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Club Red, May 26th, "Know Your Flow" from Charles Dolly on Vimeo.

Notes from the first Sunday of the year...straight from Dropbox...let's see if this works: 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18649249/1-2-11%20NEW%20YEAR-NEW%20WINESKINS.docx

“True spiritual authority does not start with organization; it starts with family. When the church ceases to be a family she loses her true spiritual authority. The greatest authority for accomplishing true spiritual advances will always come from relationship—with the Lord first, and then with His people.  The Lord will always give the greatest authority to His closest friends. All time spent seeking intimacy with the Lord will pay great dividends. Time spent developing spiritual friendships will also pay much higher ...

The Elephant Story. 

Several years ago, in an African Nature Reserve, the elephant population was getting out of hand.  Without thinking about the affects of their decision, the people who were running the reserve decided to keep all of the young elephants, and sold off the older ones. 

At first, the effects were barely noticeable.  The group of young elephants formed their own mini-herd and grew up through their childhood years at a normal pace.  However, when the elephants began entering into their adolescent years, they started exhibiting some very strange behaviors. 

You see, elephants develop more slowly than humans and reach “adolescence” when they are in their 20s.  As with human adolescence, the elephants’ bodies go through significant changes and their hormones are at crazy levels.  During this time, elephants go into a period called “musking.”  This is where the elephants, particularly the males, test their strength against one another, and exhibit more violent behavior than usual.  A typical show of musking is when a developing male will rub his tusks against trees and stamp around in the dust. 

But with our orphaned elephants, their period of musking revealed the real effects of their parental abandonment.  They started musking like normal, but then it didn’t stop.  Instead of the the typical 6 months or so, this phase of musking continued on for years.   Their behavior became increasingly more violent as time went on, the herd developed a distinct pecking order based on physical domination, and the reserve workers even began to describe the herd as a “gang.”  The violence progressed to the point where the gang leader “Goliath” even speared a rhino, and eventually had to be put to sleep. 

It was like they didn’t know what to do…like they didn’t know how to act like elephants.  The reserve workers were at their wits’ end as to what to do.  Finally, they decided to bring in some old elephants to see if that would work.
 

The results were incredible. 

The old elephants, who were still much larger than the musking adolescents, did not try to put down their threats by force.  When challenged, they just looked at them like “what are you doing?  That’s not the way an elephant acts!  We elephants don’t use our amazing strength to dominate each other and pick on the weak and frail.  We use our strength to protect the herd! We protect those who cannot protect themselves.”
 

After a few weeks, the herd had become a herd again.  The young elephants simply followed the model provided by the older elephants and found their place within the now peaceful elephant community.

How many of our prisons, I wonder, are full of still-musking adolescents who never had a positive father figure in their lives?  We marvel at how violent and lost this upcoming generation seems to be, and yet we many times do not compute that they are the most fatherless generation to ever be on the planet.  Divorce and dead-beat dads are the norm instead of the exception.  Abuse is typical.  Neglect is normal.  A loving husband and father is about as common these days as a needle in a haystack. 

James 1:27 says that “religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

What is your religion?  How good of a job is your church doing at looking after the orphans and the widows?  The fatherless are crying out.  Adoption is the answer.  The question is, will we hear their cries?  Will we answer the call? 

I watched Michael Jackson's "THIS IS IT" the other day and was totally taken by surprise!  I honestly don't know what I was expecting, but I certainly wasn't expecting to come away from the movie CHANGED FOREVER.  Here are my BIG, paradigm-shifting TAKE-AWAYS:

#1 My opinion of the man Michael Jackson is forever changed.  I know that the whole goal of this movie was to present Michael at his best, to show the world the man behind the music...but no amount of Reality TV-type editing could change a monster or sicko into the person that I saw interacting with other real people in this behind-the-scenes footage. 

#2 The movie forced me re-think the source of Michael's inspiration.  Michael Jackson was a creative genius...that is a fact that no one would doubt.  But the way he described his music, it was as if he was not the writer.  It was as if there was a spiritual author behind his genius.  He would use phrases like "It's supposed to be like this" and "you've got to let it simmer." Related to this, he must have said "God bless you" 20 times during the movie...and it didn't seem like he was just saying it.  He really seemed to be blessing people. 

#3 I saw in Michael Jackson  the perfect example of a loving perfectionist.  He would interrupt the flow of rehearsal whenever what he was experiencing with his external ears wasn't matching the creative melodies and moves which were flowing in him internally.  But THE WAY he spoke to his team members was remarkable.  He was exceedingly gentle, yet he would get right to the point with what was wrong....and then he would end up his gentle coaching each time saying "with love, with love...l-o-v-e...love!" 

#4 I think his child-like-ness was both intentional and wise.  Some of his close colleagues spoke about his innocence, remarking that "there is is a difference between being innocent and being naive."  They said that he was definitely not naive, but that his quality of innocence (even at age 50) is what made him so magical.  We all know that Michael loved to keep the company of children, saying that their innocence and creativity inspired him to remain playful and creative.  He even created a place to live which stretched the limits of anyone's imagination, a place where elephants walked by windows, where roller-coasters were in the front yard, where snakes and tigers were regular house pets...the limitless imaginations of a child was the essence of Neverland. 

#5 My last big take-away from the movie didn't actually come from Michael himself, but from the people who surrounded him.  There was such a sense of HONOR that permeated every room Michael came into.  When Michael entered, dancers and technicians would whisper to each other "the man is here" as they nervously prepared themselves to interact with the Michael Jackson.  When he was singing back and forth during rehearsal, there were scores of dancers and other team members at the foot of the stage going absolutely crazy!  And what did he do?  He performed in their praise!  Most notably, however, was how Kenny Ortega (a father figure, director of production, and close friend of Michael) treated him.  At every point, he was carefullly creating and maintaining an atmosphere where Michael's creative genius would not be stifled and where he was always taken care of.  At one point during a black-out, he came over the sound system saying "make sure somebody is there for Michael with a flashlight!"  It was all about the details, all about honoring Michael, all about love.      

I was driving into town the next day, praying in the cab of my truck, when God spoke to me something that I will never forget.  He said, "If my people would treat my Holy Spirit like the people around Michael treated him, then they would see ME perform!" 

Let me know how this hit you...I know it cut me to the quick.  I'm gonna do my best not to grieve Him (the Holy Spirit) today.   

With Love (L-O-V-E...love),
~BB  :+) 

"Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near."--Philippians 4:5

Today, I took a "sick day" for the first time in a LONG time!  I thought maybe this would be a good cause to open up a conversation about: 
WHAT PEOPLE BELIEVE ABOUT SICKNESS AND HEALING... 

I've been wondering a lot lately about illnesses, health issues, healing, and everything in between.  There have been several (what would appear to be "conflicting") thoughts running through my head these days.  

On one hand, we see evidences that sicknesses do exist. 

• My mother-in-law (see last blog post) has Pulmonary Hypertension.  
• Wally Smith (father of Josh Smith who is one of my staff members) died of cancer 2 weeks ago. 
• I've got some swollen glands today... 

On the other hand, I believe in healing.  I mean, I don't just have theological persuasion that lends me to believe in the doctrine of healing...I really believe that God heals. 

• My mom was healed miraculously when I was in 8th grade (God took all of her pain away 10 days after a horrific car accident). 
• I go to a Pentecostal church where people get healed all the time.  
• I read the gospels and the book of Acts all the time & people were getting healed like crazy!; I listen to teachings by Apostle Ron Carpenter and Andrew Wommack which consistently feed my faith; and I'm reading a book of selected sermons by Smith Wigglesworth right now...to ever increase my faith to believe for healing! 

But what's the catch?  How come some people get healed and some people don't?  How come some prayers get answered and some don't?  How come some scriptures make it seem like healing is a locked case "any thing you ask, believing, you shall receive";  and other scriptures make these scriptures seem confusing: "I asked 3 times that it be taken away...and the Lord said "my grace is sufficient for you"; "take a little wine for your stomach"; "it's appointed unto man once to die."

I know I'm opening up a big can of worms here...but I think this is a safe place to have a conversation.  What do you believe?  What have you experienced?  What is the Lord teaching you these days concerning healing?  Let's talk.