trying out a new way for our congregation @calvaryhanford to stay connected during the week.
enjoy.
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/5983483[/vimeo]
tomorrow night @ignite we’re starting a verse-by-verse study on the book of Ezekiel.
this is the series background that i’ve worked up.
the title is taken from Ezekiel 36.26.
feedback?
Sabal was a businessman who always had new ideas for success, but his drinking problem ensured that they all failed.
With each new endeavor he borrowed more money from his friends to get the business running, and he soon found himself bankrupt.
Sabal never panicked. Like any good businessman, he had a back-up plan to pay off his debts and, perhaps, start another business. This time it was a farming venture. His crop was small, but he was certain the high-demand plant would give him a large return come harvest time. All he had to do was wait.
Before long, though, the crop was attacked by pests. This time Sabal was out of ideas. As he watched the leaves of the thriving plants turn yellow, Sabal began to lose hope. Pastor Jaideep, a Gospel for Asia–supported missionary, arrived in the village just in time.
Sabal asked the pastor to pray for the dying plants, and within a few days, God healed them. The leaves became healthy and green, and Sabal was able to pay back all his debts. He gave his life to the God who had saved him from ruin, and built a tower in his field where he prayed for hours.
The change in him was impossible to ignore, and his friends and neighbors became jealous when they saw the great blessings taking place in his life. As Sabal prayed for his neighbors, many of them chose to receive Christ, too.
One day, Sabal invited Jaideep to a prayer meeting with three other pastors, and 50 believers came.
When a group of religious fanatics heard praises to the Lord coming from Sabal’s house, they tried to disrupt the meeting by throwing sand, stones and clay at the believers. One even grabbed Sabal’s neck and threatened to kill him, but the believers ignored the commotion and continued to pray.
After an hour, the fanatics realized they weren’t having any effect, and they left. The Christians thanked God for His favor and mercy. They knew God had protected them, just like He protected Sabal’s plants.
blessings and maranatha
so, we’re italian.
and happily so.
being italian means that i must have an uncle tony.
i do.
here he is:
i always knew that tony had, in his youth, done some recording and performing under the moniker of tony penn.
no…not this tony penn:
not this one either:
the one from the first picture (there is much to be thankful for).
i remember growing up we had an old cassette of some of tony’s music. other than that i didn’t know too much.
then one day, while perusing google for any family relations, i stumbled across this listing of PRI Records. as in, Pensiero Records Incorporated.
to answer your question: no, they won’t be signing me any time soon. namely due to lack of existence.
anyhow, this was the extent of my pensiero-recording-history knowledge.
until now.
see, last weekend my mom, dad, sister and niece attended my uncle’s wedding.
not uncle tony’s wedding, a different uncle.
uncle bobby.
while there they were able to catch up with the family a bit.
part of catching up was taking a lot of pictures.
one of those pictures was this one:
notice anything?
if not…look again:
that’s right.
a gold record.
turns out, my uncle tony’s ‘big hit’ entitled A King Or A Fool (released in 1959 and again in 1961) sold 500,000 copies.
five hundred.
thousand.
WHAT?!?
family history was never a big topic with the older pensieros.
a little search of ebay yielded this gem:
and it even came with a sound byte:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
so yeah…my mind is officially blown.
i thought i’d share my fun story.
now it’s time to start getting my hands on some old tony penn vinyls.
+
so, seems to me that summer is one of those times of year where people set out to accomplish some arbitrary goals, like…recarpet their loft or start eating farm fresh or read/finish a book.
if the latter applies to you, then let me heartily suggest one of the free ebooks from Gospel For Asia.
author kp yohannan (who is also the founder/director of gfa) has penned a number of books on a wide variety of topics. his most popular by far is Revolution In World Missions, which you can get free from GFA.
honestly, if you’re looking for a book to read, check out GFA’s resource page, where you’ll find books on a wide variety of topics:
i downloaded A Life Of Balance and am looking forward to putting it in line after the other 4 books i need to read.
and by 4 i mean like….400…
blessings.
last wednesday i did a small segment at our Ignite service which focused on a recent archaeological discovery.
here’s the text:
[ foot shaped enclosures discovered in canaan ]
In Deuteronomy chapter 11, the Lord made a promise to His people. He said:
Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory.
Deuteronomy 11.24
Our God is a God of promises. His promises to us have been proven again and again in many different ways.
They are proven through your transformed life. They are proven through fulfilled prophecy. They are also proven through scientific discovery.
Archaeology is a specific field that is continually proving the stories and promises found in God’s word. As human beings delve deeper into the sciences and the study of our universe, we find again and again that God is true and trustworthy and has gone on record with His plan for mankind.
Remember that promise from Deuteronomy? With that in mind I’d like to share an article with you that was written in April of this year.
ScienceDaily (Apr. 6, 2009) — “Foot-shaped” structures have been revealed in the Jordan valley and are among the earliest sites that archeologists believe were built by the ancient people of Israel. The structures are thought to be symbolic of the biblical concept of ownership.
“The ‘foot’ structures that we found in the Jordan valley are the first sites that the People of Israel built upon entering Canaan and they testify to the biblical concept of ownership of the land with the foot,” said archaeologist Prof. Adam Zertal of the University of Haifa, who headed the excavating team that exposed five compounds in the shape of an enormous “foot” — likely to have been used at that time to mark ownership of territory.
The finding is believed to represent the first time that enclosed sites identified with the biblical sites termed in Hebrew “gilgal”, which were used for assemblies, preparation for battle, and rituals, have been revealed in the Jordan valley. The Hebrew word “gilgal” (a camp or stone-structure), is mentioned thirty-nine times in the Bible. The stone enclosures were located in the Jordan valley and the hill country west of it. To this day, no archaeological site has been proposed to be identified with the gilgal.
Between the years 1990 and 2008, during the Manasseh Hill-Country Survey that covers Samaria and the Jordan Valley, five such enclosures were found and excavated, all designed in the shape of a human foot. The site(s) are believed to date back to the outset of the Iron Age I (the 13th-12th centuries BCE). Based on their size and shape, it is clear that they were used for human assembly and not for animals.
This discovery is really powerful when we read verses like Deuteronomy 11.24, or any of these Old Testament verses:
Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you as I said to Moses.
Joshua 1.3
So Moses swore on that day, saying, “Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.” Joshua 14.9
“In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; and I will not remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers – only if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them.”
2 Chronicles 33.7b-8a
Command the people, saying, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brethren, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore watch yourselves carefully. Do not meddle with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as one footstep.”
Deuteronomy 2.4-5a
What does this mean? Well, we have 2 applications this evening.
The first is to have faith in God. He made promises to His people and they took Him at His word and constructed these foot-shaped enclosures, signifying that they believed and trusted in God. God has made you promises. Promises for your life and your marriage, for your kids and your future. Take Him at His word. Live by faith. Believe and trust in His provision and security and guidance.
The second application is to use discoveries like this one to talk to your unbelieving friends and family and coworkers about the Bible. Talk to them about the promises God has made to mankind. His promise to return for the Church. His promise to judge sin. His promise to save any who are willing and to secure their place in eternity. Then talk to them about these discoveries, which emphatically prove that God’s word is true.
We don’t need any more proof than we have, but God abundantly blesses us with a continual assurance of the truth of His word. Share that proof with the people around you and see how God will transform their lives as they move from darkness to light.
blessings.
well…no you aren’t…
but check out this video wedding invitation.
i just love it. it’s absolutely unique. it’s absolutely excellent. it’s absolutely joyful and thoughtful and was, no doubt, terribly time consuming.
i think i just learned a lesson from corey and rachel.
thanks guys.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KQy_0cS7MM[/youtube]
+
welcome to the internet.
like most people, you’ve been connected for some time. and in that time you have, no doubt, discovered that the wide, wide world of web can be an angry, cynical, unfair, finger-pointing place…even among Christian sites.
some people would like that to change.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
{ Matthew 5.16 }“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
{ John 15.11 }
as God’s people, we are to demonstrate love, not hate. we are to be full of compassion and mercy and forgiveness and joy everywhere we go and in all that we do.
online it’s easy to become someone else. it’s easy to be someone angry, someone spiteful, someone who doesn’t care about the effect of their words or attitudes. someone who is brazenly negative.
it’s time to be positive.
here’s the idea (it’s not mine, it’s this guy’s): on your blog, on your facebook, on your twitter, on your myspace, on your web space, when you add something new, designate it with either a + or a – .
it’s a pretty simple equation.
+ = something positive
- = something negative
say what you want.
post what you want.
act how you want.
but be honest about what it is that you are broadcasting.
+ or -
for me, it’s a good reminder that i am out here representing Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. i’m representing the One who left heaven that He might put on flesh forever and serve the very people that rejected Him.
He chose to love unconditionally.
He loved us while we loved Him not.
and now i am His representative to the whole world.
the least i can do is think about the words i’m typing for that world to see.
be like Christ.
blessings.
+
last thursday night we had a pretty remarkable weather pattern in the central valley.
see, here in cow country, we’re not used to thunderstorms, windstorms, snowstorms, rainstorms…any storms really. we have very little ‘weather’ at all. thus, when something comes along that makes some noise and rattles some windows, we get pretty freaked out (on average of course).
last thursday evening we happened to be out and about, having a wedding rehearsal followed by dinner.
the drive home was like a scene from some apocalyptic movie, as people streamed out of hanford high into the streets, their graduation being interrupted by sudden power loss @ the stadium.
the wind was severe.
the lightning was incessant.
the visibility was, in places, zero.
the freak-out level was as high as it gets for most of our fellow motorists.
we made it through the night and the next morning drove up downtown hanford toward the church…lots of gnarly damage, mostly tree related.
the tree above was one of the casualties of the storm and, since it’s been sitting there for 5 days i thought, ‘yeah, i need to go take a picture of that.’
one thing i do love about hanford is the trees, so i’m a bit saddened by the loss of so many great ones around town. this one was no exception, but here’s hoping that it will survive long enough to grow back…we’ll see.
how is this a positive post? well, there’s nothing like some loss to remind me of how thankful i am of all that God has blessed me with…even something as small as living in a place with a lot of tree coverage.
i’m also thankful that He got me and the Mrs. home thursday night, because it wasn’t an easy drive.
i’m thankful that our God again and again has demonstrated His power over weather, be it storms or drought, wind or rain, fire or flood, God owns it all.
finally, i’m thankful that God looks at His creation and says, ‘One day I will restore what has been imperfected’ as opposed to just abandoning it in some sort of cosmic landfill, as i would do if my creation were as corrupted as His is.
God is good.
blessings.
+
thanks for visiting
© 2012. Jesus Is Extravagant
