Praise

massive prayer request

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

Tonight was ENLI at Harvest. I got a word from God tonight that I just need to share. God really hit me with the fact that revival will sweep across this campus at the sight of a miracle; an outworking of His Spirit on this campus. Something big will occur. God really laid on my heart what that miracle could very well be, and that is what needs prayer. God thrust upon my heart a burden for a guy named Matt in my dorm. Matt has either Muscular Dystrophy or Multiple Scelerosis and is in a motorized wheelchair. He is not a Christian. God just told me that this guy will be healed and walk from his chair after an entire life in it and no prospect for the future. Right after getting that burden at the end of ENLI, I was walking back to my dorm and guess who crossed my path – Matt in his wheelchair. I was able to say hey and lay a hand on Him and whisper a quick silent prayer. I then proceeded into the elevator where I was just forced to begin praying in the Spirit and continued that in my room, followed by some pretty intense confessing of Scripture.

This is a huge test for my faith. I don’t know whether to ask God to heal Him, thank Him that He will, that He already has, or just believe it will be done. I’m really knew to this supernatural aspect of the Christian life, but I really believe that this can be the supernatural miracle God was telling me about that will finally set off the fire every spirit-filled Christian at VCU has been feeling and anticipating.

For anyone that reads this, please pass this on to anyone who has a gift of healing, or just anyone that is filled with the Spirit and has faith this can and will be done. This will need a great barrier of prayer. Something big is about to happen at VCU, I just know it. God is beginning to move supernaturally at UofR, and God is preparing to do so here at VCU. Everyone that reads this – just pray. Pray in the Spirit; He knows better than us what to say.

God Bless and have faith always,
— Paul <

God is good; all the time. And all the time . . .

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

Last night Mike on my floor got saved!!!!

I have been taking him to a lot of church functions, talking to him, and praying for him for a while now. He has had the desire and belief in God all his life, but had never turly made that real decision to make Jesus his Lord and accepting his salvation. I’m still working with him and discipling him, but he better know that this is only the beginning of a long, awesome, difficult journey.

Last night, God really hit me and showed me his glory in a new way. It was so invigorating!! Part of me thinks I got more out of Mike’s salvation experience than he did (though I know not).

Also last night, my IV Small Group had one of the most incredible testominoy and prayer meetings ever. I mean, there was SO MUCH PRAYER!!! In the words of my fellow Harvest Renewers “It WAS GOOD!” It is so amazing that there are groups of guys that without their parents forcing them are coming out tp prayer for their fellow men of Christ. It gives me hope for the future that this next generation of men will actually be able to please women and treat them the way they are meant to and actually be successful in making them happy and raising Godly men. These guys are so awesome and incredible! I get so lifted up and encouraged by them. It is the way the family of God should actually be. They will rebuke me, praise me (or rather God’s ability to be expressed through me), lift me up, teach me, and allow me to do the same for them.

Speaking of, tomorrow I am sending in my application to join the Intervaristy Leadership staff. I am planning to apply to the positions of Small Group Leader and Praise team member. I am so excited about the Small Group Leader position. I hopefully will be paired up with my awesome brother in Christ Matt Robinett (also a fellow Harvest Renewer). The Praise Team position I am kind of nervous about, though. Admittedly, from singing a lot more in my car, just this past week, that wall that had been before my voice and making it not very powerful or not sounding very good was broken. Now I can sing again; but I’ve always been nervous singing. That’s why I want to play lead guitar in the praise band like I used to do back home, rather than singing. Unfortunately (though I feel God leading me to this), I am being told that all of our male voices will be gone next year, leaving me to have to fill the vocal spot rather than the guitar spot. That’s nerve racking, to say the least, but I keep being reminded that just as God is glorified in the folly of our words (1 Corinthians 1), he will also be glorified through the folly of my pitch and vocal quality. Whatever needs to be done to glorify God and expand His Kingdom. I feel like this is only the first glorious step on my new journey with Christ. It really feels like I am stepping through a door. Kinda like Dorothy stepping out of the black and white and entering the new world of the color. In the past several months I have had my view of God reformed, reshaped, and added upon, so that I have a new image of the God I worship. I really feel like this new world I am stepping into is the one that I am now meant to apply these new truths and perspectives. GOD IS SO INCREDIBLE!!!! He really is. He is a living God. Real, breathing, dynamic and real to every true believer; constantly showing and revealing himself to me NOT so I can just sit there and say “oh, that’s neat” but rather to go out and use the new perspective to glorify God by expanding His Kingdom by bringing as many people as I can to a faith in Christ.

Okay . . . I am just going to put the pulpit away right now. I’ll have plenty of time to do that later.

Anyway, I am going. Sorry for the lack of update to the Bible sites. That is changing. Pray for me and my family always, but things are changing and coming back to the way they are supposed to be.

God be glorified and lifted up.

Last piece of advice to everyone out there: Don’t fight it; just do as you’re told; Go and make disciples of all nations, okay?

— Paul<

singleness revised . . .

/ Paul Burkhart / 1 Comment

My campus minister read my previous post and had some really good thoughts that actually changed a lot of the way I look at this topic.
He said…
——————————————————–
Hmmmm…

Interesting thoughts. You bring up many points worthy of discussion (unfortunately, typing on a computer doesn’t constitute a conversation, so I will simply make some comments… my two cents, if you will).

I would argue that God’s pronouncement that man not having a “helper fit for him” was “not good” does not necessitate that Adam felt any “need” for a companion (or that he was lonely, sad, or any other related emotion). The text is silent as to the emotional state of Adam. I think it safe to assume that Adam had no emotional response for having no helper fit for him (or, at the very least, his emotion response was inconsequential… if it were not, surly mention would have been made of it). From a strictly logical standpoint, how can one miss (or yearn for) what he as never known. In other words, how can Adam desire a woman (wife) when woman didn’t exist? However, if by chance Adam was “feeling alone”, it seems unlikely (and against the nature of a Sovereign God) that He looked at Adam and saw him upset about being alone and this in turn caused God to say, “I guess it is not good what I made… Adam is clearly alone and he needs me to make him a helper.” If God is simply reactionary to our emotions (more specifically, the emotions of the first man) I believe this belittles God supremacy and places man at the center of all things (A place he was not created to occupy – ref. Romans 11.36). I think the safest exposition here is that God’s declaration of man being alone was just that, a declaration.

(ok.. I just had like an hour long interruption, so I have basically lost my train of thought… must go read again)

In paragraph 2 there seems to be a pre-supposition that singleness = pain. While I can easily remember the desire to find “the one” when I was single, I definitely do not think that singleness should be considered painful (Paul… uh, the apostle, obviously thought that being single was pretty great – ref. 1 Corinthians 7.7).

QUOTE: but rather only in looking towards God and seeking Him can we find the person that can fill that void. — While I don’t think there is a void, I do really like this point and believe it applicable to all areas of life (ref – Matthew 6.33).

So, the 20 million dollar question from the third to last paragraph is, “if the next girl you date is not going to be your wife… why date her?” :o) I couldn’t resist. the real question is what is the purpose of dating? In “the church” there are so many opinions and terms in relation to dating and courtship… I consider it most critical that all single men and women examine his or her approach to relationships and truly seek to come to what they believe is God’s plan. Society has really messed things up and I think it is time for our generation to regain a proper approach to relationships and end this culture of divorce that prevails everywhere.

QUOTE: As long as I seek His will, everything else will fall into place.

— “Amen”

Well, I’m going home. Thanks for making me think.

_ryan

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

~socrates

—————————————————-
I think he is absolutely right, actually. Usually I’m not so easily swayed in these kind of things, but after reading his response, I couldn’t help but rethink things. I guess that’s why he’s the discipler and I’m the disciplee. Though I would argue the purpose of dating to be to get to know people, learn the dynamics of relationships, help you learn how to relate to others of the opposite sex, and so on; I totally think that modern society has distorted its function and form. Personally, I’m more of a fan of the courting method, but seeing as it’s hard to find others that agree, I think the same goals can be served through dating if done correctly with God as the center of the relationship. I know there are exceptions to every rule, and my campus minister is an example of that. The story of how him and his wife got together is amazing, and I am persoanlly aiming for that kind of relationship with someone, completely grounded and founded in friendship, selfless love, and Christ as the head. Other than the dating point, I totally agree with Ryan. Having someone romantically in your life should not be necessary to effectively serve God. In fact, many times (as Ryan points out about Paul, the apostle) being single is exactly what God calls people to be because you can better serve God in that capacity. Ryan told me one of the most amazing things the other day as we left lunch at Chipotle (yeah baby!). I told him about the loneliness I was feeling and that I was such a hopeless romantic I had all this “romanticism” built up inside of me (not sexual tension, mind you) and I really wanted someone I cared about so I could just shower them with this. He asked me to consider what that meant. What did it mean to “shower someone” with that? Inevitably, I realized, the outworking of those feelings would eventually become a physical manifestation of them, which would cause the inevitable physical complications found in most relationsips that I, admittedly, thought I was above by now. This made me praise God that He has in fact kept me from a relationship in the past few years that would become prey to the same complications that evey “normal” and secualr relationship falls to. Even as I write this, dating, or rather, serious relationships, or seeming more and more useless and in fact harmful to my Christian walk. I want to thank Ryan for saying that and making realize that even that romance I should be saving for my future wife, not just the physical manifestations thereof, and want to thank God that he has kept me pure thus far, and will continue to do so for my future wife, whoever she may be. So, whoever she will be, I love you, and just know that all this is being done, said, and worked out in me so that I can give you the most of me that I can.

God Bless, everyone,

— Paul <

singleness . . .

/ Paul Burkhart / 3 Comments

God really hit me tonight with some realizations about singleness. It all started with “the beginning . . .”: Genesis.

Most everybody knows the creation story pretty well. Most people know that after each thing that God created, He said “It is good.” Well, I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but the first time that God ever says the phrase “It is not good” is in Genesis 2:18. The verse says:

And the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

This showed me a few things. Mainly, people are meant to be together. It is “not good” for people to be alone. We have each been created with that inbred desire for companionship. That pain of loneliness that we have all experienced at some point or another – some more often than others (speaking from personal experience) is a feeeling that comes natural to man. Notice also that God was saying this was “not good” before the fall of man. That means that the craving for someone to be with is a pain that is not a consequence of our sin nature.

Following this logic, it is not a bad thing to feel this pain and experience it; it is not an evidence of spiritual deficiency or lack in anyway. Also, if this is a pain that comes from being human, it is a hunger that can only be truly satiated by God. I’m not saying that God Himself is supposed to fill that need, but rather only in looking towards God and seeking Him can we find the person that can fill that void. That said, if we are trusting God, then we can know that if we are experiencing singleness and the pain that goes along with it, it is only because God can be glorified greater through us being single than with someone. Thus, (here I indict myself some) we should accept the pain for what it is and embrace it, because it will only be that much sweeter when we do find someone.

Also, these verses and the meditations reaffirmed even more my love and respect for women. Anyone that knows me knows the pedestal I put woman as a whole upon. I’m so old-fashioned, it frustrates some girls sometimes. Opening doors, doing the driving, and paying for them, is the proper way to treat a woman. Don’t worry, I’m not overbearing. I’ve always said that women were God’s greatest gift to mankkind. This verse supports that. John MacArthur said on his biblcal commentary on this verse that “This verse points to Adam’s inadequacy, not Eve’s insufficiency. Woman was made by God to meet man’s deficiency.” Amen. Psychologically speaking, women can set off chemicals and psychological responses in men that men could only dream about doing to women. The greatness of women are the reason they have my utmost respect and honor. I just can’t wait for my wife. I dream of treating her as much like a queen as I possibly can.

In response to that, I conclude with this verse (one of my new favorites):

For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

— Romans 8:24-25

I pray to God for my future wife every day, and I just want to thank Him for her now, whoever she will be. I may have met her, I may have not; but in the meantime I’m madly in love with her. Don’t think I’m this weird creepy guy. I’m not. I’m just an overly-romantic dorky guy. I’ll keep dating. I’m not expecting the next girl I date or even my next girlfriend to be my wife. God will lead me to her, I don’t need to hurry things along. Learning from my parents, I am not going to prematurely marry the next person I feel “warm-fuzzies” for. In fact, I sometimes fear I’m going to be too picky.

Right now, apparently God has called me to singleness and it definitely has glorified Him, even though it has definitely been painful. I’ve been ready for a relationship for a while, but I’m not going to look for it and end up screwing something/someone up. My creed when it comes to any realtionship is to take it slow.

Something inside of me though does feel like someone is coming my way. . . I don’t know. Whatever God wants. As long as I seek His will, everything else will fall into place.

God Bless,

— Paul <

God . . . again . . .

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

ha-ha! I am back in the work force!

My previous job (that I still lost) was selling tickets to school groups that wanted to see the plays that my company (Theatre IV) was putting on in various parts of the east side of the country. These plays are put on by our groups of touring actors at various theatre venues that we rent out. Okay, so anyway, I lost that job.

Theatre IV is connected to those touring shows, shows that happen here in Richmond just down Broad Street in the beautiful, historic, Empire Theatre, and shows that happen down in Willow Lawn Shopping Center at Barksdale Theatre. In other words, all those things are connected under the same company.

The founders of the company, Phil Whiteway and Bruce Miller, work in my office building so I see them a lot.

Needless to say, I have come out very much on their good side, and that’s a good thing, for both of them were voted two of the 100 most influential people in Richmond. I had one talk with Phil, and he set me up with an interview and praise with Sarah who works with Barksdale Theatre. Because of his praise, she said when I walked in the interview: “This isn’t going to be a normal interview. If Phil says you’re good, then you’re good, so I’m just going to ask you for your availibility.” So I have a job to come back to after break. Actually, two jobs.

My biggest job is my new position as the “House Manager” of Barksdale Theatre, one of, it not the most high brow professional theatre here in Richmond. Also, I am going to be working the box office for Empire Theatre.

I’m telling you, when God puts a peace in your heart where you feel like everything is going to be okay, he means it. I had that peace from the beginning as my post only two days ago showed. And look at all he’s done. This is a huge step fpr me professionally. The House Manager job itself has so much responsibility, it’s crazy they’re letting a Freshman college student do it.

Anyway, to anyone that prayed for me, thank you so much. It helped.

God Bless,

— Paul<

life . . . again . . .

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

well, today I lost my job. I work a work study job here off campus. When the initial paperwork went thrugh, VCU told my employer I was availible for it. Now it says I never was. Thus, I have no job starting next semester. Sure it’s a bummer, but this does a lot for me:

1- It clears my day time schedule so I can take better classes I need.

2- Doing the first thing will clear my nights so I can do some plays around town and actually go to rehearsals.

3- It gives me the oppurtinity to find another job that could further my career.

4- It will help my life slow down and be less stressful.

5- It gives me the possibility to do things around the theatre on weekends that will actually give me something to do.

6- It gives me the chance to start actually utilizing great connections I have made here

7- Most importantly, though, it gives me a situation where I can do nothing else but surrender to God, and see him work. Though I’ve spent the first few months of school kind of distant to God, as I get close to Him again, I welcome this chance to see him work completely and fully in my life to do as he wishes. I pray that God be seen through this situation, and I pray that I don’t get discouraged as my search for a job may yield few fruits.

If my understanding of, and faith in, Christ is to increase, these situations must be necessary in my life, to help me grow stronger and closer to God. They’re the only way. If life was perfect all the time, what little faith we would need of God! What little chance would we get to delight in Him! To glorify Him!

Even though I seem cheery, it’s only because deep inside my soul I feel a sense of comfort andsecurity that everything will be okay. That’s not to imply that the very human side of me doesn’t want to just sit around and depress. It does. It really does. This post, though, is more for me than anyone who reads it. It’s my therapy- my way of trying to see the possibilities of God, because sometimes life gets so crazy it’s hard to. I’m not a completely unfeeling human being who has there head in the clouds and thinks he never goes through tribulation, because I do, and this is that; but just as God commands me to do, I will “Take heart” and see God’s hand in it. Just as Pastor Robert said last night. “God is so much bigger than us. He moves entire empires and rulers for his purposes. Why do we worry about the small things of life. God is most glorified, when we are most satisfied in Him.”

Amen.

God my I glorify you, by becoming saisfied in you.

— Paul <

some great quotes . . .

/ Paul Burkhart / 1 Comment

I’m reading this book right now called “Desiring God” by John Piper. I just really started today and it has some incredible things to say. It’s basic thesis is that the pleasure we receive when we glorify God, is glorifying God. In other words, it is our duty and responsibility to take as much delight and pleasure in God, because that is what truly glorifies him in the end. It’s a concept called Christian Hedonism. It is full of amazing quotes and I’m just going to insert those quotes into this blog whenever I reach one to share them with the world!!

Quote from C.S. Lewis’ sermon “The Weight of Glory”:

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering anture of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

via rusticus temporis

/ Paul Burkhart / Leave a comment

Walking down my lonely wooded road.

The sun permeating all around.

My path diverges into two, both crying for my load.

All I can hear is the angry sound

Of superiors above using both their mouths.

And everyone else saying their piece,

While everything else cries in its state of inanimation.

Shouting spasmodically, piercing the silent shade,

I try to converge my divided thoughts.

But I can’t for at different feet they’ve been laid;

Two different feet which converge onto differing plots.

My feet while converging from one body, can be independent

But dependent on the whole at once

Just as the paths ne’er would exist without the first.

This bane causes pain which brings tears that stain

Every paper door that leads closer to my West.

This strain sees disdain at the feet of the one I’m lain,

As my blood shod eyes look up crying for his best.

He just smiles reassuringly, but the silence makes me shake.

Crippled with uncertainty, I can only trust his hands.

His hands so fair, though scarred; so light, yet so weighted . . .

by my every former worry and now’s. waiting for me to let go. . .

— Paul M. Burkhart

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