So, I agreed.  I agreed for one simple reason.  I love my wife.

Now, I will admit to you, on the very first day we started this, I freaked out.  I was at work and lunch time was closing in as I began to realize my wife was at work and we didn’t really have anything that was “on the list” at home for me to eat.  So I began texting her and our friend, Eric, about what I could possible do for lunch.  We are sharing our home with Eric and Andrea for a time, but that’s a whole other story.

So, back to freaking out.

I wasn’t getting enough of a response from either of them to satisfy my panic until Eric finally chimed in with, “I can go to the store to pick up a few items and throw a salad together for you, then we can figure other things out for the days you’ll be at work and won’t have time to come home and make something.”  This was enough to calm my panic for the day.  Everyone survived and I didn’t starve like I thought I would.  In the coming days, several trips were made to several grocery stores as we began to explore the many options of what we could and could not eat during this time.

Now, one thing you need to understand is that I am not much of a cook.  To word it that way is even giving me more credit than I deserve when it comes to cooking.  I typically don’t cook.  Especially stuff that doesn’t have a recipe for me to follow.  Suffice it to say that over the past month and a half, I have not cooked one single meal.  To be as honest as possible, we have done this whole candida thing with very little effort on my part.  But, would you like to know what’s been so crazy about it all?  I have lost 20 lbs.  TWENTY POUNDS!

That’s right, 20 lbs. lost without doing anything.  I haven’t cooked, I haven’t exercised, I haven’t jogged.  The truth is, I have been simply eating, and eating very well!  Most days I get a second helping of whatever we’re having because the food that has been prepared is simply that amazing.  So picture me stuffing my face with a second helping of dinner and waking up the next day only to find out that I have lost another pound.  This is brilliant.  BRILLIANT, I tell you!

I share all of that with you in order to share Christ with you.  Jesus revealing Himself to us in our everyday lives and in some of the simplest ways is one overflow of His life we have been sharing with the saints in the Gainesville church.  Here is how Christ revealed Himself to me through this candida free cleanse.

Christ invites us to join in His life, not for our own purpose or desires, but for His purpose and His desire, much like my wife invited me to join her in this candida free cleanse.  She has a purpose in doing this and it has nothing to do with my purposes or desires.  It’s about her and what she hopes to accomplish.  With Christ, since He is all, it is about Him, His glory, His purpose, what He desires to bring about.

And so, we agree to join Him in His life, often times simply because we love Him.  We love Him for no other reason than that He loves us first.  His love and His life are abundant and we simply respond to His life and love by joining Him.

As we join Him, He has been and is at work, preparing and executing His desire to accomplish His purpose in everything.  And really, this requires no effort on our part.  We have joined Him in what He is doing and His life is now living in and through us, accomplishing His desire and purpose.  Because we are no longer living for ourselves, in fact, we have been crucified with Christ and the life we now live is Christ’s life in us and through us, our desires, agendas and purposes are no longer being driven or pushed forward.  In fact, they die off and His desire and purpose is where we find our true desire and purpose.  In His life is where we find our true life.  Just as I have done nothing to bring about this candida cleanse or cook the food, but have simply sat down to feast every day, we do nothing to bring about Christ’s desire or purpose.  He does it all.  It is His life living in and through us, all He asks us to do is to partake of it, to sit at His table and feast every day upon Him.

The beauty that comes out of us joining His life, I’m sure, is more evident to Him than it is to us, but still we experience it.  I didn’t set out to lose weight, I didn’t have some big exercise routine in mind, nor have I started one, yet.  In this candida free cleanse, I am experiencing the joy of losing twenty pounds, with no effort of my own, except sitting down to eat.

In Christ, we are experiencing His life, love and joy as His Body, Bride and Family as we are being built together in the community of believers.  In His life and love, we learn that what we become a part of in Him is ultimately for our good as well.  What He does, He does perfectly and it overflows into the life of every believer that has been called according to His purpose.  That is how abundant His life is.  We lose our lives, our agendas, our desires, our plans and we gain His life, His purpose, His desire and it is so enjoyable, so wonderful that we can do nothing, but consider it all joy.  I am confident at this point in our journey, we have only scratched the surface of all He is.  Here’s to twenty pounds (and counting)!

What a Christ!

The World’s system lies in the hand of the evil one and all people have been indoctrinated by it from birth. Your identity, your worth, your status, etc., is measured by standards set by this world. By necessity there must be a death to that old life, that old estimation of who you are and a birth of new life springing forth of the true reality of your identity in Christ.

Christ Displaces the Enemies Hold
Struggle both spiritually and mentally are not simply a matter of the enemy bombarding your mind trying to bring you down, discourage you, make you feel like a failure, telling you, look what you have done with your life, you have wasted it or look at these people and their accomplishments comparing yourself with others.

The inward struggle youíre facing is a result of a conflict. Your mind has mindsets already built in that are strongholds of the enemy. These mindsets have been built there as you have grown up and are encouraged by the world system which is under the sway of the evil one. These strongholds support the independent self life that Christ has put to death on the cross.

As Christ comes in and begins to shake all that up, breaking in with the truth of who you are in Him. As He displaces the enemies hold (mindsets) bringing in the truth of Himself you begin being transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is the process of becoming who you already are, waking up to the reality of who you are in Christ. Putting off the old man and putting on the new man, Christ Jesus. See Ephesians 4:22-24, “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (ESV)

A New Perspective
A new perspective that I now see from having learned that when you feel the struggle it may seem like you are really under attack and perhaps you are but in reality Christ is overthrowing the enemyís stronghold in your mind. Christ is bringing victory into reality in your life. This is when the enemy does all he can to maintain his hold. This is not the time to give in or give up it is the time to press in more resolute to your Lord looking to Him, trusting Him being encouraged that He has done it. At this point to trust in your feelings and emotions or rely on the old estimations comparing yourself with others will only be playing into the enemies hand.

The struggle is important to go through. You will know your Lord in a much more intimate and real way as you pass through this struggle. The battle is already won. Christ has already defeated the enemy. You have already been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Embrace Christ and the reality of who you are in Him and go through the struggle. Shrug the feeling that the enemy is really trying to overtake you but instead realize that your mind was already under the influence of the enemy and the world system but now Christ is setting you free as you are conformed into His image.

The enemy is losing ground in you and is mad trying to get you to let go of the truth of Christ. This struggle is necessary for you to go through and it is a positive thing. You must cling to the truth even if you donít feel like it. Remember your faith is not based on feeling but in who He is. 2 Cor. 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. (ESV)

Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind
Paul states in Romans 12:1-2, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

This appeal from Paul is for us individually and as a corporate body to respond to in faith. It is vital to apply in order that the life of Christ may be lived in and through you within the community of the saints and as you read the rest of Romans 12 and beyond you will see what the fruit of doing so looks like.

A Final Exhortation
When we make a resolute presentation of our lives continually to Christ as a living sacrifice not being conformed to the pattern of this world, that includes the estimation of yourself, success, power, money, material possessions, past mistakes, age and accomplishments and lack thereof, etc., and begin to be transformed by the renewing of our minds according to the realization of Christ, the revelation of Christ in you and in you all as the community of believers we will see the ever growing expression of the glorious Christ in and through us. That is why this is called a walk of faith because we cannot trust ourselves and the Lord is showing us that He is all in all.

The enemy is defeated and the only place he has ground in us is when we either lose sight of the truth and begin relying on the old man again or have an area of our heart that is not submitted to the Lordship of Christ. Either way the Lord is merciful and faithful to work in us both to will and do His good pleasure. Turn to Him now, Call on His name and thank Him that He has placed you inside of Himself and that you can safely rest in His arms trusting in Him fully.

You can find the full post and comment thread at Seth’s blog, Straight Plow.

We have had the blessing, and I say “blessing” in all sincerity, of sharing a house with the Babione family for the past 5 and 1/2 months.  If you don’t know exactly what that means, then let me fill you in.  For the past 5 and 1/2 months 4 adults and 6 children have shared the same house.  WHAT?  Yes, you read correctly.  A total of 10 people have lived under the same roof for the last 5 and 1/2 months.  Granted, this house isn’t just any house.  The house we’ve shared has around 2400 sq. ft. of living space.  This space includes 4 bedrooms, 2 and 1/2 bathrooms, 2 living areas, a formal dining room, a large kitchen/dining combo area, and a sun-room.  So there is a good deal of space in the house.

But this post isn’t about the house.  It’s about Jesus.  Isn’t everything?

In making the decision for our families to live together our main purpose, our desire was that Christ would have His way in all of it.  Our desire is Jesus Christ and our desire is for Him to have His desires in us.  We are captured by and for God’s Eternal Purpose. We believe our purpose is wrapped up inside of His purpose, in Christ.  Jesus is the fulfillment of all things.  He is the sum of it all.  He is the center, He is supreme. Just check out John 1 and you should get a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about.

So with that in mind, we set ourselves to knowing Jesus more in and through everything in our lives together.  In these past months, we have heard, seen, and known Christ in ways we’ve never experienced before.  They have been glorious.  We’ve experienced times of refreshing, times of laughter and love, singing and praying.  They have also been gory.  We’ve had nights of tense emotions, frustrations, tears, and anger.  But through it all we each have desired to know Jesus more and to see Him glorified in and through it all.

One particularly gory night stands out in my mind.  Our financial situation looked bleak and we were all very stressed about it.  One night we all had decided to spend some time talking, praying and seeking the Lord about it.  We were trying to communicate with one another, but it just wasn’t going very well.  In fact, it was terrible.  Then there was a long, awkward silence.  We sat and waited.  Each of us determined to know the Lord and see Him have His way in the situation.  The silence must have lasted at least an hour.  But the beautiful thing was that before the night was over, the Lord was having His way in each of us, love was re-kindled and we each experienced Christ in a way we never had before that night.

One particularly glorious night stands out in my mind as well.  Occasionally, after our evening meals we will gather around one of the living areas and just sing and share Christ with one another.  One evening as we were doing so, our daughter wanted to share something with us all.  She made a confession of Christ as the living Son of God and her Lord and desired to be baptized.  There was rejoicing in our house that night, because not only was this an answer to many years of prayer, but the house also has a pool in the back yard, so she was baptized by her mom, with me proudly looking on and recording video of the time.  Bridget took photos while R.C. also shot some video of it.  It was a beautiful time in the Lord.  We as a family were able to share that night with our closest friends simply because we share a house together.

So…

This season will be coming to an end soon, as both of our families will be moving into places of our own in the coming weeks.  I know there are times when each of us think to ourselves about how we’re looking forward to being in our own places and having our “normal” family lives back.  But even in those moments, we have each acknowledged a few simple truths.  We will miss the richness of this experience.  We will miss having a brother or sister in the Lord to fellowship with on a constant basis.  Most of all, we acknowledge that Christ is center, He is supreme, and He is having His way.  And what a glorious Way it is.

“God is after a people who are captured by and for His Eternal Purpose. Find out what it is, and give your life to it.” – Frank Viola

Places to find out more about God’s Eternal Purpose:

From Eternity To Here, A Homeless God, The Eternal Purpose, Why I Love The Church, God Is Always Working Backwards.

A new season has started.  Not season, as in Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, and not season as in football or baseball season.  But a new season for our family, as well as a new season for the church.

Prior to us picking up and moving, Brenda spent a lot of time online looking for a place for us to rent, together we spent time in prayer about it, and a good sister who already lived here spent time driving by, looking at, and walking through several houses Brenda had found online.  Brenda and I had a desire to be able to host the meetings in our home and made ourselves available for that purpose if the Lord desired it as well.  Turns out He did.  He provided a great house in a great location with a great landlord.

Brenda and I love having people over.  We enjoy being around others and having others in our home for food, games, movies, fellowship and whatever else we can get ourselves into.  So when the church was able to meet in our home it thrilled us.  When we rented this house, we did so because we believed the Lord led us to this house for His purpose.  Our heart and mindset has been that this house would be available for the Lord to use as He desires for as long as we are in it.  So it has seen many uses, like organic church meetings, brothers meetings, sisters get togethers, baptisms, cookouts, birthday parties, and more.  We have been so blessed to have a house large enough to host all of these times together with our brothers and sisters, and our Lord.

Tonight was the first night that the meeting was held in a different house.  As the Lord has provided, another family has desired to host the church meetings and was able to rent a house large enough to accommodate the entire group.  So our time of hosting the church meetings in our home has come to an end, for now.  Our family will be moving into an apartment soon.  I’m sure we’ll still have people over and spend time with others.  But we won’t be hosting the church meetings anymore.

It felt strange today.  Spending time at the house on a Saturday, not having to do things around the house to prepare for everyone to be here.  I know it was less hectic and less stressful.  But for me it was sad.  I will miss it dearly.  I will miss it because from the time we’ve lived here our children have known that on Saturdays the saints come to our house to share in life and love.  To share Jesus.  I will miss the times after meetings when brothers and sisters just stay for a while because Christ is dwelling in, being made known in, and expressing Himself through His body, because they want to spend time with their brothers and sisters.  I will miss the children coming in and playing with the adults in our living room.  I will miss hearing the sound of 40 to 50 voices fill our house with love songs for our Bridegroom.  I will miss seeing all of the saints gathered together in our home for His purpose.

The saints are dear to me.  So, thank you Lord.  Thank you for allowing us this time of hosting our brothers and sisters in our home.  Thank you for giving us this rare and precious blessing.  Thank you for Your life living in us.

Thank you saints.  Thank you for allowing this opportunity.  We are all, together, a beautiful expression of our Lord, Jesus Christ, here in Gainesville.  For His glory and reknown.  I love you all.

There are so many ways I could describe what we are living in, what we’re experiencing, what we are a part of here.  I’ve been trying to sort through the many thoughts because I’ve wanted to post about our lives here, but there is so much.  So I will simply describe tonight and perhaps more explanation will come in a different post.

This evening started with the brothers meeting up at an apartment community that one of our brothers lives at.  We have a strong brotherhood here.  The brothers met for a game of TC Ball.  What is TC Ball, you ask?  Well, it’s a combination of wiffle ball and baseball played on a tennis court with a few variations on the rules.  The game started around 6:45 p.m. and didn’t end until around 8:30/8:45 p.m.  The game went for 7 innings with a score of 35-32 (our team won), but we didn’t leave the courts.  We gathered around each other and shared in the Lord through a song and prayer.  Because our brotherhood is so strong, many of us wanted to continue in fellowship and fun, so one of the brothers offered to play Settlers of Catan with any willing participants if we could gather somewhere to hold us all.  Our house is large enough, so with the consent of the other brother we share the house with, I told them to bring the game to our house and all who wanted to be there were welcome.  Six brothers came (and are still here as I type this) and have been enjoying each other and sharing in the Lord through out the game, playing on the Wii and also just spending time in conversation and uplifting one another in prayer.  Praying for things like jobs, housing situations and relationships, trusting the Lord is with us, in us, and through us all.

While the brothers were busy with TC Ball, the sisters met up for pizza (with some of the children) followed by a night of tumbling, twisting and tricks at a UF ladies gymnastics meet (I think they competed against Georgia).  From what I heard, it was a good event and they all enjoyed it.  Most of them went home, but a few of the sisters came over and joined the brothers in conversation and games.  So not only are there brothers and sisters at our house, but all of the children that belong to us and the other brothers and sisters are here as well.  I can hear several of the children singing songs to the Lord together off in a distant bedroom.  While a couple of boys and their imaginations dismember one another using light sabers in the other bedroom.  It is a house full of laughter, joy, music, noise, conversations, yawns and love.

It is now 12:23 a.m. and the last brother just left for the night.  The love and warmth still linger in my heart and mind.  This is only a portion of the people we share our lives with.  But it is a good taste of what we experience on a daily and weekly basis.  Sharing in the Lord, His life and love over, in and through us all and sharing our lives and love for one another, knowing that each person here is here for the Lord’s purpose and heart.  He is our center, our life and our love.

http://bit.ly/9sGspu

Infusion 2010 DC Conference – Eternal Purpose MP3

Enjoy.

We’ve caught a revelation.  A revelation of Jesus Christ and the eternal purpose of God.  The revelation of Jesus as the central and supreme focus in the lives of a group of people who share life in community with each other and learn to participate in His life.  To share Jesus.  Eat and drink Jesus.  Reveal Jesus as He has revealed Himself to each person.

There’s a longing.  A longing that must be filled.  We’ve had it for quite some time.  You see, several years back we started noticing that our Christian experience(s) in the places we were a part of weren’t measuring up to what we read in the New Testament about Jesus, the disciples, apostles and the early Church.  We noticed that a lot of our time and energy were being spent on things, things that were told to us to be good and right for us, as Christians, to pursue.  And yet, the more we did, the more we pursued these things, the deeper the longing became.  The more it grew.  We noticed that while things in those places could get better…things just kept getting the same.

We kept feeling and sensing that there must to be more to being a follower of Jesus than what modern Christianity offers. For years we have asked ourselves, “Is this all the Christian life is about? Isn’t there more to being a follower of Jesus?  What was so life changing that persuaded the disciples and those of the early church to live and give their lives, even unto death?”

This revelation of Jesus Christ and the eternal purpose of God is the answer to that longing. This is the missing element, the missing part of life, that we had not found in any organized church we had ever been a part of.  And this is what we are moving for.

We are moving to be a part of a group of people that live shared lives upon these points…the supremacy and centrality of Jesus Christ in everything and God’s eternal purpose of having a dwelling place on the earth, a Bride for the Son, and a Body or family in which and by which to express Himself on the the earth.

Up to this point, we have only experienced it in a very limited way with a few friends here.  Over the last year, the Lord invited us to join a new work that He has started in Gainesville, FL and we have been through a wilderness journey that has brought us to this point now.  I desperately want to tell you more about it, but right now I would only be speaking as one viewing something from the outside.  My hope is to share more about this journey, this revelation of Jesus Christ and God’s eternal purpose from experience as the coming months go by.

For now, I can say this…Jesus Christ becoming the central being and supreme passion in our lives, and the eternal purpose of God is what we will give our lives for. He is what we live our lives for.

So I encourage anyone struggling in their marriage to first go to Jesus, acknowledge and confess to Him where you are at, then ask Him where He wants you to go from there. If the resources listed here can be of help to you, I pray you will use them. It is our prayer that Jesus will be revealed and glorified through the resources listed there and that He will use them to heal you life and your marriage.

In Him.