Shaking the Gates

We have moved!

2006-07-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

Shaking The Gates has a new home!

It has moved to:

http://www.shakingthegates.com/

This is just a blogsite for now, but at some point in the future may have additional resouces for furthering the Kingdom of God.

Catch you on the flip side!

-nick

Contact info

2006-07-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if this is blog worthy or not but my mailing address is:

Nick Terry
c/o Heart of God Ministries
3720 South Hiwassee Road
Choctaw, OK 73020-6128

e-mail: nbterry@gmail.com

cell: same

If I'm on IM it will mostly be googlechat since I have fewer contacts on there. I will get on aim a few times a month but not much more than that.

Also - I am checking my email every so often but will probably only be able to get back with you once a week or so if you email me.

If you call me, don't expect a returned call until the weekend, but please leave a voicemail. Facebook and other methods of communication will fall under the same schedule as e-mail.

This weekend I'll try to compile a list of prayer points and mini-stories for ya.

In His grip,

-nick

Here we go

2006-07-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Feet Boot Camp is now official underway.

I moved into my "lodging" yesterday and we had orientation all day today. After some quick follow-ups tommorow we should hit the ground running.

I have met some incredible people that really love the Lord and want to serve Him. This has been sweet and I am extremely excited about getting to know these guys and girls (and families!). The staff up here is just incredible and thier passion for Jesus is contageous. Seeing them selflessly serve us and give of thier time to push us closer to Jesus is humbling and makes me strive to live as they do.

Jesus is doing some neat things up here, and because of them I will be pretty busy but I will try to fire out an update once a week or so.

Love all you guys!

-nick

Gut-check time

2006-06-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to feel the gut-check. It's almost go time and I don't feel ready at all. How do I know this is right thing? Am I going to make it? Will this work out?

Yes.

How...I don't know that much yet. But, I do know this is what I'm supposed to do. In the past month, especially in the past week, I feel like half of hell is out to keep this from happening, but it is slowly but surely coming to fruition (yay Jesus).

I leave tomorrow for Dallas and then sunday I'll roll into OKC to start a whole new chapter in my life. I'll let ya know I'm moved in and settled.

Catch ya on the flip side,

-nick

Somewhat of a poll

2006-06-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm curious as to why I like to jack with people so much. If it was possible, I really think sarcasm would be my love language.

I'm not sure if it's solely a pride issue, or a personality issue (redundant maybe?) or because I'm attention starved due to being an only child. Maybe it's even something else....something deeper...(resentment over the fact that [insert some well thought out something or another here]).

Good, bad, or otherwise I just thoroughly enjoy busting people's chops either through verbal harassment or a good prank war or practical joke. This is never done with ill intentions, and it is usally recieved well and in good fun. Sure sometimes someone gets bent out of shape but we all do at times.

So...comment up with why you think I like to pick at people....and don't hold back.

-nick

More personality talk

2006-06-18T22:14:00.000-07:00

Our household and some friends of mine have been taking this quick and dirty Meyers-Briggs personality test found here.

I am a very strong ESTP: Extraverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving. Also known as "The Doer," an ESTP is your outgoing straightshooting type. We are risk takers who love to work with ours hands. (more on an ESTP here). I have been learning alot about other personalities as well, but I'm sure I haven't scratched the surface of what I'll learn at bfbc.

The ESTP Portrait I refernced above pretty much nails me right on. I'm not sure if this is how I was originally created, but during the course of my life, certain things have happened to shape me to what I am today. I'm not fully convinced that I know what all has effected me in what ways...but I do know that personality interaction is intriguing to me.

I will say that I have discovered some things that I do not understand about other people (of course I set this up so I can rant...duh).

I do not for the life of me understand why some people do not like to interact socially all the time. I don't mean to speak any evil of truly intraverted people, I respect the capacity to pull away and be alone. I honestly just do not understand that desire...that need. I totally get energized in large groups, sharing funny stories with people. I love to make people laugh.

What peaks my curiousity is how that can stop being fun for someone. Again, I'm not saying that its goofy - but I'm curious as to what thoughts get you the point of "this is fun but I want to go be alone." I really would like some of my intravert buddies to comment up and explain this to me - especially before I go to boot camp so I have some paradigm to relate to the "I types" while I'm there.

I'm also mighty confused when people are turned off by conflict. Again, I don't think this is foolish - I just honestly don't understand it. If anyone has any insight - lemme know for sure.

That's about it for now....if you take the quiz, let know what you are.

-nick

Biting the hand that feeds you

2006-05-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

At the risk of using a cliche, I hope it will allow me to paint a picture of something I've been realizing.

The wheels on this thought began turning probably 2 weeks ago while hanging out with my buddy Chad in Dallas. Chad and his wife have an amazing 1 yr old daughter that is incredibly cute and very fun to play with. She recently started walking around (well it's more like a swagger because she isn't very balanced yet) and playing with things. There are times when Chad will pick her up and say "come here little one and let me love on you" because he just wants snuggle with his daughter, but she will push him away and distance herself to get back to playing with whatever entertainment she can find at the sub 24 inch areas of the house.

I had another epiphany last night while reading an email from a friend. I will quote the relevant section:

I've had a little black lab puppy that I absolutely ADORE. Sure, it's been a lot of work---getting up to take her outside at 3am every night for several weeks til she could hold it all night, waking up at 6am every day, even on weekends, because she did and needed me to take her out or feed her, putting other things on hold in the evenings sometimes to play with her because she'd been alone all day, tolerating messes, chewing, and other inconvenient puppy behavior...

At first reading, all I noticed was what a headache it was to have this puppy. Having to wake up early and rearrange one's schedule just for a dog seems a bit much doesn't it? I mean, really, what can a puppy do for you other than wag its tail and get excited when you come home? However, I think these are the very actions which make the "headache" of having a puppy worth it. Who doesn't like it when a pet comes and jumps in your lap and tells you that you are loved and appreciated. Who feels significant when thier dog growls at a stranger or performs some other protective behavior to defend thier master.

If this not a picture of God's love for us, then I offer you that have no clue what is. How many times does Jesus want to just hold us and love on us and take care of us, but we push him away because that is not as much fun as playing with a jingly set of keys. Jesus has given us everything and taken care of our every need just because He loves us. When we "wag our tails" for Jesus it is enough for Him - it is why He does what He does!

I don't want to illustrate some picture of God the narcicist as that is far from what I think is going on. I think God's heart for us is more that we can ever imagine, and so many times we get too busy to even realize it. Or, even worse, we may be SO busy that we don't know that we don't know how much God loves us and wants to love on us. (re-read it, it makes sense)

I also don't want to lay a foundation of a man centered gospel. It is in fact all about Jesus, and we owe Him everything. All things are in fact from Him, through Him, and to Him and He will have the glory forever and ever (Rom. 11:36). This is a great segway to share this, which many of the readers have already heard I imagine. It's still really good.

[My King] - listen here in mp3

So...yeah no man centered gospel exists in these words. I do however feel that there is some incredible love that Jesus has for us that makes us even more significant due to His significance!

Know this, Jesus loves you.

Really? You might ask

Really really.

-nick

Good hard work: a treatise on bravado, brawn, and all things manly

2006-05-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

[I figured it's time for a not-so-slap-you-in-the-face post]

I admint, the big words in the title took me some time; however, Wild at Heart was already taken so I had to employ some creative effort.

I am utterly convinced that men were created to do really hard work. Those that have spent a day sweating outside doing back breaking manual labor know what I'm talking about. You finish up, put up tools and grab a shower, eat dinner, and then crash out at 8:30 p.m.

It's similiar to waking up at the crack of dawn to get a good work out in, thoroughly smoking yourself, and then showering and starting your day. You smell what I'm steppin' in? It just feels GOOD. You more energy than a 6 yr old doped up on coke and candy, and you keep yourself healthy.

Why is that? What about us men craves that exhausted but energized state that comes from a complete expending of ourselves? Why does giving it all we got, and then reaching within and pulling out some more give us a sense of being able to do whatever the heck we set ourselves to?

By God's grace, I can recall times in my walk with Christ where I have had that same feeling in the spiritual realm of man as opposed to the physical. Those times where Jesus is so upon us, and the Holy Spirit is so work working in us that we want to go charge hell head on with a water pistol. I think these experiences in the life of a godly man (not that I claim to have arrived there at all but He's working) are not only good and healthy but are necessary to being what God created us to be as men.

Over spring break, one of my good bro's Chris invited me out to his family's ranch in Childress. If you have never been to Childress go to google and type in "Mohave Desert" and hit search. It looks just like that. It's so hot that chickens lay hardboiled eggs there. Anyway, over spring break we went out there with some bros and worked hard and played hard. We would wake up and do work all morning: kill cedar, paint the house, move around round bales of hay by hand (true story). Our afternoons were for play: were consumed with fishing, four-wheelers, riding horses. At night we took to the field of battle and went spotlighting for pesky rabbits and other ferocious beasts threatening the tranquility of the homefront.

About day 4 into this incredible adventure Jesus gave me a neat little revelation on how this is like Heaven. This was also about the same time Chris' dad showed up. Out at the ranch you work hard, do what the big man says, and help him improve his "kingdom" (work with me). Time is made apart from direct work for play and bonding with the bro's. We also mad intentional time to fight the enemy with weapons given to us by Chris' dad.

I mean honestly...this is what we are SUPPOSED to do! Neil McClendon says if you want to fight sin in your life, go bust your butt all day working hard. Dig a ditch, mow yards, tie rebar, whatever you have to do, thoroughly exhaust yourself. I agree!

There is such a redeeming quality to hard work. It makes you appreciate rest and relaxation. Oh that we could pursue this kind of ethic in our work for Jesus, myself especially. No doubt, we are not there yet, but let's press on!

-nick

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands" - 1 Thess. 4:11

Can Hesitation be Costly?

2006-05-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

My roommates and I have been watching a couple of seasons "24" recently. In one episode a deadly virus is on a timer and about to be dispersed into the ventilation system of a hotel. An agent finds the virus and timer and after a pause goes to dismantle it. Of course it goes off right in his face, infecting him and the rest of the hotel. The agent's last words were something to effect of "if only I didn't hesitate none of this would've happened." As a result thousands of people in the hotel died. This is just a fictional story however I came to a painful similiarity to Christianity as we seem to live it.

The following is a snippet from Amy Carmichael's book Things as They Are:

That I stood on a grassy sward, and at my feet a precipice broke sheer down into infinite space. I looked, but saw no bottom; only cloud shapes, black and furiously coiled, and great shadow-shrouded hollows, and unfathomable depths. Back I drew, dizzy at the depth.

Then I saw forms of people moving single file along the grass. They were making for the edge. There was a woman with a baby in her arms and another little child holding on to her dress. She was on the very verge. Then I saw that she was blind. She lifted her foot for the next step . . . it trod air. She was over, and the children over with her. Oh, the cry as they went over!

Then I saw more streams of people flowing from all quarters. All were blind, stone blind; all made straight for the precipice edge. There were shrieks, as they suddenly knew themselves falling, and a tossing up of helpless arms, catching, clutching at empty air. But some went over quietly, and fell without a sound.

Then I wondered, with a wonder that was simply agony, why no one stopped them at the edge. I could not. I was glued to the ground, and I could only call; though I strained and tried, only whisper would come.

Then I saw that along the edge there were sentries set at intervals. But the intervals were too great; there were wide, unguarded gaps between. And over these gaps the people fell in their blindness, quite unwarned; and the green grass seemed blood-red to me, and the gulf yawned like the mouth of hell.

Then I saw, like a little picture of peace, a group of people under some trees with their backs turned toward the gulf. They were making daisy chains. Sometimes when a piercing shriek cut the quiet air and reached them, it disturbed them and they thought it a rather vulgar noise. And if one of their number started up and wanted to go and do something to help, then all the others would pull that one down. "Why should you get so excited about it? You must wait for a definite call to go! You haven't finished your daisy chain yet. It would be really selfish," they said, "to leave us to finish the work alone."

What is the cost of our delayed obedience to the Great Commision, or as many have sadly and somewhat accurately dubbed it: The Great Ommision? Robert E. Speer, a worker with the first Student Volunteer Movement, said that there is nothing in the world or the Church, except it’s disobedience, to render the evangelization of the world in this generation an impossibility.

With the urgency of the unreached, the cost of delaying obediance to a call to enlist in the Lord's overseas Army is very costly. The souls of men are precious to our Lord. Many of us are waiting for Jesus' second coming when a third of the earth can't hear of His first.

I can definitely understand concerns over issues of waiting for proper training and waiting for the right time. A good friend of mine who is church planting overseas in the Middle East region says that is good for people to be purposeful and not jump recklessly into missionary service. Proper training has been proven to be essential to a pioneer missionary's longevity on the mission field. Thus, this leaves us in a balance where we must consider the needs of the earth and how to most efficiently reach them with the gospel.

I also would like to make note that those that are in fact called to stay are just as crucial to the effort to evangelize the unreached as those that are called to minister directly among them. Without the backing and support of those called to stay, pioneers would be forced to stay delaying longer.

It is my hope that we can all better live and encourage each in light of the urgency that presently exists in our world.

-nick

To imitate Paul

2006-05-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

"Do we give sufficient attention to the theme of gaining Christ? It is our joy and privilege to know Him as God's unspeakable gift, but none knew this more fully than the apostle Paul. But was he satisfied with this knowledge? Or was Paul's soul-consuming desire, at all possible cost, to gain Christ; and thus to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings?

Oh that Christ may be so known by us as a ‘living, bright reality’ that our one desire-our one absorbing heart-passion may be that we personally gain Christ-that we personally know Him as the apostle longed to do." - Hudson Taylor

Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, had a firm grasp on the life of Paul. You can sense his understanding of Paul's writings, such as where he says "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ." (1 Cor. 11:1). Do we have such an understanding?

Surely we have many more helps to studying God's word than Hudson Taylor did in the 1800's. We have the internet, which offers us free commentaries, and word studies within scripture. I know many people that can hammer it out and tell me just what Paul believed and what system it fits in. I too am interested in the theology for sure, for the very word itself means the study of God.

But I think the Pauline influence in our lives should be something greater than defending one system of theology or another. I think the legacy Paul wanted to leave was not one of "Calvinists and Arminians."

My roommate Michael has a saying that goes like this: "You live out whatever it is that you truly believe."

We miss the point when we study the doctrine that Paul taught and miss the bigger picture of the life that Paul lived. Paul wanted to take the gospel where it had never been before, to people that did not have any access (Rom. 15:20). Paul felt a burden and a responsibility to preach the gospel to these people (Acts 20:26).

There is a time and place for picking apart scripture and finding the rich truthes within; however, we must not neglect the clear call to imitate Paul, not just in doctrine, but in life!

Finding Yourself

2006-05-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

Don't Worry - this is not some new age self discovery discussion about finding out who you are by backpacking in the Appalachains for weeks on end.

Or is it...

Last night, some bro's and I were talking till the wee hours of the morning and the topic of personalities came up. Myself and my roommate Michael are both best described by as "sanguine" personalities. We are usually outgoing, talkative, and like to have many friends.

During our chat, the idea came up that when people are created, Jesus created them with a specific personality. This is what I will call a "birth personality."

The idea that came up was that as we go through life, we encounter different situations and experiences that cause us to react and depart from our birth personalities. These sometimes painful situations can create in someone certain insecurities that can be met by changing your personality. For instance, suppose a natuarlly intraverted person was rejected at one point in time by thier parents; accordingly, they may become more extraverted to receive the attention that the crave which was not freely given in the home. They adapted thier personality to feel validated.

This really stirred in my head and cause me to evualate my own life. Though I'm not real sure how certain things have affected me during my life, I am evaluating what makes up the person I am today in an attempt to discover how I got there.

I believe that in redeeming things back to Himself that Jesus desires to remold us into the person AND personality that He orginally created.

One such evidences that I may have changed along the years into a sanguine, or more of a sanguine, is that I react differntly to offensive situations. Natural sanguine personalities are not easily offended and forgive easily, yet I am quick to attribute insult to a seeminly innocent comment. Possibly I was originally more of a melancholy, relaxed type and shifted towards a more outgoing type as a result of certain insecurities that devoloped in my life.

I know is a little different than things most of us thing about, but it really got my wheels spinning and I thought about it for most of today.

Could there be more?!?

2006-05-15T14:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.jesus.org.uk/ja/mag_revivalfires_chadwick.shtml

Everyone go read the linked article!

It is a mini biography of Samuel Chadwick, an English pastor. He was born into a working class family but felt the call the ministry at a young age.

Allow me to highlight some key points from the article:

...as a young boy, Chadwick gave his heart to Christ. Listening to God's word week by week, he often felt the inner call to serve Christ. It seemed impossible, as he was poor and uneducated, but in faith he made preparations. After a twelve-hour factory shift he would rush home for five hours of prayer and study.

(emphasis mine) What a genuine commitment to his calling. I am confident in my own calling but I am not chasing after it with such fervor! This is a picture of a man who is truly convinced that Jesus wants to use him. This is a man who is convinced of his significance to the God of the universe.

One evening he was praying over his next sermon, when a powerful sense of conviction settled on him. His pride, blindness and reliance on human methods paraded before his eyes as God humbled him to the dust. Well into the night he wrestled and repented, then he got out his pile of precious sermons and set fire to them! The result was immediate: the Holy Spirit fell upon him. In his own words:

"I could not explain what had happened, but it was a bigger thing than I had ever known. There came into my soul a deep peace, a thrilling joy, and a new sense of power. My mind was quickened. I felt I had received a new faculty of understanding. Every power was vitalised. My body was quickened. There was a new sense of spring and vitality, a new power of endurance and a strong man's exhilaration in big things."

Explaining such experiences as these can get controversial in the more modern times of Christianity, but I genuinely believe that Jesus really wants to effect changes like this in all of us. I have heard that we can judge experiences in our lives by thier fruit. Chadwick saw revival fires spring up frequently after this experience. If we are to turn the world upside down we must do so in the power of God!

Lastly I want to reference an inspirint quote from Chadwick's book, The Way to Pentecost:

"I owe everything to the gift of Pentecost. For fifty days the facts of the Gospel were complete, but no conversions were recorded. Pentecost registered three thousand souls. It is by fire that a holy passion is kindled in the soul whereby we live the life of God. The soul's safety is in its heat. Truth without enthusiasm, morality without emotion, ritual without soul, make for a Church without power.

"Destitute of the Fire of God, nothing else counts; possessing Fire, nothing else matters."

This is NOT to say that salvation is not enough! By no means have the saints of old believed or taught that Jesus' blood is not enough. What I do see, however, is repeated testimonies to constant empowerment by the Holy Ghost in thier lives.

First post

2006-05-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

booyah...we're live.