SHOUT-OUTS!

Hey bloggers,

Thanks for getting the conversation started on your own (currently 11 comments)...beautiful, busy day today...again, thanks for good reports from P-404 last night, and from Streaming Faith yesterday (although you were supposed to write that stuff on their site!), but I'll have a couple of other things on there this month...one more Daily Devotional, and an article I wrote called "Keepin' It Real About the Multicultural Church"...in fact, I have three articles to write tonight for them to send by tomorrow's deadline for their March topics (if you want something done, ask a busy person!)...

Shout-out to you locals...did you notice that they're tearing down the building (converted grocery store) on Klondike Road where we met for 7 years?! I don't feel sad about it...I feel like it's significant...sort of like the Red Sea closing up behind the Israelites so that they couldn't even go back in their minds...but we did have some good times in that place...

Shout-out to Arkansas...P. Dennis, I had lunch with Tim King today, and he's awesome...thank you so much for helping to connect us...you were right, we are totally on the same page...definitely a God thing...

Shout-out to Uganda...hey, Rosette...good to hear from you...click on my Ministry Network blog and you'll see Uganda spotlighted right now...and I just got Valentine e-mails from Pastor Ben and Freddie which I haven't even returned yet...I love you all so much, and I'm glad to hear that you've survived the storm...

Shout-out to California...hey, Jeff...just got your text while I was writing this...glad to hear that SOTB IV is a blessing in Silicon Valley...and congratulations for holding the record for most mp3's ordered in CITN history...let us know when you guys are coming to visit us...

Shout-out to blog followers from all over...I was looking at the profiles of those of you who follow AW4W (and bloginthenow, even though I don't have it posted here) whom I haven't met yet...I'm curious to know how you found the site(s), including the young man from India who posted a couple of weeks ago...if you'd rather e-mail me, you can use my personal address: bishinthenow@gmail.com

Shout-out to P. Avery for what you wrote about the number 37 for my 37th ministry anniversary tomorrow...very cool stuff...and I will take any Philippines pics you can get to me, after all...

OK, gotta go..Debye and Sofia will be home in about an hour, at which time I will go into total Papi mode...

Love you all...

Thursday Thoughts

Hey bloggers...Happy Lincoln's Birthday! Thanks for the blog birthday shout-outs from yesterday...your beautiful words really touched me...I left the post open for any of you who didn't get a chance to write something...

Please log onto www.streamingfaith.com and click on "My Community"...when the drop down menu appears, click on "Devotionals", and you'll see my article for today. I'll be writing stuff for them all year long. I'm not technically requesting this, but if you'd like to make a good comment on their site about the article, I would really appreciate it...

I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who have helped Judah get things ready for the premier service of PROJECT 404 tonight...it's going to be really exciting, and I think we may even do an open house for the whole church soon, so that everyone can see what's going on down there...thanks for the good words that some of you wrote about him on the new prayer blog...

Today's AYITN is "MOVE ON!" (click on "Devotional" on my blog menu)...I think it's a word for someone here today...

I speak a special blessing over your day today...keep your mind stayed on Him, and He will keep you in perfect peace...and listen to the Holy Spirit speak within your spirit...you may be very close to a major breakthrough in the next few hours, so keep your eyes and ears open...

Oh, and one more thing...remember that the Cafe' will be open tonight for parents who bring their kids to P-404 (doors open @ 6:30)

I love you all,

Peace

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."
- Abraham Lincoln

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOGINTHENOW!!!!!!!!!!

TODAY IS BLOGINTHENOW'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!
I already said some of these things on the Christmas post, but again I want to thank all of you bloggers, especially those of you who post here regularly, for sharing so much with me here in cyber-space for the last 365 days! Your words, ideas, thoughts, insights, interpretations, musings, exchanges, humor and revelation are valuable and greatly appreciated by this blogmaster, and I believe the connection that we have all made here this year is real and important.

Every day I look forward to hearing from you on the comments page, and I always find your feedback to be both thoughtful and inspirational. The need for communication is basic to all of us, and it is very gratifying to me to see that this website has become a nexus (I'm not sure that I'm using the word correctly, but I want to use it anyway) for daily authentic and life-affirming interaction.

REAL PEOPLE EXPERIENCING THE REAL GOD IN THE REAL WORLD®...this trademark of Church In The Now has definitely become applicable to BLOGINTHENOW, and, even though the blog reaches way beyond the borders of the local church community, the concept that began in a geographical location (Conyers, GA) is now extended to the expanse of the infinite internet. As CITN has a global pulpit, BLOGINTHENOW has a universal voice.

Reading your posts every day has been a joy...in no particular order, Avatar, Peacemaker, Erik, Iris, Crownjewel, Son of Zadok, Pastor Dennis, JB, Donald, Elle, Izumi/JOY, Nothing To Lose, Friend4Life, Linda, Tracy, Karl, Sweepea, Nancy, Clark Kent, Disciple, Teezy313, Bro Lar, Laura, The Centurion, G8TRGRL, Mystic, Brenda, Disciple, Kettly, SCRIBE, Lisa, River, dgm2007, Ebony, Speaking Spirit, Doubleback Alley, Pamela T., Typical Blurker, Abraham, Yvonne, Yve, vaughn, Water Walker, Reign!, Sheri, Creme Brulee, Leesa, Mayflower, Mayam, Heart after Him, JR, Northern Light, P. Debbie and sometimes P. Debye, and all of the hundreds and hundreds of Anonymi (plural for Anonymous)...people from all over the map (literally and figuratively), many of whom have never even been ITB@CITN...everyone makes a valid contribution (if I left your name/handle out, forgive me)...even the blurkers...we feel your presence...

You are all unique and special...many of you are actually gifted writers in your own right, and you express yourselves with intelligence and great sensitivity. Some days your revelation just blows me away...and I enjoy the little glimpses into your personal lives when you share anecdotes...and I pray for you when you have a prayer request...and you make me laugh. Always your support is appreciated.

Speaking of prayer requests, my goal was to have 7 blogs operating by the first anniversary, and the 7th (and last) one is now up and running. It's called WHERE2OR3RGATHERED, and it's a site just for prayer requests. If you click on it, you will find it to be self-explanatory.

I have a great word for you tonight at LifeSkills In The Now, and the outline will posted on that blog after the service.

Thanks again for being a part of this...

I love you all!

Paul's Paradigm

Ephesians 3 (The Message)


The Secret Plan of God

1-3. This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.

4-6. As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.

7-8. This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.

8-10. And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

11-13. All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!

14-19. My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

20-21. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Hey bloggers...THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE!

Click on the new NOW MINISTRIES blog and check it out...I want to create the same sense of community with the Ministry Network that we have here on BLOGINTHENOW...

I put some of your comments about the Philippines trip over there to get things started...

Also there are some cute pics of Jon and Jenn Scott's new baby...you can leave them a congratulation message there...