My heart is pulled into a million directions when I watch the altar. There are those loved ones who are crying out in desperation for God, wanting so badly for a touch from Him and releasing everything they’ve been holding in out in one loud cry. A crease forms between their eyebrows in frustration and determination and their hands reach up to the sky as if reaching for the outstretched arms of Christ. As my heart cries for them, it is also drawn to those loved ones who are shouting out of joy, twirling and dancing for the Lord without any cares. Silly smiles are pinned on their faces and their eyes are closed as they just rejoice in the glory of God. As it cries for the desperate, my heart also rejoices with the joyful. As my heart cries and rejoices with them, it also becomes silent and saddened for those loved ones who are patiently sitting at the steps of the altar, eyes closed, silent tears falling down their cheeks as everyone else shouts and dances around them. With that, my heart is completely broken.
Thinking on that, one word comes to mind. Vulnerability.

Vulnerable – open to moral attack, criticism, temptation, etc; capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt

Whether it’s because we are happy, joyful, defeated, frustrated, upset, mad, numb, excited, determined, understanding, broken, etc.it all equals one thing. When we go to the altar and stand before the Lord, we become vulnerable. We open ourselves up to whatever is going on in the spiritual realm. We empty ourselves of flesh to where we are completely exposed so the Lord can come in and fill us up. If I want Him to consume all of me, I have to completely empty myself of “me” and have faith that He will fill me. I suppose being vulnerable and being in a state of brokenness go hand-in-hand. Does that make any sense?
To me, vulnerability is the most important thing to show as a leader, or better yet, as a disciple in general. I know you have to be strong…but isn’t it important to show those you’re discipling that you’re just as much human as they are?
To be vulnerable is to relate to those who are seeking refuge; to those you’re leading. When they see you unafraid of being broken and showing your true emotions before the Lord, they realize you’re still human.
I don’t know if I’m making any sense. All I know is the affect it has on me when I see the people I admire, respect, and hope to gain characteristics of display their emotions before the Lord…when they let their guard down to those who may be watching…when they get to that place where it doesn’t matter who is watching.
Vulnerability.

Kellie Fuselier is a student and worship leader @ the Pentecostals of Alexandria she is 20 years old and currently a sophomore at Louisiana College majoring in Social Work
She comes from a family of believers she has a twin sister, a brother & a sister-in-law, her parents are still together, her mother attends the POA, her sister is a passionate worship leader on piano/keyboard, her dad’s passion is teaching the Word especially in Sunday school. Kellie’s passions are one-on-one ministry with teenage girls, worship leading, songwriting, truly getting to know someone on a heart level. Her goals are to become a worship leader with a deeper level of understanding of God, to work with teenage girls, and with my degree in plan on working in the school system as a crisis intervention social worker/guidance counselor (preferably high school age)

Inverted Christianity now that is a new word.   I have been reading this morning and came across this word that stopped me dead in my tracks or actually I was using the restroom so dead in my…. well you get the   picture.   The meaning of this concept described by the author is instead of allowing ourselves the adventure of following the Holy Spirit we invite the Holy Spirit to follow us.  I consider this analogy with great awareness and guilt why?  Because I am guilty.   I too many times have charted the course of my life and ministry and then ask God to anoint it or bless it.  I guess because it is safer, makes more sense sometimes, and keeps the criticism to a bare minimum but who am I fooling,  there are certain places that I want to lead that the Holy Spirit just will not follow me into…and then I want to cry God where are you and why have you abandoned me.   I guess the message that I am trying to convey is I have wasted to many years, months, days, and hours on being a B-O-R-I-N-G tour guide.  I am to the point where God must lead without me constantly asking Him if He is lost and where we are going.  God doesn’t need my Gramen GPS system to figure it out.  It is my human nature to want to know where, when, and how …and that is just not in His plan.  I am tired of the daily grind being more exalted in life instead of where God is taking me.  I am tired of inviting the Holy Spirit to join me it is time for me to truly follow Him.  If I am ever to become a true disciple I have to go back to the scripture and ponder the words of Jesus when He invited the first disciples, of coarse they didn’t know it yet, to join Him. He didn’t ask for resumes, a job application, where they were born, or who’s your daddy, He simply said “FOLLOW ME” that’s it in essence He was saying, doesn’t matter where you have been, who you are, or where you are going it’s not about you anyway.  Can you imagine the criticism, ridicule, and talk from friends and family that these three men endured for leaving the family practice and job security to go after this man called Jesus.  But true world changers, influencers, and revolutionary people have always taken the risk others thought insane.  I say I am risky and trust in God to lead when in all actuality I am only inviting God to follow me.  My goal for this upcoming year is a transformation of the way I live life… I am tired of the dried up, boring way I do worship, church, and life.   I refuse the inverted Christian lifestyle I have allowed myself to live…. I want to follow Him with almost reckless abandon and see how much adventure, fun, and excitement I can handle.  Join me!!! It has got to be way better than Him following me…He must be bored out of His mind.   Wow this has been the best “potty” break in a while.  I guess I am just tired of my same old CRAP!!!

Tim

There is nothing that distracts Americans more than stuff.  We live in the land of stuff.  Never before has a people had more stuff than we do, and there is nothing that competes with Jesus more than stuff.
Stuff is the anti eternity.  Stuff is instant, it is now, it is touchable, tangible, controllable, and own able.
We learn about stuff at a very young age.  People start getting stuff as soon as their little, dimpled hands can clutch something and it doesn’t stop until their hands no longer have the strength to clutch.

They have wills written so that other people will know what to do with their stuff.
This has to be done or else the people who are left behind will fight over this stuff.

Moms and Dads watch their children’s eyes closely to see what stuff makes them smile and do their very best to put that stuff within reach starting the first rules of the “Game of Stuff”.

“Reach and grab until you die.”

Some people have one pocket in their shirts to put stuff in but others have four because they need to put more stuff in them.

Pants have pockets to hold stuff also because some stuff has to be close to us at all times.

Most women have purses so they can carry stuff with them.  Even some guys have begun to carry purses for their stuff.

Cars have glove boxes so they can hold stuff and trunks are much bigger and hold much more stuff.

Suite cases are getting larger and sturdier so that they can hold more stuff.  Airlines have to impose weight limits on stuff, or the planes would never get off of the ground because of all the stuff we would take.  We have to take as much stuff with us as we can before we feel comfortable leaving our homes behind that hold all of our big stuff.

Even as children we get so much stuff that by the time we get ready to start our own separate stuff pile we have to leave some of our stuff with our moms and dads.

We first get a small box to put our stuff in but as we get more stuff we need a bigger box to put stuff in and so we build a bigger one and then a bigger one.  These boxes are called houses and some boxes are bigger and better than others but they are just boxes to hold stuff.

These boxes have doors and windows that lock.  Why?  Because there are actually people who want our stuff and will steal it.

They don’t ever steal our junky stuff but always take our new, shiny or electronic stuff.  This leads to a business called security and a field of medicine called psychiatry to keep unwanted people out and to get other people’s heads straight that worry about things like that too much.

Some people don’t have enough stuff so they actually go to other people’s houses and buy some of their stuff in garage sales.  They get so much stuff that they need more closets and shelves to hold all their stuff.  They put stuff in basements, stuff in attics, stuff under stair s and stuff in drawers.

There is actually a booming industry based on the idea that people have too much stuff called “storage.”  Big hollow boxes with locks to hold stuff that people just can’t seem to let go of.

People have stuff that has absolutely no value to them but they know that someone else covets it so they keep it with the intention of trading it for other stuff that they covet later.

At first garages were to park the family car in but now they just mostly hold stuff.

Boxes get bigger and the stuff continues to pile up.

Do you know that stuff even gets old or that there is a term applied to stuff called “out of style?”
This is stuff that works fine, but it has become the wrong color or shape.  We get bored with20this stuff and so they have businesses that will take that kind of stuff and give it to people that don’t have much stuff like Goodwill and Salvation Army.

Stuff that people finally thinks has absolutely no use to anyone gets put in a stuff graveyard called a dump.

Would you believe that even there you can find people, who have a lot of stuff already, digging around for more stuff?  A kind of stuff reincarnation.

People dig in the earth for stuff.  They drill holes hoping that they hit a hidden pocket of black stuff down there so they can translate it into other stuff up here.  Stuff can also be found on the bottom of the ocean and so you find people who risk their lives to go down there hunting it.

There are different seasons for stuff.  Some stuff can’t be legally used until certain times of the year.  So it sits in storage until that stuff can be used for a few short months.  People practice with this stuff a lot and talk about it a lot but most of the time this expensive stuff just sits unused.  Stuff to hunt with, stuff to fish with, stuff to be on the water with, stuff to fall down in the snow with, stuff to hit, stuff to catch, stuff to swing, and stuff to throw.

It has been said “Americans have lost their souls so now they are trying to save their bodies.”  Exercise stuff, diet stuff, tanning stuff, curling stuff, tucking stuff and lifting stuff.

Christians like stuff as much as sinners do.  They call it, “Blessing.”

They have stuff in storages and stuff in closets.  Stuff in basements and stuff in attics.  Then they go to church and sing, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.”

They bow down at the altar with all sincerity and ask God for more stuff.  “Bless me Lord.”  When they lose some of their stuff, they think God is mad at them,  “Why did you take my stuff?”  “Please show me that you aren’t mad at me… by giving me more stuff.”

We honor the ones with the most stuff, and we pity the ones with the least amount of stuff.

And then we get to the stuff season, (This is it) Christmas… Jesus used to be the reason for the season, but Santa Claus brings the stuff f, so … “Santa’s the man!”
We wildly dive into the pursuit for “Holiday” stuff.  Stuff in stockings, stuff to wrap, stuff to eat, and stuff to decorate with.  Admittedly fun stuff, I personally love this stuff… but stuff can’t crowd out Jesus… stuff isn’t the reason for the season, is it?

I wonder what it is going to be like when the Archangel blows his trumpet.  Is there going to be a groan from the American church, “So soon?  Now what will we do with all of our stuff?”

I wonder if Peter and a crew of angels with hammers and chisels, squeegees and scrapers are going to be ready for us?

I don’t want to walk through the gates of pearl and hear the angels say, “Can you believe that they have names for all this stuff that is caked on them?  Yuk!  What a mess some of these saints are.  Do they know that they can’t take this stuff with them into heaven?”

A question begged to be asked.

Do Christians think like they act that God is going to hand out rewards to the guy with the most stuff?  I know it is called “blessing” down here, but is stuff always a blessing by heaven’s way of seeing things?

Do some think they are going to walk up to the throne with a great sense of accomplishment and point back to a burning world and say, “Lord did you see all of my stuff before you burned it?”

God might say, “Yes I did.  To whom much is given much is required.”
It is so easy to let stuff distract us…

Jeff was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1967, from there his parents moved the family to the Philippines  and became passionate missionaries to the Philippino people.   Since then Jeff and his family have resided all over the country and the world.   In 1988 married his wife Brenda and they have 3 great children 2 boys Morgan, Jordan, and a daughter Kori.   Jeff and his family pioneered a church in Hawaii and it is now flourishing with growth.  The Mallory’s currently reside in Alexandria, Louisiana where they currently minister at the POA and travel ministering on a regular basis.  In February of 2009 they will return back to the Philippines as missionaries to the wonderful, hungry, Philippine people.

Sometimes having knowledge makes a difference.  Sometimes having knowledge can change your life.  The knowledge that a surgeon acquires definitely makes his life different from how it was before he acquired that knowledge, roughly about $350,000 different.

Knowledge – Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.” – Albert Einstein
Another writer named Henri Bergson said,The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
And my personal favorite…
Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.–William Ellery Channing
Knowledge can save your life: a simple act, based on what you know, like choosing to wear a seatbelt, like wearing a helmet when riding a motorcycle.
All these involve knowledge that leads to different and better outcomes.

Knowing God requires knowledge but we can reduce our time with Him to a few measly hours of hyped emotion each week if we are not careful.
I love the altar and the significance of it.  I love to worship at the altar.
I love the moves of the spirit that we have at this altar.  I love the altar, but I am afraid that we have developed a misperception as to what the altar is for.  We have developed a check-in mentality with the altar, and that is not and will never be God’s intention.

It’s as though we come to the altar just to check to see if God still loves us.  And if we can feel him, or if we can cry, if we can speak in tongues, then whew!  Thank God, I checked in and he still loves me.  That’s not growth,that is an insecure relationship and that is not His plan for me.

There are 336 hours in each week.  Of these hours, we probably spend 50 hours sleeping(I wish).  That leaves about 286 hours awake.
If we attend Sunday morning and Sunday evening worship and a mid-week service, we have spent roughly 8.5 hours a week in worship services.  That means we spend 277.5 hours living our life outside of church.

Do the math with me here.  How could I not be frustrated as a Christian if I only devote 3% of my waking hours to God each week?

Now, I’m not saying that is all we do.  Notice in this equation I did not include  prayer time and  Bible reading; those are personal numbers that I can’t and don’t want to quantify.

But what I am talking about is even more than that, and really it’s something we can’t count in hours and minutes.  It is a way of seeing ourselves and our God.
Christ has designed for us a better way, a deeper path, and we’re headed that way, but we can’t seem to make it past the altar.  Please understand we will always need the altar, but there’s more to this thing, than weekly check-ins at the altar.   An altar can be built anywhere . It is a sign of sacrifice and victory. I am afraid that the only altar’s we construct are in the temple and never on the battlefield. What I am saying is the only victory parties and sacrificial times we have are at church.

We live our lives, doing our duties, fulfilling our responsibilities…not doing bad stuff, but we’re living without purpose.

So how can we stop? We are not  hamster’s on a treadmill that jump off every Wednesday night to praise God then hops right back on till Sunday.   So how can we stop?

Christ said in John 10:10
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Part of the knowledge that I want to share with you is something that we may have just forgotten.  Have we forgotten that there is a place in God where His joy is with us everyday.

There is a place in God where there is no fear.  There is a place in God where he helps us with our shortcomings.  There is a place in God where we are indeed a friend of God, and it’s not just a song.
When we are indeed His friend, family problems are still there, school problems are still there, friend problems are still there, but He’s there with us everyday, and then those problems just don’t seem so bad.
All of a sudden, when we start pursuing God, he stops and meets us where we are.  We don’t have to worry about awkward witnessing any more, it’s on us, it’s in us, and it pours out of us.  We don’t have to worry about how many hours we spend in the temple, we become the temple.
When we say a prayer to start our day, but don’t say amen till we go to bed at night, maybe we’re starting to develop a God consciousness that will take us deeper.
Pursue him, talk to him, embrace him everyday.  Be aware of His presence.  Make a conscious effort to keep him on our mind. When we dwell with Him everyday, He’ll help us develop the self-discipline we need to become the person we want to become.

Knowing Him requires knowledge…knowledge is the most valuable and important commodity to experiencing an incredible relationship with an Everyday God.

—————————————————————————————————-

What if?

Tony Dungy is the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts and led them to win a Super Bowl in Feb. ’07.  He recently wrote a book about the ups and downs of his life called, Quiet Strength.

He tells this story in his book:  In August 2000, his family adopted Jordan Dungy a few days after birth… at first things didn’t seem right, he didn’t cry, but it didn’t bother Tony and his wife initially.  At five months old Jordan fell off the bed… and didn’t cry.  They took him to a pediatric neurologist and several other doctors where Jordan was finally diagnosed with “congenital insensitivity to pain.”

Tony Dungy describes it this way, “He is missing a gene… therefore doesn’t feel pain the way other people do.  Some experts think he might not feel pain at all.  Through Jordan, I realized that God allows us to feel pain for a reason: to protect us.”

What pain is in our life?  Is it an addiction, is it a cycle of poor relationships, is it constant trouble on our job, is it a struggle between our wants and God’s will… What is he trying to teach us?  How is He trying to protect us?

I am reading a book, Life’s Healing Choices that addresses “Why does God allow Pain?”    In the book, author John Baker addresses four of the reasons God allows pain:

-   God has given us a free will – God didn’t create a bunch of puppets, he wants us to love him voluntarily.  You can’t really choose good unless you have the option to choose bad.  God started it all in the Garden of Eden with the choice of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Our free will is not only a blessing; it’s a burden.  Poor choices cause painful consequences.
-   God uses pain to get our attention – God gives us pain to tell us that something is wrong and you need to deal with it.  Depression, anxiety, and fear are not the problem, just signs that something is wrong and need attention – the attention that only the Lord can fix.    Jonah 2:7 (NLT) “When I had lost all hope, I turned my thoughts once more to the LORD.  And my earnest prayer went out to you…. ”
-    God uses pain to teach us to depend on him – You will never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.  Without problems, you’d never learn that God is the only real problem solver.  God allows pain to teach you to depend on him.  Some things we only learn through pain.  Psalms 119:71 (NLT) “The suffering you sent was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your principles.”
-   God allows pain to give us a ministry to others – Pain can make you humble, sympathetic, and sensitive to other’s needs.  Pain prepares you to serve others.  2 Corinthians 1:4 (TLB) Why does he [God] do this?  So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy, and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us.”

Terry Shock once said, “God isn’t fair, God is right.”  The pain we go through may not feel fair to us, but God has a purpose for pain and God is always right.

Brad is married to Ashleigh Allison (1/4/2003) has a Daughter Emma Rose Brad is a Staff member and teacher in the Bridge -the College Ministry of the POA, also works with Seven Ministry at POA (ministry for those in recovery from/for/with addiction and their families) Received a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Master’s Degree in Social Work.
Is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and currently works at the VA Hospital in Pineville, LA with homeless veterans and works part time at Crossroads Regional Hospital -individual/family/group therapy in a psychiatric hospital setting.

Conservative or liberal? (Disclaimer: Due to confusion that could cause conflict we are only asking this concerning your views on toilet paper rolls. Thx.)

At what point do you change the toilet paper roll in your bathroom?

There are pro’s and con’s for both.

Let us know how you leave it…

Now this is some deep stuff… (no pun intended)

Who says you have to be in shape to have moves!!

enjoy.

Motive a pretty powerful word. Webster defines it as the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action; the reason for the action;
One writer wrote…it is motive alone that gives character to the actions of men.
Motive it’s the root word of motivation.  It’s what drives every one of us to achieve success or sends us hurtling down a dark cavern of failure.
It is the one thing that will determine our true identity in the face of adversity and criticism.
Motive is the very thing that provides us with the truth behind the closed closet door of our soul and our heart…Motive.

Motive answers every question about what matters most.  Why do we love?  Why do we compliment?  Why do we share?  Why do we serve people?  Why do we sacrifice?  Why do we lead, preach, pastor, or teach?  Motive answers why!  This is the one thing that was constantly put to question by the religious sector in Jesus’ day.

Why did He heal on the Sabbath? Why did he not agree with their spin on the law? Why does He constantly cause people to question “why”? Why can’t He just agree with us and go with the flow?
Why? His motive…LOVE for people, LOVE for truth, LOVE for righteousness.

His motive was pure.  That’s why it wasn’t about agreeing to fit in, saying just the right thing to appease the religious affluent, or doing deeds to let others see and bring honor to His name. Scripture tells us He told some that were healed to keep quite.

His motivation was lost humanity, hurting people, and blind beggars.  Whether it was physically or spiritually, He healed, forgave, and died for them not for himself.

And to think you and I have been chosen to portray this image to the world around us…God forgive me!  I am falling way short. Why? Motive.

I must cease to promote me and push others upward.  I must be willing to give ALL the credit to someone else, and I mean ALL.  I must teach, preach, and lead from where I live (boy is that scary).  I must be submitted to a higher authority even when I am purposefully criticized.  And how can we achieve this Kingdom concept that says it’s not about me, my stuff, and I, but it’s about the Kingdom of God: a pure Motive, not a masterful message, not a relative blog, not a sanctuary full of people, and not a name spoken in the context of wisdom and greatness.  No, it comes down to one question …motive.  Sheep or Goat?  Which one am I becoming? Matthew describes the scene…so they ask the question, “…when saw we thee hungry and fed, thirsty and gave drink, in prison and visited thee, naked and clothed thee…and Jesus said when you did it to ONE of the least of these you did it to me and they ask when saw we thee…” Notice they didn’t purposefully set a date and get a crew together and go out and feed, clothe, and visit…they just went and did it.  Never giving thought to their actions.  Never contemplating “what’s in it for me,” not worried about attention or return for their investment, never even considering the notion that maybe they would be mentioned and praised in a message by the Pastor or in a testimony (oh boy! I better move on).  It was part of their daily life’s existence…they responded to a need.  No news camera’s, no name-dropping, no Facebook comment, or Twittering their “PEEPS,” they just did it. And in the big scheme of things, the determining factor in whether or not they would inherit the Kingdom of God or be thrown out was determined by their answer to one question, “What is you motive?” Their motivation was pure and it caused them to take action and fulfill their divine purpose in the Kingdom of God without a thought of praise, notoriety, or promotion.  So my question to myself first and then to you is, “How are we leading? Better yet …why are we leading?”  What is our true motivation?  When it is more about truly becoming like Christ than it is about merely appearing to be like Christ, then I will finally be leading a Kingdom lifestyle, and  I will become a Kingdom leader.  Honestly, I’m struggling, but on my way… YOU?