Evan Olsen - Intercessory Missionary

Sep 28

Corporate social networking fast — October

Update December, 2011: I have decided to personally extend this till the end of the year. I will begin posting again in January.

This is an invitation to my community of friends to join in a corporate fast of social networks for the month of October. The fast includes Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or any other forms of social networking (Google+). 

What is the focus of this fast?

Why fast social networks? 

Social networking can be a great tool for relationship building and the furtherance of the gospel, but — as with most things — when used in excess, becomes an extemrely detrimental tool to our lives. The biggest issues being that of time and relational health. 

Social networking can keep us from:

Why it’s important to fast corporately:

If you’d like to join in this fast, please let us know in the comments!

Sep 27

[video]

Sep 23

The universal ache of dissatisfaction (by Josh Hawkins) -

“The root of the problem does not originate with a love of pleasure but rather lies with the posture of our heart in the midst of pleasure. Therefore selling our possessions and living in poverty can never be a final solution to our dissatisfaction. Those who believe so have assumed that our satisfaction is the pinnacle of our existence. Is our joy the final goal of our lives, or do we exist to enjoy bringing pleasure to Another?

Sep 21

I’m in Orlando! Presidency 5 Florida Straw Poll

I arrived in Orlando this evening to take part in the Florida Straw Poll, Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and to pray for the presidential candidates. I will also be attending the Fox News/Google GOP Presidential Primary Debate on Thursday.

I’m so excited to be attending this event and to pray over this election season. Our prayers are effective from anywhere, but there is something different about being able to lay your hand on someone’s shoulder and pray for them.

I am asking God for divine meetings and favor. Also, I am really praying that God would use me to encourage the candidates to make bold, unapologetic stands for righteousness according to the Word.

I would love it if you would please pray for my mother and me.

Here’s some ways to pray:

Sep 14

My story of God’s faithfulness — even in trials

I am currently sitting on an electrical box outside of a Christian Life Center waiting on my car to be towed. The muggy air is thankfully masked by the slightly cooled breeze. As I was driving here, my car…bit the dust.

While turning, I lost power steering, A/C; my battery warning light came on and my car let out a treacherous squeal like she’d been shot by an arrow in the gut. Turns out it was the Serpentine belt.

Minwé, my car, has had a rough time lately. Last week her A/C died, costing me a pretty penny (a really pretty penny). We’ve had our fair share of problems and fix-its, her and I. But I’ve never doubted God’s faithfulness and goodness.

The reason I call her Minwé is actually an interesting story of God’s faithfulness.

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Sep 09

How 3-5 seconds can bolster virtue within you -

This article is a gem. It talks about the 3-5 second window we have where we can say yes or no to temptation. It also hits on how we can practically avoid temptation. Oh, and it’s vintage, so it should appeal to you hipsters.

Sep 08

How to make a daily schedule you can stick to (at least, mostly)

168. That’s how many hours we all have in a week. If you average 8 hours a night for sleep, it leaves you with 112 waking-hours. In that amount of time, you could do a lot of things. Like: make 12,320 vinyl records, quilt 5.5 quilts or read the entire Bible roughly 1.6 times.

My iCal schedule

Needless to say, we all have a lot of time in life. Yet, the most common complaint is, “There’s not enough time in the day.” I’m guilty of this complaint, and it is usually an excuse for poor planning. The issue at hand is that we don’t schedule and prioritize our time according to our life vision and goals.

It’s great to write out a life-vision and life-goals, but if they don’t translate into every-day-action, then they are useless.

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Sep 01

Should Christians Be Involved in Politics?

As Christians living in America, we are duel citizens: we are both Americans and future-inhabitants of heaven. But, should one citizenship completely negate the other? More specifically, should Christians be involved in politics — or even vote? 

There are those who believe that God’s ways are so far beyond our day-to-day lives that we should completely ignore that which is around us. In essence, we should solely focus on God so intensely that we ignore things going on around us. After all, those things are temporary, and therefore don’t matter.  

I think this logic is dangerous. While it is true that we should focus primarily on God, to ignore our government, society and state of our world is to ignore how far God came to redeem humanity. He isn’t stoic and detached from our world; He is Immanuel: God with us. 

So is Jesus involved in America’s elections? Does He care who becomes president?

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