James 1:5-8 & Identity

Because of the self-centeredness incurred by the "knowledge of the tree of good and evil" and the compulsion to measure ourselves by it, as well as the fact that it is inherently "not good for man to be alone", one of the most dominating fears afflicting man is the fear of rejection. This fear compels us to become the person we believe will be accepted or recognized, which will very to some degree with each new group or situation. With each change we make to comply with external circumstances, there is a subtle erosion of the consistancy and stability of our personality. Soon we are utterly confused as to who we really are and we can then be controlled, almost completely, by external circumstances.

With the recent infusion of certain philosophical and psychological theories, there has been an even greater erosion of human consistancy in personality. In human transactions, from individuals right up to international foreign policy, the oscillations are becoming more and more pronounced. A good example is the sweeping changes in public opinion - astonishing in their extremes. Our tendancey to easily abandon one position for another is a telltale sign that we are fast losing our grip on just what we really beleive. There are powerful forces at work successfully undermining human stability. The future will be an avalanche of debauchery which the Bible calles the greatest time of trouble the world has ever seen.

What is double-mindedness? It literally means to have more than one mind or personality. Degrees of this trait are found in all who have not been transformed from the carnal nature of fallen man by the renewing of their minds in Christ. If we tend to have one personality at home, another at the job, another at church, another with our friends, etc, these are symptoms of double-mindedness. We may think that we are just being flexible and that such changes are normal (and it is for those in the world), but it is not normal for the man God has re-created! The only true stability that man can ever know, is the Rock, Jesus.

Man was created in the image of God and can only know his true identity when he is rightly related to God. Double-mindedness can lead to having multiple personalities, which is perpetuated by a frustrated sense of identity. As one draws further away from the One in whose image he was made, the confusion increases. On the other hand, as we draw closer to Him, we come to know clearly who we really are and we become the most consistent, decisive, stable people the world has ever known. External situations and social pressures will no longer bend us and shape us. Until Jesus is the true center of our lives, we will not know true sanity or freedom. This also involves the laying aside of personal ambition and a desire to become a true servant.

Letter to a Fallen Brother

(dedicated to all who have fallen away)

Friday, August 17, 2007

to an old friend.


i don't know where to start. i don't know the words. i don't know the way back through the wreckage. i am afraid.

i will start with what i remember: The last time i saw you. i want you to know that you inspired me. Your heart, your dreams, your words, your honesty. The possibility of community - that word always pushing from your mouth, back when i had no idea what it meant. And freedom. The tears in your eyes and the honesty in your voice. No book deal, no speaking at conferences, just real life. A man willing to bleed on stage. A heart on display. I remember your love for your wife and your beautiful children. And i remember thinking "no matter what, they will always have that."

And i've heard the stories. The whispers of all the missing months. The cocaine and the women and the neighborhoods. The darkness and the wreckage and the running. But something quiet in me has always hoped for you, believed for you. That if there is air in your lungs, then there is still hope. That God is still in the business of redemption. That the story of Johnny Cash is still the best damn story I've ever heard. That you and I are not so different. (A friend said that to me a few months ago, and i knew instantly that it was true) Incapable of small talk, addicted to our dreaming, to all things epic. Constantly aware of the holes in our heart. Things of contrast, our own, goodness and madness. You and i, we are broken people in need of grace, in need of healing. The edge that once seemed so distant - crazy people and bad people and the darkest night - i used to believe that they were far away. They are not so far. i know that you have lived out there. You may even be there now. i have seen the shadows in myself. But there is hope for us. You once helped me believe. Will you believe what you know to be true?

i don't know the way across the miles. i don't know the words or where to start. We need some strongest candle to burn despite this storm. i am certainly afraid, afraid to give you my hand, afraid for my family, afraid for myself. But i know we must. We must meet you. We must. There is no other way to live. The quiet voice that whispered for all those months, the voice that found me in India and Chicago - your places. The constant "do not give up on him" - it is getting louder now.

i want you to know that i believe in you. Present-tense. Not "believed". I believe in you now. Still. I say I've seen you, I know you, who you were meant to be. And i want you to know that you drive me. Your life, your pain, your dreams, your failures - these things move me. They've helped shape me. This work that I'm doing, this shouting back at darkness, it is also me shouting back at your darkness. I pray that you might join me.

i remember you. You are still alive. There is hope for you. And grace. I have seen you smile. I have seen your eyes. Do you remember? We are still alive.

~jamie, satellite beach, florida

Alex Lloyd

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Brand New Day (Album Version)
When you feel as though your falling
Every fear you can confide
When the night time is your dawning
Hard to see through troubled eyes

What you wanted so
Had to let it go

Brand new day is coming round the bend
Troubles reaching for the end
If you stray from the path my friend
I will pick you up again


Hard to wake up in the morning
Hard to see through so much light
With every dream you've had gone calling
Makes it harder to believe

What you wanted so
Had to let it go

Brand new day is coming round the bend
Troubles reaching for the end
If you stray from the path my friend
I will pick you up again
I will pick you up again
Troubles reaching for the end


Everything that starts must end
Reaching for a new beginning
Everything that starts must end
Reaching for a new beginning

Brand new day is coming round the bend
Troubles reaching for the end
If you stray from the path my friend
I will pick you up again
I will pick you up again
Troubles reaching for the end

Said I'm lonely won't you let me in
I'm longing for the day...

Lyrics Written By: A. Wasiliev

True Faith

True faith sees God's hand in everything, regardless of the amount of time He takes, or the manner in which He does His work. Elizabeth Browning once wrote, "Earth is crammed with heaven. Every bush is aflame with the fire of God, but only those who see, take off their shoes. The rest just pick the berries." True faith is seeing Him and abiding in Him. There are no cheap substitutes or easy formulas. If we are seeking true faith, like Abraham we must allow ourselves to be carried well beyond the limits of human ability.

Transition

Transition is an adventure. But it is an adventure into the unknown with all the attendant risks that the uncharted can formulate around us. Change provokes our hearts because it challenges the status quo. It makes us feel uneasy and vulnerable because it takes us into territory where we have never been before. We are happy to talk about Abraham going out without knowing where he was going, simply trusting God to get him there (Heb 11:8). However, when it is our turn to make the journey of faith, it is a different matter. God has his own road maps for times such as these. The old ones are useless to us, and the new ones are filled out as we go!Every change involves a letting go of one thing to reach out for what is next. It is death by installments - the slow death of our mind-sets, our attitudes, perceptions, and paradigms with apparently nothing to take its place. That is, we only see the replacement concept as we journey. We don't just see it, though; we experience it. Sometimes our experience is first, and we go through something that we understand only in retrospect. It si important therefore, if we are to journey with the Lord into new lands, that we build in time to reflect and review where we are and where we have come from. Our road map to faith must be kept up to date and relevant for anyone else coming after us.Pioneers draw the maps; they seldom enjoy them! Every days' journey into the new is accompanied by a slow and, at times, painful letting go of the old. There is a death process to be worked through in transition. Future fruit comes from the present death (John 12:24).The Holy Spirit will, if we allow Him, teach us how to be present to the moment with God. there is a God-consciousness that is so compelling that we need never worry again. There is a peace so profound that it is unshakable. There is a rest in God so potent that the enemy fears it! (Rest is a weapon against evil.)In order to be alive to God in this way, we must surrentder to Him and to everything He brings. He allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent by His power. The dying daily that is Paul's description involves a death-to-self process. Change is the pivotal point of that process. If you enjoy God's life, you cannot fear change. Where He is present, resistance has died. Death, the understanding of change, liberates us to experience the adventure of new things. We welcome the risk because His life fizzes in our bloodstream. He sparkles with new gifts, new realms, fresh annointing, and different challenges to faith and love......The inevitablity of change is made enjoyable by His presence. As we submit to each process, our appreciation of the journey grows and our faith increases. Change comes from within. Everything that God does in us comes from the inside to the outside. That is why our inward development is more important than the outward circumstances. If we give the Lord Jesus the ground he requires on the inside of our life, then each present set of external challenges shall diminish, if not disappear...........

Quote from Charisma Magazine

UF graduate student Mary Strickland simply wants an authentic faith. After years of being deeply involved in church, she walked away hurt, confused and empty."I left because something in my heart knew that it wasn't what it was supposed to be," she says. "If you're going somewhere that's supposed to feed your soul and you always leave hungry, then something is wrong."More than a year later, she returned to church after finding a congregation that she considered atypical. "There was an openness, and a true desire to put the spotlight all on Jesus," she says of First Assembly of God in Gainesville, the church where she and Coker are now active members."Instead of the spotlight being on the pastor or on the choir leader or the pretty building, the spotlight was just on Jesus."Students such as Coker and Strickland represent what this generation is all about, says First Assembly pastor Mike Patz. "This generation clearly wants authenticity," says Patz,

A New Song

Well, its been awhile since I posted. Been on holidays in Calgary and getting back was pretty busy. God has been bringing me slowly into greater freedom in my life. I really want to bear fruit - I want to be a fruitful vine. I want to be GREEN! I don't want my life to be wasted or spent doing things that in the end will be wood, hay and stubble - dry and dusty. I'm a daughter of the king, and I want to learn how to dance His dance, follow His lead. In the past, I haven't been very good at that. I have my own ideas, my own plans, well my own dance steps, and I want to do it the way that is most comfortable for me. But, I have been challenged of late, that I must put away familiar things. I must walk toward my fears, I must leave that which is comfortable and go where? I am being called to a place, a city of sorts, whose builder and maker is God himself - its a place to call home. Its an internal work of my heart that I just can't explain. Everything is different, nothing is the same anymore. I can't rely on the past nor can I project the future. Everything is in His hands...but somehow I am being propelled into a place that I know I was created for....something in me stirs at the sense of it drawing nearer - that place of intimacy with my Father and the lover of my soul.

Now, I will declare (in song) the praises of Him who called me out of darkness into his marvelous light!

Psalm 84:1-2 What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies! I've always longed to live in a place like this, Always dreamed of a room in your house, where I could sing for joy to God-alive! Birds find nooks and crannies in your house, sparrows and swallows make nests there. They lay their eggs and raise their young, singing their songs in the place where we worship. God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God! How blessed they are to live and sing there!