Prayer As Mission

“The only thing that will change this place is prayer.”

A Call To Anguish – David Wilkerson

Take 7 minutes and watch this whole video!

Break me oh God!!

I want to be a man of prayer that You baptize in anguish… to be broken for the lost, the broken, the hurt, the rejected!!

Daddy’s Little Angels

Juliana Sheree

Jett Anthony

Maci Raine

I love how peaceful they look…

I love how much they all look like each other…

Although these times are much needed, what happens when they’re all awake, and it gets crazy, and they all want me at the same time… that’s what makes life fun!!

40 Day Feast

Yesterday we started a 40 Day Feast here in Pensacola!! I’ll just let Arnie explain. Here’s some of the post check out his blog for the rest of it!

You probably read the title of this post and thought, “didn’t you mean 40 day fast?” No, it’s all about the feast! I was working out last Friday morning and I felt the Holy Spirit drop something in my heart. He reminded of when Jesus was lead into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and He had been fasting. However,  He came out of that wilderness time with great power to do the work the Father had called him to do. So, let me explain how the 40 day feast fits into the assignment the Harbor has been given from the Lord…. Click Here for the rest…

No Thanks, I’ve Already Eaten…

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.

How can we truly HUNGER for more of Jesus in our lives, if we are continually filling ourselves up with things that don’t matter?

After we eat, we’re not hungry anymore. Common sense right?

I know I’ve sang the words, “We are hungry for more of You, We are thirsty oh Jesus, We are thirsty for more of You”, and they were just that… words. It was kind of like the picture above, I really wasn’t hungry anymore, cause I had my fill of other things, but I knew I needed to force it down to win some sort of prize.

Let’s be real…

If your spiritual belly is already full, then where’s the room for feasting on God?

Am I really hungry for more of Jesus in my life?

Here’s another way to ask this question.

What made me happy this week?

Was it the time spent alone with Jesus in prayer? Was it the time spent in His life giving Word? Was it the opportunity you took to serve someone, and not be served? To show someone unconditional love, the way Christ loves us?

Or did your joy this week mainly come from a shopping trip, getting that new CD, or finally beating that level on that video game you’ve spent countless hours in front of? Did it come from proving your point to someone, or winning an argument?

Here are some questions (taken from the book “The Vision and The Vow”) to help you gauge your spiritual hunger:

• Am I craving, and so creating, time alone with Jesus in prayer?
• Is He more important to me than my partner, my family, and my friends?
• Do I find Christ’s name on my lips throughout the day, or only in overtly sacred contexts?
• Is he my last thought at night and my first in the morning as I stumble into the bathroom?
• Do I make time to pore over His biography?
• Is my prayer life garrisoned into occasional blocks of time, or do I find myself conversing with Him about ridiculous trivia throughout the day?

I encourage you to DAILY evaluate your life, your time. It’s so easy to get caught up in so many other things, and before we know it, time with Jesus is just part of a list of things to do. And that’s if He even makes the list.

Let’s get completely captivated by His gaze. Let Him consume who we are. Let’s lay down the things that fill us up and keep us from being hungry for more of Him.

I’m So Comfortable…

Why is it that we choose almost everything in life based on our comforts? Probably because it just feels good. We wouldn’t want to sit in a brick recliner right? I get that.

Here’s the thing though… We cannot view being a Christ follower the same way! We cannot view church, or being the Church that way.

Why do we think we can reach the world, or for that matter, our neighbor by being comfortable within the four walls of our churches? I’ve heard this statement too many times, and it has got to stop!

“We go to this church, or we’ve chosen this denomination because it’s where we feel the most comfortable…”

Even if we wouldn’t actually say that out loud, we too often show it with our actions. We won’t go to this church because they’re too charismatic and they speak in tongues… OUT LOUD! Or, we don’t go to this church because the pastor didn’t talk to us after the service. Or, we do go to this church because the worship pastor sounds like Chris Tomlin…

Pick your poison, but the fact is, it always comes back to our comforts. Too many people in the church have gotten to the place where they don’t want to be pushed out their comfort zone. If you don’t allow yourself to be pushed out of your comfort zone, you’ll never make a difference in this world!
Do you think the early church was comfortable when they were out changing the world? NO! They were too busy getting stoned to death, chopped in half, and hung on crosses.

If you are truly going OUT to the hurting, the broken, the displaced, the violent, the addicted, the strung out, the forgotten, the world, I can promise you this… it won’t be comfortable.

The Vision

So, I’m reading this book called “The Vision and The Vow”. I read “Red Moon Rising” a couple years back, they are both written by Pete Greig. I know most of you have probably seen this already, but I really felt like I needed to share.

I won’t try to add my own thoughts… Just read…

________________________________________________

“So this guy comes up to me and says, “What’s the vision? What’s the big idea?” I open my mouth, and the words come out like this…

The vision?

The vision is Jesus:

obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones?

I see an army.

And they are free from materialism–

they laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could

eat caviar on Monday and crust on Tuesday

They wouldn’t even notice. They know the

meaning of the Matrix.

the way the West was won.

They are mobile like the wind,

they belong to the nations,

they need no passport.

People write their addresses in pencil

and wonder at their strange existence.

They are free

yet they are slaves

of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the vision? The vision is holiness

that hurts the eyes.

It makes children laugh and adults angry.

It gave up the game of minimum integrity

Long ago to reach for the stars.

It scorns the good and strains for the best.

It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers

from every secret motive,

every private conversation.

It loves people away from their suicide leaps,

their Satan games.

This is an army

that would lay down its life for the cause.

A million times a day

Its soldiers choose to lose that they might

one day win the great

“Well done” of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical

on Monday morning as Sunday night.

They don’t need fame from names.

Instead they grin quietly upwards

and hear the crowds chanting again and again:

“COME ON!”

And this is the sound of the

underground, the whisper of history

in the making, foundation shaking,

revolutionaries dreaming once again.

Mystery is scheming in whispers,

conspiracy is breathing…This is the

sound of the underground

And the army is discipl(in)ed–

young people who beat their bodies into

submission. Every soldier would take a

bullet for his comrade at arms.

The tattoo on their back boasts

“for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Sacrifice fuels the fire

of victory in their upward eyes.

Winners.

Martyrs.

Who can stop them? Can hormones hold

them back? Can failure succeed?

Can fear scare them or death kill them?

And the generation prays

Like a dying man with groans beyond

talking, with warrior cries,

sulphuric tears and

great barrow loads of laughter!

Waiting.

Watching:

24-7-365.

Whatever it takes they will give:

Breaking the rules,

shaking mediocrity from its cozy little

hide,

laying down their rights and their precious

little wrongs,

laughing at labels,

fasting essentials.

The advertisers cannot mold them.

Hollywood cannot hold them.

Peer-pressure is powerless

to shake their resolve

at late-night parties

before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool,

dangerously attractive (on the inside).

On the outside? They hardly care!

They wear clothes like costumes:

to communicate and celebrate

but never to hide.

Would they surrender their image or their

popularity? They would lay down their

very lives, swap seats with the man on

death row, guilty as hell:

a throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears,

with sleepless nights and fruitless

days,

they pray as if it all depends on God

and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses Jesus

(He breathes out, they breathe in).

Their subconscious sings.

They had a blood transfusion with

Jesus.

Their words make demons scream

in shopping malls. Don’t you hear

them coming?

Herald the weirdos!

Summon the losers and the freaks.

Here come the frightened and

forgotten

with fire in their eyes!

They walk tall and trees applaud,

skyscrapers bow,

mountains are dwarfed

by these children of another

dimension.

Their prayers summon the Hound of

Heaven and invoke the ancient dream

of Eden.

And this vision will be.

It will come to pass;

it will come easily;

it will come soon.

How do i know?

Because this is the longing of creation

itself, the groaning of the Spirit,

the very dream of God.

My tomorrow is His today.

My distant hope is His 3-D.

And my feeble,

whispered,

faithless prayer

invokes a thunderous,

resounding,

bone-shaking

great “Amen!”

from countless angels,

from heroes of the faith,

from Christ Himself.

And He is the original dreamer,

the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.“

Playin’ At The Beach!

My Mom and little sister are in town to visit, and help us get adjusted to life with 3 kids! It’s been so awesome to have them here in FL hangin’! Of course we had to go to the beach, and we will probably go again before they leave.

Here are my little beach bums playing with their Auntie Faith!

Maci Raine Chavez!! (Pics)

Here she is! Our beautiful, amazing, Maci Raine! (we ended up changing the spelling at the last minute) She was born Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 12:12pm. She weighed a whopping 10lb 6oz at 20 inches long!

Everything went amazing! Mommy did sooo good, I am so proud of her! I’m not sure how she fit a 10+ lb baby inside of her, but I’m pretty sure I owe her big time!! The delivery went extremely well, she was in labor for about 5 hours… that’s the shortest of all three.

So, here we are… 3 kids, and two of us… Alisha and I are outnumbered now! We’re so excited, and a little nervous, for what the future holds! I feel so humbled and honored to be able to be part of the miracle of life! God is so good to us!

Here are some more pics… Obviously there will be more to come! I’ll try to post some video soon too!

The Night Before!

As I sit here tonight trying to gather my thoughts… I feel like I can’t find the right words.

 

God has been more than amazing to me and my family.

I have an absolutely incredible wife.

I have been given two amazing children.

We are about to have our third child.

I just feel so blessed!

I don’t deserve it, God just pours out His goodness and love on me.

 

Tomorrow morning we go into the hospital for Alisha to be induced. I can’t believe that we’ve been able to play a part in bringing life into this world… three times!

I can’t wait to meet little Maci Rain! I can’t wait to show her to the world!

Until then, here’s a little trip down memory lane. We had just had Jett, and gone to get Juliana’s ears pierced. (video for rss readers)

more about “The Night Before“, posted with vodpod