I don't want to just know who you are anymore........ I want to share life.

 Acts 2:42-47

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

    For so long I went searching for the power of God, the miracles, signs and wonders, and saw many amazing things. After the search, I found myself unusually unsatisfied. I saw a man healed of cancer, legs grow, and many more things.......... but never a life grow and be healed. I never got to see the greatest miracle of all - The redemption of a life on a personal level.
    I've come to want more. I want to be interwoven into a community of believers that have a heart for God, each other, and the lost. In this picture of the 1st century church, we see a group of people doing just that. How are we when it comes to this concept of community? Are internally focused or do we ACTIVELY desire to see the lost won to Christ?
    My focus right now is first to know who I am in Christ and that starts with reading the word and seeking revelation for today. It says they, "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching". We can ask what does that mean for us? What is the apostles teaching? Well first we can accurately assume it is the Old Testament or the Tanakh.

"When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead."

    The only scripture the Jews recognized at that time would have been the Tanakh and the only place that would have had the prophetic statements of the suffering of Christ.
    We can also assume the four gospels were taught because the Apostles lived it. They had first hand testimony of who Christ is and so were , like any of would have, sharing the impact of Christ in their lives.
 Last, we can assume it was the letters of Paul, Peter, and John. We can see this because many historic figures site these letter for there spiritual arguments in later centuries such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian.
    So, We can reasonably assume that for us to devote ourselves to the apostles teaching is to study Genesis to Revelation. If we are to understand the first step to a interwoven community, we must make studying scripture our first daily priority. But never divorce it from fellowship with other believers. We are not made to be lone rangers..... but that's for the next blog :-)

Coming face to face with life long addictions and false ideas.

Man has this been interesting already. So I am weeks into no Facebook and I already find myself peeking at my wife as shes on almost like an addict looks at smokers near by. I can tell already I had to much of who I was and how I interacted tied into my hourly (sometimes by the minute) Facebook checking. But I feel a desire to GO and find out how my friends are which has been gone for a while :-) I went and played some music with two friends and had a great time. I think I want to do that more.
Now I have added no TV and for the first time in probably 18 years I went to sleep with no TV! A big deal for me because i have had a TV in my room since I was like 15 and it became a "I need it to sleep" thing that was a problem in my marriage. It gives me more time to think about God and what He is saying. I am enjoying no radio in the car, no TV in the house or bedroom, and recently God took my source of podcast listening and it was probably for the best because that was becoming my portable digital crutch because "I had my digital Bible on it" so it made it okay :-)

So other than this blog and some study online.......... I am media free.

This is a scripture recently prophesied about by a well known prophet:

"The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD,
       "when I will send a famine through the land—
       not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
       but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.  Men will stagger from sea to sea
       and wander from north to east,
       searching for the word of the LORD,
       but they will not find it

Amos 8:11-12

My prayer is this:

"That we would not be found in famine, but instead in feast! That as we separate from all the distraction and confusion of this world, we would find ourselves ready vessels to hear the Lord!!!"

In YAHSHUAH's name!
Amen :-)

The Narrow and the Wide: Walking the path that is towards or away from God.

The next thing in Psalms is this idea, "Stand in the path of sinners ". I looked up the definition of the word Stand because of the image David is painting with the whole walk, stand, and sit wording. With "walk" it is an image of taking the advice and then it becoming a manner of lifestyle. When he talks about standing, he is referring to this idea of not just living it out but becoming a servant to something.
I thought back to when Jesus talks about the two paths: One narrow and one broad.

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

We stand at a cross road. A choice when we come to the cross. We can continue what we have always done or make a change. The meaning of repent is to do an about-face. 180 degree turn. But even after we make the decision to follow Christ, at times, we can come face to face with choices of if we are going to jump lines or continue on.
To stand in the path or way of the sinner is so much more than a few bad choices. It's so much more than taking some bad advice. It's allowing yourself to become a servant of sin again. In this case, it's making a stand with sin and giving it control that you promised to Christ. Taking a vow and then denying it was ever there. I think it makes more sense now when Jesus said:
"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to."
To stay on the narrow path...to enter through the narrow door is a on going choice. A thought out desire and goal to listen for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in narrow times.
Can we watch closely at those moments...those choices when we are given an opportunity to declare our servant hood to Christ? The challenge is to look for those moments of advice that are growing weeds of sin into our lives and becoming enslavement's to the Law of sin and death all over again.
One advantage for all of us who claim Christ as Savior.......

"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

Repent......Relinquish.....Be Renewed!!

We are not alone!