Possibly the craziest dudes I have ever seen.

Imagine their first jump ever. Where would you even start? I guess the answer is pretty simple- they just jumped.

Have you ever just jumped out in faith?

Has your faith ever been this scary?

Have you ever experienced the rush?

What has God been telling you to do, in faith, that you have been avoiding?

Maybe you should take a leap this weekend.

Have a great weekend everyone,

Jay

My Crush of the Week is Craig Gross.

Craig is on the far right. (and yes, that is Ron Jeremy, and that dude from ABC)

Craig is the founder of XXXchurch, a non-profit org that helps people who struggle with porn. XXXchurch.com has been featured in Time, Playboy, GQ, The Today Show, CNN, Good Morning America, CBS Evening News, Anderson Cooper 360, LA Times, New York Times and ABC News Nightline.

They also minister to porn stars and people in the porn industry…watch this video to get their heart for the broken: (for all your organized-types, sorry it’s outside the box… Sex Rev readers deserve widescreen when we can get it!)

Craig regularly debates with Ron Jeremy in an event called The Porn Debate in colleges across the country. Craig’s got balls.

More importantly, Craig loves Jesus- and has a fiery passion to promote purity and defend the faith.

He is also the creator of X3Watch, a free accountability software for your computer or laptop. My accountability partner and I have it on all of our computers. GET IT TODAY.

Pray for Craig. Pray for his family. Follow his blog. Maybe consider helping him out. Maybe host a ‘Porn and Pancakes’ event at your church. At the Sex Rev, we’ll be supporting Craig’s new church plant in an upcoming project…more on that next month!

You can follow my crush of the week here:

XXXChurch
X3Watch
Blog

I don’t know if this is awesome, or just creepy.

I love spelling!

Social Networking is getting ridiculous!  Which ones are you on?

Ben Arment’s seriously wild (and prophetic?!) words on the next great revolution in the church. Booyah

7 Hilarious Keys to Raising a Good Christian Family (religious people, don’t bother to read this!) Follow these if you dare!

Alarming Stats on Pastors Very Alarming- pray for them today!

9 Ideas for the Church in the Bad economy $$$

U.K teens watch 87 hours of porn each year.  That’s 87 hours too much.

I wish all churches were this creative when they tried to advertise for a men’s retreat… I’d go.

Eugene Peterson says… “The great weakness of North American spirituality is that it is all about us: fulfilling our potential, getting in on the blessings of God, expanding our influence, finding our gifts, getting a handle on principles by which we can get an edge over the competition. And the more there is of us, the less there is of God.”

So that’s the Wire for this week.  I hope you found something worth sharing today.  See you tomorrow!

Jay

We’re having a little virtual Bible study up in here!  You can catch up here:

1 Corinthians 1

1 Corinthians 2

1 Corinthians 3

1 Corinthians 4

V1- Who do I hold in such high regard?  Am I becoming a servant of Christ entrusted with the secret things of God?

V2- What has been entrusted to me?  Am I being faithful?

V4- People can have clear consciences, but it doesn’t mean that we haven’t sinned.  “My conscience is clear, but that does not prove I’m right.”

V5- The kind of judgement he’s talking about is who is a ‘good’ Christian.  God will judge intentions…that’s not for us to do.  (vs 6 backs this up…don’t take pride in 1 man over another.)  When we treat megachurch pastors and famous worship leaders differend from any other person, we’re not doing right.
Pride in our leaders causes church division.  The believers in Corinth all have a favourite preacher (Paul, Apollos, and Peter) and believed they possessed the whole truth, which made them spiritually proud.

V7- If God has gifted you, turn it back to praise.

V9- What a huge sacrifice it takes to be a great servant of the faith.  Am I willing to be made into a spectacle?

V9-13- Describing words for “Fools for Christ”
-men condemned to die
-weak
-dishonoured
-hungry and thirsty
-in rags, brutally treated, homeless
-work hard with our own hands
-cursed
-persecuted
-slandered
-scum of the earth
-refuse of the world

V17- Who do I have who reminds me of Jesus Christ’s way of life?
Does my life agree with my teaching anywhere and everywhere?!

V20- Am I living in this power?
Does my life reflect the power of God beyond my words?

Here’s a story to illustrate Paul’s point here:

A few years ago, I was in a coffeeshop with my friend Jenna.  We were planning a big youth group event. Randomly, this guys walks over and sits down.  He goes “hey, you guys are Christians right?“  We were like “yeah, you?!“  He then proceeded to drop a massive load of verbal diarrhea on us.  For at least half an hour.  Telling us how we didn’t understand our faith fully.  How we weren’t as good as he was.  How our belief was incorrect and how we needed to say it his way.  We honestly felt like we had been spiritually abused.

So that was a few years ago.  I see him in there every few months, and he gives me the serious creeps.  Religious people scare me.  So last week, Michelle and I were in the same coffeeshop, and I went to grab a copy of a newspaper and had to walk by him.  He stops me, and instantly starts all over again.  “How do you know God is real?“  I state my belief.  He tears it up with some statement involving huge words and little sense.  “How do you know the Bible is real?“  I try to explain my thoughts on that, to which he sorta laughs and launches into the ‘real’ reason.  He asks a third question.  I suddenly realize that this isn’t going anywhere- that this man is a fool who cares more about TALKING than learning how to live in the power of God’s love.  So I walked away.  Because my life isn’t about talking about the word- it’s about doing the word.

I did something on Friday night that I haven’t done in a very long time. I turned off my cell phone. I shut off my alarm. I said ‘baby, don’t wake me up in the morning.’ I decided to really rest. I got 12 solid hours!  I’ve always talked in my sleep, but apparently I’ve started to walk in my sleep as well. Time to buy a bungalow!

We saw The International this weekend. Clive Owen (man pretty) and Naomi Watts (over-rated actress) are in it. The biggest reason I wanted to watch it is because of their awesome marketing scheme/game. FREE MONEY!

Wicked movie. (that’s a good thing) No sex. (that’s a great thing) Tons of people are gonna hate it. You gotta know a little bit about the economy, politics, and world affairs. As the credits started to roll the two dudes in front of us got up in a huff and said, ‘dawg, that movie was bull$#it, let’s get out of here.” We just laughed. I guess if you’re not willing to use your brain…

I LOVED one line in particular: “Sometimes a man meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.” WOW. Stop avoiding what God created you to do! Take His second and third chances! It’s called grace. Learn to accept it! Be the person He specifically designed you to be, and DO THE THINGS He planned for you to do! Meet your destiny! Cool thought.

(Once you see the movie, this will make sense) Another thought I had was “if evil bankers can use money to fund evil governments, why don’t good people use money to fund godly governments?” Could the global church do this? Could the church in Hamilton do this?!

Sunday night I went to Reverb in Waterloo with my wife and Dan. My darling momma spoke on “Sex: What It Means to a Woman.” A few good lines stuck out that I’ll share on Just Married next week. If you can’t wait that long, you can listen to the podcast through LRC’s website! I am getting excited to speak there next Sunday, pray about that!

I also got emails from two of my major blog-crushes: Flowerdust and The Art of Living.  Drop in and say hi on their sites at some point today- Brad and Anne always have great stuff to say!

So how was your weekend? What have you been thinking about lately? What have you been learning? Post your stories here, or you can email them through the Chat Line page.