My Moving Update

So I've tested wordpress and it has it's ups and down.
It would have way more Ups if i knew PHP. But we'll see how that all goes.

If your wanting the RSS Feeds they are all follows

Blog Feed
http://kevininc.com/?feed=rss2

Comment Feed
http://kevininc.com/?feed=comments-rss2

So I would assume this change will occur sometime tomorrow or Wednesday. So Stay tuned.

With the transfer I lost all Categorized 90 Blogs that I put in by hand. UGH
I've Also not found a good template I like. So you'll have to deal with the change.

Consider this my last blog from this Blogger feed.

Remember-
1. For those of you that visit this site by actually visiting the website, You will see a new design.
- You have nothing to do
2. If you receive my blog by subscribing to the XML or RSS feed in your Blog Reader, please update. Accordingly.

Until Next time.

Stay Tuned!

Just wanted to let you know that I'm in the middle of packing up my old website and transfering to the new one. There are two things to be aware of.

1. Those of you that have no clue what an RSS feed is, or use a blog reader, then do nothing. Your viewing experience will be unchanged, other than viewing the amazing new template i post. But be forewarned, I haven't found the template I like enough yet to edit.

2. To you blog rollers, you will need to change the XML page file that you link too to get my updates. I will post it before I move. But just be warned that this xml feed will no longer be used in a couple of days.

That is all!

p.s. I'm holding off on blogging about the second half of my conference, as well as I think i forgot to really proof the last three posts. So sorry for any confussion with the tables I tried attaching.

p.s.s. Has anybody ever seen trucks packed that tall and wide? I have at the Mexican Border! it's insane!

Cool Website

click here

Ecclesia - Discipline of Solitude

This guy really want's his prayers to be answered.
While looking for pictures I stumbled across a Wiki Howto-Pray site. This made me laugh too, but in a way I probably can't or shouldn't explain here.

So we were talking previously about our "Journey of becoming our True Self in Christ," in the earlier post and the importants of Solitude. I'm going to put the quote up again, because it speaks volumes to me.

Solitude:

In solitude we meet our demons, addictions, feelings of lust, anger, and our immense sense for recognitions and approval. But if we do not runaway, we will meet the One who says "Do not be afraid I am with you, and I will Guide you through the falley of Darkness.

Solitude is a time that we meet our imperfection, and if allow it to, it will crush us. So the choice is to either press forward leaning on an understanding that God will come through with his promise, or ignore the discipline living a life no different from an Atheist.

Prior to the event where Jesus was betrayed by Judas, and taken away by the guards to charged, jesus spent the night in solitude. While his friends and disciples where sleeping Jesus had a pretty powerful time with his Father. Can you imagine Jesus during the whole night asking his father for things to occur. I'd imagine it would get pretty old and repetitive asking for a different plan of attack to save the sinful world.

So with that being said, it's time for another Table.

Discipline of Solitude
Silence --> Prayer --> Meditation --> Contemplation

Silence - I think we underestimate the power of Silence. Especially in a Church Service. We are so quick to fill a void of silence with a CD of music, or the sounds of an acoustic guitar to fill the supposed void. Taking the time to be silent allows us to calm down and not be in a rush, but also take in some of the wonders of the world around us that we wouldn't normally here. Birds Chirping, the branches whistling in the wind that passes through, or even the wisdom given to man to create loud sounding motorcycles that pass by the street.

Prayer - I should go further into this than I am, but prayer is communication. Its telling God how great he is, how thankful you are, thing's your struggling with, things you want advice with, things you need help with, etc.

Meditation and Contemplation - unfortunately when i look the two up in the dictionary Contemplation is used when defining meditation. I apparently lost what he was saying because i was pushing onto page two of my notes at this time, so i didn't write the difference down. But if you think about Jesus' situation before he is about to be betrayed, I can imagine a Jesus being very human in not wanting to be the Sacrifice. During that evening though, I can see how meditating and contemplating the plan that God had for his Son's life he took as his own. He meditated on the purpose that his death on the Cross meant to the world. I can imagine him meditating on things all the way back to Adam and Even and how the plan was set from the very beginning of time. I can imagine Jesus contemplate what would happen if he ran away, or fought back. I can imagine Jesus' growing this overwhelmed sense of compassion that had to grow far greater than the pain He was about to endure.

Solitude:

In solitude we meet our demons, addictions, feelings of lust, anger, and our immense sense for recognitions and approval. But if we do not runaway, we will meet the One who says "Do not be afraid I am with you, and I will Guide you through the falley of Darkness.

It's pretty dang important, and gives us so much strength if we give the time to God to transform us into the likeness of Christ.

Im not saying it's easy, but it's worth it.

That wraps up most of Wil's discussion on the Inward Journey. Tomorrow we begin talking about the Outward Journey. Don't worry I've got much more to talk about with the Inward Journey. We haven't even gotten to Keith's afternoon's discussion.

Until next time.

Ecclesia - Image of God

Who is this invisible character in our lives?
How do we get to know Him?
Is there a formula to getting to know him?
Is there an example we can learn from?

I think it's safe to say that an Atheist, whether they want to admit it or not, could imagine a God or supreme being. So what does that mean for a believer. If we don't dig any deeper than just belief in God, we never change or become transformed into being more Christ like. Our view of God becomes stagnant and unchanging, leading us down a road of passivity, and a lukewarm faith.

What atheists don't realize is that we humans are here on a journey. We are on a journey to find our true self in Christ.

Time for another Table.

Creation Fall Redemption Eschaton

Image Formed Deformed Conformed Transformed
of God True Self False Self New Self True Self


Creation - Adam knew exactly who God was and himself
Fall - (when Adam and Eve Sinned) The image of God became Deformed, and they grew a false self of who they where.
Redemption - (Christ Dies for our Sins) Christ enambles us to know who he is and gain a new self in Christ.
Eschaton - (The day of Armageddon when all humans will be judged for their past) We will gain a True sense of Self and who God is.

Now i probably didn't do the greatest job of explaining this, but the idea is that we can know who God is without knowing who we are in Christ. This requires time of Solitude.

What does solitude look like in this Journey to getting to know our True Self? Well I'll end with a quote that was shared.

Solitude:

In solitude we meet our demons, addictions, feelings of lust, anger, and our immense sense for recognitions and approval. But if we do not runaway, we will meet the One who says "Do not be afraid I am with you, and I will Guide you through the falley of Darkness.

Tomorrow we talk about the Discipline of Solitude

I made the dumb switch

Okay so maybe it's not visible to you, but Wordpress is installed in a directory unknown to you. Don't even try Angelo it's not under Wordpress or WP. I'm testing it out before i take my blogger account offline.

But just wanted to send out a post stating that i'm more than likely going to transfer over to WP and want your input on Plug-in's, Widgets, Addons, Sidebars that you really like.

This new web platform should look a lot better than the crap design I have now, and should hold more information like my twitter and books I read, and current blogs I read. So, stay tuned for the new face lift.

Ecclesia - The Integrated Journey

Wil, began his talk about how he had grown up working for Campus Crusade for Christ. Through his involvement with CCC, he became distant with his wife and kids. He even told his wife that his ministry is CCC and everything else needs to take a back burner. I wish i could say this experience is foreign to me, but I know it all too well. It is a trap I have been so afraid to fall into, and i'm not even married or dating anyone.

Wil went on to say and point out that pastors, staff members, leaders of the church don't have what it takes to "go the distance" in ministry. This is why all to frequently people never really hear about Church Growth anymore. The news that seems to be spreading is the Church health in how it's struggling with members in ministry burning out.

He then went on to share a diagram
________________________________________________
Inward Outward Upward
Self Others God
Psychology Ministry Theology
Knowing Self Loving Others Knowing God
Solitude Service Prayer
-------------------------------------

So to recap. There are three areas that we need to keep in balance (Inward, Outward, Upward). Whether we are in a ministry position or not we as followers must have this balance and discipline. It will allow us to be effective and live a healthy life that will continually be transformed into the likeness of Jesus.

Easy enough right? I'm beginning to sound like the A+B+C= Presence of God formula again.

Whether you realize it or not, the Inward-Outward-Upward Journey becomes our "Spirituality" or our path to knowing who God is and developing a "Relationship" or friend during our journey of trials and tribulations here on earth.

Now don't get overwhelmed by the table formula above. This is a very high level overview of what all the areas really consist of. So don't think i'm going to be leaving you hanging about how to start or develop a relationship with Christ is all about. Too many times (myself included) have given someone a bible, or devotional book, hoping they would read it and start their "relationship" with God.

But for now what I want to you know is that, busyness allows us to not focus on ourself. We as humans can't spend all of our time being outwardly focused. In order to know who God is, we have to learn who we are.

How do we learn who we are, or even what we are?

Great question. I'm so glad you asked.

Tune in next time!

Ecclessia - The Integrated Journey

So Friday I attended a conference called "The Integrated Journey" with Wil Hernandez and Keith Matthew. Apparently these guys have written some things, I on the other hand couldn't tell you who they were from Adam. Needless to say i enjoyed every minute I was there.

Throughout the day
To my Amazement
- I have no clue who Henri Nouwen is.
- I was amazed that everybody was focused on the same goal and not trying to undermine one another
- They talked about stuff that I felt I knew had gained wisdom on and hadn't read out or learned from a book which was a cool feeling.
- I felt very much like an outsider with the inside scoop. I was giving advice to church staff members. It boggled me with excitement.
- They talked a little bit about the Church machine.
- How much they down played pastors now a days, in how they aren't training themselves to go the distance in ministry.
- That someone finally talked about the importance of pain in the growth process.
- Discipleship is where it's at!

That is just the surface. I took 9 pages of notes during about 6 hours of discussion. Lets hope i can make sense of them in the next few posts. But believe me. You do not want to miss out on what was discussed last Friday.

If you want to know more information about the Ecclesia group, you can go to the link below. I know nothing about it. So don't come looking to me if they are a cult or something. haha.
http://www.ecclesianet.com/

Put your thinking caps on, because it's going to be a challenging gut check ride! I hope your excited.