Tales of Tenacity

Ladies and Gentlemen… I am moving my blog. It is time to say goodbye to the tales of tenacity blog yet again. I am going to keep this page here, but I will no longer be posting here. I have begun a new adventure, and it is called “Radically Altered”.

My life has been just that: Radically Altered! I have been radically transformed by the love and power of Jesus Christ! And so I want to leave behind so much of the “tales of tenacity” in order to embrace the new me… the true me… and while I have greatly enjoyed my experience here at tales, I am looking forward to the future blog world, where the posts can be all brand new and untainted by the past.

Thank you for your continued support and willingness to chase after me from page to page here in the virtual world of blogdom. It is truly wonderful to have such dedicated readers and friends.

Here is a link for you to the new page: RADICALLY ALTERED

Also, the written link looks like this: http://www.radicallyaltered.wordpress.com just in case you want to type it out or ever need to remember how to get there from another path.

Well, this is just a real life confession. I prayed a prayer a couple of weeks ago that basically told God that I wanted him to just uncover everything wicked inside me so that we could get it over with as I long to get closer to him and have felt like I came to a wall I could not get past in the spirit. And through a series of events last week, I was shown some of the things that were really hindering me. I will spare you the details of the events, but really was pretty humiliated about some things that I said, and at that point I think I got a good glimpse at all of the creepy crawlies that were running around in my heart. Mostly I realized that I still have major areas of pride and arrogance that I have not dealt with. I also have a very quick tendency to take offense over things… but hide my offense instead of dealing with it in a healthy manner. Now, let me also say that I am a stuffer… meaning that I bury things and wait until they are so stuffed inside me that I eventually blow up. But the truth is that this is a very dangerous way to live! So God is really trying to help me learn to NOT take offense! The funny thing is that I learned the basics of this a long time ago, but just have kinda lost them over the time that has passed by. So with that being said, I have been through some major repentance and feel SO much better! Thankfully, there was no major harm done, with the exception of my pride… which really needs to be hurt if you ask me haha. So… thank you Lord, for being so loving, enough to show me my wicked ways that I may turn from them in repentance so that I may come closer to you. That is truly my heart’s desire!

This is Ben Dunn speaking at Drunken Glory in D.C. It goes amazingly well with the sermon Ron Catoe shared with us this morning at church at the Vineyard. Enjoy!

My friends Jennifer and Stephanie.

My Mom and I

This year we had a very good Christmas! I went to my Mom’s house for Christmas this year. We normally have Christmas at my Step-Grandmother’s house, but she passed away about 3 months ago. This was a hard year for all of the family, but we had a really amazing time! There was so much love and joy in the house this year… I believe that I am starting to see some fruit from the labor of my prayers which will only give me more determination to press in until there is more freedom for every member of my family.  We are all growing in our relationship with the Lord, and it is truly a blessing to have so many people in my family who love and serve the King of Kings.

My brother John, sister Jean, and I.

I am so proud of my brother and sister as well. We have all come out of drug addiction and alcoholism. They are doing so well! Can’t you just see Jesus shining in their faces! Believe me… that is totally a shining face for John! I was blown away at how great they are both doing. It was so good to see them

Bunny and Cooter

Even the dogs had a great time and from the looks of this photo needed a nap after all of the good food! My mom and dad have 3 dogs: Bunny, Cooter, and a miniature pincher named Dobey. He is the fattest little dog I have ever seen! He looks like a little black jelly bean!

And I got Bunny for my mom from a Vet office in Anniston… she only has 3 legs, but gets around better on 3 than the other 2 do on all four!

Dana, Libby, Jean, Mom (Jenell), Skip, John and I

This is a group shot of all that were there, minus Dana’’s boyfriend Phillip who took the photo for us. You can see Dana, who is Skip’s daughter, and her daughter Libby on the front left. In the back, on the left is my sister Jeannie again and on the right is my Mom. They are attempting to either do peace signs or put bunny ears on us… I am not 100% sure which haha. Skip is the one that is actually sitting in the recliner, while the other 2 gents are my brother John and I again

Well, I guess it is about time for an update! Things have been a bit crazy here at the work front, so I have not been able to update this in a while. Let’s see… where do I begin?

Well… first of all I will start with what God has been saying. Or at least what he has been saying to me. I have been learning a lot about obedience. Not just obedience for obedience sake, but the importance of obedience. Jesus said that obedience is better than sacrifice. He also said:

John 14:21
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

John 14:23
Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

John 14:24
He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

John 15:10-11
If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

And you know… I have made a big decision in my life. I want to obey. I want to really do the best that I can to be obedient to God in everything that I do. There really is nothing else that belongs to me. Only the choices that I make. And I can make good choices or bad ones.

I have gotten really good at making bad ones over the years! But, during the last few years God has really given me the grace to see how much better life is when you live lined up with heaven. It really sucks being a rebel! The main reason that it sucks… is you cannot win! haha! Eventually, whether it be 15 or 100 years, eventually you will run head first into the truth. God is God and you are not! And you will one day run into this truth whether you want to or not. Because every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There are no exceptions! And at this point you will be either entering eternal life or eternal torment. I heard Steve Hill say “If you make it to Hell, congratulations! You got exactly what you wanted!”

Right now…. today. We have an opportunity to obey God and turn from our sin. We will not always have that option. I don’t know about you… but I want to do the right thing!

Also… so far during the last few years… I have experienced the love of God more and more in my life. There is really a shift that happens when you choose to do what God says! It is the most amazing and awesome thing that I have ever known. We are to be holy as he is holy. And when we obey, God will draw near to us! We will at that point be able to be friends with him, because when we are holy he can be around us without melting our face off! Just like Jesus said, he will reveal himself to us and make his home with us.

I don’t know about you… but that sounds better than anything to me!

Bless the readers Lord!

Amen.

Well, I am finding myself feeling a bit like I am in the movie Stand By Me tonight. You know at the very end where Gordon tells the story of what has happened to his friends as the years have gone by. He is sitting in his jeep, and is obviously undone by the flood of memories. And Chris Chandler fades off as he walks away and you find out that he has left this life to go on into eternity. This was always my least favorite part of the movie… even though it rang so deep in my soul. Chris (played by River Phoenix) was actually my favorite character in the movie. He was a peacemaker, and such a loyal friend, even in spite of his horrible home life and upbringing. Chris was my hero as a kid. Maybe still is in some way…  Every time I see it, it makes me think about how tragic his death was… both in the movie, and his real-life death from a drug overdose.

Unfortunately, what I am experiencing is not a movie. My absolute best friend in High School – and for about 10 years after, Kelly Lake, committed suicide at the beginning of November, along with her husband. They had a very out-of-control drug addiction, and it eventually got so bad that to end their own life seemed to be the only logical solution to them. I am completely undone. There just are no words. My mom waited until last night to tell me, as she wanted to tell me in person. I am really glad that she did.

Kelly and I went to school together. We were both complete outcasts! We both had a taste for the bizarre and were big fans of heavy metal music and punk rock. We both got body piercings WAY before anyone else… and in fact, we both did most of them ourselves… forget that wussy professional shop stuff… just give us a safety pin and we will find a place to put it! We were the ones in school that most people either were very scared of, or thought we were crazy… both of which suited us just fine. We went to a REDNECK High School, and we really didn’t like many of the people we went to school with anyway. They were pretty lame by our teenage punk rock standards. As a matter of fact, that brings me to something that was classic for Kelly and I to say. When you did really cool stuff you got “Punk rock points”. When you did something lame, they got deducted. This was something that Kelly made up and it just stuck. Running over people in the car got you 50 punk rock points! (i am kidding!) ((although we would joke about it haha))

It is at this point that I must confess something. Kelly and I were both a very horrible influence on each other. I am sure that you figured that out by now! But seriously… keep in mind here… we both had INCREDIBLY horrible home lives. And there was love and acceptance that I got from Kelly… where most other people in my life were totally rejecting me for the way I was living and the lifestyle I had chosen.

There are tons of stories I could tell. But I don’t think it is necessary to glamorize our dysfunction or even pollute the pages with it. It truly is a sad story that Kelly lived. She was such an amazing light, and one of the sweetest people that I have ever known. She was by far one of my very best friends in the whole world. I loved her very very much. She was my friend for many years, even through the worst and the ugly. She is one of the few that never turned their back on me, even when I totally deserved it. I am going to miss her a lot.

I saw her about 7 months ago when I went home to visit Mom. I got to see her son, who had just turned 4. He is now going to live with Kelly’s mom. I got to tell Kelly the story of how God changed my life. I even talked to her on the phone once afterwards and she told me she wanted to come and see me and “get away”. Her mom said she would give anything if she would have done that… and I must say that I totally agree. Her mom also said that her hearing my story influenced her to go and visit a church in town shortly afterwards. She would take her son and go every once in a while. My prayer is that somehow, someway she gave her life to Jesus. The last time I saw her, her husband had just come home, and they went in the bathroom to shoot up morphine. I left right after that. He had recently had a leg amputated and was walking on a prosthetic. Kelly told me that was when the morphine came on the scene.

And so the story goes in Huntsville. Or “Hunts-Vegas” as I like to refer to it. There were thousands of teenagers that I knew personally with severe drug addiction and rich parents who are too busy being rich and famous to be parents… so they give the kids money, and meanwhile the kids are out “entertaining” themselves. Believe me… I am a survivor of the war that is happening in Huntsville. Another one of my best friends in High School is still in prison for beating a lady in the Mall parking lot with a bat to steal her purse. And a different teen flipped out on LSD and hacked his whole family up with a hatchet. And then there was the other kid that I met one time driving down the road. I saw a “Nine Inch Nails” sticker on his car (Nine inch Nails is a rock band for those who don’t know) and I waved my bag of pot at him. He stopped and we smoked up. Steve was his first name… cant remember the last… but two weeks later he was shot execution style along with 5 other teenagers in a house when a drug deal went bad. He was 22 years old. There is such a dark cloud there… and people have no idea what it is. I know EXACTLY what it is.

Huntsville is a spiritual war-zone. It’s a nice place to visit (sometimes) but I wouldn’t want to live there.

I love you Kelly Lake. I pray that I will see you again some day. Our Papa is a God of Justice. And if I know how bad you deserve justice… then surely he does. I will miss you and will never ever forget you… your wonderful smile and the way you could make me laugh when I was in the darkest of days.

Thank you for the many years that I was honored to be your friend. I know… I was a mess.

But so were you. =)

The most fond memories I have are of when we used to ride around in my Impala (1965) and drink 40 oz beers. Remember that night that we made it all the way to Tennessee and back and got pulled over right at the apartments? And the cop let YOU drive because I was too drunk!!! haha! AS IF!!!!

Anyway… Boogadaboogadaboogada was our favorite album at the time. I will never forget it!

Thanks for so many good times!

Join us in beautiful Santa Cruz, California over passover weekend for the wildest love wine feast you have ever been to! Come revel in the finished works of Jesus Christ and be raptured in the mystical feast of His Body and His Blood.

In these days the Lord is releasing New Ecstatics, people who are fully filled brimful with the divine pleasures of Jesus Christ and caught up in the continual ecstasies of salvation. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5 that if we are in ECSTASIES it is because of God, for we have come the the revelation that if one died on behalf of all then all have died with Him!

Come be consumed in the Revelation of the Cross, be released to be a New Ecstatic that flows with the milk and Honey of the promised land and spills out wherever you go. Come feast on the Passover Lamb that was given for us to enjoy! Let’s eat of Him Together!

He’s the stash thats never cashed, He’s the drink that never fails, He’s the hit that you never come down from, His Body is the Bliss and His Blood is the Wine!

The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.

Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, “No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected.” The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his “brand name.”

The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him “Man of the year” when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan!

The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, “has almost always been that of recovery.”

The prophet is God’s detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.
He has no price tags.
He is totally “otherworldly.”
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.
He marches to another drummer!
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.
He is a “seer” who comes to lead the blind.
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a “thus saith
the Lord.”
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of
impending judgment.
He lives in “splendid isolation.”
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.
His message is “repent, be reconciled to God or else…!”
His prophecies are parried.
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with
epitaphs when dead.
He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few “make the grade” in his class.
He is friendless while living and famous when dead.
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint
by posterity.
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of
Life to those who listen.
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.
He announces, pronounces, and denounces!
He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.
He talks to men about God.
He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men.
He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.
He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in
the marketplace.
He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.
He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.
He is ordained of God but disdained by men.

Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar recover its strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or that we find the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet!

I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the “seven years of plenty” are over for us. The “seven years of famine” are ahead. But the greatest famine of all in this nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11).

Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years. Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation every day. Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made a vital contribution. “Come-outers” have “come out” and settled, too, without a nation-shaking revival. Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound. Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. BUT where, oh where, is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men fresh from the holy place? Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness of the Lord for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and sick spirituality?

GOD’S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH. They will come. The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is vindicated by history.

There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness. The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable.

Let him be as plain as John the Baptist.
Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and
stagnant “churchianity.”
Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle.
Let him, too, say and live, “This ONE thing I do.”
Let him reject ecclesiastical favors.
Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting, nonself- righteous,
nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting.
Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that which will move
men to God.
Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where he has
received the order of the day.
Let him, under God, unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the
clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism.
Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a vision
no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses to lead us from the
wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where
enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon.

God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!