Mountain Top Experiences

They dreamed the dream, then they lived it! Welcome Home!

Check out these photos from the Smoky Mountains!

And good job Earlie! (and his rider)



God, Why?

"Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering and injustice when He could do something about it."

"Well, why don't you ask Him?"

"Because I am afraid He would ask me the same question."

-- Anonymous

Nashville's Room in the Inn is an amazing place. Check out how you can help here: http://roomintheinn.org/website/help.php.  You can talk to Hillary Barnett about starting any sort of class. Just commit. One hour a week, week in, week out. They know when you don't make it.

Today's bible study take-aways:

1) From Mr. A: "Abraham didn't understand the power of the one, he should have negotiated with God down to one man, and I bet God would have saved the whole town for one." Deep. This guy could probably quote the entire bible and loves Jesus. Looked a little like Jesus too. I pray he gets totally free from alcohol.

2) From Mr. C: "If you and your husband ever think about getting divorced again, pick you a bridge." He walked me all the way to the door (and we didn't even talk about divorce today, just how unforgiveness may impact their dreams coming true). He said, "Pick one that makes you feel really scared because it is dangerous. You can't bring anything to stay warm. You just bring each other. You'll find out what is really important."  Deep.

3) Mr. M even got engaged this week. He got his CDL license re-instated last week and got a job, so he called up an old flame and asked her to marry him. They are going for a long engagement to save money because he wants her to have a real wedding. That's hope.

Love these men! Get involved. Somewhere. Because the bible says so.

My Wish for You

My best friend is headed to the mountains.

Where it is dangerous.

And beautiful. Reminds me of Creation Calls:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X_ZwKyK0dY

I miss him. But this is My Wish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4JFBsmyiFc&feature=related

My wish, for you,
is that your dreams stay big,
and your worries stay small,
and while you're out there getting where
you're getting to,
you know somebody loves you.
-Rascal Flatts

My Baby Belongs to Jesus, and He Lets Me Raise Him

This is the driver's side where my baby was driving.

This is my baby unharmed.

My baby belongs to God. 

He let me keep him yesterday.

And I am eternally thankful.

Do you know Jesus?

Edit: Here's a video of trying to get the truck back over. Awful sounds. Relieved family. 

Be a Walking Revival

looks like....

serving a homeless man "communion" by giving him all you have...which happens to be a loaf of bread and bottle of grape juice...

telling what He has done...

making a guy in line at a convenience store feel guilty about buying beer...not by preaching but being so joyful about Jesus when you leave church that you can't stop dancing when loading up on snacks for a 7 hour trip to make it to church back home the next day...because you want to be in His Presence...

loving people in a way you can't comprehend yourself...

Oh Lord, draw me into Your heart so I can love others...

When Did Love Become Unmoving?

Can He have you? That's what this great song by the Sidewalk Prophets asks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-rbd1s0H6M

But if love moves you to follow Him, what if that means being lonely?

A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), wrote "The Saint Must Walk Alone"

It's long, but it is worth the read.

The Saint Must Walk Alone -by A.W Tozer.

Most of the world’s great souls have been lonely. Loneliness
seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness.
In the morning of the world (or should we say, in that strange
darkness that came soon after the dawn of man’s creation), that
pious soul, Enoch, walked with God and was not, for God took
him; and while it is not stated in so many words, a fair inference
is that Enoch walked a path quite apart from his contemporaries.
Another lonely man was Noah who, of all the antediluvians, found
grace in the sight of God; and every shred of evidence points to
the aloneness of his life even while surrounded by his people.
Again, Abraham had Sarah and Lot, as well as many servants and
herdsmen, but who can read his story and the apostolic comment
upon it without sensing instantly that he was a man “whose soul
was alike a star and dwelt apart”? As far as we know not one word
did God ever speak to him in the company of men. Face down he
communed with his God, and the innate dignity of the man forbade
that he assume this posture in the presence of others. How sweet
and solemn was the scene that night of the sacrifice when he saw
the lamps of fire moving between the pieces of offering. There,
alone with a horror of great darkness upon him, he heard the voice
of God and knew that he was a man marked for divine favor.
Moses also was a man apart. While yet attached to the court of
Pharaoh he took long walks alone, and during one of these walks
while far removed from the crowds he saw an Egyptian and a
Hebrew fighting and came to the rescue of his countryman. After
the resultant break with Egypt he dwelt in almost complete
seclusion in the desert. There, while he watched his sheep alone,
the wonder of the burning bush appeared to him, and later on the
peak of Sinai he crouched alone to gaze in fascinated awe at the
Presence, partly hidden, partly disclosed, within the cloud and fire.
The prophets of pre-Christian times differed widely from each other,
but one mark they bore in common was their enforced loneliness.
They loved their people and gloried in the religion of the fathers, but
their loyalty to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their
zeal for the welfare of the nation of Israel drove them away from the
crowd and into long periods of heaviness. “I am become a stranger
unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children,” cried
one and unwittingly spoke for all the rest.

Encountering the One, in the beginning...

Monday was earth shaking.


Or maybe that was just inside of me.  


"Revival"


... a word... an event ...


brings so much expectation. If ....


you have heard His heartbeat before. 


We prayed. And prayed. And prayed. For Sunday night...


What was it going to be? The first night....


A glorious absence of expectation... And it was Divine.


So back to Monday... invitations went out far and wide, begging high-powered people to let Him change them. Let following Him cost them something.


By Wednesday evening, the thoughts twirl about purpose and historical purpose and massive amounts of reading about long term effects of revivals...


No wonder the disciples kept asking Jesus such silly questions.


It's all about Him. And we don't and won't get the hindsight beforehand. 


Reach the lost and dying one with Good News. Will we follow? Will the cost be too high? Or will we be radically changed in the Presence of the One?  


His Power. Not ours. Not anyone's. His. Only His.


Help the one with the love that comes by Encountering the One.