Ok, I don’t usually post things about Television shows but since my favorite show might be on the chopping block, I thought I would at least say something.

Defying Gravity is a space drama show that is about so much more than just astronauts in space. Granter there are some quirks and things that are not exactly the best. But this is the shows first episodes of the first season. And if we look past those couple of things (most of which just make it more an adult drama than a complete family friendly one), this show has a great premise and kept me coming back for more and not just because I am a Sci-Fi Geek!!

Here is the shows premise:

Four women and four men hurtle through space with nothing to do for six years and eight billion miles, except maybe solve a powerful and awesome mystery. Maybe, just maybe, some of them will even hook up. How cool is that?

Defying Gravity is a sexy, provocative thriller set in the very near future against the backdrop of our solar system, in which the eight astronauts from five countries undertake a mysterious six-year international space mission on the spaceship Antares.

They can’t run from karma, however, as their past actions reveal intimate and interconnected relationships that have a strange effect on the present. As the astronauts travel towards Venus, we travel into their past with flashbacks to earlier years from the grueling selection and training process. What could have happened?

Maybe there is something to this fate thing after all.

The biggest thing that catches you is the characters and the listed mystery as to what is really going on that the crew is unaware of. And this mystery slowly unravels over the eight aired episodes (the latest five of total eight episodes can be watched on HULU). If you haven’t been watching hop over to HULU and watch.

For those who may already be watching, ABC has announced that they have not canceled the show nor have they given up on it. Just with their fall premieres starting, they are looking where the remaining produced 5 episodes that round out season 1 can be aired (read article here). They have not decided on a season 2, which is why everyone needs to be watching

Visit Defying Gravity’s official site on ABC.

This video from Tangle.com is an awesome video that shows the power of smiling and encouragement and validation has on people. After watching this, make someones day by encouraging them and making them smile!

This is a great video about what Good Friday is about on Tangle which used to be GodTube before they rebranded it.

Google has purchased Feedburner, who you may not know is responsible for the distributing the AquiVerses many feeds to the world (The AquiCast, The AquiKnight, The AquiMan, and The AquiFamily blogs and Podcasts) all brought to you via the Feedburner main AquiFeed link (or AquiVerse link). Since Google has now purchased Feedburner, the old feed links will change to the new links in this post. It is important that you update your RSS FEED Readers to use the new links.

If you are receiving this post by email and you do not use an RSS FEED Reader (or you do know what one is) then you are fine and do not need to do anything.

Google claims that you will have a month that the old links will redirect before they stop them and only the new links will work. Therefore, it is best to update your information today and not be left behind.

One other thing, I do hope that you listen to my podcasts, The AquiCast, where I share the Word of God that is on my heart with you. If you do, I would like you to take a couple of moments and hop onto the blog site and on the right side click on the SURVEY and fill in the data so that I can get some feedback. I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a change! The chicken wanted change! The chicken needed change! CHANGE!

JOE BIDEN: This is the first mainstream chicken that is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking pullet.

JOHN McCAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

SARAH PALIN: Because, praise Jesus, I was gonna shoot his sorry liberal but off for blocking my view of Russia!

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn’t about me.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don’t really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where’s my gun?

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

BILL CLINTON: I did NOT cross the road with that chicken.

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken’s intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won’t realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he’s acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I’m going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmers Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die, in the rain, alone.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn’t that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken2008. This new platform is much more stable and will never crash.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Wait — did I miss one?

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the FireKnights Round Table Report!! The first thing, I bet, you are asking yourself is what is a FireKnight and why is this blog the Round Table Report. Good questions, and I hope this initial post will answer them and more.

WHO AM I

First, a little bit about me, I was born into a family that believed as long as you attended church during one of the two major services (being Christmas and Easter) then you fulfilled your requirements for God and could live the rest of the year for yourself. Amazingly, or perhaps it was because I was a teenager rebelling against my parents, I did not conform to this style of thinking and believed that there had to be more to God then one thirty minute service a year. So, I began to look into what it meant to serve God. Unfortunately, at the time, I was in a church that taught that the only real servants of God were the priests and priests were not allowed to marry or have relations with women. Now, I did not know a lot about anything, but I knew enough that I would want those things and therefore turned away from any type of service towards God. If fact, I did what most red-blooded teenagers do in America and I went out to party and have a good time. As it would happen, I am allergic to alcohol so the partying was not so much fun.

It was many years later before I was really interested in God. In the meanwhile, I was not such a good person and was, in fact, on my way to becoming a not so good man. For starters, I had been addicted to porn since I was 11 when I first discovered my father’s stash of magazines. This had given me a twisted view of reality that was warping my ability to have normal relationships with woman. I had gotten it in my head that all woman everywhere no matter what position of marriage or stature had wanted to have intercourse and that all it took was some “Nudging.” Well, you can imagine how bad this idea was, but in the state I was in I did not see anything wrong with it. The bad news is that it didn’t stay just an idea. I began to act this concept in a very bad way. I would go out “seeking” someone to “nudge.” Now, I had not gotten to the point where I would have directly attacked someone, but it was just a step away and the thoughts were already there. The enemy was taking me through the ringer, and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. To add to my twisted view, the feelings that I had even when nothing came of my actions were like a drug. I got a high, a rush, a feeling of euphoria that was lasting shorter and shorter each time prompting me to get more and more “adventurous” with my “nudging.” However, with each step for more, I was moving more and more towards, well to put it bluntly, rape. Sure, somewhere I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t help wanting, desiring it and becoming willing to do anything to get more of that feeling. Eventually some of my actions got the attention of the police, as they should. I had been arrested and got out of everything I could with plea bargains.

That was until the summer of 1992. At this point in time, there was a guy hitting a mall parking lot and raping women at night as they left for work. They thought it was me, because after all I had a record and it was only a matter of time before I resorted to that type of behavior and even the police knew that. They picked me up for questioning and possible arrest. It was easy to prove that I was not the man they wanted; however, I was the man who had done exhibitionist stuff and they decided to press charges for that. I went and got a lawyer and she was concerned because the judge, to whose court I had been assigned, was known for the harshest punishments for any kind of sexual offense. I was terrified that I would go to jail and become someone’s “buddy.” On July 12, 1992, I entered a church with my wife. Outside, I had to put up a front to my wife that everything was all right. Inside, I was falling apart. I did the right thing by telling my lawyer everything, but that only lead to her telling me how little chance there was of me staying out of prison. The lawyer would try and comfort me by explaining that it would probably only be for six months or a year, but that only scared me more. That day in July of 1992, the pastor spoke on the physical death of Jesus Christ. He spoke about what it meant to be flogged with 39 lashes from a series of leather whips with metal claws at the end. How the average man would never heal right from a flogging. He discussed how they created a crown out of thorns and drove it into his head. Then he described, in detail, what it meant to be nailed to a tree and hung for all to see. Those who were crucified eventually died of drowning, as their lungs would fill with liquid as they struggled to breathe. Furthermore, it took the average man three days to die on a cross, but that Jesus was so beaten (remember he had been a carpenter and walked everywhere) that he only lasted three hours on that piece of wood. Finally, he talked about the fact that Jesus would have done that all if only I was the only one who ever believed in him. That he loved me that much. I could hardly believe it, but it is true. Jesus Christ took my sins on his cross and paid my debt so that I could have eternal life with God. Three days later (according to the Jewish day which seems to baffle most today) Jesus rose in the flesh as recorded in the scriptures breaking the bonds of death and sin over us.

At that moment in time, I could actually see Jesus being nailed to the cross with my sin. I could feel his love and his presence. I found myself in tears as I thought of the Son of God hanging for me. The pastor asked if there was anyone who wanted to receive the gift of forgiveness of sins that Jesus achieved on the cross and through his resurrection. I raised my hand and was lead in a short prayer committing my life to Jesus. I experienced the greatest high that I had ever known to that point in my life. I could feel the very presence of Jesus and God within me and I knew they were doing something from the inside out that would profoundly change me.

Two days later, I arrived at the courthouse early. I was nervous. Everything I experienced on Sunday was still fresh, but I also knew that in some way I deserved what I was about to receive. I deserved to be punished and sent away. I didn’t know the ramifications of my actions, but knew what I did was wrong. As I waited in an empty courtroom, a little old lady came and sat next to me. She started talking about her case, which had something to do with a landlord tenant dispute. Then in mid-sentence she turned to me and said, “God loves you and he is with you today.” As I sat there gapping mouth, she returned to what she had been saying as if what she told me had not even happened. Some time later, I was called before the judge. My lawyer had worked out a plea bargain with the DA, but they were not sure the judge would accept it. In New York State, you have to plead guilty and then the DA recommends the sentence of the plea and the Judge usually accepts it, but the judge has the power to override the sentence and give one of his own. Since this judge was known to be harsh on sexual offenses, the DA, the assistant DA, my lawyer and the head of my lawyers firm were all present to vouch for the plea bargain, recommend the sentence and attempt to convince the judge adheres to their recommendations. The plea bargain had been that I would not go to jail, but have three years probation and mandatory counseling. The judge heard my guilty plea and then reviewed the bargain. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally announced that he was not accepting the bargain and would impose a sentence of his own. Everyone went to work as I just stood there. There was nothing I could do and even though everything seemed wrong, I still felt that presence inside me that God was with me. I trusted him even though everything looked bleak. After a lot of arguing, the judge announced that he was remaining with his initial decree and would be changing the sentence to one of his own liking. At this moment, I prepared for the worst as the Judge announced the sentence. He reduced the sentence to only one-year probation with counseling and no jail time. You could have heard a pin drop in that courtroom. Everyone’s mouth was wide open. Later my lawyer said that was the first time in that judge’s courtroom since he had been on the bench (some really long time, but I forgot the length) that he reduced a plea. He was known for extending and adding to pleas, but that was not what happened with mine. I informed my lawyer of Jesus and how he had made the judge change his mind. She did not readily believe that it was Jesus, but did acknowledge that some kind of higher power was looking out for me.

Following this, God miraculously removed my twisted mind and gave me a new one. He also changed my heart so that I could love not only him better but also my wife and my future family.

And God didn’t stop there. He continued to do many miraculous things with me and through me, but I will leave that for another post so that I can describe what a FireKnight is and how I got charged with starting this whole thing.

THE FIREKNIGHTS

For the longest time, I knew that God wanted to do something with me and the Internet. I was not sure what, but I knew that given my skill set and the desires within me to reach people with the love and power of Jesus Christ that it would happen someday. Originally, I had owned and created websites for two previous domains (www.creativediversions.net and www.ice-breakerz.org neither are up anymore) that most people have not even heard of, and the main reason was that these sites focused on what I wanted to get out of the Internet. By this I mean the sites were a collecting house for the creative ideas that I come up with over my years as a Christian. I, with all and great delusion, had assumed people would want to pay to have. Even though I was a Christian, I was still living a bunch of my life for me and not for God. Naturally, those endeavors went nowhere.

About a year ago, a man who called himself a “revivalist” came to our church and held, of all things, a revival. During the time that he was present, I discovered the Holy Spirit and his manifestations in my life when I let him in. Now, I had been a charismatic Christian for some time and was even baptized by the Holy Spirit, only I had not realized the key to unlocking the mysterious of the manifestations listed in the Bible (Healing, Miracles, Faith, Words of Wisdom, Words of Knowledge, Discerning of Spirits, Prophecy, Tongues and Interpretation of Tongues). That key was that I had to not be seeking myself or to have some strange power like the force, but to be seeking Jesus, God and the Spirit and be open to what they want to tell me. When I realized that, I began to have visions of things within my mind as I prayed as if I was watching a movie before my eyes. As I shared some of these visions, it was evident that I was hearing from God and that he was using me to begin to reach people. I cannot tell you how exciting and exhilarating that is.

During this time, I received a vision that God would bring back to me several times. It is the vision that has become the foundation of what FireKnights is all about. The following is what I saw.

A VISION

I was standing on the shores of a beautiful mountain lake. In the background, snow-capped mountains painted a gorgeous scene of blue and white surrounded me. As I stood on the shore, I noticed that there was something in the water. Upon further inspection, I found that there were pieces of coal and splintered wood floating. I don’t know if coal really does float, but it was floating in the vision. As I watched, I could see that there was a current in this lake that was bringing the coal and wood slowly around mixing things up as each piece passed by. At this moment in time, I was suddenly aware that I was not alone. Not to far from me, up the shoreline, was an old man who was working next to a small campfire. I walked over towards the man, and as I approached I knew this man was God. Furthermore, I could see that he was doing something with the coals. When I arrived at God’s camp area, I saw several pieces of coal on the fire. As I watched, periodically God grabbed a piece of coal out of the water and place it on the fire, and took a piece of flaming coal and returned it to the lake where it continued to be one fire. Whenever a new piece of flaming coal would re-enter the water, it almost immediately would come into contact with the pieces of wood causing them to be burned up and destroyed. I asked God what he was doing and he had the following explanation:

“The water represents the world and the wood the workings of the devil. Each piece of coal is a soul in the world. As some call on my name, I take them out of the water and place them on my holy fire to ignite my spirit within them for the calling I have for them. When they are ready, I send them back into the world to do my will and destroy the works of the enemy.”

As God spoke to me, I noticed that he was crying. So, I asked him why he was crying. He grabbed my left hand and we floated up high in the sky so that I could see the entire lake. From this vantage point, I could see that the lake was mostly black and dark indicating that there were not many who were on fire with God’s holy fire. So, I, being an educated and astute man, determined why God was crying and said, “I see you are upset because so many have not turned to you.” God looked at me, smiled and replied, “That does upset me, but that is not why I am crying.” He then raised his left hand and pointed to a point on the lake. As high as I was, I could see clear as day and watched as a piece of coal that had been on fire, went out. “That is what makes me cry,” added God, “when someone I have touched turns away from my spirit.”

Following this vision, I wrote it down in my journal, but I didn’t know what to do with it. My church was already become unreceptive to the visions that I was receiving from God because, as the Pastor told me, “It made people uncomfortable.” So, I kept this vision in my journal and would periodically be reminded of it and many times returned to the vision itself during prayer. So, I began to seek out what did God want me to do with this vision. It was at this time a preacher came to our church who was a renowned prophet and powerful teacher. He related several testimonies of the miracles he had seen and then asked the question, “Why does the church as a whole not see the moving of the Holy Spirit like they did in Acts?” This was a good question since Jesus himself said that we would do greater then he did and in most parts we don’t even see a simple healing taking place let alone the raising of the dead. He claimed the answer was “Because most people do not believe the words in the Bible.” When he spoke, I was reminded of the vision and knew that it was not a coincidences that the two were speaking about the same truth, and that truth is that most Christians are not on fire with God’s spirit and therefore do not see the miraculous moving of God’s hand.

Before I continue, allow me to explain a little about what I mean about God’s spirit. When I say that most Christians are not on fire with God’s spirit, I do not mean the Holy Spirit. What I mean is that most Christians do not hold out and stand on God’s word as absolute truth and let other concepts remain in their thinking to cloud out the ability to perform miracles. These Christians could be filled with the Holy Spirit and may from time to time get clear words from God, but do not hold to the very basic truth that God’s word is absolutely true. To illustrate this, let us look at a common example dealing with money. Let’s say, that you wake up on Sunday with just enough money to pay your tithe and nothing extra. You have very little food in the house and it is not enough to feed your family until the next payday. Logic, and all we have been taught in school, says to keep the money because God is a forgiving God and get the food your home needs. However, the Bible says that if we are faithful, including the tithe, then we will not go without. Which do you follow? (By the way, I will share a cool testimony on this later). That is what I mean when I say that most are not on fire with God’s spirit.

Anyway, I decided that I was going to do something about that. Over the next couple of months, I prayed and got the name FireKnights. Knight comes from the fact that we are servants of God and a knight is a servant of a king and Jesus is the King of Kings. Fire comes from the vision, but also is used in relation to passionately or boldly going after something. So, when we put this together, FireKnights are those who are passionately and boldly serving the King of Kings.

WHERE ARE WE GOING

Know that we have a grasp of what a FireKnight is, I bet, you are wondering what I am expecting we are going to do with it. Well, that is the simple part. Starting with this blog and eventually moving to a PodCast (or both), I want to share with everyone testimonies of the power of the living God moving in this world. These testimonies will be anything that demonstrates the power of God and the power of his absolutely true word. I am envisioning that as this takes off, people will send their testimonies to me and I will post them created a definitive place where any Christian can come, read, and be built up knowing that God does move in the world today like he did in Acts. I am also hoping to tie each testimony to the Scriptures to demonstrate how the living word was relied on to see the powerful moving of Holy Spirit. Perhaps this is a lofty goal, but I have a really big God who performs miracles every day. I hope that you have stuck through this long introduction (which will also be the topic of the first PodCast when I get there) and are on fire with God’s spirit with me about this. However, even if you are not, or maybe you think I am a little nuts, hang around and let’s just see what God does. He may surprise you

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.