The purpose of this blog is to document my journey towards a broader understanding of God, the Bible and life. I have spent the first 37 years of my Christian life as a charismatic Christian. I have ventured into various currents within that stream, from Pentecostalism to a stream that emphasized plurality of eldership, to a very prosperity type gospel and many in between. But until recently I never ventured outside the broad stream called “Evangelical Christianity”. My theology has been mainly reformed but believing the gifts of the Spirit are for today (most reformed streams do not believe the gifts are for today) for the first 37 years of my walk with the Lord. Then in August of 2011 I had such an incredible encounter with God that changed everything in my life. I had had encounters before. That alone was not unusual. What was unusual about this one was that it changed me 180 degrees from how I was before. In one night I went from being a negative cynical person to being a super-positive encourager and super filled with joy. And it stuck. Almost five years later and I am still joyful and positive. Since then I remarried, and did three years of ministry school in Redding, California at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. Being immersed in the environment at Bethel has been very empowering. Bethel emphasizes identity as a son of God, inheritance, creativity, the supernatural (prophecy, miracles and healing) and the culture of honor. Bethel’s theology is not that far from the streams I was a part of for most of my Christian walk. It’s just that they emphasize certain aspects more than others. I no longer consider myself an evangelical. This does not mean I no longer believe in the good things evangelicals believe, just that I no longer identify with that stream as a label. So I do not label myself anything. So this is my journey. Glad to have you along for the ride!

I see that we are in a period or “wave” if you will of merging branches of Christianity. This is analogous to tributaries merging into a great river. We all have a common source, Jesus. But over the centuries we all saw different facets of him and we allowed that to divide us into separate rivers. We thought we were separate, but we were all part of the same river system and would eventually merge into one raging river of life. This large river represents true unity of the Spirit. I don’t necessarily believe the various branches will lose their identities altogether but we will merge into a mighty river of the love of God washing away all that is in the way of God’s kingdom advancing until it fills the Earth with His glory.

The content will include stories that encourage, some theology, life lessons I have learned, general musings and humor. I already have a number of blog posts written, enough for two years of content. They were shared on Facebook. But Intend to keep it current as well. My posts will be around 400-500 words so as not to wear people out. And may include a short (less than 5 minutes) video blog from time to time. I have found though that people are more like to read a short blog post than watch a video, so I may include a transcript of the video along with it.