Genesis Six has one of the biggest buts in the Bible.

God was sorry that He had made man. He was grieved in his heart. Think about that. God was sorry he had made man. ouch.

So the Lord decides to destroy man. He decides to wipe out everyone because they’re so wicked. And not just destroy the human race, but even the birds and animals too. He’s just gonna take it all out.

But Noah…
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I was recently invited to join a network of Christian bloggers called The Daily Scribe.

TDS is a collection of other Christian writers and thier weblogs. I’m a total noob to the community so I don’t have much feedback to give at the moment. More on that next week maybe. And I am fortunate enough to be amongst familiar friends such as Mr. Daniels and Mr. Gray.

So scroll on down to the footer for a look at the newly placed logo badge, and then mash down on it and find yourself some new Christian sites.

For several months I have been studying Romans with seemingly no progression into revelation.

Romans isn’t the only book I’ve been studying but it’s the one I’ve been studying as my personal study plan. (I have an end-times study plan for my e12, and a Daniel Academy study plan for my TDA class.) I spend about 4 to 8 hours a week in Romans, which translates to 1 or 2 days of studying it.

It’s been several months and I’m just about finished with chapter three. You’d think that if I was going that slowly I’d be going incredibly deeply as well, but I don’t feel enlightened or full of revelation. I love what I’m studying and I love the Word. I feel God when I study but there hasn’t been a “click” where I feel like I’m retaining deep revelation and growing in comprehensive understanding.

Understanding and loving the Bible is what all of us want. But most of us shy away from it because we feel too intimidated by it.

The Bible is a thick book for sure, and you can’t read it in a day. But there is something about the Bible that makes it different than any other piece of literature ever penned: It’s alive. There is a Man hidden between those words.
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There is something noble and great about writing. Writing forces you to decide what you think and what you believe. Writing also helps others to decide what they think and believe - through their agreement or disagreement with what you said.

Many great men and women have helped shape history through their written words. Theologians, poets, novelists, etcetera, have impacted thoughts and lives of countless individuals.

There is something noble about writing. I am still in great amazement that I can sit at Starbucks with a tall americano and my PowerBook, mash out some ideas and then publish them to the world wide web.
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A little over two years ago IHOP started something that is now common-place in our community. Prayer Room Teams. They used to be optional, and now they’re a standard part of being on staff. If you’re on staff you’re on a prayer room team or else you’re on a worship team. That’s how it is.

There was a team of us that began the first prayer room teams. I led one that met every Monday through Friday from NOON until 4:00. Then I switched to a morning prayer room team that met from 8:00AM until NOON. Now I don’t lead a specific team but instead give leadership to all the fantastic prayer room teams that meet in the mornings.

When I first began leading that afternoon team two years ago my primary value was doing the prayer room. If you’re not at IHOP then that might sound like an odd vision to have. In fact, it might not even make sense as a sentence. Let me explain.
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My wife leads a prayer room team in the afternoons that has a strong focus on the power of the indwelling Christ, and communion with the Holy Spirt. She wrote up a handout debunking some myths concerning the person of the Holy Spirit, and I must say it’s outstanding.

Here are a few of the myths and what you can do about them. (Keep in mind, she didn’t write a blog post, but an outline. I just copied and pasted, but the content is still outstanding.)
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It was right around July the 2nd that things began to change for me in a dynamic way that was quite unexpected. For over five years at IHOP I had been a drummer. What that means is that nearly all my time serving the missions base was centered around the prayer room. When I wasn’t in the prayer room I was on the stage, or at a conference, or on a ministry trip.

But when I put down drumming for a while to work for the IIHOP marketing team, it was not what I had expected at all.

For starters, a lot more happened than just the marketing team. Anna and I are also teaching at the Daniel Academy.

So as things changed it took me several weeks to discover that I was in a completely new context for encountering God. Although I am in the Prayer Room about 6 hours a day, I now have several more hours in my day that are not specifically centered around the Prayer Room.

Instead those hours are spent in meetings, making phone calls, emails, and working on graphic design from my home.

Now I am most certainly not complaining about the new this shift. In fact it is a gift from God.

What I have recently realized is that although I survived the transition from one season to another, I am not doing to well at navigating this new season. If you’re like me - and I imagine that you probably are - then you try to do the same things the same way when you move into a new season, only to find out that it doesn’t work that way. A new season in God often requires new disciplines and a new approach to encountering God.

Ultimately, as we navigate the ups and downs of life, we can come to a place where our inner man is in constant communion and fellowship with Christ within and the Holy Spirit. And that is precisely why this new season of mine is a gift from God. I have been massively challenged to encounter God in meetings and emails and isolated graphic designing.

The renowned Brother Laurence taught it best.

Our sanctification does not depend as much on changing our activities as it does on doing them for God rather than for ourselves.

He said that it was a serious mistake to think of our prayer time as being different from any other. Our actions should unite us with God when we are involved in our daily activities, just as our prayers unite us with Him in our quiet devotions.

It is the same resolve that Paul had: to count all things as loss for the excellence of knowing Christ. Our relationship with God cannot be based on external circumstances. It must become an inward reality that supersedes pressures, responsibilities, blessings and trials.

I also feel it’s fair to address the silence on here as of late. The best way I can think to describe it is that I now have many more outlets for teaching and sharing on the subject of God.

For a long time The Fight Spot was my only outlet, and it was all I could do to not publish every single bit of teaching I had. But now I am not only creating my own study notes for the e12 I lead, but I am also developing and teaching an entire curriculum for a private Christian school’s high school track.

However, I am very unwilling to give up writing. I still hold very strong to the values of apostolic blogging, and do not see The Fight Spot going away any time soon. Although the posting schedule has most certainly changed, I look forward to this new season of my own life and how The Fight Spot will reflect it.

Additionally, it seems I have been asked quite a bit lately if I will ever write a book. I have always seen myself as an author. And although I have plenty of opinions to share, I don’t yet feel confidence that I have enough content on any given subject to produce something worthy of print.

In between TFS posts feel free to see what’s going on at Shawnblanc.net. My new outlet for design and technology (and an experiment in Apostolic Blogging through a non-Christian focused weblog).

And yes, I did get an iPhone.