Revolution of Ordinaries

Has God called you to something you feel ill-equipped for? This post is for you!

God often calls those who feel ill-equipped:
- Moses (wasn't a good speaker, called to speak to Pharaoh)
- David (found tending sheep)
- Gideon (least in his family)
- Jeremiah (said he was too young)
- Isaiah (said he was too sinful)
- Jonah (didn't want to)

Here's the key - God doesn't call you because you know you are ready. God calls you because you can trust Him to empower and direct the effort. If God calls you, be available and willing to say "Yes" to what God directs you to.

The result will be an impact that is 100X what a "qualified" person could do without God's help!

Now, one more thing to assure you that you have all you need to get started as God helps you along the way:
- Holy Spirit's help (John 14:26)
- The church - a body of believers who can partner and assist (Eph 4:16)
- The Bible to give you insight, direction and encouragement (2 Tim 3:16-17)
- Prayer - a direct line of communication with the all powerful, all knowing and all loving God (James 1:5)
- Grace to help you when goof things up! (2 Cor 12:9)
- The authority and presence of Jesus who goes with us (Matt 28:18-20)

It may be time to say yes and press on if God has called you to something and you keep hitting the brakes! This yes is especially needed if your hangup is your on insufficiency - that humility might just be what is needed to be someone God can direct!

1 day ago | [YT] | 11

Revolution of Ordinaries

I said I would do some posts that may stretch your view of things...so here goes...

Demons.

I grew up very unaware on this topic. I lumped it in with the miracles that I no longer thought happened like they used to.

But boy was I wrong!

And if you don't understand what I am about to share (not that I am an expert) a few things will likely happen:

1 - You will get blindsided by a spiritual attack that you have no idea that is what is happening.

2 - If you have no idea that is what is happening, you won't fight it appropriately. You will fight it secularly, meaning you will try fight the wrong things the wrong way. You will fight by your own strength.

3 - That means that often these attacks go on much longer than they might otherwise if you had eyes to see it for what it is and then the means to fight it appropriately.

First, some experiences and then some scriptures to help prepare you. This will be a longer read, so buckle up...it will be worth it if it can even save you one or two go arounds in these battles.

The first experience I had that I knowingly understood to be a demonic attack was with a young lady who came to our church in Bakersfield. One day, she was in the church office and our office administrator Pam asked me to come and help. This young lady went off the rails...screaming, going crazy...speaking in weird ways. I was pretty stunned, having never seen anything like this. If she was faking, she deserved three two oscars - one for her and one for her fake demon personality impression.

We began to rebuke this demon in the name of Jesus, telling the demon to leave and leave her alone. She calmed down. She was eventually baptized and to my knowledge never had this happen again.

Second, was when N.T. Wright came to Pepperdine in 2016, I asked him his view on the essentiality of baptism and one of his key points was that people who undergo demonic attack no longer do once they are baptized and that aligned with my above experience and also got me thinking that either he has seen some things or knows of things but either way, he believe this happens.

My third encounter is one I am not yet comfortable to share due to the people involved out of respect to them but it was a very rough few years of persecution that we went through.

Fourth, a few months ago Missy went on a retreat and that Tuesday night, I was in bed and the room felt dark...not just the absence of light...just bad dark. Heavy. Spiritually bad. It is hard to explain but the hair on your arms goes up and something is off. I realized this felt demonic and all of a sudden out of my mouth came the words, "What is your name?" Well, that got me stressed...what would happen next? Would I hear a name or what I? I decided to go right to sleep and avoid the whole thing. Well, 6am I awoke with a very loud word in my head, "Delilah!" It was so loud and strong that it woke me up. I thought, "Oh no...nope...go back to sleep." Then I heard, "Hey Matt!"

Missy came back from her trip and was telling me about it and said that one weird thing was that on Tuesday night (same night) she felt that the room felt heavy and dark and realized that maybe it was demonic.

Something happened a few weeks after this that I am not quite ready to share that tied into all of this that was quite frightening. Maybe I will share that one sometime.

Last story. When we started the second home church we had prayed for God to send us a leader for the second church. Within a week I got a call from a local person asking for help starting a home church. We prayed walked his neighborhood and when we finished I felt a strong need to warn him about spiritual attack. I told him that working for Jesus in his neighborhood is like Mark 3 - the strong man, taking people from Satan's house and that Satan won't like it and be prepared to have a bullseye on your back. That was a Saturday in February of 2023. The next Wednesday he texted me "I think I'm in trouble." I called him and he said that he had regular scans and this scan picked up something that showed a tumor on his liver and pancreas and that he thought he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. It turns out that is exactly what he had and it was aggressive. Long story but lots of fasting and prayer and now, over 3 years later he is doing really, really well. The doctors have no explanation for how well he is doing!

Why does this matter and let's point to some scriptures:

1 - I think we are going to see more of this as the West wakes up! And as the churches/Christians in America wake up, we will be more dangerous to Satan. So far he has been able to be sneaky and subtle. But as we get more in tune he will be more direct.

2 - If you don't believe in this stuff and it happens to you, you will have no idea what it is or what to do.

3 - This can mean we are on the right track...that Satan sees you as a threat.

4 - If you haven't experienced this or didn't know what it was that doesn't make you any more or less than anyone else.

Scripture teaches us how to fight this.

David Young once said that if you go into a spiritual battle without the help of the Holy Spirit it is like going into trench warfare in WWI armed with a potato.

First, we turn to Jesus.
- Matthew 4 - 40 days of fasting and prayer prepared Jesus for his encounter with Satan. Jesus demonstrated that the path through spiritual attack is fasting, prayer and full dependence on God. Additionally, Jesus was led into that wilderness by the Holy Spirit. Being Spirit led and sensitive to the Spirit is essential. If you don't believe the Spirit does anything anymore, you are going to be toast in this area. Not helpless but in real trouble and possibly for much longer/intense than would be otherwise.
- Transfiguration - when they come down the mountain a spiritual battle had been going on. A father had a son who had a demon the disciples couldn't cast out. Jesus said some only come out through prayer, some manuscripts say fasting and prayer.

Next, Paul
- Ephesians 6 is key here. Expect a fight. God gives the armor. Stand firm.

Last, there are no magic words to say in these moments but I will say speaking in the name of Jesus is powerful...demons have no authority over us. They don't have God's power. But we can welcome them into our lives and harbor them for a very long time, especially if we don't believe this sort of thing goes on.

Ever had any experiences? What light can you shed on this? What advice would you give?

6 days ago | [YT] | 31

Revolution of Ordinaries

What do you do with the kids?

This question comes up relentlessly in small groups and home churches.

Many of us have tried countless approaches from full inclusion in the gathering to all sorts of other options.

If you wrestle with this question, this is for you - home-church-resources.circle.so/c/public-discussio…

1 week ago | [YT] | 5

Revolution of Ordinaries

Time for a little something different - a monologue on the amazing nature of our God! This video pulls together a few strands from scripture and comparative ancient religions to shed light on the God who is both transcendant and immanent!

https://youtu.be/5775tOiK0Mo

Thanks for watching!

1 week ago | [YT] | 1

Revolution of Ordinaries

I once heard a preacher say he hadn't changed his mind on anything in the Bible in decades...well, that's a serious problem!

We certainly want to hold onto the core teachings of scripture.

But in many areas, we have room to grow deeper in our understanding of the Bible. Before we can appreciate new depths of learning, there are a few things that can help us along the way!

Here are 20 things that can assist you in changing your mind to a healthier view of scripture in rapid fire - https://youtu.be/q0Z724Uh6TA

1 week ago | [YT] | 3

Revolution of Ordinaries

With all the hoopla churches do to attract people, one question needs to be asked consistently to avoid all the ridiculous showboating - youtube.com/shorts/4N_q6z76Vy8

Glad you are here!

1 week ago | [YT] | 0

Revolution of Ordinaries

The "Greatest Generation" came back from war and planted churches all over the place in the 40s, 50s and 60s.

And we have been in these churches our entire lives...churches that others started. Largely churches that others maintain.

Those churches are dying.

What will replace them? Who will start new things?

Will we wait on someone else to do it, who so far hasn't shown up, or will we be the generation that does something about it?

And by doing something about it I don't mean do exactly what they did, rather do things that maintain the core truths of scripture and apply them to our day and time.

This will result in more diverse expressions of "church" that will be authentic, impactful and highly participatory.

Whose in?

1 week ago | [YT] | 14

Revolution of Ordinaries

I want to point you to a tremendously great resource on the early church and the Sunday gathering - Tom Wadsworth

His YouTube channel is one of the best ones around and I hope you will go to it and subscribe to it.

If there is one video to watch that will absolutely stretch you and get some huge lightbulbs going off in regard to the Christian assembly and "worship" it is the video - "Why the Early Church Didn't Have Worship Services - 7 videos in 1."

It will blow your mind!

Here is his channel - youtube.com/@tomwadsworth

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 9

Revolution of Ordinaries

Three things you need to know about baptism...

First - Greek Verb Voice
In Koine Greek there is something called a verb "voice" - active, middle and passive. An active voice is something you do. A passive voice is something done to you.

Baptism in the Greek New Testament is in passive voice - "be baptized".

It was in the active voice, it would be, "Baptize yourself".

You don't baptize yourself. It is done to you physically by another person and spiritually by God.

Second - what about repentance?
Here is where it gets interesting...I have heard it a million times - baptism cannot be necessary because it is a work and we aren't saved by works.

Then they go on to say but you must repent to be saved.

So here you have someone saying that baptism, the passive verb, isn't necessary because it is a work and we aren't saved by works but repentance, which is something you do yourself, is needed to be saved!

A work is something that is done for a wage...the reality is neither baptism nor repentance are done for a wage. They are both done in faith and in response to God telling us to do these things.
Both can be necessary without being a work just like faith is necessary but no one calls it a work - all three are responses of a heart turning to God, not works trying to get an eternal salvation paycheck.

If you go into your baptism trying to force God to save you, I don't think you are seeing baptism correctly...you are seeing it as a work to merit salvation and the same with repentance.

Third - the criminal on the cross...
Last, the criminal on the cross...people bring him up all the time and before I give what they are missing, I will give where they are right - Jesus can forgive whoever he wants. Jesus can save whoever he wants. Jesus is God.

And...

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't do what he said because he made an exception for this other guy...an attitude that says, "Well he made an exception for this other guy, therefore I don't have to do what he directly commanded me to do"...is way off course and not of faith.

And besides, the guy on the cross wasn't even alive when Christian baptism started. You cannot say Christian baptism is unnecessary because a guy was saved without it before it was even in existence.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 14

Revolution of Ordinaries

Jesus, truth and online debates with strangers

Jesus said the truth will set you free.

Pharisees don't see truth as a way to be free. They see truth as a way to trap you.

If someone is trying to trap you, they are probably not interested in truth.

If someone is trying to guilt you into a debate, they probably are not interested in truth (even though they will swear up and down they are and go to all manner of lengths to prove it).

If someone is trying to compare themself to you to manipulate you to step further into the conversation, don't do it!

Sometimes the truth will lead you out of a conversation or debate rather than further into one.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 14