I'm out of shape.

Today, during the party celebrating the 8-Year Anniversary of the International House of Prayer, I attempted to play Ultimate Frisbee.

I am by no means a pro at this, but I used to be able to hold my own. Not now. I discovered that I'm old, and out of shape! This is horrible!

I've got to find something fun to do to get myself in shape...

PS 23

Why oh why?

It's so weird. Why do we do things we know are bad for us?

I'm not talking about sin, I'm talking about eating bad food late at night.

Buffalo Wild Wings (B-Dubs) at 12:30AM when I have to work at 9AM?



Habanero Salsa at 1AM?


Beef Franks at any time of the day?


Seriously, why do I do this? The immediate benefit is far-outweighed by the long-term suffering.

Its my berfday.

25 years old. woo-hoo!

Well, I'm not five years old anymore, (my ideal age)
but I can look at it positively:

I'm one year closer to resurrection!

Crisis Prayer: Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

-------------
Breaking News 10:03PM:
From wcco.com

Several pastors and religious leaders are going to the Holiday Inn Metrodome where the families of victims are gathering.

Awesome. I was praying that the Church would respond! Amen. Jesus Get Them!

-------------

Earlier:

Tonight the bridge collapsed on I-35. You can read about it on any major news source.
WCCO has pretty good minute by minute coverage here.
FoxNews has good live coverage here.

It's a pretty big disaster. Just look at this Fox News reporter's reaction:

So how do we respond? We pray.

Tonight in the prayer room we led the nations praying for Minneapolis. We prayed from Matthew 6:9-10

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

We prayed for mercy, healing, for comfort for the victims and families, and that God's love would be revealed in Minneapolis tonight.

Also from Psalms 42:1-6

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me continually,
Where is your God?
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation 6 and my God.

Amen.

My Techie Fortune

I went and ate chinese food yesterday. Ching Chings... mmm...

But check out this crazy fortune cookie message!

"Digital circuits are made from analog parts."

So crazy! I understand what that means in the techie universe, but what does it mean as a fortune?

I'll explain digital versus analog here for you nerds, but everyone else can skip to the last paragraph.

From wikipedia:

A digital system is one that uses discrete values (often electrical voltages), representing numbers or non-numeric symbols such as letters or icons, for input, processing, transmission, storage, or display, rather than a continuous spectrum of values (ie, as in an analog system).

The distinction of "digital" versus "analog" can refer to method of input, data storage and transfer, or the internal working of a device. The word comes from the same source as the word digit and digitus: the Latin word for finger (counting on the fingers) as these are used for discrete counting.

Example #1: an analog signal, which may come along and with a power of 1.023 or so, and because it's analog it wouldn't be exactly 1, and it gets chopped into a 1, and made to be a digital "on" signal.

Or think of an analog clock versus a digital one. The analog one might have a non-ticking second hand, where it just smoothly moves, and at any given point it might be "between" seconds. A digital clock has no representation of those "between" seconds. A digital clock could add more precision digits, but it will always be a limited range of numbers. An analog clock has unlimited precision, because it moves smoothly in a circle (perfect analog circles have infinite points).

A personal application of "digital is made of analog" could be to understand that though we often compartmentalize our lives (digitize them), our lives are much more complex than that.

But really, I don't buy into fortune cookies -- even if it's a "real fortune," or predicts the future, but doesn't lead me closer to God, it's a false prophecy. So remember that, next time you get a fortune cookie that seems to help you out -- if it doesn't lead you closer to God, trash it.

Deuteronomy 13:1-3 If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them, 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Work

07.12.07 12:00PM :
It's a bit weird, but I sometimes actually enjoy work. Especially when I get stuff done. The Birchwood center is almost fully done!

Update
07.12.07 4:08PM :
Ok, maybe I don't like work. I just spent 4 hours on a job that should have been done in 1 hour.

Oh well, at least I did get it done...

Season 2

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 

(James 1:2–4 ESV)

I have a new job, a new address (see below), a new prayer room schedule, and another stage of life that I have started. I am working 40 hours / week in the technology department of the International House of Prayer, and on a 24-30 hour / week prayer room team. My goal is to start up my school at the Forerunner School of Ministry in January, so right now I’m just saving up and trying to raise my support. I am hoping to raise enough support so that I can fully give myself to this prayer thing and not have to work.

I love my new job, I love working, but there is a tearing at my heart because I know that God has something different for me. It’s actually tempting to keep working and rely upon my abilities to provide for myself instead of allowing God to provide. I know it’s always a bit of both, but I know my heart is to be full time in the house of prayer, and that God will provide a way for that sooner or later.

It’s definitely a full load right now, working 9-5, and in the prayer room at a minimum 7:30-12 at night. I choose to do it, because just as working is a necessity for my physical state, and the prayer room is a necessity for my spiritual state. God is doing so much in me right now, I find that if I miss even a few days in a row, I lose my focus.  

Am I an over-achiever? I never really have thought of myself as one, even though I often excel beyond others. I always chalked it up to natural gifting. But for once in my life, I can now say that I am driven. I am pushing my own limits until it hurts, finding my weakness, my need for God. 

And it’s all worth it. 

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

(James 1:12 ESV)

My new address is:
 4505 E. 114th St. 
Kansas City, MO 64137

Send me your love!

Rest

Standing on the LifeLine tonight, I asked God to reveal to me his thoughts on Life. My thoughts were lead to a phrase I heard from David King today about the "amazing blessing of co-creation" that he experienced with his kids.

From there my mind went to the Creation of the heavens and the earth. Why did he take 6 days to do it, instead of doing it instantly? And why rest on the 7th day?

Many people have told me that He rested as an example to us, so that we know how important the Sabbath is. This is biblical, and I believe it to be true, but tonight, my thoughts went a slightly different direction.

What if He took 6 days so that He could enjoy creating? Like he took his time so that he could savor it. Why rush such a good thing? Creating in six days is still just as mighty a work, but if he had done it instantly, he couldn't have enjoyed the process so much. 

And what if He rested on the 7th day, not just as an example, but because He enjoys rest? He obvoiusly didn't need it, but what if He enjoyed it?

And shouldn't it be the same for us? That we don't just rest because we have been physically made to require it, but what if we enjoyed our rest? And by enjoy I don't mean use time off to go DO MORE, but to actually rest, and take satisfaction in it?

That's what I did this afternoon, more because I had to, than because I wanted to, but I think God is encouraging me to rest more, not because I have to, but because it's part of his nature, and it's a good thing. 

It's Over.

6 Months. Roughly 576 hours of prayer, 480 hours of classes and teachings, 4 conferences (I missed the fifth), and 50 days of some-sort of fasting. I'll miss it...

Or will I? Life is just one long internship. Why waste it?

I intend to keep a similarly busy schedule, although it will be filled with slightly different things.

I will be working 9-5 M-F in the tech dept., as well as maintaining a diligent schedule in the prayer room at night. Basically what I'm doing is trading hours I used to waste for hours put to good use. Nationmaster.com statistics show that the average in the US is 28 hours a week watching television. Just removing television and movies from my daily diet gives me a lot of time. Not that I'm boycotting or anything, it's just better for me not to. Cutting down frivolous internet usage, video games, etc., helps too.

Henry Nouwen in his book, Clowning in Rome, describes Celibacy as creating vacancy for God. He uses Celibacy to describe much more than just sexual abstinence, but rather a setting aside of "space" in our life for God. We can abstain from many of the things of this world, but if we don't fill that space with God, there's not much point. I could cut out television and replace it with another false comfort, like eating. The point isn't just total abstinence, but to create a heart alive with God. Many can abstain from things by sheer willpower, but this will not benefit you long term without filling it with something better.

P.S. I changed the layout here, what do you all think?

It's good to be back.

I had a good trip.

My brother is now married! Crazy! They are now on their honeymoon in California.

I got to see my older sister Anna and her boyfriend Steve. Anna, Steve, Leah and I enjoyed pelican beach on a nice day. We even built a monster sand castle.

This sandcastle brought to you by the number 7.

Don't worry, I wore sunscreen this time.

here's a picture of Leah and I just before I left. sad...

I miss all of you in Minnesota, but I also missed my prayer room. It's good to be back...
The internship is almost over, but I will be staying here. I'll let you know more about that next week when all the details are worked out.

I'm coming home! (to visit)

I'll be home Thursday-Sunday.

Give me a call people!

Sunburn

Ouch, I 'm on day 3 of my sunburn, and it still hurts pretty bad. On Friday I was at the pool from 10-12, und my frontside received a mean burn. I should know better and use sunscreen, but I guess being from Minnesota, I normally don't worry about those things until late June.

I'd give pictures, but I don't think you would like them.

Mini Update

I'm going to try to post more often, and more briefly, so that you guys are motivated to come back. Please leave me comments so that I'm motivated to post. I've been praying for a lot of you, let me know what God is doing!

This week, (and somewhat last week), God has been pumping me full of Jeremiah. Which means I've been crying out. So again, another "rough, but good" week. I've been also praying for opportunities to share some of this back in Minnesota, so please pray that God would open the doors for this. At the same time, I'm not sure if I'm ready, so pray that it would all happen in God's way and at His time.

Ah-men.

A hard week,a good week.

Yes Yes.

Let's see, this week I was quite soft before the Lord, and he of course challenged me, in a few different areas.

One was excellence and humility, meaning, living a life where I please God by doing the small, seemingly unimportant things to the best of my ability as a pleasing offering to God. It was one of those moments when all the things my Mom told me to do flooded back, like cleaning my room, picking up trash, etc.

The thing that really got me was, if I can't do the small things well, how will I ever do the large things well? And what are my motives in the things I invest in? Just to impress others or because they are righteous in God's eyes?

And on the humility side, this has been something I've been working on forever it seems, but there's so much more to it. Like, as Dwayne Roberts pointed out, not putting yourself "out there" to be noticed when it comes time for promotions, or new projects, and not puffing yourself up.

Moses [Moshe] blows my mind. He is truly a servant leader, who was "the most humble man alive." He led a very rebellious people, so rebellious that he asked God is he could just die and not deal with them. God had given him authority over these people, and he could have at any seed of rebellion just have them killed. But instead he actually interceded for them to God, when God was ready to destroy them! He truly put them before himself, and that is why God used him to lead his people.

My thoughts on servant leadership, humility, and excellence are just growing, and I have a lot more than that on my mind, but I'll spare you guys the rest. Be praying with me that God would raise us up to be people that truly live in the teachings and example of the Messiah.

Sometimes it seems so impossible, or not worth it, but then I encounter Adonai, the Almighty One who loves me and has given me his Holy Spirit to help me. Praise him.

Amen.

A crazy day.

2 crazy things:

1. my foot got healed. Two weeks ago I hurt it playing soccer (I ran into someone). Tonight I was dancing (real good worship set), and my foot was hurting. I saw my friend that I had run into, and decided to ask him to pray for my foot. We prayed, and my foot got healed! PTL!
2. It's snowing. In April. Huge flakes.
   

Life in General

Lately I've been realizing how unique my life is here at Ihop. How many people get to wake up and spend 2 hours worshiping a real living God? And then get to hear 3+ hours of solid biblical teaching, and studying the movement of the Lord globally? And then get to spend 4 hours praying and meditating on the word of God?

Such a blessing. Thank you God! And thank you to all my supporters!

St. Patrick's Day recap

<-- this is our group
Image from TheKansasCityChannel.com

We made the news! We were on the front page of atleast one newspaper today, and also online, check it out on TheKansasCityChannel.com. The official number of people attending was 200,000.

We met at IHOP at 7AM on Saturday of St. Patrick's Day, to brief before going out. We all had our green IHOP shirts on. At 8:30 we arrived on the scene, and spent another half hour praying for the event and to prepare ourselves to share God with strangers.

We had a number of teams that went out to do all kinds of evangelism from 9-11, with direct sharing of the gospel, surveys, prayer teams, wandering minstrels, face painting, st. patrick facts with the gospel handouts, and more.

Many people accepted Christ or recommitted their lives to him, some received healing, and it's safe to say that almost everyone was impacted. In the 9-11 pre-parade outreach it was difficult to go anywhere without seeing our people talking to people. Most people were very receptive, and would at least let us pray for them and tell them about God, even if they might not understand or agree.

I prayed with two of the girls in my internship with 3 women in a coffee shop who had 3 close relatives in the hospital and were a bit worried. They had already been praying about it with people in their church, but it was good to pray more and encourage them.

The parade itself was amazing. Since I was in it, I didn't get to see any of the other floats, but that's okay, because ours was the best. We had a giant green mountain with St. Patrick on top, played by Daniel Dunmore, an evangelist from England who had a huge booming voice. He held a giant cross, and looked very authentic (i.e. not a leprechaun). He preached the gospel loudly and boldy in between choruses of Grace Like Rain performed as an Irish Jig from the band on the back of the float. Behind the float were the 400+ singer/dancer/flagwavers you see above. I was one of them.

It was incredibly exciting, especially when we saw the faces of the people in the crowd. Everyone was shocked by the site of St. Patrick 12 feet up, preaching boldy, and the 400 people behind him, who would yell with excitement when he proclaimed "Jesus is alive!" We saw many different reactions, from wonder and awe, to excitement (especially with the kids), to conviction (I saw two separate old women crying softly), to hatred.

After the parade we had the opportunity to go out and talk to more people. I talked to one guy right after the parade who was SO EXCITED by our float and our song, as well as the preaching. I asked him if he knew Jesus. He said "yes," so I asked him "what do you know?" He knew a little, and went to church sometimes, so I just walked him through the gospel real quick and prayed with him. He was still super excited, and even excited about going to church the next day.

It was a fun and exhausting day. It's incredible talking about God with people who often know so little. Many of our fears of being rejected can keep us from sharing our faith, but it's SO GOOD, and most people are so grateful.

I'll try to get more pictures up soon, but for now you can go look at some random pictures that I took.

PTL (Praise the Lord), and leave me some comments!

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's day is coming up, and for me, that means sharing the gospel!

We have a huge parade here in Kansas City each year (I think it's the 2nd or 3rd largest in the nation), and we expect to see around 200,000-300,000 people. We (IHOP) will have a giant float, with an authentic English evangelist on top, proclaiming the gospel in 45 second intervals interspersed with "Grace like Rain" sung to an Irish Jig, with 500 or so singers and dancers behind the float.

We will also have many different outreach teams, doing various stuff from interviews, to face painting, to street evangelism, and more.

Be in prayer for this event, we have been praying for a huge impact on this city. If we even gather the 1 sheep out of 100 that would be 3,000! How great would it be to bring 3,000 into the Kingdom of God?

And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
[Acts 2:40,41]

the headphones are back.

Well, the Passion for Jesus conference is over... phew! It was great, but very exhausting. When I get tired, often I don't want to be around anyone, I just want to be alone. Something hard to do here, especially during a conference.

So the headphones are back. For those of you who don't know, I've got some of those big headphones that cover your ears. I went and found some good low-key hip hop instrumentals to jam out to, threw them on my phone (thanks Dad!), put on my birks and went for a walk.

It brings me right back to my Duluth days, going for long walks with the Lord, venting a little, crying a little, praising a little, crip-walking a little...

Good times.

Well, back to reality. Back to classes. The more things change, the more they stay the same...