… it’s unique how the Spirit directs and how God positions… so I am sitting in church this morning (10.01.06) and Bro. Dean Sisk is speaking in John. His intention was to speak on “Jesus is Light.” I think my ears heard what he was speaking on; but based on the last “note,” I saw something a little differently. Dean was spoke on 1 Peter 2:9 for a brief moment and mentioned that this is apart of a letter Peter has written and it’s directing to their rejection of the Light…

1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you (Israel) are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own purchases, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of the darkness and into His light.”

With this in mind, I think it rings a bell directly with Exodus 19:5-6. Here we have Peter telling the people of Israel (gentiles included), and he is saying, “HELLO! (Can you imagine him yelling the Shalom at the people? I just found that funny to think about and a crazy flashback to VBS 4 yrs. Ago) anyway… HELLO! God has called us out. Do you not remember (t’shuva)? Do you not remember the commandments God gave us that are the basis of the 613 commandments in the Torah (first five books of the Bible aka Law of Moses or Pentateuch)? (Jewish belief is that the Ten Commandments do not hold a higher view than the rest of the 613 commandments in the Torah, but they believe that they are based from the 10 commandments God gave Moses and Aaron on Mt. Sinai; and yes I am confident they hiked 7498ft. of Sinai again) Do you not remember the first time God called unto us and said, ‘if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’” So I think this is much more than the rejection of Jesus’ teachings. This is the rejection of their purpose and identity by God.

I love how 1 Peter 2:9 supports the consistency of God. Peter, a fishermen who took up the family trade probably because he wasn’t good enough to further learn past the Torah, recognizes the calling of the people. So he certainly remembered Exodus 19:6 from, I assume, when he was kid learning the Torah (as all Jewish kids are taught). I think this is something we Christian living in America need to see the importance of… We are not taught to love the Word. In the church today, we are expected to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, read our bible when we have free time, and Go… I think it’s sad that we (as a body) are not being still/silent, rooting ourselves, and allowing fruit to bear (just my opinion); but
Jewish culture teaches their kids to love the Word. And this passage (Exodus 19:5-6) has HUGE implications (I would imagine) because it was the first time God tells the people of Israel they will be HIS possession and treasure. Wouldn’t any person tell their children, generation after generation, their purpose and name if God spoke to them? And so, because of this, we have Peter reminding the people that we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own purchases, special people. And he goes even further to remind them that they are “to set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him” BECAUSE God said they would be a “kingdom of priests.”

Isn’t God sovereign?

To be continued… asap

so for the past few years I have been praying to have a...hm what word is right... a "zeal" (that sounds too holy for John Dunahoo)...ok energy, enthusiasm, or eagerness (I said these words because i dont wanna use "passion" haha). ok anyway, I have been praying that God would give me an enthusiasm for His Word. For goodness sake, IT GIVES LIFE. Thats pretty big in my book... Because of this, I have had a what seems a tumor within me that there is so much more to the life submitted to Jesus than what I have been taught... With teachings from Jeff Brookes, David Huskey, John Piper, my Mother and Father, Rob Bell, my brother Clint Singleton, words of Tim Hughes & Mike Pilavachi, Dean Sisk, Trevor Atwood, Jerel Olsen and the of course Word itself, I am beginning a persuit after what I have known is greater than what is since I was 7 to be exact.

disclaimer: I am not knowledgeable in Hebrew. just been doing research so yeah... just a forewarning

so. yeah here's a glimpse of what God is showing me...

so the people of Israel left Egypt and its the 3rd month they are out of there... they are now at the Wilderness of Sinai. So the encamp at the base of Mt. Sinai. Moses hikes up 7498 ft of mountain (assuming he went to the top, but we just know "Moses went up to God, and the Lord called him out of the mountain" and God says to Moses,
Exodus 19:5-6
... 5 "Now therefore, if you will indeed OBEY my voice and KEEP MY COVENANT, then you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and YOU SHALL BE TO ME A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS AND A HOLY NATION. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel."

so we have Moses @ Mt. Sinai (elevation of 7498 feet). God obviously stops Moses in his tracks. He does this because deliverance out of Egypt was God's first step for the people of Israel (a people of no land at the moment) to see Almighty God (el Shaddai) the way He appeared to Abraham in Gen 17:1.

so God does not deliver the people of Israel just to simply rescue them from bondage and slavery, but its His purpose to give Israel a purpos, a reason, a basis of living and a name after being in exile for 430 years... He delivered them because He was searching for a body. He desires Israel to be TO GOD "a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation" (sounds like a name to me)... and note here that a priest isn't just a preacher as we American's see them to be... a priest at this time was the ONLY person to communicate with God, there were no intimate relationships with God we have today due to the Law. So God is calling Israel to show to the world what God is like...this is rather significant because this is the FIRST body that God calls to be His hands and feet... So Sinai is a place where God gives his people identity...

to be continued... asap

so I have been doing much thinking and this is the best way to express it ...

...There are tons of exciting things happening today in the church and as a result of shifts in our culture, with the trends that flow in and out, we see things that have never been done in "the church" to bring creativity in churchs and "to enhance" messages. From webcasts, podcasts, video loops, TV broadcasts, services on saturday to better congregations schedules, big or small groups, post-modern services, interactive media for children, lights and projection screens and even electric guitars in worship services! (i say that last one with much exaggeration haha)... but regardless within the past decade there are tons of new things in churchs that were never there before...and it seems today that many today have to be up to date everything little thing from one sunday to the next, like Apple's next release of an iPod, computer, or software. Regardless of what we think the church has stepped into a world of its own that covers everything from our forms of communication to the way we interpret life.
... what is challenging in all this is that it encourages us to continually look for new forms of communication. It's a good thing to be learners of new languages in our communities and culture; HOWEVER, if we look at contemporary worship today, I fear we may find that there is little understanding of the communicational (if thats a word) nature of God's house. God's house is a house of prayer. Jesus is our worship leader (Hebrews 8:1-3) and Text (John 1:14). In the attempts of making God's house an "exciting and relevant place" to the culture, it is possible that God's purpose for His house is distorted to where we undermine the power and authority of our Lord. I think we are in danger of a different "text" being placed at the center of the church, so that we aren't doing what the church was meant to do...to teach, fellowship (worship), breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42).
...There is one Text, and thats the Word of the Father and is known to us through stories preserved in sacred Scripture, and continues to make Himself present to us through His Spirit. It is He who is the the Word, the Text. Other texts are available, but they are simply informational, but the Text is transformational because our Lord stirs the hearts of those who seek Him and delight in Him...sadly though, we easily get caught up in all the "great" communication tools available to us through what we call church media...we MUST get caught up in the transformational Text and keep Him center.

*** I think it's no coincidence that in Mathew 21:13, Jesus enters the temple in Jerusalem and doesn't like what He finds...He finds a marketplace, a temple that is commercialized. So as a result he overturns tables and justifies His actions by quoting "It is written, MY House will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves." The text here that Jesus quotes is Isaiah 56:7 "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." I think its incredible how Jesus uses Scripture to call the people back to the original purpose of prayer and worship...and away from cultural forces that distract them from those purposes.
...Jesus does not state a new purpose of his Father's house, but He is taking what has already been said by God in the matters of worship and giving it new meaning in the present day. And i think thats the same today...We don't need to think of the "den of thieves" as simply robbers, but the thieves and robbers are simply any other program or plan that takes us away from our full attention towards God. I think it is necessary and right that we owe Him His attention, which ought to be devotion, praise and glory. Nowadays the tables that are overturned would not be marketgoers or merchants of doves, but those who are using God's house of prayer for their own agenda...
One thing to think about is would Jesus overturn tables if He entered the individual church's of our nation...would He justify His actions to us through Scripture to us because we delight in foolish things as "great" communication tools or our attempts of making God's house an "exciting and relevant place" our culture?

The point is that today, the technology of communication and all the creative, listening devices have taken center stage within the Body. Perhaps in parts of the Body these new uses of communication are prioritized over the Text. It's sad when the story of Jesus we are sharing becomes the theme to the story of the manner we are telling the story... The problem is the audience for our worship is not God, but rather the audience becomes a god (attempting to make God's house an "exciting and relevant place").

We cannot discover the worship God is seeking for apart from the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We must submit to His guidance and leadership in all aspects of worship, both as gathered community and in our individual lives. So we must rely on the work of the Spirit in us to draw from us the worship in which God delights.

words from Layne Edwards in his AO Facebook newsletter...
Thank You so much man

...Well this week is special because we have the Lord’s
Supper Thursday night. Which is so cool because
what I’m going to share with you God showed me
before I knew about the Lord’s Supper being this
week. One of the big part of the Lord’s supper
is to examine your heart to make sure it is pure
before you take bread and wine (a.k.a grape juice
and crackers :) Deuteronomy 30:6 says
"Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise
your heart and the heart of your descendants, to
love the LORD your God with all your heart and
with all your soul, in order that you may live”
God makes it very all though His Word that sin
comes from the heart first and that leads to
physical acts. God also makes it very clear that
he will not look upon sin. So how can we love God
with ALL our hearts if we have sin in even the
smallest part? The answer is to pray that God
will purify our hearts so we can offer them as a
sacrifice to him. What is hidden in your heart
that no one else can see? Please take time this
week to pray that God will reveal your sin so you
can ask forgiveness for it and come to Him this
Thursday night with a pure heart. Only God can
purify us, we can do nothing on our own. God
bless…

so Hillsong United lead the worship @ 7:22 in Atlanta... i didn't know what to expect, but i have been waiting for about 4 years to see them so finally i was able to see them and this time it was FREE so how could this work any better?
so on the way me, isaac, and amanda heath stopped by my grandparents house (the house i was raised in Atlanta, Ga since my parents sold it to my Uncle Ricky/Grandparents) and it was good to see them again and introduce them to some of my friends.
then we headed to NPCC to 7:22.

we get to the church and waited for like 45minutes for the doors to open...of course there was a flood for seats and we didnt get any seats so we stood the entire time because i did not drive from TN to get put in the overflow room to watch United on an HD screen haha...

so it all starts and i was standing there thinking God what is it that you want to show me? because i knew there was a purpose in it all beside me wanting to United...
1. so it was one of those things where i just stood still while they played and lead worship...in standing still i was able to see the various styles of worship of those around me. with various of cultures, denominations, and people brings about various types of worship...i thought this was so beautiful because our God is a diverse God. He is not linear in time, blessings, or existence...

2. Joel Houston (one of the leaders of United) began to speak in between songs and just shared his heart... in one his overflows of conversation he said so many times as christian we focus on intimacy with our Father and prioritize worship BUT we lack justice...then he stated "worship and justice go hand in hand"...
explaining justice as simple as the commandment to love others and to live a life loving those who are hurting and destitute and in need... this really hit me because i realized my focus has been on worship so much i have lacked love and it has been an imbalance..

3. later, Phil Dooley (Hillsong youth/singles minister) began to speak about the ministry that God has been working in @ Australia and he said something that really struck me hard... he said so many of us focus on being "a generation that has a passion and sees the greatness of his fame"...he then said this is vital yes BUT the only way our generation can be successful is to be biblically literate...if we do not know the word and seek our Father then how effective is a christian without fruit?

so these things really stuck out for me in the trip to Atlanta...it was worth every bit of it...just a good time to chill with my bro Isaac and friend heath...so yeah
Thank You God

When worshipping, try to imagine Jesus walking among us... listening to each of us with one of those stethoscopes that doctors use that filter out all the noise and AMPLIFY the heart...BUT Jesus doesn’t put his stethoscope away when the singing finishes on a Sunday or Wednsday night. He’s listening to the sound of the heart at work on Tuesday morning; he’s listening to the sound of the heart when we’re out with our friends on a Friday night. He's listening to the heart when your in that class that lasts forever. He listens to our heart when we are alone in the stillness or loudness as you read this now. He listens to the heart constantly as we should be in constant prayer....so long after any songs you sing come to an end, the sound that continues to echo around the throne room in heaven is the sound of your heart.

today in our church we have too many songleaders and not enough worship leaders...difference is a worship leader seeks God and desires to know what He is doing and following that...but a songleader plows through the song not even thinking about much else...

I once heard a story where a worship leader heard a sound that blew him away. It was during a large worship celebration: one song had just ended… The instruments died out, the crowd grew silent. Suddenly the only noise in the place was a loud, out of tune groan coming from the front row. He looked for the source of the sound and saw a woman with tears streaming down her face, her arms stretched out to heaven, just pouring her heart out to God. This worshipper was deaf and had no idea that the rest of us had stopped singing and were now looking at her. She was just going for it, expressing an uncontainable passion for Jesus, which echoed around the meeting place.

To be honest, it was not the most musical sound he ever heard. But strangely, it was among the most beautiful: they were listening to the sound of her heart. A few seconds later, her friend nudged her in the side and she stopped. That moment has remained burned on my memory because it reminded him of a principle that is core to our theology of worship: God listens to the sound of the heart.
******************************************************************
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov 4:23).

To God, the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart: God looks at our hearts (1 Sam 16:7), searching us (Jer 17:10), probing and testing every motive and attitude. He knows what’s going on in them (Luke 16:15), has set eternity in them (Ecc 3:11) and created them as the place of interface with him.

There is good reason for this: whatever has our heart’s affection instantly has our worship (Matt 6:21). The common understanding in both the Old and New Testaments was that the ‘heart’ was the control centre of a person’s being: all yours mind, ideas, thoughts, motives and decisions flowed from here. It is with our hearts that we look for God (Deut 4:29), love God (Deut 6:5), serve God (Josh 22:5), meditate on him (Ps 19:14), hang onto his word (Ps 119:11), trust in him (Pr 3:5), do the will of God (Eph 6:6), love others (1 Pet 1:22) and pour out our worship to God (Ps 62:8).

1 Chronicles 29:11
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the
majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.

i cant find the link to fill my bracket out =(

Tonight was such a beautiful night of worshipping our Lord and Savior... thank yall who partaked in the worship. May the Lord bless the hearts of those who seek Him...

run after the Lord "at all cost"





  

this is just an account of my Saturday...Feb18, 2006




 so i wake up




in shock i see that snow is falling and has fallen...dontcha love over-exaggeration?




I walk down the hall of my dorm...good ole Judd Hall




i intend to get some stuff out of my car but i realize it is covered in ice and im too lazy to try to open it and i didnt want to disturb the snow on my car cause i like it so i didnt touch it




i walk to the KUC for the usual 11:30 to 12ish meeting with friends on saturday.




the only ones who attended were heather




and Kira...dont ask about the hat...




i figured id be creative with the snow and take some cool pictures and this one came out cool atleast? on my way back from the KUC




i notice this bird that is exceptionally fat...so i took a picture but i assume a bird has to do something to keep warm???




so i go to Zach's place and he's tuning




so he kept tuning...







so Zach and I decide to go downtown to a guitar store, but ran into a obstacle... the ice delayed us pretty bad not to mention it owned us also a few times haha so after a few spits on the windshield we get it done...







but we're stuck outside of the truck so i get my door open while Zach tries to pry his door open... He opens the door and realizes it somehow snowed inside his car??? so he decides to scoop it out because Zach is smart, genius Eagle Scout dude ok there wasn't that much, but i thought it was pretty hilarious... after finishing a day of shopping at overpriced guitar stores we come back to Zach's place and chill....eat oreos...





watch some Paul McCartney so i needed to leave because the night had further adventures, but my time was done and my camera was dying...





i was Experienced because who isn't Experienced when hanging out with Zach Ingle??? btw Zach broke the slide he bought on sunday's practice so that means he broke two slides within a week...so i guess that leaves him still tuning while i left?

so here is the beginning of the snow... this was normal so we didnt think anything of it because it looked like a whimpy snow




wasting time away i went mudding in my front yard because were renting a house and it looks bad anyway so these are the evidences of such beauty and fun...i have a video of it on google soon i think




i think i got more mud on my car than some guys get when they go off roading...shoot




so about 4 hours later it came down alittle more




Isaac driving to drop off Holly at 1am in Wears Valley




this is Holly




good ole' icy roads MMmmm nothing Dunahoo and Izzy can't overcome




so i woke up to this on sunday and it sorta delayed me to the Boro till about 5:40ish

in dealing with my mawmaw's cancer its been an issue from within... not an issue to ask "Why?" to God or abandon my trust in my Savior.... the issue has been what is it that the Lord has instore despite this trial in my life... How will God get the glory and honor and praises in this hard situation as my MawMaw is dying due to Stage 4 Melanoma???
I came to MTSU with not much...just knowing God was beautiful, and He has a good plan in my life and that He desires an abandoned worshipper...grasping that was hard until numerous of questions that had no answers...then, I realized the intensity of my MawMaw's situation...sitting back and realizing the magnitude of such a disastrous attack on our family. My MawMaw is a monument in the Dunahoo side of the family...she is cornerstone of the family because she has fought for justice and what is right and best for the family... i have a love for her that i cant express...the sight of seeing a petite, fragile woman who cries everytime she see's you is a humbling sight...but within her is a bold statement of what is right and a near perfect example of thankfulness and servants heart...
must i go further???
to see her falling from my life, in pain with cancer that has consumed her body and spreading rapidly now to the point of being in her brain makes me want to see her just once more to say "i love you"

this blog is everywhere i know but today at AO i heard the speaker say a beautiful thing...
"would if God purposely builds walls in your life and doesn't always open doors?" ... "would if God would rather see you fail than succeed?" .... these question seem dark to many, but i saw it as God revealing to me in saying "ITS OK, John" ... just keep pushing forward for me and find a love in me that not many do... broaden your faith in me through pushing forward despite the issues that i have placed around you because "I" ::God:: will not tempt you beyond what you can bare...

He delights in an abandoned worshipper...and thats what i desire to become

as of lately it seems like some stuff just does not make sense or that many things have no purpose or lack hope...i think this type of thinking begins to set in when we begin to rely on our own thinking instead of relying on the promises God gives us. (His plans) they are beautiful plans which involve joyous and sad times of lament. its so easy to get out of our element (that is, Christians with a personal relationship) and to rely on our own plans, desires, and hopes. i sit many of times looking into the future (one thing man CANNOT do) and i think to myself what am i? or what is it that God has instore? what will i do after college? will i find the woman that has been promised for me to be with? ... and ah, just so many questions fill our minds and we try to answer the questions that we can NEVER answer... and when we get to the point of frustration of our own questions and trying to fathom the way we want our life to be, i think we sit back and nod our head (or laugh), and at that moment you must sit back and rest. Rest in the stillness of knowing that God is in control and not us.

I am not going to rant and rave about how mans pride is the source of this question/answer frustation thing because i think for many of us thats been preached on and we know that pride and self is the source of too much of our sin... but in all this im talking bout the importance of recognizing our Savior and our Lord as the reason man exists, the reason we have purpose, and the reason we breathe day by day is Him. i think it is so easy to look to ourselves, instead of looking to Him. we know he has answers and we know He holds every ingredient to life in his hands.

im not sure if any of this makes any sense to anyone, but i am just pouring out my hope for those around me and for myself... its so hard to go day by day and see people around you weather those you see daily or at home, the people you love and demonstrated care for, or just the strangers walking into you on campus or in any random location you may be... its hard to see whether they grasps your perspective of the beauty of God...its hard to see if they have the passion that you strive for them to have... its hard to accept that God is truley indescribable and is just this HUGELY LOVINGLY CARING JUST OPEN father. you want those around you to embrace that. you want to see fruit of the Spirit. you want to see an abandoned worshipper. you want them to have just a heart for God and experience that in return...

when Hope is lost, i call You Savior. when pain surrounds, i call You Healer. When silence falls, You'll be the song in my heart.

i was curious if whoever is reading this could pray for me...
i ask this because of a few things... my mawmaw (dads mother) has been dealing with stage-4 melanoma cancer for about a year now...the doctors had expected her to have died around new years, but obviously God has had other plans for her. its been a beautiful road to see how God works and how we human do not in the predictions of ones life and how they can do things or cannot...her medication has tripled due to pain (she is barely 5 foot)... so if you all would please keep her in your prayers...im hoping to see her once more during spring break if possible so please do that...in this pray for my family...
...aslo this a minute prayer compared to the one above but i stress easily when it comes to school work and i have sooo much reading so please pray that i be comforted some how or another.
thank you so much... much love

Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling. Zechariah 2:13

what a unique thing for the Lord to give to the prophet Zachariah... i mention this because it says just three versus earlier to "Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you," declares the LORD. (Zechariah 2:10)...
i was thinking about this and i think so many times we get caught up into looking at the versus which mention us to SHOUT and be glad because that is what we see as good... thats what we want many of times is just to live an "ideal happy life"... but how many times are we silent when the Lord says "Be silent"? how many times am I silent when He tells me "Be silent, John" ? its a tough thing to do but we MUST do it because we are to be obedient to our heavenly Father and he delights in us when we obey His commands.

"For thousands of years followers of Jesus, like artists, have understood that we have to keep on going, exploring what it means to live in harmony with God and each other. The Christian faith tradition is filled with change and growth and transformation. Jeus took part in this process to rethink faith and the Bible and hope and love and everything else, and by inviting them into the endless process of working out how to live as God created us to live. . .
the challenge for Christians then is to live with great passion and conviction, remaining open and flexible, aware that this life is not the last painting. . ." -Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

Now then, we are apart of this tradition, a global herd of people who believe God has not left us alone but has been involved in human history and the individual lives of those around us. And as Rob Bell promotes in his book Velvet Elvis, I also, embrace the need to keep on painting... and by "painting" i dont intend on surfice changes like better lights and music, sharper and more animated graphics, or new methods of easy to follow steps or structural elements to building a church or steps to better the new born Christian to be "sent out" . . . to keep on painting is to keep on reforming because we dont everything perfect. the things we do many of times need to be revisited, rethought, and reworked... we must seek God and through seeking Him he will reveal the right way our faith is to be defined, lived, and explained.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. -Romans 5:5



The Lord has truley blessed me with things I cannot fathom. The numerous of opportunities he has allowed me to experience Him in different ways have been absolutely amazing, especially now that I can look back from this past semester. I look forward to this semester as God continues to work through the lives of others and in myself. He has a good and beautiful plan for me, and despite the trials and temptations that are in His good plan He will be glorified and magnified for what He has instore. "So great is His unfailing love... His love endures forever!"
-John Dunahoo