Consider the following

Heading off to vacation is a strange thing. As a kid you are expectant for weeks
upon end. The expectancy adds to the experience. As an adult it's different. We're
so busy it seems that expectancy only gets experienced as we sit in the plane or
in our car on the way to the cabin. There are elements in childhood that we know
we need. I think expectancy is one of those elements.

Expectancy is different than dissatisfaction. On the one hand we have an excited
tension but on the other we have frustration at our circumstances. Maybe that's
why adults have a harder time with expectancy. So lets dream about the future
and enjoy the day.

April

It’s Cold out. It should be warm but it’s not. Weather patterns do not follow my moods nor do they follow my logic nor do they obey any kind of humanistic aristocracy. Our lives to some degree revolve around trying to control the elements of our lives what we eat or drink or what we wear or what we drive or what we’d like to do. But we can’t control the weather, sure we can stay under cover and not get wet or conversely tan when the sun comes out but we are living in response to a great overpowering system.

I should be at Church Right Now. I have been there almost every Tuesday for the past three and a half years.

I, with the oversight of the pastors at Life Church, am changing our youth ministry model. It has been successful in reaching and touching a number of lives and even radically transforming some of those lives from sad pathetic humans to real living, breathing, punching, kicking, Christians.

But we want to see more. We still believe in the Bible. We believe God can touch thousands in a day or he can touch thousands through a hundred young people. We still believe that the gospel is radical, confrontational, powerful, and the only hope this world's got. We believe that Jesus came for the hungry and broken. If you're fat with the desires of your carnality, stay that way. But if you believe there is something more, something deeper, something eternal calling you, come with us-

Ps. The picture is Death sharpening his blade... you can figure out the rest

I was driving in a car with a bunch of friends, My Dad My Father-in-Law Rachel and Lee. We had left from some kind of Church function. Brandon was around and so was Donald. Brandon was getting upset at a Lady telling him to move children's stuff around, he was saying how they (the youth group worked too much).

I left with my Party and got into a car with the gay man, he was driving and telling me about his life. He said his Mom had left on wednseday, He meant the wednesday he was born and his Dad was never around. He said he had tried everything in the world and nothing worked. It was painful to hear but My Spirit kept urging me Tell him, he's never tried Jesus, tell him, he's never tried Jesus. I was fighting within myself. I kept asking him questions to bring him back to the origins of his pain.

We got out of the car and started walking I think we were in Europe (Because someone had been talking about me getting arrested, I said that my parents would leave me in jail to teach me a lesson).

As we kept walking toward a bridge (the party was in front of me at this point I said tell me more about your pain) My Dad Yelled out, "David c'mon," someone with me said they want us to catch up because there are pimps and prostitute on this bridge.

I Kept talking with the man while I was crossing the bridge he told me he went to his mothers to try to connect with her and, "she wouldn't even open up a jar ( or vial or some kind of devise that holds liquid)," I knew he it was the source of his pain and his hatred for women and the root of his homosexuality.

I started to explain to him that roots create fruit. I was as loud and bold as I could be, the pimps and gang members tried to approach the other two members in my party but they were scared of me (the gang members all spoke their native language which I think was German). The pimps and gang members were trying to do the usual sell Drugs sell prostitution and intimidate.

I was talking loud and ferociously until Finally one of them (a big guy in a green hooded sweatshirt)stood right in front of me (we were just feet from the edge of the bridge). I put my hand on his chest and Yelled. Be slain in the Spirit in the name of Jesus! He flew to the ground out cold. It was like the aggressive power of God took over me and I yelled at his gang members hey check this guy out and then another Gang member rushed over to fight and I put my hand on his chest and the same thing happened.

I started Yelling at the top of my lungs God is Real Jesus is real, then I said, "lights turn on in the name of Jesus." (it had been very dark you couldn't see past 25 ft). Then I jumped up and slapped the lights and all the lights came on all the way down the bridge you could see all the lost people. I was yelling the whole time, Turn the lights on and off I dare you because God powered them you cant turn them off. I had lost my mind, in the best possible way I was yelling like a crazed man infused my the power of God, there was such a sense of urgency to respond to Jesus.

(at this point I was on the side of the bridge I had intended on being at with my party. Then I ran around laying hands on my party, which were young and old Christians I had known. They were being slain in the Spirit. I remember that many were being healed of emotional wounds.

After praying for each person (not everyone just those who stood out). I was shouting that everything in the Bible is real I remember saying everything in Revelation is real. I remember Rachel Anderson was with me and she was having a great time. I saw Lee Watson standing in the corner excited and nervous and I ran to Him and I prayed over him everything that you've ever dreamed is real God hasn't forgotten you, his power is real and it's for you here and now. I began to weep over him and I woke up.

New Years Eve is Tommorrow

I'm not sure what I'll be doing but I am at least sure it will be anticlimactic.
Most New Year's are like that. My favorite NYE was not watching the ball drop
@ Times Square or eating pigs in a blanket at my parents house. My favorite was
recording a couple of songs on an old reel to reel 4 track recorder. It was great. It was
authentic, it was moody.

"We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives." - Tyler, Fight Club
I watched brave heart over the last couple of days. It's a three hour movie and took me a couple of days to finish it off. I left with two feelings. First and Primarily I thought about the real tangible war that William Wallace felt. His wife was Murdered and his life was oppressed by the anglish. There was a real visible enemy. I thought how easy was it to identify the enemy and identify the tyranny. In my War the enemy is hard to identify and the tyranny hard to correlate. Was it similiar, were people saying, "We're fine, there's no oppression." Maybe, but those he initially roused were certainly those who felt the oppression of a real enemy and tehy had the eyes to see every where in thier society that the enemy's oppression manifested; in poverty, in fear, in strangulation of creativity and in the lack of true freedom. Can I convince myself of a same war? Must I experience the pain of oppression to stand against oppression? Maybe.

The second thought was that Robert the Bruce is the hidden Hero of the story. Even though he makes some huge mistakes it sets his heart to fight. It sets his intention to stand against his natural inclination and the so called way of success. He falls, but is redeemed, he loses major battles but when he comes to, he turns the war.

I've betrayed and I've been disalutioned. I've feared and I've clamored. But redemption is at the door waiting for those who would no longer live with comfortable and begin to dream. Even if they die in thier dream and even if they never see the fruition of thier dream. When failure stops being a blockade but rather a stepping stone and fear and comfort are our enemys we can begin stepping out on the battlefield able to die at war on the outside, at peace where it counts.

Questions and thoughts from Africa. I am asking the question, how could a Nation be 80% Christian and have such severe poverty, Why are the majority of nice cars I see stamped with “World Vision” or “UN.” Why are the Women working while the men hangout in clusters playing pool or just shooting the breeze. Why is a Land so conducive to crop growth so agriculturally underdeveloped? Why are people out of water when I can see Lake Victoria from my Terrace (one of the biggest lakes in the world). Why does the electricity turn off in a neighborhood for 4 hours at a time?

I’m sure the specialists have answers for all of this but the stark contrast is why are there other international companies shipping their goods in to meet Africa’s immediate needs without recognizing the complete absence of real industrial substructure. Here is my idea. As a nation set up an embargo in where you would cease to receive products from major corporations until they helped your countries basic utilities, Power, Water, Sewer and Waste Removal. It would go something like this, “Dear Coke we are not selling anymore of Your damn product unless you help us build a Hydro-Electric Power Plant on the Nile.” There is a Coca-Cola Africa foundation I’m not trying to specifically bash Coke just making a point. (I love coke)

A house without a foundation is such a funny picture. One could have chandeliers and a beautiful coffee table but if there is no foundation the structure will be destroyed. Economic instability creates political instability. So if a people are economically unstable and dissatisfied they start pointing fingers, then you have coupes and rebellions and genocide.

From my perspective the economic aspect is not nearly s important as the moral foundation being built. Husbands having one wife, loving each other etc. Immediate pleasure is far more real and tangible than a hope of a strong society, You might as well just save your money and move to the States.

So there has to be a Church, it has to trumpet Kingdom morality and standards. It has to underlay a foundation of self government. But it is much harder to put a new foundation on an existing home than it is to start fresh. But you cant start fresh! Even though we are born into sin with hundreds of years of traditions that are self damaging there is still hope.

Hope is such stark contrast in a war torn nation. Children believing the can be Doctors and Lawyers, parents living for the next generation rather than for themselves young people with the look in their eye that says, "I'm here to change something and I'm not leaving until it happens," those are the embers we blow on. That is where change happens. Missions is essential even if it only comes along side and encourages what God has already established, (although small) a good and solid foundation.