At the bottom of the valley lies a field of broken dreams, dry emotions, disconnected relationships and visionless eyes. Ezekiel is taken by the spirit of God to an outcropping overlooking the valley. He sees death.

There God has a question for him.

“Can these bones live?”

Sadly, Ezekiel has no answer. His hopelessness is a reflection of the scene before him. His heart is full of what his eyes see.

BUT God steps into the picture. He has a command. Not a command to preach or teach or learn or impart. A command to prophesy. Call those things that are not as though they already are. Begin to speak about things to come with conviction.

A few days ago… while I was praying, I felt God speaking to me about this scripture.

DRY BONES

Truth is when we begin to prophesy to our problem, it starts to change. If we complain about it we reinforce it. So God is saying: prophesy!

There is new life coming to you. Your life will be permanently changed for the better. Dreams are coming true. Relationships are being healed. Finances are flowing and you are prospering. The future is getting brighter every day.

Do you see it? PROPHESY!

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

Elbert Hubbard

Wow! What a week!

Several hundred delegates flew, drove and hitchhiked (okay maybe not hitchhiked) to fill the auditorium of C3 Church in Atlanta and be part of the C3 Americas annual conference.

To get a bit of a feel for the conference checkout the #c3americas Twitter feed.

There were a few highlights for me. Well… maybe just a slight bit more than a few.

Phil Pringle’s session where he talked about faith and conscience had to be the absolute best teaching on that subject I have ever heard.

Phenomenal!

If it becomes available for download I’ll link it here. (which incidentally would be a good reason to subscribe to my RSS feed. Hit the link at the top right.)

The thing that constantly amazes me about Ps Phil is his ability to break down a difficult and controversial subject and leave you saying ‘of course, why didn’t I think of that before. It makes so much sense.’

“Your body is designed to be a temple, not an entertainment center! You were designed for God to inhabit!” Phil Pringle

“If your sincerity supercedes your faith you will find yourself living in performance.” Phil Pringle

But hey… there were many more speakers. Everyone shared absolute gold. Each one was completely unique. And Ps Chris Pringle’s session should rid you of any remaining religious devils OR make them manifest. Get the audio of the sessions if and when they become available. — hint rss feed (audio sessions are available here)

One of the many things I love about this family of churches is the freedom to be yourself. I mean really, how many of you are under constant pressure to be or act a particular way? Wouldn’t you just love the freedom to just be who God made you?

When you see the massive diversity of gifts, talents, personalities, capacity, training and experience of people throughout this movement you realize that there is a place for nearly everyone. Admittedly the religiously judgmental, the critically proficient and the defenders of tradition may find it somewhat harder to fit in… at least without a merciful reshaping of their fundamental values and insecurities. (…But God)

Oh.. did I mention the loud, worshipful, motivational, impartational, blow your mind loud, incredible, presence of God, forward looking, humbling, faithbuilding, honouring, really loud, can we do it again Stadium Night at Center Stage, Atlanta.

No?

I guess I didn’t. Why don’t you ask someone else who was there about it or if you were there, leave a comment below.

What do you think? Let’s talk.

You may teach what you know, but you can only reproduce what you are.

I’ve been thinking about theology.

I know… not the most interesting subject in the world and probably confined to the very few elite, interested and utterly boring academics. If you are a theologian… I’m sorry… really!

People aren’t looking for fresh theology.

Not even looking for a fresh take on theology. My friends just want something that’s gonna work. Something that stirs hope in them. Something that might give them another chance. A do-over so to speak.

The unfortunate thing about theology is that it is framed in a distant past that seems entirely irrelevant to most people. Defined by dated vocabulary and disconnected ideas. Who really cares about eschatology and ecclesiology?

Give me something valuable. Help me deal with my kids. Help me believe that I’m not a failure as a parent, husband, friend, employee, employer and human being. Show me what love really is. Walk with me so I don’t walk alone.

“So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.” John 1:14 (NLT)

Self-help has failed most people. What we need is a real God living through real people who freely and lovingly connect in a real world.

At least that’s my opinion…. I’d be interested in hearing your’s. Let’s talk!

A day earlier, Phil Wasnic had received a special UPS delivery. The bill of lading on the small package indicated that it had been sent from a Leavenworth, WA company that Phil had never heard of but the sender’s name was well known to him. Six years earlier, Wasnic had been a bartender in Seattle when he witnessed a gang execution. It was his eyewitness testimony that had been the clincher in convicting Marco Barcello of first degree murder. The jury had recommended life imprisonment and the judge had agreed. Because Barcello had been considered a high risk convict, he was placed in a maximum security facility in northern California. So it was with a certain amount of surprise and fear that Wasnic saw the name Marco Barcello on the UPS document.

How had Barcello found him?

And what was in the package?

His hands began to shake with that nervous tension that accompanies the fearful unknown as he struggled to open the package.

He stopped. Should he even open it? Maybe it would be better if he simply took the unopened package to the local police station. Of course he would have to explain a little of his background, but he could handle that.

Half an hour later, Phil was standing in the waiting room of the Carstairs police station. He was aggravated by the typically slow moving small town police policies. As soon as one of the town’s two officers got back from whatever crisis they were currently dealing with, he would be the next in line. He could be waiting fifteen minutes or all day. On second thought, he didn’t have to wait at all. No-one was forcing him to be here. It was his fear of the past that brought him here and his impatience with the present that would send him away again. It only took 23 minutes for his impatience to win out. He couldn’t be bothered with this, he’d check out the package himself. After all, it had already been cleared by Canadian Customs.

Of course…why hadn’t he thought of that earlier?

“Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.”
Earl Wilson

I came across this photo on the failblog.org website. Couldn’t resist the irony of it all.

Enjoy!!

My wife had an awesome word on Sunday while taking up the offering. I noticed a comment about it on twitter

@murraytlm thought Ps. Kim’s word on disciples yesterday was awesome! Very wise and insightful woman of God…

She used the disciple word and reminded me/us that disciple still means to be a learner.

Matthew 28:19 (NLT) Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Why is it that we commonly encounter people who don’t want to learn new things? And why is that a common criticism of the church and Christians?

I forgot that being a disciple means constantly learning new ways of communicating. Learning how to use twitter, a cellphone and facebook.

Learning new words like ‘Google’ and ‘texting’.

Can you actually be a disciple of Jesus and not be willing to learn? I think that could be an interesting conversation.

What do you think?

Luke 10:41-42 (NLT) But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! ⁴² There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

There are plenty of details to worry about. Some of them are very important, but most are simply distractions.

You worry about too many things. Get upset about the details and miss the big picture.

Apparently the world is in an economic downturn…. details.

Don’t forget that ‘this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs’ (Phil 4:19) is the ONE thing you should be concerned about.

Mark Smallcombe tweeted this yesterday: “My latest thought! Like a bow, we sometimes have to experience retraction before the launch. Your aim is improved thru the agony of tension”

Tension, details, stress, worries are intended to drive you to the ONE thing you need to be concerned about.

Don’t stress about all the details, get firm about the ONE thing.

And that ONE thing is:  (drum roll please…….)

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33 (NLT)