There is hope and it is NOT in the church.

What impact does the church have on the way you experience life?  I mean really.  Does it change the way you act at work or how you treat your wife and family?  Does it encourage you to personally help the poor and less fortunate than you?  Does it care you suffer from depression?  Does it help you when you have lost your job?  Is the church even revelant to your life?  I think likely not.  The church is irrelevant to most.

Does that offend you?  I hope so.  If you are a believer you should be offended.  If you are a nonbeliever you should be offended.  I mean really. If you have the faith to be a NONbeliever then there should be distinguishing characteristics about you that the world can easily identify what group you belong to.  The same can be said for the believer.  If you have the faith to be a believer then the world should be able to easily identify you as such. 

Yet, six days and maybe even seven days a week we are no different.   We talk the same.  We eat the same foods.  We drink the same beverages.  We watch the same sports.  We take the same vacations.  We do it all, THE SAME!

Or at least that is the way it has been for generations, but there is change in the wind.  There appears to be a deep social and spiritual dissatisfaction with the way things are.  There appears to be an awakening from deep within our human consciousness to a driving desire for something more.  Do you feel it?  If you are honest with yourself, you know the feeling.  You may choose to keep it buried most of the time, but it is there. 

You feel it when you give change to the beggar on the corner.  You feel it when you hear of your friend’s child struggling with cancer.  You feel it when your spouse rejects you for someone else.  You feel it when your child is picked up with drugs.  There is within you a deep desire for something better. 

I want to encourage you with hope.  For you, it may not be in the local traditional church.  You may have already been let down or burnt by the church, but there is still hope.  The hope was never in the church to begin with.  The hope is in Jesus.  This is the change that is in the wind…

There are home churches springing up all over the state, country and world.  Members of these churches are unwilling to continue play acting the role of “good christian”.  The people of these home churches have taken seriously their social and spiritual conscious to do something positive in the world they live.  It is their total desire to be honest with themselves and friends while looking through the eyes of Jesus. 

The enlightened believe God is alive and well and desiring to do great things through each of them.  They are no longer passive participants in their faith.  They are actively, aggressively, sincerely and maybe even recklessly doing as God directs.  They are allowing God to shape their future, not letting others tell them what box they should live in.  They are part of the revolution. 

If you feel a similar dissatisfaction with your local traditional church, temple, mosque or cathedral experience, surf to: Fresh Connections and begin your journey, living a life with meaning and power!  God willing, Fresh Connections will have its first gathering in the new year.  God bless.

What if this is your last big adventure?

I think all will agree there is a time when we will die.  Most are anxious to put the idea out of our head.  But what if the thought comes in the forefront of your imaginations, because you know this is the last adventure you will have in service to God?  As Paul, he had run a good race, he had fought a good fight.  But God called.

 

Suppose uniquely, God reveals to you that the adventure you about to embark on may be the last.  Would the knowledge change anything in your life or your perception of the adventure? 

 

It matters not how young or how old you are.  The current adventure you are on, may be your last.  Think about the people where the adventure of life ended abruptly.  Think about Keith Green, Janus Joplin, Michael Jackson  and list goes on….

 

Each person unexpectedly encountered the end of the road.  The thought comes to mind as I consider the possibility of God working through me in Fresh Connections.  What if this is my last?  Will I have run a good race?  Will I have fought a good fight?  Will God say, “Well done.  Good and faithful servant.”

 

I hope so….

Surf to: http://www.freshc.org for a Fresh Connection…

 

The death of a church and the birth of a vision…

Many are saying God meant the church to be organic. It seems reasonable to me. God breathes life into it. It is birthed. It is fed. It grows. It is healthy if God has His way. But the question comes to mind, can the church die? If so, what might be the quickest way to kill a church?

I am praying that God will breath life into Fresh Connections. At the same time, I am asking God to kill the vision if it is not from Him. I’m trusting He will do one or the other. Am OK if He thinks of a third choice. I just don’t want to waste time doing something that He didn’t plan. Does that make sense?

As you read this and the stats say hundreds of you will, please pray for the birth of Fresh Connections. Pray that God will breath life into the vision. Pray for resources for Fresh Connections. Pray for the people of Fresh Connections. Pray that Fresh Connections will be a faith builder for all. Pray about what part you might play.

Then if God is not in Fresh Connections, pray the vision will die.

From my friend in Sweden: Frid Broden or Peace Brother…
Surf to: http://www.freshc.org for a Fresh Connection…

If you put the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the ring to duke it out, which one would win?

Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?  But aren’t we all just a little guilty of appreciating the grandness of one over the other.  Think about it.  When you pray, “Dear God, who are you talking to?”  God the Father as creator of all things, just seems to be the BIGGEST God. Think how confident you would feel and how BOLD you would be if the creator himself chose to live within and around you.  WOW! You’d feel unstoppable. Right?

Remember when Jesus was on the earth and He was preparing to leave?  He said something like I must leave so the Holy Spirit can come and He is even better for you.  It seems the Father, Son and Spirit are pretty evenly matched.  So think about this.  If you know Jesus and have exchanged your life for the life of Christ, you are engulfed by God, the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is every bit as BIG a gun as God the creator!

What are you waiting for?  It is time to get in the ring with a freshness found in Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit.  God the Father will cover your back! Start swinging…

Surf to: http://www.freshc.org for a Fresh Connection…

Worship at the “New Moon” I’m “ALL IN!”…NOT!

“And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.

But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.”~Paul

Surf to: http://www.freshc.org for a Fresh Connection…

For more GodSpots – 37stories Enjoy!

Werewolves and “New Moon”

I really don’t want this to come off as some writing of a religious zealot.  I spend very little time chasing after the devil.  I figure he can find me without my looking for him.  I do chase after God via my God Spots.  It is a healthy fulfilling endeavor.  It is my hope others’ faith is encouraged by my sharing God Spots.

 

Let me say again, I don’t consider myself a religious zealot.  I just love God.  From this vantage point, I am really hacked!  I don’t care how inspired, creative or wonderful the movie “New Moon” is, it is bad.  There is absolutely nothing redeeming about a werewolf.  It is demonic.  Consider this…

 

“The werewolves”, writes Richard Verstegan (Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 1628), are certayne sorcerers, who having annoynted their bodies with an ointment which they make by the instinct of the devil, and putting on a certayne inchaunted girdle, does not only unto the view of others seem as wolves, but to their own thinking have both the shape and nature of wolves, so long as they wear the said girdle. And they do dispose themselves as very wolves, in worrying and killing, and most of humane creatures.

 

So I don’t care how sweet and kind werewolves are depicted in a movie, it is not a good thing.  It is bad!  Anything that is not of God is of satan.  That is not the religious zealot coming out.  That is truth.

We allow our children and ourselves to be desensitized to the evil of the world through seemingly harmless venues such as this.  How many children will be sucked into acting out scenes from this seemingly harmless movie.  How many children will step over the line and find themselves on the dark side.

I’m told the creator of this movie had a dream and from this dream, the book/movie was created.  I think it highly unlikely this dream was birthed in the thoughts of Christ.

So as you pay money God has blessed you with and sit and watch a movie about satanic possession, don’t forget to thank God for the pain and suffering He and His Son did while bleeding to death on the cross.

Now go enjoy the movie….

Surf to: http://www.freshc.org for a Fresh Connection…

For more GodSpots – 37stories Enjoy!

“When You’re Hanging by a Thread”~Sarah

“Audrey’s heavenly birthday came and went, and neither my husband nor I could make much positive out of it. Despite our confidence in Heaven, we were just plain sad. And mad. And, we didn’t feel hopeful. Then, just a few days later, an ugly consequence of my husband’s infidelity hit us like a ton of bricks. An extended family conflict arose that deeply injured us both and reopened wounds that had only begun to scab over. I have to tell you, I could not see God in it all for several days. I couldn’t pray. And, if I could, I certainly could not hear God’s voice in response or feel His presence. It was the purest pain I’ve felt in a long time.

.

The reality is that most of us reach a place in our lives when it is nearly impossible to see God at work…..” ~Sarah

.

Sarah is a new Facebook Friend.  You will find her blog to be transparent, inspirational and encouraging.  It is a good read and exemplifies qualities of a “God Spot”.   

.

Click here:  A Confident Hope for the rest of the story.

What does your earnest prayer sound like?

When I slow down and earnestly desire for God to act on my life, my prayer goes something like this…

In the name of Jesus and with the authority of my name having been written in His blood at the base of the cross, by the all encompassing power of the Holy Spirit and totally engulfed by His love, I humbly fall on my face before your throne of grace and ask that you God might (fill in request here).  

I follow up with God, I'm not smart enough to know if this fits within your design for abundance in my life.  If it is all the same to you, I'd really like for you to act on this request.  But if you have something better planned, I'm ok with that.  I anxiously wait to see you work the perfection of your will and purpose in my life.  Thank you, Jesus.

Then I wait with an expectatious spirit…

Paul said it like this: "I have one request, dear friends: Pray for me. Pray strenuously with and for me—to God the Father, through the power of our Master Jesus, through the love of the Spirit—that I will be delivered from the lions' den of unbelievers in Judea. Pray also that my relief offering to the Jerusalem believers will be accepted in the spirit in which it is given. Then, God willing, I'll be on my way to you with a light and eager heart, looking forward to being refreshed by your company. God's peace be with all of you. Oh, yes!"

Surf to: http://www.freshc.org for a Fresh Connection…

For more GodSpots – 37stories Enjoy!

“Strength is for service, not status.”~Paul

"Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, "How can I help?"~Paul

Surf to: http://www.freshc.org for a Fresh Connection…

For more GodSpots – 37stories Enjoy!

“…Since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church” ~Paul

Surf to: http://www.freshc.org for a Fresh Connection…