Spiritual Warfare in Brief

Spiritual Warfare in Brief

The following is a basic interpretation of the armor of God that can be used to understand and implement spiritual warfare through being a spiritual warrior or ambassador. A basic scriptural exposition verse by verse of Ephesians 6:10-20 will show that the Christian is able to demonstrate the victory that Christ has won on this earth; first by being a new creation in union with the Holy Spirit and having as part of his very being the armaments of the armor of God, secondly by acting in this world to will and do the work of the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 6:10-20
10 Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.
14 Stand therefore having you loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, were with you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.
20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds; that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Spiritual warfare can only be considered when the Christian considers the armor that they have put on. A Christian should not consider entering into spiritual warfare without their armor. Yet to be a Christian is to enlist into the army of God.
First, we must understand the position that the believer has in Christ. In all spiritual battles they are the victor. On the cross Christ stated that “It is finished”. Christ tells us in Revelation 1:18, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death”. Essentially he is telling the Christian that he has defeated the last enemy, that is death, and he has the keys of hell and death. He has the power over them. By our position as sons of God, and heirs with Christ, his position is ours. 1 John 4:17 says, “As He is, so are we in this world”. Also note here that John was referring to Christ after the resurrection here. Now take that statement “as He is, so are we in this world” and apply to the situations that we may see as warfare: demonic manifestations, someone with a cold, someone with cancer, someone with schizophrenia, even someone unsaved on their way to hell. As he is so are we. Through Christ we can heal the cold, cure the cancer, make whole the schizophrenic, and save the lost; because Christ has done it so will we.
This is what John G. Lake says of our position in Christ with some indignation, sarcasm:
“If you are born again, you are a son of God. And for you to tear yourself out of your sonship, your relationship and the righteousness of God, and to put yourself over into the reality of death, and tell God you are dirty and unclean, that his blood has not cleansed you, and His life has not been delivered to you, it is a monstrous thing. It is all right to sing as an unregenerate, but it is not the experience of the sons and daughters of God.
Here is our position through Christ Jesus. God has become our righteousness. We have become His very sons and daughters, and you sing weakness, and you talk weakness and you pray weakness, and you sing unbelief, and you pray and talk it, and you go out and live it. You are like that good old woman. She said, I do love the doctrine of falling from grace, and I practice it all the time. Another man said, brother, I believe in the dual nature, I believe that when I would do good, evil is always present with me, and I thank God that evil is always there. (70-71)

Our position is that of Christ. As he is so are we in this world. Christ did spiritual warfare on this earth and won; with demonic manifestation, with the deaf man, with the mute, with the lack of food, with man’s sin. In every case Christ faced the work of the Devil or the Devil himself and won. “As he is so are we in this world”. So if then we are the victors in every battle as Christ is the eternal victor what is spiritual warfare for us? Let’s look at our armor that we wear as Christians and why we wear it.
Paul was able to say in verse 10, “Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.” He understood very well that the Christians strength is in the Lord. The humble and yielded human spirit is in the perfect position for the power of God to work though. Paul was also making a statement of faith, reminding believers to be strong (have faith in) the Lord and the power of his might. Be strong to stand.
Verse 11 “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Notice here that this is the enemy’s primary weapon against the believer: wiles. Wiles can also be taken as tricks, charm, deception, or even dishonesty. It is important to know that the enemy primarily uses tricks on the believer. This is mostly to trick them into forgetting or not believing their position as victor in Christ. Now had Paul been writing to non believers his list would have contained much more than wiles: sickness, disease, sin, calamity, and any of the results of sin and evil’s influence on the world. But, glory to God, this list is not for the believer, the believer is told to stand against the wiles of the Devil.
Verse 12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”. Paul tells us we are fighting against the darkness of this world; the army of the Devil to put it simply. The Devil who has already lost, who does not even have ultimate control over death and hell, because Jesus has the keys, is the wickedness. There is an enemy. Look around the world; look at the violence, the poverty, human trafficking, and lack of value of human life, broken families, abuse, sickness and disease. This is from the rulers of the darkness of this world. But read 1 John 4:4, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”. And Luke 10:19, “behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you”. Again John G. Lake says after going through Africa and casting devils out of witch doctors, “The real Child of God was to be a master over every power of darkness in the world” (149). The enemy is real in the world. The devil is behind every force in opposition to God, but greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.
The devil uses his wiles in the spiritual wickedness in high places. His hope is to trick the child of God from realizing his potential and position in Christ. For the Christian the spirit is saved and seated in heavenly places with Christ; it cannot be touched by the wiles of the devil. As Ephesians 2:6 says, “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:” But the Christian’s spirit is part of the body and soul, and these areas can be affected by the wiles or tricks of the devil. Peter warns “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (1 Peter 5:8) Timothy Jorgenson explains there are five areas of the soul: emotion, intellect, memory, imagination, and the will (35). Each of these must be fully committed and grounded in Christ to stand firm. The Devil’s wiles are described in 2 Corinthians 4:4 in this realm of the mind in “whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”.
The Devil attempts to do this by causing believers to be double minded. James 1:8 says, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” This can look like a person on a search for the truth or someone embracing all truth, even someone believing the Old and New Testament truth to coexist, which will be explained later. The believer wins when he accepts Christ’s word as the final authority. This means one must settle that the Bible is true; if a text is not inspired from the Word, Jesus Christ, it is not to be believed. David knew this and his belief in God and God’s promises lead him to continual victory. He wrote, “Forever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven”. (Psalm 119:89) There is no new truth, God has presented it, Jesus is the truth, and will lead us into all truth. In fact as Christians we have the spirit of truth living within us.
Of crucial importance is the trick the Devil uses to attempt to have the believer mix the nature of the relationship between God and man the old covenant made with Abraham and that which Jesus made with us. The Word clearly states, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”. (2 Corinthians 5:17) We know that everything we were in the past has been made new by Jesus Christ, in essence we are new beings. Before Christ no one existed as we do. When the Christian compares themselves to John the Baptist, the disciples (pre-Pentecost), Moses, David or Elijah, they are being tricked by the wiles of the Devil. Not one of those great men of the old covenant had Christ as their mediator, who was always making intercessions for them, had the Holy Spirit anointing that abides at all times or was the righteousness of God in Christ. Jesus said this in Luke 7:28 saying, “For I say unto you, among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” As 1 John 4:17 says, “as he (Jesus) is so are we in this world”.
Verse 13 says, “Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.” This verse says to take the whole armor of God: the truth, the gospel of peace and the Holy Spirit; righteousness, salvation, and faith. These are not armaments that are picked up and put down, but the very meaning of “having done all to stand” implies having everything finished and abiding in you, working out of you (Strong’s G1746, G537, G2476). The Christian stands fully armed because of what Christ has done.
Verse 14: “Stand therefore having you loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.” These are both armaments that the Christian has because of Christ, not things to strive for, but things to be. Jesus promises in John 16:13,”Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.” 1 John 3:24 reminds the believer that the Spirit abides in him. This is also true of the righteousness that Christ has purchased for us by his blood. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” EW Kenyon puts it this way:
That Son went on the Cross by the determinate counsel of God, became sin, took our
place as a Substitute. Then He conquered the Enemy and made Righteousness
available to man. A redemption that did not make man Righteous would be a fallacy.
Until man is Righteous and knows it, Satan reigns over him, sin and disease are his
masters. But the instant he knows that he is the Righteousness of God in Christ and
knows what that Righteousness means, Satan is defeated. (7)
Verse 15 “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” Christ means for us to ever be at peace because of the promise of the gospel, the fulfilled good news. Jesus, in presenting the fact that he would leave the Comforter for the disciples, sequentially states in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” He knew that they did not need to be afraid because the Holy Spirit would dwell in them. The Christian should be prepared to bring peace where the Devil has brought chaos: in homes, in communities, and even in churches.
Verse 16 “Above all, taking the shield of faith, were with you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked”. The shield of faith is the armament that keeps the believer from being double minded. Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It is the actual possession of the things which God has promised, which Jesus Christ has completed. Kenneth Hagin says this about faith:
Faith is not hope…. You see, just wanting something from God won't get the job done. If just wanting something from God was all it took to receive from God, we'd all have it made. We would receive instantly. But faith that receives from God isn't hoping or wanting. The only kind of faith that gets the job done is the Bible-kind of faith which believes God and acts on what it believes. You'll not receive from God because you hope. Nowhere in the Bible does God say that when we pray, we shall receive what we hope for. But God's Word does say in Mark 11:24, ". . . What things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, BELIEVE that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." (35)

This type of faith is in the possession of every Christian. Ephesians 2:8 says that we are saved through faith. If you have had the faith to believe in Christ you have the faith to believe the promises, position, and provisions he has endowed you with. The shield of faith is the first barrier to all the fiery darts of the wicked. But it is more even than that. James 2:26 also says that faith without works is dead. The wicked one’s fiery darts will come at us and we need to act in faith to quench those fiery darts. We’ve seen this happen all too often. First someone gets a cold. Then people begin to say that they are getting sick. Next they are buying cough drops making doctor appointments; their friends are staying away so they don’t get sick. Could it be that that cold is a fiery dart from the wicked one? The comments, cough drops, and appointments are fuel for the fiery dart. The word cold could be replaced with any of the enemy’s tactics: depression, idleness, disease, or anger. Faith will encounter the fiery dart and say, believing it true and real, that they do not have a cold because they are healed by the stripes Jesus bore. Faith is acting upon God’s word (42).
Verse 17 “And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God”. The helmet of salvation is the badge the Christian wears that places them in their position of authority. Romans 10:9 states the manner in which the believer arrives there, “That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved.” Ephesians 1 also tells the believer where Christ has positioned them: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will: In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise…(7,11,13) Through Christ the Christian wears the helmet of salvation making them both a son of God and an heir with Christ. Early it was stated that Christ has the keys to both hell and death. Philippians further tells us of Christ’s authority that we may execute:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (6) Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: (7) But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: (8) And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (9) Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: (10) That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; (11) And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11

The believer has the mind of Christ. Christ knows that His name is above every name. We know that at the name of Christ every knee should bow. Wearing the helmet of salvation is not simply a sign of escape from eternal damnation (though it is); it is a badge of honor symbolizing our place of authority in the kingdom of God.
The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, is the weapon that is both spiritual and material. It is spiritual in that the believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and every action that is for the Kingdom of God, done under his authority is initiated and acted out by the Holy Spirit in the spiritual realm. As Genesis 1:2 states that the Spirit of God hovered over the world during creation, Hebrews 11:3 states, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” It is material as in each believer must act for the Spirit to act. John G. Lake says that “if the Holy Ghost has come down from heaven into your soul, common sense teaches us that He has made you the master thereby of every power in the world “(145). The word of God spoken by believers is acted on by the Holy Spirit resulting in victory. 1 John 2:14 says, “I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.” Again this sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, is an armament that is not taken off but is part of the Christians being. Every Christian would do well to be prepared in remaining the victor over the enemy by memorizing the following verses: Ephesians 4:27, Ephesians 6:11, James 4:7 1 Corinthians 10:13, Matthew 17:20 and Luke 10:19. Despite what things currently look like, God’s word is always the reality. The Christian needs to speak the word.
Verse 18, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” Paul places the action of prayer after the armaments of the Christian as an action that someone fully equipped should now do, expecting victory. Read 1 John 5:14-15 understanding this is the way your prayer is enacted, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us: (15) And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” Paul tells the believer that they should always be in prayer. This is truly the case if the Christian is united with the Holy Spirit, ever in communion with the Son, ever in communion with the Father. The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is the ammunition of prayers. Brandt and Bicket remind us that, “faith’s greatest stimulant is the Word of God made alive by the Holy Spirit” (214).
Paul’s second action with prayer is persistence or perseverance. Just as Jesus says in Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: (8) For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.” Paul understood that even though circumstances may not show the victory, that Christ was the victor, and as Jesus instructed (as the Greek implies continual action in ask, seek, and knock; Strong’s G154, G2212, G2925) that persistence in prayer would demonstrate the answer.

Verse 19 shows Paul asking for specific prayer to undoubtedly become an effective warrior, “And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.” Notice in the gospels that almost every instance of Christ healing, casting out devils, or restoring a soul is done with a verbal or physical action. Here is a brief listing only in the book of Matthew (there are over 200 references throughout the New Testament) of verses where Jesus Christ used words or actions to destroy the works of the enemy and to bring the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven: Matthew 4:7, Matthew 8:13, Matthew 9:2, Matthew 9:28, Matthew 12:25, Matthew 14:16, Matthew 14:31, Matthew 15:28, Matthew 16:8, Matthew 17:7. Paul understood that there was action associated with his beholding the victory, in this case for him to open his mouth and speak boldly.
Verse 20 states, “For which I am an ambassador in bonds; that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” Paul further emphasizes that he must speak boldly, as he should. It is not a question to him as to whether or not to share the gospel; he says he ought to. He also uses a title for himself that embodies the spiritual warrior armed and bringing the rule and reign of another Kingdom: an ambassador. An ambassador is a representative of another kingdom who typically has an embassy (their kingdom within the foreign kingdom) and has all their means supplied from their home country. Paul understood that he was in the kingdom of God at all times, even though he was dwelling on the Earth. He understood that all things pertaining to the kingdom had been supplied to him through Christ. He also understood that it was his obligation to speak boldly the good news of the kingdom of God to those he met.
Curry R. Blake describes spiritual warfare and being a spiritual warrior as it “is a lifestyle of daily readiness; a lifestyle of daily preparation and training; a lifestyle of discipline that becomes second nature to you. It includes spiritual disciplines such as fasting and prayer. Everything you do is spiritual warfare. Nothing is innocent or neutral. You are constantly under surveillance by both friendly and hostile forces. You are either preparing to fight, training to fight, fighting, or analyzing the last fight. If you are not doing one of those four things, you are not a spiritual warrior.” (7)
This all being taken into account: who you are in Christ, your union with the Spirit, the position you have in the Kingdom, the armaments which are part of your new creation being, and what you must do to boldly proclaim the gospel, destroy the works of the enemy, and bring the kingdom of God to appear; it is vitally important to have in mind the will of God. “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40) Jesus expected victory in every circumstance, and had victory. Lastly, when we pray we should remember that as Jesus Christ prayed He was praying with full confidence that what He said was happening. Pray this with that assurance.

Matthew 6:9-13 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. (10) Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (11) Give us this day our daily bread. (12) And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. (13) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.


 
Bibliography

John G Lake His Life His Sermons His Boldness of Faith
Timothy Jorgenson Spirit Life Training
Kenneth E Hagin Bible Faith Study Course
Curry R. Blake Spiritual Warrior Apostolic Training
E W Kenyon Two Kinds of Righteousness
Robert L. Brandt and Zenas J. Bicket The Spirit Helps Us Pray
KJV Bible

My Hair Was Cut

This morning before i showered I decided that my hair was a little too thick. So I took out the thinning shears and thinned it out. I cut about as much hair as half that was still on my head.

After washing and conditioning it, it felt much more manageable and altogether I liked it better. I didn't know this would be a precurser to help me relate with someone in only a few hours.

I met with her and noticed right away her hair was very stylish with low lights and highlights and seemed to move just right. I assumed she was the case manager for someone at a local homeless shelter. I came to find that she was homeless herself and for a couple seconds wondered how she could afford that hair styling.

But she talked and seemed to trust me from the "get go". She said, "I'm homeless now and not working because it's not safe where I used to live. My ex shaved my head bald but the case worker at the shelter gave me this wig."

im lost im found

Just trying to save the world
When it has been saved
Though it doesn't know
And tries to blow
All theology( or anything involving Theo)
Out of the window
Out of the house
To any place where it doesn't see
Isn't reminded of the greater state
The state it is in
And here we are the great ambassadors
Sent by the savior of this already saved world
Though it doesn't know.

It's time to use the ambassadorial authority
Time to show what the savior has saved
It's done the deal is sealed set in stone
Written on hearts set as a seal a brand
On hearts of those saved and aware
Aware of their state of savedness
Release from sin, power over sickness
Authority over all realms and ruling through him
Who saved the world and made us found.

No Ifs in God's Facts

Dream 11.13.2010

My dream included various aspects of my life. People from Life in Christ Fellowship, Maysville Assembly of God, and Family. There was a birthday party at Megan's parents house. In the dream they lived on the lake; the beach was white sand and there was a forest around it. Megan and I were swinging on a vine that wrapped around a tree and worked like a pulley as one person would hold one end as the other would swing. We would swing into the sand.
Megan's mom made a birthday cake, it was "like chocolate mouse cupcakes". They said mouse. It was chocolate inside and blue and white frosted. The lake was blue and the beach was white. Megan's dad was tiling a table with 1" tiles. They also were white and blue. He was working on the table that the cake was on and said it would be ok, and he would just blow the dust from the chemicals away from the cake.

The next part of the dream took place on the highway. Myself and Megan were in my brothers Rendezvous with his family. An Element care spun out of control in front of us and ended facing us. We got out to see if they were ok. The driver was dead and the person in the passengers seat appeared injured as was the person in the back seat. We took out the person in the back seat and set them on the ground to lay them down. We looked for something to put behind her head. She was in an all black exercise uniform. My brother drew a smiley face on the hood of his car to assure hius children that everything was alright. We went back to the person in the passengers seat and she shook a bit. She was wearing a powder blue short sleeve shirt. Blood started coming out of her eyes and throat and covered her shirt. Jim said she must have had a seizure.

That was pretty much all I can remember; there was another section I cannot recall.

Snow, slippery roads cause accidents | thetimesherald.com | The Times Herald

Snow, slippery roads cause accidents thetimesherald.com The Times Herald

Hell - The Jesus Trip with John Crowder

Home | John G. Lake Ministries

 

Home | John G. Lake Ministries

The strange story of Clarita Villanueva

The strange story of Clarita Villanueva

RE-Opened

After some remembering and assistance from google I found my user name and password and have my blog back online.

Vision

4.29.2006

We were praying for youth. I was listening to the music and I closed my eyes.

I saw Godzilla rising from the sea. He was enormous, larger than any of the buildings in the city. The people were afraid of him, some ran and hid. He was on a mission to take over the town. The people feared he would destroy the town. What he did was destroy the evil monster that was in the town that the people did not know about. When the evil was destroyed the people loved Godzilla.

God said to me the youth today are like Godzilla. They are in some ways covered in a sea; a sea of the filth the media is using to keep this generation in bondage. But the generation is rising up. As they rise up some people will be afraid of them; they are different that anyone who has come before them; they are radical. Some people will be afraid of them and try not to get involved with them. But they will be heard. Like Godzilla was taller than the buildings and could be seen so the youth will be louder and will be heard. They will take the cities. They will take the cities by destroying what is evil. The city will be destroyed and rebuilt-transformed. And then the people will love the youth; the youth that are radical, loud, warriors.

Hope

A family in my neighborhood once brought in two cocoons that were just about to hatch. They watched as the first began to open and the tiny butterfly inside squeezed very slowly and painfully through a tiny hole that it had chewed in one end of the cocoon. After lying exhausted for about ten minutes following its agonizing emergence, the butterfly finally flew out of the open window on its beautiful wings.The family decided to help the second butterfly so that it would not have to go through such an excruciating ordeal. So, as it began to emerge, they carefully sliced open the cocoon with a razor blade, doing the equivalent of a Caesarean section. The second butterfly never did sprout wings, and in about ten minutes, instead of flying away, it died.The family asked a biologist friend to explain what had happened. The scientist said that the difficult struggle to emerge from the small hole actually pushes liquids from deep inside the butterfly's body cavity into the tiny capillaries in the wings, where they harden to complete the healthy and beautiful adult butterfly. Without the struggle, there are no wings!!!!

Dream

Dream 2.25.2006

I couldn’t sleep last night. The last time I saw the clock was 5 am.
-This was for any number of reasons-

But I did dream….

I was in line outside of one of the larger buildings in tm Clemens Michigan. I was in line with Carmen Schneider. It was definitely winter but not too cold. Everyone wore there winter jackets etc.

We were in line for a guest speaker about martin Luther king junior. It was 10 dollars to get in, and apparently came with a free ice-cream cone.

After I paid with a 20 dollar bill I moved to get to the end of the line maze, Carmen was at the end and the guy who sold tickets was asking her why she had an ice-cream cone. I said I gave him a 20 and he laughed and said oh yeah I just took the money and thought it was a ten. He was bald and of light brown complexion. He gave me another ticket and an ice cream, but mine was in a cup- I don’t like cones.

We entered the building and it was setup with tables- round tables with chairs around them. The carpet was a grayish blue. There were cubical dividers dividing the room into two, we went to the half with the chairs and the people. I saw my program director from family youth interventions. I also saw my friend Erin from Macomb community college. I tapped her on the shoulder and said hi, she waved, but was bus talking. So we took our seats, I did notice that Carmen was no longer Carmen, but Sonja from work ( they both have similar glasses).

The speaker of the lecture-, whom I don’t recall ever seeing, said lets play that game, I can’t remember the name of the game, but everyone there knew how to play, that is everyone but me. They are got these excited looks on there faces and smiled and counted in unison while smiling from one to ten. And the speaker said ok find our groups, I was like what the hell….

So everyone began scrambling around getting in there groups, apparently for this game you had to either be mouthing the numbers and saying other things or saying their numbers and mouthing the numbers. After a couple tried with some over excited people I gave up on figuring out he rules and asked people what group they were in. some of them asked me to count aloud. I found the twos and threes, someone thought by the way I counted I might be an 8 or 9. so I went to a large group, a woman with short black hair said she thought they were nines, I thought I might be an eight, but it seemed I was the only person not in group so I stayed there. Ell, the speaker said congratulttions o the nines because we were all in the right group, everyone cheered, I didn’t know why.

Next we took our seats and some one had on display some art work that was created for jesus near the time of the cruxifiction. (I’m thiking of reproducing it, since I can still remember it clearly). It was made of clay and had red blood on it, and a scene of david and goliath- it was really quite inspiring. We all examined it and passed it around.

Final Edition

Final:

The text is true. Our intrepratations of it are not.

For spiritual direction the state of ones soul in intriciately linked to the state of ones body.

Christians are like a heap of fresh living coals, warming one another as a great strength, freshness, and vigor of life flows into all.

In approaching others there is a newfound need to be honest about our lives, to tell our personal stories rather than some grand narrative that may seem exclusive, and to speak of the limitations of our ability to know god.

More

Part 6:

They are in the moment , listening attentively, focusing on others in ways that invite them to experience something of god’s abiding care for them. ( a good leader)

A small group that operates with spiritual direction as its leadership model will not be a grouip that tells people what clothes they should wear, who they should hang out with, or what they should do with ther lives.

He did not offer then five steps to avoid tempetation or give them a set of rules and principles so they could live this out. They had to figure it out on their own.
Sin is real. It needs to be dealt with. But to point fingers at each other and declare”here is your sin” denies the reality that god has arrived in this person’s heart before you did.

It is not so much a place of accountability- which suggests one party is watching the other-as a place where lives are lived and struggles shared.

Sometimes silence can be a meaningful gift. However it is usually obvious if silence is honoring someone story or if it is there because noone knows what to say.

When Yahweh shows up there arnt many words for it.

We represent jesus

When we gather, we come othergeer as image-bearers, redeemed sinners, abe to experience god’s love and presence through our fellowship.

Jesus was the master storyteller. The bible tells us that god chose to tell the great cosmic story not thru a list of doctrines and rules to follow but through scenes from the livesof god’s people. The parables jesus told were stories that were often subversive, provocative, even ambigious. The stories of faith and life are the substance of our journey toward god.

Part of ourcall as followers of chrsit is to become good storytellers. We are also invited to become good story receivers.

The invitation to love in groups is not s sugar-coated, positive thinking kind of love. It is love that is willing to sit in places of grief and doubt, to wrestle alongside others as they struggle with god, and to celebrate moments of goodness, forgiveness, and joy with another. Love embodied in these ways transforms broken hearts and heals fragmented lives.

Spiritual Direction Excerpts

Part 5

Harmony and comfort ar more important than grappling with hard issues. ( a problem).

Such groups miss out on the fullness of life with god’s people.

Christians throughout history have been a pendulum swing between being too accomadating toward culture and too separate, seeking refuge in cloisters, the desert, or the halls of a church building. (hmmmm)

Whatever sharing the good news looks like in the new mellinuim it will have dialogue at its core.

If we knew our enemies secrets and stories, their pain and suffering would defuse our anger toward them.
In the face of difference, we have an opportunity to enter mystry that reminds us of our need to trust a god who is begger than our boxes for god.

“it took me years to figure out that god is my anchor. It is not my grip on god that matters but his grip on me. God is bigger than my adversaries who want to damage my faith. God is bigger than my doubts and questions.”

Everyone has the potential to teach us about god.

When the search for truth is reduced to an insistence on comformity to dogmatic principles devoid of love, it does not model jesus’ insight into the care for the hearts of others.


If I am willing to show up the holy spirit will do the work

Until I felt heard in my pain I wasn’t able to hear others who tried to challenge me.

Conviction can happenwhen people know then are cared for and loved for.

We can live with differences because we know truth not just as proposition but as relationship weith the savior who dies that we might be one with him and his father.

part 4

Part 4

Spiritual direction is not a systematic process..

God is not limited to our western ideals, ethnicity, and social standings.

Searching for meaning in the organized church can often be frustrating. It is not uncommon for conservative churches to exclude people.

Finding our voice is a biblical notion: god’s voice was the power to create the cosmos. Jesus spoke words of healing, freedom, and liberation. The gospel is the “good news” –words spoken and tasted. As image bearers, our vices are symbolic of our freedom and responsibility to be creative, liberating beings.

Without the harmony of diverse voice and perspectives, we miss out on the fullness of god.


How we live on behalf of others will bear the greatest evidence of gods love.

“the more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic that to love people….christ is more of an artist than the artists. He works in the living spirits and the living flesh, he makes men instead of statues”. –van gogh

Spiritual DirectionQuotes

Part 3

God literally called Samuel, but Samuel didn’t recognize gods voice. It is eli who after numerous interruptions to his sleep, realizes this call is different. But eli doesn’t pull rank on Samuel. He doesn’t say “let me handke this you can watch as I take care of the incoming divine business for this household”. Instead, eli invites Samuel to await anther call and give a reply. In doing so eli invites Samuel to open his heart and mind to the possibility that not only does god exist but that god also wants to bless and speak directly to him.

The cure of souls in the scripture-directed, prayer-shaped care that is devoted to persons singlur;ly or groups in settings sacred or profance.

We are created to be in community with others.

It is stepping into a position of vulenabrility and awreness that we may leave the moment as a changed creature. –encounter with god.

Storytelling allows the group to talk about faith as it really plays out rather than in idealistic astract terms.

The witness of scripture is that faith for Israel and the church is communal and meant to be a shared experience, not a solo venture.

The power establishes a great divide between clergy an layity.-in religion

Relying on gods spirit to serve as a catalytic force for spiritual maturity is good.
Spiritual direction can be a place of com

Thoughts on the Cross

As with most midnights i have some thoughts. These are some thoughts that i have about some things in the Bible and of course some things that are urely christian tradition. Well here goes.

• first off it is a good thing that jesus chose to come in the form of a man at the time he did. that way the cross was used as his means of execution. just think if it was very earlier it may have been a rock, how would that look on a bumper sticker. or if it was during the french revolution time peroid... a goulitine? like max lucado says, would preist do a karate chop instead of the sign of the cross then. and thank god -ironicly, thank god that jesus did come now when the symbol hat people wear as necklaces might be an electric chari, a lethal injection needle, a gas mask, a gun, or a bit older a hangmans noose. this tells me that god's timing is fitting or our reality would be quite different.

A little more

Part 2:

Group memebers need to know that the group can deal with internal conflict, hurt feelings even outright anger between emmbers and still come together as the body of Christ.

Endings break our hearts with sadness and beauty.

We can choose to take the risk to end well for the fruit it can be in ou lives and others, or we can let the pain of goodbye keep us safe, guarded, nonchalant, or avoidant.

More on Spiritual Direction

Part 1:

Faith is lost not because there is no need for it, but because we elieve God’s plans don’t make nay sense.

Stay PRESENT with others.

Start connecting with churches.

To know god and others more deeply and to be known in those relationships.

A group of people encountering one another and listening to god’s guiding voice.

When we include the voices of others, we begin to get a fuller picture of what god has to say through the bible and how we might go about finding ourselves in god’s story of redemption.

The gathering of gods people is an opportunity for people to come, taste, and see that the lord is good.

There is power in creating authentic community with one another.

Random thoughts about Spiritual Direction

Small Group Leader Ship as Spiritual direction

Intro:

The language of prayer and spiritual direction has this in common: language (whether of words for silence) in the Presence, in the context of mystery, listening for the hinting at “what eye has not seen nor ear has heard” and the “love of Christ that surpasses knowledge”.

We go looking for adventure, we play or watch a game, read a novel, travel to Zanzibar. One of the classic ways of restoring a sense of wonder tinged with adventure, the sheer mystery of life, is to enter the wilderness- a world blessedly free of domestication, permeated by what we don’t know: mountains that defy our control, weather indifferent to our comfort, grizzly bears and mountain lions unpredictable and dangerous. Life spills out of the containers of our routines. In the wilderness we become alert. We can take nothing for granted; every tree is a living sculpture, every flower a surprise, every animal a grace, each step taking us into a never- before-experienced combination of scent color and shape. Our simple sense of life, basic life, is heightened. Boredom is vanished,

Stafford’s wilderness with a map describes a great deal of what goes on in the Christian church these days. We think we want god beyond our understanding so we can worship largely , god sovereign in all our circumstances and suffering so we can be cared for securely, the god of Paul’s exclamatory, “how unsearchable are his judgments and how unascertainable are his ways”. But then we get nervous about the unsearchable and the inscrutanable. We hesitate; maybe that’s just a little too much mystery. We want a wilderness with a map.

With doctrine there is a problem, we are in control.
Spiritual direction using language, language that slowly becomes a comfortable mystery. Information is the secularized substitute for god’s answers and technology is the secularized substitute to god’s miracles.

All our lives we have gone to schools that have equated mystery with ignorance, schools promising to banish ignorance from our lives if we will just study hard enough.

Spiritual direction is another way of language.

Community With God

Section 8:

Gods truths are transforming only to the extent they are received and absorbed.

We must decompartmentalize life so that we share it all with god in a barrier-free union with him.

Changing Power of Community Part 7

Section 7:

Being for one another.

We are gods rag dolls. He knows about our raggedness and loves us anyway.

Love is being for the one who is loved.

This is not easy to do. It doesn’t take much truth telling for me to admit that I don’t want my enemies to succeed. More humbling is the fact that, deep down, I often don’t want my friends to succeed too much.

Competition, comparison, envy- they are all anti-community.

Competition and envy cause me to mourn when others rejoice , and rejice when others mourn. They lead me to diminish others instead of building them up. They casue me to be opposed to other people instead of being for them.

Being for someone is deeper then just wanting to spare them pain. If I am really for a person, I am willing to risk saying painful things, if pain is the only way to bring growth.

True love never desires to inflict pain for pain’s sake. All too often, im not only willing to uinflict pain on someone, im looking forward to it. Probably a safe guideline is that I need to be very careful of creating pain for another person if I feel a twinge of enjoyment in the process.

And the god of the universe is for you. He longs for you to blossom and flourish. He celebrates your victories and he mourns your setbacks. He is on your side. He is in the balcony, cheering you on.

Isaiah 58

Changing Power of Community Part 6

Section 6:

The ten oclock Sunday morning hour is the most segegrated hour of the week?!

Changing Power of Community Part 5

Section 5:

What do you actually DO when you forgive someone?

The first thing you do is rediscover the humanity of the person who hurt you.

Surrender the right to get even.

We revise our feelings about the person who did us wrong

You know you are in the healing stream of forgiveness when you can get down on your knees- even if only half mean it- and pray that God would bless the person who hurt you.

Responsibility and blame are always sewed up in the hem of forgiveness.

You don’t forgive to avoid pain. You forgive to heal the pain. And you won’t heal unless you have felt the pain. “The cure for pain is in the pain” –mewithoutyou

Forgiveness is a process.

No matter what you’ve done in the past, God has forgiven you. He has rediscovred the beauty of your humanity. God has surrendered every right to ever get even with you. And every day God wishes you well!

Being forgiving is a way to live, not a commodity parceled out in units.

New Year

The new year is approaching again. Time keeps moving and i'm moving with it.
i was saying i celebrate my birth annually.
i would say i celebrate my death more than annually.

The Operation Dad Had

Tracheotomy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Completed tracheostomy:1 - Vocal cords2 - Thyroid cartilage3 - Cricoid cartilage4 - Tracheal cartileges5 - Balloon cuff
A tracheotomy or tracheostomy is a surgical procedure performed on the neck to open a direct airway through an incision in the trachea (the windpipe). (Technically, the former term, with the Greek root tom- meaning "to cut," refers to the procedure of cutting into the trachea, whereas the latter term, with the root stom- meaning "mouth," refers to the procedure of making a semipermanent or permanent opening. Tracheostomy can also refer to the result of the procedure, i.e. the opening itself.)

Contents

1 Indications for a tracheotomy
2 How a tracheotomy is performed
3 Complications
4 See also
5 External links

Indications for a tracheotomy
The indications for tracheotomy are:
Acute setting - maxillofacial injuries, large tumors of the head and neck, congenital tumors, e.g. branchial cyst, acute inflammation of head and neck, and
Chronic / elective setting - when there is need for long term mechanical ventilation and tracheal toilet, e.g. comatose patients, surgery to the head and neck.
In emergent settings, in the context of failed endotracheal intubation or where intubation is contraindicated, cricothyrodotomy or mini-tracheostomy may be performed in preference to a tracheostomy.
[edit]

How a tracheotomy is performed
Curvilinear skin incision along relaxed skin tension lines (RSTL) between sternal notch and cricoid cartilage
Midline vertical incision dividing strap muscles
Division of thyroid isthmus between ligatures
Elevation of cricoid with cricoid hook
Placement of tracheal incision. An inferior based flap or Bjork flap (through second and third tracheal rings) is commonly used. The flap is then sutured to the inferior skin margin. Alternatives include a vertical tracheal incision (pediatric) or excision of an ellipse of anterior tracheal wall.
Insert tracheostomy tube (with concomitant withdrawal of endotracheal tube), inflate cuff, secure with tape around neck or stay sutures.
Connect ventilator tubing
You can also make a simple horizontal incision between tracheal rings (typically 2nd and 3rd) for the incision. Bjork flaps may produce more intratracheal granulation tissue at the site of the incisions, making it less favorable to some surgeons.

In my dad's case the vocal cords have been removed.

Church

I feel we need to continually question all the conventions of "the church" and determine which are biblical/godly and which are humanistic.

Intrepratation

So those are some biographies that will lend perspective to the interpretation that the lord god gave me.

He said this was an example of the church, the body of Christ in the western world, he revealed to me that they were captured. The church is captured, trapped; me and you are trapped and captured. 1st we are trapped by education and the knowledge of man that takes on the pseudo of wisdom as illustrated by the Christian school we were being held in. second we are held captive by materialism and pride; this is why our capture was the million dollar man whose motto was “what’s your price” and why he had such a large head. Those are the things that hold me and you captive, the church of Christ captive, in bondage to knowledge, materialism, and pride.

Now let’s look at the captives. As it was from my perspective I noticed that the superheroes could [possible have escaped on their own, but I could not have, that is why I needed their help, and they said they needed my help. So we joined together; by joining hands, we created community. We became one body. This is what the church must do to over come in this day of captivity.

Daredevil was blind, and this aspect of him told of the faith that is need for the church to rely on god and even on each other as the body of Christ. They need heightened senses to be aware of the moving of the spirit of god. I believe there is also significance in the fact that he is dressed as a red devil. This false idea of the devil is a deception that the church needs to face. The devil is real and evil and the powers of darkness are real-not like the guy in the red suit.

The presence of wolverine said one thing to the church in particular. That is that it needs to be healed- more importantly it needs to heal it self. The divisions, the arguments, bitterness, and strife that is in the body needs to be healed by the body as outline in scripture. Notice wolverine was in great pain in the dream as the power of god moved through his body, but the healing that his own body could do made this possible. He also used his skeletal structure as the force that moved the power of god that effected earth. This was a structure that was unbreakable; like a rock that will not be shaken- the church needs to make certain its foundation is set on Jesus the Christ.

Storm pushed her power through the by the firm structure of wolverine and due to the healing ability, the power rested in the physical man, but it was the power of god to effect the very real dream. In the dream I shot out lightening that burned a desk in the room we were in. a very real evidence of the effectiveness of the power.

Next to storm was Nightcrawler. This figure is a grotesque figure by all human standards, but how precious we are in god’s site. We cannot expect things to look as they always have. Night crawler also has two interesting features- one he has a religious tradition in his upbringing- this is telling us to respect the saints who came before us and to learn from them. His other ability is that of teleportation- than k god our prayers are effective here and out from here… and let’s not forget the stories of teleportation in the New Testament.

God spoke some other personal things to me through this as well, but this seems to be for the church in general, it’s not a lone voice, God is speaking this throughout the world.

Dream

I will post the meaning to the dream this week.

Vision Part 6 Million Dollar Man

Biography of the Million Dollar Man - Ted DiBiase
Ted DiBiase has been involved in the world of professional wrestling his entire life. His stepfather, wrestler "Iron Mike" DiBiase, began the tradition and had a strong influence on him as a child. He died in the ring when Ted was fifteen. Shortly after, his mother slipped into a depression and turned to alcohol. Ted moved into a little town in southern Arizona to live with his grandparents. After Ted's junior year in college at West Texas State University
in Canyon, Texas, he stepped into the squared circle to follow in his father's footsteps.
After wrestling in Amarillo, Texas and Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, Ted moved to Atlanta to continue his wrestling
career. While there he met his future wife Melanie and they
were married in 1981. Ted's wrestling engagements kept
him away from her, while ego, pride, and money took
center stage. After the birth of their first son Teddy, the
DiBiase's moved to Mississippi where he continued
wrestling for Mid-South Wrestling. Ted was hoping that the
World Wrestling Federation (WWF) would take notice of his
talent. The WWF did take notice. They had an idea for a
new character and developed Ted into the "Million Dollar
Man" and he was surrounded by money, limousines and
life in the fast lane. Through hard work and much
determination he quickly rose to the top of his profession
where he has remained for the past twenty years.
Ted's career as a wrestler has taken him all over the world; all over Europe, Japan, India,
Canada, and all of the fifty states, including Alaska and Hawaii. Ted has held many
wrestling titles over his expansive career not withstanding, "The World Championship
Title." He has wrestled alone, as part of a tag team, and in recent years as the role of
manager. You may also have heard him at times behind the camera as he often
Million Dollar Man - Ted DiBiase
commentated and did color commentating for World Championship Wrestling.
Due to a neck injury several years ago, Ted was forced to give up the physical side of professional wrestling. He acted as a ringside manager in both the WWF (Andre the Giant, Steve Austin) and WCW (Steiner Brothers). While with WCW, Ted appeared on Ted Turner's cable networks "Monday
Nitro" and "Thursday Thunder" TV programs, and acted as creative consultant to EA Sports for their WCW Mayhem video game designed for the Sony Saturn and N64 game systems. He also traveled the Nascar circuit
as a WCW representative. Ted's WCW contract expired in 1999, and since then, Ted has taken on new roles outside of professional wrestling. He is a spokesperson for the Sunshine Foundation, an organization
that grants wishes for critically ill children, and has founded Heart of David Ministries (for which he travels the world as an evangelist furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Also through Heart of David Ministries, Ted shares his prayer of hope all over America in motivational assemblies speaking out against the results of drug and alcohol abuse - warning America's youth about the trap of being addicted to drugs and alcohol. He also encourages them to stay in school, set reachable goals and pay whatever price it takes to become the best that they can be. But, Ted's speaking ministry is not focused only on youth, but he I actually has an even stronger message for "macho men" out there, and also struggling married couples. He speaks at men's meetings, whole church congregations, and special events. Recently, Ted has been very vocal about the state of today's professional wrestling - speaking against the sex and vulgar language in the
current product. He is currently exploring the possibilities of starting his own small federation which would be run as an outreach of Heart of David Ministries

Vision Part 5 Nightcrawler

Real name: Kurt Wagner
Other aliases: None
Identity: Secret
Occupation: Adventurer
Legal status: Criminal record in the United States, later overturned
by the courts; still wanted internationally as an outlaw
Place of birth: Somewhere in the Bavarian Alps
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Eric Wagner (father, deceased), Margali Szardos
(foster mother), Jimaine Szardos (Daytripper, alias Amanda Sefton,
foster sister), Stefan Szardos (foster brother, deceased). The name of
Wagner's mother, who was presumed to be deceased, is not known
for certain, though it may be the mutant Mystique.
Base of operations: Muir Island, Scotland
Group affiliation: Excalibur, (formerly) X-Men
First appearance: GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1
History: Kurt Wagner was born with certain unusual physical
characteristics, but his power of self-teleportation did not emerge
until puberty. Margali Szardos, a sorceress and gypsy queen, found
Other Links
CBDB.com
X-Fan
Wizard World
Wagner an hour after his birth, in a small roadside shelter in the
Bavarian Alps. She found his father, Eric Wagner, dead of a heart
attack on the road outside. Margali is said to have found Wagner's
mother lying next to the baby and dying, but this assertion has been
called into question, and not even Kurt Wagner knows the truth.
Margali took the baby to the small Bavarian circus where she worked
as a fortuneteller as a "cover" for her activities as a sorceress.
Wagner was never legally adopted by anyone, but was raised by all
the members of the circus, who had no prejudices against "freaks."
Margali acted as Wagner's unofficial foster mother.
Wagner grew up happily in the circus, and his two closest friends
were Margali's natural children Stefan and Jimaine. Long before his
teleportation power emerged, Wagner had tremendous natural
agility, and by his adolescence he had become the circus's star
acrobat and aerial artist. Circus audiences assumed that he was a
normal-looking human being wearing a demon-like costume.
Years later, the Texas millionaire Arnos Jardine, who ran a large
circus based in Florida, heard of the circus Wagner worked for and
bought it. Jardine intended to move its best acts into his American
circus. However, he demanded that Wagner be placed in the circus's
freak show. Appalled, Wagner quit and made his way towards
Winzeldorf, Germany, where Stefan was. He discovered that Stefan
had gone mad and had brutally slain several children. Two nights
after leaving the circus, Wagner found Stefan and fought him, hoping
to stop his rampage. In the course of the struggle, Wagner
unintentionally broke Stefan's neck. Then the villagers of Winzeldorf,
who assumed him to be a demon who was responsible for the child
killings, discovered Wagner. They were about to kill him when they
were all psionically paralyzed by Professor Charles Xavier, who had
come to recruit Wagner into the X-Men. Wagner agreed to join the
group, but before they left for America, he and Xavier went to the
Bavarian circus so that Wagner could explain to Margali about
Stefan's death. However, Margali was not there. She held Wagner
responsible for murdering Stefan, but years later, she learned the
truth and she and Wagner were reconciled. Wagner was also happily
reunited with Jimaine, who now lives in the United States under the
name of Amanda Sefton. Known as Nightcrawler, Wagner became a
member of the X-Men.
Nightcrawler remained with the X-Men for years. Eventually,
however, he became a founding member of the British-based team
Excalibur and is now the team's leader.
Wagner has recently been told that his mother is the mutant known
as Mystique. To save her own life, she claims she had to toss the
newborn child into a waterfall, yet Mystique may have wanted to
mislead Wagner and may not actually be his birth mother. Wagner
now believes that his mother is Mystique and when and if new
information comes to light it is not known how Wagner will react to
the news, or to Mystique.
Height: 5 ft. 9 in.
Weight: 195 lbs.
Eyes: Shining yellow, no visible pupils
Hair: Indigo
Other distinguishing features: Nightcrawler has only 3 fingers
(including an opposable thumb) on each hand, and only 2 toes, each
longer than an ordinary human's, on each foot. Nightcrawler also has
a prehensile tail about 3 1/2 feet long, which can carry his own
weight. His body is almost entirely covered with a fine indigo-colored
fur, making him so dark that he seems to blend into deep shadows.
(Contrary to appearances, he does not literally turn invisible in deep
shadow.) Nightcrawler also has pointed ears and pronounced fanglike
canine teeth. His spine is more flexible than an ordinary human
being's, allowing him to spend much of his time in a semi-crouching
position without damaging his posture and enables him to perform
contortionist-like feats.
Strength level: Nightcrawler possesses at least the normal human
strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in
intensive regular exercise.
Known superhuman powers: Nightcrawler is a mutant with the
ability to teleport himself, the clothes he is wearing, and, within
limits, a certain amount of additional mass which is in contact with
him. He teleports by displacing himself into another dimension (the
nature of which is as yet unknown), travelling through it, and then
returning to his own dimension at a certain distance from his point of
departure. He consciously determines his point of return. The entire
process occurs so quickly that Nightcrawler is unaware of being in
another dimension at all. Nightcrawler guides himself through the
other dimension by an unconscious, natural direction-finding sense.
Although Nightcrawler controls his teleportational ability with his
conscious mind, his power to teleport is not psionic. Rather it is the
result of an unknown biochemical/biophysical reaction which he
triggers mentally.
When he disappears in teleporting, Nightcrawler leaves behind smoke
with a stench reminiscent of burning brimstone. This is a small
portion of the atmosphere of this other dimension that escapes while
the aperture is open. His teleportation is invariably accompanied by
the muffled sound of imploding air rushing to fill the vacuum left
where Nightcrawler's volume was.The longer the distance over which
Nightcrawler teleports himself, the harder and more exhausting it is
for him to make the teleportational "jump." It is easier for him to
teleport between north and south (along Earth's magnetic lines of
force) than it is for him to teleport between east and west (against
the magnetic lines). Under optimal conditions, teleporting only
himself and his costume, Nightcrawler can displace himself a distance
of about 2 miles east-to-west, and up to 3 miles north-to-south.
Making a vertical teleportation upwards is difficult and dangerous.
Nightcrawler has made a vertical teleportational "jump" of 2 miles by
pushing himself to his physical limits.
Nightcrawler has a very limited unconscious extrasensory ability that
prevents him from teleporting himself so that his feet, for example,
would materialize below the surface of the local ground. Because this
ability is so limited, however, Nightcrawler will not teleport into any
place that he cannot see or has not seen in the past. If Nightcrawler
teleported himself into an unfamiliar area, he would run the risk of
materializing partially or entirely within a solid object. If too much of
his body materialized within a solid object, he would probably be
killed.
Nightcrawler's powers automatically displace liquids and gases when
he arrives in the course of a teleportation. Nightcrawler's momentum
is retained throughout the process of teleportation: he arrives with
whatever amount of inertia he left with. For example, if he were
falling from a great height, he could not teleport himself towards the
ground in order to save himself; he would land with the same velocity
that he teleported with. He can subtract this inertia by teleporting
short distances upwards (as though taking two steps back for every
one forward).
The limits to the amount of weight that Nightcrawler can carry with
himself while teleporting, and the limits to the range of distance over
which he can teleport himself with such additional loads, are
unknown. When he transports a passenger over even moderate
distances, they both feel weakened and ill, to the point of exhaustion.
Teleportation over further distances could be fatal. Through practice,
Nightcrawler has increased the mass he can teleport with him. (He
once teleported himself and Storm from the center of a small island
into the water just off its coast without harming either of them). The
upper limits of this capacity are as yet unknown.
Other abilities: Nightcrawler is a superb athlete and an Olympicclass
acrobat. He can do a standing high jump of about 8 feet. He is
skilled at hand-to-hand combat and is a master at fencing, which he
can even perform with his tail.

Vision Part 4 Wolverine

Real Name: James Howlett, now
goes by Logan
Identity: Secret
Occupation: (current) Adventurer, member of the X-Men, (possible
former) Samurai, (former) CIA operative, member of Canada's
Weapon X program, leader of Alpha Flight, bartender on Madripoor
Other Aliases: Weapon X, Patch
Place of Birth: Unknown, presumably in Canada.
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: John Howlett (father, deceased), Elizabeth Howlett
(mother, presumed deceased) "The Old Man" (unnamed grandfather,
presumed deceased) Windsong (wife, deceased)
Base of Operations: (current) Xavier Institute for Higher Learning,
(former) the Clan Yashida compound in Japan, Department H in Canada.
Group Affiliation: (current) X-Men, (former) Clan Yashida, the Weapon X
Program, Alpha Flight
First Appearance: THE INCREDIBLE HULK #181
History: In the late 1880's a child by the name of James Howlett
was born. As a child James was a frail and sick boy. His allergies
didn't allow him to go out and play much. His father had requested
that a twelve year old girl be brought to their estate. That girl was
named Rose and she was to be a friend and play mate to James. She
read to him and looked after him. Along with the grounds keeper's
son, Dog, James and Rose were the only children on the hill where
the estate was. They had become close friends and played together
as much as possible but Dog slowly grew away from them. Dog's
father, the grounds keeper was named Thomas Logan, he was an
alcoholic and abuse his son.
Over the next few years Dog started to follow in his father footsteps,
becoming cruel and heartless. James was given more responsibilities
by his father and grandfather. After a big fight, Dog killed James's K-
9 companion which resulted in the Logans getting kicked off the
Howlett estate.
Other Links
In a fit of rage and anger Thomas Logan and his son entered the
estate armed. They then took Rose hostage and demanded that she
take them to the masters' bedroom. There the elder Logan tried to
persuade James's mother, Elizabeth, to leave with them. Before they
could leave John entered the room and discovered them together. In
a rage of hate and dislike Thomas shot John as James walked into the
room. Seeing his father shot and killed shocked him so much that it
triggered his latent mutant abilities. His claws extended and
continued through Thomas. After his mother
shunned him for his unusual abilities he
fled the house. Rose followed to see what
she could do. She found James outside
the house on the ground and cold. She
brought him to the barn in order to try
and warm him up. Not knowing what to
do Rose brought James to his
grandfather house. He ended up giving
them cash and told them never to come
back again. Rose took James and
went to British Columbia looking for
a place that they could live in peace.
Rose remembered her father talking of quarries in the Northern
frontiers and she figured that would be a good place for them to start
looking. Making it to a quarry, they met a man named Smitty who
was the foreman. That is when Rose gave James the name Logan to
hide his true identity.
By the second summer there Logan was providing for both Rose and
himself. He had trained himself to be a fine hunter and he also
worked hard at the quarry. Smitty even gave him a new job in
demolitions. Shortly after that Smitty asked Rose to marry him. The
proposal upset Logan but he finally realized that Smitty did indeed
love Rose. Logan then helped Smitty get money for tickets away from
the quarry.
Before Smitty and Rose could leave Dog showed up. At the request of
Logans grandfather he was to kill Logan and Rose for what he
believed they did. In the fight that followed Rose tried to break it up
but was struck by Logans claws and died. After that, not being able
to live among people for what he did he left the camp and went off
into the wilderness to live alone.
It wasn't until his first recorded encounter with the Hulk, as an agent
of Canada's Department H, that anyone had heard of him or knew
that he was interacting with people again.
Logan possesses memories of being a Samurai in Japan, a mercenary
operative for the Central Intelligence Agency, and a "wild man" in the
Canadian wilderness. Due to the extensive memory implants given to
Logan through the Weapon X program, any and all of these memories
are suspect. Logan has at least one memory of meeting Captain
America in World War II which was verified as true. It is possible that
Logan's healing factor grants him an extended life span and has
granted him the physical condition of a man in his prime, despite his
age.
Sometime after World War II, Logan was taken by a group
of scientists led by Dr.Cornelius as part of the
Weapon X program. Cornelius was hired to perfect and use a
technique that would bond the indestructible element
adamantium to human bone cells. Logan's skeleton was
bonded to the adamantium, and he was indoctrinated into
the Weapon X assassin program.
After his encounter with the Hulk, Wolverine was
conscripted by Department Hto join and lead Alpha Flight,
Canada's government-run super team. During his leadership of Alpha
Flight, Wolverine was approached by Professor Charles Xavier, who
was looking for mutants to help his students, the X-Men, escape from
the island-being known as Krakoa, which had captured them.
Wolverine left Alpha Flight to accompany Xavier and rescue the
captured X-Men. After Krakoa was defeated, Wolverine decided to
stay with the X-Men, for reasons which included that he had fallen for
the X-Man known as Marvel Girl.
Logan remained with the X-Men for quite some time, at one time
being their field commander, and encountering adversaries such as
Proteus, Magneto, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Brood, the
Reavers, demons from the dimension of Limbo, the Marauders, the
Morlocks, and even Dracula on one occasion.
After his encounter with the mutant assassin Omega Red, Logan
began to question the memories he possessed, but his searches to
find his true identity and memories proved fruitless.
During an encounter with the mutant Magneto on his space station called
Avalon, Wolverine attempted to defeat Magneto using the claws presumably
given to him by the Weapon X project. Magneto retaliated, using his powers of
the magnetic field to tear the adamantium out of Wolverine's
skeleton, causing extensive injuries. These injuries shorted out Wolverine's
healing factor for a time, and Logan also discovered that the claws that he
believed a result of the Weapon X project were in fact a natural mutation.
The claws he now possesses are bone, and a natural part of his skeletal
structure.
As a result of his injuries, Logan left the X-Men for a time, returning after he
was asked by Xavier, who also asked the mutant Cable, to rescue the X-Men
in Tibet, where they were captured during the Phalanx invasion.
Recently, Logan was kidnapped by Tyler Dayspring, calling himself Genesis, who wanted to make Wolverine one of his new Horsemen. Genesis had acquired
adamantium by destroying the body of the mercenary known as
Cyber, and had planned to recreate the bonding process used on
Logan years ago. This time, however, Logan's body rejected the
adamantium, and he regressed for a time to a feral-like state.
Logan regained his lucidity, rejoined the X-Men, and is now
supervising the team while Cyclops and Jean Grey are on leave. Still
without his Adamantium, Logan was kidnapped by the would-be
conqueror Apocalypse, perhaps the world's first mutant, and forced to
fight the savage assassin Sabretooth for the mantle of the Horseman
Death. Viewing himself as a more merciful candidate than his fellow
mutant, Logan fought hard to win the battle. As a result, his skeleton
again was laced with Adamantium. Under the control of Apocalypse,
Wolverine fought the X-Men ferociously in his Death persona. But
with the help of his teammates, he eventually broke free from
Apocalypse's control.
Height:5 ft. 3 in.
Weight: (without adamantium skeleton) 200 lbs., (with adamantium
skeleton) 300 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
Strength Level: While Wolverine may be of an advanced age, he
possesses the normal human strength of a man in his prime with his
height and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. While
possessing the adamantium skeleton, Wolverine's strength was
increased to the human maximum, making him capable of lifting
(pressing) 800 lbs.
Known Superhuman Powers: Wolverine is a mutant with a number
of enhancements to his physiology. Wolverine possesses heightened
senses, making him capable of seeing things at a maximum distance
greater than that of a normal human. His hearing is enhanced in a
similar manner, and he is able to recognize people and objects by
scent, even if that person or object is hidden. Logan can use these
enhanced senses to track anyone, with an impressive degree of
success.
He possesses retractable bone claws that are housed in his forearms,
they are part of his skeleton system. At will Wolverine can release
these claws through his skin between the knuckles on each hand. The
skin between the knuckles tears and bleeds, but bleeding is quickly
halted by his healing factor. The claws are naturally sharp and
tougher than that of normal human bone structure. This allows
Wolverine to be able to cut through most types of flesh and natural
materials. (Note: While Wolverine possessed his adamantium
skeleton, his claws were able to cut through almost any material
without any fear of damage to the claws.)
Lastly, Wolverine possesses an accelerated healing factor based on
his physiology. While most normal humans heal injuries over a long
period of time, Wolverine's healing factor speeds up that natural
process. Wolverine's natural healing has been advanced to the point
where he can heal extensive injuries (such as broken limbs) in a
matter of hours to days. This factor gives him a higher resistance to
poisons and toxins, and he can recover from almost any injury. The
more extensive the injury, the longer the healing time will be.
Wolverine is not immortal, however. If the injuries are extensive
enough, especially if they result in the loss of vital organs, large
amounts of blood, and/or loss of physical form (such as having flesh
burned away by fire or acid), Logan can die.
Wolverine, again due to his healing factor, has an enhanced
resistance to disease, as well as an extended life span. Despite
Wolverine's chronological age, he is still as healthy and physically fit
as a man in his prime.
Abilities: Due to his extensive training as a CIA operative, a
Samurai, and as a member of the Weapon X program, Wolverine is a
master of multiple forms of martial arts, weapons, and vehicles. He is
also a trained expert in computers, explosives, and assassination
techniques.

Vision Part 3 Storm

Real name: Ororo Munroe
Other aliases: (current) None, (former—in Kenya and Tanzania) "Beautiful Windrider"
Identity: Secret
Occupation: Adventurer, (former) "Goddess" to an African tribe, master thief
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record. (She probably has a record as a juvenile offender in Egypt, but not under her true name.)
Place of birth: New York City, New York
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: David Munroe (father, deceased), N'Dare Munroe (mother,
deceased), Ashake (ancestor, deceased)
Base of operations: (current) Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester
County, New York State, (former) Cairo, Egypt; Kenya and Tanzania; X-Men
headquarters, Australian outback
Group affiliation: (current) X-Men, (former) Leader of the Morlocks
First appearance: GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1
History: Storm is the descendant of an ancient line of African priestesses, all of
whom have white hair, blue eyes, and the potential to wield magic. Her mother,
N'Dare, was the princess of a tribe in Kenya. She married the American
photojournalist David Munroe and moved with him to Manhattan, where Ororo was born.
When Ororo was six months old, she and her parents moved to Cairo,
Egypt. Five years later, a bomb destroyed their home. Ororo's parents
were killed, but she survived, buried under rubble near her mother's
body. This traumatizing effect left Ororo with the severe
claustrophobia that still afflicts her today.
Homeless and orphaned, Ororo, came under the tutelage of master
thief Achmed el-Gibar. She became his prize pupil in thievery and in
picking locks.
Years later, feeling a strong urge to go south, Ororo
journeyed alone across the Sahara Desert and finally
reached her ancestors' homeland, the Serengeti Plain,
which lies in the modern nations of Kenya and Tanzania. By this
time her mutant power to control the weather had
emerged, and she used them to help the local tribes, who
worshipped her as a goddess.
Ororo remained with the tribes for years until Professor Charles
Xavier recruited her into the new team of X-Men he was
assembling. She was given the code name "Storm" after her
power to affect the weather.
Except for brief periods away from the team, Storm has
remained in the X-Men ever since and shares leadership of
the X-Men with Cyclops.
Height: 5 ft. 11 in.
Weight: 127 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: White
Strength level: Athlete
Flight speed: Subsonic (when
propelled by winds)
Fighting skills: Excellent hand-tohand combatant, trained by
Wolverine
Special skills and abilities:
Extraordinary ability at picking locks, excellent marksman with handguns
Known superhuman powers:
Storm has the psionic ability to control the weather over limited
areas. She can fly by creating winds strong enough to support her weight.
Storm has limited immunity to extreme heat and cold.
Special limitations: Storm's psionic powers over the weather are
affected by her emotions; hence, if she does not maintain control of
her emotions, a fit of rage might induce a destructive storm. Also,
Storm suffers from severe claustrophobia.
Other accessories: Storm carries lock picks.

The Vision Part 2 DareDevil

Each Post will contain another part of information to understand the dream all of which god revealed to mein a 5-10 minute peroid....

Real name: Matthew Michael Murdock
Occupation: Lawyer
Identity: Secret
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal
record
Place of birth: New York City
Group affiliation: None
Base of operations: New York City
First appearance: DAREDEVIL #1 Vol. 1

History: Young Matt Murdock saw a truck about to hit a blind man,
and hurled himself in front of it. This good deed changed his life
forever, when a can of radioactive waste fell from the truck, broke
open, and irradiated Murdock. The accident blinded the young New
Yorker, but also mutagenically heightened his other senses. He
later met a martial arts master, Stick, who taught him how to use
his newly augmented senses – and trained him as a fighter. Murdock
went on to college, and fell in love with Elektra Natchios. When
Elektra fled, Murdock threw himself into his law studies. When his
father, a boxer, was killed by mobsters when he refused to throw a
fight, Murdock sought justice in vain. Finally disillusioned by the legal
system, Murdock assumed the guise of Daredevil. Further fueled to
vengeance and crime-fighting by the death of Elektra, Daredevil uses
his radar senses to forever seek justice, whenever his law degree
fails him.

Height: 6 ft.
Weight: 200 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Red

Known powers: Daredevil possesses the normal human strength of
a man his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular
exercise. Daredevil's five sense are heightened to beyond that of
even superhumanly enhanced sense. Although Murdock is blind, he
can "see" by means of his "radar sense", which acts not unlike sonar.
Daredevil is an Olympic level athlete and gymnast, possessing
extraordinary agility, endurance, skill and balance. Daredevil's unique
fighting style (a blend of ninjitsu, judo and American-style boxing)
makes effective use of his Billy Club, which is used as both a baton
and grappling hook.

Vision

You may have heard about the dream that I had a couple weeks ago. Let me retell it.

There wasn’t much to it, but this was the setup. Myself ,Daredevil, Wolverine, Storm, and Nightcrawler (from the marvel comic books) were being held captive at the New Life Christian Academy Building. We wondered who could be keeping us captured, since they were super heroes.

I looked down the hall and saw the man. It was the million dollar man; Ted DiBiase. He had a bobble head.

We all decided that we need to combine our strength if we are going to be able to get out. Everyone decided to channel there energy into me, so we held hands. The order was Daredevil, me, wolverine, storm, and night crawler. Storm shot lightening through wolverine’s adamantum skeleton and used his healing factor so I would be ok to handle the electricity. I was able to think and lightening would come down and strike the earth; I accidentally toasted a desk.

For several days I told people this dream; I thought it was quite funny and unrelated to anything I knew. However today while resting in the presence of God the dream was brought back to my remembrance and God revealed to me what the dream meant. It was an allegory of the state of the church. Each characters role and characteristics play a major part in the interpretation, so I have included them below before the interpretation.

Community

• Section 4:
  
  Avoiding conflict kills community.
  The restoration of community as far as it is up to you- live at peace with everyone as far as it relies on you.
  We must all learn to manage conflict constructively if we are to live as Christ wants us to.
  Death and life are in the power of the tongue
  The advice to suffer wrong for the sake of a greater gain really is part of Christian behavior, but it doesn’t come easily.

Dead

so today i went to a funeral home. So someone i know had someone they know die; their brother. i went there to greive with them and offer support. i don't think i did, but he's dead; he was 32 years old, i have know idea if he was united with God thru Christ...

Community Part 2

Section2:

This is friendship.

• Friendship makes your heart bigger.
• It helps keep you steady in a storm
• It ends aloneness
• It s key to personal transformation
• Philippians 2:1-11
• Friendship is seeking the interests of the person you have befriended.
• Question: how are you doing? Really.
• Isaiah 41:8
• John 15:15
• Matthew 11:19
• At some point during the day take time doing something you love to do. Invite Jesus to join you in this activity. Simply be aware he is with you.
• When anything good happens thank god.

We all need a breathtakingly basic talk.

About Spiritual Transformation

• invite god into all aspects of your life, event he everday routines.
• spiritual life is just life- the one you live moment by moment.
• Spiritual transformation: is essential, a process, and God's work.
• god is intrested in life-all of it.
• spiritual transformation.... takes place in community
• is available right now
• brings an increased capicity to love god and others.
• community is god's dearest creationgod is community-father, son, and holy spirit-he creates community.
• god's supreme acheivement was not the creation of a solitary man but he creation of human community (see genesis wording of "them")
• jesus hopes that we may be reconciled to one another , forming one body in his embrace of love.

we love god with all we have and we love our neighbor as ourselve, that's community.

Another Dream ...this one about work

Last night i dreamed i was at work, and i let the kids alone up stairs, when i returned they were paired up and in bed together. they were just laying together. i was very upset and threw things and stomped and yelled; it was an intresting dream.

D r e a m

Last night i dreamed that i was at the cornerstone festival. i rememebr looking at the band list....

Tribal Music Tribal People

Last night at the blue water house of prayer the lord was good in the present.
at some point the music took on a tribal edge, which was intresting considering we have virtually no tribal instruments (maybe you can consider the congas tribal). But with all our electricinstruments the music took on a tribal edge. This carried to the spirit of the people and the work that the lord was doing in breaking his people free from anything that held them back from his presence and his plan of community.

I like this one definition given on www.dictionary.com. it says this of a tribe.

a collection of families descending from one ancestor. The "twelve tribes" of
the Hebrews were the twelve collections of families which sprang from the sons
of Jacob. In Matt. 24:30 the word has a wider significance. The tribes of
Israel are referred to as types of the spiritual family of God!

God is good and so are his people. if you are in the Spirit of God i am so glad to be your brother or sister.

Dreaming More

I was captured. Captured with company that seems they could be of help in a capturing. these people were from comic books they were: storm, wolverine, daredevil, and nightcrawler. it seems that with this company one would not be one that would be prone to capturing. However, we were trapped in the new life chirstian academy building; the thrid room from the end of the south wing.

how could we be captured, well i looked down the hall and it was a wrestler. not just any wrestler; it was ted debeosy, the million dollar man, and he was wearing the championship belt. not only this, but his head was a bobble head. we knew we were introuble. so one of the superheroes suggested this eleborate plan that would transfer each superheroes strength to me. so we lined up and held hands. the order was daredevil, me, storm, and then nifght crawler. storm was passing lightening through the metal in wolverine, in dont know what the others were doing, wolverine was passing his healing through me so the lightening wouldnt kill me. i was hoping i didnt get daredevils blindness.

so the proces was almost done and i tried shooting the lightening and toasted a desk. storm warned me to be careful. it was rather uneventful other than this for i woke up.

Briskness

This is a little different then usual.

It is already 10:05 am. I hae throughally enjoyed the day so far. I did some pretty serious practicing living in the moment today.

These are the things that seemed to be nice while living in their moment.

• I woke up and turned the light on then i slept for another half hour, but not real sleep.
• after showering (which wasnt that pleasant really) i made some cofee and let it cool
• i took a significant amount of time putting all the things on that people put on, myself particulally -all the different smells....
• then when i went back upstairs some oatmeal was made.
• i put honey and cinnomon in the oatmeal.
• i drank a few sips of the coffee.
• then i went outside to enjoy th brisk weather... 56 degrees F it said.
• so i turned the ehat on in my jeep.
• i thought about how briskness is nice becasue you can get warmed up.
• and the drive was wonderful as wel.
• i didnt pass anyone; this made things go a bit slower... alot slower actually, but much more relaxing.
• then i stopped for gas and gave exxon mobil more money to make bombs, but it was brisk out and i was able to reenter my jeep to warm up again.
• so the rest of the ride was also relaxing as i didnt pass anyone again.
• the music that i listened to this morning consisted of The Postal Service, Ani Difranco, and Iron and Wine. This may be a large part as to why things were so relaxing this day, this morning.
• Thus i pulled into the school and parked where i usually do, not too close, but it's always open.
• Currently the moment is taking place in Statitics.... where appararently there are no statistics to work on.
• As simplee as those facts seem, and un exciting, and un romantic, and basically bland, they were a peaceful and harmonous experience, and it seemed all the world shared this view... for a moment.

Dream with Points

A couple nights ago i had a long and fast paced dream that dealt with the characters from predator and tremors; Alot of open mouths and sharp teeth.

Some Scratchings About The Power of God

I dream of History

Dream 9.20.2005

It was at some VFW hall, but there was a long hallway and stages on both sides of the hallway. Stages and the curtains were drawn. Where there were no stages there were white doors all which appeared to be locked. I had the sense that I needed to do a project for something, I don’t think it was for school but none the less a project needed to be done.

Well I found one of the janitors, he was wearing a white jumpsuit and had back hair, he also had paint on his jumpsuit. He looked like a painter. I told him I was going to be making a sculpture and needed 50 lbs of clay. He said that it was no problem and there was a 200 lb order coming in and he could easily add 50 lbs to it.

The next day I can back and one of the whitedoors were open (there were random other people out in the hall now). I went in the white door and it lead to back stage. Here I found two wood crates, on very large the other half the size. I figured they were the caly and both were to heavy for me to move. I decided to go and get my brother aaron to help me move these things.

Whne I met him, on the streets of a carnival, I told him I was making a sculpture of Mr. Sharrad (he taught history in my highschool some 10 years ago). He seemed impressed but seemed to wonder why I wanted to make a sculpture of him. Isaid he was a historic figure…..

Well when we got there and went through the open white door the boxes were gone. We looked around a little bit but could not find any wooden boxes. I had a sense that I would now not be able to complete the project and I felt worried. I’m glad I woke up because the feeling of worry only grew.

Fire Dream

9.17.05 dream

This dream was in a four hour period of sleep and doesn’t end because I was waked up.

I was living in Niagara Falls NY in a two story yellow house. There was a van in the garage. The streets were paved. The surrounding houses were white and all looked somewhat similar.

I seemed to be working n the van in the garage. The van had a riding lawn mower inside of the back of it and a red plastic gas can. Well something started on fire. It was the back top of the van (which was baize in color). I think we may have tried to se water to put it out but it didn’t work. Well I looked and the fire had gotten the roof of the garage on fire, the roof had brown shingles. We had called the fire department, but when giving directions I went to the street corner. There were street sign s at all four corners, but each sign had a different road name on it, that was 8 different names, so I just guessed which it was. At this point I noticed some fire near the gas tank of the riding lawn mower and the plastic gas can was burning so I was afraid of an explosion.

Well we moved out to the corner on the road, just then an army truck pulled up full of National Guard soldiers. A woman came out.she had blond hair and a black suit on. She told us all the firemen were busy. She opened a brief case and as the national guards got out of the truck they each took a name badge from the briefcase and clipped it onto their uniforms. They then got out guns from the same brief case and proceeded to load them…. All this while the fire raged on and I was expecting an explosion at any moment.

Next each national guard member had to get the pocket knife from the brief case, well they couldn’t tell them apart and were holding them up to the light and passing them around.. Just then… I was awoken from my sleep by my brother.

Dream

So this last dream is barely rememberable. i was at some type of army , but it was at the building the life in christ fellowship meets in. noonewas in army clothes but i had the impression that it was an army run place. i can remmber little else then ben zwolinski was there and some girls who were speaking french (who i had seen at college that day). not sure what else it was about...

A Great Diagram of a Person

Dream.. Needs Intrapretation

I had a dream again, this might be the 100^th or so i'm really not sure. But they’re all different any way. This is what happened.

We were in a type of school. I’m not sure who we were, but I remember that I knew everyone and they knew me, but not every face was the same, or even recognizable for that matter. One of them was a client at work. A client who has been diagnosed “crazy” because she sees people and talks to them they says. Well we were doing something and I was pounding my hand on this oak coffee table I did it once and twice then when my hand came down the third time everything started moving slower and things had those streaky lines in them a little like the matrix when things move so fast its slow.

Well as this was happening my hand went through the table…..

And the “crazy” girl said to me “you’re in the spirit world”.

I came back quickly to this reality and fell back onto a couch. I immediately got up and said lets go find out what happened. I thought that this class might be some type of voodoo so I thought I should go see someone knowledgeable in the ways that God moves so I could be sure which “spirit world” I was in. so the crazy girl and Johnny went with me. We drove in a red car, i’m not sure what kind I just know it was a red car. We went to Brian wak’s house. We pulled in and no one was there. He shortly pulled up in a small blue ford escort. That isn’t what he drives in waking life.

He got out of his car and was wearing fisherman’s hat. We greeted each other with a hug and he invited us in.

The inside f his house was enormous, though not overly clean. Most of it was a shade of green, all different shades of green. We walked around as if we were getting a tour of the place, Brian was talking to john.

After some time we came to a room with a bar and stools. We leaned against the bar. The room had a dark green floor and light green ceiling that rose nearly 100 feet in the air. Here we began to tell him about what happened to me. I don’t remember any words only that sounds came out of all our mouths and he understood and shook his head up and down. At times our conversation transported us to some couches or cushion chairs; we never got up we simply ended up in the chairs, and back at the bar again standing up leaning against it. He sounded out some stories about his encounters with god.

Our conversation was ended and I only had the sense; the feeling to be careful and check the spirits before I believed one way or the other. As we about to leave, yet still inside the house that was green it happened again, I sorta entered the spirit world, things were moving slower in the physical and I was outside of it the colors sorta bended yet were more florescent.

I know we headed out to the car and left his house. I know I did not get an answer either.

Bicycles... Discernable?

"BICYCLES"

men you go out to the garage - or to the street and ,::~ into your automobile you find it a very simple proce­:~:-e. You just open the door and sit down and wait for =- ~ car to start.

:~'s the same with an airplane. Even a horse will stand

,,:: and let you mount without much maneuvering.

But a bicycle! Of course you can lean it against a fence - - :z. tree and have little trouble getting on it. But that is ~.' ~ ~he way to do it I

Yau have to LEARN to get on to a bicycle. It is almost

_..~ trying to mount a colt that has never been ridden.

'\\hat fun for those who watch you I What bruises you

.::-: trying to master that thing! Learning to ride a bicycle.

_\ bicycle has to be moving when you get aboard, other­T ~~ :'ou are right off again, flat on your face with your .:~~~ tangled in the wheels and the saddle on top of you I ~- ~ second you are on - even before you actually get ~£ ~ed. you have to start pedaling - and then the faster .,. _ pedal the surer you are of staying on.

: - fact it is very simple to ride a bicycle when you are r~ ~g fast, and actually it is much safer - except in the c-tet or sidewalk when you might hit someone who is Tl:L'1g.

:- ou see, actually, a bicycle is of little use unless it is r- -g somewhere, unless it is active.

- Y; you stop and think about it, the bicycle has a good .c- ~ ~~ for you. God gave you hands and feet, not to be

':..~ or to be harmful in any way to others, but to be active L-': ~c have a purpose - to so live that others will find

~:-~:..!1~ss because of you and may be led into right ways

.- ~~mce.

~ ~s taught us all that kind of leadership, when, accord­

r:.: -:'0 a statement by Paul:

He went about doing good." ACTS 10 :38.

VERNES Message

bringing in the sheaves

5.22.05

verne harris

preach christ daily when n needed use words.,

• romans 12.1-2

• john 4.26

it matters more that you do your task than what it is.

• luke 3.9

• 2 Corinthians

god wants to bring people him

• colisians 1

he will save anyone,

The Church - A Crisis

As i continue to understand what the church has become, or rather how the church has become many " churches" i stumble upon many readings.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopica94.pdf
this is a legal definition of "a church" by the IRS.

http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=3220
this site shares God's heart for the church, yet is uses church with multi-meanings as the church and "churches".

Dream

What a dreamthis was.
All i can rememeber is that iwas in an italian restaurant ith a lot of italian people. eating spaghetti, and then i wasat work. and people from life in christ were there. i woke up.