{"id":246,"date":"2005-07-07T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-07T09:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/?p=246"},"modified":"2005-07-07T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2005-07-07T09:27:00","slug":"the-vision-and-the-vow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2005\/07\/07\/the-vision-and-the-vow\/","title":{"rendered":"The vision and the vow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Ordered this book via the internet yesterday: The Vision and the Vow<\/a>, by Peter Greig. I came across the Vision (“a stirring call to discipleship”) more than once while surfing the Net, and it touched me again and again. It reads like this:<\/p>\n

———————-
So this guy comes up to me and says, “What’s the vision? What’s the big idea?” I open my mouth and words come out like this… <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The vision?
The vision is JESUS:
obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.<\/p>\n

The vision is an army of young people.
You see bones?
I see an army.<\/p>\n

And they are FREE from materialism –
they laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn’t even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix,
the way the West was won.<\/p>\n

They are mobile like the wind,
they belong to the nations,
they need no passport.
People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free,
yet they are slaves
of the hurting and dirty and dying.<\/p>\n

What is the vision? The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.
It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best.
It is dangerously pure.<\/p>\n

Light flickers
from every secret motive,
every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps,
their Satan games.<\/p>\n

This is an army
that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day
its soldiers choose to loose that they might one day win the great “Well done” of faithful sons and daughters.<\/p>\n

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night.<\/p>\n

They don’t need fame from names.
Instead they grin quietly upwards
and hear the crowds chanting again and again:
“COME ON!”<\/p>\n

And this is the sound of the underground,
the whisper of history in the making,
foundations shaking,
revolutionaries dreaming once again.
Mystery is scheming in whispers,
conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground<\/p>\n

And the army is discipl(in)ed –
young people who beat their bodies into submission.
Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts
“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”<\/p>\n

Sacrifice fuels the fire
of victory in their upward eyes.
Winners.
Martyrs.
Who can stop them? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them?<\/p>\n

And the generation prays
like a dying man with groans beyond talking,
with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and great barrow loads of laughter!<\/p>\n

Waiting.
Watching:
24 – 7 – 365.<\/p>\n

Whatever it takes they will give:
Breaking the rules,
shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide,
laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs,
laughing at labels,
fasting essentials.
The advertisers cannot mold them.
Hollywood cannot hold them.
Peer-pressure is powerless
to shake their resolve
at late night parties
before the cockerel cries.<\/p>\n

They are incredibly cool,
dangerously attractive inside.
On the outside? They hardly care!
They wear clothes like costumes: to communicate and celebrate,
but never to hide.<\/p>\n

Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives, swap seats with the man on death row, guilty as hell:
a throne for an electric chair.<\/p>\n

With blood and sweat and many tears,
with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God
and live as if it all depends on them.<\/p>\n

Their DNA chooses JESUS.
(He breathes out, they breathe in.)
Their subconscious sings.
They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.<\/p>\n

Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.
Don’t you hear them coming?<\/p>\n

Herald the weirdos!
Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frightened and forgotten
with fire in their eyes!
They walk tall and trees applaud,
skyscrapers bow,
mountains are dwarfed
by these children of another dimension.<\/p>\n

Their prayers summon the Hound of Heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.<\/p>\n

And this vision will be.
It will come to pass;
it will come easily;
it will come soon.<\/p>\n

How do I know?
Because this is the longing of creation itself,
the groaning of the Spirit,
the very dream of God.<\/p>\n

My tomorrow is His today.
My distant hope is His 3-D.
And my feeble,
whispered,
faithless prayer
invokes a thunderous,
resounding,
bone-shaking
great “Amen!”
from countless angels,
from hero’s of the faith,
from Christ himself.<\/p>\n

And He is the original dreamer,
the ultimate winner.
Guaranteed.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

—————-<\/p>\n

wow…..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ordered this book via the internet yesterday: The Vision and the Vow, by Peter Greig. I came across the Vision (“a stirring call to discipleship”) …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-algemeen"],"aioseo_notices":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Mark","author_link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/author\/admin\/"},"featured_img":null,"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"bravada-featured":false,"bravada-featured-lp":false,"bravada-featured-half":false,"bravada-featured-third":false,"bravada-lpbox-1":false,"bravada-lpbox-2":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Mark","author_link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":2,"uagb_excerpt":"Ordered this book via the internet yesterday: The Vision and the Vow, by Peter Greig. I came across the Vision (“a stirring call to discipleship”) …","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["algemeen<\/a>"],"unlinked":["algemeen<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"2","relative_dates":{"created":"Geplaatst 21 jaar geleden","modified":"Bijgewerkt 21 jaar geleden"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Geplaatst op 7 juli 2005","modified":"Bijgewerkt op 7 juli 2005"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Geplaatst op 7 juli 2005 11:27","modified":"Bijgewerkt op 7 juli 2005 11:27"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p63Qy-3Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":359,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2006\/09\/25\/god-in-the-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":0},"title":"God in the City","author":"Mark","date":"25 september 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Check out this (Dutch) videoclip by Crossroads Rotterdam about Matthijs Vlaardingerbroek's ministry in Den Haag. (In his extremely down-to-earth and close-to-people mentality he probably would not use the word 'ministry' himself, but I guess it's just the best way to describe it.) I think it is one of the best\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Agap\u00e8"","block_context":{"text":"Agap\u00e8","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/agape\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":210,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2005\/01\/11\/downtown-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":1},"title":"Downtown church","author":"Mark","date":"11 januari 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Sundaynight I visited the 'Stadshartkerk' ('Downtown church') in Amstelveen. I was there to promote the Agap\u00e8 prayer training that started last night, but it was also a great opportunity to see what is happening over there. The congregation is part of a traditional church denomination, and last year it seemed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "algemeen"","block_context":{"text":"algemeen","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/algemeen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":310,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2006\/02\/17\/train-ing-to-groningen\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":2},"title":"Train-ing to Groningen","author":"Mark","date":"17 februari 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Today Henk, Hans and I (the Agap\u00e8 directors team) went to Groningen by train! Effective, but not efficient, since I had to travel south first to catch the train. At the railway station I met a former client of mine from ABN Amro, which was nice. He remembered I went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "algemeen"","block_context":{"text":"algemeen","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/algemeen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":317,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2006\/03\/17\/hq-school-revisited\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":3},"title":"HQ-School revisited","author":"Mark","date":"17 maart 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Watch out, the Agape direction team is moving around: this time, we visited the HQ School Bible & Arts in pittoresque Voorthuizen.We had a very good time with our good friends Arnaud and Annemarie and Jefta and Carmen, who are the core team of the school. They shared their vision\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "algemeen"","block_context":{"text":"algemeen","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/algemeen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":268,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2005\/09\/10\/capturing-commitment-and-imagination\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":4},"title":"Capturing commitment and imagination","author":"Mark","date":"10 september 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Finally the great little man arrived: Javier Garcia, the coming European Director. He\u2019s been around already since the beginning of the LD programme. The first time we heard him speak two years ago, he read his lines from paper, and even then he was very hard to understand because of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "algemeen"","block_context":{"text":"algemeen","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/algemeen\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":441,"url":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/2007\/06\/01\/hope21-networking\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":5},"title":"Hope21 networking","author":"Mark de Boer","date":"1 juni 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Had an interesting day in Haarlem at a networking day organised by the Evangelical Alliance and Hoop21. Our colleague Hans Luttik hosted the day. I am truly impressed with the way things are developing in Haarlem. Churches are working together, trying to seize opportunities to make a positive difference in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Agap\u00e8"","block_context":{"text":"Agap\u00e8","link":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/c\/agape\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/boerenroem.nl\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}