Anguish…The Birthplace of Restoration?

This is a powerful and convicting message.  Perhaps the citywide restoration at the very heart of 614 Restoration is in need of the fertile soil of anguish?

‘Anguish means extreme pain and distress.  The emotions so stirred that it becomes painful.  Acute deeply felt inner pain because of conditions about you, in you, or around you.  Anguish.  Deep pain.  Deep sorrow.  Agony of God’s heart.  All true passion is born out of anguish.  All true passion for Christ comes out of a baptism of anguish.  You search the Scripture and you’ll find that when God determined to recover a ruined situation, He would share His own anguish for what God saw happening to His Church and to His people.  And He would find a praying man and He would take that man and literally baptize him in anguish.’

The State We’re In

Esse Quam Videri.  The North Carolina State Motto.  Translation…

‘To Be, Rather Than To Seem’

In today’s world of superficial, shallow, posers and fakers…both inside and outside the ‘church’…I thank God for this powerfully simple motto.  And I pray that more who name the name of Jesus in Winston-Salem, North Carolina would ‘be’…rather than seem to be.  Considering the state we’re in…it’s time!

Rise Up O Men of God

‘Rise up O men of God!  Have done with lesser things.  Give heart and mind and soul and strength to serve the King of Kings.’
(Hymn written by William P. Merrill)

614 Restoration is ultimately and preeminently about restoring the people and places in our city through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  While we remain committed to inspiring and equipping this generation of young people to be the catalysts for a powerful move of God in our city, we cannot ignore the plain truth that God has called men to step up and lead.  So here is a call to the men in our city who would dare to name the name of Jesus. 

This is war and it’s time to rise up!!

God Will Carry Us

This morning, my 4-year old daughter Miša and I read our morning devotional.  It was about the day that we will be taken up in the clouds to meet Jesus in the air (1 Thess 4:17).  At the end of our conversation I said, “We won’t even need wings to fly.”  Miša’s quick response — “Yea. Because God will carry us.”

That’s deep.  The only thing I might add or change — “God is carrying us…even now.”  Thank you Jesus!!

10/05/09 ABC News…Idolatry in America

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/10Commandments/ten-commandments-pastor-preaches-worship-modern-day-idols/story?id=8712532

Okay…This fresh (October 5, 2009) video and accompanying article captures in 6 minutes the essence of what God’s been revealing to us through our weekly 4Real gatherings on ‘Casting Down Idols, Embracing Christ’.  I know what you’re thinking…’Why did we have to listen to you babble for weeks when we could have just listened to this 6 minute video clip?’  I’ll get back to you on that one.

But seriously, please check out this video/article and post some comments.  And praise God for revealing the idolatry in our own hearts so we can confess it, turn away from it, and find everything we’ve ever needed met in Jesus!!  Hallelujah!

4Real…The Idolatry of the ‘Americanized Gospel’

As you can read in previous blog posts, the focus of our weekly 4Real gatherings is ‘Casting Down Idols, Embracing Christ’.  Here is a relevant video on the idolatry inherent in the ‘Americanized, prosperity gospel’.

2009/2010 Hoops4Him Season

For those of you who are not already aware, one of 614 Restoration’s most wide-reaching citywide initiatives is Hoops4Him.  The 2009/2010 Hoops4Him season is just around the corner and we would love for you to get involved.  You can find out more at www.hoops4him.org or email Jason at  jclubb@hoops4him.org.

Although everyone involved with Hoops4Him enjoys the game of basketball, the heart of Hoops4Him is not the ‘Hoops’, but the ‘Him’.  Who is ‘Him’ you ask?  Well, His name is Jesus…and He is God!  We were created by Him and for Him.  Only in Him can we find eternal satisfaction for our souls.  Everything else—even basketball—pales in comparison to the soul-satisfying joy of knowing Him.  Our ultimate prayer is that each of us would be so overwhelmed by all that He has done “4Us” that we might be eternally “4Him”!

As we gear up for 2009/2010 I thought I would share a somewhat dated, yet still inspiring and powerful video that I hope will bring a smile to your face…and maybe even a tear to your eyes.

October 3rd…4Real Scripture Focus

Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false gods)—[from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from any sort of substitute for Him that would take first place in your life].  Amen (so let it be).
1 John 5:21 (AMP)

 Isaiah 2:6-22…
6 You have abandoned your people,
    the house of Jacob.
       They are full of superstitions from the East;
       they practice divination like the Philistines
       and clasp hands with pagans.
7 Their land is full of silver and gold;
       there is no end to their treasures.
       Their land is full of horses;
       there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land is full of idols;
       they bow down to the work of their hands,
       to what their fingers have made.
9 So man will be brought low
       and mankind humbled—
       do not forgive them.
10 Go into the rocks,
       hide in the ground
       from dread of the LORD
       and the splendor of his majesty!
11 The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled
       and the pride of men brought low;
       the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
12 The LORD Almighty has a day in store
       for all the proud and lofty,
       for all that is exalted
       (and they will be humbled),
13 for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty,
       and all the oaks of Bashan,
14 for all the towering mountains
       and all the high hills,
15 for every lofty tower
       and every fortified wall,
16 for every trading ship
       and every stately vessel.
17 The arrogance of man will be brought low
       and the pride of men humbled;
       the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,
18 and the idols will totally disappear.
19 Men will flee to caves in the rocks
       and to holes in the ground
       from dread of the LORD
       and the splendor of his majesty,
       when he rises to shake the earth.
20 In that day men will throw away
       to the rodents and bats
       their idols of silver and idols of gold,
       which they made to worship.
21 They will flee to caverns in the rocks
       and to the overhanging crags
       from dread of the LORD
       and the splendor of his majesty,
       when he rises to shake the earth.
22 Stop trusting in man,
       who has but a breath in his nostrils.
       Of what account is he?

Jeremiah 6:16…
This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.  But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.”

How about us, what will we say?

American Dream (Part 3)

Older men/women…This world needs you–more specifically, they need Christ in you!!  Don’t retire!!  Resist the ‘American Dream’ and pursue God’s Dream instead!  Go!  Do!  Be!  For God’s eternal glory and your eternal joy!!

Younger men/women…This world needs you–more specifically, they need Christ in you!!  Don’t wait ’til you’ve got your ‘education’ or money in the bank or the kids out of diapers; if you do, you will quit before you ever start!!  Go!  Do!  Be!  For God’s eternal glory and your eternal joy!!

Don’t waste your life!

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.  James 5:1-6

American Dream (Part 2)

An ‘older’ song, but the message is still powerful. 

Men/Fathers/Husbands…

When will we stop allowing ourselves to be dupped by the enemy and truly live as mighty men of valor…as Kingdom-ists rather than captialists or religionists?!?