Our weekend in Buffalo is gonna be a blast!  What is the Lord up to? Whatever it is, it has something to do with advancing His kingdom into the pagan world, and I’m all for that!

I think our upcoming visit to Buffalo is gonna be a vision of what lies ahead. We’re having a retreat at the University of Buffalo covering “The Beatitudes”, which describes what real “happiness” is all about, which is badly-needed at secular universities. (Nobody can teach about happiness like Jesus can!)

For a while now the Lord has been revealing some open doors for a possible church plant at the University of Buffalo through the Swearingens. They are powerful allies of Xenos and  old friends of the McCallums, and they came to Buffalo, NY to help inner-city kids. They immediately started a Bible study of folks their age, and they want to see more planted.

On New Years we visited the Swearingens at Buffalo, and it was a blast! We did take a few hits in our wallets with vandalized cars and stolen merchandise, but did that dampen these driven college students? HELL NO! After patching our shattered car windows in the pouring rain, we enjoyed great fellowship with the Swearingens as they fed us a hearty, New Year’s Day meal.

Some Buffalo Background

After Buffalo we regrouped at our Winter retreat and gained a powerful vision of how the Lord is working in our ministry by reaching pagans! The church was not designed to form “Holy Huddles” and large institutions. Rather, Jesus said it’s like tiny mustard seeds spreading everywhere, with thousands of small plants! It grows so much different than the Kosmos, which builds powerful institutions that easily replace God’s leadership. Anyway, the winter retreat was a powerful insight of God’s plan for our ministry, and we left pumped and ready to plant new churches in the near future!

We started Spring semester pumped and strengthened, and oh boy, what a powerful and victorious semester it was! We grew to a good 40-50 “Pagan Christians” and split into two home churches, then grew to almost 60 “Pagan Christians”!! We saw so many exciting salvations this semester alone! The Identity Project is enjoying serious victory bringing life to the dead by the Holy Spirit! What a privilege it is to experience such serious joy!

Of course, it hasn’t always been an easy ride dealing with lives emerging from the fallenness and evil that reigns in this world system. Dealing with pagans ain’t easy, but man they are so much more energizing and fun than fundies like myself!!! At the end of the semester, some of our new-found brothers and sisters in Christ went home for the summer in tears! How sweet and joyous it is to see dirty and broken pagans get transformed into open and loving Pagan Christians through our common relationship with Jesus Christ. These peeps are serious about their love for Christ and their love for each other.

I’m so grateful that Lord even put me here! It’s by his grace alone, because no selfish guy like myself could have ever deserved a more loving Body of Christ.

So now we come to Buffalo again on a summer retreat, and see what the Lord has in store for our ministry. What does the Lord have up His sleeve? Check back next week for a blog about what the Lord has revealed!! (Oh, and bring a beer too, because I’ll be 21!!!)

"Love Your Neighbor"

Well, tonight I had the honor of watching a wonderful movie classic, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. A movie I thought at first was too old for my liking. I have an affinity for special effects, high definition, and abstract, but what this movie had behind the black & white, sub-par technology, and mediocre picture quality was something that no movies today have come close to having… Truth and Substance. Mr. Smith’s last stand for liberty and the destruction of the corruption that exists throughout the world brought me to tears of joy. What hit me the most was were his last words to a man he loved his whole life, Senator Joseph Paine, who had turned and stabbed him in the back in the most brutal way, “Love Your Neighbor.” When Mr. Smith fainted on the ground, those words and his stand against the lies before hit Mr. Paine just as much as they hit me. Senator Paine turned around stood up for Mr. Smith after brutally deceiving Congress into impeaching him. He stood up, finally, for truth.

Seeing a man stand up for truth when compromising for the lies and for the world system would have been so much easier, I found that truth, love, and authority are the only things that can prevail against the rulers of this world. This is God’s love. This movie depicted God’s love so beautifully and powerfully because it showed just how powerful love is. It can conquer all. If you haven’t seen this movie, you must. A wonderful example of God’s amazing love and how it can transform peoples’ lives, even if they’ve been molded into kosmos machines…

If you didn’t notice, my real blog site is down at The Realm of J Small Z! So go check out the reel thang and comment about them! Be honest, and I’d prefer respect, even if what you find to be offensive. A hostile, disrespectful mind goes nowhere society and you may find what I say to be more sane then it looks!

Check out the link…
MySpace Outage Leaves Millions Friendless

I don’t know about you guys but it seems myspace has finally turned into a cult. Just reading this article has really left me in awe. How much people have tied their lives to myspace, it is really pathetic!! The really sad part is that people actually view myspace as a way of actually living your life. Looking at a computer screen and trying to make as much “friends” as possible.

What is the definition of friend anyways? Is it really just having someone in your friends’ list? Isn’t friendship where you share memories with another person? Laughing together? Pulling through rough times together? Getting into fights with each other then forgiving each other after? I didn’t think that people would actually view a true friendship as adding someone to your friends’ list then sending them a few comments as the guy in the article put it, “ROTFLMAO“… Just looking at that made me laugh and feel pity.

Has living life really been downsized to sitting in front of your computer screen and chatting with digital friends who you have never met in real life? Is this the future of social interaction? Well I wish I had an authoritative say in this, but I am just another person. I enjoy myspace myself but its really a pity to see someone devote their lives to it… My definition of life is sitting down at a table with your family and having conversation. Going out to rock concerts at weekends and chillin‘ with my buds. Going out to the local hoops and playing some bball. Making friends in REAL LIFE and actually having to deal with them. Serving my brothers and sisters in Christ. Going to class everyday and conversing with my peers. Making a real difference in society… not living vicariously through a myspace profile…

So I just want to give out some advice to those who are sucked into this myspace generation… Go outside and play some basketball. Meet some friends in your classes. Go to a fricken rock concert and actually see your favorite bands in person! Go have some REAL fun with your REAL friends. If you’re going to let your real friends become digitized, then one day you’ll when you’re in your 30s and suddenly you realize. Myspace won’t be enjoying anymore. It doesn’t provide you with the money you’ll. It doesn’t provide you with a family. It isn’t a source for education, and it doesn’t provide you with friends who WILL BE THERE FOR YOU! Otherwise, you’ll find out all your real friends are gone because you decided to leave them as a 2nd priority…