CTRL-ALT-DEL

Well its getting closer to Xmas, 

the weather is cooperating a little more now,  but I heard that today was going to be in the 80's.

whoa.

so anyway,

a couple of things... 

ONE .... we kick of the Saturday Service here at ICC on Saturday, January 17th at 5pm. 

sweet.  I'm getting some liberty to change things around, so that community dominates "event".

well see how that goes.

tell everybody!  hopefully see you there.

TWO....

I really need your help on this.

I just created this website www.startover.me  for our next series in January about (yea you guessed it) God starting over with you.

Can you please visit it, check out the videos, maybe upload a story or two, and just give me some feedback on it?  PLEASE>>>>>>>>

the website might go live in a couple of weeks and I could really use the feedback!!

Thanks so much.

an update....

Holidays are going to be super special this year

Lisa and i are almost finished making our gifts

my bro (who lives in Tibet) will be in Houston and well be spending time with him for new years

we are going to be able to give some money away to a needy family..

I'm going to spend a whole afternoon with my dad making pozole...

life is good now.

hopefully yours also.

see you soon.

please visit

www.startover.me

tell me what you think.

Creative Xmas

Hi Everybody!

AAAAhhh... the Holidays...niiiice.

the Year is wrapping up already, just a year a go, I was still living in Guad (oooh How i miss you so...) just planning my vacation to Brownsville.... maybe stay for a week.. maybeee two..... hmmm how about a year!!!! AAAAA.. and counting.

But such is following Jesus.. you never know whats coming.  I do plan.. well i should say.. Lisa and I do plan to go back, who knows when though.  In the meantime, here in Browntown, serving our King, cannot complain.

I am pretty stoked, as I have mentioned before, this opportunity to start a new service here at ICC, and praying and hoping to re conceive Church as a community rather than an event.

  Thanks for all your suggestions and thoughts on this.  We will start a prayer meting in he coming weeks on Saturday, everybody is welcome, and Ill let you know the time pretty soon.

Sooooooo Xmas. Love this time of year.    (ooops, did I just take the Christ out of Christmas....yea..... I DID.)  I find it funny when Christians get up upons about taking the word out, or just yesterday i heard that people are are saying "turkey day" instead of Thanksgiving.. " oh no .. blasphemy!!!"   LOL.  that's not our fight.  that should not define us, that is not our story.  

Actually, Jesus left Xmas long ago... i think.. who knows when ... maybe sometime between when Xmas was all about getting in debt to about when that guy was trampled and killed at a Walmart.  hmmmm.  I dunno.

Don't get me wrong I love Xmas.   Sometimes .  Xmas in my family was good,... when there was money, presents.. and a tree.  That set the standard.  Some were good, some were not.

and the all-mighty dollar would let us know which type of Xmas we would have.   it was silly, but that's just the way it was for us.... sad really.

When we ALWAYS had food, we ALWAYS had a roof over our heads, and FAMILY was always there... we even still labeled our Xmas's ... "Crisis-mas"    My dad once told me he did not like the cold weather, because that meant that is was going to be the Holidays soon, and there was that tension... that pressure.. that aching question..."will there be presents??" "will there be a tree"  Will Xmas show up?

Now its different.  Im starting to rediscover Christmas.  Gotta say, I like it more than Xmas.  

Its hard though.  Xmas has a very convincing marketing campaign.   STuff = love.  Stuff is awesome... stuff is the way to show that you love.  Stuff = happiness and fulfilment.  

Ahhhh stuff.

Reminds me of a story I heard from john Piper.  turns out that a mom, whose son was dead set on going to be a missionary to a very hard violent place,  asked Dr. Piper to talk to her son out of going to such a dangerous place.  after all, no mom would want her son to be martyr, even for the Gospel.  So Piper takes out a bible, reads the passage where Jesus states that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than a camel to go through the head of a needle... and then tells the boy.."GO BECAUSE YOUR LIFE WILL BE IN DANGER IF YOU STAY HERE (in America)."

Snap.     

wow. I love that.  we can so easily get tangled up with stuff, riches, the latest.. and miss the Kingdom.  miss Christmas for XMAS....

im starting to rediscover it.  Its nice.

Jesus, when preaching the Kingdom. turned the stuff mentality  on its head.  And with such creativity, I might add.  The first shall be last, the last first.... someone wants something from you, give them everything.  and so on....

He heals a guy with spit and mud..... he gets a coin out of a fish's mouth....  rides in as a KING... on an ass.   yea ... our King.... then lets Himself get the crap beat out of Him, and ultimately killed.  yea... a "great" display of power..... a great way to demonstrate his Kingship in this Kingdom He just ushered in...

yet... that's our King.  changing the rules.. getting creative, and turning this world upside down.

I challenge to turn Xmas upside down this year....  forget about what word they are keeping in or out of our verbiage...  our oh so sacred christian jargon

instead

lets drop the "stuff" and give ourselves this year.... this video might inspire you some.

give relationally.  you'll be surprised that your friends can do without the stuff.  

Sooooo.. Lisa and I are thinking about.....

well. we  figured out how much was allocated to Xmas gifts this year.....

chopped it down drastically...... Were planning to give that money away to a family who needs it,

and try to "make" all of our gifts this year... try... but Lisa already has some good ideas.. , and they sound like fun.....

and..

its starting to feel Good.

I think this is our story.. this is our story worth telling.

yea... any thoughts.

my ol friend

Whats up everybody?

Well here is , finally, blog numero dos.
I want to thank everybody who read and even responded last time, the date is coming closer to start this Saturday night service, And I'm really looking forward to it.

I think God is giving me at least a clearer picture about what sup.. good stuff, but i still do need all your input please on what you think I service should be like...

i'd ask questions like these:
why do we call it a service?
is it for everybody?
what is the cost of going (not talking monetary...") although hmmmmm cover charge??? bouncer? ladies night????? naaaaaaaaaaaa

well, lots been going on... in my life...
a great friend got married to a great new friend.....
i caught up with an old friend that i really missed.... good stuff..
my new best friend started walking....
made a new friend, a REAL new friend this week... pretty awesome
I'm frustrated about not seeing many of my old friends

talking about friends.... here is a challenge for ya.....
now this is more toward maybe if you been following Jesus for more than 5 years....
but anybody can play!!!! ha

look at your phone.... stroll down all you contacts..... hmm nice long list.....
yea...
now how many of those people (beside work contacts) do not follow Jesus????? hmmmm
(well.. no this is not a way to go evangelize them... good grief no!)
but is your phone full of christian buddies??? or not?
is your world full of people, your clique, your peeps, your dogs' ....nice Christan people...
i dunno what that says about ya..... maybe nothing.. but if it is..... then whoa.....
might be living in a bubble no? playing it safe??? i dunno.. just thinking...
don't hate.

ok, that challenge played a lil better on my head.
but the point is this: if your only association is with christian peeps... well, heck, Jesus didn't do that.... so why us?

i was thinking about my old buddy yesterday... i miss him. we talk once in a while.. and when I am on the phone with him, my wife always knows. there's just this certain bond... connection i have with him, the stories we share.. are priceless.... i don't know if he is following Jesus. probably not... but i dare not even try to stop loving Him. hes the best.

talking to my new bud, it was kind of made clear to us, that it was easier to be transparent, and not be judged by the people outside of the Church. how our old "drinking buddies" of sort and of old, are the ones that truly know us, and the Christian circles we run in now... well they are pretty fake, full of men that are scared to reveal who we really are.
so sad and twisted i know.. but we vowed to change that in own way, and it started with that conversation. So was born a new friend.

ok, well -pretty busy here
still praying about the Saturday service, please post up your ideas
also, just finished recording an audio podcast that ill be posting soon, its pretty cool, got pastor Abel to even say a couple of things in there, ha....



so its been real. its been great.
love you all, if you need anything from me, just call.. or write... or follow, or tweet., or post, or text, or jeeeeeeeeeeez. do whatever you want to!!!

josh

uncomfortable responses / Sat. Service

Well Here it is.

I have to say.. blog consistency... not very good. But I have been thinking about this blog for awhile, promising to start it up gain, so here is my third attempt.

I was trying to figure out what my "voice" would be for this blog. You know, what I really wanted to say.

so I thought about it for several Weeks, and came to this conclusion....

I'm just going to write. yea, not that deep I know. But I do believe that some good will come out of my experiences trying to follow Jesus. And these will be the posts.

that being said, please do not expect a highly spiritual post here, even though my name is preceded with a title of "pastor". yet I know that God has let me experience and see incredible things, that I would love to share with you.



I guess I should post why I named it "A dizzy cold July"... hmmm well maybe not.
maybe later.


Ok, well the Big one.
This following Jesus. Hate to say it, but i guess, not for everybody?

One truth I cannot shake: Jesus is REAL and demands a response.
it just does. You have to respond... you do respond, everyday. Negatively or positively.. but you do respond.
Hes the independent variable in your life equation.
Our response... well I guess that depends on alot of things.... but you must RESPOND.
To HIM, and always to HIM.
hes real...
- everything else is false
- people
- religion
- everything marketed
It all passes.... , and we always feel foolish responding to things that have "passed"
but We don't like to talk about that.


And this: Its not comfortable to follow Jesus.
Its just not. If anyone has told you otherwise, do not listen, you are following something else.
Check this:
- Jesus totally delivers this demon possessed guy. This guy, who wondered around cutting himself and naked, begs Jesus to allow him to go with HIM. The people that know the demon possessed guy, are begging Jesus to get out of town.
What does Jesus do to this new convert? Send him right into the pack of people that want nothing to do with Jesus.
(Mark 5:1-20)

does that sound comfortable to you?
He send this guy back to the Jesus haters... is God sending you into the same?
Or are you the Jesus hater.. and God is sending some one to you?
either way..... its uncomfortable.
And this is following Him. many situations very related to this.

so why do so many people bail, when it starts to get uncomfortable?

so those two things I know. Its real, and its uncomfortable.
its really uncomfortable.

I heard a quote from John Piper, that i think is fantastic:
"Suffering is the best hermeneutic"

ha. for shure.

So there you have it.
Please respond if you like.

*********************************************************************

Also, god has put it in my heart to start a Saturday night service.
This is just an idea that is brewing in me, so I'm just beginning to pray about it.
I would love to hear your ideas about it though...

what should it look like? (it will not look like Sunday!!)
what can we do?

Ive been praying about having this service outside, maybe in a park once a week, and preaching for three weeks, and the fourth week have a "special project" to go out and DO what was preached. sounds crazy i know.... but at the least of things.. hopefully it will be uncomfortable.
Oh.. and some food!! We gotta eat together!

Anyway, i do value for opinion....
What is it you feel should be in a great Church service?

Hey Guys!~!!  Greeting to all of you!!!!

I know that I have not written in a looong time......

Mucho has been going on!

Wow, where to start... welll how bout just the short version???

My wife and I are back in Brownsville, TX and are pretty close to closing on our home.

Whaa????

in Brownsville?

Well yea.  

Through prayer and what we believe is God using / preparing us for upcoming trails and blessings, we will be serving in Brownsville for the next few years in developing a discipleship center and working with the youth group.  

So now my blog will have more to do with that, as my journey begins in making disciples working with young people, this will be both challenging and a lot of fun!!!!!

so I will keep you posted on all the craziness and following of  our King Jesus in brownsville.

Two things i really want to say to all of you today.... one more important than the other....

the first and least important is that I will not be so much having a blog, but really i will be having a VLOG of some sort.   I find that if i just post video up here, it will be a lot easier for me than to write something.... do no worry, the posts will not be 2 hours long, just like 2 minutes 20 seconds of updates and whatever is in my heart.  

sooo., yea... just so you know.

The second, i do want to draw your attention to...  and have your heart a for......

So, i found out some extremely bad news this morning.

Pastor Joel Stockstill's (He is an extremely gifted and anointed youth pastor at Bethany World Prayer Center in LA, whose messages have continuously changed my life) wife, Amy Stockstill passed away last night.  Im not sure how old she was, like 25 probably, and they had been married like 2 years.  I believe that it was cancer.  

So this is an arduous task for us christian, as we bear one anothers burdens and weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15)

Please pray for Joel and Amy's family, as they are consoled by our powerful comforted.  Please take some time today and lift them up in prayer.

I did not know Amy, or Pastor Joel for that instance, burt my heart goes out to them, and it hurts.

I can only imagine how my life would be crushed if Lisa was gone.  I know it would be the same for all of you and your spouse (or future spouse).

So again, I ask you to carry this burden, and life up prayers full of faith fueled by love.

I am now reminded of one of my least favorite verses in the bible....

Psalms 39:4-5

Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.

Indeed you have made my days as handbreaths, and my age is nothing before you; certainly every man

AT HIS BEST STATE IS BUT VAPOR.

None of us know if we will be here tomorrow, so lets live out this Tuesday for Jesus and give him thanks.

He is Good and has given us life.  Lets pray for Joel, and give our spouse some extra love today, since

it truly is a gift from Jesus.

for those that wish to leave your thoughts on pastor Joel's blog site, here it is..  

http://www.joelstockstill.com/?p=100#comment-1353

love you all...

here is a test video........

the sound is a little bad, im in a bit of a time crunch, and i really just want to see if this actually posts, i promise the sound will be better for the upcoming videos.