Thought some of you might like to see and understand a little more following Reach 2010 what the slave trade in the world today is like…While awareness is still just awareness and unless we do something it still means nothing…I think it might be a neat opportunity for some of you to see what is happening out there and why I encourage you to come with us to Cambodia this June…

Sold: Fighting the New Global Slave Trade

Fighting the New Global Slave Trade

Directed by: Jody Hassett Sanchez Narrated by: Mira Nair

Preview Screening and Panel Discussion
Tuesday, April 13th  7:00 – 9:00pm
Upper Turner Campus Center, Azusa Pacific University

Andre Polfer, his wife Jen and Lovelite will be our guest worship leaders tonight at PURE.  Find them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter!! Excited to have them…heres their web site go support them!!! Get ready for some passionate worship tonight!!!! Bring your friends…should be a powerful time.

Lovelite Web Site

When the vision gets busy, which it always does and will, its time to retreat…not give up, but step back.  Andy Stanley says, “Retreat to the original vision.’  For me that is simple, Me and Jesus.  So for the last few days I have been quiet…Social Media/Blog speaking.  I spent the last few days doing some R and D (resting and dreaming).

No matter what cause we have made our, be it homelessness, hunger, clean water, AIDS, cancer, or sex trafficking there is a simple reality that none of us can escape…There is a supernatural GOD who gave each of us His cause.  Time and time again He commanded each of us to take His Hope, His Love, and His Salvation to the world around us.  I believe that the simplicity of our lives dictates the potential we possess to hear Him and reach out.  Bluntly…How loud is your life?  Is it filled with static inconsequential noise, or quiet enough to hear the soft whispers of a King who is madly in love with you and starving for a divine romance with you, yes you…

There is a world, starving, hungry, and hurting…not just physically…A world starving for the HOPE that Jesus died to give us so we could give it away.  From CSUSB, Chaffey College, Los Osos HS, Etiwanda HS, Rancho HS, Mt. Sac and Cal Poly to Cambodia, Thailand, Nigeria, and Kenya…What are we going to do about it?

See ya tonight…come ready for amazing worship and passionate world change.

I caught an episode of Jessica Simpson’s ‘The Price of Beauty’ this week and I was moved by it, but moved in a way than I expected to be.  The idea of the show is to travel the world and find what beauty means in different cultures.  In the first 15 minutes of the show it was super clear that Jessica, a girl raised in the church who professes Christ, has not a clue about who she is and what she is called to do or who she is called to be.  She blurts out in an interview that ‘I just want to find who I am from the inside out, I have been told all of my life who I am from the outside and who I should be, now I need to find out who I am.’

This is a young lady who grew up knowing Jesus Christ in some way shape or form, but yet wanders to the ends of the Earth meditating at a Buddhist temple trying to find inner beauty and peace.  Her worldview isnt shaped, its been bought…bought through the glamor, the gawking, and material praise that shapes most of our lives today.  What if Jesus meant all those things He said? What if the words He spoke were true?  What if our only purpose on this Earth is to praise Him, have an intimate relationship with Him and help others know His Hope, His Love, and His Purpose?? What if everything He said was true and it shaped our worldview…how would our lives look then? I think it would be much harder for people to go to Hell, and for children to fall asleep with empty belly’s at night.  I think that a little girl wouldnt fall asleep tonight somewhere in Asia to be woken in the morning to perform sexual acts in order to eat to live…what do you think?

What if He meant every word in Matthew when He said, “For ​​I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; ​​I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; ​​naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you ​visited Me; ​I was in prison, and you came to Me…Truly I say to you, ​​to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ -Jesus
He did.

more tonight…

Some how when tragedy strikes our humanity is ignited. Or is it possible that the Holy Spirit prompts a God designed desire in us to care for His creation?  From 9/11 to Haiti to Chile and World Vision in Pakistan our souls were created to care, and each of us has been moved by the centrality of these events to our souls.

Over the next few weeks we are going to explore the reality of Jesus.  The reality that He cared for the poor, hurting, hungry and suffering and called us to do the same.  No question we have fun at PURE (last night was a great expression of being real and having fun, Jesus has a sense of humor I am convinced of it).  But Shane Caliborne says it best, “I discovered a Christianity that entertained me with quirky songs and Velcro walls.”  My heart is to never be gimmicky and superficial, Passionate Christianity doesn’t allow for us to make light of a huge God who adores each of us and died for the chance to be personal with every one of us.

The question still remains, with Human trafficking and starvation here in our own country and rampant throughout the world…

Can we “admire and worship Jesus without doing what He did?” Can we “applaud what He preached and stood for without caring for the same things?” and can we “adore His cross without taking up our own?” -Shane Claiborne

Today there are more than

• 27 million people enslaved around the world…
• 1 million kids are exploited for sex trade every year…
• 80% of modern slaves moved across boarders are women and children…
• and 32 billion dollars are generated every year through human trafficking

What are we going to do about it?

‘For ​​I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; ​​I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; ​​naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you ​visited Me; ​I was in prison, and you came to Me…Truly I say to you, ​​to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ -Jesus

live//PC

Enjoy…

Do you hate Human Trafficking, Injustice, starvation, and hopelessness?

A bunch of you asked me to post this after last nights message…here ya go!!

I/We Should Break Up When/If…

By Perry Noble

#1 – The other person (usually the guy) ceases to pursue me and make me feel special/valuable. (If he is a slacker before marriage…it will be HORRIBLE after marriage!)

#2 – If our relationship is based on sex. (If you are having sex then you are not experiencing true intimacy.  SO…when you get married you are going to discover that you have nothing to talk about because you built your relationship with the hay and straw of sexual experiences and not the bricks of self control and discipline.)

#3 – If they are not fun then they’re not the one! (Seriously…if you do not enjoy being with him/her and/ore spending time with them before the marriage…why in the heck would you ever think that you will after marriage?  Don’t marry someone that you don’t like–DUH!!!)

#4 – The Holy Spirit is pressing you to end the relationship. (There are SO many people I’ve spoken with that KNOW the Lord is pressing into them to end the dating relationship…but because of their insecurities they just won’t do it.  If God is commanding you to give something up that means He has something greater in store.  Even though you can’t see it…He can!!!  I Corinthians 2:9)

#5 – You KNOW you aren’t going to marry the person you are dating. (Dating was not created to be some sort of hobby/sport.  So…when you KNOW that the relationship is NOT heading beyond its current condition…you KNOW that he or she is NOT the person God has for you…END IT!  Don’t date someone just so you won’t be alone…this situation ALWAYS goes bad because so many people get married “just because we thought it was the next step!”)

#6 – He/she is always flirting with other people…and/or he/she isn’t faithful to you before marriage. (If they AREN’T being faithful before marriage…they won’t be after marriage either!!!)

#7 – You think, “he/she isn’t who I want them to be…but I can change them.” (PLEASE READ THIS…YOU ARE NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT, YOU CAN’T CHANGE ANYONE!!!  God is the ONLY ONE who can change someone…and reality is the reason God may not be changing the person you are with is because you are in the way…and your compromise does not bring that person closer to Christ…it drives him/her away!)

Tomorrow were going to share a few lines from some fairly popular songs most of us appreciate…my point, while we wouldnt admit it most of us are very much aware that the influence SEX or sexual suggestions have on each of us is significant.  In fact the thought of SEX and lifelong relationships very well may be the most regular thought any of us have.

The harsh reality of the ‘Best Sex Ever‘ campaign is simple, taking sex and making it what it was intended to be, beautiful.  We can change the world, and talk about it as if it is part of our DNA (which it should be).  But a simple reality hit me, what if the one single thing we could do to change the world was give it back.  The prevailing thought in our Generations culture is clearly sex…my thought, why shouldnt that be the very thing we set out to change.  A Sexual revolution…not one like the 60’s produced (inconsequential ‘free love’) but one that actually made who we are and our relationships stronger…A revolution that made its stand to say ‘This life isnt about me, and it isnt about my petty sexual urges.‘  By design we were created to have sex, no question, but somewhere this beautiful thing God designed for the marriage bed has become an object of status and casual connection…

The prevailing influence on our generation is now our greatest opportunity, Best Sex Ever is our chance to do that, to see Sex not as an object but as an act, an act designed to be lived out in the context of God, husband, and wife…He is part of it like it or not…Sex belongs to Him, lets give it back and make it about Him once again…

PC’s live ‘Best Sex Ever’

Personal
-Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge by Dallas Willard
-In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars by Mark Batterson
-Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity by Mark Batterson
-Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God by Mark Batterson

Ministry
-It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It by Craig Groeschel
-The Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Andy Stanley
-Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, and Charles Burck

Suggestions

Heres a few things to consider reading…most changed my life…

all youre leaders have read these

-A Tale of three Kings: A Study in Brokenness by Gene Edwards
-Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray
-Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan
-Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan

Couple More from great leaders

-The Way of a Worshiper by Buddy Owens
-The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne
-Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
-A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Daily Meditations from His Letters, Writings, and Sermons by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Got some suggestions for me??? Love to hear ‘em!!