WOAH WOAH WOAH!!!

A few weeks back I had a man post the longest comment in the history of blogging, claiming to be the Messiah. I thought this was interesting so I responded to him, never thinking his post was more than just spam: ANyway, he actually did respond again.
This was the response to my response from Seven Star Hand.,, or,, if you are one of his followers,, the Messiah. Anyway, here it is... Enjoy.

Seven Star Hand said...
You do understand that I get the last laugh, don't you?My counsel to you is to practice patience and humility. What will you do after you discover that I am who I claim to be?Don't dig your hole too deep. You'll be looking to me to save you from what comes your way. What if I remember this and turn my back instead?Enjoy yourselves kids, (while you can...)Can you say Woe, Woe, Woe?

BD

Daydreamin

I was driving through the great town of Rothesay this past week, not paying any attention to where I was going, off in my own little world of thought. As I drove, I was crunching numbers in my head, stressing about whether or not I was going to be able to make ends meet this month. The past few weeks it seems that we've been hit with unpredicted expense after unpredicted expense. Having the attention span that I have, it was not long before I was day-dreaming about being filthy rich, and the freedom that would come along with that. I got thinking how; above all of the luxuries, the greatest thing about being rich is just not having to worry about money. I got thinking "man I wish I didn't have to worry about money." Before I could even finish my thought, the Lord spoke to me. This was not just a whim, or another thought, but it felt as if someone whispered into my spirit the words "you don't." "Brent you are my son, and you don't have to worry about money. or ANYTHING else." Now, most of you who have walked with the Lord for a while, and have been in Church know all about faith, and all about worry, and we have heard a million messages on "God's Provision", but sometimes those three point sermons on why we don't need to worry just aren't enough when pinned up against the stack of bills we find in our mailbox. This time was different for me though, it was as if something clicked in my soul; I felt God speaking to me saying,
"if you do not have the faith that you are my child, and that I will provide for you, then what do you have faith for? That I can help other people? but not you.. That I AM only interested in performing miracles for my children that REALLY need help? AM I only the God of small, comfortable things? Or, are you going to let me be the God that YOU SAY I AM to everyone else."
Still rolling along in my car, the Lord breathed a peace into my heart about Melanie and the future of our future family. He reiterated to me that I am His child, and I have EVERYTHING that I need to fullfill my purpose in this life. I have absolutely nothing to worry about.
I think sometimes as Christians God will allow things to happen that will put our faith to the test: 1, to make us realize how small it truly may be (as in my case) and 2. to strengthen it for the trials that come ahead. In whatever the trial, or challenge I may be facing, I can not be consumed with worry because I know that my God is so much bigger than any financial struggle. I mean really, think about how meaningless all the money in the world is to Him: It's His anyway, and as far as He is concerned, thats not even real wealth.
Anyway, I am just praising God for the new sense of security He has given to me for the future of My family.

God, thank you that you are so much bigger than my Aliant Bills; I thank you for the peace and rest you offer to me, and everyone else regarding a future as your Child; and thank you that you are a God who loves me enough to be concerned about my problems, big and small; Forgive me for the times my faith has been short, and for the times I have worried about problems that you are so much bigger than. Continue to speak truth into my soul, and strengthen my faith for the certain diffuculties ahead.

Your child
BD

(Warning, This is a Rant) Stop Prayching at Me! I just heard your sermon!

If any of you have spent more than a couple of hours sitting in church, you will be able to relate with the following frustration. It generally takes place at the end of a sermon: whether its good or bad, the preacher wraps up his sermon, usually by recapping the big idea of his message and then closing in a prayer; it is at this point (in the prayer) that I often find myself getting irritated. The evangelist "enters in" to prayer, supposedly talking to the God of creation, yet instead of humbly requesting our need to be changed, often times I will find the preacher will take the liberty of recapping the sermon, throwing out points and illustrations, subpoints, Bible stories, and just about anything else he can think of into this 20 minute sermon of prayer to further drive home the point of his message. Now is it just me, or does anyone else find it wierd that the all powerful, all knowing, perfect God that we are praying to, probably doesn't need to hear the illustrations for the first time, let alone a second, or third, I am sure he gets the three points of the message. Sorry for the cynicism, but if you really think about what we are doing when we Praych, it is really disrespectful to God. He is gracsious enough to actually want to hear our prayers, and then when we actually begin to pray, we aren't praying to Him, but we are talking to ourselves, which is ridiculous in and of itself seeing how we can hear a message as much as we want, but without the grace of God, no change will ever come about in our lives. I know that not everyone who has every prayched at the end of a message had ill motives in their heart of hearts, but I just think we can get caught in this trap not truly realizing what we are doing, I know I have been guilty of this.
Now don't get me wrong here bloggers; I think prayer is paramount in the life of the individual Christian, and that of the entire Church body, and I would not dare exclude God from the ending of a worship gathering. It just does not sit right in my heart to see a time that we are supposed to be taking our needs before God, and instead, we just use this time as another tool to further drive home our points. I just believe that God responds the prayers of people that Humbly approach Him; and I have a hard time finding humility in a "loaded" prayer. I'm unsure if anyone else knows what I am talking about here, I might just be crazy; regardless, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Sorry for the rant, had to get it off my chest
BD

Response to Seven Star Hand (the 55yr African american male, computer programer by day, savior of the world by night, who claims to be the Messiah)

Seven Star, I've got something for you. I was searching through my Bible, and like Brew, I could not find the Gospel of Thomas, It turns out there is only the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; sorry brother. I did however happen to find something interesting pertaining to what you were talking about. Its from Mark chapter 13 "21At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ[a]!' or, 'Look, there he is!' do not believe it. 22For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible. 23So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time." Christ had something to say about false prophets; so even if you were performing miracles, and signs, which you aren't, I still would think either two things. You are a self-obessed man, who gets kicks off claiming to be the Christ, OR, you are thoroughly decieved my the enemy. Either way, I happen to know THE messiah, I talk to Him daily. If you don't know Him (which chances are, you don't, judging from the possibility that you may truly beilieve you are him) He would love to get to know you. He loves, you , and died for you, and wants to know you in an intimate love relationship. Take care Seven star

BD

Bringing on the Apocalyspe??

This morning I read an interesting article from Newsweek. It was an interview with Tim Lehaye, the author of the left behind series. Due to the recent conflict with Israel and Lebannon, a lot of Christians (Tim Lehaye included), and apparently media, are jumping hard on this playing a definite role in the end times. I finished reading the article, and for the most part agreed with what Lehaye was saying (however I think he is a bit on the fanatic side with the whole end times deal). At the end of the page was a link to a blog where people just went off on how religions, mainly Christians, actually want the end of the world to happen. Many of them (including the guy who posted the original blog) felt as though there were loads of Christian/ Conservative Politcal groups who are trying to pass laws, create wars, and do just about anything they can do to fulfill prophecy, as if to help bring back Christ. Now I could get off into thousands of discussions on end times, but what I would like some feedback on is this. As believers in "an end"/ "The end" are we in any way supposed to try and route on the fulfillment of prophecy, or in any way try to help to fulfill it?
The mark of the beast for example: If we see that the government is trying to pass a bill in support of it, should we sign the petition?? Even if we don't have the intent to ever get the mark?
How much are we, can we, should we be involved with bringing on the apocalypse? Can we even be involved? Or will God fulfill these things without the "help," (or maybe consent is a better word) of His people?
What are your thoughts on this?

BD

Hello everyone!...Someone?,,,,Anyone?

Hello everyone!... someone?....anyone? So I finally broke down and decided to join the phase,,, I mean craze! that is blogging. I figure if I get half the enjoyment out of posting my own blogs, as I do from reading people's posts, then I guess I might as well give it a whirl.

I guess for my first entry I will explain the name of my site. "Life lessons from the Dagobah System." In the past year, I have been in the most intense part of my spiritual journey to date. God has been showing me so much about Himself; in that He has been teaching me, and leading me in becoming the man I am designed to be. That said; the reason for the name is a nerd's (that nerd being me) comparison of the Christian spiritual journey to a very similar journey that a young man took a long time ago, in a galaxy far,,,far away. That man, the one who brought balance back to the force, Luke Skywalker. Shortly after blowing up the death star in episode 4, we find a zealous Luke heading off to the Dagobah system where he would learn the ways of the force from master Yoda. This was no doubt one of the most crucial journeys in Luke's life. It was here, in Dagobah that Luke began to learn the ways of the force, and begin to take steps to becoming the hero he would end up being.

So it's plain to see the similarities here... isn't it? As Luke learned in the ways of the force, I have been learning the ways of a different force,,THE force, God. And as Luke learned directly from master Yoda, (not to be irreverant comparing my Lord and savior to Yoda) I have been learning lesson after lesson from Christ.

In this "blogspot", I will often be reflecting on the different lessons that Christ has been teaching me. Hense; Life lessons from the Dagobah system

Well, if i haven't scared you all off with my knowledge of Star Wars, and the fact that I would dare compare the second greatest story ever told to the greatest (the Gospel being the greatest, not my story), leave a comment, comments, or whatever it is you crazy bloggers do.

By the way, I am waaay to lazy to proofread, so please do not write me off as a moron because of a few spelling errors or trypos... thank you!

BD