Printing...

406 pages out of 8000. And they are double sided, so it's actually 16000. But atleast that means I have printed 812. 

814 now.

It's going to be a long night.

Jesus is my friend

I'm not sure what to say...

Apostolic people

Kris Vallotton has blown my mind yet again.

It turns out that in Luke 6 when Jesus chose his 12 disciples to become apostles, he was calling them something that was actually a Roman term, and this is where it came from. This just blew my mind when I heard this on the latest podcast from Bethel, by Mr Vallotton.

When the Romans would take a city on one of their campaigns and come back to it later they would find that the culture of the city hadn't change. It belonged to the Romans, but I guess it wasn't functioning as Rome did, and a plan was then put in place to change that. 

So when an army would take over a city, a convoy would come in behind it and stay in the city and would change the culture of the city to become like Rome. The name of the leader of this convoy army? An apostle... Their job was to transform the place they were in to what Rome was. They were culture changers.

Here's my thought:

An ambassador represents a country or place, and that's about it. They just represent.

An apostle would change the culture around them, to the one they know it must become. They are visionary people, who know the future as it must be and take as many into it as possible.

I'm going to try and find some more reading material on this now, I might dig out Gab's big book on Roman History and start digging through it and see what I can find :)

Accordion-ables.

Gab and I have been reading our way through Luke this month. We read the chapter first thing in the morning and then text each other about we thought about it. Today, this great little thought came to me that I thought I might share here...isn't that what it's for after all?

Jesus was doing a bit of the old "Look at what God is capable of" kind of thing, and then "But look at what God does with you" on the other hand. As Gab put it, "It's like Jesus was explaining God's polar opposites." I then couldn't help but think of a piano accordion.

Why? Because it is just like what Jesus was doing in the chapter for today, it goes way out wide, and then comes right in close, and all of it makes the "music". Jesus would show how big God is, how powerful and full of bone-crushing, earth-shattering power He is, and then in the next verse talk about how intimate He actually is.

It's like David in the Psalms, how one Psalm he is in awe, absolutely gob-smacked by the universe, and the stars and the moon... then the next chapter he is mind-blown all over again by just looking at his own hand. 

Out...and in. Big... and small. Just like an accordion. Out, and in. But it's still the accordion either way. Just a thought.

Prayer room overview

Well, we just finished our 24/7 prayer week last night, and I managed to get in and pray half a dozen times, and each time was significantly and completely different. Here's an overview of the smorgasbord that was Dan Sheed's 24/7 prayer week:

1. Sunday night 12:00am-1:00am: Wept, sung, sorted out some junk, wept more, worshipped...
2. Tuesday night 8:00pm-10:00pm: Prayed for the youth of our nation, schools, universities, got prayed for by some youth and was on the floor in a flash. Some very powerful prophetic words that I was waiting on God for answers where brought forward...
3. Wednesday night 12:00am-1:00am: Was joined by Paul, we prayed together for the church, really outward focused and lots of asking God about the things we long to see
4. Thursday night 10:00pm-11:00pm: Prayed with Gab and our relationship 
5. Thursday night 12:00am-2:00am: Had an alone time for the first time since Sunday, was really good and personal, but ending up doing a lot of "soaking" prayer... ;)
6. Friday night 12:00am-1:00am: Had an incredible time of journalling and sorting out some hard "lacking" issues with God, which tied in a lot with some stuff I had been reading all week through out Luke. I then got to take it all to the cross and get real about it. It was incredible :)

A very, very cool week. Lots of action and everything was completely different to the last which was really exciting. It's very sad to be here in my office with the prayer room half abandoned behind me, but I know that it was not what happened in the room that was important, but what happened in my heart that will last.

Jesus? Amazed?

I was reading this morning the story of the Roman officer in Luke 7, and was blown away at the Roman officer's faith once again, but for the first time noticed another detail I have previously missed.

"When Jesus heard this, he was amazed." (9)

I then re-read the story, and noted that the Roman officer had almost switched roles on Jesus, and was using his surroundings as an officer in the army to explain his faith to Jesus, just like Jesus would use the things around him to explain his teachings - (the Bread of Life after feeding the 5000, the Living Water at the well, etc...) 

It's almost like Jesus is saying with a big grin on his face, "Touche! Now here's someone who gets it!"

So, today I prayed that I would to be able to become a person who can put a grin on Jesus' face with my faith too...

YouVersion

I just found an online Bible community called YouVersion, and after having a look around, it looks pretty darn cool! You can view a heap of different translations and then you can journal about them and write little articles on the verse, almost in the style of a commentary, or a Bible study note.

Then, the other people in the community can view it, and can interact about it. Pretty cool really...

My new baby...

Until I get to have a real one anyway...

24/7 prayer - Part I

We started our churches 24/7 prayer week yesterday and I did my first slot early this morning at midnight.

I found it really hard at first, and I ended up having a very powerful time of sorting out some junk with God. I had my first experience of bawling my eyes out while wearing glasses... Interesting experiance...

So I am looking forward to a great week of prayer and having God show me lots of stuff. There is something so special about 24/7 and drawing close to God and being able to spend an entire week in that. Let's see what happens...