4/20

Wednesday, April 21, 2010.

So yesterday was 4-20. That may seem like just another day for many but if you are in tune with cannabis, Marijuana, Pot, Erb, Ganja culture it is actually national pot day. 4-20 is originally based on the time 4:20 p.m. where within the weed sub-culture it is the time where after a long days work you light up a joint to finish the work day. It is celebrated all around the world as a sign of unity and strength of the pot movement; and really lots of smokers will intentionally light up at that time for the purpose of being a part of something bigger than just themselves. because April 20th is 4-20 that is the day chosen by smokers to have a pot sit in of sorts in their local cities. Some places have as many as 20,000 people all come together and light up. The local law enforcement can't do much as there is such a show of numbers. It is also movements like this that have shaped the mainstream thinking of Pot as a relative harmless drug i.e. if 25,000 people are smoking it in the open it can not be that bad!

I was thinking what the spiritual significance of a prayer movement with this kind of boldness and tenacity could have. Not to say there are not currently huge prayer movements within the body of Christ, cause there are, but imagine one with such unity and strength of numbers. I mean far more people pray every single day than people who smoke pot, I hope, so just imagine if on say on 9/20 every Christian converged on their local urban front and began to pray out loud and read scripture. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The earth would surely be shaken!

Amen!

Monday, April 19th, 2010

I was listening to a worship song recently that said ... "Your hands reached into the depths of darkness ... Your arms pulled me to the light above." It had me thinking of how far Jesus really was sent out after me, and not only because I had strayed so far, but because of how far his Father had to send him. Wow! I was far, but regardless just because I was born into sin he had to travel through so much to get to me. I feel so victorious as I walk through my day reminding myself of this truth. It gives me an assurance of how pressing the call to reach others with this truth in their own darkness is. That may be the most amazing part of this; that when he finally does grab "me" he then calls me to join him in reaching others.

I love Jesus.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010.

We recently had a Jr Soldier enrollment and it caused me to really look at the promise that these kids were making to God w/ accountability from their local body aka Corps.

Having asked God for forgiveness, I will be his loving and obedient child.

Because Jesus is my savior from sin, I will trust him to keep me good, and try to help others follow him.

I promise not to use intoxicating drink, harmful drugs and tobacco.

I promise to pray, to read my bible and, by his help, to lead a life that is clean in thought, word and deed.

This promise may seem simple or primary but I think it is fierce! What a foundation to lay in a young persons life. Even more so, what a legacy. I was recently speaking to a TC from South America and he asked me "How do you measure success?" I though about this a while and answered with several good, in my mind, explanations. He then looked at me and, with fervor, said "Membership is everything." I thought about that for a wile and have drawn a few conclusions from my own experience.

1. Everyone wants to belong to something and be a part of something bigger than themselves.

2. The opportunity for membership, all inclusive community with an all access pass if I may, gives to the enrolled the chance to walk out applied kingdom loyalty.
(Loyalty in the world is represented by what plastic grocery store card you have in your wallet to get the good deals - whereas Kingdom loyalty develops the character of faithfulness and commitment, two things lacking in the world.)

3. Membership measures success as it marks how many are willing to believe His message ,as you represent it, enough to throw in their lot and follow something of purpose and single mind.

I know that I am a member, a covenanted soldier, not only because of the spiritual leading but also because of the inspiration of seeing others around me who made me think "I want to serve Jesus like that." or "I want my life to count for something real." This is so often represented to us through the examples of our older brothers and sisters in the Faith and, the opportunity to join up not just talk up a purpose is a part of the application of our faith. In the SA I think there is even a deeper "joining" in holy purpose through our covenant. The idea of membership, in this context speaks to the greater idea of being sold out for the Gospel.

I also think that within the emergent/emerging communities we may be able to measure membership with different language.

Anyways I am enjoying this challenge from my brother.

Have you enlisted anyone lately?

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Have not been at this for over a month but jumping back in.

On the local front -- We have been blessed to start Sunday School at our local SA shelter. What a blast 20 plus kids every week just wanting to hang out. We do a monthly Pizza Party to welcome new kids and are slowly including regular Sunday school curriculum. RICH, RICH blessing.

I wonder how many of our local SA shelters have any spiritual youth programing at all. Some may and props! Scary thought though, whole untapped y.p. corps just waiting for someone to show up.

I have been contemplating our covenant lately ... more to come but man what a foothold the devil has on us trying to explain away covenant with such weak arguments like "is that even biblical. OMG!!! (seriously more to come)

Be blessed.