we will be jamming song by song straight through the first part of 1952 live. also playing with The Crumbs from olympia & Santino from The Illuminauts >>

no cover. last-minute end of summer rocking with soul-junk, dobro set from sasha nothingful, & on-tour from athens band Eureka Califoria. 4325 Park Blvd, San Diego. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Soul-Junk/177956435584422

people mess up. they make choices they deeply regret, & say & do things they wish to God they could take back. there’s loss, there’s pain, there’s bitterness – for everyone involved, even the innocent. and worst of all, there seems to be no way to go back. life seems permanently stuck.

then God comes in and takes his own blood & starts erasing things.

1 corinthians 13.5 Love keeps no record of wrongs.
john 20.22-23 He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
luke 23.34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

sin will always equal death, that’s why God can’t stand it. he can’t stand how it always injures other people, takes advantage of them, steals their happiness & peace, & holds them in an addicted cycle. yet rather than reach his hand out & force people against their will to stop it – he came personally & walked in the middle of us, never once joining in with sin. then he allowed jealous & vindictive men to pound steel into his body & hang him up to suffocate slowly. & because there was no sin in him, death couldn’t hold him. he died, they buried him, & then he resurrected. that crushed sin forever. it has no real ultimate power now.

romans 6.14 For sin shall not have dominion over you.
micah 7.19 He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
acts 3.19 Repent therefore and be changed, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.
2 corinthians 5.18-19 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.

people live stuck in sin, & so for them it does have power. yet right now Jesus wants you to experience his forgiveness so deeply that 2 things happen. first you live totally broken free of the power of sin: you’re not crushed by temptation & guilt & bitterness & judgment & addiction & regret. second you live cancelling sin. when people wrong you, you set them free immediately. you burn your black-list. you don’t demand to be treated a certain way. you don’t always have to be right. every morning you wake up with a new dose of mercy, so you deal that out to everyone you bump into, for better or for worse. you get more passionate about having real sincere love coming out of you than you’ve been about changing other people (friends, enemies, family, employees, boss, government, etc.) to meet your needs.

there’s lots of people out there angry enough for change that they’re ready to break stuff, burn stuff, overthrow stuff, blow stuff up. what about blowing up the death-grip of sin & bitterness?

ephesians 4.32 Forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
matthew 6.12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
matt 18.32-33 I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?
acts 7.59-60 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.”

every time i spend time with God lately, he starts talking to me about miracles. there was a time just a few years ago where our family needed a miracle, & it was a life or death situation. God came thru for us. but it was months and months of what felt like hanging in the balance. i remember very clearly how it felt to be so dependent and vulnerable and desperate and needy.

when it was all said & done, we could look back & see how God gave us confidence & strength all the way thru. i never would have chosen that course for myself or my family, but that year was REAL life in a very undeniable way, something i’ll never forget. i know there are people going thru the same kinds of things (or even worse) right now. i know it because God is speaking to me about his miracles like my own life depended on it.

proverbs 31.8-9 Open your mouth for the speechless,
In the cause of all who are appointed to die.
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
And plead the cause of the poor and needy.
psalm 34.17-18 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
psalm 68.20 Our God is the God of salvation;
And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.
job 33.22-26 Yes, his soul draws near the Pit,
And his life to the executioners.
“If there is a messenger for him,
A mediator, one among a thousand,
To show man His uprightness,
Then He is gracious to him, and says,
‘Deliver him from going down to the Pit;
I have found a ransom’;
His flesh shall be young like a child’s,
He shall return to the days of his youth.
He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him,
He shall see His face with joy,
For He restores to man His righteousness.
isaiah 38.16-19 O Lord, by these things men live;
And in all these things is the life of my spirit;
So You will restore me and make me live.
Indeed it was for my own peace
That I had great bitterness;
But You have lovingly delivered my soul from the pit of corruption,
For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
For Sheol cannot thank You,
Death cannot praise You;
Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth.
The living, the living man, he shall praise You,
As I do this day.
psalm 130.1-2 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD;
Lord, hear my voice!
Let Your ears be attentive
To the voice of my supplications.

know that God wants to do the impossible for you; and he wants you to come ask him for that full of faith now >>

i was talking with a good friend a couple years back about miracles, specifically about praying for the sick. i was halfway thru telling him about someone i prayed for who God healed, & there was a detail i mentioned about what i prayed that really struck him…& it was so insignificant to me i can’t even remember it now. but i do remember his response: “how come nobody teaches us this kind of stuff?”

now i know people get in all kinds of intellectual debates over this kind of thing, but it never occurred to me that most believers probably WOULD step out in faith for miracles if they just had someone showing them how. cuz we all get in situations sooner or later where we absolutely need a miracle. with everything else in life, we’re used to reading the directions on stuff or watching a youtube how-to video or taking a class, & then going for it trial-&-error style until we get it. but obviously, miracles don’t work that way at all. there is no learning curve & no gray areas. either heaven moves on your behalf, or you fall flat on your face.

luke 9.1-6 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece. “Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

so here Jesus was sending his disciples out to minister on their own for the first time ever. & he focused all his how-to instructions on everything BUT healing. where to stay, what to bring, how to enter & leave a city. the healing part was just a simple matter of him giving them authority, & then saying “do it.”

now course they had just had the benefit of watching him heal the sick & drive out demons for about 18 months previous. and you could guess that maybe he gave them a full behind-the-scenes course that never got written about. but…if you stick with only what’s written in the gospels, you really would conclude that Jesus sent them out cold. especially because before this point they had no authority over sickness or disease or demons. they had to go from 0 to 80 in terms of ministering a supernatural gospel – literally overnight. and when they came back, they were unanimously blown away with the success God gave all of them. it worked!

so what was it that actually worked? clearly, the authority Jesus gave them over sickness & over unclean spirits worked. & clearly, they all did what they were told, & prayed for the impossible cases. authority from heaven, & then simple guts & faith & follow-thru on earth. so…what kinds of things would you move out in faith for – if you knew Jesus had personally given you that authority & told you to do it? if you really wanted that authority, i could show you 20-30 passages from the Bible proving it was all yours.

& then, what if you knew there was no HOW-TO manual available, you just had to go for it? >>

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3

matthew 4.17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
matthew 4.23-24 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.

“repent” just means turn around and embrace radical change. since “repent” was central to everything Jesus preached & everything he taught his disciples to preach, history is full of people preaching it. the thing is, when Jesus spoke, it was obvious all heaven was backing him up. pointing your finger at someone and yelling at them to repent is TOTALLY different from telling a paralyzed man to get up and walk, having a whole crowd watch him get up and jump around, & then saying “the kingdom of heaven is right here right now – and it means everything about your lives is changed.”

mark 6.7 And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.
luke 4.36 Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”
matthew 12.28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
mark 16.17-20 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.
mark 6.12-13 So they went out and preached that people should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.

to tell people to repent without the power of God (which drives out every evil thing that has stolen life and love and health and happiness from them) is either completely pointless or completely demoralizing. there’s a reason hatred & sickness & lust & addiction & depression get to do what they do to people. men have already done their best to change themselves, and they know full well where that leads. as a result, many have stopped preaching repentence – and hold out an “it’s all good” gospel. this watered-down gospel is popular in the short term; but it doesn’t offer people anything other than what they already have. Jesus offered them the kingdom of God and radical change – and many men and women grabbed hold of that and never let go.

luke 4.18-19 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
matthew 24.14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
acts 3.19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

i personally love everything Jesus preached, and i identify completely with the way he preached it. i’m not into guilt trips or guilt management. i’m into the absolute freedom that comes when heaven invades earth and someone stands up and says “The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me because he’s anointed me”…and then God signs his name to it >>

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3

matthew 2.21-23 Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
isaiah 11.1 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
zechariah 3.8 For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH.
isaiah 53.1-2 Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
isaiah 66.2 But on this one will I look:
On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
And who trembles at My word.
john 1.45-46 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
john 7.47 Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”
isaiah 57.15 For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“ I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
acts 2.22-24 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know — Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
matthew 28.9-10 And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

+~~~~+~~~~+~~~~+

God loves the place of lowliness & meekness & humility – the place men laugh at and are embarrassed by. here Jesus conquered all of death & hell, and Father raised him up from the grave to life and gave him all authority in heaven and on earth; and a name that is above every name. yet Jesus asks us to come meet him in the humble place where it all began before there were any crowds or any attention or any opinions – that place where he personally came & found us & called us >>

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3