Revolt Towards

Announcing The Revolt Collective

“Return to Him you have so greatly revolted against...” - Isaiah 31:6

 

Revolt: (verb) casting off allegiance or subjection to the status quo; breaking away from or rising against all injustice and living towards love, justice and Jesus. (noun) the act of revolting, an active expression or movement of spirited protest towards love and Love Himself.

I want to introduce you all to the Revolt Collective. 

We are a faith-based collective of people just like you. Activists, thinkers, students and teachers. Artists and creatives. Poets, writers, designers and filmmakers. Cubical dwellers and blue-collared works. Entrepreneurs and up-starters. Crust punks and squatters. Rock ‘n rollers and holy rollers. Soccer moms and baseball dads. And everyone in between. 

We are a collective who finds unity in the demand of heaven to be the greatest lovers this world has ever seen.

We root ourselves in love and Love Himself–the man Jesus–because we know that it is only from this place of Love that the world will never be the same. We revolt towards and not against. But this isn't about the trendy catch phrases of camps, seminars and long-forgotten conferences. Rather, it is about a present-tense movement and way of life in the here and now, every day and every night. Because we will know no matter what comes at us, no matter what they call us and no matter how they try to stop us, Love has already won.

To join us at the collective, head on over to the RevoltCollective.com. Also, please add us as a friend over on Facebook and Twitter.

Ash Wednesday & 40 Days of Starve

 

So today is Ash Wednesday. Today is also the start of Starve, something I created a few years back now it's taking shape and life. Or should we say death?

The purpose is this: let us have a Season of Lent in preparation for Easter in seeking the face of the One who loves us by starving our life so we can find real love and life again. Starving our hunger. Our apathy. Our technologies. Our consumption. And our wallets and greed.

I invite you to join us with as we call for 40 Days of holistic fasting from from today-Ash Wednesday, February 17th, 2010, and ending on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010. Following Isaiah 58 and Joel 2, this is a call to starve ourselves so that we might see a new Spirit of Love on the face of the earth. 

You can check out more information on Starve over at the Revolt Collective site and sign up for daily emails. You can also check out the Facebook Event page too.

Love you all. Here's to starving our lives that a greater glimpse of the One who gave Himself up for us may be revealed.

I leave you with an Ash Wednesday liturgy:

We have chosen to fast 

Not with ashes but with actions 

Not with sackcloth but in sharing 

Not in thoughts but in deeds 

We will give up our abundance 

To share our food with the hungry 

We will give up our comfort 

To provide homes for the destitute 

We will give up our fashions 

To see the naked clothed 

We will share where others hoard 

We will free where others oppress 

We will heal where others harm 

Then God’s light will break out on us 

God’s healing will quickly appear 

God will guide us always 

God’s righteousness will go before us 

We will find our joy in the Lord 

We will be like a well watered garden 

We will be called repairers of broken walls 

Together we will feast at God’s banquet table

Satan does not mind family values and social justice as long as...

Here’s a helpful quote from Russell Moore reflecting on Satan’s third temptation of Jesus:

Satan ultimately has a power that is not found most importantly in moral decay or in cultural chaos. His power is in the authority to accuse. The power of accusation. The power of holding humanity captive through the fear of death and the certainty of judgment...

Satan is not fearful of external conformity to rule. Not even to the external conformity of the rule of Christ – provided there is no cross. Satan does not mind family values – as long as what you ultimately value is the family. Satan does not mind social justice – as long as you see justice as most importantly social. Satan does not tremble at a Christian worldview. He will let you have a Christian worldview as long as your ultimate goal is viewing the world...

He will let you get what it is that you want, no matter what it is – sanctity of marriage, environmental protection, orphan care, all of these good and wonderful things – he will allow you to gain those things provided you do not preach and proclaim and live through the power of a cross that cancels his power of condemnation.

Starting the New Year with Jesus

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

So call me late, tardy, belated. I just happened to finish Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz for the first time yesterday and it was a great way finish the first of January and start the next 365 days. The last five chapters of the book happened to be appropriately and respectively on money, worship, love of others, love of self and concluding with Jesus. 

A few years ago, I began listening to Bill Johnson out of the Bethel Church in Redding, California. I would follow the podcasts and have even seen him speak a few times. But one thing that has always stuck with me about Bill is when he speaks of Jesus. It's not the kind of thing where he just reads stories about Jesus in the Bible, but when Bill speaks of Jesus, tears come to his eyes, he chokes up and he reaches the point where he pauses and can't speak like his Adam's apple has gotten stuck in his throat. All because of Jesus. 

I remember thinking to myself, I want that. It has happened every now and then. But in the last few months, I have been secretly on this journey with Jesus to reach that place. Because He is that loving, that good, and that in love with me and all of us.

Don Miller writes in Blue Like Jazz, "I think the most important thing that happens within Christian spirituality is when a person falls in love with Jesus". He goes on to say that Christian spirituality is like jazz music—it's about feeling and loving Jesus is something you feel, "difficult to get on paper...but no less real, no less meaningful, no less beautiful". Good for me because I love jazz and to watch and hear the spontaneity of the melodies, rhythms and musicians all coming together to create something different every time.

The thing is, Jesus is alive, not dead. God even chided me recently for reflecting too much of this image I had in my head of him on a cross. In that moment, He wanted me to realize He was alive and engaging my life, right now. And He's doing the same with all of us. It's a present-tense journey we have with Him. At the risk of sounding like a heretic, the Bible is a history book of our faith, full of past-tense stories of our faith, but we aren't to rest there and leave it there because Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit are meeting us today in the hear and now.

I hope I can encourage us all to fall in love with Jesus. Maybe we have to fall in love again or maybe we are about to do it for the first time. Just remember, while I want what I see in Bill Johnson, this kind of love is not about shedding tears, tearing our clothes and doing whatever it is we do to feel religious. Real love of Jesus come from the realization that He loves you, me and the annoying neighbor, the rude co-worker, the lesbian couple that can't keep their hands off each other, the meth addicts who always asks for money outside the post office and the modern-day pharisees ready to crucify Him all over again. 

I want us all to know Jesus this year. If you haven't done it in awhile, pray and talk to Jesus. Ask Him to become real to you. Ask Him to forgive you of self-addiction. Ask Him to put a song in your heart. Much love and blessing to us all on this journey into 2010.

"All great characters in stories are the ones who give their lives to something bigger than themselves. And in all of the stories I don't find anyone more noble than Jesus. He gave His life for me, in obedience to His Father. I truly love Him for it. I feel that, and so does Laura and Penny and Rick and Tony the Beat Poet. I think the difference in my life came when I realized, after reading those Gospels, that Jesus didn't just love me out principle; He didn't just love me because it was the right thing to do. Rather, there was something inside me that cause Him to love me."
(Blue Like Jazz)

Thanksgiving and Prayer

   

To all my friends and family, I want to let you know I'm thankful for you guys. I'm thankful that your friendships and relationships add value to my life. I'm thankful that for many of you, your words and stories push me to become a better lover of love and Love Himself.

These words from Paul are my prayer for you all on this Thanksgiving Day...

Ephesians 1:15-23
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Closing the Door On the Notion We Need Something More Than Him

   

So last week, I was praying for a job I had bid on. The job estimate was for a decent amount of money and my prayer was this: "God, I pray that this contract comes through because you know I need it because I need the money." 

Immediately I stopped myself and stopped my prayer.

"What?!" I asked myself. What was I praying? Did I even realize the words I was saying? Well, actually, I did. It hit me very quickly that I was praying for the wrong thing and from the wrong place. The reality is this:
All I need is Jesus.

And immediately, I got this revelation:
Only when we close the door to the notion that we need something more than Him, will we position ourselves to receive all He knows we DO need.

This goes for anything we place ahead of him, be it money, love, relationships, family, career, position, titles or as hard as it may be to hear, even justice on the earth.

So I challenge each of us, like I challenged myself, to reorient my life to remember that all I need is Him. Once I have Him, all I need will come. And sometimes, we will get to some of the things we desire, but that can't be our focus. We must fix our eyes on Him, seeking His kingdom, and all we need will be given to us. 

Matthew 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...

Dive!

Check out the trailer for the new film, Dive! It's all about dumpster diving for wasted food! 
(I think someone I know is in the trailer. Weird).

Call It Going Green or Going Blue...It's Still Short of the Kingdom.

My good friend Joey Briglio over at TheBlessedNaturalist.com just posted a blog about the next push in the environmental movement to go BLUE. There are three objectives of the BLUE movement. "First, to measurably improve the quality of life of the people who join. Second, to engage as many people as possible in the effort. And third, to increase their effectiveness in making a difference in their community and the world."

The interesting this is that I was at the Earth Day Fest a year and a half ago in Ojai when the LEEDS guy brought up that "the next thing is BLUE". So what does it mean and how do we use it? I laughed when I read the BLUE article that said:

How do I use it in a sentence?

"I'm totally into the environment," she says as she updates her status on Facebook, "but I'm the type of person who's BLUE and not only green."
 

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As I was laughing at this statement and commenting on Joey's blog the other day, it hit me—I wonder if the coming push to BLUE is humanity's take on the Gospel of the Kingdom. Because as some of you might know or have figured out, I've struggled with Green from the get-go, not as a bad idea, but an incomplete one. Blue is way closer to solving the frustration in my heart about Green. At least Blue has goals and a concentrated push of the three values behind it. 

But as I was saying—maybe, just maybe, the real answer we all need, even the Church (because God knows they don't get it at all) is the Gospel of the Kingdom that encompasses Green, Blue, and every other spectrum of the rainbow with the promise from God himself that He will not destroy the earth again. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean we ourselves are free from destroying it. For better or worse, He has entrusted it to us to care for it because "the earth is the Lord's and everything it"—man, woman, animal, plant, land, water, sky.

I truly love that our faith and our God is mindful of all these things. He's mindful to the concerns of the planet that is groaning and the sparrows and the blades of grass, as much as He is mindful to the my own yearnings, cries and desires in my own life. And then on top of it, the renovation He does in my heart to pursue His heart makes me love the things He loves which is the groaning planet, the sparrows and the blades of grass and my brothers and sisters around the world with their own yearnings, cries and desires. It's a cyclical faith that we live where the outflow of our relationship with Him spills out ONTO and INTO the world around us.

If the cyclical reality of our faith—our hearts to His heart and back to our heart for 'all creation'—is not happening in our lives, then we are missing some integral points to the whole Gospel itself.

Quote of the Week (9.8.09)

Resolve: Generously and with no half-hearted, timorous dread of the opinions of Church and men to manifest my mission ... You have no time to occupy your thoughts with that complacency or consideration of what others will think. Your business is simply, “What will my Father in heaven think?”
 - St. Katherine Drexel, founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament

Catalysts

The other day I was driving to Pasadena and thinking through my life and all the things that I do versus all the things I don't do. Something of the things I do are design print and web media for clients around Southern California, drive to the LA region at least twice a week and lately I have been doing worship at least once a week. And up until last week, my Thursdays were spent leading Theology On Tap at Garman's Pub. But here is a list of some of the things I don't do or wish I was doing: writing more songs; actively pursuing more of my ideas; working on my book and actually, dare I say, attempt to write a chapter; write the business plan for Jumla, the coffee/communi/tea house I want to open one day; and last, but surely not least, work on a new idea I have to get musicians putting out music in vinyl and downloadable formats with a portion of the proceeds going to non-profit organizations.

So that leads me to the question:
What made me step up to the plate and keep on designing for clients, answering phone calls and going to new meetings about new projects, but neglecting my other passions?

The answer? I had a catalyst.

Just a few minutes ago I received a call from a potential client, who saw an existing site and wants to know what it would cost for something similar. I will return the phone, give them an estimate, probably meet with them and then after the estimate is hopefully approved, I will get my first down-payment to begin their project. This will inadvertently mean my bills can be paid, I have gas and I can eat.

But I want to stress, money is not the only catalyst in this mix. It is also the simple fact that this is a business. There is a professional I must uphold and keep. In that mix, there is also having pride in the business and the experience I provide, even if that means I end up not working with the potential client. All of these things are catalysts that keep me accountable and yet, unfortunately, doing things I need to do and not doing the things I really, really want to do.
 

Creating the Catalysts

All of life is but a series of colliding catalysts. A poet lives their day experiencing life and it is these experiences that provide the words and language to convey what is in the poet's heart. Two people find themselves in a city, bumping into each other on accident while at a café and the next thing you know, they are getting dinner together and then, many months later, planning their marriage and a life full of children.

Catalysts are all around us. But there is an unfortunate reality: many of us need catalysts that don't exist yet. That is why I want to encourage you like I've encouraged myself this past week. Make daily and monthly to-do lists. Set deadlines. Arrange times of intentional collaboration with friends and like-minded people.

Imagine what would happen if we were all pursuing the ideas we've tucked away for so long in our hearts. What if they weren't tucked away anymore? What would the world look like if a group of committed friends stood by one another in accountability and friendship to go for the things they only hope to do? 

May we be those kinds of friends and family members. May we be the catalyst in our world, creating more catalysts for opportunity, creativity and dream making. The world is waiting on us!

Lessons from La Mancha

I was watching this other day and was moved by how good the lyrics are and something we could all glean from as we pursue a life bringing justice and love to the world around us.

It is the mission of each true knight... 

His duty... nay, his privilege!

To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go;
To right the unrightable wrong.

To love, pure and chaste, from afar,
To try, when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!

This is my Quest to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,
To fight for the right
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause!

And I know, if I'll only be true
To this glorious Quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable stars!

The New Renaissance

'...the restoration of the church will surely come only from a new type of monasticism which has nothing in common with the old but a complete lack of compromise in a life lived in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount in the discipleship of Christ. I think it is time to gather people together to do this...' -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Extract of a letter written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer to his brother Karl-Friedrick on the 14th of January, 1935.
(Source: John Skinner, Northumbria Community).

The Church has as long as I can remember in my life, prayed for things like revival and a 'coming move of God'. I understand those words and what those mean, where our world would experience a God uncontained, an unrelenting Son of Love and a Spirit being poured out and spilling over into all the regions of the earth—"the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." (Habakkuk 2:14).

But what if we have been waiting for something to come that ultimately won't satisfy? Personally, I'm over revival. I want to see a New Renaissance emerge on the earth. While if you get into semantics of what "revival" means versus "renaissance", both mean "rebirth" or "reawakening", I am looking more at Church history and world history. Within Church history, we talk of the visitations of God, where He showed up in seasons of salvation, healing, sign and wonder. Even Webster's dictionary definition of the term "revival" is affected by the revivals (The Great Awakening) of the 19th century. But the Renaissance that came out of Italy and ultimately spanning across Europe, while revisiting ancient Roman and Greek thought, architecture, art, etc., spurred something that changed human history.

I believe Christ himself embodied the Renaissance Spirit. He took all that had come before Him, the laws and the prophets and everything from the Temple and the existing religious structure and fulfilled it. Matthew’s record of what is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount, these words of Jesus are recorded: 

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18).

And what came of His fulfillment of the law? The Kingdom came. John the Baptist kept saying "The Kingdom is near" and so does Jesus till He eventually says "The Kingdom is within you". He brought His Kingdom to earth, allowing us to have complete access, by His Spirit, to the same resurrection power that raised Him from the dead, healed the sick, ministered to the poor, the prostitutes and the least and sent the religious establishment running.

The world is waiting for new ideas to end economic disparity, new ways of ushering justice, new creativity, new stories to be told, new songs to be sung, new inventions and new 'dunamis' power like the world has never seen. Jesus was a Renaissance man, so may we, with Christ as our perfect example within His Sermon on the Mount, be men, women, boys and girls, of the new Renaissance that awaits us. 

Many teens believe they'll die young

Surprising finding raises fears fatalism is a self-fulfilling prophecy

I read this article today and thought it was interesting to see the onslaught on today's young people. While this could be some dastardly plot conceived by the enemy of our soul, I lean more to ourselves as our own worst enemy—this fatalism as the bi-product (aka consequence) of the decline of the family where parents work more than nurture, colliding with our techno-communal society where we never foster off-line relationships and all in a world where mass-media beckons mass-consumption that still leaves us all empty.

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A surprising number of teenagers — nearly 15 percent — think they're going to die young, leading many to drug use, suicide attempts and other unsafe behavior, new research suggests.

The study, based on a survey of more than 20,000 kids, challenges conventional wisdom that says teens engage in risky behavior because they think they're invulnerable to harm. Instead, a sizable number of teens may take chances "because they feel hopeless and figure that not much is at stake," said study author Dr. Iris Borowsky, a researcher at the University of Minnesota.

That behavior threatens to turn their fatalism into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Over seven years, kids who thought they would die early were seven time more likely than optimistic kids to be subsequently diagnosed with AIDS. They also were more likely to attempt suicide and get in fights resulting in serious injuries.

Borowsky said the magnitude of kids with a negative outlook was eye-opening.

Adolescence is "a time of great opportunity and for such a large minority of youth to feel like they don't have a long life ahead of them was surprising," she said.

The study suggests a new way doctors could detect kids likely to engage in unsafe behavior and potentially help prevent it, said Dr. Jonathan Klein, a University of Rochester adolescent health expert who was not involved in the research.

"Asking about this sense of fatalism is probably a pretty important component of one of the ways we can figure out who those kids at greater risk are," he said.

The study appears in the July issue of Pediatrics, released Monday.

Scientists once widely believed that teenagers take risks because they underestimate bad consequences and figure "it can't happen to me," the study authors say. The new research bolsters evidence refuting that thinking.

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Read complete article here.

Breaking News: Pope Calls for Palestinian state

Pope Benedict XVI has offered his support for the Palestinians' right to a homeland as he continues his Middle East tour in the West Bank.

Speaking in a Bethlehem refugee camp, he said he understood frustrations that their "legitimate aspirations" for a Palestinian state were unfulfilled.

Standing beside him, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel to embrace peace. Earlier, the pontiff said he prayed for a lifting of Israel's embargo on Gaza.

The BBC's Tim Franks said that the Pope used the stark backdrop of a Palestinian refugee camp to deliver one of his strongest expressions of support for the Palestinians.

Standing in the shadow of Israel's separation wall in the Aida refugee camp, which houses refugees from Israel's creation in 1948, the Pope called the barrier a symbol of "stalemate" between Israel and the Palestinians.

"In a world where more and more borders are being opened up - to trade, to travel, to movement of peoples, to cultural exchanges - it is tragic to see walls still being erected," he said.

"In front of Your Holiness I address a message of peace to our Israeli neighbours. And I call upon them to renounce occupation, settlements, arrests, and humiliations."

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Read the article here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8047134.stm

Also, an article on Christians in Palestine:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8047746.stm

Prayer For The Week

Good morning friends...

I was just reading the BBC about how the Sri Lankan government killed more than 430 people over the weekend, 100 of them being civilian children. (You can read about it here.) 

I thought it would be good to start this week off with a liturgy written by Christine Sine of Mustard Seed Associates. One where we could start the week off right, in the presence of Jesus as we give Him our week ahead as well as remembering and joining with the prayers of those we are connected to around the world:

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We gather as members of God’s eternal family to share life together with our brothers and sisters from around the world. Let us remember that sharing life with brothers and sisters in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, Australia and the many islands of our planet means entering into their joys and sorrows. 

God, you offer us wholeness, not alone, but as part of your redeemed community from every tribe and nation and culture.

You ask us to love each other and to be more concerned for the needs of others than for our own. Yet often we focus on our own needs, greedily holding to ourselves what you intend us to share. 

God renew our hearts and our minds so that we may in word and deed be your witnesses throughout this world.

(Take a moment of silence)

God who created us is with us

And with our brothers and sisters from every tribe and nation

Christ who saved us is with us

And with our brothers and sisters from every tribe and nation

The Holy Spirit who brings us unity is with us

And with our brothers and sisters from every tribe and nation

Psalm 67

Isaiah 2: 1-4

Eph 4: 1-6, 11-16

Matt 28: 18-20

Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

God be in our heads and in our understanding,

God be in our eyes and in our looking

God be in our mouths and in our speaking

God be in our hearts and in our thinking

God be in our end and in our departing

O Lord our God,

Listen to us in this place

Accept also the prayers of our sisters and brothers in Africa, Asia, Australia, America and Europe.

We are all one in prayer 

So may we, as one, rightly carry out your commission to witness and to share life together.

In the church and around the world

Accept all our prayers graciously,

Those in our words, and those in strange languages.

They are offered in Jesus’ name.

Amen

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The whole liturgy can be found here.