Voices

Been out of the blogosphere for a while, but after reading and meditating this morning, I began perusing some blogs and ran into Perry Noble's blog, and God totally used him in this post to give me a kick in the 'ole be-hind.

As one draws nearer to God, there are always other "voices" that one hears (no, I'm not a schizo). Many times, they're from "reliable" people or those that have more experience and appear to be more mature than you. There are also those who tend to squeeze the life and the dreams out of you by bringing you back to the ground or giving you a shot of reality, which I guess is their reasoning. But, in all honesty (they may not even realize this), they are not the voices to be heard, especially if they go against what God has placed in your heart.

I suppose I can listen to these life-draining voices, but I'd fall into the pitfall of mediocrity, and man, how I hate mediocrity! I'm sure God hates mediocrity too (Rev 3.15-16) and has definitely not called us to it....but to obedience....even if it seems out there, crazy &/or stupid.

I am so glad God has never acted half-heartedly toward us or on our behalf. I know--for a fact--that he expects full obedience and an "all-in" attitude from us as opposed to half-hearted measures. May God's voice be the one we actually do follow and act on........

.......I'm all in!

Twitter

I have resisted opening a twitter account for a very long time, especially after someone hacked into a family member's e-mail account. It seems counter-productive to publish everything one is doing. Thus, giving mischievous hackers easier access to one's life and info.

However, I finally gave in yesterday and opened my very own twitter account. Man, it can be addicting! Still trying to figure it out, though. I'd like to be able to link it to my phone, facebook and blog...but haven't gotten that far...yet. Gotta love technology!

Christianity is down...in America, that is

I ran across this CNN story/survey today and got to thinking: Maybe this is a good thing for followers of Jesus Christ. Talk about an open mission field...

Mark Silk, of Trinity College, reports to CNN that "the rise in evangelical Christianity is contributing to the rejection of religion altogether by some Americans." What are some of these contributing factors? I mean, we can't just generalize and say, "well, it's because of evangelical Christianity that the American people are rejecting any type of religion altogether." Or can we??

I'm interested in reading the complete survey findings to know what some of the contributing factors to the rejection of religion are. Could a factor possibly be the mass amounts of evangelical Christians who side with one political party, who consequently "turn off" those who disagree with them?

How much good does it really do for an evangelical to side with one political party and then call the other party(-ies) wrong and of the devil? Could it be a total disservice to the Mission of Jesus Christ to not dichotomize between Church and state? Where is the line drawn between Christianity and nationalism/patriotism?

The General

Today, I bumped into this video, and all I can say is, “Wow!” This was an inspiring, timely message by the General Overseer of the Church of God, Raymond Culpepper. I am so proud to serve under his leadership and am pumped to be serving at the vine.

It’s great to know that God works “on-stage” as well as behind-the-scenes, whether we know/see it or not. I am confident that he’s doing his thing, even though I can’t always see what’s going on. God’s handiwork goes beyond my wildest imagination and my biggest dream.