A legit healing no BS (New York Deli Style)

A legit healing no BS (New York Deli style)

My new favorite eatery is the New York Deli in Redlands. I mean really legit food. If you love middle eastern food, I highly recommend the joint. Great Phillycheese steak. Seriously could eat there everyday. Really cheap.

A few weeks back I struck up a conversation with a young Syrian girl who works there. I noticed she had a nasty red look in her eyes. You know, that bloodshot look when you have pink eye. I asked her if I could pray for her. Awkward was the feelin I got from her, but she relented and allowed me to pray.

This past Saturday I was there in the evening, and one of the other servers told my wife that I prayed for this young girl. She told us that the next day the eye infection was gone! Marie is the server who was telling my wife and I that she thought it was a bunch of bull @#%% when she heard that I prayed for the young girl. Marie is part Turkish and part Greek, and was dropping the BS word right and left. She finally told me she had a horrible infection in her fingernail but didn’t believe all this healing BS. As I was leaving I asked her if I could pray for her finger. As I took her arm, I prayed as tears formed in her eyes. I asked Father to reveal His love through this as a sign of His love for her. Marie was speechless.

Can’t wait for this Tuesday and my chicken caesar wrap to see what Jesus has done in Marie.

Chow,

Mike

ReJesus

ReJesus

Spent most of my morning yesterday at Cal State interacting with college students. What really caught my attention was the interest there is with the person of Jesus. I enjoyed a conversation with 2 young Latinos who ironically had heard me speak recently at a gathering of Latino churches.

One of the two asked me what it meant by following Jesus? How can we follow someone who we can’t see? Great question I responded!

What does it mean to follow? Is it rules? Is it a creed? Is it going to church?

I find the later statement interesting. When I asked these 2 young Latino’s if they knew Jesus, they both responded “that they went to church”.

Spending some time reading a book by Alan Hirsch called “ReJesus”, Also reading the Gospel of Mark in tandem with ReJesus. I am wondering have we lost touch with Jesus? Just sayin..........Have we substituted our passion for church, doctrine, witnessing(whatever that is), you fill in the blank? As Larry Crabb says “ the only passion that will not destroy us is our passion for Jesus”. Thoughts?

Mike

Interested in God Not Religion?

Amazing day today at Cal State San Bernardino. The title above were some 150 plus cards we passed out today as myself, Iz, Jared, Brit, Jen, and Rebecca had interaction with a few hundred students.

Really eye opening. A young man approached me and poured his heart regarding his mental health. He stated he has cried out to God. Wants to know more about Jesus.

2 young Latino freshmen asked me about what it means to follow Jesus and could I teach them. Really cool stuff!

After 3 hours of interaction, prayer, and some rejection. LOL. I find it interesting that Christians want to know what church you are from, Catholics say they are interested in Jesus and Religion, other very humorously hostile professed to being humanist. The secular kind one young man professed. I questioned one young man over what it meant to be an atheist as he was running away.

All in all great when over 150 people agreed to pray for their campus, their friends, their professors, and yes even Obama. We desire to see a Jesus/prayer movement Saturate the campuses of Southern California and then the nation, then the world.

A massive prayer meeting is in the making.

Peace,

Mike

24, Jack Bauer, and Something to Die For

24, Jack Bauer, and Something to die for.

This past summer after dealing with the already-seen reruns and the great bore, baseball, Kathy and I decided to take on the 24 series on DVD. Now I had heard much concerning the show starring Keifer Sutherland. Being a self-confessed “Lost” fan, I knew that not much could steal my loyalty. Well, it is with much hoopla that I confess that 24 has stolen my affections. Action, drama, great acting, excellent writing...to say the least. Even on vacation Kathy and I were saying, “ Just one more episode” which sometimes would take us into like 3 in the morning. “Addicting” was a comment from a friend, “Guilty” I confessed.

Jack Bauer is a rogue agent for CTU(counter terrorism unit) always on mission to save the world from some terrorist threat. In season 6 Jack is released from a Chinese prison in which he has been in holding for 18 months. His release comes with a great price; he is released under one condition. He is placed into the hands of a terrorist whose family was killed by Bauer. Jack’s associates are heart broken when handing him over to a terrorist cell who have in their possession a nuclear device which could be detonated in Los Angeles. What follows is a heart wrenching exchange between Bill Buchanan (who is the head of CTU) and Jack. Bill apologizing for what seems to be certain death for Bauer, Buchanan is in agony for the many times Jack has sacrificed for his country. He even questions Jack regarding why he didn’t give information to the Chinese government so he could be released from torture and imprisonment.

Jack Bauer’s response was chilling to me and the purpose of this writing. He declared to Buchanan these words: “If I would have died in China it would have been for nothing. I want to die for something”.

Now you’re thinking this is another article about dying for Jesus, right? Wrong! We Christ followers here in the west know little or nothing about this subject. So no, I’m not talking about giving your life for Jesus. This isn’t about things that are really worth dying for. Think about that for minute! Death! Dying! Sounds romantic, huh? Not to me. What about you? Something or nothing? My translation is what is worth living for!

Often in western Christendom we hear a lot about loyalty and commitment. Many things are asked of us to define our loyalties: sign this card, take this class, give a 100% commitment, tithe, show up on Sunday, invite your friends. This is how this is translated. This is how we define commitment.

I find this interesting. Jesus never talked about these kind of things. NOT at all. He defined a life of loyalty by the willingness to lay your life down for your friends, caring for widows and orphans, taking the good news to the poor. Rubbing shoulders with the outcast. Being like Him. Doing what He did. Alan Hirsch calls it the “conspiracies of the little Jesus’”.

Through His death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus became the reigning King. He is worth living for! When we began to demand loyalty to organizations, clergy, and churches, we usurp the place of the rightful King. When we demand loyalty from God’s people and define it by anything that isn’t producing Christlikeness, we become idolatrous. Men build their own kingdoms and define loyalty by how committed people are to their agenda.

Then, when their kingdom is threatened, they place unrealistic demands on God’s people. As Peter wrote in his epistle “The stone the builders rejected has now become the Cornerstone”. Scathing! We actually can build something in the name of Jesus and reject him in the process.

When Christians see Jesus as Lord, the idols of comfort and security and safety and convenience are severely tested. Jesus as Lord meant something to first century believers. It was a call to live the Life. That, my friends, is something to die for.

For the Quest,

Mike