Letters to Laodicea

I received some encouraging answers to prayer lately. God is awesome! I hope this episode can encourage you to increase the frequency and fervency of your prayer life. God is faithful and is listening.

This episode is about prayer. Lately I have been in intercessory prayer for specific people and I've noticed very distinct evidences that the Lord is working in their lives. Mountains are starting to move, and it is amazing.

I contrast modernism vs post-modernism through two songs about rainbows. One was the first number from the 1979 movie The Muppet Movie, "Rainbow Connection" performed by Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson). The second song is from The Gregory Brothers (http://youtube.com/schmoyoho) and Yosemitebear (http://www.youtube.com/user/Hungrybear9562).

Whereas Jim Henson was creating something within the old system of getting an idea approved by the various Hollywood gatekeepers and then producing an original work "within the system," the YouTube generation isn't interested in original work. Even beyond pastiche, we literally create derivative works such that the Double Rainbow song was "written" haphazardly while Paul Vasquez was witnessing a rainbow, and then arranged and composed by the Gregory Brothers.

I discuss my thoughts on the implications, using other examples from the Gregory Brothers.

The Gregory Brothers

http://youtube.com/schmoyoho

YosemiteBear

http://www.youtube.com/user/Hungrybear9562

http://yosemitebear.net/

The Rainbow Connection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSFLZ-MzIhM

Postmodernity (section: History)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernity

Habakkuk 3:17-19 ESV (my caps)

"Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

he makes my feet like the deer's;

he makes me tread on my high places."

First original episode after joining RRN. I give my thoughts about the "ground zero mosque" government-media psy-op that is going on in the culture these days. And then I play a David Guzik sermon on Matthew 25, and I discuss the way I conceptualize the 'talents' in the parable of the talents. If what I say has merit, then 1st-world Christians have been doing far too much digging.

Reposting for new RRN listeners.

What does it mean to be a child of God? I discuss some thoughts on this issue in the context of my previous episode Light Pollution (check that one out first). Resist the temptation to dismiss everything I say in this episode by saying something like, "We aren't supposed to stay spiritual children, but rather grow in Christ." By saying that, you miss my point—I agree we are to grow. But we are also to be humble and childlike if we expect to be the greatest in the Kingdom.

Letters to Laodicea is now available from the Revelations Radio Network! A big thank you to Chris White of Nowhere to Run and to everyone who may have had a hand in my being included in the network. I hope that the show is a blessing to the wider audience I will now enjoy. For the benefit of new RRN listeners, I am reposting this episode. If you've heard it already, you've heard it already. If not, welcome and thank you for listening!

I've been developing a metaphor describing our sinful condition as spiritual "light pollution," the equivalent of the physical phenomena. A light-polluted environment (such as an urban city) will cause the dark background of the night sky to become brighter, thereby 'hiding the face' of the more subtle, dim stars. It occurred to me that the same thing happens when, in a sinful condition, we try to understand the fullness of God's revealed truth. Just as you can't shine a flashlight up at a star or nebula and expect to see more clearly (actually the opposite will happen), you can't expect to understand the deep things of God when you are anything but totally and completely receptive. Selah

I broke up with my girlfriend. In this episode I spiritualized everything about the breakup, and spoke about how my relationship to my girlfriend mirrors the God-human relationship. I offer some suggestions about what we can learn from my situation and apply to our own personal relationship with the Lord. I also discussed a Hebrew word study I did and some info about upcoming episodes. Needless to say, I could use your prayer as I navigate this section of my path.

I salute Frank Lordi, a fellow watchman, who has recently retired from podcasting. I also give a little of my own testimony and discuss how Frank's diligent research was instrumental in helping me to prove that the lies were lies.

I also discuss my take on a possible future chain of events branching from the recent CA decision to overturn Prop 8. The bottom line is that if we worship the idea of 'equality' more than God himself, then the inevitable legal conclusion will eventually be that marriage in all its forms will be deemed unconstitutional. I also discuss two news articles which I've linked below.

Google: Privacy and the new explosion of data

http://techonomy.typepad.com/blog/2010/08/google-privacy-and-the-new-explosion-of-data.html

IEEE Spectrum: The Most Disturbing Presentation of the Year (Jesse Schell's presentation)

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/consumer-electronics/gaming/the-most-disturbing-presentation-of-the-year/

Video of Jesse Schell's entire presentation

http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/DICE-2010-Design-Outside-the-Box-Presentation/

If you've ever reaped a whirlwind, you'll be able to relate to this episode. Probably not an episode for kids.

The Bible discourages us from being a stumbling block for another person. But often we just shake our heads and nod, not realizing how subtle that admonition really is. I discuss some of the finer points about the idea of being a stumbling block, including how to be an "anti-stumbling-block." I also discuss Game Theory as I interpret it spiritually. A "game" is basically any interaction between participants who have something to lose or gain, depending on their own choice and also the choices of others. I believe that in every interaction that could be considered a game, there's a second, spiritual layer to the game. Mouse over the image below to see how the physical "game" changes implications when seen as a spiritual "game". Check out the wikipedia entry above for more insight into how to interpret the numbers. I obviously just made them up as an example.