As Vulnerable as Possible

These past weeks have been quite interesting for me. In addition to everything God has been speaking to me through our speakers in class, He's also been speaking a lot to me that doesn't really have much to do with I'm learning in class.

It all started with Peter Xu. In my last post I wrote about the shadow of the cross. In there, I said that I wasn't sure yet what my cross looked like. In the weeks since I wrote that, I've been learning a lot more about what that looks like for me right now.

When I was doing some research on the process and history of crucifixion for my previous post (yes, I did research on it, I wasn't just making stuff up off the top of my head!) I came across something that didn't really stand out to me at the time, but came to my mind the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that.

The Shadow of the Cross in on My Heart

 “Take up your cross daily and follow me.” Eight words spoken over 2,000 years ago that still ring in the hearts and ears of many. What do they mean? 2,000 years ago the people who heard these words would have immediately understood their meaning because they had intimate knowledge of what the cross was. Today it is not so. Today we have a very limited framework for the understanding of the meaning of the cross. We know that Jesus died on a cross. We know that upon it was bought our freedom, but when it comes to an actual understanding of the physical cross itself, our frame of reference comes mainly from art work and jewelry. How do we get back to the original meaning and apply this to our lives?

Further and up and further in

Lately I've been wondering if anyone actually reads this blog and if it's even worth it for me to continue to update it and pour my heart and my thoughts out here. I have decided that my "readership" is not the point. I didn't start this blog to garner fans. I started it to have a place to write and to try and keep people updated on what's going on with my life. I will continue to keep this blog updated regardless of whether or not anyone reads it. That being said, here we go :)

I've been in Kona Hawaii for 3 weeks now. It's so strange that three weeks has gone by already! I am here doing a their Church Pioneering School. The intent of this school is equip and train us to be able to go back to wherever it is that God is calling us and start up new churches. When we say new churches, though, we're not talking about new services and new buildings. We're talking about new gatherings of believers living life together.