i took a stroll today, and started thinkin about stuff listening to music.
hearing the lyrics i started repeating them, a passion for your name, stir it up in our hearts
stir it up in our hearts a passion for your name.

and then thinking really where was my passion, and where was i focused? good question. i wanted to start thinking
about how to revive a passion to move, passion to give others passion and started shooting blanks,
going nowhere. then i heard, "look at me"

not at his person, but at Him.
so i started looking at His eyes and keeping focused no matter what.
then i was asked, what do you see?

the only thing that came to mind was so simple and so peaceful
yet so true and real: eternity.
locking that in my head and heart, gave me focus and passion.
locking my eyes on His, gave me confidence and vision
its more refreshing than a 2nd wave, and so comforting that
i knew i had it, i just lost sight of Him.

i had resolved to stay focused, all i wanted was a humble heart and
an obedient spirit.
in this i knew i could fall but never fail.

Renaissance.

they say movement is good, but momentum is better. what happens when you start moving so fast you start thinking about acceleration rather than velocity? this is my point exactly.
i been thinking for awhile about revival.
no. scratch that.
people around me have been thinking, talking about it, bringing it. that's great.

but what is revival?
let's break it up
re + vival.
re=back, again, do back
viva=life, living
so if this is right, it's coming back to what once was living,
or coming back to what once was, reclaiming or catching up on what was once lost.
sounds amazing right?

to me and my always thinking mind it doesn't.
whats good is to take back what was lost and reclaim it, taking back an inheiritance
however whats better or greater is to press forward and go forth advancing the kingdom, right?
not just thinking stategically in how to gain back what was overtaken or lost, but to capture and
conquer more important areas of influence and key areas that will be integral for overthrowing dominions
and provinces!

so whats on my mind? not just a taking back, or thinking about that, but capturing and creating something new..
think cultural coup.
its gonna be sneaky, but don't get it twisted. it's not shady, just tricky. definitely marketplace stuff, and seeing stuff thats very unnatural. God meeting ppl where they'd least expect it.

anyways like i was saying, there's revival. then what? then comes the rebirth, the renaissance.
well to get a picture of what it would sorta look like, i decided to study up on it. what did it say? haha
hows this:

"Renaissance humanists did not reject Christianity; quite the contrary, many of the Renaissance's greatest works were devoted to it, and the Church patronized many works of Renaissance art. However, a [subtle] shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were brought back from Byzantium to Western Europe and engaged Western scholars for the first time since late antiquity. This new engagement with Greek Christian works, and particularly the return to the original Greek of the New Testament promoted by humanists Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus, would help pave the way for the Reformation"
--wikipedia

nobody wants religion. how about this, God doesn't want religion. so when ppl saw things from a different perspective, can you imagine how that changed not only their outlook on culture but on life and God??
in rebirth there is restoration, so that there isn't a need to keep seeking revival. here's what i find amazing, it helped paved the way for reformation.
once stuff starts happening, there needs to be a restructuring to accomodate what's just happened.. you can't control everything. matter of fact here's one: control is just an illusion. hahaha
we don't control anything! you think you're in charge of your life? that's a good one
and when man thinks he can stuff God into a 3-fold pamphlet that you receive on a sunday morning between 9:15-10:30.. there's going to be an uprising. it will get so dark in the little white steeples that there will be a cry that none of their 4-walled sanctuaries can contain.

it's as if during the dark ages it got to a point to where the culture just cried out, and in their seeking of something more they found something- beauty and art, culture and learning. there was much redefining of the way of doing things, way they painted, the lens of which they viewed things.
this is what God wants to do once again in this time.

"Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art."
--wiki

what if we started reevaluating our roles of expression and lookin AND hearing music/art, media from a different perspective? there is such a need for expression that people are pouring their hearts into their work of music, documentaries, books, photos, and film.
the need for expression is so key for a person's proper development. which is exactly the need to be heard, but through a different medium, not everyone can communicate through writings, not everyone can articulate what they feel, but they know it is geniune, know it is real.
and so they use what they can to overflow the contents of their hearts onto what they consider their canvas: a woodshop designing furniture, an autoshop creating new designs for cars. conducting orchestras from sounds of nature, etc
and eventually they realize they were born to create, born for expression.

but this is just the beginning, and much more is to be done, to be restructured. what hidden depths of the tapestry of your unique self and self-expression have you not tapped into?

what is your canvas?

Taking a shower i was doin the usual talking to God thing, and i'm like i want to experience something cool..
all of a sudden i saw a giant table, huge with foods and thought at first, whoa. i might need some stretchy pants for this one haha

so i start digging in, practically on the table, eating this and that and with stuff in my mouth, and other foods in my hands like a street rat i thought- hmmm. this probably isn't the way i should be eating hah so as i climb back down i start going around the food and asking questions.. what's this? and i would understand what it was. interesting as there were things looking like green jello that i find would be wisdom, and it looks like jello because like the tagline, there's always room for jello!
i'd find other things that He would tell me is grace, is something meatier, etc and before i could go on i started thinking..

won't i fill up quickly? how will i make room for all this food(buffet mentality) and i DEFINITELY would like to try all of this great food, even if it looks strange it probably is crazy good. i receive the explanation that this food isn't like normal food which you digest and later excrete; however, what happens is the more i consume, the less room i have for impurities, toxins all the junk that comes with being human. as i realize that the bathroom is a metaphor for repentance and cathartic for our cleanliness- i see that the more of this food we consume the more we want.
With great power is great responsibility, this is true. when you start to take in a different culture, a different food from another area and the flora or bacteria is foreign to your system, u can undergo an interesting and common traveler's experience- the flushing of the old and introduction of the new bacterias, enzymes, etc to process the food in that region. and as we take on this food, there is less and less room for what was former.
However there was another side to this with the banquet food- the more you consume, the more you crave.. but not in a bad way. there is no lack thats for sure, and there was no worry of being stuffed or hurried.
you know how when you're young, the foods which you had tasted of gives you a taste for it as you grow older? i saw how ppl having tasted and seeing the Lord is good in certain areas would be more apt to stay in certain parts of the banqueting table.. oh and it was quite a long table.

but me being an "other-side-of-the-fencer", i love to have options, choose, pick, and try. don't make that face, don't judge me-- i'm not difficult, i just like to enjoy life to the fullest haha. so i wanted to receive as much as i could, try a bit of everything then make my choice of what i'd like more of.

if you've put your time in the buffets or any lunch line, its not a good feeling to be the holdup of the line as you make your choices or take your time, however that's exactly what is necessary, to not be rushed in what you take in. if you don't digest and process your stuff right, it may end up coming out the wrong way, and you never keep any of it. then it leaves a bad taste in your mouth and for some, discourages them from wanting to ever try more of that.

then as i was ready to get on my way, i heard a voice say, "but what about dessert?" hahaha
U-turning from my leaving position, i see so many delicious, glazed, fresh and golden goodies waiting to be sinfully indulged in. don't get me wrong, i love fruit and things that are healthful, but i LOVE sweets. u remember when you were in 3rd grade and you liked this girl but you didn't like like her? well i like like my sugared desserts. as i was trying them i heard, "taste and see that the Lord is good", enough to make me stop and ponder it while the sugars dissolved into my being, giving brightness to my eyes and an effervescent spirit.

God can come and knock on your door and you can invite Him in, but when He invites you to dinner, that's the kicker. its like meeting the parents, because eating is such an intimate experience: why do you think dates usually happen with food, and why "coffee dates" aren't considered as such a big deal? because no meal was served is my opinion.
there's something behind that. same with the whole nonverbal communication, posture thing.
you can be at a party and have someone looking at you say you're introverted, however when you hold a cup in your hand, there is a total change in the perception of someone, that they are more extroverted, from such a prop.
what i'm saying is that when you take something in, there's a small type of bond between who you're with, like it or not.
it's the sharing of that experience that opens you to wherever the conversation takes you.

finally there's the line: you are what you eat.
true, true, true.
don't try and argue it, make exceptions for it, or criticize it.
it may just be a defense mechanism for the conviction of stopping to do what you don't want to

which is why paul said whatever is pure, noble, anything good and holy to think upon those things.
your heart and mind consume like you wouldn't believe, and to think that it's not going to affect what comes out
or the fruit of what you've planted.
the darkness is evil, but if you think about it haha this is what got me:

darkness must yield to light.
no exceptions, postulates, theories can disprove this.

so what does this mean? wherever there's darkness there can be light, that in a funny way darkness can be a forerunner for the light.