Passion 07 UPDATED UPDATE REUPDATED

Hey folks, word is just out. There will be $99 Passion 07 tickets available for the first 500 to register. It is early, but I have heard a number of you express interest in going next year. If you are interested and know that it will take a major force of nature to keep you from going let me know. I will try to get some of the cheap tickets. Leave a comment so I have an idea. If you are interested but not sure you can go tell me that too. By all means, if you are certian, let me know.

In the original post I forgot to mention this, you may need to know that Passion 07 is January 1-4, 2007 in Atlanta. Here is the web address http://www.passion07.com. (You will be taken to the 268 Generation site until March 1, but until then you can follow the links the Passion 07 page.)

Yea, for some reason I seemed to have not noticed the significance of the Passion 07 registration starting March 1 at 12:00. Being that is something like 15 hours from now. Here is the deal. I will need your money by Sunday if you really want these $99.00 tickets. They are only available for the first 500 people to register. So, I will have to register tomorrow at 12:00. I was thinking that we had more time for some reason. If you read this let me know before 12:00 noon tomorrow March 1. I will order you a ticket. But I will need your payment by Sunday.

F.Y.I. FSU Starts back on January 8

Check it out. I read the 268 Blog. The first 500 $99.00 spots sold out in 6 minutes, second 500 $109.00 tickets sold out 2.5 minutes later. At 1:13 there where 2200 poeple signed up.

You Bunch of Theys

The Well made me think. Tonight at The Well there where 59 people at our little worship get together. I felt sore forlorn at the number. I thought there should be more. I remember back in the beginning of January telling some folks that I would love to see 50 passionate college type folks getting down with God, if I may, at The Well. I also pondered this in light of what we have discussed in the past few weeks at our WNTTDNHAN(Y). The love mandate gives the numbers at The Well a different perspective. The numbers are not huge. We don't have people driving from other states to see what happens at The Well. But, what do we have? Is it a great get together? Is it a good show? Does it have the best looking and most desirable soundman in the state? I do ask, what do we have?
The good get together is good, it is even Biblical. The good show is ok. Of course, the show is really us worshiping with song. Using or God given abilities to praise and celebrate our Father. We give our best to celebrate a Lord who is worth of our best efforts. What can I say; the soundman is the soundman in all his glory and whatnot (for those of you that don't know, the sound man is me and I am joking around).
What I am trying to say is that the most important thing that will ever happen for or to The Well will probably not happen at The Well. Consider this passage:

They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed
by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant
and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked
what they saw. Every day their
number grew as God added those who were saved.
Acts 2:46-47

It is not The Well. It is the exuberant celebration of joyful worshipping theys. We, if you did not figure it out, are the theys. A daily discipline of worship, love the Lord your God with all your X, Y, Z (everything= X,Y,Z = heart, soul, mind, strength{Mark 12:30}). Worship daily=Love the Lord your God....

Love the Lord, worship, celebrate, and yes even eat meals. People seem to like what they see. This whole package gets attention. Joyful, exuberant celebration with food, who could go wrong?

Here is the challenge for the church boy living in me. It is easy to read that passage and conger the mental images that I have from growing up in the church. If you don't relate, it looks kind of like this: saying praise the Lord after every other sentence, the hallelujah tick, the strange way a voice and language will change during a prayer, saying Lord after every third word in a prayer (seems Lord takes the place of um during prayer for some reason), the UWP (universal worship position, arms straight up, eyes closed with intensity). Now, having said all that let me explain. I got some people's attention; some of those folks are mad, others are delighted. These things I just mentioned are not necessarily bad. They are merely behaviors. Many times these behaviors get attached to very real and sometimes profound spirituality. Other times they are just what we do because we never thought about what we are doing. The church boy in me must make sure I do not substitute my real intimate relationship with Christ for a set of behaviors I picked up at church. It seems that behaviors are easy to maintain, especially when they seem have a spiritual pick me up attached. Love the Lord your God with all you X, Y, Z. Don't just do things that seem to look like love. Love cannot be reduced to a set of behaviors. Love with all the everything you could ever find in all that you have ever known to know.

Love Worth Your Sacrifice

We have been talking a lot about love and all that the act of loving entails. It is a major thing to life a life of the pursuit of love. To love the Lord with your all and to love others as much as you love yourself requires a great commitment and ultimately great sacrifice. That sacrifice will be born in each of you in a unique way. You are the only one that will be able to make the decision as to whether you will make the scarifice when it comes. Is the life you live worth the life you live?

Oops Evie and Heather

Evie and Heather I offer my most humble appologies. I seem to have deleted your comments. I will attempt to rectify this mistake.

On 2/24/2006 at 11:02 am Evie made this comment:
You know, it's funny, that thing about answering God's call. I've been scratching my head for months going, "God, what next?" I've felt for a while like what I'm doing isn't permanent, and I kinda-sorta-maybe have an idea of possibly the direction God's calling me. I don't know for sure, and I've been quietly praying and waiting for His guidance. Well, actually, that's a fib. I don't do anything quietly (or patiently), so it's been more like me waving my arms and shouting, "Hey! What about me? What's next? What ever it is, I'll do it! I'll go! What do You have planned? Let's get this show on the road!!" Until just recently, when God very quietly, in that little voice He's SO good at using when what I want is the voice like a rushing wind, said that I wasn't ready yet. Give it time. Wait. Be patient. There's no hurry. Grow. You'll know soon enough. And I thought, "okay, I can handle that."
Like Heather, I'm super-uber excited to see what's next. I can't wait. I feel kinda like a kid on Christmas morning. I know it's coming; I know it's going to be good; and I can barely sit still long enough to get there. I love the fact that Parkway, and TWNTTDHAN(Y), and the things I'm learning here all have a part in growing me (and all of us) for whatever it is that God has next. I think it's probably one of the coolest things I've ever experienced.

On 2/21/06 at 1:45 pm Heather made this comment:
So, God has been revealing a lot of amazing things to me this week since the sermon Sunday about answering the call. I can also tell that He is working in the lives of some of my friends. I'm super-oober excited to see what else He shows me the rest of this week...including at the thing that doesn't have a name yet.

See What God Has

It is cool to hear you talk about things God does in your life. I mean, I am not really surprised that God is up to something, He’s God He’s up to things. But, so many times we don’t talk about it. Or worse, we don’t even notice. So, Heather, thanks for the comment, and to those that shared at TWNTDNHAN(Y), thank you. I must confess that I am tired. Been tired all week. I am not sure why, at least mostly, there was the little dad in the hospital thing and nine month old baby. But what can I say, that’s life. I just failed to get something posted to the blog. At least until now.
For those of you that are reading this to find out what happened Wednesday, you did not miss much. We left early, did not even make coffee. Apparently I was not the only one tired. We prayed, talked, threw a knife at the ceiling and left for Atlanta Bread Company. The bread company was closed, so even then the night really did not go anywhere.
But, nay nay, the night did not leave me hanging. God is working amongst us. I do not really now what He has in mind, but I am seeing signs. Little ways to love seem to be making themselves available in and around the groups influence. It is exciting. I went into group this week with absolutely nothing. We had some prayer request and just form the prayer request I was again shown love from another perspective.
We can talk about loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, body, x, y, z and loving our neighbor as our self: such a simple concept. Really, that directive is quite simple. But the ramifications are vast. I am convinced that we can never do it; grasp the life altering realness of such an act, at a Wednesday night gathering. But I do know that if we listen and focus we can see God at work all around us. See Him loving folks; see Him using others to love, even be used in His plan to love folks. However, we seem to miss the point by being too focused on what we want. Be God focused, love the Lord your God with all your x, y, and z. Then it seems that loving your neighbor as your self tends to flow naturally.
I confess it is difficult. We seem to have a natural tendency to turn in on ourselves. We tend to our needs first, and then throw the leftovers to the neighbors, and God for that matter.This week as you go on about your day-to-day whatnots challenge yourself to notice God at work around yourself. Love Him and see Him. I write this fully aware that this is easier to say than do. But it requires no major production, no rituals, and no tracks. Just go about aware in your heart. Love God; look to see what He is doing for someone else.

New Passion 06 Bundle on iTunes

For you Passion 06 vets and other interested parties. They have a new bundle coming out next Tuesday, February 21.

Check it out at this link:
www.268blog.com

Never Trust a Rhinoceros Cabby

The rhinoceros is a crazy creation. I learned a new thing about those truly unique animals recently. There are many different types of rhinoceros, so for the sake of the post I will focus on the white rhinoceros. It seems an adult white rhinoceros can weigh up to 6000 lbs. However, they are typically closer to 3750 lbs. These animals can also run at a top speed of around 30 mph. You might be thinking like me right now. If you are, you are thinking man that’s heavy and man, man, man that’s fast. It is true, that is an amazing feet of nature. An almost 4000 lbs animal that can run 30 mph! But you know what the funny thing is. A White Rhinoceros can only see clearly about 30 feet. If you were to stand still the rhinoceros would not even notice you at 100 feet. He might notice you, at least a blurry blob from his perspective, moving around at 100 feet, but he would by no means recognize you. In fact, for a Rhinoceros to even see straight ahead he must turn his head. Seems his eyes are positioned in such away that he sees out to each side. Now, the 30 mph and 4000 lbs takes on a whole new meaning. For perspective, imagine this. I drive a Nissan Frontier. While a small truck, by truck standards, the Nissan Frontier king cab weighs in at around 3300lbs. I frequently drive my 3300lbs truck at 30 mph. When I see that I need to stop it takes me more than 30 feet to even apply the brake, and I can see thousands of feet. When a rhinoceros sense a threat it seems that they have a tendency to just charge at what ever there is that threatens them, ask questions later.
Why, you might ask, the zoology lesson? Well, our little Wednesday Night Thing That Does Not Have a Name (Yet) seems to be kind of like a rhinoceros. From week to week I have not known exactly what is going to happen. God will lead me to a topic, I will start off the discussion, and God will lead the group to a spot. It has been pretty cool to see. We started as a group that wanted to see God and Him glorified. We have prayed and God has shown, bit-by-bit 30 feet at a time. We have found ourselves studying the Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:36-38, Mark 12:29-31, Luke 10:26-28). We where impressed by love God and our neighbors, we talked about how difficult that can be.
This week we will move on to sacrifice. God has impressed on me how sacrifice is an essential part of love. I am not exactly sure how this will be discussed Wednesday evening, but at least now you know. Think about love requiring sacrifice and bring your thoughts and learning with you.
By the way, to finish the rhinoceros story, it seems that the rhinoceros makes up for his poor sense of sight with highly developed senses of smell and hearing. See their ears can pivot with the animal even having to move his head. They listen closely for their cues. It is funny how something should have to listen closely for its cues. Like I said in the last post, we cannot hold God in our hands. We cannot see Him with our eyes. Of course, the analogy is flawed in that we cannot hear God with our physical hears. However, He does speak to us in that way that is so very hard to explain. Listen to God, see what He says.

God is Different Than a Chicken

Loving God is hard. You probably read that and say, "duh." If you read the holocaust compilation post you know what I am talking about. In my experience loving God is one of those things that has become very easy to talk about. I grew up in church; it has been drilled into my head. Hearing people say, "that ole So-and-so, he really loves the Lord!" "Bro. Whatnot, he's a great man of faith, really loves the Lord." "That deacon Whimsy, great man of God, really loves the Lord." Hear it long enough and you begin to think, "well I want to be a great man of God, so I better love the Lord too." Not that there's anything wrong with that, the great commandment says love the Lord.
In fact, I believe we are created to have a love relationship with God. So, don't get me wrong and am not trashing Deacon Whimsy, Bro. Whatnot and ole So-and-so. They may have truly loved the Lord. What I am trying to do is make a distinction between what it means to truly love the Lord and what it means to pay lip service to a concept that we all accept.
Loving God is truly hard. There are a number of things that work against us. The least of which is the fact that we cannot see, touch, go out to lunch , go bowling, play ball, etc. etc. with God like we could with a group of friends. He is here, there, and around back, I mean He's God. He exist in an entirely different way than we fully understand. But anyway, we could get much too deep if I don't stop that little metaphysical excursion. Simple put, we might say God exist in a way that is different than a chicken.
So, I have had a realization. We say we love God and just a few seconds after we find ourselves doing something that seems to disprove what just came from our mouth. I am no exception, my selfishness, boneheadedness, and general I don't care what you say this time is mine ways trouble me greatly, at least after the fact. I have struggled with this contradiction in my life. I do Love the Lord, but sometimes I seem to love myself more. What do you do? I ask myself, in my case I am a minister, we are suppose to be above loving ourselves more than God. We are supposed to know what and how to do what needs to be done to live up to Bro. Whatnot's example.
God showed me something today. Those of you that know me know I have a son. He is quite young. He has been having a tuff time as of late with new teeth and a runny nose. New teeth hurt young gums and a runny nose makes it hard for him to rest. So he has been a bit fussy. Today he was playing and having a grand time standing up, it's a big deal for an eight month old. He played so hard he got tired and cranky, as is common custom for his people. At the same time I wanted to eat. My boy pulled himself up on the coffee table, got wobbly, and fell down. He had enough of such trauma, so he just lay there and cried. So, I picked him up, he sat in my lap and calmed down. I knew he was tired, I knew he needed sleep, he, on the other hand, had not yet figured this out. So he sat there, not crying, but just tired and grumpy. I wanted to eat and also have a little time to myself; I do enjoy eating my whole lunch without interruption. Like I said, I knew he was tired, so I waited. I wanted to eat, but I knew if I held him a while he would calm down and fall off to sleep. Then I would have an hour or so to eat and do what ever else needed to be done. So I waited. It took him a while, but he did eventually go to sleep.
So, I love my boy. I wait on him to sleep before I eat. I have needs that don't get met when I wait on him, but I love him, so I wait. This is want God showed me today concerning loving Him. I sat there on the couch wanting my boy to sleep. I sat there on the couch wanting to eat. It became very real to me that I could but my needs, wants, desires aside to wait on my boy, who I can see, touch, and at some point in the future go out to lunch, go bowling, play ball, etc. etc. with. But with God I just allow myself to forget. Chase my desire, then go ops I forgot, that's a sin, sorry God. I can love my boy by putting aside my desires until he lets me go, but I do so poorly putting aside my desires until He says its ok.
I for one am tired of lip service. No more selfish Kevin, right? Probably not, I am, after all, a self-proclaimed bonehead. But it is good to have a better understanding of Loving God. It takes sacrifice. Look pastyour desires and love.

Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about! Romans 13:14 (The Message)

Love God Love People UPDATE

Far be it for me to create an urban legend. I did not mean to. Kyle and I have consorted on this lone Jewish survivor story and tracked down a few stray facts. We tracked down the documentary I mentioned it now has a name Shoah, directed by a French feller named Claude Lanzmann. It is 9.4 hours long, you can buy it at Amazon for $135.00. Or goto the FSU library and watch it. Our even buy the book. In fact this may be the only book in the world that you would rather read than watch the movie.

Kyle, who is quite the academic, has tracked down the book, which he owns. He explains what he found in his comments on the last post. Thanks Kyle. Give it up for academic pursuits. I some how arrived at a point in my life where I really enjoy learning. Too bad it did not happen when I was being graded for it.

I hope this gets the facts straight. I hate, even if the story does make a point, to seem to lead someone on. I grew up in chruch and heard enough stories from the pulpit that were urban legends. It drove me crazy.

Love God Love People

That ole God. You never know what He's gonna do. We spent the evening talking about loving people. The most troubling thing is we realize how hard that can be. Loving, by its very nature requires sacrifice. Sacrifice, as we probably all have learned, is difficult. I mean, sacrifice requires one make, well, a sacrifice. Jesus proves to be a good example of this. However, we Christian folks that follow Christ can have the hardest time living His example.
Kyle brought up the most poignant example of how difficult love really is. A Kevin's note version of Kyle's comments follow.
Kyle took a class in which the professor showed a French documentary concerning the holocaust. At some point in the rather long documentary the filmmakers took a holocaust survivor to a town that was in route to a concentration camp. It happened that the filmmakers choose to go to this town the same day a local church was having some sort of church festival. The holocaust survivor and the filmmakers went to the church festival. As you could imagine this created an awkward situation. It seems the church property bordered the railroad track that carried the trains into the concetration camps. From time to time the church members would hear the trains go by and likewise the cries of the people on the trains. The church members, alive at the time, remembered the cries they heard during their worship service. They also remembered the deacons at the time deciding that they would have to close the windows.

Please bare with me, I know this reads like an urban legend.

But I do trust Kyle and he did watch a French documentary.

I may have some of the facts off; I have never seen the documentary,

however I will attempt to find it to see for myself.

Now at this point you expect me to cry out in outrage. You want me to ask how a church can be so stupid? What do you mean closing the windows? People were doomed to die directly outside the church. The trains where just a short walk away. "Where" you might ask, “was the love?" Well the answer is obvious, the love sat in the seats behind closed windows. It is sad. What can I say, it is a commentary on the church, but not just the church 6o years ago in Europe.
Imagine, without 60 years of hindsight, what you would do. Would you stop singing, praying, or listening to the preacher to go outside? Of course, our 60 years of separation screams yes, I would go outside. But really, what would you have done? Could you have even done anything? What’s more, what would have happened if you tried? What we know of the Nazis indicates that you might have been on the next train to roll past the church.
It grieves me, as a Christian, to hear this story. Go in the box; ignore the noise outside. It is the safe thing to do. If we stop the train it could cause us to have to sacrifice. Anyway, the Jews killed Jesus. Right!
Kyle closed his retelling of what he saw in the French documentary by relaying the account of one of the scenes the filmmakers set up. The one lone Jewish survivor stood in the church crowd at the festival. The viewer looked into the face of the Jewish man with the crowd of Christians in the background. One can imagine his reaction. The church that shut the windows standing all around, while years earlier they let the Jewish man, and many others, pass right by.
Knowing what we know I imagine that looking into the face of that Jewish man would have to be hard for anyone.

Loving will require sacrifice. Had that church decided they did not want to stand for what was going on it could have cost them their lives. They could have been put in prison. They could have lost their families. They could have become slave labor in some factory. Who knows? It is scary to think that loving can cause such pain. Not to sound like a crafty church boy, but I implore you to look into the face of the Jewish man.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28(NIV)

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)

Off we go! Today is Wednesday, almost time for The Thing on Wednesday Night That Does Not Have A Name (yet). This thing has become a highlight of the week for me. I honestly do not have a clue where this thing will end up until it has ended. It has been a journey. I will pray and seek God for the direction the meeting will take. I plan some, but I am always surprised by what God does. (I admit it, I am ashamed to even say that, I mean He’s God He can create a universe, why should anything He does surprise me.) Inevitably someone will say something that was exactly what God said to me earlier in the planning and praying part this The Thing on Wednesday Night That Does Not Have A Name (yet) (give it up for copy and paste). To me that is cool. It tells me that I am not just chasing silliness. It is cool to see God work in such an obvious way.
Tonight we will talk about love. Going to move over to the other side of the great commandment.

He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10:27

There, see the other side. Love your neighbor as yourself. It seems some plain. It should come naturally to love your neighbor as yourself after you Love the Lord your God with all your heart. My thoughts are that it does. If you truly do love the Lord you will naturally love your neighbors. It's a pontification. But I do know this; Jesus is a shining example of loving your neighbor. People tend to respond to love.

Anyway, enough for now. We meet at 8:30 in the college room. I'll get you a fancy coffee and some sort of pastry. It will be a grand time.

Yo yo yo. I am a brand new member of this fancy new blog spot! Wooh Hoo! Yeah. I've actually never been a blogger. So we'll see how this goes. I am the kind of person that wishes I was cool enough to keep up with a really unique and interesting journal, but I always lose interest. But... maybe that won't happen here if people talk back! I never thought of that... maybe the problem with journals is that they don't talk back.

Regardless... I am happy you are reading this blog, especially if I don't know you. I am excited about what God is doing here with our college ministry. The last few Wednesdays we've gotten together and just talked about how God is speaking to us in our lives right now. We have a lot of fun (it has been said that we have more fun pound-for-pound than any other church college group in town), we grow a lot, we learn a lot about each other and I think we've really all gotten a lot closer in these last few weeks. God is good... always. I've learned enough in my own life over the last couple months to know that to be true!

Anyway, I am not a (wo)man of few words, so I'll close before you get bored. Post a comment or just look back later for more words from me.

Well, I think I have decided to make use of this Blogspot business. All I wanted to do was post to the 268blog (www.268blog.com). In the process ended up creating a blog. Started off as the world wide wanjo, ended up becoming the blog for the Parkway Bapist Church College Ministry. Of course, that is what I do. I am the minister to students at this fine gathering of God followers. So, I figured I'd post my various pontifications, experiences, and the things we notice along our journey.

Us Parkway college folks are seeking God here in Tallahassee. We want to see God glorified and known at Florida State University and the other many schools of Tallahassee. So, I think I will post here inviting my college student friends to join in. We can chronicle the events that happen along the jouney.

Well, it's 1:00 am and I am gonna have to say that I have nothing to write here. I only started this thing because I wanted to post to the Passion blog. But, it was kind of like looking at a half painted house. You never know who might come by, so I figured I would put at least a little something for people to read. Who knows, maybe I will take a liking to this blog business and put things on here that people will actually want to read.