what would jackson do

No wonder the maidens love you, Denzel.

Jackson Bohlender — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:59:33 GMT

Andrew Chen and I are looking at audio bibles on Amazon, and from the other side of his MacBook Pro, he peeps his head up over the lid and says, "Oooo. This one has Denzel Washington and his wife narrating Song of Songs.... sign me up!"

May it also be noted that this particular audiobible had Samuel Jackson as God.

Swag

Jackson Bohlender — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:53:44 GMT

My good buddy Sarah was talking to me the other day and mentioned that when she comes to awakeningDC, she was going to bring me the Chickfila water bottle that my heart was set on. Her family owns a CFA in Georgia, and when I mentioned that I love random swag, there was a long pause... "Swag, Jackson? What's swag?"

The best answer I could give her was "Swag is anything practical with a company's logo on it... it's corporate bling. Like a Chickfila laser pointer."

Still in disbelief, Sarah agreed to bring be all the corporate bling that she could stuff into her suitcase.

I get excited about little things. So this morning, I was telling everyone in the office that I had a bunch of Chickfila swag coming my way, and none of them had heard of the word. I had to find it... somewhere.

Thank heavens for UrbanDictionary.com! They liberated me. (check out Definition 5) Now, according to them, 'swag' can also mean 'to walk' or 'marijuana', but I was right. And that's all that matters.

Hosea 6... again.

Jackson Bohlender — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:06:26 GMT

Though your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,
And like the early dew, it just goes away;
Although your covenants are just empty vows,
And you pay no attention to what I have to say,
And though I've slain you by the words of my mouth,
There's still time to turn from your wicked ways.

Because even though you're dirty,
And even though you're often wrong,
I say that you're lovely,
Because you've been lost for so long,
And now you're mine again.

Though my going forth is established as the morning,
And try as you may, you can't hold it back,
You don't have to cry, love! You don't have to worry!
You're safe with me, and you can be sure of that.

Because even though you're dirty,
and even though you're often wrong,
I say that you're lovely,
because you've been lost for so long
and now you're mine again.

Lou Engle spoke to the campers last night.

Jackson Bohlender — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:27:30 GMT

...and I'll just let you connect the dots here.

Highlights of DC

Jackson Bohlender — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:53:09 GMT

#1) Starbucks Iced Doubleshot - it's a beauty.

#2) Riding DC's inordinately complex Metro train system. Even though it only takes 34 minutes to ride the subway to the city, it took me way too long to figure out which train to get on.

#3) Losing my Blackberry in the ginormous house. That's how big the IHOPian Embassy is. I lost my phone 4 days before I left and had to go home without it. Addendum: It would appear that the phone was located after I left.

#4) Lightning striking the Supreme Court. I was the spokesperson, and I was talking to a tourist with a heavy Japanese accent when lightning struck the Capitol building directly behind us. The man either uttered, "I sink your players are shirking" or "I think your prayers are working", (I'm pretty sure it was the latter, but you never know) and no more did he say that than lightning struck right between the two middle pillars of the Court. God is up to something.

#5) Claiming the 'US Customs and Border Protection' bathrobe that has been in the JHOP lost and found for 4 years. I've been watching it for a long time, and now it's finally mine.

#6) Buying Samuel Gatlyn's Hosea Project album... holy cow. The guy is amazing.

in the District

Jackson Bohlender — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:21:41 GMT
I'm in DC, where the activists rome and the encrypted WiFi signals run free (if you pay for it...)

I have so much to say, and yet such limited access to any form of internet. I definitely have some stories for you all when I get back.

soccer!

Jackson Bohlender — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:41:02 GMT

Revival

Jackson Bohlender — Wed, 21 May 2008 01:29:51 GMT

I love 'burst' mode.

Jackson Bohlender — Tue, 20 May 2008 04:41:31 GMT

Winding pathway...

Jackson Bohlender — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:56:04 GMT

What a pansy...

Jackson Bohlender — Sun, 18 May 2008 04:19:38 GMT

a blushing football

Jackson Bohlender — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:22:24 GMT

Hop on the bandwagon!

Jackson Bohlender — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:38:48 GMT

She couldn't get any prettier.

Jackson Bohlender — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:00:14 GMT

Lakeland

Jackson Bohlender — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:14:41 GMT
I haven't blogged in awhile, but not for lack of anything to say. Last weekend, Grayson and I flew to Lakeland last Thursday to meet our wonderful mother who was already there. We got a chance to see what's going on there, and I was quite amazed.

Some would say that I'm a born skeptic. I'm normally the last on the prophetic bandwagon to believe something new, which is challenging a lot of times when the Lord is really doing something because I'm not quite sure what's happening. Even having grown up going to Brownsville with my parents and remembering the last few years of it all, for whatever reason I found it incredibly difficult to believe what people were saying about Lakeland. So the Lord had to take me there.

The first night we were there, the lady sitting beside us got up out of her wheelchair and stood for the first time in who knows how long, and there were endless stories of healing all weekend, happening right in front of us.

The longer we were there, the more I was convicted about how far off my grid all of this was. As I had to watch my heart from becoming offended at what the Holy Spirit was doing, it was all so foreign to me that I can't help but marvel at what it's going to look like when that level of anointing comes to IHOP. It's exciting stuff, and that's about all I can say.

Photos!

Jackson Bohlender — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:19:53 GMT
In the "once again, my younger siblings are cuter than yours" department...

2 Samuel 18: Absolom's a goner

Jackson Bohlender — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:20:53 GMT
With a few hours to spare before the Daniel Academy assembly at IHOP, I asked my dad to drop me off at the prayer room, where I get the last half of the 6-8 and the first half-hour of the 8-10. I've been in 1 and 2 Samuel lately, mostly because I hold a huge value for stories. Where would the world be without stories? Family reunions would be even more awkward, Barnes and Noble would go out of business, and parents would put their kids to bed with an excerpt from something parentesque, like an encyclopedia or a physiology journal.

My earliest memories are staying up late and listening to old episodes of Adventures in Odyssey on cassette, fastforwarding through the "What have we learned today?" section just to get to the next story. When our family was living in Cincinnati, I remember regularly skipping kids' church and going with my parents to the adults' service at the Vineyard, mostly because this guy has great stories. That's why I love the chunk of the Bible between the books of Judges and Nehemiah - it's chocked full of stories, and I'm always finding something I've never read before that brings me closer to the heart of God.

This morning I find myself in 2 Samuel 18. Ah, the story of Absolom. This story reminds me of the old cartoon Robin Hood movie. You know, the one that predates the Disney Channel. The slapstick irony that the Lord uses to illustrate justice needs to be made into a movie. What I wouldn�t do for some camera equipment right about now...

If you�re not familiar with the story, I highly suggest you read it here, but I�ll give you a little summary: David�s the king. Absolom�s the long-haired and smooth-talking studmuffin everyone loves. David is also Absolom�s father. Absolom doesn�t get quality father-son time; soon grows jealous for the throne. Rather than leading a straight-out revolution, Absolom starts to talk trash about his dad and gets the people at the outer gates to agree with him. Absolom proposes a series of �what-if� scenarios... �If I was king, you would get a tax refund every year! If I was king, your fifteen-year-old could qualify for Social Security. If I was king, I would eliminate the IRS.� (think Ron Paul in the Old Testament.)

As things heat up in Israel, Absolom realizes that there isn�t going to be an election, so his only hopes at ever becoming king are a revolution. As his father the king hears of this, he send an army out to get his delusional son, instructing them not to harm him, though. As the army comes to �deal gently� with the crazy prince, the crazy prince rides off into the woods on his royal mule. When the mule runs through a patch of thick woods, Absolom hits his head on a branch and is left hanging by his hair as the mule runs off into the wilderness.

What can we learn from this story, little Bobby? Well, don�t grow your hair too long, and don�t open an umbrella in a convertible. Wait a second, that was the Brady Bunch. No, the lesson is this... as everyone loved Absolom�s hair, the very thing on which he based his pride ended up crippling him. He wasn�t turned into a brick of salt, and God didn�t call down a pillar of fire, but in the end it was his dignity that killed him. This story begs the question... what the heck are we holding onto our dignity for?

Jackson Bohlender — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:04:17 GMT
I went with my dad early this morning to drop my mom off at the airport with Mercy and Laura, where they will embark on yet another prophetic journey to DC. Mom and Mercy will be back in 2 weeks, but Laura's there until August, during which time she'll be the House Manager at the IHOPian Embassy right outside the District. Oh, how I wish I could be with them right now...

Do they come any cuter than this?

Jackson Bohlender — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:15:09 GMT

Taken on my Canon 20D with a 50mm f1.8 lens.

The Beatitudes: The Price is Right

Jackson Bohlender — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:24:48 GMT
This is for all the junior highers who complained when the DVD player fritzed during my presentation at the Daniel Academy...

Beattitudes from Jackson Bohlender on Vimeo.