Free Event in Long Beach!!!

Two of my main inspirations will be leading a discussion on the radical Plan of Jesus.

Plan "Be" calls us to be the change we want to see in the world.

Dave Andrews, activist, anarchist and author or the books: Christianarchy, Not Religion but Love, and Plan Be, has been living in radical communities for over forty years. Working in community development, advocacy for marginalized people, intentional community life, and a deep understanding of the principles of Power with, rather than power over, Dave has lead courses twice a year for those seeking to understand the principles of Christianarchy at work in the Waiters Union community.

Ched Myers is an activist, and author of such books as "Binding the Strongman" and "Who Will Roll Away the Stone" and has been one of the leading inspirations of the radical discipleship movement. His incredible biblical scholarship has challenged many people to become followers, as well as believers of Christ.

please come join us for some coffee and stimulating conversation

rev

Host:	John Jensen
Location:	Portfolio Coffeehouse 2300 E. 4th St at Junipero Long Beach, CA 90804 US View Map
When:	Tuesday, March 17, 7:30PM
Phone:	562-786-2687

A parable

There was once a very wealthy man with a large family of sons and daughters. He loved all of them very much, but was forced to leave them for a time to create a place for them to live in another country, which had more room and resources. He was very sad that some of his children would not remember him as they were very young, but he wrote them and hoped they would retain an idea of his love for them.

After a long time his children had grown older and became separated from each other. They had their own families, and many responsibilities, many forgot about their father, though he was still preparing a new place for all of his children and grand children.

Before the father had left he had prepared a steady supply of money, and food for all of his children. He had determined that the older ones would share with the younger, and that there would be enough for all, no matter how long his business took. But some of the children decided that they were not happy with their portion, and took more than enough for themselves. And that meant some did not have enough, and went hungry. Some did not have proper homes or clothes.

A group of the children with more than their share began to reread their fathers letters, and rejoiced in his love for them. They loved how he said they could trust him. They loved that he would take care of them, and their needs. They began to thank him and sing songs about how great father was to take such wonderful care of them.

The children without clothes and food heard these songs, and wondered why father did not care for them in the same way. Some of them determined that father did not love them, others believed they must have been bad children deserving punishment, and others began to hate father,

to hate him because of those songs

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Pacific Clinics

I have spent most of the last three months working at Pacific Clinics in California.

Not sure what all of the Pacific Clinics do, but this one did a lot of work with people trying to stay off drugs and alcohol. They work with some people that may be a bit on the fringe of society. I remember one day almost running into one of the biggest, scariest looking men I have ever seen. Atleast six foot seven, well over three hundred lbs. Covered in tattoo's that were definitely gang related. I smiled looked him in the eye and said hello. I think he wanted to kill me :)

But what I was amazingly impressed with was the people that worked here. The three amazing girls working reception, the site manager, and all of the doctors were just wonderful. They not only treated the clients with respect and dignity, but also did so with me, a disgusting construction worker that often wasn't getting the job done as quickly as they had hoped.

After all that time I am actually sad I won't be around them anymore. As some of you know, it is to these people outside of the mainstream that my family and I have given our lives to. We try and provide community and love for those that seem to be considered the least in this world. But in this place, it seemed like a whole bunch of people did the same thing, and not just for cash, but because it was good, and just, and right. They reminded me a bit of Jesus, and that made me smile.

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Was very angry with Chuck Smith (Calvary Chapel Founder)

Now let me start by saying that I love Chuck Smith. The guy is a living legend, and example of God's love. For those of you who don't know, Chuck Smith is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa California. He was one of the people that really embraced the Jesus movement, allowed rock music in the church, and by loving and encouraging young people to radical faith wound up overseeing one of the biggest churches in America, as well has inspiring the planting of literally hundreds of other churches. Many of the Calvary affiliated churches now are some of the most recognized churches in the country.

But more than that, Chuck always seemed the voice of God's love and grace. Whenever I listened to him, I felt the love of the Father. Maybe a myth, but I heard that after they installed new carpet in the sanctuary of Calvary Chapel one of the elders put up a sign "no bare feet" in order to protect the carpet. Chuck took the sign down, threw it at the elders and said, I will tear the carpet out before I stop one person from coming in to this church. That seems true to me, as that was the kind of guy I have always thought him to be.

So what made me so mad? Well almost every week day Chuck hosts a show called pastors perspective, which is a call in show where people can ask questions. But last week he had a special guest, one of the generals from Israels army. What we heard for almost an entire hour was pro Israeli propaganda (now I for one actually believe that the Israeli propaganda is probably a slight bit closer to the truth than the palestinian propaganda, but that is besides the point). Now that bugged me, but whatever. When I lost my mind was when Chuck Smith said, "if I was in charge in Israel, for every bomb Hamas sent into Israel, I would send ten missles into gaza targeting their government buildings! its the only thing those people will understand" Now in case you think I might have misunderstood, I didn't, they continued to joke about that with the general saying he wished Chuck was in charge, and all three of the host urging Americans to support Israel and their show of defensive aggression.

Return ten to one, it is the only thing "those people" will understand!!!

What the hell is that? I must admit I started screaming at my radio. Now as a nation, we are just as guilty as Israel, or Hamas for that matter, but a Christian leader saying that!!! How can a follower of Jesus say such things? Jesus, the one we are supposed to be following, the one who's commandments we are supposed to keep said:

"do not return evil for evil, but good for evil"

"If a man strike you on the right cheek, turn to him your left"

"love your enemies and do good to those who hate you"

"those that live by the sword will die by the sword"

"blessed are the merciful"

"blessed are the peace makers"

and I could go on and on. When will we stand up against this completely antichrist teaching of redemptive violence? When will we as the church begin to live out the mandate to be followers of Jesus, willing to die for our love of others, but not to kill for it? When will we realize the truth of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speach that said, "darkness cannot cast out darkness, only light can do that, hate cannot cast out hate, only love can do that"

Chuck, I love you my brother, but boy were you wrong on this one.

rev

the reverend superhero

Rock Stonington

this is the little bugger that has been causing me so much grief

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Giving birth to rocks

Yesterday I peed out a rock. I named my new child Rock Stonington and will post pictures later.

I am very happy today, no more meds, no more dizziness, nausea, and headaches. No more horrible pain and worry about another trip to the hospital. No more feeling like I got clubbed by a wild batch of baseball bat wielding delinquents.

I will never drink a soda again as long as I live.

I will drink more water.

I will cut down my salt intake greatly.

I will do whatever my urologist tells me.

I will limit my coffee to at the very most two a day

will drink atleast two glasses of water for every beer, or wine

I have had enough penis diamonds, and want no more, thank you.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers, now prayers for some miracles in regards to hospital bills would be appreciated.

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A bit of a vent

So, I have had a number of kidney stones. They hurt like hell, they wound up putting me in the hospital. I was in so much pain that it took four shots of dilaudid to make it go away.

And this somehow means its okay for every single person, stranger or not, to tell me I should drink more water? I should eat more greens? Listen you obnoxious wanna be doctor, I drink more water than lots of people I know that don't have kidney stones, never had even one. I eat lots of green veggies, I love them. I have have friends that never ever eat them and guess what...

No kidney stones, not a single f'n one.

So, perhaps it would be a good idea for me to drink six litres of water a day, but I don't get kidney stones because I am a dehydrated, junk food eating slob. I get them because my kidneys for some reason produce stones. Massive amounts of water can help, but I will most likely have to take prescription medicine as well.

Hey mr. I notice you are suffering from alzheimers, maybe you should eat more fish, its brain food you know.

arrrrgggghhhhhhh

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Spent the last day in the hospital

I have an 8mm kidney stone. Really knocked me on my ass. I couldn't deal with the pain and had to go to the emergency room. Four shots of dilaudid and two shots of morphine in all. It was really painful. They did a CAT scan and showed a 8mm stone, which apparently is too big to pass on its own. This means we are going to have to find a urologist in a huge county hospital and blast the thing with sonic, or lazer treatment.

But we have no insurance. Funny thing is we are in the process of finding insurance. Not only is it too late now, but this will most likely make it much harder to find insurance.

Not sure how this will all work out, but I know it will.

If you want to help just send me an email pinnedagain2001@yahoo.com

rev

What's in a name?

Just had one of those wow discoveries today. I was reading Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw's "Jesus For President" for the second time, and came across their overview of the Exodus story. I am assuming you all know about this one. Both the old Ten Commandments movie staring Charlton Heston, and the Disney movie Prince of Egypt try and tell the story.

But as I was reading I discovered something I have never seen before:

Pharaoh's name is never given. Pharaoh is not a name, its a title. In the story we meet Moses, Aaron, Miriam but we never really meet the real Pharaoh, all he is, is a title.

So what does that have to do with anything? Well, if I told you this story, about the oppressive nation, and the leader of this nation that continued to hold a large majority of the nation in slavery, and poverty. But never named the guy, what does that do to the story? If I said the president, then did this, the president then did that, a very common response would be which president. Since this was not written as a newspaper article, but as religious history, a name would be expected.

But when we read this story, we find that a nation, and the nations highest office, is the hands that hold Israel in slavery. It is not an individual, but a corporate identity and its high office. And who opposses this nameless face of the corporate evil? An elderly shepherd, and fugitive from justice, who was dispossessed by the same corporate evil as a child. This is not a battle with an individual, but as the bible says later in Ephesians, but with principalities, and powers, and the rulers of darkness.

God delivers from the oppressive system, headed by an office that has been corrupted by the very power that was given him. In one of his essays, Noam Chomski says something like, "the problem with power, is that once you have it, you are forced to defend it" Pharaoh was not just a man, with a family, but the power of all of Egypt, and could not let that be compromised. He even loses his family in the process.

Hope that made some small amount of sense, makes lots of sense in my head.

rev