by JP Esq | Apr 1, 2014 | Uncategorized
Can I be honest for a minute? It took me quite a bit of time to make it through this book. This is heavy content and if you want to get the most out of it, your best option is to approach it as a study.
In three sections, Neil Cole reimagines the original purpose of the spiritual gifts as articulated in Ephesians 4:11. Cole believes that we, those in the body of Christ, have “all the gifts of Ephesians 4:11 at least latent within us…”. As he describes the gifts as present in Jesus, Cole is sure to address the common perspective that some spiritual gifts are considered more desirable or better than others. Cole spends the first section of the book addressing this and other theological misunderstandings that have plagued Christians for years. His stance isn’t pretentious, but rather of a servant attempting to free the minds of Christians so that they can serve with a new found fervor.
The meat of this book though is in section two, where Cole breaks down each one of the APEST (apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, and teacher) gifts through Scripture, anecdotes, and analysis. You will begin to understand the ways that God has intricately woven together each thread of your being and gifted you for service in the body. There is a sense of freedom in knowing that you are the way you are ON purpose and FOR a purpose.
Honestly, this book was overwhelming for me. There is so much information, albeit useful, that I think you are best served tackling it over the course of a few weeks. This was not a weekend read for me, but it is definitely a book that will become a resource and reference tool for me to which I will refer often.
If you have not taken an assessment to understand your APEST (apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, and teacher) gifting before this book, I would highly recommend that you do.
Read the first chapter of Primal Fire here.
Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my review. I was not required to post a positive review.
by JP Esq | Apr 1, 2014 | Uncategorized
I like to read on planes.
It is a great time for me to zone out, to think, and to just be. Above the clouds, where the world looks beautiful and peaceful and the minutiae of life matters not.
But on this flight, I can’t read. Every sentence that crawls through my brain is muffled by the sound of my boiling anger, confusion, and general annoyance at the TSA and the need to continuously pat down my hair.
So far this has happened four times. Two trips. Both my departing and return flight screening.
I’m always on a plane. My better half lives 700 plus miles away and air travel is the most convenient way for me to maintain my sanity by ensuring we have regular visits. I spend enough time doing the airport security mambo that I’ve got this dance down to a gracefully choreographed ballet. I can get through the busiest metropolitan airports with ease. I travel light and I don’t draw attention to myself.
So imagine my sheer confusion the first time a TSA agent said “we need to pat down your hair”.
Huh, say what?!
Listen, I’ve had the occasional bra line scan (thank you underwires) and the random “are you sure that’s an inhaler?” stops. I’m fine with that. When you’re scanning my entire Temple of the Holy Spirit I’m sure you can see some wiry looking things forming barriers around my lady parts. Fine, make sure that’s what they are.
Let’s be clear: I have enough “prone to profiling” characteristics as it is being that I’m a mocha shade of brown topped with this natural head of hair. But my hair is not HUGE. My hair doesn’t even cover my ears. And even if it was, is your Advanced Imaging Technology body scanner not smart enough to determine the difference between a kink, a coil, and I don’t know – A METAL SCREW?! If not, I have questions.
But mainly I have anger.
You have given me no reason to believe that you patting down my hair amounts to anything other than profiling. You may as well grope my breasts because that’s how violated I feel when you pat down my hair for no other reason than you think you should. And it makes me angry enough to interrupt my in-flight reading to tap this out on my iPad because my brain refuses to linger on anything else.
I don’t see you patting down anyone else’s crowning glory. When my hair was relaxed and four times my current length, yet still Rudy Huxtable thick, you never touched my head. Ever. I know it happens to non-brown people too, but the question remains: If no alarm has been tripped and no anomaly has been found, then what is the basis for an individual TSA officer to decide my hair needs a pat down if, according to the TSA, pat downs are not random? This is a question for which I find no suitable answer. In my world we call that arbitrary and capricious.
Myth: The TSA pat-down is invasive
Fact: Only passengers who alarm a walk through metal detector or AIT machine or opt out of the AIT receive a pat-down. For this reason, it is designed to be thorough in order to detect any potential threats and keep the traveling public safe. Pat-downs are performed by same-gender officers and all passengers have the right to a private screening with a travel companion at any time.
Ok.
- I did not alarm a metal detector or the AIT machine or otherwise have an anomaly according to the agent who scrunched my tresses.
- I did not opt out of the AIT scan.
Try again.
Myth: AIT cannot detect powdered explosives.
Fact: This is false. Advanced imaging technology is deployed specifically because of its ability to detect both metallic threats – which a metal detector would pick up – and non-metallic threats – which a metal detector would not pick up. This includes explosive material that can take the form of powders, liquids and gels and be used in an improvised explosive device made up completely of non-metallic material.
Ok.
- If it is true that this machine has technology advanced enough to detect metallic, non-metallic, and odd shaped threats, then seeing none of those and setting off no alarm should mean that my screen ends there, correct?
Try again.
Perhaps the administration of TSA protocols {which can be carried out by private companies} at some domestic airports is non-compliant. But, you, TSA, can not continue to hide behind the veil of policy as it is written and as you intend it to be carried out when people are experiencing otherwise. Are you keeping statistics on the “random” pat-downs? Is someone tallying every time you do a hair pat-down? If yes, then I should, as a matter of public record, be able to find these somewhere. I find nothing. So your that’s not our policy so that’s not happening stance is trite and dismissed.
You groping my hair for no reason other than the fact that it is hair in a style that can hide things even though I have considerably LESS hair now than I did before I stopped relaxing it, is frankly on my nerves.
Either put your hands in everyone’s hair, make it a deliberate random screen, or admit that you have a practice gone wrong and that you need to stop without some affirmative reason to believe I have something that needs checking other than a kink or coil or two.
Please. Because my mother taught me to always be polite.
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