journey of discovery...

Well... It never ceases to amaze me that you may think you're headed one direction and God stears you in another. I have been planning on attending Bible college this Fall at Forerunner School of Ministry at Internatioal House of Prayer Kansas City. After discussing it further with a couple people I was instructed to do some reading. A lot of reading. I made some interesting discoveries regarding the doctrine of Mike Bickle and IHOP that were alarming to me. (It's all public information that you can read here or here. And I am sure there are other sites that address it as well.) They teach Dominion Theology or Kingdom Now Theology. Two things that I whole-heartedly disagree with. I cannot imagine learning in an institution that believes in the doctrine that you can essentially become a "god" yourself or that teaches that God's Kingdom is here already. It's scary to me actually. And Mike claims to be a prophet even though he has made several claims that have not come true. And in order to really be considered a prophet you have to prophesy and have them come true.

It's still my plan to attend Bible College but I don't know if it will be this Fall or not. I kinda doubt it.

Several people have asked me why I want to go to Bible College. What is my intent? After thinking about it, here's what I came up with. There are a few reasons why I want to go to Bible school. At this point, the main reason is for knowledge. I would like to enlarge and enrich my knowledge base of the Bible and feel that the best way to do this would be in an academic arena. I feel this would provide a more comprehensive foundation for me that could be greatly utilized in the future. Second, I have, for several years off and on, felt a desire to serve in ministry in some capacity. As I am not sure yet what that capacity might be, I want to take this opportunity to further my knowledge of the Bible and begin really seeking God's will as it pertains to ministry in my life. I have been talking to a good friend who is the Regional Director for Young Life about being a volunteer leader this Fall and look forward to more conversations with her regarding that. Third and perhaps most importantly and maybe this goes back to the first reason but the verse, "I have hidden thy word in my heart. It is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path," has long been ingrained in my memory along with the other well known verses: Jeremiah 29:11, John 3:16… I don't want these verses to be the only verses that I know really well. I know other verses but I don’t know them well like I do these. I simply have a desire to soak up the Word as much as I can, as if his Word is a fluid to my dry and thirsty sponge. When I read it, I find I can't seem to get enough of it and I just want to spend, literally, all of my time reading and studying and cross-referencing and studying the people of the Bible, etc…

Whatever the reasons are that I have a desire for going I can't ignore them. I believe the desire has been put there by God and I have to act, I have to move on that.

I am also wanting to move to Colorado some day. I have always sorta felt I was living in the wrong state. There's something so powerful about the mountains for me, so moving, so astounding. They make worship so much more real to me and seem to bring God to life in a way that I can't describe. Anywhere in the mountains would be nice but since Colorado is fairly close to home, I think that's the best choice.

I have done some Internet research on churches there and found a couple really cool ones I'd like to check out. I searched for jobs a little bit there but not much. And I found a couple great apartments there that are priced pretty good. I don't want to move until I have everything in order though. I would move tomorrow if I had a job offer but I am setting a goal of 2 years from now. That way if I move before that I exceeded my goal for myself.

And I am reading this interesting book by Brian McLaren as a result of all of this and have more reading I am interested in doing afterwards as well.

I have just been praying that God would guide me in the direction of his will for my life, that he would reveal himself to me, and make it clear the path I should take.