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Today I was hanging out in my home town of Toronto, the greatest city on earth! I love it, the pollution, horns, jack hammers, its home sweet home. I love to wander the downtown, I thrive at hearing God in the midst of caos, most people love solitude by the lake but Im on in a busy downtown cafe or urban concrete park, urban zen I guess ... anyway, before I got turned around by Holy Spirit I used to live on the streets of Toronto, between shelters, playgrounds or door stoops my life fit into a green garbage bag, I was that guy you see on the corner you didnt make eye contact with. I was thinking about what awesome blessings God has given me since then, there are too many to list, thanks Jesus ... but among the spiritual and supernatural gifts God has given me I can also appreciate the human ones, do you know how hard it is for a homeless person to use a washroom? Seriously I can remember it taking hours to find a toliet, most stores and resaurants in urban area's arnt gona give out the key to that guy on the corner, he must find an alley or bush out of site. Today as I freely came in and out of the Starbucks washroom, hair combed and clean shaven, the clerk said have a nice day. Its is so cool to know what a blessing it is to be able to go to the washroom freely, thank you Jesus. See justice isnt always about nations, in your home town there are people who cant even go to the washroom.

Keys to the Kingdom

Gos is good. On tuesday we got the keys to our house. Pray that God will continue to bless us with resources and provison. Pray that our house would be a holy and pleasing place for Jesus and his friends to hang out.


Rob

The Transferable Holy Spirit

I am finding myself increasingly interested in this from Numbers chapter 11
verses 16-17:

God said to Moses, 'Gather together seventy men from among the leaders of
Israel, men whom you know to be respected and responsible. Take them to
the Tent of Meeting. I'll meet you there. I'll come down and speak
with you. I'll take some of the Spirit that is on you and place it on
them; they'll then be able to take some fo the load of this people--you won't
have to carry the whole thing alone.

I was looking up what the word 'Spirit' meant in this particular verse. The Hebrew word is 'xwr' and is translated 'Ruwach'. One of the definitions is this:

Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal,
coeternal with the Father and the Son

Strongs then goes on to give the following definitions under this 'Spirit':

1. as inspiring ecstatic state of prophecy
2. as impelling prophet to utter instruction or warning
3. imparting warlike energy and executive and administrative power
4. as endowing men with various gifts
5. as energy of life
6. as manifest in the Shekinah glory
7. never referred to as a depersonalised force

Now I am not sure how it is that God allows Moses to choose a group of people that he wants this Spirit put upon...but I like the idea. I am working on my list now. God grant it.

Posted by Cory Harrison

Same God...different expresssion of The Salvation Army in Charlotte, North Carolina.

614: firecrest: charlotte

614:Firecrest:Charlotte

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG ... As of January, 01, 2006 we are moving into the niegbourhood. 614:Firecrest:Charlotte is a marriage of mission and community. Our aim is to move into the hood, worship God and love our niegbour as Jesus would if he were moving in with us; and he is. 614:Firecrest:Charlotte is lead by Heather Dolby, Cory Harrison and Robert Dolby, over the next three months our strategy is to make friends and hang out, laying a foundation to build a Church on. A Church without bricks and mortar a Church built of people and their love for each other.

We covet your prayers, and if your in Charlotte come on over and hang out. We will start a regular home group that meets weekly and start to get into each others lives.

Most people struggle to "get it" especially since Sunday morning gatherings are not the focal point of cell based community. Our desire is to gather together in corporate worship - let me give you a breakdown ... Once a home group multiplies, after a solid 8-10 people are in one, we will continue to multiply ... Then when the total weekly attendance hits between 60-100 people we consider the benefits of starting a weekly meeting, and if at that point its the best way to see people grow and get closer to Jesus we do it, but it might look like Tuesday night, or Mondays and Fridays, see there are no rules, just community ... Within the cell structure there are tranferable Corps programs that become paramount to healthy growth, they include visitation, YP meetings, weekly prayer meetings, outreach, band/songsters, corporate worship ect. All these "program's" are not lost in a cell based community they just become fluid and flexible, they are put to Booth's litmus test, " ... Is it biblical, and does it work.'' If something doesn't work we do it different until it does. We exploit every opportunity to the uttermost so that we are all things to all people in order that they would know Christ as lover and Lord. People are not our projects, they are brothers and sisters. We want to see a family of believers rather than a building of aquaintences. Relationships are the ministry, any ministry without relationship is mere striving. We aim to be and allow God to grow out of the overflow of a free worshiping community.

The Most Important Commandment

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they thought up a fresh question of their own to ask him. One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: "Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?"
Jesus replied, " `You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself. All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."

Posted by Rob

More images and thought to come ...