The Middle East

Over the last 5 months or so I have taken quite the interest in the Middle East. Anything to do with it, the history of it, whats going on today and how it matters to us. After all it is where everything began, and is the center of most of the happenings in the Bible, so it had to be somewhat important.

I think what sparked my interest in the Middle East was my beginning to become more involved with prophecy and end times happenings, and there were just a lot of prophecy that has to do with things in the Mid East and more specifically, Israel. I then got suggested an author to read by one of my great friends Garrett, who had been becoming increasingly interested in the same thing I had. He suggested I read some stuff of Joel Rosenburg. So I began to read the books “Epicenter” and “Inside the Revolution”. Before Rosenburg wrote these to non-fiction books, he wrote a series of political thrillers, starting with “The Last Jihad”. In this series he based his writings on prophecy from Ezekiel 38-39.  Strangely enough a lot of stuff was happening in his books that was happening after he had wrote it. Such as the opening scene from “The Last Jihad” is two planes crashing into American buildings in an act of terrorism. “The Last Jihad” was published some time before the events of 9-11, at least 6 months I believe. But as I have read both of his books I have began to learn a lot about the Middle East. There are so many prophetic things come true that it is crazy really. Like in Eziekel it talks about how Russia and Iran will come together against Israel, and looks like it is coming true. It talks about how Israel will become united again and establish itself, which happened a good while ago. One that I just came across in reading “Epicenter” I found very interesting. There is prophecy in the Bible that says Israel will be given great gifts of the depths (oil?). Now Israel had never been known to be a place that had a huge surplus of oil at all. But over the past years there have been huge findings of oil in Israel, in fact I believe I read that it was there may be some of the biggest findings of oil that have ever been found in Israel (which is prophesied that Israel will have great great prosperity in the last days). Even crazier is that these findings have been found in the Valley of Megiddo, which if you don’t know is where the battle of Armageddon is supposed to take place. Somebody in Rosenburgs book asks, what could Israel possess in the last days that would make it such a prize for conquest that world’s armies would meet there to fight the spoils? …..perhaps the one of the greatest oil deposits ever found?

Those are just a few of the things that have interested in my pursuit of knowledge of what is going on in the Middle East. Rosenburg also gets into Islam and the difference in the radicals and the reformers, which is also very interesting. There is just so much more going on, I can’t even begin to get into it all, nor am I anywhere close to understanding it all. I think that everybody should take an interest and try to gain an understanding to what is going on over there. If anything just so you understand what is going on in the world. God is doing some stuff I believe, and I think we should all be paying attention to what is going on outside of our little worlds. Check out Joel Rosenburg’s blog at http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/

Thrice- Moving Mountains

This is  one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands, Thrice “Moving Mountains” . Lyrics are pretty amazing. The bases is 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.

check it

Paralyzed by adventures….

This post is a continuation of what i was just writing about, there is just a flow from one into another subject, I thought that I should break them up since the last post was probably too long in itself.

After I got back from my trip I must admit I was pretty bummed for a week or so. Just because I went from adventure and something new everyday, back to the same ol’ same ol’. Which brings me to this thought…..

Are we supposed to be doing the same ol’ same ol’. Going to work everyday, doing homework everynight? Does it make sense? I wrestle with it all the time, do my days matter? Why do we go to work everyday? In my head I make the argument that it is because we have to be responsible and pay bills etc… Making myself to this world around me. I mean how crazy would I look to people, people close to me, even my family if I woke up tomorrow, quit my job, didn’t finish my last semester of school and just took off somewhere with what I had. Living adventure, not knowing where food was going to come from, not really knowing where I was going to sleep. Meeting people and telling them about Jesus. How nuts would I look?

I wrestle with thoughts of this all the time. Am I wasting my life by being responsible right now? Or will it pay off and I just need to be patient and let life unfold? Will me having a degree really help me spread the good news more effectivly, or is it just something I am doing? Perhaps I am being unresponsible by even thinking that those things are unimportant? I really dont know and just pray that Gods will for my life unfolds just how He would like.  I do believe that is it for the time. But if anyone who comes across this has any insight or thought to this feel free to comment, I would love to know what you think about this or if you ever do.

Next blog: thoughts on Iran and the Middle East

Adventures…

I have not posted anything in a while, which is usually the case, so no surprise there. But since I last wrote I have explored half the country and have had many new thoughts.

About a month ago my brother and two friends from back home (Van Buren) took off on a journey that I will never forget. We drove from Arkansas, to Denver, to Yellowstone National Park, through the vast nothingness of Montana and Wyoming which is really pretty for there being nothing there. We then made stops in Seattle, Portland, through the Redwoods to San Fransico and finally through Las Vegas, I mean it was on our way back so we had to right.

Some highlights…. In Denver we stopped at this place for breakfast called, The Delectable Egg it was amazing, had the most delicious breakfast burrito ever. In Yellowstone there were so many highlights, the gysers, Old Faithful, amazing canyons and waterfalls, animals everywhere just amazing. But what is even more amazing is that in our hotel room, we only had a bath tub, no shower, very strange for a group of 4 dudes. I think the last time I took a bath before this was when it was still ok for Mom to wash you, haha, maybe a bit much but oh well. Then we went on to our next big stop in Seattle, great city, rained of course. But it was definately my favorite city we stopped in. It was big, but still everyone I came across seemed really chill. There was just a layed back feel to the place. It was the only place we stopped that I think I could see myself living in.

We then drove down the to Portland where we stopped at a little doughnut shop called VooDoo doughnuts(www.voodoodoughnut.com), freakin’ amazing, the highlight of the city for me. I also got to see a cousin and aunt that I hadnt seen in 16 years! Crazy.

We continued down the coast, though the Redwoods (it was dark though, so I seen no ocean, boo. it was the only thing i wish we could have planned out better) they are really tall, and creepy looking at night. We then stopped in San Fransisco where we hung out with uncle Joey and Jesse, the rest of the gang couldn’t make it. But in real life we just visited the pier had some great lunch, seen some sea lions, which dont even get close to resembling real lions? We also came across some really cool drug deals!! So that was also awesome.

Then we began our trek back to Arkansas, on our way back we stopped in Vegas, it was just really really hot and warped all the vinyls we bought along the way.

It was a experience that I will never forget! Seen some things that most people only plan on or wish that they could. It was an adventure and journey, which is what life should be. One of the reasons I wanted to do this was just because of that reason. I dont want to say what if to anything in life. To me this was a way of practicing living out adventure, doing something that was in my heart to do and actually doing in and not just talking about it. I need that, that is not something that is natural to my personality. I just needed a way to practically do to practice doing what you say, and this was it. Now I want this to translate spiritually, I dont want to just have ideas and dreams of things that I want to see and do and just let them go to waste. I want to live them out. There are so many things I want to do but dont. But that is something I am about to get into in a separate post. Im sure this is already too long and I commend you if you have read this far. I recommend everyone do something of this nature, it was great to see the country and how different and how much of the same we all are 2000 miles away in the same country.

Should God make sense?

So the last couple days I have been trying my hardest to think about God. I know that sounds weird. But really, have you ever tried to think about God? Sure there are things that we can comprehend about Him, there are things we know about Him, some of His attributes and qualities. He is loving, just, merciful, compassionate, forgiving, jealous, omnipresent, all-knowing, omniscient, ect. But, I have been trying to understand those things and you know what, I can’t do it. How can there be this all-knowing, creator of everything. How did he do it? How can God, love everyone in spite of all of our short comings? How is He everywhere at once? How is He always in control of everything, working out everything to fulfill His will? Sometimes I get frustrated because, neither I, nor you can explain Him fully. We can not comprehend how truly powerful God is. For some people this is a deterrent to following Christ, because they want to be able to understand all of this. They want answers for all of this before they can believe. But, you know what, I do not want a God that I can fully understand, that I can put in a box and say here He is, this is Him and I understand everything about Him. I don’t want to serve a God that I always get or comprehend. Where is deity if we understand everything about God? There is none, in my book.

So, should God make sense? I think not. I think He should make as much sense as He wants to, because He is God. Would He be worth worshiping if He made sense? Let us come to worship Him out of our awe of knowing that He is up to things that we can’t understand fully. But also out of the understanding that everything He does is out of love for us and for the purpose of His will and only good can come out of it. So, when we don’t understand Him let us worship Him. Because I don’t want a God that always makes sense.

Life update

Well, life, hasn’t changed much. To be honest that is pretty sad. Still working, still going to school. I guess it is exciting to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel with school, after only 5 years. I am just a little worried about what is going to happen after school. I don’t really know a whole lot of jobs that I can get with a leadership/ministry degree, besides the obvious. But I have a feeling that God has a lot of excitement for me in whatever I am supposed to do. I just want to wake up and do something everyday that I know is directly helping other people. But I know that God has only good things in store for me. By good, I do not mean lots of money and comforts, but challenge, adventure and blessings!

On another note, I am pretty excited about my upcoming vacation/journey of awesomeness. My brother (Nick) and I are going on a 9-10 day journey. We have nothing really in mind. All that we know is that first stop is Yellowstone, and second stop is Seattle, after that we turn around and head down the coast until we run out of days and have to come back here. I am really stoked about this! Like I cant even express it in this little blog post here. I know we will see amazing things, have time to talk and get to know each other better, and I know that I will get the chance to take a million amazing pictures. There is just this big world that God put a million awesome things in, and I cant wait to see some of them. But that it is, I hope Aaron Reddin is happy now that I have updated my blog. Here ya go!

Tuesday’s thoughts

So I am still reading through Reimagining Church, by Frank Viola. His book has me thinking. Thinking about the church again. What it is today and what it is supposed to be. I obviously understand that churches are not perfect, and understand that we as believers are part of “the Church” no matter what. But I just can’t help but think of what maybe we could be, are we missing out on something? Something big?

I just finished a section in the book entitled, “Reimaging the Gathering Place”. Viola talks about how the church started in homes, and thats where it should be today. Instead we have moved into these huge buildings. I don’t want to get into the entire thing, because I could go on for a while, plus I think that you all should read it for yourselves and come to your own conclusions and thoughts. There were just two things said in the chapter that got my attention. Here is the first, “most modern church buildings reflect the boastings of this world rather than the meek and lowly Savior whose name we bear”. I think this is pretty true, isn’t kind of strange that there are so many expensive things inside the churches, flat screens everywhere, expensive furniture and art, the sound equipment and lighting are pretty crazy. I admit it is attractive, and draws people in the doors. But what message is it sending?(Again, this is just me questioning, I dont think I have all the answers.) I actually enjoy most of this stuff and have never really questioned it. But just because I enjoy it doesn’t really mean a whole lot. Maybe without even thinking about it, we are sending the message that we should have it all together, we should all be up to date with the latest technology, we should have our houses decorated just as well? Maybe I am rambling, but I just question the way we portray our God in our “church buildings”. Jesus came to this Earth and made himself the lowest of low. The dude was homeless while he was here. I just dont know if that correlates with our “buildings”

The second thing that caught my attention sort of goes along with this first point. But Viola points out a stat that Barna used in his previous book. This stat is, “institutional churches in the U.S. alone own over $230 billion worth of real estate. And much of that money is borrowed (debt). Christians give between $9 to $11 billion a year on church buildings.” That is a lot of money, right? And it all goes into buildings? Is that really how we should be spending our resources? I can only imagine what $11 billion would do to help homeless, hungry, orphans, the needs of the body. It is just all puzzling to me. Perhaps we should reimagine the body of Christ and what our purpose really is. Is it to build buildings and put really cool things inside of them? I do understand that Jesus was relevant to his time and culture. But are we trying to make Jesus too cool? To hip?

Again, I just want to say I do understand that the Church does do good things, and that God will work with what is there. There are plenty of great things happening in Churches all over the world. I am a part of ones of these churches. I just have questions about weather or not all of our focus is in the right place. If all of our resources are going to the will of God, or if they are going to what we want?

Adam’s Manifest Destiny

This summer, I shall journey across the great Northwest of these Americas. I have been looking forward to it a lot lately. I dont really have any plan for the trip. I don’t know if anyone is going to go with me. I just know that I need to go. There is something inside of me that needs to move. That needs to go. My goal for the trip is to meet as many people as I can that are different, from different places, and see the world differently than I. I just want the Lord to guide me on this trip, see things He wants me to see, go places He wants me to to. I feel like this will be like a exercise to make me more sensitive to the voice of God. I feel like there are some amazing things I will learn on this trip. At work, this trip is pretty must all I have been thinking of lately.

How freeing this will be to just go, no certain direction, no place I have to be, Maybe ill stay for a few days somewhere maybe I’ll just drive for days with no stopping. I just can’t wait to see things I have never seen before! I have to go! and I will go!

But that is all for now, for whoever reads this, God bless, keep loving people and enjoy the rest of this day you have been given! Shalom.

Reimagining the Lord’s Supper…..

So I have recently been reading a couple few books by, Frank Viola, Pagan Christianity and Reimagining Church. They are meant to compliment each other. Pagan Christianity talks about where we took all the practices that we use in todays “Church Services”. I was pretty surprised to see where we got a lot of the things that are done today in Churches. There are a lot of things that are done that are not all that biblical. I would suggest this for reading, it made me think pretty intensely about the way things are done. I have this on audio book if anyone would like to borrow for a listen (aren’t audio books great, all the fun of reading without the reading).  But I am currently reading the book Reimagining Church. It is the follow up to Pagan Christianity. It talks about a multitude of things for us to rethink in the Church, and how it can look. He talks about the Church as an organism, the meeting place, the Lord’s Supper (which is where I am heading with this, so hang in there), the Leadership, etc… But so far the thing that has got my attention is the Lords Supper, or Communion, however you want to think about it.

I have always loved Communion, I think that is why this Chapter in Violas book stood out to me. He explains the “elements” in depth and what they fully represent. He says this about “the Bread”. “The bread- being the most basic and lowly of all foods– points to the humility and availability of our Lord. By taking on our humanity, Jesus Christ became accessible to us all– just as bread is available to us all, just as bread it available to everyone, both rich and poor.” What really stands out to me in this chapter about the Lords Supper is how Viola points out how the early Church views the Lords Supper. They view it as a banquet, an entire meal, with fellow believers, remembering Christ, His death, but most of all His resurrection and the life that it gave us, a celebration of what has happened. Viola calls this a covenant meal, in the fact that we are to remember the new covenant we have with God, through Jesus Christ. I love this statement that Viola makes “the Lords Supper was never meant to be a morbid reminder of Christ’s suffering. Nor was it a somber occasion where Christians mourned over their sins. Instead, the Supper was a cheerful reminder of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done. It was a reminder and a proclamation of His glorious victory at Calvary, which will be comsummated at His future coming.” It is meant to be a celebration. So I say let us celebrate! The celebration of Passover is just around the corner. I think it would be really neat, to get some peeps together, have a meal, a full spread, the works if you will and celebrate what Jesus has done in our lives. To come together and share prayer and thanksgiving, words of encouragment, stories of victory in our lives personally, anything. I just think that would be awesome! I am going to try and see what I can pull off for this, I would like to get some people together, it would be powerful and encouraging. But those are just some thoughts that I have been meaning to post on here. Hope everbody has a great Tuesday!

Please don’t feed the bears….

So I am writing this with my phone, so that’s pretty odd. But I was having a thought that I thought I should share with my following I have here (sarcasm). I was doing some reading earlier today, and I came across something rather intersting. There was a reference to yellowstone park and the bears there. The author was talking about his trip to yellowstone. He says he noticed signs everywhere that said,”please do not feed the bears”. Yet he seen bunches of people feeding the bears. The author later talks of a conversation he had later with a park ranger. The ranger was saying how the signs weren’t up for the peoples protection but rather for the bears. Every year park rangers have to drag out a number of dead bears after winter and fall because they forget how to fend for food because they were so used to getting fed by other people.
I was thinking that this is how we can get and how I had been and maybe still can be spiritually. I think this serves as a pretty good warning as to what will happen if people are not fully discipled. They/we will become dependent on someone else spiritually feeding us and if nobody does then we will slowly die spiritually. Yes we need to have friends and mentors that we learn from. But that should not be the main source of our spiritual feeding. There is no substitue for time with the Father and time in the word.
This is no great revelation of course. but this just reminds me of the condition of the American Church. There are a lot of great programs and groups, people are gaining friends and aren’t cussing and drinking anymore which is great. But are people being discipled and taught how to feed themselves spiritually? I have a strange
feeling that most are not. This makes me feel an urgency and conviction. A urgency for our countries spiritual condition and conviction because I haven’t done anything about it. I currenly pour into nobody’s life, and am living in blatent opposition to the great commission.
This ended up turning into a rant, I apologize for that. And it looks like from looking back over this, that this was written mainly out of disapointment in myself more than anything. Anyways, just needed to write. That’s all.