rants of a beggar

It has long been my God given agenda to create or cultivate Community centered on Christ.

My heart is compelled by Community. Community is where lives are transformed and rendered anew. It’s where the TEACHINGS of Gods word meets the application into daily life. It’s where the Spirit of God manifest and showcases itself to the world. It is the CITY on a Hill, or a light shining into darkness. It is what God first created when He formed MAN and WOMAN. It was the only reason why Christ died and it is the only way for His Kingdom to come.

I am living this out today first and foremost by BEING in community. The Church is comprised of the PEOPLE not the banner or logo of its establishment.. but the blood and tears shared in the brokenness of man. I belong to a community I call the Forge.. which is a band of misfit, Christ driven, over-achievers with a desire to live out AUTHENTIC faith.

I have also had the privilege of  forming a leadership development group in my church called Roots.  The focus and intention of Roots, is to equip men to equip others. (2 Tim 2:2). By focusing on discipling MEN, you create a catalyst of change within the Family, which subsequently revives the COMMUNITY that harbor them.

I have been so blessed with the experience and tools God has equipped me with to fulfill this Calling placed on my life. Even to the extent of being recently engaged to a beautiful woman, in which I will be able to share community with in the home.

MY entire being is wrapped into this..
It’s who God made me.. It’s why I’m here.. & It’s what I’m all about.

vision |ˈvi zh ən|
noun
1 the faculty or state of being able to see
• the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom
• a mental image of what the future will or could be like

Vision.. it’s what drives us and propels us into tomorrow. Granting us purpose, mission, & fervor..
It gives us a sense of identity and belonging.. anchoring us to a hope of tomorrow.

When God speaks, He imparts Vision into our heart.. instilling a promise for a future that is beyond our own capacity.. so powerful it drives us to recklessly abandon our selves in order for His Kingdom and will to be done.

So often tho… we cling to His vision as if it is our own. We stifle and manipulate His to suit Ours. We cling in the name of “faith” and suffocate the very breath that once gave life to us..  yet all along it was His from the start.

A crumpled piece of paper we grip in our hands.. holding on to a vision that has yet been undone.

¹⁸ The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. ¹⁹ As the Scriptures say,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”^[a]
1 Corinthians

Wisdom can be so arbitrary at times..

It’s so easy to fall into the temptation of our own “loftiness” that we can lose sight of the obvious. Moments of clarity foreshadow the most brilliant of ideas. It’s as if the Wisdom we diligently seek, masks itself right in front of us.

What makes the cross seem so foolish?… Love

The Cross is where the sin of Man and the holiness of God collide. God’s righteousness demands judgment, yet God’s heart longs for reconciliation. The chasm created by the first man “Adam” can only be bridged by another man “Jesus Christ”

The Gospel of Christ is THE most powerful and obvious demonstration of Gods reckless love. Yet the wisdom found in Christ death and resurrection has eluded man for thousands of years, hidden behind the logic and self-absorbtion of men who call themselves “wise”

How will you reflect upon the Cross?
Will it’s depth and obvious power elude your own lofty thinking?
Or will you embrace it’s “foolishness” and find the redeeming power of Christ love..

4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord .’5 “Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life.
Ezekiel 37

Haunted by visions of dead men..
Cities destroyed.. Families abandoned..  Children roaming.. Women wearied.. and Men dead.. Over and over the scene plays in my mind..

Dead Men = Dead Families = Dead Communities

So my question is this.. How do you give life back to a community?

Simple… Breathe life into men

Only the power of the Holy Spirit poured out through his word can give life into a dead mans bones. It happened to me, and it may have happend to you. But it is not just good enough to be poured into and revived.. We must learn to stand together with the breath of life given to us… and SHARE that by pouring it into others.

If the Breath of Life you’ve once received, doesn’t give life to anyone else.. then it is just hot air.

21 “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed.22 “But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. Luke 11

So often we find men bound and enslaved on the floor of their own homes.
Tangled by arrogance, selfishness, idolatry, deception, pornography, alcoholism, violence, and fear. Bearing the chains marred with the flesh and blood of their fathers.

Homes unattended, left open to be ravished by the whims and currents of this world. Pressed on every side, leaving families broken and shattered.

As men lay dead.. lying on the floor of their own home.
Helpless and without influence.

Dead Men = Dead Families = Dead Communities