Just some thoughts to share...

• Every once in a while, History delivers up a violent one. One who will by force, change the status quo. One who defies the cultural norm. We see Michelagelo who worked as if unto God. We see the early Greeks who put into motion the spirit of democracy. An Idea by which we still live.

• I want to take you on a journey back into time. A time where life was quite a bit different than what we have come to know and expect. A life where people of many differing backgrounds would come together, and actually live together. In the days of these ancients were ideas and ideals that spoke to the human as a whole. It was in these days that men (philosophers) like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle would break the everyday mundane with thought that provoked the entire history of mankind into new ideas and ways of thinking. Many of these early ideas haven’t changed over the centuries. This ancient world was a world where families would live all together communally, with extended families and good friends all sharing the entire home as their own. It was commonplace for homes to have a large central courtyard where they could gather to drink and discuss issues of the day. It was in these courtyards that we see a violent one, Jesus talking and eating with men like Zacheus, it was in this type of setting that he was invited to heal the Rabbis dead or dying daughter. There wasn’t a sense of this is mine and you aren’t entitle to it. Nearly everywhere was considered a public space, except the inner part of the synagogue. For here you couldn’t enter as an unclean person. It was this idea that caused the man to stay at the sheep gate outside Solomons temple. It was this idea that caused early church leaders to drag a woman from her home, naked, and ashamed. It was this idea that a violent one came to change. This violent one named Jesus. The bible says that the kingdom of God suffers violence. What really does this mean? Does it mean that the enemy of our soul is acting violently on the Kingdom, or does it mean that other such violent ones are pummeling the walls of the kingdom to gain access to its contents? I suspect both, however it is my goal to inflict a holy violence on the treasure that God has entrusted us with. This is the violence in which Christ operates out of, a sense that if He doesn’t move, doesn’t bring about change, doesn’t transform lives than he hasn’t real purpose. You see people all fight to have purpose; we fight to scratch out our identity. We want to be valued and be valuable. We want to show the world how important we are. If not the whole world, certainly the world around us. An example of this can be seen in King Louis XVI, who wanted to be known as the “sun king” or Napoleon who wanted to be known as “The Holy Roman Emporer”. I ask what is it that you want to be known by? By what name do you find your value and your valor? There is no more a valuable name than the very name of “Jesus” or “Jeshua”. The very worth of this name contains a violence that devastates the untouchable places within us, within our souls. This one beautifully violent name, commands water to be silent, to become solid. He commands fish and loaves to be multiplied. This violent one turns the very notions of society completely on their heads. He isn’t interested in what we have come to know as political correctness, rather he seeks to inflict an entirely different set of values on the human race. The value of “Son-ship” to a “King”, the one and only King and Creator. There is no other violent one who has had such a violent impact on the gates of the kingdom since Jesus.

It's official!

Well it's officially started! The Firebrand School of Ministry is here and now we've been through almost two weeks of classes.

it's been an amazing journey since God originally gave the idea and concept to us a few months ago. But its here and we're expecting God to move in HUGE ways!

For more information about our school please visit the church's website at http://www.lwc1.com/ or check back here for more posts to follow!