OK guys, here is my first attempt to post a picture and what better place to start than the house we are renting here in KC. Needless to say right now you cannot see the grass or green bushes. Everything is still covered in snow.
Kristian

JP: Snow

Jeff writes:

Needless to say Kansas City has brought a lot of changes to our household. One of which is the normalcy of snow. Little did I ever think that snow would ever become normal. But it has. Don't get me wrong, the Price family still gets excited at the forecast of snowfall, but we've learned that life goes on instead of shutting down.

Nevertheless, I still love the sight and sounds of snow. Absolute quietness and absolute beauty. No matter where you are when it is snowing, it is white, clean, and beautiful as it falls. As I looked out over our most recent 4" inches, I was reminded of how Jesus death on the cross offers to make us all as white, clean, and as beautiful as the snowfall. Unfortunately, many people are so eager to get on with their lives that they shove His gift of salvation to the side like the snowplows that clear our streets. Inside, they are thinking that they will enjoy it on another day. But sadly that day never comes. Likewise, if the pure white snow remains next to the roadway, it will soon become blackened. Eventually, the busyness of life makes it lose it's purity.

So, the next time it snows, enjoy it. Don't be frustrated by what it's keeping you from. Think about what it may be pointing you to.

MP: So Cooool

Mallory writes:

Hey y'all,

This one is going to be a quick one but exciting. So there is this boy in INTRO to IHOP and his name is Kaeo, but that is really just a side note. On Friday night at youth, he and I went to Ben, one of the leaders,to ask him if I could sing and Ashton could sing and play the piano on one of the youth worship teams at the Justice Prayer Room (JPR). He told me sure and do you want to sing tonight at youth? At first I said NO but then Kaeo told me that there was no point in me asking if I never used the yes answer. So of course I did a not smart thing and said I will sing if my friend ,Caitlyn, sings. Guess what? She happened to be singing that night, so that meant I had to sing on the mic if I wanted to keep my promise. So I sang on Friday night!!!!! Then on Monday night(tonight) I sang in a two hour set in the JPR. It was Awesome!!!It is also fun to be able to hold a mic in your hand that is more than just my karaoke.

Also at least once a week in the Global Prayer Room (GPR) I pray on the mic in rapid fire. The GPR is on the internet live. It is kinda fun to be leading the world in prayer or the room in worship. I love all of you!

Love ya,
Mallory

The Longing for Beauty

KP writes:

The Longing for Beauty

I previously have written on The Seven Longings of the Human Heart, a book we read for class. I wanted to write again on a second chapter that I found equally intriguing. The second point that really struck me was 'the longing for beauty'. Although I have tried to compose paragraphs, these are like mini sound bites of my thoughts mixed with quotes from the book. I hope you hear my heart, or more importantly I pray you hear God's heart.

The heart is a God-designed void created to be filled with the beauty of God and to reflect this beauty. The beautiful God made His favorite creations to be beautiful. Wow! We are to reflect God’s own beauty. Also, we were created to long to possess beauty and to gaze upon it. I so see this part of the God given longing filled in so many illegitimate ways in our society.

In His ultimate design, revelation of God’s beauty has two dimensions: the beauty of Jesus as our Bridegroom, and the beauty of His Bride.(Us!)

God Himself is the source of all beauty. He is a beautiful God. This is not something that is often taught from our pulpits. He is absolutely radiant in appearance. And what is often times more foreign to us is the fact that He wants to impart this same magnificent beauty to us. A key element of redemption is the fact that His radiant and perfect beauty has been transferred to us through His Son. Isaiah 61:1-3 tells of the promise of exchange of His beauty for our Ashes. When we became a believer we weren’t merely saved from Hell, but we were made to be beautiful and to show forth God’s beauty to the rest of creation forever. It is part of the process. “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.” (Psalm 149:4)

There are actually manifestations of this spiritual or inner beauty. He changes our very countenance by lighting it up and changing our personality. We begin to have a bright spirit. In our first days at Intro our family commented during our ‘Price evening debriefings’ at the common physical characteristics of the IHOP Intro staff. We had noticed how bright their faces and eyes were. Their eyes were shiny and their expressions were full of life unlike the masses we typically encountered in day to day life.

As mentioned in an earlier post, God takes pleasure in us. That is a hard statement to digest on many levels. Most of us do not feel attractive when we stand before God. Our many wrong actions and attitudes run rampant through our minds. All we see is the contrast between His holiness and our sin. Beloved, if He thinks we are beautiful (and He does) it doesn’t matter whether we or others agree or not. The King gazes upon us and likes what He sees!! “The King will greatly desire your beauty; because He is your Lord, worship Him”. (Psalm 45:11) “I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is toward me.” (Song 7:10) God only surrounds Himself with beauty! Being desired by God mandates that we are, in reality, truly beautiful!!! This is a powerful revelation. His desire dictates our worth.

There is temporal beauty in this age and eternal beauty in the age to come. In regards to our eternal beauty, we will possess physical beauty beyond the angels. We will have a beautiful face, body, mind, and heart. We will be stunningly beautiful forever. Our resurrected bodies will be made to express the glory and beauty of God in the New Heaven and the New Earth. Remember, a bride walks in a newly-acquired level of ownership in relation to everything her bridegroom possesses. We will be crowned with God’s glory and honor…”(Hebrews 2:7,10) We, as the Church, will be the Bride and we know that all of the Bride's beauty is a reflection of His.

But what about this present age? The Word tells us that His very beauty or glory can be placed within us. Humanity itself was made for the very indwelling of God. (Ephesians 2:22) “This indwelling of God is how God, the Consuming Fire, chooses to express His glory, His grandeur, His love and His beauty to the rest of creation for all time.” It affects how we think, speak, and feel.

Bottom line is who are we listening to? What are we believing? Do we value the opinions of others over that of our heavenly Father's? What is our standard of beauty? Do we hold to the harsh reality of imperfection and self imposed condemnation? There is only one opinion that carries any weight. It belongs to the only One who has any rights of ownership to us as created beings. It is God’s thoughts that matter. God is the one who created us and gave us the deep desires regarding beauty. He has called us unto Himself to fulfill them. He is faithful and true. He cannot lie. He is beautiful. He has made us beautiful. I challenge each of us to walk in the revelation of our beauty as identified by our King!

Kristian

JP - Me, a Bride?

Jeff writes:

As a man, I find it a little difficult to identify with the Bride of Christ thing talked about in the book of Revelation. Bride of Christ, what’s up with that? Now, if we’re talking about Joshua, Samson, Samuel, or David, that’s something I can identify with. Fight, kill, conquer!!! Ugh Ugh!! William Wallace (Braveheart). Freedom!!!!!!! As men, we are right there. As young boys, we’re all about playing army or cowboys and Indians. But, playing dress up and “let’s get married”? No way!

“But God, End-times Jesus of Revelation 19 is coming as the victorious King of Kings, eyes aflame with fire, a sharp double edged sword coming from His mouth, and robe dipped in blood from treading the winepress of His wrath, ugh, ugh, right?” True, but He is also coming as a jealous Bridegroom coming to avenge His bride. And guess what guys, you’re the bride, too!

Being a little slow, I asked God to help me relate. Being ever Faithful, He broke it down to a level I could comprehend. “You’re a husband and father of two daughters, think of it from that perspective”. That I could do. While Kristian and I were engaged, we lived 3 hours apart. We looked forward to the weekends when we could be together. However, inevitably one of us would have to leave. We longed to be together such that we would often leave Monday morning at 5:00 AM in order to be to class at 8:00.

Finally, our wedding day came. I remember standing at the altar at the front of the church waiting anxiously for the doors at the back of the church to open so that I could finally see my beautiful bride. It would only be a few minutes more before we would finally be together. No more having to be separated by distance and time. I could hardly wait for everyone in attendance to catch a glimpse of my beautiful bride. I remember my heart seemingly beating out of my chest. Why was it taken so long for her to get ready? Finally, the doors opened and she was more amazingly beautiful than I could imagine. Adorned all in white, radiant in beauty made ready for the wedding. How proud I was! Everyone in attendance stood in unison to gaze upon her. This is exactly how God sees and relates to us. He sees us as beautiful and has waited and is waiting longer for us to prepare ourselves for the wedding. Song of Solomon 4:9 says that we have ravished His heart. That His heart beats faster with one glance of the brides eyes. Men, can you relate?

Now, from the father’s perspective. I remember Kristian telling me that her dad started to cry just before the doors opened. He was both sad at “losing” his daughter, but also he was rejoicing in her joy as a bride who was going to meet the bridegroom that God had chosen for her. God revealed that this is how He feels about the marriage of His Son and His bride. He weeps for those who reject His invitation, but rejoices that the bride has made herself ready for the Bridegroom. Whoa, ok, I’m starting to get it.

We tend to forget of Jesus as the Bridegroom. I challenge you to look at Him more from this perspective. It causes you to receive His love in a whole new way. It has really opened my eyes as to how much more intimate He wants to be with me. He doesn’t want to be just our weekend date. He desires intimate times on a daily basis.

When I consider the heavens, the works of Your fingers, the moon and the stars that You have ordained, who am I, Lord? - Psalm 8:3-4

The bride of Christ, that’s who. Are you willing to spend time with the Bridegroom?

KP- Longing to Be Enjoyed

KP writes:

The Longing to Be Enjoyed

For one of our classes we read The Seven Longings of the Human Heart, by Mike Bickle and Deborah Hiebert. I was particularly struck by the chapter on 'being enjoyed by God' and wanted to share some of it with you. I pray the Lord personally speaks to you about how much He really enjoys you too!

“The Lord jealously desires that we believe He sincerely enjoys us in a personal way”. The key here is that ‘we believe’. He actually created us with the need for that assurance. We must know deep in our hearts that He desires and delights in us for reasons bigger than anything we can secure by any level of dedication or achievement. “The Father has affection for us as His children, and Jesus has passion for us as His Bride”. Our lives have value and importance specifically because God enjoys us. We are defined by the One who pursues us. This is great news to be shouted from every rooftop, to every human being. Contrary to what the world and well meaning parents or professors would tell us, we are NOT the sum total of what we accomplish. We are defined as important by virtue of the One who WANTS us, LOVES us, AND ENJOYS us. Our success is measured solely by the fact that Jesus values and desires us. Now that is a new story to the Western world! Do you see the freedom in that revelation?

We discover a new confidence in God when our hearts grasp the concept that we can be fully known by God and still be enjoyed by Him. As we see in John 15:9, God literally loves us in the same way He loves His own son. John the Apostle clearly understood this and God confirmed it when He had him record in the scriptures on numerous occasions that John (speaking of himself) was the disciple whom Jesus loved. John had personal revelation that he was God’s favorite. We have trouble with this concept of favorite because in our finite love, to love one the most means loving another less. It is again a comparison issue. But God, in his infinite love, is able to love individuals to the utmost. When we understand that we are beloved of God we can begin to walk in intimacy with Him.

Often the question remains, how can God enjoy me? We must renew our minds to the concept that God’s assessments are not based on our human abilities but on the movements of our hearts before and toward Him. I Samuel 16:7 is the firm foundation on which we must stand. ‘The Lord said, “…for the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Bottom line is who are we listening to? What are we believing? Do we value the opinions of others who will forever compare us to a changing degree of worth based on the most recent accomplishments? Do we hold to the harsh reality of imperfection and self imposed condemnation? There is only one opinion that carries any weight. It belongs to the only One who has any rights of ownership to us as created beings. It is God’s thoughts that matter. God is the one who created us and gave us these (seven) deep desires. He has called us unto Himself to fulfill them. He is faithful and true. He cannot lie. He does enjoy us. We are beloved of Him.

Love ya!
Kristian

AP: Revelation Studies-Pt 2

Ashton writes:

The other day in the prayer room I was struck in awe of what I read and the clarity that I recieved. I was studying Revelation 4 and 5 where it describes the glory of God. I have learned so much! My mind seems to be blown by the holiness of God. Some other chapters that go along with these are Ezekiel 1 and Daniel 7. I had never read either of these before and my mind was in awe of the things I read. I strongly encourage you to read these chapters. Let me describe to you what I read in Revelation 4 and 5. Imagine you are standing on a crystal/turquoise/sapphire sea. It goes for a long as you can see in every direction. It is not calm like a lake but choppy because the four winds are blowing as strong as a windstorm. You see a great cloud coming that looks like a consuming fire. From the cloud are flashes of lightning and thunder. Out of the cloud comes a brilliant light so bright you can bearly look at it. In the center of the cloud there is what looks like a huge piece of glowing metal. You see four living creatures in the fire cloud. As they move they do not turn. Each beast has four faces: the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle. They also have 6 wings: two to cover their faces, two to cover their feet, and two to fly with. The wings of the creatures make the sound of rushing waters. When they stay still they lower their wings. Wherever the Spirit goes they go. They look like burning coals of fire/torches. They have eyes all over their body because it takes all the eyes to behold the beauty of God. Fire moves back and forth between the creatures. The fire is bright and lightning flashed out of it. The creatures speed back and forth like flashes of lightning. There is a wheel on the ground beside each creature and all four wheels look alike. The wheels sparkle like chrysolite and are all ablaze with fire. The wheels look like a wheel inside of a wheel, like a wheel intersecting a wheel. There are eyes all around the rims of the wheels. The wheels move with the creatures. When the creatures rise, they rise. When the creatures move, they move. Wherever the spirit goes, the creatures go, and the wheels would follow because the spirit of the living creatures are in the wheels. Spread out above the heads of the living creatures is an expanse, sparkling like ice. The sapphire sea. On the sapphire sea is the throne of God. The throne has the appearance of sapphire and brilliant light and is flaming with fire. From the throne come flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. The one seated on the throne has the appearance of jasper and carnelian(sardius). (back in John's day jasper was white like a diamond) Imagine the shape of a man, but a complete diamond. The carnelian is a burnt red color which is his burning desire for us. This too consumes His body. His eyes are aflame. So he is like a diamond and red color. He looks like glowing metal, full of fire. A brilliant light surrounds him. A rainbow on a cloudy day is the appearance around him. From the throne comes flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. Your whole body trembles at the sound of the thunder. Around the throne is what looks like a circle of emerald, which is his mercy. Everything He says must go through His circle of mercy. A river of fire flows from beneath Him and the throne. In front of the throne are seven burning lamps which are the seven spirits of God. Thousands upon thousands attend Him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Him. Around the throne are 24 elders seated on their thrones. They are dressed in white and have crowns of gold on their heads. Day and night the four living creatures never stop saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." When the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to Him who sits on the throne the 24 elders fall down before Him and worship Him saying, "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." You guys, this is our God. This is our Savior. This is Jesus who longs for us to be His friends. This is the creator of the universe who loves you. Can you even imagine? This just blows my mind.

I hope this has encouraged you to study Revelation for yourself. Don't take what I say for granted, but search it out and see for yourself if what I wrote is true. When you begin to dig into the word with this type of mindset it will become alive to you. I strongly encourage you to study this. It is fascinating! Don't think about it in a future context. This is your generation. This is your story. You will live through these events. This thinking puts the whole book into new light. The reason we know it is in our generation is how Israel became a nation in 1948 and Jerusalem became a city and part of Israel in 1967. We are in the beginning birth pangs. If you read Matthew 24 you will see that five things must take place before the end times. We are starting to see some of these now. We will see many false prophets, wars and rumors of wars, famines, natural disasters(hurricanes/earthquakes), and nations against their own nation(civil wars). So don't say that this is for a different generation. It is for us!

I hope I was able to get my points across through all my rambling. If you have any questions PLEASE feel free to email me and if I can't answer it I'll ask someone here. I hope this encourages you to dig deeper in the word and puts an uneasiness in you spirit that can only be quenched by getting to know Christ more.

I love y'all!

His Forever,
Ashton :)