Way of the Master

2006-05-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hey all!! Yes, contrary to popular opinion, I am alive and well, and I have finally decided to post. I have stumbled across a website that I have found to be an awesome evangelical/apologetics based online radio station. Many of you may have seen Ray Comfort accompanied by Kirk Cameron (and all the ladies sighed) on a TV program centered around evangelism. Well, they also have a radio station/website in which they display an easy to understand presentation of the gospel, as well as training on how to approach unbelievers about Christ. The website is called Way of the Master. I hope you find it as useful as I have!

Vision

2005-10-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

Encountered in a distant realm
A tale which only slumber tells
I stood before a Presence veiled
Whose head was crowned and palms were nailed

His countenance shone; all doubt asunder
With eyes of fire and voice of thunder
T'is futile to His voice repeat
A tongue to which not one may speak

His tongue proceeds in light and glory
From the mouth that spoke our story
As a mighty sword of peace and power
Which evil flee and faith devour

Josh 2005

Harvest

2005-09-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

The blog police (you know who you are) ticketed me in my last post for loitering, so I thought it would be high time to share a poem with you in light of our recent emphasis on missions.

Harvest

Erected in this open field
Of many crops I will never yield,
A solitary figure, passive and shy
An amiable gaze the crows defy
Gingerly creeping towards their feast
These fowl outwit this ostensible beast,

An ominous countenance, veiling the sight
Of a crucified corpse deficient of might.
With head turned down in lamented shame
He observes their spoils and curses the day,
A labored, toil-worn legacy stole
This scarecrow failed, his eyes foretold.

Erected in this harvest field
Of stillborn saints I’ve yet to yield,
This lonesome crux of sin and death
Absent the Bearer of sin’s last breath.
Dried crimson stains to this tree bound
Behold these stains! They fall to the ground!
As wax subsiding to an open flame
His blood comes alive in a holy rain!

When oceans and seas, and blood of His own
And treacherous tides where no fowl dare roam,
Seep into the garden of my sweat and toil
My seeds become sown in blood-laden soil.
Bright is the day of the enemy’s demise
When these seeds sown in Love begin to arise,
When warriors of Christ come forth in their might
Wielding the Armor of God for the fight.
Only seeds in the ground these warriors whence came
One planted, some watered, to Christ is the gain,
With the gospel of Christ may our feet be shod
Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Living God!

Joshua Strong
2003

"Where Did You Go?"

2005-08-26T17:18:00.000-07:00

That is what God asked after the fall of Adam and Eve; after the two blatantly disobeyed the Fathers one request for obedience. God knew exactly where they were, physically, however there was an absence of the bond and oneness of man's spirit and God. There was not just an intimacy lost between the Creator and the creation. There was not just a closeness lost, where God and man were simply far apart. An entire relationship was broken into pieces; a bridge burnt; a wall of separation built; a void ripped into the very heart of man - a void that would not be Filled for thousands of years.
Just a forewarning - This post is by no means watered-down, so it is written very bluntly. Please bear with me as I believe God has this heavy on my heart.
I am writing this post to complement a post ("their food, our toys") written on my friend, Dennae's blog (please stop here and read her's first, if you haven't already, before you go on, or this post will make no sense whatsoever).
Thousands of years have passed, and the void has now been Filled; the bridge Rebuilt; the wall of separation Destroyed; the relationship Mended. We now have "what was lost" in our very hearts, yet, in a western-civilized mindset of a once, Christ-centered people, that's just not good enough.
This post has greatly kindled my anger against a spiritually counterfeit, undisciplined, inappreciative,western civilization mindset that we as Americans have adopted in place of the wholesome standard of simple Christ-centeredness that this country was founded upon.
I believe God is crying out, "where did you go?" to a nation that has put down their Bible's and picked up their TV remotes; to an army who has put down their swords and shields, sat down on the battlefield of souls, and taken up laziness, while the battlefront pleads for reinforcements (meanwhile leaving themselves open for attack). Countries, such as Tanzania, are impoverished and in need of food. But food is not all they need. "For man does not live on bread alone"(Matt 4:4) but Tanzania is also in need of "every word that comes out of the mouth of God."How will we take to Tanzania or any other part of the world something that we will not consume ourselves, and say that it is good!
I believe God is also crying out, "where did you go?" to a nation of Christian gutless wonders that have not the faith, nor the courage to stand up to the "cancer of this nation" that is trying to rebuild the fictitious"wall of separation"(of Church and State) that exists only in their agenda to wipe out the name of God from our country. "Where did you go, those who are called by My Name?!" How DARE we let this happen! If we cannot march in front of the U.S. Capitol, then we can surely march to the throne room of God EVERY DAY and petition Him! But do you know what the sad truth is? Most of us don't. Most of us are slowly relegating to the spirit of the antichrist our foundations. We have allowed it to take hold of this nation, and we have lost our national innocence. We have forsaken it as an adulteress forsaking her first Love. We as a Christian nation, have advertised our purity, sold our innocence, invited immorality, and become spiritual harlots.
The essence of my point is this: We have lost the basic, simple, Christ-centered (not television-centered) lives that once belonged to the forefathers of this nation, and we have longed for something more.
Please do not get me wrong! I am not writing against the providence and prosperity that God has SO richly blessed us with as a nation, that we have an abundance of something that other's do not. I am writing against the priorities that we, as a nation of "Christians," have so profusely retarded, that we have completely gone astray from the original Standard.
We have, as it says in the post, taken food that some countries are scarce with and have used it as a toy. Im sure Pastor Mordecai would do anything to take that little bit of rice off of the floor and provide people of his country with it. Im sure "his heart hurt." His heart felt hurt for the hunger of his people. My heart also hurts for the spiritual starvation this Christian country is enduring.

A Testimony

2005-08-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Sitting in a living room watching television is not the ideal, picturesque place a grown person thinks of when God reaches down to touch their life. They don't imagine watching a minister speaking to them in the privacy of their own home, telling them that "you need Jesus," when they think of a radical transformation happening in their hearts. That is because they do not believe as children. However, I did believe it, because that is how God came into my life in the middle of June of 1987, and because I was a child.
I did not stop to ponder, "Is this really a rational experience I am having, or am I just overcome with emotion because I did not get enough sleep lastnight. No, the love of God could never reach me in these circumstances. I need to wait until I am in church." Tell me when, in between our adolescence and our lives as adults did we forsake the utter faith that we possess for a time to where it is nearly impossible for the enemy of doubt to reach our hearts?
Anyhow, I came to know Jesus Christ as my savior through a man that has touched many lives, young and old alike. That man's name is Pastor Willie George. Pastor George was involved in a children's television ministry called "Gospel Bill" at the time that I surrendered my life, which, by the way, was the highlight of my Saturday mornings. He is now involved as a senior pastor at Church On the Move in Tulsa, OK. It was on one Saturday morning that I felt an "unusual," and unfamiliar presence as I began watching the show, and the feeling of normally being alone in a room would be forever changed. Pastor George would go on, through his character in the show, to give a gospel presentation and a salvation message to those who had never accepted Christ. For whatever reason, I waited until my dad came home from work that evening to ask him to pray with me to "accept Jesus." I had already decided that I was going to follow Jesus, but I wanted to pray the prayer that Gospel Bill prayed. So I joined hands with my parents as my dad led me in the sinners prayer.
Now as capable as a seven-year-old would be to feel the dramatic change from all of the horrid and atrocious sin bondages I could muster(like that pencil I stole off the teachers desk), I began to cry uncontrollably and feel the change take place in my heart. No, I was not a horrible person before Christ entered my life, but I was, just the same, without Christ. Seven years old or seventy years old, I needed Christ, and this was the time that God had chosen. This was the man that God had chosen. This was the place that God had chosen. OH, the unsearchable places that Christ will journey to find a soul that has been lost! Thankyou Father God for finding me at the cost of sacrifice . . . anguish . . . Your Son!

Post-Modern: Labyrinth

2005-08-22T23:09:00.000-07:00

Here is an awesome site dedicated to a post-modern direction of the gospel presentation called the Labyrinth. Here is shown at the actual labyrinth in the U.K. where you can "take what has bound you, and nail it to the tree." This is powerful. Click on the picture to visit the Labyrinth website!

The Birth Of A Blog!

2005-08-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Kneeling Ovation! This blog is dedicated to the sharing of deep thoughts and the deep things of God through the divine help of the Most Holy Spirit; through experiences, through trials, through victories, all for the glory of the Living God. If you are asking why I named my blog "Kneeling Ovation," it is because that is what the unfolding of the story of our lives should represent as servants of God. Not physical "kneeling," But the kneeling of our spirits, and the humbling, utter surrender of the essence of our souls to The Ancient of Days. As we are kneeling in our upward relationship with Christ, we are also becoming an ovation to the Glory of God to the lateral relationship we have with fellow believers and especially non-believers here on Earth as examples of His handywork. Hence, our primary goal with every relationship we encounter, heavenly or earthly, should be none other than a kneeling ovation.