this is great

read Colossians 1-27 if you don't believe it.

From a Friend's Email

Dear Guys,

For those of you I haven't talked to recently I miss you and continue to have fond memories of our mission, battles, and successes in setting men free together. I know of none of us who have not been financially adversely affected by the current economy, there really has been no safe place to hide in terms of this worlds safe havens. We need to remember that America's (and most of the western world's) incredible prosperity over the last 100 years is a statistical anomaly when compared to what the world has looked like for the past 6,000 years.

I have been reading a great book called Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster (who graduated from George Fox University) and it has really helped me put some things in perspective during my own desert journey with Jesus. First, as I read Mark 4:35 where Christ take the disciples across the lake at night and the furious storm comes up. Were the disciples in sin? No, clearly they were following Christ very closely. Was prudence recommended given it was night, these fisherman knew how quickly storms could come up, should they have said no? Clearly not. Was Christ surprised by the storm? No he was able to sleep soundly right through the middle of it due to his power and peace of the father in Him.

Why did Jesus allow the disciples to be scared out of their wits, just to prove a point? To be a mean God? No, he was "loving" them by having a chance to very personally show them His power in a way that would blow them away. Of all of his miracles this one probably impacted them the most because they were well versed in boating and "knew" no one could calm the storm instantly. Even if the wind dies down suddenly the waves usually continue to rock the shore for hours afterwards due to the built up kinetic energy in the water.

And what was the key thing Jesus wanted them to take away from this? Trust, trust that He has the power to walk through anything with us no matter how "knowledgeable" we are about the subject, or how many times we have tried and failed etc. He wants peace in our inner world regardless of the external world going on around us.

2 Cor 4:8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

So I find myself meditating on the thoughts of being in a small boat with waves crashing all around and Jesus is sleeping soundly next to me with a small blanket over Him. All I need to do is reach out to His hand and hold it and He gently wakes up and says "it is going to be all right, I am with you, just trust in me".

I truly love you guys and pray for the freedom that comes from Trusting God in your lives. If there is anything I can do for anyone of you please do not hesitate to call or e-mail me we will always be the church together to this world as long as we live on this earth.


In Christ's Love,

Remember Your Heart

I've learned that I like my teacher because she cries when we sings "Silent Night".
Age 5

I've learned that our dog doesn't want to eat my broccoli either.
Age 7

I've learned that when I wave to people in the country, they stop what they are doing and wave back.
Age 9

I've learned that just when I get my room the way I like it, Mom makes me clean it up again.
Age 12

I've learned that if you want to cheer yourself up, you should try cheering someone else up.
Age 14

I've learned that although it's hard to admit it, I'm secretly glad my parents are strict with me.
Age 15

I've learned that silent company is often more healing than words of advice.
Age 24



I've learned that brushing my child's hair is one of life's great pleasures.
Age 26

I've learned that wherever I go, the world's worst drivers have followed me there.
Age 29

I've learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it.
Age 30

I've learned that there are people who love you dearly but just don't know how to show it.
Age 42

I've learned that you can make some one's day by simply sending them a little note.
Age 44

I've learned that the greater a person's sense of guilt, the greater his or her need to cast blame on others.
Age 46

I've learned that children and grandparents are natural allies.
Age 47

I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.
Age 48



I've learned that singing "Amazing Grace" can lift my spirits for hours.
Age 49

I've learned that motel mattresses are better on the side away from the phone.
Age 50

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a man by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.
Age 51

I've learned that keeping a vegetable garden is worth a medicine cabinet full of pills.
Age 52

I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you miss them terribly after they die.
Age 53

I've learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.
Age 58

I've learned that if you want to do something positive for your children, work to improve your marriage.
Age 61



I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.
Age 62

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catchers mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.
Age 64

I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, the needs of others, your work, meeting new people, and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you.
Age 65

I've learned that whenever I decide something with kindness, I usually make the right decision.
Age 66

I've learned that everyone can use a prayer.
Age 72

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.
Age 82

I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch-holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
Age 90

I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.
Age 92

Repost from Micheal Q. Pink

Too Much Bad News...


“Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34 “Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:23 Amplified

Yesterday I shared how the flow from your heart determines in large part the boundaries or borders or limits of the territory you will be able to possess. Be that financial, real estate, spiritual, etc. The flow from our heart consists primarily of the words we speak and the actions we take.

If the abundance of our heart produces words leading to action resulting in a life experience defined by boundaries, and if we find those boundaries or limitations very uncomfortable or constrained, it could be a clue to us to examine what we’ve been letting in our heart.

If you want to change your circumstances, you will need to change your actions. You will also need to change your words and that means changing what you feed upon or allow in your heart. Maybe this is just for me, but I realized that I feed too much upon news, both the mainstream, censored, unfair and imbalanced news and the alternative, somewhat angry, on the fringe, out of the norm kind of news you don’t see on the TV networks. Regardless of the source, none of it inspires hope or life or faith for me.

I don’t want the news media or the entertainment world to so fill my heart that my borders are defined by them. A little goes a long way! So I have cut way back and in its place begun deliberately at a much higher volume, filling my heart with exactly what I want to come out of my mouth and see lived out in my actions and reactions in life. More to the point, I want to enlarge my borders and I know they won’t be enlarged as long as I keep putting in the same information that got me where I am now. I am consciously choosing to deposit much more good into my heart and far less of the negative input that I have grown so addicted to. Does anyone relate to this?

And if you do, you might consider watching a full day seminar with 11 leaders who were asked to pass on their most important lessons learned for business as if we were their only heir and this was their last time to speak. It was called Taking Back The Gates and you will get the entire event in both CD and DVD format for a total of $39. I keep mentioning this offer because it is the best value offer we have ever made and so many of you keep ordering it for yourself of for Christmas presents. Click here to watch a short video and if you haven’t ordered this yet, think of it as an investment in your heart and your future boundaries. (While quantities last)

2 for 1 deal

I know it may not make lot of sense to read only one side of a conversation but I'm trying to only post my own thoughts and lately I haven't had much time to turn my correspondence into essay form.

RE: Mentorship

In my experience the person who has spoken the most truth into my life is my friend Rick. He's only about 6 months older than myself. When I look at the nature of things in a healthy culture, part of learning something is turning to the next person and teaching it. So I'd say that a seven year old has something to teach a six year old, and should be encouraged to do so. I've learned a lot from a peer mentor group, mainly because my idea of accountability is to empower the people in my life to hold me accountable to the projects God is working on in me. (As apposed to them all trying to guide me in the fashion their experience tells them is right.) So like Brian said, get that group of men around whom you can be transperent. The main quality you all must have is a commitment to implementing the victory Christ is working in your life even if it causes emberasment sometimes.

The other model I see in a healthy culture (our own culture has some good things but has lost some other good things) is how they treat the sages amongst them. I think Brian is right on here. Seek out a trustworthy mentor. Even if you just have lunch together every two weeks. We neglect the wisdom of those who've been walking with God for a long time at our own detriment.

RE:Peter Pan Syndrome/Adultascents
I think there's a couple things going on there as well, but I do agree that some of it is Peter Pan Syndrome. I know one of those guys too.

But in defense of a lot of guys, the economy is in the toilette. The business guy on fox news the other day was recommending things you could do before closing up shop on your small business; one of which was moving back in with your parents. He was indicating paying them rent, not mooching, but the idea was sound. They get a little doe for a house they've probably paid for, and you get cheaper rent in exchange for grabbing things down from a top shelf for your mother. In itself moving home is not a sign that you aren't growing up.

There are some articles on the phenomenon sociologists are now calling adultascent, which is men and women over 21 that live at home with mom and dad. There is some indication that the issue is cultural on two levels. One the first level they are not growing up. They are not being initiated by parents and having that reinforced by society. I think that's a legitimate concern and probably what you are referring to.

One the second level, young people these days are not receiving the opportunities that there parents and grand parents did. A college degree doesn't guarantee what it used to. Fewer jobs have internship opportunities. Employment is less steady, as is the home buying market. It takes more training at greater expense to get a job that pays a living wage. etc. The peter pan syndrome is just scratching the surface of the issue, and I don't know if we can say its a cause or merely another symptom of the same disease.

Another Response to an online Group

I wrote this in response to a statement I made about faith and obedience.

I admit that obedience can't be completely throne out. It's hard to discount it, for its certainly pleasing to God. But if we think about the kinds of things we can do to please God we get a clearer picture of obedience, which in turn can shine a light on verse like the ones you quoted.

For example: Loving one another, giving, loving your neighbor as yourself, extending grace and forgiveness, sharing the Gospel, healing the sick, taking in the homeless, etc. All these things please God. All these things trace back to loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself, which I'd point out was what Jesus said all the commandments hinged upon. Hence, John 14:21 in context should read, "He who understands loves God utterly and completely, as well as loving others and himself; it is he who loves me."

The gentlest way I can put this is to say that it seems clear to me that God is more interested in our faith than our obedience. But God is working with me to get over my fear of offending people so let me dive into a stronger way of putting it.

There is an obvious connection between the law and our modern understanding of obedience, which is misunderstood and therefore the cause of many disagreements among Christians. Are we talking about being obedient to the law or obedient to God.

If I asked most Christians which is true:
A) you can obey God and not the law, or
B) you can obey the law and not obey God.

Most Christians today would answer B. After all, how can you obey the law of God and disobey God? It's easy. We call these people pharisees. Conversely, it is also possible to obey God and disobey his law. That's why we have Grace in Jesus Christ. Simply put, the entire old testament proves that people suck at obedience. Therefore God used a better way, a new covenant.

I would say that obedience to the law is worshiping what was created instead of the creator. In this way it is no different than worshiping a tree, which is made by God but is not God in itself. We call this idolatry. It doesn't matter what you elevate above God a tree or the principals of Christianity, its still idolatry. Actually to make matters worse what most Christians seek to obey isn't the commandments of God at all but really there own denominations recompilations of the law, which is the same as obeying that which is made by man. That's what Paul was talking about on Mars hill when he said that God doesn't need things made by man to be worshiped, for "in Him we move and breath and have our being."

If it sounds like I'm making too much of this concider listening to "Room of Grace" by John Lynch. I've already mentioned that obedience is connected to pleasing God. Striving to Please God is a dangerous thing to do. Its like imagining God on the other side of a grand canyon called, "your sins and failings," and you decide to try to reach God by feverously knocking dirt into the canyon from your edge. You just get further and further from God. The other option is enter grace and find out that Jesus is standing nect to you, saying, "you sure do have a pile of things to work on, can I help?" If you want to believe option B you will need faith.

And that's why faith is better than obedience.

A Sound Word About Friendship

In Genesis we have the story of God speaking all things into being. This passage is receiving a lot of attention lately because of a new understanding God is releasing to some of his friends. The new understanding is about sound. If you search youtube.com for sound you'll find some pretty cool videos about the patterns certain things make when sound is introduced. For example sand thrown on a plate forms patterns when tones are introduced.

There is another aspect to the Genesis story that was recently brought up by Kim Clement.

"Genesis 3:1, "NOW THE SERPENT WAS MORE CUNNING THAN ANY BEAST OF THE FIELD. AND HE SAID TO THE WOMAN, 'HAS GOD INDEED SAID, YOU SHALL NOT EAT OF EVERY TREE OF THE GARDEN?'"

She answered the serpent correctly, which meant that she knew exactly what God meant. At that point, the serpent used words that created all kinds of doubts. The word for devil is diablo, which literally means, to speak (breathe out) to divide, or to whisper in order to cause division."

In other words, God speaks and Satan whispers. God creates with sound and words, but Satan destroys by a related force. He introduces lies, obviously, but what do those lies do? They rot the bonds that hold things together. Satan drove a wedge between Adam and Eve so that he could ultimately drive a wedge between God and man.

Everything exists in relation ship because in part God chose it to be so, but that's too simple. Think about it. Atoms are held, bonded in relationship. The tiny pieces of matter that comprise us are not touching, they exist in relationship. In fact the type of matter and the nature of the bond very greatly.

So to come out of alignment with the vibration of God is to fly apart like a solar system with eroded gravity.

I just wanted to point that out.