It simply amazes me that when someone asks questions that do not align with the majority, that majority turns and instead of engaging oftentimes abandons the discussion.  I have watched a few come to this blog and enter the conversations and quietly go their own way.  Maybe they are engaging in the more profitable and important area of Facebook farming or maybe they just want to be around those that believe exactly like they do.  I still love you.

Some have entered the conversation only long enough to let me know I am either not saved or that I am purposefully causing division.  Hit and run commenter’s that I have begged to come back.  I think they probably do this every where they go.  And then there are those that have come occasionally, left some good comments but have now decided the conversation is getting too rough, too offensive or whatever else they may think.  I still love you also.

I hate this.  I want to have some conversations that lead to a better understanding of who God is so that we can abandon the rather unfruitful way we have been reaching out to those outside the Kingdom and become more effective.  I know that some think that these conversations are more divisive than helpful and I expect no less.  Some will never question what they have been told to believe and some will only come around very, very slowly.

But if we are not growing, we are dying.  And we are supposed to be living, and engaging the enemy everywhere he is and chasing him back behind those gates which we let him escape from to begin with.  This is what I and this blog are about.  I hate to lose readers and even more, commenter’s.  But I will not abandon what I feel led to do here.

Confrontation is not always fun but when error is so easily tossed around in the Kingdom of God then it must be confronted.  Who am I to do this?  I am just a man; fallible, imperfect, very much capable of making mistakes, but still willing to posit my understanding of Kingdom and God issues and allow the discussions, the ridicule, the harassment, and the offensive words to come as they will.  You can’t hurt me with words or by holding your words back.  God is with me in this even though some do not see it and think this has nothing to do with God.

If no one ever stood up to wrong theology, wrong doctrine, wrong attitudes, just where would we be today.  I am not saying everything is wrong that you or anyone else believes, but at least have the courage to hear another side sometimes.  Everyone is a heretic in someone’s eyes.  I am chief among them.

But I am only concerned with what God thinks.  As long as I am trying my very best to know Him more and advance the Kingdom, I believe I am okay.  That is all any of us have to remember.  We all have a part to play, a battle to engage, a mission to fulfill; and they are not all alike.  For any willing to keep on furthering the discussions here, I am deeply grateful.  For all who have left or are leaving, thanks and God bless you.

I still and will keep on loving you all

Tags: blog, Conversation, Discussion, God, Kingdom, Thanks, Theology

When I first started this blog I wanted to say a few things and hopefully start some discussions about the Kingdom of God and the spiritual warfare that is going on all around us.  There are only two sides in this war.  Gods and Satan’s.  All of us are serving one or the other.  Some might deny this but it is true.  My hopes were that some of the ones serving Satan, whether intentionally or not, would find this site and join in the conversation.

I used to serve Satan even while denying he existed.  A lot of people do.  I was an atheist.  I know how some of them think and the questions and arguments some of them have.  I want them to join in here so a dialogue can be initiated.  So far there have not been any, except possibly one early on, actually post any comments.  But there is a lot of traffic so maybe, some day.

Some of you who  mainly read are wondering why a lot of what is written is so controversial and confrontational.  It is because of something I found out when I became a servant of Jesus.  I found out that we do not all agree and we have many different opinions about a number of theological issues.  Now some of you might think that I should tone this down so that the non-believer will see only unity.  But what are the ramifications of that?

Lets say we all put on some kind of front and someone actually comes to visit one of our churches.  It won’t take long for them to ascertain our subterfuge and feel deceived and betrayed.  We will be exposed as liars.  No, it is better for them to see that we do not agree on all things but we do agree on the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is Lord and even though some see that a little differently than others, I believe that all the main contributors here, the ones some of you readers may think agree on nothing, do agree on this fact.  And it is the most important fact of all.

When someone like I used to be stumbles onto this site, they will possibly find that there just might be other answers to some of their problems with our doctrine and beliefs.  This will be beneficial for any who dare take the plunge and dive into the discussions.  I wish I could have found a site like this when I was on the other side.

To sum up; this blog exists for the sole purpose of hopefully reaching a lost soul who has problems, who has skepticism, and who has questions.  I hope they find it.

And it is fun also.

Love you all

Tags: atheist, Belief, blog, Church, Conversation, Discussion, God, Hope, Jesus Christ, Kingdom, Servant, Spiritual Warfare, Theological

I have been engrossed with the studies I have been doing about Kingdom advancement, the role of the Church as the people of God, small group and house church movements, the mission our Lord left with us, the way the early church worked out this mission and grew so quickly, and finally the thought that the very way we do church, and where, might actually be hindering the mission.  We have many indicators of this in the fact that even with all of our modern methods, educational institutions, bible translations galore, freedom of worship, comfortable gathering places, and institutional governance, the Church is still not growing in the greatest “Christian nation” on earth.

I was reading on another site a discussion about how the church building might be actually contributing to the fact that we are not very capable in being the Church.  I agree with this to a large degree.  But the conversation led to someone making the statement that without large institutional churches, missionary work and missions trips would not get done.  The talks led to the idea that missions trips might not actually be as Kingdom advancing as some of us think.

The actual way most mission’s trips go, it seems, is that a group from a church will use a substantial sum to reach and stay in some faraway place to work and supposedly minister to the local people.  But the question was raised about whether that money, what it actually takes to go and stay a week or two, would actually go further if it was just sent and used by the locals to get the needs met.  Considering the fact that the money would do a lot more in those local economies, this seems to make a lot of sense.

What do you think?

Has our self-centeredness even entered into the work of missions?

Are mission’s trips actually more about those that go than the ones that are there?

If we started sending the money used to make those trips say, through a missionary, wouldn’t it actually do more good than a couple of weeks of labor?

Couldn’t smaller house churches do just as much with less if this was the way it was handled?

Missions and missionaries are needed.  I am talking about those local groups from a church that spend quite a bit just to get someplace.  Any thoughts?

Love you all

Tags: bible translations, christian nation, Church, Conversation, Discussion, educational institutions, Ending, institutional governance, Kingdom, mission, missionary work, missions trips, role of the church, small group, town hall, Tuesday

We are all different and amazingly, God will use us right where we are.  We all have a story, and my story is a part of His story, because He wants it that way.

So I want to talk about my first prayer. Three days and seven years ago, I was a little like Robinson Crusoe.  That is a story with part of its focus being about how Robinson, a man shipwrecked for 28 years, becomes closer to God, not through listening to sermons in a church but through spending time alone amongst nature, with only a Bible to read.  He gets close to God through Communion with God and through prayer.

There I was, castaway on my island, alone in an apartment in Hoover with no one but God for three days after the incident where He introduced Himself to me.  The alcohol was gone, the wrestling with who He was, was over, the long phone conversation with Tammy that afternoon was finished.  I was finally sure of who He was.  And at some time I simply fell to my knees in that apartment, on that hard carpet covered concrete floor.

I did not quietly ask Jesus into my heart and seek His forgiveness.  Instead, I slammed my head into the floor a number of times, crying and railing out at God for doing this all now, at this time, when I was alone and was done with life.  Why wait for so long to come and reveal Himself to me.  Everything I worked for was gone.  The one relationship I had cared about was over.  Why now?  I can’t even remember all of the words that I yelled, or all the questions I asked, but I did start to cry at some point.  Tears soaked my face and covered my shirt.  I had never cried like this and had actually not cried very much at all for most of my life.  It was like all of my tears had been dammed up and now the dam was busted wide open.

At some point, I knew that He was there with me.  God had shown up and I realized He was not really giving me answers but He was there to wipe away the tears and get an answer.  I gave Him one, I said yes.

Those early days were filled with prayers.  They were answered prayers.  It was like when a newborn baby cries out and the parents respond as if life depends on it and it does actually.  Newborns are helpless.  Even a little thing like getting too chilled can have life threatening impact on their small fragile persons.  We are that way also when we first enter the Kingdom.  Born again as new spiritual beings we are newborns ourselves.  So fragile, but our Father is nothing else if He is not the proud, protective Father that is there to make sure nothing comes against us.

As I aged a little and started to learn things prayer became a little less rewarding or fulfilling.  It was because I lost some of the childlike simplicity in which I viewed prayer.  I started to feel that it was time I learned to do prayer right.

Then, as we all grow up, or start to, we become like teenagers.  We know it all and don’t feel the need to learn from our Father.  We stop praying as much as we used to and when we do, it is usually just to get something.  All teens rebel to some degree.  Even the best of children defy their parents in some small way with most going much farther.  We do it with our heavenly Father also.  We come to a point where we only look to Him for what He can provide.

But then we hopefully come to the place where we once again see him for who He is and appreciate Him for the simple fact that He loves us and we love Him.  This is where we all should be today.

Some of you may be struggling to pray.  Some of you may not even see the need to pray, except maybe at church.  Some of you may feel that you have what you need, so why pray?  All of these things come from a misunderstanding about what prayer is and how necessary it is, for us personally and for the story of creation and the Kingdom to advance.

What is personal prayer?

As we look across the landscape of scripture, we find many examples or personal prayer and we find many ways of praying.  Who are some of the major pray-ers in the bible?  Remember that prayer happens in a number of ways.  Adam had conversations with God in the garden, Abraham bargained with God, Moses argued, Job railed, Jacob wrestled, Samuel listened in the quiet of the night, the disciples talked to Christ face to face.  We can look in the bible and what we find mostly is personal prayer.  The records of group prayer or church prayer just don’t come close to the amount of people we see on their faces before God individually.  Look at Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel or any of the prophets.  Look at Jesus and the Apostles.  Especially look at Paul.  All of his writings show us a man who prayed.  Sometimes in the middle of his discourse he would break out in prayer.  All of these examples show us something about this relationship with God.  They show us that it is real and it is dynamic.  Not only does he want children, friends, servants and soldiers, he wants partners.

History and the bible show us a God who gives away or shares his power.  Even in the Old Testament we see a God who waits, intervenes, then waits some more for his people to do or make the right choices.  Even today Gods Spirit whispers instead of shouts, trying to align us with the program.

God has partnered with us and has ordained prayer as the means to discuss His will and achieve His will on earth.  That is why ultimately we should pass from a childlike prayer life, utterly depending on Him, to that of requests and petition as teens do, then  to a relational type prayer where we want fellowship with the creator, and finally to a place where His will is what we ultimately want above all else.  We achieve this level when we get to the place where we truly realize who He is and become the partners in creation He want us to be.

Ever since God created and placed Adam in charge of the garden, He actually seems to do very little in creation without the likes of you and me.  When I used to ask, “What is God doing?” I should have asked, “What are Gods people doing?”  Do you realize that according to scripture, those we pray for, Christ prays for?

Although the reformed people would have us believe that God does not change, or ever change his mind, the bible actually shows us that He does and is always willing to if we ask.  Look at Abraham and Sodom and Gomorrah, look at Moses and numerous times while leading the Israelites, look at Jonah and Nineveh, look at Hezekiah and his request for additional years of life.  God even told Jeremiah three times to stop praying because He did not want to change his mind about the rebellious nation of Israel.

Prayer works and prayer is important if any of Gods will is going to be achieved on this planet.  We should be praying like our life depends on it.  We should be persistent and relentless in asking God to bring about His will and His purposes on this planet.  This is how we become those partners, those workers in the fields that God not only so desperately wants, but that He actually needs.  Our persistence shows God we are serious about a thing and that we are willing to do our part.  When you really want something, what do you do?  Are you that persistent in prayer?

It is easy to be a child of God.  Are you ready to become a partner in His-story?

Love you all

Tags: alcohol, Conversation, Creation, Father, Fellowship, jesus, Kingdom, knees, Personal, Prayer, relationship, robinson crusoe, Self, Servant, Work