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Blog Archive - February 2010

The archives of The Sun Will Rise, organized by month.

Feb
23

Life in and out of the prayer room...

I haven't given much of a "life update" recently, so I wanted to do that briefly before I dive back into the real substance of why I write this blog - Jesus. He is the sole reason why I write blogs and tweet things on twitter. John Piper tweeted this line back in October, and it continues to resound with me:

"One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time."

John's brief statement hopefully will give you the reason why I don't often give many of the "I'm at a ball game" or "Eating food with my friends" tweets. I don't want these things to consume my life, and I want you and I to feast on the real Bread from Heaven. I want what I say to provoke you to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to simply be a reflection of the desire of my own heart. I want to become less so that He may become greater, and ultimately that He may have the preeminence in all things in your life.

I believe the reason internet social networking is so popular today is because it is falsely filling the void in the heart of man to feel loved, appreciated, and valued. Only a genuine friendship with Jesus can satisfy. We often brag about having more friends on Facebook than we talk about the life of Jesus. Our friend Paul the apostle said:

But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. " (Galatians 6:14 NKJV)

Even with that said, I do believe that it's helpful to give updates on my life so that you can feel more connected to me when we interact personally. Jesus is a real Man that is deeply involved with our lives if we want Him to be, and the stories of His working in our lives is what has the ability to shape the lives of others. That is our testimony. So it's from this perspective that I give you my latest life update...

Feb
20

The humanity of Jesus

So often we show up to our Sunday church service, sing the songs, enjoy the teaching and the fellowship, and then go about the rest of our day when church is over. We perhaps spend some time reading the Bible during the week, and attend the Wednesday night prayer meeting. On the busy highway of life, we'll take a brief exit to refuel, only to get right back on afterwards and keep driving towards a dream we can often times never fully articulate.

In the midst of this highway of life rises one distinguishing feature that should cause us to take the next exit, find directions to a small stable in an obscure town in Galilee, and camp there for the rest of our lives. What God did is outlandish and staggering.

The eternal God from everlasting became a human being.

The course of heaven and earth were forever altered when the second Person of the trinity took on flesh. If we truly make the confession as a "Christian", this is what we believe. But our belief should not stop at simply a bland doctrinal confession. It should radically affect the way we spend our money, our energy, and our Tuesday afternoon, Friday morning, and Sunday evening.

I want to let you in on some of the questions I have been asking myself these past few weeks. If I honestly believe that God became flesh, why do I still see Him as a floating blob of light in some ethereal realm that sort of looks like a human? Why is His life not real to me? Why do the stories of His life in the four gospels often times seem like fairy tales? Why does heaven seem like a pipe dream instead of a real, concrete, physical place where that Man sits right now?

Jesus is a real man. One day, I will stand across from Him, look Him in the eyes, shake His ruddy hand, and smell His sweet breath. He is my Creator and my God.

Feb
11

Interview with Cassie Campbell, part 3

I’m continuing a series on my blog interviewing some musicians from IHOP-KC. If you have not yet read part 1 and 2 of Cassie’s interview, be sure to read them here and here. I asked Cassie about her thoughts on a somewhat controversial subject for some – secular music. I’ve written some of my own thoughts about this here and here. I hope you enjoy this final part of her interview!

Josh: Hi Cassie, well here comes the big question that I am sure everyone has been waiting for… What do you think about prophetic musicians and secular music? For a musician desiring the spirit of prophecy, is secular music ok to listen to?

Cassie CampbellCassie: Well, let me start by saying that I believe the Lord is the Creator and with that the originator of music. He has designed His throne room (Rev. 4) to have continual music through song, in words or instruments. We’re musical because He’s musical. Music is the one universal language. It is the highest form of entertainment or worship in every culture. I believe there is music that is pointed directly to God, I believe there is music that is pointed directly to Satan, I believe there is music that exalts the world, which is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 Jn. 1:16). I believe there is soulish music the expresses the soul in it’s emotions of pain, joy, anger, sorrow, and confusion. I believe there is music that is factual and describes the practicals of life. i.e. If I write a song about my car it’s neither worship to the Lord nor satanic worship, it’s a song about my car… I believe the Lord can use songs that were once not directed towards Him specifically, however, if then used by a worshipful heart, would receive the worship and is pleased. Obviously this list isn’t exhaustive, but my point in saying all of this is that there is music that is definitely worshipping Jesus, music that is definitely worshipping Satan, music that is definitely worshipping the world/man, and then there is music that isn’t clearly one or the other, it may be describing universal emotions, or can be a silly song about my car I drive, which neither leads me to a place of directly worshipping Jesus or the other.

Feb
08

Trip report - College Station, TX house of prayer

This past weekend, I traveled to a weekend event in College Station, Texas organized by the Luke18 Project, the college campus division of IHOP. The Luke18 Project’s vision is to raise up prayer furnaces on every college campus across the US. Brandon Hammonds, a fellow intercessory missionary here at IHOP, is a part of the Luke18 ministry and organized the whole trip this past weekend. Justin Rizzo and I flew down with Brandon to Houston on Friday and were hosted by an amazing family in College Station (about an hour and a half outside of Houston).

College Station, Texas is the home of Texas A&M University, one of the largest campuses in the nation. Texas A&M was well-known several years ago as the campus that had a massive bonfire accident where several students lost their lives. The Lord has recently been stirring prayer on the campus, and the Griffith family that hosted us for the weekend has carried a vision for a house of prayer on campus for a while now. We believe that our trip was just another spark for the fire in the Spirit to burn even brighter.

Feb
03

Interview with Cassie Campbell, part 2

I'm continuing a series on my blog interviewing some musicians from IHOP-KC. If you have not yet read part 1 of Cassie’s interview, be sure to read it here. Cassie is the bass player on Laura Hackett’s team at IHOP-KC and has played with Misty Edwards, in addition to being part of IHOP-KC’s nightwatch for many years. This is part 2 of Cassie’s interview where I asked her questions relating to being a prophetic musician as her full-time occupation.

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