Pray for Broken Hearts

Santa Monica/Highland, West Hollywood

I was involved in a ministry my freshmen year at Biola called Broken Hearts.   Their desire is for the broken hearted to see the love of Christ in us.  To impact those with broken hearts by building a relationship, showing them Jesus’ love, and giving them hope. Broken Hearts goes out to West Hollywood and East Los Angeles to witness to those with broken hearts: clubbers, drug addicts, drug dealers, homeless, prostitutes, homosexuals and many more. 

My prayers are with them this Thursday night.  I ask that yours are as well.  Pray for team unity, softened hearts, and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ would move powerfully through Los Angeles.  

Sleepless

The nothingness of silence creeps in

right on time

loud and announced

fanfare and fireworks

the life of the party.

I lay here awake--

thinking,

praying,

pleading with God

for a still whisper to creep in,

"It's okay, my son, sleep."

Dear God,

I pray that you would help me love what you love and hate what you hate.

Godspell!

From the 1973 Musical Godspell (Based on the Gospel according to St. Matthew). Rent the movie, its a good laugh and might teach you something!

Okay, so for some reason,  I have been thinking a lot about the Hippie-Musical Godspell for a while now.  I think it is because I am taking two classes on the Gospels this semester.  I hear certain verses in the Bible such as Matthew 3:3 when John the Baptist cries, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him" and my mind automatically turns to the crazy flower-power hippies being baptized in a New York City fountain! Seriously, you have to see the movie to get the full effect!  It really is a cool movie.  It is an interesting take on Jesus and the disciples.  It is also very telling of the "Jesus Movement" that went on during this time period. The only thing that is lame (and heretical) is that Jesus doesn't rise from the dead! (Kind of a big thing to forget, right?!!?) The movie ends with the hippies/disciples dancing and singing through NYC, carrying Jesus.  (Maybe the writers were saving the resurrection account for the 1980s!!)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070121/trailers-screenplay-E13670-310

(watch the movie trailer!!!)

The Dustin Laugh!

Stevie Wonder Dance Party...(why not?!)

Starring Josh, Kaitlin, and Reenie!!!

Dedication to Steve:

Jesus is not JUST a band-aid...

He's also kind of like a rose covered in thorns.  

We reach out and grab hold of Him

And bleed.

It hurts.

Grasping the fullness of His call

We feel the pain of a life of suffering and anguish.

Blessed to be a Blessing (And a Cheesy Valentines Application)

            In Old Testament times, during the time of Tabernacle and Temple worship, Yahweh appointed the Tribe of Levi to oversee the worship in the Temple.  They were a tribe set apart for the purpose of worshiping God day and night, offering sacrifices, making music, and praying to the Lord.  They were “to represent God to the World, particularly mediators of his blessings, so that others can see who he is and come to worship him as well” (Dave Horner).

 

            Deuteronomy 10:8-9 captures the job description of the Levites:

At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today. That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as the LORD your God told them.

            The priests represented God to the people by teaching his Word, giving instruction of worship, blessing them, and rebuking improper worship.  Priests also represented the people, or Nation of Israel, to God.  This was done by them making intercessory prayer and burning incense on behalf of the nation, leading worship, bearing the 12 tribes of Israel on their priestly garments, and sacrificing on behalf of the sins of individuals and the Nation as a whole.

 

1 Peter 2:9 also asserts that even under the New Covenant, Christians play a priest like role.  The epistle declares that we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

 

As mediators between God and people, we represent God to people by being conduits of love and grace; we can be the hands and feet of Jesus to the world by serving them.  We are also charged to teach the Word, bring salvation to the ends of the earth, and bless.  We also have the opportunity to represent people to God.  We do this by making intercessory prayer, bearing people in God’s presence, and leading people to worship God. 

 

            In a totally cheesed-out way, I want to encourage us to keep these things in the front of our minds this Valentines Day.  Bottom line: We are blessed.  Therefore, BLESS! Love! Serve! Bear well the image of God to others.

 

“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)

 

Happy Valentines Day!

(I love you, Kaitlin) :)

"No matter how deep our darkness, He is deeper still."

"No matter how deep our darkness, He is deeper still"

-Corrie Ten Boom

My emotions have not yet caught up to me.  It makes me sick and numb. 

Cognitively, I know that God is good and He will be glorified--that isn't the difficult part.  

The difficulty is in the pain.  It's in the human condition.  

Sitting in pain and despair is the most exhausting of all places I have been.  

Dream-like, numb, and at my end, I sit knowing that I am powerless.  My hope is that He is powerful.  

The scariest thing is the faith has never felt more real than right now.  It well may be that all of the "wonderful" moments of praise, learning, worship, love were training me for these moments.

My darkness is deeper than ever, but I meet Him in the darkness.  In the flood, in the loin's den, in the fiery furnace, in the whale's stomach, in the ashes and sackcloth, in the Roman cross.