none)
He loved them till the end, not until the messed up, or until they forgot to read their bible for a couple of days.

Holiness from the holy spirit... Imagine that.
j.

Just A Little Hocus Focus

The art of un-distracted living

Scripture says no weapon formed against me will prosper, at church the question was posed as to what weapons had been formed against me last year. Girls! all of them they have all been fearfully and wonderfully formed as weapons of the distractionary sort.

Ok I'm exaggerating a bit, but really the enemy has used the opposite sex as a consistent distraction, but I am proclaiming in faith it will not prosper, feel free to hold me to it.

The truth is that back home (in NY) it was easier because the default setting was that girls were under their fathers protection and there was little question of their or my intentions because of it. Here at lee that is not the case, the cultural norm is the typical dating model, which is fine, it just makes everything a big useless guessing game.

I hate having to second guess my every action with the opposite sex hoping that it is not misconstrued or that I don't wrongly interpret their interaction with me.

So while I have had qualms with the courtship model over the years at different points I have at least gained as of recent a new appreciation for the atmosphere and culture it creates. Do I think it's perfect? No. But in many ways it beats this emotional wast stream I have been kayaking in recently.
j.