This weekend at fresh life we began a study of the New Teatament book of Jude. We are being challenged to contend for the faith, to Soldier On! Our creative dept always does a great job setting the vibe and the mood of the series, but I couldn’t believe what they came up with this time…amazing.

This weekend, at fresh life, we are beginning a brand new series going through the New Testament book of Jude. Despite the fact that this little book doesn’t get a whole lot of play, it has a LOT to say. Make sure to join us at the Strand or Liberty theatre, on fresh life radio or on the webcast, which is now in HD at freshlifechurch.com!

I spoke on the subject of revival at fresh life this past weekend. Our text was Nehemiah 8:1-12 where after 52 days of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem the focus of the book shifts to the spiritual restoration of the people. It is a killer passage. All of God’s Word is perfect, but this was a significant and special message to prepare and to preach. I hope that God uses it in the hearts of those who hear it even 1/10th as much as He did in my life as I studied for and delivered it. It rocked my world in a wonderful way.

I also hope that as you watch this teaching in other places you will join with fresh life in this season of; praying for revival and in taking radical steps to order our lives in such a way as to make a a work of revival possible.

The Bible says that God’s eyes run to and fro on the earth looking to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to Him. (2 Chronicles 16:9) God is going to move in power through somebody, He will find those whose hearts are ready to be ignited into flame and He will use them to shake the very gates of hell–why not you, why not now?

Remember–only you can prevent yourself from being on fire!

This past weekend I was in Orange County hosting the Friday and Saturday nights of the Harvest Crusade at Angels Stadium, but through the wonders of technology I was also in Montana teaching at our 4 weekend services.

Though we have heard from many wonderful guest speakers, and it is wonderful to hear from fresh voices and outside perspectives, there is something to be said for maintaining the energy and momentum by not putting a series on hold. In order to do that (until science nails the whole cloning thing) for the past few years we have been using video teachings that I record prior to leaving town.

The hardest part about this, surprisingly, isn’t teaching to an empty room, it’s having to prepare three messages in a week instead of two, with the additional pressure of preparing for the trip. For some reason preaching with no audience isn’t really that different from a normal Sunday, I just think and pray for those who will be listening just like I am also thinking of the web/radio audience that I can’t see every other week.

A definite benefit is that the media team has time to post-produce the video, dialing it in. I especially love the unique Nehemiah themed lower thirds that the team generated for this particular message.

Here is the most recent “virtual levi” (as my staff affectionately refers to this teaching style) rock this city teaching from this past weekend. In it, Sanballat and co. try to assassinate Nehemiah as the wall nears completion.

This is sort of my way of decompressing after finishing a 15 week-long study through the book of James at Skull Church. In this video I give the resources that were helpful to me during the series, the reason we called it high fidelity, and why I chose to go through this book at a service that is explicitly evangelistic in it’s focus.

If you are on a mobile device you can watch the movie on vimeo with this link: http://vimeo.com/m/#/12498843