Allow me to make one thing perfectly clear….

I was enlightened by some friends that when “Intercessory Missions” is Googled, My blog is third on the list. I am honored that so many wish to learn about Intercessory Missions through the Stunner, especially considering I am no longer serving in that capacity. Thank you to all who read this blog and who learn about Jesus, Intercessory Missions, Politics (not so much anymore being I am in the military) and Sports through this blog.

I recently got a comment on one of my most trafficked posts, “What is an Intercessory Missonary?” that implied that because I was no longer an Intercessory Missionary, that I no longer believed in the cause of IHOP and their night and day prayer vision. Let me make this perfectly clear for everyone to understand, I AM STILL FULLY COMMITTED TO THE HOUSE OF PRAYER AND IT’S MISSION. I may be serving in a different capacity, but I am a part regardless. It may not be so in Hattiesburg and many of the missionaries there have either gotten jobs and supported it in the marketplace or they have moved to Kansas City to become a part of IHOP-KC. I have made a different decision the best decision I could make for me. God needs to work things out in my heart and in my life that I was failing at as an Intercessory Missions and the Army is the vehicle he is using to bring about that change. I am grateful for that.

I miss being at the House of Prayer with all my friends. I miss seeing them everyday. They were such a big part of my life for two glorious years. But as with all things on this earth, it came to an end. I wish I would have made more of my time at the House of Prayer. I really wish I felt as close to the Lord being in the marketplace and in the Army. I have my same struggles I am still Tim. I still need Jesus. I am still wholeheartedly committed to seeing Houses of Prayer raised up all over the nation. I am still a watchman on the walls of Jerusalem speaking over her her promised fullness and the return of their promised Messiah (Is. 62). I believe in the promise of the Lord in Malachi 1:11 that in EVERY place incense shall arise to his name, that incense being the prayers of the Saints as Revelation tells us.

If anyone needs Jesus on this earth, it’s me. I need grace to grow in him as a Christian and as a Soldier. I need to know his heart. I need to have confidence that he will see me through this new chapter in my life.

My only delusion is the unpopular belief that God will not move without persistent prayer from his bride. My radical belief is that International Missions will not succeed without faithful Intecessory Missions. Every saved soul on the planet is a result of persistent prayer on behalf of someone. The forumla is clear. Prayer moves the heart of God. You want God to move, then pray. It’s as simple as that. If I’m willing to give my money to someone who goes overseas to witness to people, I should be willing to give my money to a person who gives his life to seeing a 24/7 prayer room happen. Both are full time jobs and they all need our support. They are both fulfillments of prophecies.

¹ Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you, ² and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith.
³ But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one. ⁴ And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you.
⁵ Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.

I will say once again, thank you to all those who come and read my blog. It means alot to me to know that I am not doing this for nothing, that I am truly educating people on the importance of night and day prayer. For those who are faithful in the place of prayer, STAY FAITHFUL, we need you. To those who labor in the mission field, STAY FAITHFUL, we need you. For hand in hand you shall bring forth the return of our glorious Lord, Savior, Bridegroom, King and Judge, Jesus Christ. Peace be with you all.

What I’ve been doing in class these past 9 weeks….

Death by Powerpoint….

That is the sum of my experience with Army classrooms.

So what does a guy like me do keep from losing my cotton picking mind?

Easy. He writes songs.

This past week especially, I have written a song a day. Sometimes during the reading of the slides I will jot a line or two down. On multiple occasions I have found myself writing lines like a madman afraid they will leave me if I write too slow. Many a time I’ve almost made a scene over getting lyrics just right. There’s nothing more exciting to a musician/songwriter/poet than getting that one line you can scream out of you through the stroke of a pen. I have had those moments in spades this past week and on occasion throughout the whole 9 weeks here.

I plan on sharing my material on here for you guys to enjoy. One day I plan on putting out an indie alt rock album for this.

First song will be posted soon.

Learning more than just the Army and my job at AIT

I used to have a saying, there’s only two things I take seriously, my faith and my family. I thought myself to be pretty laid back and ok with life. I didn’t think that anything beyond those things mentioned above would rile me up to the point of ready to fight someone.

Man… was I so wrong about myself.

Ever since I joined the Army I had this grandiose (however false) notion that everyone lived the Army values so taught us from BCT and AIT and so on and so forth. I thought everyone took this Army and service thing seriously. I saw the Soldier’s creed emblazoned on the hearts of everyone who put on this uniform.

But the longer I stay in the more I realize that the Army as a whole is not this picture perfect utopia that I had originally had in my head. To tell you the truth its almost worse than living as a civilian. We’re made to work with people we don’t like and we can’t just walk out after a bad day. We work long hours and we have no right to appeal or reason with orders, we’re supposed to get it done. The Army is not excluded from the ever famous “blue falcon” (or buddy f*Ker). There are those who live to screw the ones who want to do right and try to get over at the expense of the ones who do take this seriously. There are rumors, backbiting, bickering, complaining, and hateful words spoken in every direction.

Just like in the civilian world.

I knew the Army would be a very hard place to maintain a Christian walk and live out what God has called me out of darkness to be. But, I didn’t know it would be this hard. I didn’t take into account of how spoiled I was in the sense that I wanted people to act a certain way. I’ve become very angry at so many of the little things. The mental breakdown that never happened to me at BCT is happening to me at AIT.

Yet somehow in the middle of all of this I find peace knowing that God loves me and hasn’t forgotten me. He has given me favor and so many other things that I do not deserve. My intention was to survive Basic and come to AIT and thrive. Crazy thing is, despite the fact that I hate this place with every fiber of my being, I really am thriving. I’m in leadership that I never was in at Basic. I’m a squad leader and assistant class leader. I was chosen by my first sergeant to appear in front of the soldier of the month board. I’m making very good grades and am on pace for Honor Graduate. I really have been blessed beyond what my current attitude and outlook has been.

I’ve let so much get to me that I shouldn’t let get to me. I know I’m as screwed up inside as the next person. But I have something that most do not. I have sincerity and heart. I know my Father loves me beyond what my mind can comprehend. So in this my prayer:

Father, let me continue to be pure of heart and let me as the song goes, praise you in this storm and let me truly enjoy the blessings you have given me. Let me truly rejoice that while evil triumphs all around me, you have truly prepared for me a table in the presence of my enemies. Thank You Father. You are always good. You are always faithful. Help me to see you in every situation and let me know you and know your heart in everything I go through. Make my life a prayer to you. I want to do what you want me to. No empty words and no white lies, no token prayer no compromise. I want to shine the light you gave through your son you sent to save us from ourselves and our despair. It comforts me to know you’re really there. I want to thank you now for being patient with me. Oh its so hard to see when my eyes are on me. I guess i’ll have to trust and just believe what you say. Oh you’re coming again. You’re coming to take me away.

In the Army now! HOOAH

You may safely assume that by reading this blog that I have 1. survived Basic Combat Training and 2. graduated Basic Combat Training. It was quite an experience and I’m proud to say it was the best decision I have ever made! Now I don’t  officially graduate until January 13, for all intents and purposes I am done with it. I go back for what they call ‘recovery week’. Recovery week just means waiting in lines and turning crap in. Like reception in reverse (which I can say was hell). The days will go slower than salted slug and will be just as painful until the glorious days of family day and graduation.

I can say I was extremely lucky to be a part of the platoon I was in. We were 5 hundredths of a point from sweeping every single streamer in the whole company! We have honor platoon on lock. It was a blessing to be among such motivated soldiers. I know I wouldn’t have made it without their support. I was a big body weighing 228 lbs and not in good shape at all. It took alot of PT in our bay to knock off those pounds. I now weigh a healthy 208. I’m at my target weight for a guy my size. I ran a 17:44 2 mile and i knocked it down to 16:00! My pushups and situps improve every day. I spend everyday cranking out more and faster!

I have never been in such good shape. I can rock out skinny jeans. I can wear 32 when I used to wear 38 before basic! I’m so pumped and I love to work out!  I’ve a long way to go in the regards to being truly ripped, but man I look good now. It’s a matter of time before I sculpt myself to the standards I want. I just love being paid to work out! It rocks!

Upon Graduation I leave for Fort Lee in Virginia for Advanced Individual Training for my MOS as an Automated Logistical Specialist. I’ll be the equivalent of Sam’s Club. I’ll be over a warehouse that supplies multiple units. I look forward to knowing the system and excelling to the point of promotion. What I really want to do is get my history degree and get a doctorate and eventually become a Chaplain and qualified to be a History professor at a university. So far I’m not ruling out the possibility of going the 20 years, nor am I ruling out the possibility of getting out once I attain my educational goals. It’s all up in the air still, but so far I’m having the time of my life!

God Bless and thank you for your prayers!

Same ol business as usual: The Error of the Tea Party

The Tea Party started out with a good agenda, Audit the Fed, shrink government, reduce taxes, and promote liberty. The Tea Party came out the gate hot, determined to drive out the Washington politics and take control of the government and restore the constitution in America. But, they havent had the success in the polls as one might think. Everywhere you look it seems that politics as usual is still running strong. I have a theory that may diagnose where the Tea Party went wrong.

The message of Liberty, however popular the message is, is hard to sell to a people who have been taught or wired to believe that government exists to regulate them. We have elected officials in every level of government that run on the promises that government will regulate them this way or that way. Their opponents are the same way, they promise an alternate path of regulating the citizenry. The message I keep getting from the Tea Party is the hopes of a Republican Congress this November. But one needs to ask, “What does a Republican Congress solve?” many say that they will repeal the health care bill and maybe bring charges of impeachment against Obama.  But one has to ask at the same time, “What will that really accomplish?” “Is this what I worked all these months for?”

I love the Tea Party’s intentions, they really do want a restoration of the Constitution. Every well meaning conservative does. But let me ask you this, “Is the Republican  party the proper vehicle to carry out that agenda?” The last two Republican presidents scrapped the constitution and waged undeclared war on executive order, raised taxes, and enlarged the government to unprecedented levels. Even conservatives beloved Ronald Reagan is guilty of this. As much as I would love to dismiss the evidence and call Reagan a great president, I cannot ignore the evidence.

In this an article from The Miesis Institute lies a study of every Republican President beginning with and since Herbert Hoover that have ignored the will of the people, scrapped the constitution and laid the ground work toward Statism.

Herbert Hoover

• Increased federal spending38 percent (current dollars)
• Passed the Agricultural Marketing Act (welfare for farmers)
• Passed the Hawley-Smoot Tariff
• Waged war on drugs (alcohol)
• Passed the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (pork and corporate welfare)
• Passed massive tax increases

Dwight Eisenhower

• Increased federal spending30 percent
• Created Department of Health, Education, & Welfare (and spending)
• Put Earl Warren and William Brennan on Supreme Court
• Helped install Shah Pahlevi in Iran (smart, real smart)
• Extended Socialism Security to 10 million additional persons
• Started American involvement in Vietnam
• Passed federal highway legislation
• Created NASA
• Started student loan program (aka, program to raise college tuition so no one can afford it)
• Kept federal counterfeiting to a minimum, causingyou to lose only 9 cents off your 1952 dollar(Source: The Inflation Calculator)

Richard Nixon

• Increased federal spending70 percent
• Created EPA, OSHA, and CPSC
• Started “affirmative action”
• Imposed price and wage controls
• Made your 1968 dollarworth just 78 cents by the timehe left office
• Proposed minimum national income

Gerald Ford

• Knocked 8 cents off your dollar in just two years [He didn't WIN (Whip Inflation Now]
• Increased federal spendingthroughoutterm
• Reduced spending on federal prisons by pardoning Nixon
• Overall, not too bad for a Republican and better than…

Ronald Reagan

• Increased federal spending53 percent
• ElevatedVeteran’s Administration
• Added 250,000 civilian employees
• Created drug czar’s office
• Escalated war on drugs
• “Saved” Social Security by increasing payroll tax
• Lowered the value of your 1980 dollarto 73 cents

GeorgeHerbert WalkerBush

• Increased federal spending 12 percent
• Signed the (litigious) Americans with Disabilities Act
• Managed to knock 13 cents off the value of your dollar in just four years
• Just said “Yes” to new taxes

Republican Congress

• Held your dollar’s loss in value to a mere 11 cents[Newt and the (1995-2000) gang]
• Increased federal spending and taxes collectedeach year
• Eviscerated ancient right of Englishmen and Americans–habeas corpus
• Flunked the acid test of economic sanity–raising the minimum wage (mandatory unemployment law)
• Passed Freedom to Farm Act (at taxpayers’ expense, that is)

If the Tea Party is a true movment to restore individual liberty and restore the Constitution, the Republican Party is not the way to go. Republicans campaign like Libertarians and govern like Democrats. Republicans in Washington care as little for your freedom as the Democrats. There is no middle ground here. The big agenda isn’t the freedom of the American people, it’s government regulation. They have taken our freedoms from us little by little over the past 80 years and they will continue to take our freedoms until America is completely run by statists whether Republican or Democrat statism.

You will not reform the Republican party from within. The recent primaries should be enough to show the Tea Party that. You cannot reform a system by playing the same system by the same rules set by those who sett it up. There has to be a changing of the rules. The people need to put their foot down and say ENOUGH! I am not some toy to play with. My life and my family are not subject to some political game. As a dear friend of mine once said, “I did not leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me”. The Republican Party no longer represents the interests of the people or the ideals of the Constitution. They only represent their own agendas.

The message of the Tea Party should not be that Republicans need to be in charge. If the Tea Party really wants change in Washington they need to send a message that the people control the government not the other way around, and if you won’t fall into that line, then we will replace you. We do not care what party you affiliate yourself with, we will take our country back through our government. We will not be your slaves to be tossed here and there. We refuse to be regulated.

The success of movements like this one is based entirely on devotion to the cause. The Tea Party needs to reevaluate their cause. What are they in it for? A Republican Congress will last 2 years. A Republican President will only last 4 years. Freedom, if maintained by a diligent citizenry, lasts forever. Newt Gingrich had a similar movement that only lasted until Republicans had a majority in Congress then it died. Will the Tea Party be the same?  Not even time will tell.

Trained to Accept Tyranny: The Purpose of Standardized Education

I like most Americans, spent 13 years in the public school system. In all those years I was never introduced to the ideas that I now espouse, like liberty, freedom, individualism, and most importantly, individual thought. I was never taught the meaning and value of the liberty that I was told by my teachers that I had. I had no knowledge of why thngs happened, I was only taught to think that they just did. I was never taught in school that I could be a catalyst for change. I was simply told that I could then taught to accept things as they are.

The really sad part of this whole story is that I graduated out of this system. I have in my possession a piece of paper that states that I was good enough at doing what I was told and had correctly recited enough textbook doctrine over a period of 13 years. I was never taught as an individual, capable of thinking for myself beyond what I was taught in the textbooks I spent my nights reading. I was told that I was an individual but trained as a member of a collective. We were all taught the same material, given the same tests, and critiqued by the same criteria. The best in the class as a result were not necessarily the most intelligent, but were more able to assimilate the material given to the class to learn.

We’re often told about how the best and brightest individuals in history were complete failures in the arena of collective learning. The Edisons and Einsteins of our day were failures in a collective educational environment, but when they were released and trained as individuals according to their talents, they flourished to become men who altered the worls beyond their specific fields of study.

In the federal education system we learn the exploits of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi, yet we’re taught to stay in line. We love those who changed history but are taught to stay in line. The only questions asked in the public school system are those on the tests. The students aren’t taught to ask questions, they’re taught to simply do as their told. In the public school system we are not celebrated as individuals but rather molded into what the federal government wants us to be.

Has anyone ever wondered why the federal government in all its wisdom allots only one class out of a 13 year compulsory educational life dedicated to the study of the Constitution and government? No one asks because the lack of education on a subject only breeds apathy. The federal government is knowingly sowing the seeds of apathy into the students of America. That apathy leads to less violent power grabs because the people in their apathy and ignorance accept whatever the government says and does without ever asking simply because we as a collective don’t know any better.

Which is the problem with the nation today, we have been trained to accept tyranny. The people have let federal government train and raise our children. We have submitted ourselves to a ‘one size fits all’ system that stunts intellectual growth, passes failure, and creates apathy. Teachers aren’t passionate individuals who seek to promote growth. They have become mere cogs meant to move our children along a 13 year conveyor belt from kindergarten to graduation teaching only what they’re told to teach us. Students don’t go to school eager to learn, they go because the government forces them to go and abandons them as aimless individuals because after graduation there is no collective they have to find another collective to join and thus become part of a system that enslaves a people in ignorance.

Until we as a people take responsibility for our own ignorance and learn to think as individuals, we will always be content with tyranny. The system has to be destroyed. It has enslaved teachers and students alike. The collective mindset in our educational system has to be done away with. It is time for the student to ask the questions and hear more than a textbook answer. Let us not be trained to accept tyranny any longer.

Thank You for reading,
The Stunner
Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Timmy’s joining the Army

I’ve been blogging politically so much lately I have neglected to say anything about me personally. So here goes.

I have always loved my country and have always thought about the military and have been frustrated at not being able to dig myself out of this hole that I’m in that I’ve finally decided to do something about it. So last month I’ve decided to enlist in the United States Army. I will be full time, active duty the whole chebang. I will be shipping out to Fort Benning, GA on Oct 12 to begin Basic Combat Training (BCT).

Why Army? Simple because I have an aunt and uncle who were both retired Marines and they were telling my brother to go Air Force and I simply want to show him up. Air Force basic only takes 6 weeks. Army BCT takes 9 weeks and is way tougher than Air Force. I wanted a challenge and I really didn’t want Marine Corps because they have no program to help pay off student loans. I also chose Army because they can guarantee in writing the job I will do and when I ship out and everything. I will be a logistical supply specialist when I complete Advanced Individual Training (AIT). I’m excited about it. The hardest part for me right now is the physical part of it all. I’ve been running often and trying to get in shape. The hardest part about that is staying motivated.

What does this mean for me as far as being politically active? A lot considering the oath I’ve taken binds me to the officials elected and my superiors. So I will be toning down a lot of my political talk for the time I’m in the military.

As far as my religious convictions, I’m free to voice them over the internet as freely as anybody else. Chaplains are sometimes required to be interfaith which is why I didn’t want to be one.

But that’s what’s going on in the life of the Stunner. Pray for me as I go into basic. Ill give my address out to everyone who wishes to write me while I’m there. Thank you all

Thank You for reading,
The Stunner
Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.