Fingerbitten and Joyful

I have been accused of being an over-thinker at times, but also praised for thinking through things so thoroughly. So, somewhere in the midst of all that I sometimes get caught up in the seriousness of life, which is both good and bad.

It´s Good because there simply are certain things, very important things, that demand our sincerity and our serious side…but it´s BAD because this world is fallen, and quite simply runs much to the beat of anything but God, making tragedy like clockwork…there is always gonna be something to cringe about, become serious for and not fight it with often times the most serious thing of all: laughter. I think a great place for someone to find themself is warring wonderfully in a way that you have a serious Joy about you. 

A great way to gain prespective on where you´re possibly at with your serious playful balance is the following question…I think a great question to ask someone is… who is Jesus? The way they answer will often tell you a lot about where they´re at, where they´ve been and more importantly, exactly what they think about the most intimate and important thing to them.

I for instance do not always picture Jesus braving the night and wading through the early mornings in Holy laughter with our God. Perfect example…I focus so much on how monumentous Jesus´task was. Good thing it His task was not appointed to me. He did not accomplish His feat because He engaged in Holy misdirection, or Divine distraction…He instead met in head on with a Spirit of Joy and a faithfulness to that Joy that I think would show our Jesus to have been snickering and grinning much more than we sometimes think Him to be…at least more than I do anyway.

And so, I submit to you a video that is exactly what this world needs more of…something to remind us  not to not take ourselves or our lives more serious than we often do.

Marvelous Light and Marvelous sound

This is a song that is currently being rocked at my church…which you can read all about at www.Remnantloves.me

Charlie Hall everybody!

more Washer

1Corinthians 7 voting

(vv. 29-31)

Ms. Heidi Baker (part 2)

Notice how willing this woman is to fail. A great reminder that the key to success is failure! And the key to overcoming failure, is, yep, you guessed it, failure. Learning from our mistakes makes us God-strong, because it teaches us to be God-dependent. History is being made by this simple, God loving woman who calls the Holy Spirit her “best friend” and preaches in the darkest and deadliest parts of Africa to groups of hundreds of obviously frustrated Muslims who are more concerned with trying to hit her with rocks than hearing about Jesus Christ.

She does all this, and just giggles as she re-tells of His Love. She weeps and giggles because we just don´t get it…we don´t get how simple it is to just abandon everything and just say “yes” to God in all the ways we can. I´ll admit, I´m ever learning this simplicity and can´t honestly imagine how I could ever look spiritually like a Heidi Baker, but I bet you, at some point, she was saying the same thing to this God we both follow.

Here´s to the God of epic proportions…the God of intimate nooks, crannies and cosmos. 

  

Ms. Heidi Baker

So, as many of you know, this is the woman whom I have recently fallen into the deepest respect for spiritually. I have fallen for her heart with all of mine in only ways God could create.

She is the co-founder of Iris Ministries, an orphan ministry that has sought out and saved over 10,000 orphans in Mozambique alone. Drop in some several thousand other churches Iris is responsible for planting, hear how they are all still loving strong to this day throughout the Africa nation…not to mention an Iris prsence in the thousands in Brazil, Israel, India, etc…and you have God clamoring nice and loud in all His glory in only the way He can. I adore this woman.

She´s kind of kookie. She´s incredibly Lovely. She can´t speak about God without letting escape the constant utterings of the Spirit…shouts of “Rrrreba,” “Rrrraba,” ”Shamba” and the neck jerking “Whoa” sneak out of her like giggles from a little one. People are undoubtedly caught off and put off by her supernatural sense of things, but I am learning to Love it! She lets things fly like, “I wanna smell like Jesus.”

And I ask…why the heck not!? God is a supernatural God, is He not. So, as I´ve had to learn and still am growing into, I am embarking upon learning from this woman about our supernatural God.

She, aIong with a Irish Pastor God put in my life a few months ago, have caused me to ask some new questions. I wonder often about our (my) conservative walls. Where our healthy religion ends and our straight-jacket spirituality begins? I know a main motivation behind the conservative construction of my walls was to keep a watchful eye out for things like heresy, and compromise. But at some point, those high walls kept and keep my supernatural, freaky sounding, radical Savior Jesus outside as well. 

I´ve heard some churches and pastors call religion, “The ride Jesus rolls up in.”

Last I checked, my Jesus rode a donkey, where He probably dragged his feet along the ground atop the might steed of choice…and He rode clouds from Heaven, with legions of Angels at his back while rockin´a tat. That´s what Jesus rode, and that is how Jesus rolls.

Religion, if pursued as an end in and of itself, to me has only ever had the intimacy and promise of masturbation…feels good at the time, but doesn´t actually give life to anything. 

That said, I love this woman, and I pray many many more sons and daughters of our Father get to meet her and serve in her vision, and hopefully meet with God in giggling, freaky ways that forever change us.

Scotland hugs

This video made me think of Heaven. I bet there´s a fair amount of this going on, only signs wouldn´t be needed to attract the affection. Imagine that, hugging and loving on complete strangers without hesitation…no side-hugging, no second guessing, just embracing them, full-on, left and right. That´d be brilliant.

Iris Ministries

A million.

A hard to grasp number. I mean, don´t get me wrong…I´ve heard it tossed around enough to know of it, but I don´t really know its vastness. Here in Napa Valley where I grew up there are homes that are million dollar fixer-upers. Again, I know what the number is, and I can even see it in home value, but I don´t know the number. The same way I´ve let slip far too many times the wining statement, “I´m starving”.. but I have no idea what it is to really starve.

So, when a woman and her vision, handed down from God, speak and trust, in Promise, to save a million of these little ones in the name of Christ… if I´m being entirely honest… I find myself very quiet and very humbled. I wonder if a good question for all of us is not…do I really believe He could do that…that He will do that…that He´s already begun such a feat?

Help us with our un-belief Father… all of us… on either side of Grace. (Mark 9:24)

Sandstory part 2

Sandstory

So, a newly befriended Youth Leader out here in Cadiz, Kentucky, introduced me to this. It is unquestionably riddled with talent and God-given ability…but I love how it’s not something we can figure out…you know, spoil the process or even cut it short by simply coming to the conclusion…the whole, “Oh, I know what it is.” It captures and holds your attention like a wide-eyed kid, absorbing every second of the story.

Thank you to the man and/or women who held an open enough heart to not only discover this natural talent, but then to develop it so incredibly…and then, most importantly, share their God-given gift with the rest of us. Enjoy the Sandstory.