When I was in the navy and we were coming home from the North Atlantic we had just refueled in the Azores, Portugal. The seas looked gentle and rolling about 5 or 6 feet high but spaced kind of irregularly.
We took two swells close enough together that we raised up and raised up and then-
There was nothing under us. We fell, descending, submerging...
The bridge window was marked at 40 feet high so that the math whiz quartermasters could gauge the horizon. We had windows surrounding us on three sides (thank God we had the bridge hatches closed)we were looking at green water.
Not clear water, indicating that we were skimming the surface, green water the color green you see when you go snorkeling.
A trip to San Francisco. A three day excursion in worship, 4 services if you count our regulars. And now nothing.
The locals that have seemed to count on me to watch their backs are ignoring me.
I'm not sure what I'm trying to get at here, but I'm trying to deal with alienation, cynicism and no direction all at once.
I feel a little like Cap'n Jack Sparrow in the third movie when he couldn't make his compass that pointed to the desire of his heart, work.
Better news next time... I suspect... i hope...

Funny how paying attention makes things appear to relate to one another. And I guess they are when you look at them in reference to me.
My good friend Dave tried to explain to me how San Fran might have been done differently done if it were more about the City than about the Bride of Christ.
There is something about the language of the christian community that is offensive to the world and it doesn't necessarily have a positive effect when you speak it. It feels like a challenge.
Even the title, "The REAL Summer of Love" is confrontive in that it illegitimizes what the city of San Francisco holds to it's bosom as a monumental move ahead. And for them in their understanding, it was gods hand leading them to a higher plain... And they may well be right. They are right, they just don't see it as the path to Jesus and we know that Jesus is the opened who opened the door to a righteousness required to have fellowship with the Father.
Now, the other day the worship band that I am part of went to play for a nearby church who had a guest speaker from their denomination.
We played worship that is our style, very prophetic, very fresh and then this man got up and talked about holiness and what we must do to be liked (my word, not his) by God.
This guy is an evangelist and thinks that the best example of being like Christ is to make people like him. Again, my take on his words, not what he said.
The heart of it is that the church representation currently on display is reminiscent of the church in Jerusalem in Acts where they wanted to require converts to christianity to become jews before they become christians.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple. You don't get to enter the kingdom of God without relying on Jesus. Jesus wants to give you His righteousness to use as currency.
It's not about what you do, it's about who you know.

Just got back from The Real Summer of Love in San Francisco. What a ride.
Made some plans- really loose plans, and watched them blow up in slow motion, beginning at our departure.
Much if not all of that is well chronicled at www.dmclain.com describing the hospitalization of our friend and cohort Trevor MacPherson, apostle to the alternative lifestyle youngsters of the world. Dave tells it all best, as my gaze was fixed on whatever tasks I could complete.
What I did manage was to catch a couple of the evenings, some "covert ops" with some of my friends, did a couple of evening services (prayed for a couple of people) met some really cool people, did a little warfare on my drum, was thoroughly impressed by a young musician named Stephen Roach (twice carried a dun-dun to his car and asked him to pray impartation of musicianship and he added a bit)and carried Leonard Jones guitar to his car for him and he gave me a ride back to the concert site.
That is a whirlwind, but it's about how it all felt.
So, we stayed in the "Tenderloin" district. Saw hookers nightly outside the international hostel where we stayed, apparently the best facility of it's type in San Francisco. Wi-fi, continental breakfast, ambiance- an amazing place for whatit was. And more importantly 5 blocks from the hospital (again, www.dmclain.com )
That hadn't been a consideration for us before we left.
Trevor was on a panel with Arthur Blessit, Chuck Girard and some others including Sean Bolz and some others.
The next morning he went to the hospital with something that would have killed him had he been a lesser man.
In a drum circle, they had begun and I went and asked if I could join. We went through a couple of guitar players and one broke a string. The guy next to him, who had sung a prophetic type song moments before said that perhaps he had come to San Francisco to get saved. Pretty amazing.
There were some challenges besides Trevors situation, but I'll get to those later, or they aren't important.
Slainte!

I've been sitting on this for a while. I have watched the church wither and known the disappointment of watching her act with reservation as a spinster instead of anticipation as a bride.
The time has come for Ezekial to arise and prophesy over the valley of dry bones and call the body of Christ up. To prophesy the joining of the bones, the sinew and muscle to make her mobile- even the skin, or flesh must be called on to put a face on Christ that is believable.
The church has curried a reputation of judgment and cultural vandalism, calling on people to make themselves lovable before they can become part. Acts 10, Peter on the roof taking a nap, "Don't call unclean what I call clean", "Where sin abounds, there grace abounds also",
The body of Christ will become the Bride of Christ when they have united to singular purpose- to call the kingdom of heaven to manifest. To see effective healing prayer not by a single person but corporeally by the body, or when no one is consciously praying, but the reality of the kingdom of heaven manifesting on the earth in worship that requires the enemy to stand back and release whatever or be filleted.
But first Ezekial must rise up and prophesy... and it's nearly time.

Tonight I asked for prayer for the trip to The Gathering. Sandy Coultas asked if I would go as an emissary of this region, to which I responded yes. Then as she was praying I kept my hands open palms up and close to me.
In the midst of the time of prayer I felt a drop of something that felt like anointing oil drop in my right hand. In a matter of moments I felt a drop in my left hand, but there was more- it ran to the side of my hand. I opened my eyes to see if someone had poured oil in my hand and there was no one with a vial nearby. I looked at my hands in a secret fashion, as I didn't want to disturb the flow, to see the shine of oil or anything wet on my palms and there was nothing.
A short moment later someone prayed something about God anointing my hands with oil. Again I looked and saw nothing of what I had felt physically drop into my hands.
I closed my eyes and in a short moment someone abruptly struck the palm of my right hand with what felt like a finger tip. Poked it hard enough to cause my hand to move.
Again I looked and there was no one around giving any indication that they had ministered to me in this fashion. No one leaving the scene, and the only hands nearby had been holding my hands at the time.
Then an offering was taken and my money available for this trip was doubled. I guess that my Father is serious about this trip.
Also, the word to me was that doors were about to open and doors behind me were about to close. Do you suppose I won't have a job when I get back? I just don't know.