......to the point of shedding blood.......

I was just sittin around at home last night and I came across a sermon by Rolland Baker at www.fathersglory.com and it is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard. My whole focus here has shifted and I see what has inspired me so much the last few years. Words cant describe it, cause it is the heart of what Christianity is, not what the church has made it. I wept over and over during and after it; repenting to God about how I had forgotten what I hold most dear in this life. About the thing which gives my life purpose and drive. (As always, dont take me too much out of context. I love my family and friends, etc). Last night I was literally touched by the fire of God, and it's not the awesome, 'cool' thing that a lot of christians think it is. It hurts, it breaks you, it forces you to do what Jesus would do. It burns away your flesh until you die, but it's good; there is a way no other. Watch this if you dare; it's quite a dangerous word.

http://fathersglory.com/media/Baker/051115-Roland_Baker-Dunamis_Now-River_of_Life-Phoenix-AZ.wvx

Abounding in Love

To know God is to know eternal

and perfect love.

His love is spiritual, not emotional.

It is based not on feelings or

circumstances, but on who He is.

God is love and therefore He

loves. He loves because it is His

nature to love.

WIBI or HoGi?

Things are well. We are so blessed here in the west that we don't even realize a fraction of it. It's crazy. So much we take for granted.

I've really been challenged lately, since I met a fellow HoGi here in the Niagara region. I asked myself a question: Am I a HoGi (Holy Given) or a WIBI (World Impact Bible Institute) ?

To me (and that is the key thing), a WIBI and a HoGi are immensely different. I don't want to really share how I think they are different because I don't want people to misinterpret what I mean. I'm not saying one is right/better, the other wrong/worse. But there are stark differences, to say the least.

When you get in a certain environment, you start to take on certain characteristics and mindsets consistent with that specific environment. You become what you learn. If you learn how to do the same thing in different ways, then you go with the one which suits you, who you are, inside, in your Spirit.

With that, I can defintely say that I am indeed a HoGi, through and through, and not a WIBI. I believe a laid down life (where your possessions and 'stuff' are really a hindrance and offer nothing that is really important, in the grande scheme of things) is more applicable to how I think and feel, and what God is molding me into. I like bizarre Spiritual manifestations, prophecy (no matter how wild or innacurate it may be before we learn to hear God better), a life lived in the dirt with the poor, persecution, taking up my cross daily, dying daily to self, worshipping on God's schedule not ours, giving up our lives because God gave up His life for us. "Lower and slower". "All fruitfulness flows from intimacy". "Love the one in front of you". Etc etc.

I've learned more on the foreign mission field in one week than I've learned in western christianity in 5 years!

The self denying mindset, which may have been stifled a bit of late, has roared back to life. It's hungry.

.........................Is it time to graduate yet?

*On a sidenote: it is 17 degrees in St Catharines today; craziness!! And on sunday I went to Westview Christian Fellowship instead of NCC. It was pretty sweet. I plan on going back, fo sho.

Jesus -- A Man for all men

The following has been said about Christ:

He came from the bosom of the Father to the bosom of a woman. He put on humanity that we might put on divinity. He became the Son of Man that we might become sons of God.

He was born contrary to the laws of nature, lived in poverty, was reared in obscurity, and only once crossed the boundry of the land--in childhood. He had no wealth or influence, and had neither training nor education in the world's schools. His relatives were inconspicuous and uninfluential.

In infancy He startled a king; in boyhood He puzzled the learned doctors; in manhood He ruled the course of nature. He walked upon the billows and hushed the sea to sleep. He healed the multitudes without medicine and made no charge for His services. He never wrote a book, yet all the libraries of the country could not hold all the books about Him. He never wrote a song, yet He has furnished the theme for more songs than all songwriters together. He never founded a college yet all the schools together cannot boast of as many students as He has. He never practiced medicine abd yet He healed more broken hearts than the doctors have healed broken bodies.

He is the Star of astronomy, the Rock of geology, the Lion and the Lamb of zoology, the Harmonizer of all discords and the Healer of all diseases.

Great men have come and gone; yet He lives on. Herod could not kill Him; Satan could not seduce Him; death could not destroy Him; the grave could not hold Him.

He is the Christ--the preeminent one; the All in all.

Isaiah 55:8-9

God does things in our lives when we least expect it: when we aren't praying for it, and even when we don't even think we need it. Such is the striveless, easy, fluent life of living in the flow of Holy Spirit. Rolland Baker said last year that the Christian life was an incredibly easy one to live because of how God usually works. Now don't take this whole rave out of context, God does indeed move when we pray, and when we need Him too (sometimes!!) etc. But think of the really influential things that have happened to you, and you usually find out that they happened when you least expect them, when you weren't praying for them, and when you didn't even think you needed them. Such is the life I live, such is the life I am growing in.

Sometimes you don't really know how much you need something untill that need is met. Then you look back and say, "Wow, thanks God." I often struggle with a lack of like-minded people whom I can really connect with. People who are molded out of the same Spiritual background as I. People with the mindset of 'laying it all down for the sake of the Gospel'. There is a freedom theirin that western Christianity is missing, that they are passing by.

OK then! 1. I am now working at Wal-Mart. On my first shift there, 2. I run into Amy Good in one of the isles, who was at Holy Given last summer in Pemba, Mozambique. This was a divine meeting if ever there was. And 3. I was offered a car yesterday if the insurance, gas, etc are affordable to my budget. Now, I did pray for the job, but the others God threw in as freebies. How about that? I don't know what to think sometimes. I do think however, that we're on the verge of something BIG! Holy Spirit is getting sick of waiting for us to come in line with Him. He's already ready, and His soveriengty is irritated and impatient. Who Knows what this will look like?

God takes His stand in His own congregation
(Psalm 82:1a)

on and on and on

WIBI has been going good. The ministry aspect has picked up and that is good. My hamstring is gettin better but not near 100%. The WIBI Bowl may be hard on me!!

So today Kyle, Jenny and I went on the Door-To-Door evangelism deal. Some pics are here to show you our hard work. It was pretty sweet. 'Nancy" was in some need of some leaf raking and we arrived on the scene none too soon. Good times.

Last night, Josh and I went to TACF and took part in Patricia King's Glory School. It was awesome. WE are heading there again tonight for another go at the Glory. It should be a wild time. If you don't know of Patricia King, then you surely don't know crazy!!





Things are going good still, the teaching has been pretty solid and its a good bunch of students. I move the end of the month out of the residence into a duplex with a couple other students. It's a bit more expensive, but its a way nicer place. The rent is going towards supporting a missionary in Indonesia too, so thats some good spendin.



But anyways, I should cruise cause I got to head to Toronto. Oh yeah!!

ouch!!

So yeah, ouch!! I believe I just pulled my hamstring practicing for the WIBI Bowl. And it sort of hurts! Anyways, its all good, I think. The WIBI Bowl is next saturday and its a football game between the WIBI students and the WIBI staff. The students have never won, so we're hopin to change that this year.

In other news, the ministry aspect is goin good. I was back at the Detention Center on monday and met with one of the inmates for about an hour and a half. It was pretty awesome. What a great chance to speak 'life' into guys that normally only have 'death' spoken into them. So that was good.

Yesterday, I took 4 other students out to the community to rake leaves and serve. We went to about 10 houses before someone finally answered the door. They thought we wanted money, but we had to explain to them that we were there only to serve, not to be paid. He was rather delighted, and surprised. So we went to work and raked his leaves for the next hour or so. Good times.

And Casey and I have been working on the NCC Float for the upcoming Christmas Parade. It needs a bit'o'work, so we've been taking a few evenings to work on it. They say the Church always puts in a good showing, so we'll see how she goes.

Other than that, class has been good. We are 1/4 of the way through this year, and it's goin quickly. Soon it will be time to head back to Africa; Hallelujah!!

lots goin on

Yes, there has been lots goin on! I have not recieved a job yet, so all you who voted 'yes' are WRONG!! Sorry. Anyways, I'm still looking. But, my laptop has arrived, but I needed to send it to Gateway for further repairs :(. Whatever though.

I have gotten out of the Overseas Missions Ministry and switched over to Prison Ministry. On monday I went for my first visit to the Niagara Detention Center for a tour of the facility. Quite a spot. Once a week from now on I hope to visit the Center for one-on-one visits with some of the inmates. What a great time and place to minister the love of Christ to broken, hardened (for the most part) people. Exciting stuff.

Last friday NCC hosted LIVE, which was an outreach directed towards kids aged 10-18. It rocked. There was like 3 live bands, a volleyball net set up in the sanctuary, with big screen video games, ping pong, air hockey, gladiator battles, huge twister, basketball, food, smoke machines, and free ipod giveaways. We had about 70 or so youth show up, and a dozen or so got saved, and all had a good time, I believe.

Halloween, NCC hosted Hallelujah Harvest, which was a huge outreach directed towards children aged anywhere between 1 and 13. We turned the cafeteria into a games room where our Bible based action games were a big hit. To end off the night, we gathered the 50-60+ children into the multi-purpose room and Melody Wallace and I presented to them a Gospel puppet show, completely ad-lib. T'was an event, to be sure, complete with the Salvation Prayer at the close. Kids are great at recieving the things of God, it's pretty sweet.

So there are some other things goin on too, but usually just the run of the mill, everyday, stuff associated with the ministry here. Pastor Peter Youngren is in Surabaya, Indonesia right now conducting giant Gospel festivals and seeing amazing things happen. God is good, and faithful.

This month is shaping up to be something really good. There is another ministry opportunity rearing it's head as well, but I wont divulge any details of that one right now. It could be a big one. OK everyone, bye bye. Have a good one.

weekend family visit

Mom and Mack were visiting from PEI the last couple of days. Too bad I don't have my laptop yet cause I got some sweet pictures from Niagra Falls from friday night; twas pretty sweet. But we spent much time just hanging out and cruisin around St Catharines. It was good to have some of the family up for a visit.

Not much has been happening the last week. School is school, and all that. I'm still looking for work, and doing lots of studying, etc. Same old, same old. I'm startin to get to know a few of the students better, and am forging some relationships that will likely last a while, God willing.

After church today, 8 of us went to the Mandarin restaurant for an all-u-can-eat Chinese buffet, with every other thing you could think of, to eat. We were under the impression that it was gonna be $10 each, but on sunday's it's $18.50!!! Are u jokin?!! Good thing one of the other students paid for mine, cause I'm just about tapped. Jobs are good. Anyways...............later.

Having it all, but wanting more!?

In my last post, I related the story of a guest speaker coming to CBC and totally firing me up. I became hungry, hungry, hungry, for God in a way that I didn't know had died off a bit. It was a day of intense Holy Spirit Presence. Anyway, that prompted a response by "anonymous" (by the way "anonymous", I'm fairly confident I know who you are) requesting an explanation of how someone could be full of God, yet want more!? It's a valid question, I guess, for anyone who doesn't know the answer. A fairly foolish one though, for anyone reading this who already knows the answer.

The main gist of it all can be summed up as "More of You and less of me". We are never to behold more of God in us than we already possess. He lives inside us and we can drink from that river at all times. Yet there are times when we don't see all that He has provided for us. We believe He took our sickness, yet sometimes we are sick. We believe that through His poverty we became rich, yet sometimes we are without a penny. We believe that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ, but often we live so far below that. Jesus has provided EVERYTHING for us, yet none of us live to even a thousandeth of what He purchased for us. I don't deny the finished work of Christ, but I'm unwilling to live the normal 'Christian' life I see the Church trudging through. It makes me sick. Salvation is enough, but Jesus wants us to live wih more, with all that He died to give us. That included experience with Him, intimate time in His manifest Presence. Why not?

Whether or not His Presence gets stronger at times, or we just are more aware of His Presence in us, it makes no difference. The presence is stronger at some times than others, bottom line. Being hungry for 'more' of God means I want to be so much more aware, so much closer to Him, and farther from me. "More of Him" means to see more of what He purchased for me manifest in My life.

I know "anonymous" probably has a hundred little arguments floating around, but I care little about them. In fact, I'm done. I'm through with this subject right now. The feelings are too inward to be accurately described anyway. My attempts at it would only prove to be vain. In closing........ Salvation is enough, but it's not all Jesus paid the price for. If others don't want the rest, then I'll take it