Have we forgotten how to think?

With all the uproar concerning the recent release of the Da Vinci Code (which I have not seen, but plan to very soon) I have been thinking a lot about our failure as a society to think for ourselves. We rely solely upon the so called wisdom of others to dispense to us the knowledge that we are fully capable of attaining on our own, and yet are simply too lazy to open our minds and think for ourselves.

My friend Kenny just posted a blog that I think all of you should read so here's the link

Is it too much to ask that before we talk about a subject that we simply think about it for ourselves instead of simply spewing out what others have said without thinking themselves.....

I am a whore

Isn't it strange how much modern day Christians, myself included, look so much like Gomer, the bride of Hosea. We never fully seem to understand the love of our Husband(Christ), and yet while we continue to live our lives of extravagance and destitution He continues to pursue us relentlessly.

I think too often we simply put on our wedding dress when it is convenient for us to be married to Him, and when we are done with that season we simply remove all that resembles His sacrifice for us and walk away much like the Prodigal son. Thankfully this doesn't end His pursuit, He sends other members of our bridal party to allure us and witness to us the majesty of our husband. And finally when all else has failed he lures us into the desert place where there is nothing left for us to run to or cling to, and there we finally understand that we must no longer call him Our Baal, but rather, Our Master, our Husband.

What a thought, that while we live our lives as whores and harlets, he pursues us as pure vessels for marriage. Thank God for this relentless pursuit!!!

Miracle at Cana, I mean Collinsville!!!

So the wedding has come and gone and the memories will last a life time. God in His providence gave us the best day we could possibly have imagined. More than anything Katie and I were able to worship with our friends and family, and had the opportunity to share Christ with friends and family that aren't followers of Jesus. It was awesome to hear comments from those who have walked in faith for many seasons as to how our simple little ceremony impacted their lives.

We even caused a bit of controversy with our musical selections. But again God used that to open the eyes of those who had for so long refused to understand the changing of time. I had the opportunity to sit with my childhood pastor and work with him and explain that we are not going away from our faith, but rather have an opportunity to embrace our relationship with Christ like never before and engage a culture that the church has seemingly abandoned for so long. As we talked we learned a lot from each other, I finally understood why the fundamentalist movement I grew up in fought so hard against my generation and our struggles with institutionalized religion, and he has begun a process of excepting that we believe that the message of the Gospel is and forever will be the same and yet our methodology must progress with culture in order to properly engage people.

What a privilege to see His hand in even the simplest of things. While Jesus' first miracle may have been at the wedding in Cana, His most recent I believe was the wedding at Collinsville, VA.

Katie and I leave next week for San Francisco. We are beyond excited to begin this new life God has laid before us. As we allow the kingdom of God to expand in us, it is our prayer that He uses us to expand His kingdom here on earth.

That's all for now

peace....

Provision

A good friend of mine has said that our work is worship, we are simply to trust God for provision.

Over the last few weeks I have learned the truth in this statement. It is amazing how God provides for all of our needs when we begin to simply worship in everything we do, or at least try to.

Katie and I are getting ready to move to San Francisco to work and live with our friends, but a lot of things had to happen to make this move possible. In the beginning and at many times over the last few weeks I have been discouraged about those "things". I saw no way for them to happen, which is good because I would have probably tried to accomplish them on my own. But thankfully the answer to these "things" was always just out of my reach, so we have simply had to trust God for provision.

The first thing that had to happen was my Jeep, my beloved Jeep, had to be sold. Within days God allowed that to happen. In the beginning I had no idea where I would work, but God has allowed our friends business to pick up to the point where I will be able to begin work as soon as we get out there. I think the biggest thing was the fact that it is going to take a good amount of money to get us there, and my finite mind couldn't understand where it was going to come from. But slowly checks began to come in. I don't know how but somehow we are over halfway to our goal.

I wanted to write this now, before we reached our goal to simply give God the credit for it all. I know that I have a tendency to take credit that isn't due to me and definitely didn't want to steal it from Him. We are trusting Him to bring in the rest and to provide for all of our needs as He sees fit.

How exciting is it to know that our God is a provider? That he simply takes care of His own...What lesson can we learn from this?