Star Wars meets The Ten Commandments

Could you imagine a movie that combines "Star Wars" with "The Ten Commandments"? Pastor Richard Gazowsky of the Voice of Pentecost church in San Francisco said that God spoke to him, "commanding him to make a million-dollar science fiction blockbuster," according to The Maneater. The film that he's working on as a result is a futuristic retelling of the biblical story of Joseph, tentatively titled "Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph".

A documentary, "Audience of One," has been made about the filming of this blockbuster. While the documentary was made, only two shots of Gazowsky's movie were actually filmed. A biblical sci-fi epic. . .sounds interesting.

God's role in a revival

God is present when we are gathered in His name. But in the case of Lighthouse United Pentecostal Church in Jackson, Tenn., God was present even when people were intending to gather in His name, but didn't. You see, Lighthouse Church was planning on having a revival on Feb. 5, the night that a tornado hit the church:

But the pastor canceled service because of the storm. [Pastor Donald] Lance has said, 'I just didn't feel right about having service.' The tornado hit at 7 p.m. The service had been set for 7 p.m.

Church board member Tim Britt said he believes that God spoke to Lance.

'Pentecostals don't cancel church,' Britt said. (Jackson Sun)

The tornado ended up toppling the church's sanctuary. While the church rebuilds, they are holding services at Northside Assembly of God. Lighthouse Church eventually hopes to get the OK to hold services in its gymnasium.

Charter school founder chose to help children instead of commit suicide

An article recently ran in The Dallas Morning News about Delores Beall, founder of a charter school called Lynacre Academy. Thanks to God, she chose to help children instead of taking her life:

She once described herself as a wild child who carried a switchblade in one pocket and a gun in the other.

But Delores Beall said her life changed course the day she tried to slit her wrists.

'The voice of God spoke to me,' she told a reporter in 1995.

In that pivotal moment, Ms. Beall realized she should pursue a life of charity, not rebellion. She built a reputation for keeping troubled kids out of gangs and in school. Lifting children out of a drug-infested, poverty-stricken existence became her mission.

Unfortunately, Beall now is in the midst of a financial scandal regarding the school, which closed on Feb. 1.

What it means to be a Dangerous Man

The Dangerous Man Day was very intriguing. There were many different sessions on topics applicable for men, such as becoming a servant leader, dealing with anger and forgiveness, and more. The keynote speaker was Chuck Stecker. He had six key points about being a dangerous man for Christ:

1. We need to see ourselves through God's eyes. God still looks at us as His sons.
2. We have favor with the King because of who we are, not because of what we do.
3. We need to take everything that we have and put it on the altar.
4. We need to daily be transformed into the likeness of the life of Jesus Christ.
5. We need to guard our hearts.
6. There are no routine operations.

One of the key points that I heard out of the day is that we are soldiers in a spiritual battle. Dedicating our lives to Christ does not make them easier. It, in fact, makes them harder, because we are declaring battle with Satan at that point.

The importance of fathers

Al Sanders grew up fatherless and on welfare in Fort Valley, Ga. He was on the wrong path in life, doing drugs and getting into any kind of possible trouble.

In 1996, Sanders was serving in the Air Force in Saudi Arabia when there was a terrorist attack that nearly killed him. About a dozen of his co-workers died, and it shook Sanders to the core. He turned his life over to Christ shortly thereafter. According to the Macon Telegraph, Sanders was moved by Christ to give back to his home community in Fort Valley by creating the Feed Center, a place for fatherless boys:

'God spoke to me and told me to come back here and do this,' Sanders said. 'I came back and saw some of my friends addicted to crack and cocaine and meth, and that really moved me, and I knew why God sent me here to do this.'

Men, do not underestimate your role in your family. Both your sons and your daughters look to you for validation. It's going to be a battle, because Satan will try to take you out. But with the strength of Christ, you will persevere.

The 50th anniversary of Teen Challenge

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Teen Challenge, an evangelical Christian recovery program. LubbockOnline recently ran a story on their local Teen Challenge center. For Kevin Thompson, a graduate of that program, God was the reason that he entered the program:

'I was sitting in the backseat of a patrol car,' he says, 'and I looked out the window and saw a church. God spoke to me - Are you tired of running yet?' That's the moment I decided to change, and I said, Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it.''

I'm sure that there are many amazing stories about how people decided to go into the Teen Challenge program. In addition, I have heard many amazing stories personally from graduates of Minnesota Teen Challenge of how the program has changed their lives. So many broken families and hearts have had an opportunity to mend thanks to this program.

Dangerous Man Day

On Saturday I will be attending Dangerous Man Day at Grace Church. The purpose behind Dangerous Man is to enable men "to recklessly follow Christ with abandon wherever He leads them, and discover the adventure, risk, and satisfaction we were created for."

I'm ready for this journey. It should be exciting, and I'm eager to follow Christ to wherever and whatever He has for me.

Outside the Inner Ring

A friend of mine from my Heart of a Warrior group shared with me a speech that C.S. Lewis gave in 1944 as the Memorial Lecture at King's College, University of London. The speech was called "The Inner Ring", and it described the need of humans to belong.

In his speech, Lewis mentioned that "the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things."

He also said that "the quest of the Inner Ring will break your hearts unless you break it."

Then it dawned on me. Growing up, I was not part of my stepdad's Inner Ring in my family of origin. It hurt not to be included with my stepdad, mom and half brothers. As a result, I have tried all of my life to be part of my family of origin's Inner Ring.

That quest has caused me to do things that I'm not proud of, specifically rejecting my dad, wife and son because my stepdad's Inner Ring did not approve of or include them. How shameful and hurtful to my family.

The quest to be a part of my stepdad's Inner Ring has broken my heart and others. I'm giving up that quest.

The wolf at the door

When I joined the Heart of a Warrior group, Dr. Greg Bourgond came to speak to us at Berean Baptist Church. He told us about the personal battles that he faced from Satan when he was starting Heart of a Warrior, and stated that by joining this group, we would be putting targets on our backs.

Well, spiritual warfare indeed has taken place. The guys in my Heart of a Warrior group are being attacked by Satan. My marriage is falling apart. The evil one is hitting the other guys where he knows they have weaknesses.

But we will not give up. We knew that Satan would be the wolf at the door, waiting and trying everything to knock us off course. We will stick together in this fight, and through the power of Jesus, defeat the enemy.

Share your prayer requests!

The importance of prayer cannot be underestimated. That's why I'm encouraging you, readers of The Awe of God blog, to share your prayer requests. I will personally pray for you, and hopefully other readers of this blog will as well.

To share your prayer request, click on the comments link under any of the posts.

Listen and obey

Today in church the topic was spiritual gifts. One of the key messages was to "listen and obey." The "listen" part means to sense the Holy Spirit moving and discerning how to apply that feeling to an interaction with a person or in a certain situation. The "obey" part means to follow through on what one senses.

I have felt the Holy Spirit moving in certain situations, so I am developing the "listen" part. The more difficult part of the equation for me is to "obey." I think, "What if the person thinks that I'm goofy?" or "What if they reject me?" Then I just let the feeling pass without acting on it.

With Christ's help, I can take the next step. After all, it's His word that I'm spreading -- I'm sure that He can help.

Bill O'Reilly interviews author of "90 Minutes in Heaven"

Don Piper, a man who was pronounced clinically dead after a car crash back in 1989, was interviewed this week on "The O'Reilly Factor." Piper wrote a best-selling book, "90 Minutes in Heaven," about his experience. But it wasn't his time yet:

PIPER: All I remember is being at the gates and about to enter after a lot of other magnificent things that I saw and heard. As it turns out, 90 minutes after the truck hit me, a man climbed into the car and, because he felt like God spoke to him, started praying over me, even though he knew I was dead.

Suddenly, I found myself back in the car under the tarp in the dark. He's singing a hymn, and he's making me sing it with him. And I had no idea what had happened to me.

Piper added that heaven was such a magnificent experience that he can't wait to go back.

The importance of family

Families are very important to God. They help people through life. Unfortunately, many forces in our society, as well as Satan, work to break up families. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently ran a story about Eric Chandler and Julie Powell, a couple who has been off and on for 16 years. They finally are going to get married, thanks to God speaking to Chandler in Dec. 2005:

'I truly believe, in our on-and-off relationship, we've learned a lot being by ourselves and then breaking up and seeing other people,' he says. 'I was by myself and God spoke to me and said, 'You need to take care of your family.''

It's important for men to be rocks for their families. God put us in place to lead our families, and we need to be there for them.

Starting out with cream and sugar

Four years ago, some families from Switzerland and Germany came to the U.S. to help homeless people and share the Word of Christ.

While speaking at Hope in the City Church in Austin, Texas, the leader of the families heard from God, according to News 8 Austin:

'Our leader -- he was here ministering at the church and when he had a break he walked up and down the drag and saw all the young homeless and God spoke to him that he should send a team to Austin,' said Kurt Brunner of the group.

They converted a trailer into a mobile living room to share with the homeless. The group ended up calling themselves Cream and Sugar, because they always ask visitors if they would like cream and sugar.

We are dust

Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are dust and will return to dust someday. Janet Marie Good shared her recent Ash Wednesday experience in the Daily American:

Lent always felt like a time that I had to give up things for God. To suffer in his name. How sad.

This Wednesday I felt the enormity of his words, chewing at my insides, urging me to take the right path. So I think I am going to try something different this Lenten season. I am going to give things to God, instead. My time, my actions, my thoughts. Gifts of love. Sharing joy and happiness in his name seems so much more significant.

In his caring and kind way, God spoke to me through a humble, beautiful man in a long flowing robe, who gave his people everything he had on his last Ash Wednesday as a pastor.

It's up to us to do God's will while we are here on this earth, to share the love and joy of Him.

Facing a child's terminal illness

American Chronicle recently ran a touching story about Evan Newport, a boy from Royal Oak, Mich., who has been facing a terminal illness (Noonan Syndrome, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and lung disease) for six years.

It's been very difficult for his family, but Evan's father, Scott, has the appropriate mindset to deal with his son's condition. Scott has described his philosophy as "The Warrior Mentality":

1. Warriors know how to take on affliction.
2. Warriors may get knocked down, but we always get back up.
3. For warriors, the greater the battle, the greater the reward.
4. Warriors never go into battles alone.

Scott said that his reward is one more day of life for Evan.

God takes Michael Floyd through Cretin-Derham Hall

In 2004, Michael Floyd toured St. Paul's Cretin-Derham Hall high school with his mom, Theresa Romero. He really wanted to attend, but his mom knew that they did not have enough money to cover the tuition for the private school.

Fighting Irish Insider tells the story of how God paved the way for Floyd to attend Cretin-Derham Hall:

'I was dreading having to tell him no and I was praying about it,' Romero said. 'One day I got on the bus to go to work and the Spirit of God spoke to my heart. It said, 'Isn't this a good thing that your son wants?' I cried right then and there. It was a wonderful thing that he wanted.'

So mom told her son that somehow, together they would make it work.

'The Lord told me he would take care of us and I decided to let him go,' she said.

To cover the cost of tuition, Romero worked concessions at the Metrodome and Xcel Energy Center, and Floyd began a work-study program. Floyd excelled at athletics, and will attend the University of Notre Dame.

My repentance for Lent

I have decided on my repentance for Lent. I'm going to give up saying negative things about people. Jesus wants us to follow John 13:34 -- to love one another.

I often fail in loving my neighbor -- if someone lets me down, they go on my "negative" list until they do something to make up for it. This practice is not working for me. . .I'm unkind to many people and making myself miserable. It has to end.

It's time to give up this self-defeating style of thinking and live life the way that Jesus wants me to experience it. Happy Ash Wednesday!

An unexamined life

One of Socrates' most famous quotes is, "An unexamined life is not worth living."

That's what is making The Heart of a Warrior group very difficult for me right now. We're examining our beliefs, values, attitudes and motives, and the relationships between each of them.

As I look at my life and why I do the things that I do, I see that my life is a far cry from the way that Christ lived. I liked it better when I just did whatever and didn't think about my actions. . .but I know that undergoing this analysis of my life will help me to realize my full potential to do God's will.

The intersection of faith and climate change

Climate change has taken hold as a hot discussion topic over the past few years. Recently, members of Utah's various faith communities held a panel discussion to talk about climate change. Daniel Gomez of Congregation Kol Ami, a Salt Lake City synagogue, was quoted about the intersection of faith and climate change in an article in The Salt Lake Tribune:

'Our ancestors walked for 40 years in the wilderness,' he said. 'We were not in temples or beautiful buildings. God spoke to us in nature.'

No matter what a person believes about how the world was created or what forces are above, what surrounds us...should inspire awe, the panelists suggested.

It is up to us to reverse the trend of climate change, to protect the beautiful nature that God has provided for us to enjoy and experience Him.

We all are equal under God

I saw an excellent movie recently on DVD called Sweet Land. It's set in post-WWI Minnesota and involves a controversial Norwegian-German mail-order marriage.

In Sweet Land, John Heard plays the local minister who openly forbids the marriage. He comes across as a holier-than-thou, snobbish minister.

It reminds me that ministers and pastors are not above the rest of us, although some may act that way. We all have equal access to God, His word and His love.