“The Year of the J.E.D.I.”

Jesus Every Day Intense!

Judge Every Day Inspired!

2015 begins and all we know is that the first Star Wars movie to come out in a long time will be hitting at the end of this year for those of us still here to see it. No one knows for whom the bell tolls between now and then. A fact we should always take seriously. So…ARE YOU READY? Ready for what? To meet your Maker if he calls.

I’ve only seen one trailer for the coming movie. THERE HAS BEEN AN AWAKENING. HAVE YOU FELT IT? (Long pause).

THE DARK SIDE…

AND THE LIGHT.

There is an awakening going on. I have felt it. I am also watching it in our Church. I’m not the only one feeling it. Christians are returning to prayer and the fire. Christians are beginning to step outside the Church box in an effort to disciple. Christians are beginning to bring Light against the darkness. Aren’t you tired of the evil growing all around us? It’s only going to change one way, and that is if we become people of “The Way” again.

J.E.D.I. Christianity is growing. I’m actually leaving my Church in order to join it. Yes, it is true. I have been involved in two Churches for some time now. One Church is praying hard and a fire is building, the other Church is not. I thought I could help lead them there, but my efforts have failed and I heard God plainly this morning. It’s time to leave. Start a new year somewhere that the people have a heart to pray.

I’m keeping this short today, but we must realize that just like a Jedi Knight had certain disciplines and weapons of their “Way”, SO DO WE, and it is time we get back to it. It is time we get about our Father’s business in “The Way” he showed us to do it. It is time to have JESUS EVERY DAY INTENSE AND JUDGE EVERY DAY INSPIRED!

For we are a Priesthood first, and everything else second!

Lets begin a LOSER Revolution. In the word “resolution” is the word “loser”. Yes, that is right, big “L” on forehead. Turn those first four letters backwards and see what you get. RESOLution. How about this year we determine to LOSE our life for Christ and have a Resolution Revolution! Now that is getting back to the way, the truth, and the life! J.E.D.I.! Can you handle it?

J.E.D.I. CHRISTIANITY #1

I HAVE DECIDED TO DO IT.

I’ve been praying about this for a while, the need to add something to the word “Christian” in order to differentiate between a real “Follower of Christ”, and someone who simply wants to be a “good person”. Jesus’s call to be a good person was the words, “Follow me.”

Several weeks ago I was in a Half Price bookstore looking for a book by Leonard Sweet, but in the process of this I stumbled upon a book by Dick Staub. I was unfamiliar with him, but his last name was so close to Sweet that his book was right there too, and it caught my eye. The title caught my eye. “Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters”. Right away I thought, “Oh no, something trying to mix New Age with Christianity, but because I do like the Star Wars analogy, I just had to take a peek. Much to my surprise I was impressed with what I thought I saw and just had to bring it home and give close inspection. Since beginning to read it, I can hardly put it down!

Here is a key to the heart of this book and an example of what I’m talking about: > “This book was born during a conversation with a young man named Ed, who described to me his desire to go deeper in his spiritual life as well as his uncertainty about how to make that happen. We had just seen the latest installment of the Star Wars prequels, so I restated his issue in that context: “It’s like you want to be a ‘Jedi Christian’ and my generation didn’t produce a Yoda.” (Looking For A Yoda – Page xix) Part of the Introduction.

Boy do I feel like I can identify with that statement, and maybe you do too. Most of what I have learned I feel like I was forced to learn on my own while fighting every step of the way until I finally got there. Because of that, it took a whole lot longer than it should have. The book had my attention already.

Now realize when I stumbled on this book, I had already been writing my “More than a Christian” articles. I was looking for a word to attach to Christian, but did not know what? Holiness Christian? We all know the downfalls of that reference, I hope. Remnant Christians? Now that’s a worn out term lacking any newness. But here was this guy, Dick Staub, writing incredible stuff and calling it Jedi Christian. (Hhmmm. I don’t know. Maybe?)

For me, there was something else needed. That word, Jedi, needed to mean something besides Star Wars in my mind, so I started playing with acronyms, or a mantra of sorts. Here is what I am currently settled on:

Jesus Every Day Intense!

Judge Every Day Inspired!

Now there is much I can say about these two acronyms, but for now lets leave it at this> If you make it a goal to have Jesus intense every day, then in the end of that day you will be able to > Judge every day inspired! Now that is what J.E.D.I. Christianity has become to me. It has challenged  and inspired me! The more I have said it, the more it is what my mind sees when I say Jedi!

So…here’s the deal. My series of “More than a Christian” now evolves into “J.E.D.I. CHRISTIANITY”. This series will fit very well with my Real Life story of “Do You Have Your Gotham?” I will be quoting many things from Mr. Staub’s book, and I highly recommend his book. I will also be mixing it with whatever God gives me, such as the : Judge Every Day Inspired and Jesus Every Day Intense.

Bottom line is…I want to hear God. I want to be inspired. I want to grow in Christ. I want to have a fresh fire. And I hope you want all these things too. I do not find today’s Christian inspiring. So I’m looking for a different picture and I think Mr. Staub has something here. So I am going to recommend it, share it, add my own mix to it and offer it to whosoeverwill. I hope you enjoy and grow thereby. I hope these words meet a spiritual hunger in you too. No longer inspired by the typical Christian and hungry for something more. “May the Lord of the Force be with us all.”

“A Game for Adults”

Just so you don’t think I’m a complete Ba-Humbug. My wife and I raised five children in a Christian home and when it comes to certain holidays we had to make some decisions. For example, Halloween. We taught our children it is a holiday dedicated to death, horror, fear, and a whole line of “curses” no one in their right mind would really want to have happen. We hold the same message on movies. Horror films are sick! A mind that wants to be “healthy” will avoid such horrible fantasy. We should pray every day that such horrible things never happen to people, so how can we justify it as entertainment?

A few times we helped out in Church parties offering a completely different message on Halloween. So our children had activity that night, and learned the truth. Now I had no plans of talking about Halloween at Christmas, but somehow the Holy Spirit wanted it said. Now as to Christmas. 🙂

Truth is the most important element. My wife and I enjoy a lot of the Santa Clause movies and Christmas music of the season, so how do we share these things with our young children and not cause confusion, a mixed message? I believe we found a way to tell them the truth and still not ruin the fun.

We told them that Santa Clause was a “GAME” that us “ADULTS” like to “PLAY” at Christmas. It is just a fun game, BUT JESUS IS THE REALITY! THE TRUTH AND NOT A GAME! And of course we celebrated Jesus as we opened presents and had family devotions with the real Christmas message.

Now children understand what it means to play a GAME. They also understand IMAGINATION, and to imagine is not the real thing. We feel this practice helped them to understand the difference between “fiction”, which can be fun, and “reality”, which is true. Our children grew up knowing we would always tell them the truth, they could trust us completely. Because we did not fool them into thinking Santa was real for the first several years of their life, we did not promote a lie but were HONEST with them, our children always knew Santa was just a fun game that we enjoyed every year, and JESUS was the reason our family was the way it was, not just on Christmas, but all year round.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND EXPLAINING TO YOUR CHILDREN THAT SANTA IS JUST A GAME WE ADULTS ENJOY PLAYING, AND WE WILL PLAY THIS GAME AND HAVE MUCH FUN, BUT JESUS IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE! 🙂

“JUST JESUS”

Merry Christmas everybody! Is there really any such thing as “Just Jesus”?

As we enter this Christmas week I just want Jesus straight. In saying that, I realize that takes in a huge panorama of possibilities, but I want my foam, fluff, and syrup in my cappuccino, not Jesus. Give me Jesus straight. Not watered down and sugar coated. A world wrestling with pain and sin, even wanting to take Jesus out of Christmas, which is like trying to take cold out of snow, how can a world be so upside down to even think you can take the reason out of a holiday and still have reason for the holiday? Sheesh! Too much cappuccino has gone to our heads! My point exactly! If the pagans want a Christmas without Jesus, let them come up with their own holiday.

If you want to understand this better, I hope you will read the below article, if you have not already. I love a good latte or cappuccino too, but when it comes to Jesus we need him straight. I felt this important enough to hit it twice.

“More than a Christian” #5

IF JESUS IS COFFEE WE’RE SERVING HIM UP AS A CAPPUCCINO. 😦

It’s a sad day that Christians no longer want Jesus simply as Jesus. They want him as a latte, a cappuccino, but don’t give him to me straight, I can’t handle that. I need lots of milk, cream, fluff and froth, syrup, and just a little bit of coffee mixed in there somewhere. Sadly, the real Jesus is lost in all the syrup!

The Jews made the mistake of wanting Jesus in the form of a King, not a LOSER. They missed him completely, and even crucified him. Today I see the same thing in the average Christian, just help me be a good person, Jesus, and bless me rich, but don’t talk to me about being a real servant or priest. Jesus laid aside his crown for a time, in order to serve, sacrifice, and wash feet. Now that’s straight black coffee. You gotta really love coffee, or Jesus, to drink it like that.

Here is the true Gospel > God loved us enough to Live…Suffer…Die… and “Live Again” for us.

Now the question becomes > “Do I love God enough to Live…Suffer…Die…and “Live Again” for him?

You see, that “Live-Again” part is what were missing in the Christian today. That is why we are now looking for something “more than a Christian”. God’s people are living in life and enjoying it, but they are not living RESURRECTION life, because they have not been willing to be a living sacrifice, die, become a servant, lose your life, lay it down, be a LOSER, so that God can raise us up in that RESURRECTION life his Priesthood is meant to be a living example of.

CHRISTIANS ARE USING GOD TO ENJOY LIFE! BUT DELIBERATELY AVOIDING RESURRECTION LIFE. 😦

I’m going to use a worldly example to make my point. We can’t just say Christian anymore. There needs to be something attached to it. The terminology I am about to use is not new with me. I know that a man named Dick Staub wrote a whole book on this, but maybe we need some “Jedi” Christians today. Why do I say this? Because the Jedi sacrificed all in order to constantly flow in the Force around them.

Christian Masters of old used to talk about “Maintaining His Presence”, not losing Jesus, and the Anointing, in a bunch of worldly froth and milk. There seems to be a need for a word attached to Christian, to specify what kind we are. Yes, I’m a LOSER for Christ. Now days a message like that would have the same effect as when Jesus asked people to drink his blood and eat his flesh! Only true disciples hung around after that message. Yes, who is the Pastor today that has the nerve to put a big “L” on his forehead and preach about being a LOSER for Christ? Oh, this does make our flesh squirm doesn’t it.

Where is the dedication and sacrifice of true love these days? We love the love message, don’t we? Evidently we love ourselves more than God or others. That is a good picture of worldly love, but not the love of God. Christianity is not about going to some big Church somewhere and having your ears itched. That is a mirage, an illusion, a looking for King Jesus and missing him completely. We need to get back to Maintaining His Presence.

If you study those scriptures more closely, you will find it is about being a “Royal Priesthood”, not about being a King. There will be plenty of time for that in the eternity to come, not the earthly time of today.

I know this message is like drinking straight black coffee. Without a good portion of the Holy Spirit it will be impossible to bear. To be a Loser for Christ.

SOMETIMES LESS REALLY IS MORE…MORE THAN A CHRISTIAN.

“For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matt. 16:25)

Signed, Jesus.

“Playing Your Cards Right” #6

Every day life presents us with a hand to play. We all have to work with the cards in our own hand. Many times we complain about the cards we feel like God has dealt us. However, I think God is telling us we need to learn how to play our hands better. I look back on my own life and cringe sometimes when I see how little I understood on how to play my best hand with what I was holding. Credit cards? In most cases, big mistake! (Just one example.) So if you are a Christian, here is a tip on how to play a better hand, and it is not about credit cards. 🙂

Do you know why breakfast is called breakfast? Because you have been fasting all night! And you are about to break that fast with break-fast. Cute, huh. But here is the point, how many of you know that fasting, the denying of our flesh, seems to add power to our prayers? True, this fast does not require great deal of sacrifice, but when was the last time you truly fasted? So why not take advantage of this card we do have in our hand?

YOU CAN PLAY A BETTER HAND! I know a lot of people say they are not a “Morning Person”, but a lot of people don’t like to read either, and yet God has given us a very big book to read! The point is this, if you’re willing to make the living sacrifice to be the faithful priest who offers up a “real” prayer of the morning, the first-fruits of your day, before you break the fast, you will play a better hand. God will supernaturally move through your priesthood and you will play a more powerful hand.

The fact is that you do have a fast to offer up to God. Add a sincere prayer life to that and see what happens. Two strong principals of God’s Word will be working for you. 1.) You are fasting. 2.) You are giving God the firstfruits of your day. If if you’re not a morning person, then it is even a greater sacrifice you’re offering up. You can’t lose! 🙂

Now go and fulfill your Priesthood in Christ, and play a truly Christian hand.

“Do you have your Gotham?” 12/17/14

THE ENCOUNTER III > This story is written as if fictional, but it is not, I’m living this every day. Do you know your specific assignment from God? Have you heard a call in your heart saying: “Gotham needs me?” This is one man’s attempt to take up the mantle of being a Caped Crusader for God. I am caped in God’s Covering and Indianapolis is my city.

CHAPTER SEVEN

As Don lay in his bed that morning, fighting the early morning fog in his head, the voice had been clear. Two trips downtown walking around, loading his soul with images, thoughts, prayers, and questions to God, finally something had come through, and it was the preparing of his Batcave!

In the next room was his computer with Internet access around the world. For two years he had faithfully maintained a blogsite with a cowboy theme, because the old Don had been a truck driver, but now everything had changed! Twelve month of spiritual sabbatical and he was no longer a truck driver, never to return! At the moment he had no job at all, other than a Priest of the Most High God seeking entrance into a city, to become a guardian, a light invading darkness, and now he knew his first line of attack.

In his soul he suddenly knew, the blogsite was a tremendous tool, a Sword of Light ready to penetrate a city, but it had to change. He thought about the downtown college campus. These young people would not be attracted to a cowboy, but what had he become? How had these twelve months changed him? What was to be the new message and theme? All this had to change. And then he would create a blogsite business card that was easily handed out. Anytime he had a God encounter with someone, he could hand them a card and all they had to do was go to the site for a mountain of teaching and the opportunity to stay in contact! It was so obvious! But what would be the new theme?

“BROKEN WINGS THAT SOAR”.

Climbing from his bed he was filled with inspiration. Walking into the dark room, flipping on the light, there it was before him, a portal to his city, and the world, but it needed to change, and much time would be spent here. This would be his Batcave! His place of focus and research. His launching pad for this invasion of God’s Spirit into the city. The place he would sit meditating, listening for a word from God, waiting for the ordering of his steps, a place of complete dedication, a place of donning his cape from God, his mantle, God’s Covering, everyday before making a move, operating in the power of his Priesthood.

Hours were spent that day making changes, and he had no idea how great the potential would be, for he did not know that in just a few weeks he would reconnect with someone showing him a building full of people, downtown, sitting at computers, maybe 500 of them, going on line every day, and could just as easily go to a site called “BROKEN WINGS THAT SOAR”, as anything else. Step One was now in place. The next time he went downtown his pocket would be loaded with a simple little card reading, “Broken Wings that Soar”, and an address of “The Encounter”.

Light / Darkness > Starwars #2

FOR SOME OF US STARWARS IS MORE THAN A MOVIE, IT’S AN ANALOGY.

In the Starwars analogy certain individuals are born with a higher percentage of (? I forget what it was called), but it made these individuals able to be aware of the Force around them. Not just anybody could hear the Force and become a Jedi Knight. The higher the level of this stuff, the greater was their ability to be aware of and use the Force around them. Anakin Skywalker, who is eventually seduced into the Dark side, had one of the highest counts anyone had ever seen! Of course this made him either a very powerful ally, or foe, depending on whose side you were on.

One of the things so lacking in the Church today is a loss of the awareness of the Presence of God around us. The saints of old, the great men a women of the past, the spiritual yodas of the past always spoke of “Maintaining the Presence”. In the Kingdom of God the awareness of his Presence depends a lot on the level of the Anointing, or Holy Spirit working in your life. We have lost this vision, and we need to get it back!

In Starwars you are either born with this or you are not. In God’s Kingdom you are “born-again” into this, but it is available to WHOSOEVER WILL! We have been born again into the Priesthood of Christ to fight against the darkness of this world, but are we MAINTAINING THE PRESENCE? Do we even have any great teachers who understand this anymore? Where are the spiritual masters proclaiming this word? Instead we dabble in lukewarm waters, and weak coffee. For people who really love coffee, and for people who really love God, they don’t want it weak! No more Christian psycho-babble, give me a fresh word of God, send me some fire, hit me with the Anointing!

The great spiritual masters of our past constantly emphasized the importance of living a Priesthood life before our Lord so that we would be filled with the Holy Spirit and able to be used of God for services of honor. What is this awareness, this sensitivity? Is there anyone who has sat through a Starwars movie and not wished they could enter this Force and work it in their own life? Have you not wished such a life could be real? Well it can be, friend, but it’s not called being a Jedi Knight, it’s called the Priesthood of Christ and it is a powerful and fulfilling way to live!

“Use the Force, Luke!”

“Hhmm, the Force is strong with this one.”

Wake up Christians. We are called to be more than just a good person. We are the people of his Presence, able to hear his voice and move in his Being, unless you are not able to for some reason?

Dare you to ask God what it would take for you to live in a constant awareness of his Presence? Dare we listen to the great spiritual masters of the past and learn to walk in the power of God again? Could the Church become a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle as scripture prophesies?

In the last days a voice is heard, a call goes forth, the Bridegroom is coming! Ten virgins wake up, but only five of them are anointed, and only five of them go with God. We need to find that same inspiration the spiritual masters of old had. Maybe all this new fangled stuff is not where the answer is? Maybe we need to look to the “old ways”, and relearn what our forefathers knew, when this country was blessed of God, not headed for judgment.

THERE IS AN AWAKENING. HAVE YOU FELT IT? IF NOT, WHY? AND WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO ABOUT IT?

“Do you have your Gotham?” 12/15/14

“THE ENCOUNTER III” > This story is written as if fictional, but it is not, I’m living this every day. Do you know your specific assignment from God? Have you heard a call in your heart saying, “Gotham needs me?” This is one man’s attempt to take up the mantle of being a Caped Crusader for God. I am caped in God’s covering and Indianapolis is my city.

CHAPTER SIX

Two days later Don felt led to do a daytime trip downtown. It would be another scouting mission as he still had no idea how to enter his Gotham and begin to battle the darkness so deeply rooted in today’s culture. Is Christianity really about just being a “good person”? Is that a Christian? No! It was actually closer to becoming a Batman, than just another good person, and yet how many of God’s children had such a vision? How many really understood this powerful Priesthood they were born-again into?

Don was not expecting what was to come. The bus ride went smoother now that he was an old pro, and being daylight he could see exactly where he was going. He even went farther back into the bus like he had wanted, and sat in the elevated seats. It was actually a relief knowing it was the bus driver flying down these narrow streets and his 1990 Dodge Ram was safely parked.

Once downtown he began to haunt the same familiar areas. His answer was here somewhere. More time was spent setting in the Garden Center, sipping on coffee and snacking on a hot pretzel. Unknown people continued passing in the street below, but everyone of them was known by God.

Walking through the mall he eventually reached the theater on the third floor, and found himself attracted to a movie playing. “Hhmm, this is interesting. I wonder?” It had been a long time since he had been in that theater, and what was this attraction to this one show? It was called “Maze Runner”. Before he knew it, he bought his ticket and headed in.

A week prior to this, at Wednesday night Church, a woman had stood and shared a very vivid dream she had and believed was a word from the Lord. In this dream the lady saw a pool of water, and a friend was with her. In the pool they saw snakes swimming all about and it frightened her friend, but she had advised, “It is not the snakes we can see that are so dangerous, it is the ones we cannot see. She said as they stood before this pool they realized they were boxed in by four tall cement walls representing the Church. And then she found herself saying to her friend, “We need to call for the men, the snake-killers!” And the dream ended. Don had written every detail of the dream down in his journal.

Don knew this movie had something to do with people trapped inside huge cement walls and the only way out was a maze full of danger. As the movie played he felt God speaking to him. He was having a God Encounter right there in that theater! These young men were trapped inside cement walls and there were no snakes, but the maze was full of spider/scorpion type monsters! The woman had said call for the men, the snake killers, but in this movie no hero had yet arrived. Everyone lived in fear, confusion, and no one dared to break the rules! They were trapped by a bunch of rules and a belief they could not kill the spider/scorpion creatures! To be trapped overnight in the maze was certain death! But then one man shows up who is willing to question everything, break rules, and even dare to fight.

It was discovered that the spider/scorpion monster could be defeated and people could survive a night in the maze. However, the monsters may not be their greatest threat, because these young men are being lied to in ways they cannot yet even imagine. The deception of smoke and mirrors are deeper than the ocean, and even when they think they have finally found truth and freedom, they are still in a web of falsehood, lies, and illusion, and they do not even know it yet.

IS THIS WHAT OUR SOCIETY HAS BECOME? The answer was yes. How can anyone find their way through such a maze of deceit? How many layers of smoke and mirrors are we trapped in? No wonder our youth are turning from God’s word in droves! And where are the snake-killers? Where are the David’s that slay Goliath? Where are the Yodas ready to train a young Skywalker? Why is the Church afraid to break culture’s politically correct laws? Are we afraid to run the maze and fight the monsters? Is Gotham not crying out? Lost in a maze of lust and corruption?

After the movie Don made his way straight back to the Garden Center, found his bench and wrote many notes in his journal. His soul was still listening, but had yet to share what it knew. The next day he woke up with the first piece of his puzzle dancing in his head! Immediately he discovered his Batcave, and got to work!

LIGHT / DARKNESS

FOR SOME OF US STAR WARS IS MORE THAN A MOVIE, IT’S AN ANALOGY.

According to the Word of God there is a struggle going on between light and darkness, truth and lies, knowledge and ignorance.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against…the rulers of the darkness of this world,…” (Eph. 6:12)

God is not about bringing “balance” to the light and darkness. Darkness has a ruler and he has already been judged, and his days numbered, so why is there a battle still going on between the Light and the Dark Side?

That battle is in US! It is in YOU and in I. The Bible still says: > “Choose you this day whom you will serve.”

We are called to be servants who are promised either great reward, or great destruction, depending on whom we serve. Are you drawn to the light or to the darkness? You have the choice. It is up to you. God came to us first and has made a way, but now will you come to him?

Are you drawn to the Light or the Darkness?

You either serve God in your spirit, or Satan in your flesh. Only the choice of which, is up to you.

Light verses Darkness. The struggle within us is very present, but God will save us from the destruction of the flesh if we yield our members unto him. Will the battle go away? No. Star Wars will continue on this earth and within us until the Lord himself returns. But God has promised to complete the good work he begins in us, and we can wield a Light Saber, not a Saber of Darkness.

I like this Star Wars Analogy. It starts in the article “Playing Your Cards Right #5” (just below), and there will be more to come. Thanks for reading. 🙂