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Sunday Morning Musings

• Here is a really short, really bad video clip of about 45 seconds of worship.
• We had a great crowd this Sunday.  Had to put out some more chairs.  Thankfully we just got a bunch from Ben and Melissa Pierce at Generation Church in Jupiter.  They got a new facility and felt like they were to sow their chairs into another ministry in faith that they could afford nice new ones.  Not an hour later, the church they were replacing in their new rental facility called and told them they felt they were to give them their chairs!  They gave us 100 $10 chairs in faith and God gave them 160 $35 chairs an hour later!  This weekend we needed them.
• Felt like I had a decent flow in the word.  I did not plan this series to map out the Exodus but that is how it has gone.  I don’t write these messages weeks in advance.  I am not opposed to that, I just don’t get them that far ahead of time.
• As a father, the best part of service might have been when I saw my little girl fill out an offering envelope and get $ .36 out of her wallet and put in the offering bucket.  She may only do it because Tracey and I give but tht is the kind of example I want my kids to follow.  Little times like this make you think you might actually be getting this parenting thing right.
• Did I mention we had a bunch of visitors?  The Mission is in a really good season.  When a season of increase comes to a church you have to recognize it and try to tend the nets and pastor the flock. They can leave as quickly as they came.  You have to be faithful with what God is doing.
• I made a statement I truly believe, “If your folks are not getting arrested, you aren’t reaching the lost.”
• Preached on the Exodus – Salvation, deliverance, the baptism of fire.
• Too many Christians are walking around living defeated lives because they need deliverance.
• Can a Christian have spiritual oppression?  A Christian can have whatever they want.
• Lots of folks got touched at the altar.  I mean, a lot of folks!
• One guy told me he was really happy because his old drug dealer was one of the guys who got greatly touched at the altar.  He said that he helped the guy up off the ground and he said that he always thought that Christianity was fake.  Then he got touched with the power of God!
• That’s what’s up.

The Truth about Drew Brees

The truth about Drew Brees … Saved.

Confessions of a Revivalist #1

In this new series of posts I will post random confessions to you my readers.  Here is my first confession:

#1 When I got saved I threw away well over a hundred cd’s. (This was before folks could just steal music off the internet so folks had to actually buy music.)  I threw them all away in one huge episode of Holy Ghost house cleaning…except one.

Parliment’s Greatest Hits.

And every now and then on a Saturday morning I blast it. Want another confession? I wish I still had my Zapp and Roger Greatest hits. And maybe a little Egyptian Lover. But Y’all don’t know nothing about that.

My Thoughts on the Gap Theory

I am no trained theologian (so don’t try this at home folks) but is there any more nonsensical, contra-hermeneutical teaching in the mainline church than the gap theory?

When someone first tried explaining it to me I laughed because I thought they were trying to make a joke about folks who try to conform Scripture to their theology.

No . . . they were being serious.

I wonder how many other “gaps” there are in Scripture?  Oh, let me stop.

No matter your eschatological bent, keep it consistent. Exercise at least minimal academic integrity.  There are mysteries in the Scriptures.  You can be convinced of something without being able to completely explain it.

I see one person get completely overtaken by the presence of God and the person right next to them is getting nothing.  I don’t understand it completely but I know it to be true.

As a counter point, here is my kind of Gap:

Never, ever had a lover
Who put the peddle to the metal
And burn rubber on me, Charlie
Oh, no

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Thursday Blog Roundup

There are a half dozen things I want to write about right now but there is some really good stuff out there in the blogosphere right now.  Read some of this stuff:

• The Other Side of the Betrayal by Craig Groeschel is an awesome reminder of God’s grace.

• You Are Not Alone by Justin at Refine Us Marriage Ministry is a must read for everyone.

• Growth is Hard by Michael Lukaszewski, Jr – Truth about discipleship.

Two Street Preachers shot to death in Boynton Beach

It’s real out here.

God had us start The Mission to reach an entire generation that is being lost to the streets in south Florida.  If you heard the testimonies of most of the folks Jesus has saved, delivered, and filled with the Holy Ghost it would make you shudder.

Today I got a stark reminder of what we are up against.

Stephen Ocean and Tute Sufra were shot on Saturday night while doing street evangelism.  You can read the story here.  I did not know these brothers but I will meet them one day.  Till then we will work to complete their mission.

Please pray for their family and church.

Prayer and Fasting Recap #Awake21

This past week we finished our 21 days of prayer and fasting with the other churches of Awake21.org.  Pastors, you need to be a part of this next year.  Last year was good so the folks of The Mission were really looking forward to it this year.

I would say far and away the thing that I heard the most testimonies was the shedding of a works driven Christianity.  You really don’t know how religious you are till Jesus starts to touch your religion.  People even realized that they were striving in the flesh for gifts and manifestations.

Striving brings depression and frustration, makes you focus on you and your efforts more than on God and His grace, robs God of His glory, and flies in the face of why Jesus sent the Holy Ghost.

Another great fruit we saw was in the distribution of spiritual gifts.  One young man received an awesome call to ministry and many others had intense manifestations regarding their receiving of gifts.

Almost cant wait till nest year.

An Open Letter to Craigslist Posters

In my effort to find a new(ish) laptop I have been looking through craigslist for a used notebook computer.    After spending several weeks reading the ads I would like to write the following letter to people selling laptops on the free site.

Dear computer seller,

Thank you for posting the advertisement for your old laptop.  Just like you said, it does appear to be in great shape . . . for a personal electronics device that is older than every coin in my pocket.  Thank you for stating that you have upgraded the operating system well beyond the minimum system requirements for that OS.  The battery probably does not hold that long of a charge but that won’t be much of a problem because I bet it will still run at least 15 minutes before the cpu overheats and shuts the whole thing down while burning my hand and smoking up the joint.  Surely nobody will laugh as you have to bring in that mainframe of a device into starbucks on a handtruck.  One neat item is clearly that you won’t mind the wait in line for your cup of joe because when you return it still won’t have finished booting yet.  And to think,  none of those pesky built in wifi issues!

I realize that it was specially configured for napster and that it has a built in 33.6k modem.  And the USB 1.0 port is really a neat feature.  I also realize that you paid $1700 for it and you are only selling it for a third of that price because you are buying a new laptop from dell.

But I have one question. . . what is the name of the fantasy world you live in?   Have your friends and family called you up to laugh at you for posting this?  Did craigslist call to verify that this was not a prank listing?  Are you going to throw in a 100MB zip drive if we act fast?  Do you really think someone is going to give you $600 for your computer that has less computing power than my blackberry?  Have you actually looked at what kind of laptop you can get for $600?

Here is some much needed advice.  Don’t give it to your grandkids or drop it off at goodwill.  They probably have far better computers than this.  Just wipe off all your stolen software and other filth from the hard drive then search the google for electronics recycling.  Before dropping off said computer, go on Craigslist and delete your listing and repent of ever having wasted electrons on it.

Sincerely,

Carl Thomas

Monday Musings

• Ministry is feast or famine.  Yesterday was Thanksgiving, Christmas eve, Passover and Quince all rolled into one.  Some Mondays preachers wake up and feel like they are on top of the world.  Other Mondays they wake up and feel like the world is on top of them.  If you are a church leader you need to recognize this and pray for your pastor.  I don’t know why exactly but I am sure the devil is involved somehow.
  Yesterday was the day we broke our fast and man did the HOly Ghost show up.
• I was pretty sure it was going to be a good service when I started to get healing words of knowledge in the middle of worship.  I tried to do communion between the 4th and 5th songs but I could not stop.  People say that God would never interrupt your service, and for the most part I would agree.  If its your service He will not interrupt.  But if it is His service, He can do whatever He wants.  The truth is, most preachers are interruption God’s service.  Not the other way around.
• I love having communion.  We try to do it every month.  Sometimes we do it in a serve yourself fashion in the middle of worship.  Other times we will do it a little more formally at the end of service.  It all depends.  We practice open communion.  We say all who are hungry or thirsty may come to Him.
• Did anyone see Tracey preachin at the end of worship?  I was like, “Who is that woman?”  Could not be more proud of how she has allowed God to transform her in the last couple years.  Besides being cute, she is an incredible help meet.  Ladies, learn from her how to be a blessing to your (future) husband.
• I studied like crazy for my message yesterday then wrote it in about 5 minutes.  It was like a prophetic flow.  It preached really easy as well.
• Be looking for the angel Ex 3:3
• Powerful time of ministry at the end.  Really, really powerful.  Maybe one of the most powerful times yet.
• God is adding some mature believers to The Mission.  We have been praying about this for a while and we are seeing it happen.
• I cast the devil out of a muslim dude.  Don’t get to do that every day.
• At ASD it got even wilder.  At the end of the night Tracey said that it might have been the most powerful times of ministry we have ever had.  I hope to write more on that this week but it was other worldly.
• I went to bed really happy last night but really exhausted.
• I left like the first 15 minutes of the ministry time on the podcast.  It went on for like 45 more minutes.
• podcast up.  photos are sure to come.

Friday Flashback

Here is your Friday flashback.