Family Force 5

Speechless....as in I am without speech when it comes to describing a Family Force 5 concert. There are no proper words to describe seeing them live. All I can say is that it is a Party. I was lucky enough to go see them last night over by Tulsa and they did not disappoint.


I want to tell you to check them out, but it may make no sense unless you are able to see them live. They have a cd and I think it is amazing, but I also understand them and how everything they do is built around seeing them live. I guess what I am saying is that if you ever have the chance to go see them live do not pass it by. Do not spend anytime thinking whether or not it is worth it or debate whether you would enjoy it...just Go!


I think in one evening of listening to them at their show I heard so many diferent types and styles within their music. I heard Rock/Hip-Hop/Gangsta Rap/Beastie Boys/Rage Against the Machine/Synth/and even a hint of R&B. It is all a very weird mix, but it is fun. A guy that I was with at the show simply said that they do what everyone else wants to do, they just let loose and have fun. They do not take themselves or the music too seriously, but musically they are so tight, they know what they are doing. Anyway, it was great and you need to see them live!!!


Craziness. Party. Fun.

Once

As tempting as it is to actually write a blog about this movie and how much I love it, I will refrain from doing so right now becasue I want everyone to watch it first and I don't want to spoil anything. All I will say is that it is definatley one of my favorite movies of the past year and the soundtrack is amazing. Check it out!

Burrito Heaven

I moved to Oklahoma almost 3 years ago and and in doing so left behind one of my greatest loves. I arrived on the red soil of Oklahoma only to realize that there were no Chipotle Mexican restaurants within a 2 hour drive. I did what I could, I emailed the company and asked why they were not in Oklahoma City, gave them city statistics, gave them ideas for places they could buy and use. I looked into franchising (which they do not do), and I got time lines on arrival about every 5-6 months. I had to have my burritos.

Well, I am happy to announce that a new Chipotle is opening in Edmond, OK on the corner of 15th and Broadway. Nothing is official yet, but I got an email from an insider at Chipotle today that said they are shooting to open their doors on Friday January 18th. This is a joyous day for Oklahoma indeed.

A little ps. is needed here for all Oklahomans. Chipotle does not have any queso dip for either the burritos or chips. I know this will bother some people, but my advice is to come try it anyway and enjoy the delicious tastes of a gourmet burrito.

300: We Have to Fight!

"We Spartans are descended from Hercules himself. Taught never to retreat, never to surrender. Taught that death in the battlefield in service of Sparta is the greatest glory he could achieve in his life."

I watched the movie 300 again last night and once again something within me was stirred. It was not that I was choked up or emotional, but rather I was stirred to live my life better and with more intention. These Spartans are warriors and they know it, there is never a doubt in their minds as to who they are. From a very young age they are trained and taught who they are and how to fight. They are tested and left to fend for themselves, to prove their ability and strength, to test their intelligence. These Spartans do not have an identity crisis, they are raised knowing who they are.

So as I watched the movie again I took stock in who I was and who I was made to be in God's image. It is obvious to me that God is a warrior. Exodus 15:3 "The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is His name." God has so many attributes, and one of those things is a warrior, and being made in his image makes me believe that He has put his warrior heart inside of me. I need to let that truth sink in more and more, I want that to be part of my identity that I do not have to doubt. I am a warrior because I have the Warriors heart inside of me. I can fight, I can battle, I do not have to back down, I do not have to have fear, I can be strong and dangerous. I can be good, but I do not have to be safe. I have freedom to walk this stuff out in my life and I need to do a better job of utilizing the warrior heart inside of me and recognizing the battles that lay in front of me.

Now I am not saying that I am going to war physically, but in the realm of spiritual warfare I have sat and watched far too long and I need to start fighting. If I believe that Jesus is more real than this computer that I am typing on right now, that he is more tangible than the chair I am sitting in, than I also have to believe that his world is real and the spiritual realm is real and there is such a thing as good and evil, which are constantly in opposition to each other and constantly at war. Angels and demons fight. Spiritual oppression and sin are real things. I cannot just slumber and wait and watch anymore, I need to join in the fight, I need to fight alongside my King. I have what is takes.

So this is obviously not 300, I am not going to fight the Persian army, but the war I fight is no less real, no less important. 300 is a picture of what is going on spiritually when good and evil fight. This in mind, what are the battles we fight? I cannot speak for everyone, but I personally feel the battle raging on a lot. I fight against sin and lust. I fight against pride and selfishness (2 of the enemy's best weapons against us!) I fight for my wife and for my marriage when I see attacks coming against us. You might think the big argument you have before church is just an annoying fight, but looking deeper it is so clear that an attack has just happened, the enemy trying to drive a wedge between you. I fight for relationships, I fight to spend time with Jesus, I fight against lies told to me and to the ones I love. I fight passivity, I fight fear, I am supposed to fight for the poor and the widows and orphans, I am supposed to fight for justice (not sure I have ever done that too well). Anyway, you get the point.....there is a lot to fight for and literally speaking, those battles are just as real as the battles we watch in 300, just spiritual.

It is possible to go through life and not fight at all, to be passive and selfish, but as a follower of our King we are called and equipped to fight, we have what it takes and we want to be some of the best warriors and fighters that have ever joined in this battle. We just have to make the decision that we are going to be an active part of these daily battles. Because we have the Holy Spirit in us, we are warriors that are to be feared by the enemy, we are among the best warriors in all the world if we just choose to fight. The Spartans say they are descendants of Hercules himself, and thus they are warriors among warriors, the best in all the known world, but we are descendants of God -the fiercest Warrior, so what does that make us? Even better than the Spartans!

I watched the movie 300 and got such a great picture of how I am to fight spiritually. "Never retreat, never surrender." The best part of the whole movie is how they fight, and it is such a great lesson for us all as we fight. They fight as a single unpenetratable unit, each man protecting the man next to him with his shield. Each man protecting the back of another man, watching for attacks and defending them. What a picture this is for us. We are not meant to do this alone, we are not made to fight by ourselves. We need others to fight with us and help protect us where we are vulnerable. When we are fighting the enemy we are rarely fighting just one attacker, but a legion or an army, so we need an army as well, close brothers and sisters that we trust to go into battle with us and watch our backs, our vulnerability. We Need each other, we cannot fight on our own. Other people have to know our weaknesses and our strengths in order to fight alongside of us. They need to know where to protect us and where to use our abilities. It just makes sense, we are warriors like none other, we are to be feared by the enemy and we are to fight together in order to have victory. That is our law.

This blog is a reminder to me that I have what it takes, the battle is always going on in some capacity and it is time to jump in and fight. I am a warrior filled with the Holy Spirit and most feared among my enemy. We can do this together, we can have victory.

"This is where we hold them! This is where we fight! This is where they DIE!" - King Leonidas

2007: What a year.

Being the end of the year and all, I have been in somewhat of a reflective mood on life and community and all the things Jesus has done over the past 12 months. The more I have thought about it I have become so thankful for this life He has blessed me with and for His willingness to include me in His plans.

I have felt like 2007 has been a year where Jesus has really put an emphasis on community in my life. It all started in 2005, and 2006 was a growing year, but this past year has been one where I have felt my deep need for living life with community and not being able to settle for anything less. Within the realm of community so many things have happened this year.


What started out almost a year and a half ago as a prayer time for specific things going on at Bridgeway and specifically with men, I began meeting with Randy and Ryan and Andy on a regular basis. God soon turned that prayer group into something so much better. God took those 3 great frineds of mine and made them so much more. He made them brothers, He made them Warriors always by my side no matter what is going on. Through that process God has taught me as well as them that no matter what, I am not alone in the stuff I am walking out, and better yet I have these 3 guys that will not let me slide in anyway or get away with anything. They keep me in check at all times. I know that in all my actions I am not only accountable to God, but I am accountable to them. This year I have just sensed how refreshing it is to have that kind of a bond. To let others open you up and see all the junk that is really there is such a hard an intimidating thing to do, but the freedom that comes from that openess is unexplainable. It sometimes seems like God is knitting the four of our hearts together for something more, for a purpose, for an adventure, for a battle, for a mission. Maybe not to unlike Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin in Lord of the Rings. Four seemlingly normal, everyday people (hobbits) that are transformed into so much more. Anyway, I digress....

Even outside of those 3 guys and myself, as a greater community of friends and lovers of Jesus I have seen Him do so much this past year. In House church we multiplied into another community that was sent out to have a great impact in OKC and in the hearts of those who attend it. We learned how easy and natural that process was. I have never given birth, but if you allow me the grace of acting like I have, multiplying just felt that natural to me. We grew and matured until it was finally time to give birth to this new House Chuch and it was not a sad thing, but a joyous thing. It needed to happen and God had the perfect timing for it to happen.

God allowed us to learn what it means to rally around the people we love and minister to them. I remember helping Jaime after his car and tools were stolen. I remember many of you making the trip up to Wichita to see Crystal after she had had a really tough week and loving on her. I remember the weekend in Atlanta where some tough stuff was revealed to Crystal and even though I was not there, you guys did such a great job of loving her. I remember people doing Shiloh work days, helping Andy get ready for camp. I remember a lot of prayer times where we were just able to ask God to come intercede because we need Him so badly.

In 2007, as a community God has taught us what it looks like to walk through life together. I went to weddings and saw people joined together in His name and was able to celebrate that. I went to a hospital and got to share in the joy of welcoming a new life that He created, a new life created in His image (sweet Graham). We as a community also shared in sorrow and grief as we walked through lose as an unborn baby was lost and a step father past away. Who knows if we handled any of it correctly, but either way, as a community God allowed us to take part in it all and I have to believe He taught us all stuff in the process. He taught us how to walk with eachother in both the joys and sorrows of life, and in the end we must all believe that He is still so GOOD to us.

This is all such good stuff to remember and be thankful for, and to be honest I am probably forgetting 80% of the stuff that happened this year, but of what I do remember and write about here, I am thankful and hungry for more of it. More of Him teaching us what community is all about and how we cannot live without it. If you think of more things that happened this past year in community that you want to share, feel free to leave a comment so we can all read it and be thankful together.

Pressing Foward,
Pete

Fly Fishing-Oklahoma ???

Yes, it is true, there is some fly fishing in Oklahoma down in the extreme Southeast corner near Broken Bow. I have been down there twice for a total of 3 days and the fishing is what I would consider sub-par, but I want to give it some slack becasue it is Oklahoma and for only being 4 hours from my house it is not bad. In the 3 total days that I have fished down there, I think I have caught a total of 10 fish. Now I have heard stories of people catching 20, 30, and even 40 fish down there a day, but most of those days are on or right after stocking day. Becasue it is a stocked stream, it makes it quite a bit harder to determine what flies to use, mainly becasue since the trout of farm raised they are not used to naturally finding food (Fly's) on their own, they are supplied with food in their pens, probably some form of pellets. Anyway, there are not a ton of fish in the river and a lot of them are not use to the food sorce that we as fly fishermen are trying to give them. Usually when all else fails you just put the weirdest thing in your box on the end of the line and you will get some hits.

Anyway, I will quite complaining about the fact that I cannot catch fish down there and tell you that it is an amazing place just to go and enjoy. The river down there is beautiful and the trees were changing all sorts of fall colors. If you had blindfolded me and sat me down there and told me to tell to guess where I was there would be no way I would have guessed Oklahoma. It was a fun trip.