Perceiving God

It seems reasonable to think that God / Christ / Holy Spirit can present Himself to a person via a direct interface with that person’s consciousness.  This means that a person would believe they are seeing or hearing something but others wouldn’t see / hear it.  We think that our senses define reality, but in fact our senses are simply mechanisms that allow us to perceive reality.  This, in no way, means logically that all of reality is able to be perceived by human senses.  It would be fundamentally flawed thinking to make that assumption.  Potentially, our focus on the five measureable senses could dull our sensitivity to other senses that could be present – similar to going through life choosing to keep your eyes shut or plugging your ears because you think sound is not "real" because you can’t see it.  Obviously we know sound is real because it is verifiable by other people.  Does a perception that is unverifiable mean it’s not real?  What if that perception is not available through a shared medium?

Rock Church – 2/8/09 service

• Spiritual gift examples:
  • Giving
  • Teaching
  • Organization
  • Exhortation
  • Helps
  • Faith
  • Miracles (healing)
• Spiritual gifts are weapons for the Holy Spirit to use through you to free people from the devil.
• Give two hours to ministry per week to start – then you’ll be hooked
• People get saved in stages – one of the last parts to get saved is your wallet
• The more you surrender to Him, the more He can work with
• A drug high is the devil’s version of a spiritual high
• God is saying "How much do I have to bless you in order for you to bless Me back?"
• Don’t do it just to do it (giving time), do it to identify what God wants you to do
• God has a frequency with which He wants you to hum (spend your time)

House Offer

Today was a huge day.  We put an offer down on a house!  I pray that God shows me His path, because I know that everything will work out for good, because I love Him.  We should find out tomorrow whether the offer will be accepted or countered.

New bed

[My middle daughter] graduated to a ‘big girl bed’ today!  We got her a single bed and it’s really cute seeing her in a real bed.  She was very excited and had no trouble at all letting go of her crib bed.  It was funny in the furniture store – she was taking control of the situation, telling us that we needed to look around, or get this bunk bed or whatever.  Then when she’d seen enough, she said let’s go back over here (to the bed we had already picked out and told her she was getting – but she wanted to be in control of the situation).  It was pretty cute.

BoW Idea

A more refined / detailed catalog of resources by Christian study topic, perhaps even with a rating and commenting system like Amazon.

BoW Idea

Guide the user to explore the major concepts and point to resources and teach a strategy for learning each topic.  Guide the user to explore more detailed (more mature) concepts to ‘dig in’ to and the resources / strategy for learning.

Meaning of Numbers

The number 7 means complete, not holy.

The number 8 signifies new beginning, pointing to Jesus Christ

Vision – Strands to God

Today, while being led in prayer in preparation for baptism, I had a vision of how we are each connected with God.  I envisioned what could be described as beams or strands of light reach from the heavens down to earth – from God to individuals.  It’s a crude vision, since God is everywhere, but what was interesting was that the beam was not extending to everyone.  The notion was that the strands only extended to the saved.  The unsaved were oblivious to the light from above.  The only way that the unsaved could perceive the strands was with the assistance of the saved.

Basically it was like a web of very weak strands that wove together through humanity (we all influence each other).  Then, when a believer comes in contact with an unbeliever and shares the love of God (allows God’s love to flow through them to the unsaved), the unsaved get to perceive the light (strand) directly to God.  Through repentance and faith, the strength of the strand to God grows.  Through fear and distraction, the strand to God weakens / diminishes.  Repentance can be seen as turning your back on those things that would distract you from God and the strengthening of your connection / relationship with Him.

I took this to mean that it is my responsibility to allow God to work through me to help people perceive / experience God.  That can be done either by reaching the unsaved – giving them that "spark" – or by turbo-charging the experience of the saved with God.  The goal is to strengthen the ‘strands’ of light with God throughout the world.

I also envisioned that when the light was great enough between heaven and earth, that was the trigger and the mechanism for the saved being ‘snatched away’.

Baptism

Today was my baptism!  [my wife], [my middle daughter], Dad, Mom, [my step dad], [my sister and her boyfriend], and [my brother] were there with me.  It was in SeaCoast Grace Warehouse.  We had a small group session where we told our ‘God stories’.  I didn’t have one prepared, but I talked about how I feel like I’m being led rather than making decisions on my own accord.  The baptism was full immersion in a hot tub – not quite the Jordan river, but the point is that it was done as an act of faith and proclamation.

The Rock San Diego – 1/25/09 – Treasure Potential

• Treasure is something that has exchangeable value
• Wealth is having a bunch of stuff that has exchangeable value
• Stewardship is how you manage your treasure and to what end do you manage it
• Someday money will be worthless
• Riches cannot protect you from judgment
• Riches cannot protect you from the devil
• Your riches do have eternal impact

1 – The stewardship of your earthly treasure will identify your eternal master

• Your checkbook is a theological document
• You don’t even belong to yourself
• He is trusting you with your earthly treasures

2 – The stewardship of your earthly treasure will reveal the intent of your heart

• God will adorn you based on how faithful you were on earth
• If your intent was faithfulness, you will be adorned accordingly
• If your intent was selfish, you will be adorned accordingly
• Tithing (10%) is just the beginning
• Tithing is an issue of trust
• The only time the Bible says to test God is with tithes and offerings ("I dare you to trust me")
• God always provides to those who are faithful

3 – The stewardship of your earthly treasure will indicate your investment in the kingdom of God

4 – The stewardship of your earthly treasure will determine your eternal worship experience

• We reflect the glory of God – like diamonds
• Works are tried by fire – selfish works will burn up in smoke
• You can’t fake the fire – even with all the trash you may talk
• Your faithfulness are being kept by account in heaven
• Faith in the spiritual world is risk in the physical world
• It feels like sacrifice because you think it’s yours