Carl Thomas dot net

Three Quick Things

1.  FAU is going to be FIRE next year.  A coach named Carl?  You know they are gonna light it up.  Seriously though, I am excited about their selection of Carl Pelini.  Pelini will be the highest paid coach in the Sub Belt conference.  Florida has way to much talent for FAU’s team to be so bad. And since he coached in Nebraska, he should be able to pull some talent from the mid-west.  Only time will tell but this should be good.

2.  Go get tickets to the Christmas Party.  You don’t want to miss it.  I know it’s a Sunday night but sin will wait for another day.

3.  We had the leaders Christmas Party tonight and had a secret Santa gift exchange.  I don’t know where anyone else shopped but I clearly gave the best gift.  Ask anybody that was there.

4. (ok Four quick things)  Did you see the baptism teaser? 

Monday Morning Musings – Aristotelian Edition

I was really excited for service yesterday.  Sometimes that happens.  God does not always tell us what is going to take place but our spirit will bear witness that God is up to something. 

Sergio lead worship.  I did not know he was leading worship till I got to church.  Funny that as the church grows how these things happen more and more.  It is good and bad (mostly good).  It is great that God has grown me as a leader to where I don’t need to be in every decision and know the details of everything that is happening.  It is not as great in the fact that sometimes there is stuff I really would like to know before it happens.

Figuring out which is which and developing systems for information flow is the next step.

In this instance it is not that big of a deal.  Sergio is a licensed minister, was our worship leader for a long time and is a son of the house and most importantly, I trust him and our current worship leader Khamille (who happens to be his wife). 

In any event Sergio did a great job. You can watch a video of it here.

I finished up the I Am Your Sign series.  Yes I know Sean Smith has a book out the same title.  No the series is not titled after the book.  The phrase predates me.  I have not read the book but plan to.  Sean Smith is great and I hope to have him speak at The Mission Delray one day.

I talked about how, as a reaction to the shift away from a Platonic worldview in the Arab world, Thomas Aquinas wrote Summa Theologica with a more Aristotelian world view causing a reliance on teleological evidence of God’s existence away from what I would call a faith based evidence.  In my opinion that is not a great thing.  You can watch a video of it here.

The lights decided to turn off and on randomly.  That was kind of interesting.  Instantly my son pointed a flashlight me. Why did Isaac have a flashlight?  That’s Isaac.

There are things we will do that make no earthly sense but we have to do them anyway.  Nevertheless we still have to judge the fruit of these actions.

What does that have to do with baptism?  See Romans 6.

I don’t preach baptismal regeneration but Acts 2:38 is in the bible for a reason.

Had an altar call.  Had first time visitors come, answer the altar call, get water baptized, and get filled with the Holy Ghost. 

Some churches give out free books or a coffee mug to fist time visitors.  We give the Holy Ghost and fire. Here is a little example here.

I don’t know the exact number but we had ten or so first time baptisms.

Had a whole bunch of them get the Holy Ghost when they came up out of the water.  I kind of live for that.

I have a leaders dinner tonight. That is going to be fun but I have a ton to do between now and then.  Later.

Blogging and Blog Reading Tips

Blog Reading

This is going to be down and dirty.  There are a TON of resources that say the same things.

The only logical way to read more than a blog or two is to use an RSS reader.  This is a place where all the blogs you want to read will show up on one site. 

It would take longer to explain how that works then it would for you to just follow these steps.

Go to Google Reader.

Log in with your Google account.

Copy the website address of the blog you like to read, click the big red SUBSCRIBE button on the top right of the google reader page.  Paste it in there and hit add.  Now whenever a new article is posted to that blog, it will show up on this page. 

Really?  Really.

This way you can follow way more blogs then you have time to read.

Blog Writing

I use Windows Live Writer for writing my blog posts.  It’s free.  I find it way better than using the web interface of my blogging software.

The other benefit is that it has spell check just like Word and you can set it up to do all kinds of other great things.

It will automatically upload pictures.

Do those two things and leave a comment if it works or doesn’t. 

Monday Morning Musings–What Was That? Edition

I had a great Thanksgiving this past week  Had some folks over the house and hung out after having a great meal.

Because of the holiday we did not have Friday Setup / Prayer.  I think we paid for that.

Here is a pic of Samantha feeding breakfast to Courtney’s son while she rehearses with the worship team.

It seemed a little like folks were still having a turkey nap in the middle of worship.  I decided to go up and wake folks up a little.

Speaking of worship, did you see Stefano’s new guitar? 

While I am talking about it, Let me tell you one reason I love the Barbosas.  Khamille got a new tablet.  Not an iPad, a Galaxy.  We are an Android church. Other folks need to line up with the anointing.

We had communion at the end of worship.  It was a really good time.  We try to do it once a month but it winds up being a little farther apart than that.  We received the elements then folks broke into groups and received it together.

Here is the Christmas Party Trailer.  Pretty funny I think.

Had some neat testimonies.  Here is Brandon, Here is Lillian.  Brandon got healed a few months ago.  Last week he went out with the evangelism ministry and saw God use him to heal people.  That’s what it’s all about.  Lillian received a miracle.  She had ultrasounds results to prove it.

I felt the strongest word of knowledge for healing specifically in the right glandular / ovary area.  We prayed for lots of people.  I have no idea if anyone got healed.  Trusting they did.

It would be really cool to be known as the church with an anointing for reproductive system healing.  We definitely want to be a fertile church.

Healing is part of the the Gospel.  It is impossible to prove it is not solely using Scripture.

Jesus is the light of men, we are the light of the world.  Taught on being a light to the world. 

In the middle folks just started wandering around the service.  It was kind of bizarre.  We have consistently prayed that God would bring the disenfranchised.  He has.  We have to figure how to handle it.

We never set to be a church for church folks, we want to be a church for folks that don’t go to church.  It’s not always pretty but it brings God glory.

After service hung out with some fellas and watched football.  I love watching football.  I rarely get to watch it.

Today is my son’s birthday.  Today is my day off and we played Twister.  It was a gift for his birthday from his sister.  btw, I am the Twister champ of this house.

Found Some More Pics from Voice of the Apostles

Went to VOA last month.  Read about it here.  Here are more pics.  Forgot to get pictures of my wife’s amazing Thanksgiving meal.

People I am Thankful for that I Haven’t Actually Met

It’s Thanksgiving and it is customary to state what we are thankful for.  It goes without saying I am eternally grateful for my salvation (literally).  I am thankful for my wife Tracey and my wonderful kids Isaac and Anastasia.  I am also thankful to have such an amazing spiritual family God has given me the great privilege to lead.  I am deeply humbled and give thanks for having such incredible spiritual sons and daughters.

But instead of going into all that I wanted to say a formal “Thank You” to people I don’t actually know.  This list is not exhaustive but represents some of the folks who have poured into my life and have not gotten anything in return.  I am fully aware they most likely will not actually read this post.  Nevertheless here it goes:

Steven Penn – Father of my bride. Can’t wait to see your mansion.

Peter – For giving me an endless supply of preaching material from his message on the feast of weeks.

Reinhard Bonnke for showing me it is not possible to dream too big.  Proof?  Lagos prayer for the Baptism in the Holy Ghost.

Mel Tari – Like a Mighty Wind.  Haven’t read it?  And you call yourself a revivalist? I read this book when I first got really hungry for a move of God.

Leonard Ravenhill – Why Revival Tarries

Charles Finney – One page of his autobiography would be an endless stream of videos, emails, and pleas for support today.  Finney just collected souls.  Finney’s relentless quest for souls and genuine conversion stamped my early walk in a way that won’t let me compromise in my ministry.

John Arnott – I went to Voice of the Apostles last month. It is the Revival Alliance conference basically.  Their tie?  Toronto.  I saw their worship leaders Jeremy and Connie Sinnott in south Florida and it completely changed my life.  I met him and told him as much but surely lots and lots of people have told him the same.

Barak Obama – We have a President that has repeatedly told his story of conversion to Christ, his baptism, and the baptism of his children.  In that sense I don’t think we have ever had a President that evangelical.  That should be enough, but when he talked about how his mother would wake up early to prepare him for school tests it challenged me as a parent.  There is not enough of that in America today.  (Most Christians feel they must qualify positive statements about our President.  I feel no such pressure. Be offended if you want.)

The 400 folks who download The Mission Delray podcast each week – The people of The Mission may come Sunday morning for my good looks but you can’t get that on the podcast.  You make me think I am preaching something worth listening to.

What about you?  Who are you thankful for?

If I Disciple You, Do This

Discipleship assignment:

If I disciple you then you have to watch the message Banning Liebscher preached at Bethel in Redding this week.  He put into words something I have been trying to teach for years. 

The message is titled “Build the Wall.”

Here is the video:

http://www.ibethel.tv/watch/1159/build-the-wall/2011/11/20

If you want the audio of it, here is the recording

http://www.ibethel.org/podcast/2011/11/21/build-the-wall

itunes fanboy?

http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/bethel-church-sermon-week/id76583739#

Monday Morning Musings–Middle of the Night Edition

Right now I am laying on my couch at 2 in the morning typing this on my Kindle Fire. The fact my laptop is in reach yet I am choosing to type on this touchpad should be an indicator of my emotional state right now.

Sunday was another wild ride. I could not get any kind of focus or clarity on my message. I got together what I had and went into worship.  This may sound odd but sometimes God will give me a bunch of facts and then before I go to preach He gives me revelation.  At that moment I understand how all the facts he gave me fit together and how that fits into what He is trying to do in and through us.  Sometimes I will not get that revelation or understanding until I begin to walk up to the podium. 

This week we were half way through worship, I was face down on the ground worshiping Jesus when Holy Spirit began to speak to me.  He spoke three scriptures and in an instant I knew what He wanted me to say.

I would much rather get on the mic with a message then a sermon.

The message was as much for me as anyone in the room.

Khamille has done an amazing job with worship. 

I have been receiving some amazing prophetic words recently.

What is that picture I posted?  Well, you see Khamille leading worship?  See that guy standing with his hands raised?  He is standing on a chair.  No, nothing wrong with the guy.  He is married, has two adult children that love Jesus.  That’s the kind of church we are.

After service had a great lunch with some friends at the mall in Boynton.  While we were there got a word of knowledge for a pregnant lady with a blood issue.  That was cool.

Setup is today.

Podcast and videos are up.  Find links on the website of The Mission Delray.

A Tale of Two Venues – Jesus Culture Twice in One Month

I saw Jesus Culture twice in one month.  The first was at Voice of the Apostles and the second was at The Rock of Gainesville.

Watch the videos to see the difference.

Another Reason Why The Mission Delray is the Coolest Church in South Florida

At the Mission Delray we are a multi-cultural, Spirit-filled church.  Here is one manifestation of that.

Intercession in Spanish, English, Creole, Portuguese.