Toronto Day #2

Day started with a early morning spin on the bike where the time just flew by as I was entertained by Scott and Aaron who were seriously pumping iron and in Scott's case packing on some quality mass.

Then it was off to Williams FRESH cafe for breakfast and then a cup of coffee at CUPPS which will never happen again.  You'd have to go to Texaco for a worse cup of coffee. 

Session started with more worship.  What is great about this conference is there is truly freedom to do whatever you want.  I listened and sang for awhile and then lied back in my chair and had a nap - waking up in time to hear some testimonies and Peter Wagner talking about "Dominion".  It was a good talk - nothing stands out though a few hours later except that his view of who satan is made me want to spend a little more time studying the topic since, while I am pretty well versed on several views, I don't really have any convictions about what or who the satan is and Wagner's talk made me think I should.

Then we had lunch.

Scott, Aaron and I were eating our wraps and a couple joined us.  We asked them how they met and turns out it was at Toronto.  This simple question unleashed nearly 20 minutes of listening to the guy talk about their sex life in the most awkward of ways. 

First he declared the three of us were "precious virgin sons of the most high God".  Unexpected.  Then he began instructing us how we could have sex with a virgin every night.  I was trying to contour my face into a blank look but one look at Scott and Aaron had me biting my inner lip hard to keep from cracking up.  By inviting the Holy Spirit into the bed to sleep between you and your wife, you are both pure and thus virgins going at it every night,  In the case of our new friend, the Holy Spirit also give you the endurance of veterans since you can keep er going for 8 hours. 

We all figured his wife must be mortified but she kept chiming in with her own nuggets.  When not talking he was twitching and yelping and eating his Tuna wrap with uncoordinated gusto.

I kept saying to myself as I looked at this guy talking about his incredible sexual prowess and how "salvation begins in the bedroom" that he was made in the image of God and was incredibly valuable and God may be trying to say something to us through him. 

But it was weird, no getting away from it, and when we were not laughing about the awkwardness of it after, we were clearly thinking about it.  I still am.  Some of what the evening special tackled had to do with being open to exactly this sort of thing but aside from some really abstract thing about how we falsely divide sexuality and spirituality, images of heaven coming to earth, and Sabbath as consummation.  I am not entirely what more will come of this revelation.  But I am sure glad it happened, I have not been more baffled and awkward ever.

During the evening session I camped out in an area where my sight lines allowed for me to see a screen with the speaker on in but not much else.  It was a wise move, able to listen and enjoy.

We will see where it all goes but I had some new thoughts coming out of the session:

- WPS and Elevate can find creative ways to accumulate "gold" on the kids over the years so that the next teacher can affirm and build off of what the last teacher saw God doing the previous year

- dots connecting over what PAC's second location should look like and some thoughts about where it could be

- text was "a prophet is not without honor except in his own country"; always an interesting text for me since I am at my childhood church.  Went in an entirely different direction inside me tonight. 

- found some music to accompany the lyrics

- culture of honor is a reoccuring theme I am hearing, new book I am reading, online article, and talk tonight, worth paying attention to.  I wonder if at PAC we spend to much time apologizing for who we are not instead of honoring who we are?

So their are my, upon writing them, rather cryptic bullets about today.  But it is all a little to fresh to elaborate on.  And I am too tired to even proofread it so if you all could give me grace on my spelling mistakes (I am talking to you Lil WHEE) it would be appreciated.

Comments

[MikeK]

I hope your lunch couple will join LaHaye and Jenkins on that book you're waiting for...