Things I'm Learning

I am currently:


Reading The Gospel of Matthew in The Message. I find it invigorating to look at passages through multiple perspectives.


Listening to The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. As a lover of learning and teaching I am loving this book.








Listening to select teachings by Randy Clark while reading the companion manual on Revival Phenomena and Healing. Randy's knowledge of church history challenges me to go deeper into study. I am specifically studying The Cane Ridge Revival at the moment.

Beginning Gordon Fee's book Pauline Christology.






Continuing to study through The real Jesus passages with the RFC family. This week we are in John 19:25-27.

Newport Beach Cafe @ 9pm

Tonight I will be speaking at The Cafe on Jesus choosing the twelve apostles. Kellie  Robinson will be leading worship.

Joseph the Dreamer

Today I am noticing some of the attributes of Joseph in the first two chapters of the  Gospel of Matthew. There are three different times that he makes major life decisions that would have seemed wildly foolish based on dreams from God.
       Joseph:

1. Marries a pregnant girl & believes she is a virgin
2. Takes his family into pagan Egypt
3. Returns to the place where children were being murdered just a short time ago.

I am asking God to give me some more Joseph-type qualities today. I want to live in a way where I am  moved by God's voice.

The Message version of Matthew 3:1-12

 While reading these verses in The Message this morning I felt a new attraction toward them. I feel like the radical nature of God's message through John emerges in the passage below. Thanks Eugene Peterson!

While Jesus was living in the Galilean hills, John, called “the Baptizer,” was preaching in the desert country of Judea. His message was simple and austere, like his desert surroundings: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”
      3      John and his message were authorized by Isaiah’s prophecy:
      Thunder in the desert!
      Prepare for God’s arrival!
      Make the road smooth and straight!
      4–6      John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action. There at the Jordan River those who came to confess their sins were baptized into a changed life.
      7–10      When John realized that a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees were showing up for a baptismal experience because it was becoming the popular thing to do, he exploded: “Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It’s your life that must change, not your skin! And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as father. Being a descendant of Abraham is neither here nor there. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a dozen. What counts is your life. Is it green and blossoming? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.
      11–12      “I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

Peterson, E. H. (2002). The Message : The Bible in contemporary language (Mt 3:1–12). Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress.

John 19:19-20

 ¹⁹Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read:| JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. ²⁰Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.

I find it interesting that a sign intended to be a mockery actually declared the truth to the hundreds of thousands (maybe more than a million) of people in Jerusalem for the Passover. Aramaic (possibly Hebrew) was the language of the native Jewish people, Greek was the common language spoken throughout The Roman Empire, and Latin was the official language of the Roman military. The truth was proclaimed in an understandable way for all to see even if it was understood at the time by only a few.

The Furious Love Event

Redeemer Fellowship Church 

April 6-9, 2011

Register Here

The Furious Love Event is not a conference. Not really. A typical conference will have 2-4 speakers. This event will feature 10 speakers. All of the speakers have been featured in Darren Wilson's first two films, Finger of God and Furious Love, and Wanderlust Productions will be filming the entire event to create a teaching supplement for those films that can be used in churches, small groups, or individually.

 



Heidi & Rolland Baker

Rolland and Heidi Baker began Iris Ministries, Inc., an interdenominational mission, in 1980 and have been missionaries for the past twenty-five years.

Today Rolland and Heidi cry out for a continuation of the visitation of God experienced by the children of H.A. Baker's orphanage in China long ago. That is beginning to happen, and more testimonies are accummulating than can be communicated! May the Word of God spread in power to the remote corners of the world, and may the the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, people who have never before tasted the goodness of God, be drawn the King's great banquet!

WEBSITE: Iris Ministries Inc.

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Philip Mantofa

Philip Mantofa graduated in theology from Columbia Bible College, British Columbia, Canada. Since 1998, He has been serving in Mawar Sharon Church, a growing church of 30,000 in Indonesia. Currently, He is the assistant head of Gereja Mawar Sharon denomination, which has a network of 70 local churches. Since his younger age, he has brought more than 100,000 souls to Christ. His passion is to ignite the fire within the younger generation to become pastors and spiritual leaders all around Asia. Moreover, he has a burning desire to see nations experience and encounter the love of Jesus Christ. He is happily married to Irene Saphira with three lovely children : Vanessa, Jeremy and Warren.

WEBSITE: Philip Mantofa on Facebook

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Robby Dawkins



Born to missionary parents in Japan, Robby had an early start in ministry. In his father’s church he began a children’s ministry at the age of 12, and became the youth minister at 16 years old.

Robby and his wife, Angie, married in 1992, have pastored the Vineyard Church of Aurora, IL since 1996. They feel God called them to plant in a poor urban community, and continually use “power evangelism” to gather for the church.

“In addition to starting and pastoring this church, God has called me for the purpose of building up and equipping the local church with power tools for harvesting,” Robby shares. These “power tools” are prophetic ministry, healing, ministry of the presence of God, and deliverance from demonic power.

WEBSITE: Robby Dawkins

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Will Hart

In 1999 Will Hart walked into the basement of a church not knowing why he was there. That night the Holy Spirit reached out and grabbed him by the heart and he was never the same. While the rest of his senior class was walking down the aisle collecting their diplomas, Will was already on a plane to Paraguay.

During his 19 months in Paraguay he witnessed the power of revival first hand. Ministering alongside his mentor Bob Bradbury, he saw salvations, healing and deliverances. The power of the Spirit was on him to preach and set people free. In 2002 he received a call from Randy Clark to travel with him full time.

After three years of hands on training with Randy, Will and his wife Musy moved to Mozambique to serve Heidi and Rolland Baker. Will's call is to take the simplicity of the gospel and power of the Holy Spirit wherever he goes. Whether it is the jungles of Congo or the streets of Thailand, he is expectant and confident in the Holy Spirit showing up in power.

WEBSITE: Hart Ministries

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Angela Greenig

Angela’s teaching and insights come from years of experience on the front lines of Spiritual warfare. A seasoned Seer/Warrior for Christ, and a leading force in deliverance ministry. Author and TV personality Justice for All. For the past 26 years Angela has traveled the world, teaching an setting people free.

WEBSITE: SetFree Ministries

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Shampa Rice ("Shanti" from the film)

Shampa Rice was raised in Calcutta, living across the street from Mother Teresa’s headquarters from the age of 12, Shampa was often inspired by her faith and simplicity. She prayed that God would raise her out of poverty so that she too could someday help the poor as Mother Teresa was doing. God heard her cries above and beyond anything she could have dreamed; eventually she would be reaching people all over the world with God’s love.

One of Shampa’s favorite themes is that God likes to use simple, “little people.” “I love to cook. I am a woman from the kitchen,” she says. “God is not looking for someone important; He's looking for anybody who loves Him because He wants to be found more than we want to find Him.”

Shampa has been the director for Iris Ministries in North India since 2005.

WEBSITE: Iris Ministries // India

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Mattheus van der Steen

The founder, pastor and CEO of Touch Reach and Impact the Nations, Mattheus van der Steen was born in Holland. He is passionate for and about Jesus, and speaks prophetically about revival and transformation, God's heart for the orphans and the widows, the John the Baptist generation, the Church in the end time, Joel's Army, depression and burnout, signs and miracles, being filled with the Holy Spirit, the Great Commision, and, his favourite subject, "If you see the invisible God, you can do the impossible."

WEBSITE: Mattheus Van Der Steen

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Greg Boyd

Greg is an internationally recognized theologian, preacher, teacher, apologist and author. He has authored or co-authored 18 books and numerous academic articles, including his best-selling and award-winning Letters From a Skeptic and his most recent books (co-authored with Dr. Paul Eddy) The Jesus Legend and Lord or Legend.

WEBSITE: Greg Boyd

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J.P. Moreland

J.P. Moreland (Ph.D., USC; Th.M., Dallas Theological Seminary) is one of the leading evangelical thinkers of our day as a prolific philosopher, theologian and Christian apologist. He is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Talbot School of Theology and director of Eidos Christian Center.

With degrees in philosophy, theology and chemistry, Dr. Moreland has taught theology and philosophy at several schools throughout the United States. He has authored or coauthored over forty books, including Philosophical Foundation for a Christian Worldview, Scaling the Secular City, Does God Exist?, The Lost Virtue of Happiness and Body and Soul.

He is coeditor of Jesus Under Fire and a frequent contributor to popular Christian magazines and scholarly journals. Dr. Moreland served ten years with Campus Crusade for Christ, planted two churches, and has spoken on over 200 college campuses, in hundreds of churches, and over 25 debates.

Moreland and his wife and partner in ministry, Hope, have two married daughters, Ashley and Allison.

WEBSITE: Kingdom Triangle

A quote from Randy Clark: 

As many of you know I consider myself a student of revival. I love reading about it, studying it, hearing about it and most of all living in it. I recently read a book by Tommy Welchel called “Azusa Street: They Told me Their Stories.” It’s a powerful book about lives of people who were touched by the revival at a very young age. In reading this book, I realized this revival was marked by the Shekinah Glory of God. I read something else, though, that has gripped me ever since. In 1909 or 1910 (the writer is unsure), both William J. Seymour and Charles Parham prophesied that in about 100 years “there would be a return of the Shekinah Glory and a revival that would surpass the Works of God at Azusa.” I believe that as we go into this that we should expect the fulfillment of this prophesy which will bring us into a level of healing that we have not seen for 100 years.