organic christianity

onething:pursuit of the holy

I wanted to let you all know about an incredible worship CD put out by IHOP.  I attended the OneThing conference a few months ago and couldn't believe how incredible their worship was.  The talent was amazing as well as their heart for the presence of God.  You have to buy it.  Click here to link to the IHOP web page where you can download the MP3's.  By the way, 20 young people committed last night to go organic in their walk with God.  I am believing for many more to follow this vision.  

derived from living things

Organic, defined in Websters, is something derived from a living thing.  Our Christianity was always meant to be attached to a living God and not to our dead religious beliefs.  Galatians 3:3 says, "Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"  Having started in the spirit are you going to get the job done in your own strength?  No man can add to what Christ has done.  We need to go organic.  What if we saw dead people raised?  What would it be like to see what happened in the book of Acts happen today?  Some might say this is the 21st century and things are different, are they really?  I want what Jesus intended.  Click here to purchase A2, becoming the church God has in mind.  I am currently going through this series with the pastoral staff of our church and it is cleansing the pesticides and man-made ideologies and replacing them with scripture and God ideas about church. 

organic christianity

As you may have seen I have changed the title of my blog from Brandon's Blog, which was so ingenious, to Organic Christianity.  This phrase best represents the journey that I have been on for the past six months.  I desire to be the type of Christian we see in the Bible, to discover my roots in scripture.   It has been difficult seeing God cleanse out thoughts, patterns, ideas and beliefs that guided my Chrisitan walk for so long and replace them with his ideas.  But in the end I am a better man for it.  I believe so much in the power of change.  God can change anyone in any season no matter how long they have been living that way.  It is the power of the gospel.  If a blog is suppose to represent my life and allow people to join me with my discoveries, experiences and adventures then there is no way to sum it up better than Organic Chrsitianity, the way God made it.  I hope you to will follow me on my journey of cleansing from all the pesticides, chemicals, radiation, genetically modified man-made Christian philosophies that so plague the church today.  I will be journaling my walk with God.  I hope you go organic. 

purple sunset

Last night I felt God gave me a glimpse of His heart in a unique way.  A couple weeks ago I would of mocked myself for thinking this but I have found myself to be more open to God's small voice.   Our youth group went to Foothill and Amador to do prayer walks.  We gave the students paper and pens so that they could write down what God was speaking to them about each campus.  It is so much easier to pray when you have heard God speak to you insights about the place and people you are praying for.  God spoke to almost every student.  At the end of the night almost every student heard God's voice and had amazing images and prophetic visions of what God is doing on the campuses of this community.  Many of the words and pictures confirmed each other.  As I was walking back to my car I saw a purple sunset.  I usually don't see dark purple sunsets but this one was unique.  I felt God told me through this sunset that Amador is on His heart.  Amador's main school color is purple.   I know it sounds weird but it sure flooded my heart with joy when I pictured God looking down on us and approving what we were doing by praying for this campus.  We are hopefully going to pray for other schools so if we start seeing green sunsets then I guess it really is God : )  I love it when God paints a picture in the sky just to encourage your walk. 

four days

These last four days have been really crazy for me.  I have been at Kids camp preaching, playing and partying.  I am absolutely exhausted.  But this entry is more about a young boy named Matthew Chen then about my belly-aching.  Matthew Chen is a seventh grader at Heart Middle School.  He attended Kids Camp because his sister goes to Adventures in Learning.  Matthew didn't know Christ before this week.  On Tuesday Matthew was prayed for to be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he accepted Christ as his savior (I love when God does things backwards).  He told me that when he raised his hands to receive the Holy Spirit that his tongue caught on fire and when he opened his mouth he began to speak in tongues.  He didn't even know what he was doing but he felt God's presence.  Later that day I prayed with him, over lunch, to accept Christ.  I  invited him to come to youth group, and he came tonight.  We were walking the Amador campus asking God to give us his heart for the campus and he heard God speak to him, prophetically.  This young boy spoke in tongues, accepted Christ and heard God's voice all in four days.  Isn't it amazing what God can do in a short period of time.  Lord I pray for more stories like Matthew Chen's. 

revivalists

This generation of revivalists, those who seek God for revival in their city and world, are more radical than I could ever have imagined.  They are not concerned with drama and could care less if the odds are against them.  They will go for God with all their heart.  They will not back down and will never give in.   They believe in the Bible and are willing to put it to the test. 
I am seeing a glimpse of what God is raising up in the Tri-Valley.  Dreams that I had as a kid are being fulfilled today.  Yesterday we went out as a youth group to the local skate park to evangelize, prophecy and perform miracles.  If we don't see God moving in our city we will make him (paraphrased quote from Smith Wigglesworth).   At the end of the day we saw three students miraculously healed, several prophecies given out and more than five students were given the message of Christ.  Some of the non-believing students that witnessed a prophetic word asked "what is our future?"  One of us received a prophetic word that we were going to meet a Ryan today and of course Ryan was one of the last students we talked to.   It is so good to see God move not only in Redding at a conference but on a Tuesday in our home town.  This is the beginning of revival.  Thank you Jesus. 

jesus culture: restoring awe

Shock and awe was the term used during operation Iraqi freedom to describe the amazing hell we unleashed on the Iraqi army.  I believe it was the largest missle attack in history.  We bombarded them with so much fire power that the only way this destruction could be described was awe. 
At Jesus Culture, a youth conference in Redding,  I think I saw in the spiritual, shock and awe.  The presence of Jesus Christ showed up so heavily that we experienced signs, wonders, miracles and revelations.  It is as if there was an open heaven over where we were worshipping.  I saw kids in our youth group prophecy, meet Jesus face to face and worship as if there life depended on it.  I believe the only way this generation will come to know Jesus will be through radical encounters with God.  This generation doesn't want to see eloquent speakers and fancy buildings.  They want what is in the Bible, the whole enchilada.  Miracles, signs, wonders, healing happens when Jesus is in the building.  We don't see them as often because I believe we don't invite the King of Kings into our services to often. 
Our kids walked the streets of Redding blessing people with prayer, money, words of encouragement and prophecy.  I felt like I was living in the Bible.  It was an "out of body" experience.  I feel like I have been ripped off for so many years, believing that my Christianity should be compartmentalized into nifty worship, goose bumps, encouraging messages and after church lunches. 
I want it all.  I want to live in an Acts church.  Be amongst a community of "believing" believers who are changing the community through passionate love for Jesus and people.  God was meant to be experienced not talked about as if He isn't in the room.  Lord, restore awe for your presence.  In it we find life.