apostle's song  there is one dream that could make us all come true that would cover all of the black and the blue with flaring of a brilliant sunrise that burns away evry bit of our compromise - our fight, our way, our lies and our plays will all be washed away drowned in this true baptism, our hearts set to a truer rhtyhm our thoughts consumed with a newfound kingdom, our ancient king who is over all, superior, yet he scrubs feet and sinners we shout loud from our bullhorns with a beat not with fire and brimstone in the street of a time and aplace where we worship Jesus with this radical race our brothers, our sisters will stop selling out to governments, civic religion and doubt and we'll stand on the tops of our buildings and shout that there is One King Jesus and no other the blind will see, the billboards will fall, the captives will run free the smokestacks will crumble. we'll eat together- the food we've grown out of love and devotion to our Father above.  the taxes will no longer pay for war there willbe a place for the poor medicine won't bankrupt you. family won't destroy itself.  death will be a lonely ghost, cuz we'll be with our Most...high our vengeance will be killed. our aches will be mutilated.  our faithlessness will be executed.  that day is today for many of us for some that future seems impossible enough but we see without seeing, our eyes've beenmade blind any our eyes only see what our King says to see and so we have to smile ... at the gray cinder block just around the corner we see a future garden and we don't blame our economics on the foreigner cuz we see our sons and daughters in their eyes, in their face- we know they are His, so how could we see it so different? so our clothes are love, joy, confidence in our one Lord Jesus confident and the cloth isn't made from the blood and sweat from a million kids on a diff'rent continent our food isn't grown in a factory where faithless men try to make our nutrients with mountains of cheap old chemicals that spill all into our aquifer and make a thousand funerals from cancer and a thousand people looking for the answers of why why why why where where is is God God? you've been looking in the fires and the wars in explosions and alone outdoors in the mountains and trees and the earthquakes and the hurricanes and the presidents and the flags and the sermons but He's in the whisper whisper whisper whisper of your heart if you are listening and watching and wanting and accepting our one true King listen to our one true King  listen to our one true King listen to our one true King

In my listening  exercises with a few people, I've been learning to tune my heart and soul to the spontaneous flow of thoughts and nudges in my spirit. We called this listening to God. But... huh... I don't know.

I hear Him speak, but completely separated from spontanaity in words or images. There is something deep... w/o words in the mind... more like a nudge.. or a story unfolding... and with love, lots of love. I can feel Him moving me forward, but not by my own spiritual stillness or sensibility... He Himself is crashing through my life and interrupting, pursuing me. Instead of a patchwork of inner voice comments, it is a clear communication, reminding me of Jesus' teachings and Jesus Himself often.

I hear God saying to me about this exercise that God simply... is. He calls Himself "I am". He just is. Some things are not explained...or explainable. I'm wondering if listening to God is unexplanable.

Just want to share something in a weak moment. I currently have a job offer after a long and drawn out wait. it's for an interpreting job in Georgia. this has not been a peaceful thing in my family. I felt like it was God's decision for us for about a week until today. I saw there was no confirmation, no other witness to this decision that was to be based on faith. it seemed like another wandering, akin to the wandering in the desert by Israel after their freedom. I do not want to wander.

God, I think, is asking for me to forfeit my security so he can give us a job in Colorado. So much seems to point to us going there, but after a couple of failed interviews... it's hard to believe. my wife and I have received clear words from the Lord that Colorado is where to go... but we have not seen the job. Yet.

I wanted to write this to say that walking by faith is not glamorous. it's hard and dirty. it's hard not to secondguess yourself. it's hard to not pounce on the first glimmer of hope and accept it. it's hard hoping for what we don't yet see.

may God be glorified.

About three months ago, my wife and I got into the worst job ever. We both took positions working for the government in determining eligibility for food stamps and medicaid. Our coworkers were really hard to get along with: they actually attacked our marriage day after day, trying to put emnity between my wife and I, saying that we needed to be apart and saying that I would change into a horrible person down the road...

The job itself was hard on the soul. We were not allowed to try to help people figure out what they would do to get out of poverty. We were treated like numbers; no recognition. Then they started making us work overtime and Saturdays, something that I am against because my time with my family is the most important thing to me. The hours of the job also made it exhausting to have to work and prepare food, clean up the house, etc. We would get done with our chores and simply go to bed - no time for enjoyment. No time for speaking to God for any considerable length of time.

Maybe I'm exaggerating the whole ordeal, but it was horrible for us professionally, emotionally, spiritually. We cried out to God. We feel like we heard Him say to quit and to enter our callings, instead of wasting our lives for the government. We heard him say, "the reason you aren't doing well is because you aren't doing what I made you to do."

 So, we quit and applied for jobs in our respective fields. She for jobs that develop families, and me for church planting. Of course, my applying for a job in church planting, I mean finding someone to do it with. I don't mean finding a paid position - I don't roll like that, yet.

God took us so many places: he took us to Colorado, Guatemala, Arkansas, Georgia. In Colorado, God led us to a church planter named Hobby who taught us the basics of listening to God. God has used it to bring much guidance, strength and peace to my marriage. He has used that to develop an amazingly open relationship with us. He has used it to bless others in my life as well. What an amazing thing!

Well, after three months, down to the last of our cash - God delivered us. We had four interviews on the table. We asked God to narrow it down to what he wanted. Now it's down to two. We have a job offer in Georgia - and we are waiting to hear from Colorado.

Our God has delivered us from slavery to freedom. We will shout His name and proclaim Him above all others. Our God has set us free, taking us from scarcity to blessing... He is our loving Father and all glory to Him. Without Him, we would still be in dire straits.

If you know me or have read my posts, you'll know that "sensing God" is important to me, and it's especially interesting to me that some hardcore Christians never really sense God (or know that they have sensed God). It has bothered me a lot, and I keep digging deeper and asking God to inform me so that we might all come to know God in this real and living way. The point to me is knowing and obeying the Living God, not really about tingly feelings or pretty visions.

I felt like God was telling me to investigate in John about "sensing" Him, so that I'm not just following an unknown (unknown to me) religious practice of prayer w/o seeking Him first. So here are the most productive verses that came up during the time of listening to God in Scripture.

I'll bold the "sensing" words, and I'll underline those things that have to do with what is keeping us from sensing Him. This little study in flash verses of Jesus' words from the Gospel of John comes on the tail of my previous entry on CO2 - a practice in listening to God.
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John 3:3..."I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

John 5:37-38 "And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice, nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent"

John 5:39-40 "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

John 6:45 "It is written in the Prophets: 'They will be taught by God,' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me."

John 8:31-32..."If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free."

John 8:47 "He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."

John 10:14,16 excerpts "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-...They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd."

John 18:37 .."Everyone on the side of truth, listens to me."
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I hope this will inform the co2 practice. It can be done with those not yet Christians, but if they don't hear God, there are many reasons why this could be:

May we belong to God. May we be born again. May we be on the side of truth. May we hold to Jesus' teaching. May we believe in the One who God sent. May we come to Jesus.

Then we will see the kingdom, we will see God, we will listen to Jesus' voice, we will hear Him, we will be taught by God, we will know the truth.

Church of Two: a practice in listening to each other and listening to God

Recently, God led me pretty clearly to Colorado to seek an opportunity of working with a church planter name Hobby out there. (revolutiondenver.com). Getting to know Hobby has been a great boost to my faith, but even greater has been how he has taught me to connect to God by listening to God with the intention of hearing. That last little bit might be repetitive, but it's necessary. I used to listen to God and expect a booming voice, a burning bush or perhaps lightning bolts. But now I listen to the little "curiosities" that God places on my heart. I personally do this best by reading through Scripture, in an exercise called "reading until", wherein you read scripture until you hear the Spirit tell you to stop and focus....and so I've been doing that and it has richly blessed me with very clear direction in my life that was lacking before.

Another step to this listening is called Church of Two, or co2. It's an exercise with a partner to listen to God together. This includes a time where we "check in" by saying how we are feeling (Sad, Angry, Scared, Happy, Excited, Tender) and then having our partner try and flesh out what those check in feelings are. Then it might include a time of simple silence where we listen to what God is saying in our spirits (some call it the heart), and we share after that time is finished. It might include asking more questions about what people heard in order to flesh out what God is saying. It might include a time a prayer for action, or for clarity, or for fill in the blank.

I added an element of Scripture reading that I borrowed from The Dales called the lightbulb, arrow and question mark. It's a way to share what we hear in scripture w/o having to turn it into a "I'm giving a Bible study to you" thing. But, I've been having problems with it. It always seems to lead more to a discussion on what we think the scriptures says, and it can get a little ugly. Instead, I'm hoping we can shift it all to a more "what does God say in this"? The problem is tricky and nuanced, but real.

The question now is, how can we be people who are committed to submitting to God's unseen, faith-driven, windy Spirit? More on that later, after we see some progress.

I'm currently doing this with 3 people, and none of them have really latched onto it. That might be my fault, and it might not be. Who knows? God knows.

I've been reading through Luke and one very interesting theme keeps coming up: perseverance. Basically, it's how we do in the long run that counts, not how we do in the short term.

In Luke Jesus says to never give up but to always pray. Persevere.

Never stop praying comes up a few more times in Luke. Persevere.

Peter denies Jesus three times. Pilate tells a crowd three times that Jesus is innocent and that he doesn't want to kill him. Who obeys in the end? Peter repents, but Pilate relents. (oh no, I just rhymed) Persevere.

On the cross Jesus is dying, and he just keeps saving others until the last possible moment. He persevered.

Jesus comes back from the dead and gets on to the disciples for doubting and not persevering in the faith of God.

Finally, Jesus tells the disciples at the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts to wait until the Spirit comes, and then they will receive power. In Acts Jesus says he doesn't have dates or times for them, and that they just need to simply wait on the Father. They have to persevere.

Needless to say how clear it is that the Spirit is speaking "perseverance" to me, I'm kind of scared when God is telling me to do that. I want easiness, not perseverance. Guess God has other plans for me.

Wow. Well, in between moving and starting a new job, it's been terribly busy. Traffic is amazingly different here in TX than in AR. In AR I lived a mile from my job. Here, it's at least 40 minutes of driving to get to my workplace 20 minutes away.

Now I have no idea how people who aren't paid to be missionaries or paid to write books plant churches have time for the work of planting a church.

Any ideas?

have a merry Christmas. glory to God for his great love and mercy by sending us his Son Jesus! What an awesome missionary God we have who would humbly live with us for thirty years and then burst forth with a radical message and kingdom, saving us by his death and life. oh what a patient powerful and beautiful love! glory to God in the highest.

60-70 years ago, the concepts of recycling were championed as conservative, frugal values. Coke bottles were reused, encouraged by the 5 cents you'd get for returning the bottle. Flour came in cloth, reusable sacks. Victory gardens gave us fresh vegetables for cheaper. During WWII, the recycling of essential materials was rampant, seen as a patriotic duty to gather rubber, nylon, etc for supporting the troops. We even lived regulated by ration coupons - think of them as the foil of liquid currency that regulated overconsumption.

Now those values are seen as left-wing, communist ideals. Self-sustenance is a hippie thing. Recycling is for yuppies with a coffee shop conscience. Regulating food industries is seen as a leftist agenda of control by the so called conservatives.

All of this to say what God has already revealed - Babylon is such a whore. She'll switch sides for whatever reason suits her. Her political parties are like paying lovers who bargain for the best deal. And she is a metaphor for systems of bad government, greed, corporations, merchants. She's a counterfeit church of materialism and selfishness, welcoming and including all who want some of her delights. Now she entices us with her markets to not produce anything we can actually use.

Do we actually produce anything? Have you raised a chicken? Have you grown your own food? Have you tried making your clothes? -All, let me say again, All of these areas of production we outsource to that whore, that system of commerce, lies and sales - all of these areas are now humanitarian disasters. Factory chicken production is something that destroys the earth not only by perverting the life of a poor chicken, but also from the excess disease and super concentrated nitrogen runoff from feces that suffocates plant life. Clothing - you know what a sweatshop is and yet we still buy the stuff from the social backstabbing suppliers. Gardens are something that old people have - so passe. And yet, if Babylon failed, could you stand?

Revelation 18 stands as a solemn prophet. Excerpts:

"After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice he shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries."

"The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more— " ""

"Your merchants were the world's great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray. In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth."

Would you be weeping at her demise? I know I would, and that is a very sad thing to admit. I want to pull out of Babylon. I want to plug into Jesus - and He made the earth and its production elements something not to be exploited, but to be enjoyed in relationship with Himself.

May God grant us the grace and wisdom to seek to depend on Himself, for His glory - not for the glory of Babylon.