the scary things.

well good day. school is done. i'm mentally exhausted and physically dead - not due to any activity, more or less the lack of that is now leading to my demise. i've sat in a chair for 13 hours every day for the past 6 days: i walk up stairs and my heart is telling me that all about the lack of care i've given him. it's a love hate relationship we have; somehow i still get the love that i don't deserve - after all, i don't treat my heart too well. maybe i should? we'll see.

so a weird subject. spiritual warfare. one of the most intriguing topics of my mind. we had a speaker, greg nettle this past week come in and discuss such topics. it's weird. it's scary. it's amazing. it's saddening. the amount of people who pay no attention to it worries me. and i'm one of the people that i'm worried about. it's so real. it's this strange dimension that we can't necessarily explain or define but we know it's there. we can sense it; we feel it; but somehow we still come to ignore it. it's a worrisome item that christians don't give a look into this world. greg nettle talked about the christmas story. not your typical luke 1 and 2 story - but one a bit more intense from revelation 12. it's pretty amazing. here it is:

a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with the child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.
- of course, we see this to be mary.

then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. and his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give brith, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.

and she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there should be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. [about 3.5 years]

and there was a war in heaven, michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. the dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. and the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
-skipping down a bit

and when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. [skipping a bit more - God saved the woman, etc.] so the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. and the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore.

well this sounds awfully nice and all but man - does anyone else get taken back by this? this isn't the cute, naive nativity set as we often depicted it as. this is war. the part that gets me the most is this here:

12.17 so the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

do we get what this means? this means that the dragon - aka. satan - has waged war against us. trying to devour us, kill us, lead us away from the testimony of Jesus. and if you don't buy into this warfare than get real. open your eyes - allow Jesus to open your eyes. goodness, your life is being fought for.

so those of us that don't necessarily feel valued. or loved. or cherished. or worth it. know that the God of heaven is battling for your life. and in that truth is the only definition of any of these words.

i've been done with school for 2.5 hours or so. i've learned a handful of things that will help advance the Kingdom of Jesus - and i've felt the attacks and unfortunately i have fallen in the battle. us children of God who are changing lives for the sake of the Gospel have an enormous targets on our backs. a target for the enemy to strike. so go out and make your targets bigger by advancing Jesus' name here on earth. read in ephesians 6 about how to protect yourself against such forces. read in 2 kings 6 to see how God sends His army to fight for you.

we aren't fighting men here. we're fighting things much bigger and stronger than anything we can imagine. cling to Jesus' love. the love that surpasses all knowledge.

let all you do be done in love - 1 corinthians 16.14

Christ has won. so go to Him and let Him fight for you. He is willing. He is good.

bradley.

good morning.

i'm at school.

i'm listening to a preacher from a church in town and it's alright - he's a little cheesy - doesn't use Scripture much - actually at all. school has been great. this guy aside i've learned tons - being challenged with things and getting to know just a ton of people.

i miss people. it's hard to go from seeing a lot of people on a day to day basis to not seeing them or hardly talking to them. i miss chrissy. i haven't gotten to talk to her much at all this week. a conversation here - a text message there. it's actually quite miserable. she's great - she's been sending me a big long e-mail everyday telling me about her day and encouraging me. i can't tell you how much it makes me smile. i feel bad because every time i end up talking to her i'm dead tired. we're going from 6:30-9 everyday so it gets kind of rough. just mental over load really. but chrissy is my best friend. i love talking to her - listening to her - and doing nothing with her. she's my favorite. i love my girlfriend very much. she's lovely. the best heart i know.

friends are a must - i feel weird not seeing roommate - my calendar says that i was suppose to meet with trevor at 7:30 this morning - today we were suppose to go down to bluegrass and set up the retreat - you get the picture. i miss home - but this is good.

well enough from me - i'll leave you with something i just read:

do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you be name; you are Mine! when you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. when you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. for I am the Lord you God, the Holy One of israel, your Savior;

very cool. very humbling. Jesus is faithful and He cares for you: so take Him and allow Him to change you.

thanks for reading and/or listening. see you soon.

bradley.

the man's hours.

well. here i am in louisville, kentucky at school. not ul - but another ministry study thing that i'm doing. no doubt that i love the crap out of it. however, i'm sitting here with an uneasy feeling in my stomach. does anybody know what this means? there's a few people around, not a noteworthy amount - but maybe that was a note. i've been starring at a screen that is scrolling through the same announcement slides over and over again - and i'm still watching. i'm just here. sitting. doing nothing really.

moving on, at this here school i've gotten to hear from some incredible people. a lot of wisdom has been given and hopefully my brain is advanced enough to take it all in. i'm mostly surrounded by dudes that are nearly 35-45 year old and 33-43 year old chicks - that's a fair median. these are basically my friends for the week. yip-ee right? right. thus far something has stuck in my mind more than anything. it's the phrase: prayer is doing something. simple. to the point. common sense really. but do i act like it? no. thinking back on it - i feel the greatest sense of accomplishment after a good time in prayer, but i don't do it enough. why is that do you think? discipline? lack of sense? everything probably plays into it. but what if we were to view prayer as the only source of doing something? what if doing something only meant prayer. for those of us that know the truth and actually care about matter - this would make the world of difference. as opposed to view our productivity based on people we see, things that get checked off, etc it would rock our entire day. and i'm not saying completely neglect people or anything but think about it. would we feel near as productive? just saying.

i'll leave, but with this: be on alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. let all you do be done in love.

another simple statement what we could never begin to master. but it's all worth a life time of attempts.

grace and peace from Jesus only. He's the reason for everything. and if you don't know or believe - ask me about it. He's the only thing that makes sense.

bradley.