February 2012
5 posts
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Battle Fatigue
Woke up this morning and haven’t moved far from my chair. Just plain fatigued…
I spent the last three days in beautiful Arizona, the sun was gorgeous and the temperature was amazing. I was there with a close friend. He’s getting some treatments, so I decided to fly out with him.
I spent a lot of time waiting as he had tests, scans, appointments, and procedures. I spent a lot...
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Mature for My Age
Today my oldest son, Nicholas, is guest posting. Real as always, Nicholas shares openly about his struggle to reach acceptance, maturation, and sonship.
I’ve shared my story. Or really, a few chapters of my story. The quest for sonship/adoption from the Father was a fight. It was a struggle to move past individuals who, at various intervals, succeeded in impeding my attempts to achieve...
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Sitting on the Porch
Sitting in the family room of Rusty and Ericka Jackson’s home in Alabama. I’m watching it rain, not just rain, actually pour. It looks like it will be one of those all day rains. You can smell it in the air and see it in the sky.
Last night Rusty and I sat on the deck and talked about the past 4 years of our friendship - the good, the bad, the ugly, and the ridiculous. But it...
January 2012
8 posts
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Living With Side Effects
I went on antibiotics this past weekend for an ear infection. I seem to get the same infection every year at this time. A friend, who’s a PA, visited and prescribed some antibiotics. It appears to be helping, but yuck…
My stomach is really funky – nausea ;(
Of course that’s part of taking medications, right? All medicines have side effects. I once got a script for sinus headaches that listed...
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Dreams...
God still speaks to His people through dreams.
Acts 2:17 quotes Joel 2:28 (NKJV) “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.”
I believe that day is today. I believe we are in a prophetic day. I believe we are His prophetic...
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20 Years
This was one my favorite blog posts from 2011, it was written by Tina Essmaker. Tina and Ryan are part of our spiritual family back in Michigan. I’ll warn you it’s real, honest, and a tear jerker. I pray it speaks to the deepest part of you about love and family…
Today marks 20 years without Mom.
I remember the day she left, the day I stood on our porch
in a pink...
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How much is too much?
This weekend’s blog is written by my oldest son, Nicholas. He’s a warrior for grace, actually at times a bit of a grace vigilanty. He’s always had a difficult time tolerating what Phil Yancey calls “ungrace”.
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When I lived in Spain, I had this heated conversation with a friend’s dad about the use and misuse of grace. In his...
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The Torment of Fear
Here are the notes from a message I shared back in July at The Gathering.
Fear Defined - a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, or pain; fear isn’t necessarily dependent upon reality
Top 10 Fears - flying, heights, clowns, intimacy, death, people, snakes, success, driving, public speaking
Top Relational Fears:
Being Wrong
Failure
Rejection
Usual Outcome of Our...
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December 2011
13 posts
4 tags
What I'm Learning
I’ve had one consistent goal every year since my late twenties, to be a lifelong learner. I try my best to read everyday for a couple of hours. I also try to write down my observations about life, people, relationships, influence, church, and politics a few times a week. And I’m actually holding myself accountable again to blog about those observations at least three times/week.
On top of that,...
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Just like Vodka
I woke up this morning with vodka on my mind – don’t ask!
I was thinking about how much our lives are like vodka, at least mine is…
Vodka Facts:
Vodka can be made out of pretty much anything, just like us. People come from all walks of life with differing kinds of heritage both natural and spiritual.
And just like vodka we are put through a rigorous process of filtration. The only difference...
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Being at Home
Everyone needs a place where they can just be themselves – preferably that place is home. A place where you can talk, laugh, debate, unplug, unwind, even just sit back in quiet and read. To me home isn’t so much about location, it’s about whom you do “home” with…
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines home as: one’s place of residence or the social unit formed by a family living (being) together. ...
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Stop Hoarding God's Love
Today’s guest post is by Matthew Snyder. Check out his website and follow him on Twitter @matthewlasnyder. As always, leave your comments below.
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“Half-assed Christianity just isn’t my thing,” he said.
Every couple of nights in college, one of my closest friends and I would walk. We had no destination in mind because where we were headed was irrelevant to us – it was more about the...
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Through Thick and Thin
I had a friend tell me once, that if you get into the second half of life with a few close friends you’re really doing well. When you’re young, you’re convinced that you’ll keep your friends through the entirety of life. Remember the promises made to your high school friends, how you were going to be best friends forever. Read the back pages and margins of your High School yearbook. How many...
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Starting With a 10
I heard John Maxwell teach that it’s important to start with a “10” over everyone’s head. Too often we meet people and want them to prove themselves or measure up before we start valuing them. Because of our cynical nature and the fact that we’ve been hurt so many times, it’s just easier to lower our expectations and wait people out.
Maxwell’s statement flies in the face of our natural...
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What My Call is Really About
Today’s post is written by Jacob Hoyer. Visit his website and leave your comments to the post below.
*****
Shortly after I finished a year doing missions work around the world, I vowed I would only ever do ministry full-time. Ministry was my CALL and I was ready to go after it. So I took a support-based position with the organization that had mobilized me into the nations. Forty hours a week...
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Go Add Some Value
I think often about this fact - everywhere Jesus went the environment was changed. Read it for yourself - health broke out (spiritual, relational, & physical); peace and faith displaced unrest and despair; death was replaced by life (spiritual, relational, & physical).
So the challenge that lies before us, if we’re actually going to be Christ in this world, is what will we do to...
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Monday Musings...
“I begin to ask myself how we can learn all the things God wants to teach us if we limit our intake with fear. I see fear everywhere: the common fear of having to think in a new way; fear of listening to other spiritual points of view; fear of revelations about God that don’t fit comfortably with existing ideas and opinions. Could the God of all creation really only be capable of revealing...
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In Between
Today’s post was written by Braedon Tabor. Check out his website and leave your comments below.
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We’ve heard a lot of bullshit in our days, plenty of people telling us how things will end up. This isn’t just a spouting off about how “the man” has lied to us. This stretches back to the beginning of mankind.
Lots of people heard lots of things about the coming days: “In that day… when...
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I wouldn’t say that…
Those that know me best know there aren’t many things I wouldn’t say. I mean, find me at a time where I’m really mad, really scared, or really excited, and you might walk away surprised or even disappointed.
I’ve matured in a lot of ways during first 50 years of my life. I think differently, love differently, assess God and relationships differently, and I’ve even learned to embrace a different...
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Nicholas's Story...
Below is the story about a young man’s struggle to become His Heavenly Father’s son. Please note the obstacle that the church created to His sonship. As elders we too readily forget that the battles we engage inside The Body become hinderances to others’ intimacy with The Father…
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This is my story. This is...
November 2011
2 posts
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Hope...
I’ve been reminded yet again that Life can be Hard. That reality still surprises me sometimes, as I know it does others. We Christians seem especially susceptible to the surprise attack of life’s difficulties…
We struggle with this reality because we were raised with limits and boundaries that promised certain rewards for both good and bad behavior. You know the ones:...
October 2011
1 post
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April 2011
1 post
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Happy Easter, or something like that…
A few years ago someone told me that I shouldn’t use the phrase “Happy Easter”, because “Easter” was a reference to an ancient mystic god of fertility. They went onto explain how “the new agers” had a strategy to use that name to undermine our Christian values. So instead I should use the phrase “Happy Resurrection Sunday”…
OK?!?
Christians, especially evangelicals (of which I am one), get so...
March 2011
1 post
3 tags
Provoking Again...
I’m an antagonist by nature, an instigator, a provoker, some might even call me a bully (although I don’t think so). My goal in ministry has always been to challenge peoples’ beliefs. I want to see if there is any way they could let go of their presuppositions and embrace a greater truth. Not necessarily my truth, but a new truth they haven’t yet discovered. Sadly, most...
January 2011
4 posts
3 tags
Is there a Prophet in the House?
Proverbs 13:12 (NKJV) Hope deferred makes the heart sick… Proverbs 15:13 (NIV)) …heartache crushes the spirit. Proverbs 17:22 (NKJV) …a broken spirit dries the bones. “The Valley of Dry Bones” pictured in Ezekiel 37:1-14 is about a group of warriors who because of losing their hope, develop a heart sickness that eventually crushes their spirits, and...
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Family Portraits…
As a kid, there were many times I heard others say - “it must be so wonderful to grow up in your house, to be in your family?” It was, mostly, but it wasn’t perfect. Even if “perfect” is how it looked, even if “perfect” is what we wanted you to think.
It’s easy to look from the outside and think those people really have their “stuff” together. The truth is, they probably don’t, we sure didn’t. ...
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The Residue of Addiction...
She was born in late August 1927. She was the third of four girls with a much older brother. Her name was Valera Christina Bailey, born to second generation Canadians whose people had emigrated from Scotland. And Scottish they were, tight fisted and miserly with their money.
Her father, Abner, was a happy man, the life of the party, quick to joke, quick to laugh, and quick to drink – way too...
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Thinking about Babe on Sundays...
I’m reflective today, not really sure why. Maybe it’s because I’ve been with Paschall all weekend, he’s kind of like my priest. I talk to him incessantly about my past, my fears, my struggles, and I even find myself confessing sins to him. Father Mike always offers me absolution, he’s gracious that way…
But today my reflectiveness is specific, it’s focused. I’ve been thinking all day about my...
December 2010
3 posts
1 tag
Me Reading...
I love to read. I didn’t always love it, in fact as a kid I used to hate it. I wanted desperately to love it, because I knew there was so much I was missing. In my second year of college, while discussing my problem with an instructor, I discovered that I maybe “functionally dyslexic” and probably a little ADD.
I won’t go into all the details,...
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She Doesn't Know It Yet…
Another great post by World Race participant Stacey Hume…
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She doesn’t know it yet, but her mother is dead and her father is not around. In fact, no one knows who her father is. She has beautiful brown eyes, and skin and hair. She is 4 months old now, and has been living at the private orphanage we’ve been working...
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Environment…
I’ve been thinking a lot about environments over the last several months. I’ve finally realized that the environment I long for, yet haven’t found yet, will require us to change…
I want an environment that has ample:
Love to cover
Liberty to choose
Spirit to lead
and Grace while learning to balance
Peter tells us “love covers a multitude of sins”. I believe it takes no faith, courage, or...
November 2010
5 posts
3 tags
We Want to Win Now...
Sitting in the living room with our boys watching Michigan v Ohio State. At the same time I’m monitoring facebook , twitter, and blogs that are talking about the game. People are calling for coach Rich Rodriguez’s resignation or termination immediately…
No one can see the progress, no one can see the positive changes, and no one can see the possibilities for the future. We want to win and we...
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New Shoes...
Our oldest son Nicholas is coming home today! He has been bringing the Kingdom around the world for the last 18 months. His most recent journey has taken he and his team to Kenya to serve the IDP (internally displaced people) at a refugee camp in Kijabe. This is his latest video telling the story of a little boy, Otto, getting his first pair of shoes.
http://tinyurl.com/2c9rxbx
Dare you...
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We Owe You an Apology...
I shared for a few minutes last night with about 75 high schoolers. I told them I’d been watching the news a lot lately and I’ve decide the world is a mess…
I told them that my generation owes their generation an apology, not because the world is a mess, but because we’ve done very little to fix it. We’ve have handed out bibles when we should’ve handed out food, clothes, and love. We’ve handed...
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A Hole In Her Throat...
Stacey Hume is one of more than 400 World Race participants currently in the field. Her and her team, Walking Third, are ministering in Malawi. I want you to read her story, connect to the needs of a young african girl, and hear the pain in Stacey’s words as she struggles with her own faith. I absolutely love her vulnerability.
...
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Mikey Needs Questions…
When I was younger I was always in search of answers, believing that I could one day get to the bottom of all of life’s troubles and angst. That’s probably how, or why, I became such a prolific verbal processor. I talked through my whole youth, well mostly asked questions. I wore my parents out I’m sure. But I wanted answers…
Sadly, Math and Science are presented as less about experimentation...
September 2010
2 posts
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Awakened Memories...
Just a week ago we were finishing up the Awakening in Ireland. What I remember most about events is the people I experience them with…
Here are some pictures of our family and some random strange dude…
w
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Healing?
OK folks, am I missing something? I’m in the Gospels again and I keep running across these kinds of verses. Is there a deeper contextual meaning that eludes a simple man like me?
Read these verses below. Doesn’t it appear that Jesus walked with an overwhelming healing anointing, actually paid for healing by His atoning sacrifice, and expects us to walk in even greater works than He did?
So what...
August 2010
1 post
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Jason and Wade...
Today Kathy and Nicholas are driving home after leaving our two youngest at Cornell and Brown for post-grad studies. Our family is in transition yet again. Here is a combination letter-prayer that God had me release over them…
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Be thankful for your head (your intelligence, your brain). I know you’ve worked hard, but you...
July 2010
2 posts
2 tags
A Heart-reflecting Wrist...
This weekend’s blog was posted originally by Justine Zins, a World Racer in Germany, enjoy…
Yesterday, I spent the late afternoon in a square downtown Berlin. It was one of those days where you feel more alive than ever and can sit back and honestly say, “I love my life.” I sat with a few friends as we watched a few men break dancing and performing skateboard tricks for an...
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Deutscher Fußball…
Heute morgen I’ m, das den Weltcup und das I’ aufpaßt; ll ist Wegewahl, damit Deutschland Argentinien demoliert. Die große Sache ist dieses I’ ll ist Wegewahl mit allen drei meiner Söhne. There’ ll kreischt und schreit. Faust, die pumpen, und möglicherweise fluchende wenig. It’ ll ist ehrfürchtig… Hagel zum Vaterland!
If you want to translate copy and paste...
June 2010
12 posts
3 tags
Delayed again...
In the Detroit airport getting ready to fly to Georgia for the week. Decided to sleep in a little and make it to the airport just in time - I timed things perfectly (I thought). Here’s the problem: no traffic so the 80 minute commute only took 50 minutes, and then I was notified that my flight is delayed for at least an hour. Instead of running directly to my gate, I’m sitting in...
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The places that used to fit me cannot hold the...
Another great World Race testimony from Chelsea DiPaola…
Each year Samuel’s mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. 1 Samuel 2:19
It’s insanely scary to stand at the beginning of an epic, staring over the abyss, with absolutely no idea what the adventure will hold. During the midst of my panic at launch,...