Small But Powerful

Last week Sarah Grace and I read the book of Titus. The book, although small, is quite powerful. I know that seems like a ridiculous statement considering that it is part of the very Word of God. Of course it is powerful! The reason I bring it up is that I think some of the smaller books of the Bible get overlooked sometimes. More words means more power, right? Don’t think like that when it comes to the Bible. I would recommend you read through Titus today. It has some powerful words, instructions for right living, and beautiful Gospel statements.

Here are a couple of the mini Gospel statements that I loved so much in Titus.

“He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing what is right.” Titus 2:14

“But then God our Savior showed us his kindness and love. He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did. He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness. And now we know that we will inherit eternal life.” Titus 3:4-8

All I can add to that is…Amen!

God Is A Wild Man!

After my encounter with God on Wednesday, I have been watching some videos of Rich Mullins speaking and sharing his heart at concerts. You may be thinking, “Seriously, again with Rich Mullins?” But I love the way he words things. I love his brutal honesty. I respect the way he lived his life. Here is one of the quotes that I really liked from one of the videos and the video will be below if you want to watch it.

God takes the junk of our lives and makes the greatest art in the world out of it. And if He was cultured, if He was as civilized as most Christian people wish He was, He would be useless to Christianity. But God is a wild man! --Rich Mullins

Spiritual Shipwreck

From my post yesterday you probably realized that I was going through something. I will try to put to words what was going on.

Yesterday morning I locked my door and sat down at the computer to check e-mail and read a few blogs. My few moments of peace and quiet before the students arrive. It was in this 30 minutes that God opened my eyes, broke my heart, and then ministered to my soul.

I stumbled across(and by stumbled across, I mean God put it right in front of me so I would trip over it and take notice) a blog post from 5 years ago about the death of Sarah Grace’s grandma that had been written by one of her cousins. As I read it something started to change inside. Something subtle about how I was feeling. I didn't know what exactly it was or how to explain it. I then went over to a blog that Sarah Grace and I read titled A Holy Experience, which is written by Ann Voskamp. She recently went on a Mission Trip to Guatemala with Compassion International. As I read her words and looked at her pictures from the trip I paused. The faces were somewhat familiar. Their smiles and their tears were familiar. The pictures from the mission trip I went on to Honduras are pictures filled with the same smiles and tears. Pictures filled with the same poverty.

I started thinking about Mario, who owned the little restaurant across the street from the school where we would go get cokes after working all day. I thought about his smile and the time I sat outside of his restaurant drinking a coke after a long day of work and trying to use my 25 words of broken Spanish to actually have a real conversation with this man. This is the same man who on another trip down there caught up with us after we attended a worship service at his church. He came to me, because he recognized me and hoped I could convey the message that he was trying to give. Unfortunately I was unable to translate what he was saying. Finally one of the youth picked up on one of his words. The word was “cantar” which means to sing. He wanted us to tell Jeff Phillips that he sings beautifully. He didn’t understand the words that Jeff was singing, but he understood that Jeff was singing with all of his heart to the God that they both loved, and it was a beautiful sound.

As I thought of those moments during those trips and I remembered their smiles, I cried. I didn't know exactly why. Maybe it was for Mario, maybe it was for us, and maybe it was because I just wanted to be with my family at that moment. I think it was all of these, paired with wanting something different. Something different for us, something different for Mario, something different for the world, and something better for God. In the silence and tears I sat pondering the brokenness and fallen state of our world. I thought about that this is not what God intended. He intended a paradise for all of his creation, but that is not possible because of our sin. So we are left with this world that is full of brokenness, hurt, illness, poverty, and sin, instead of what God planned for us. I wasn’t really hurting I just think God was breaking my heart and sharing His about the world that we live in.

After God opened my eyes it was then that He ministered to me. Later in the morning, Jared Wilson posted a blog titled A Thick, Thick Heaven. The post was a reminder about how much better Heaven is than Earth. It was beautiful. It was just what I needed to see after spending so much of my morning thinking about our broken world. God wanted to remind me that there is something better, far better, than I can even imagine. This post soothed my soul. It provided medicine and bandages to my wounds.

That afternoon as my conference period was starting I came across a post that was a tribute to Rich Mullins. The author ended the post with all of the lyrics from the song, If I Stand. When I pulled up the video on youtube, I wept as I saw Rich singing the lyrics to that song. It was as if God had been sitting beside me all day. I know God is with us all day, but I felt like he pulled up a chair beside me and said

1. Look at the brokenness of this world. Hate it. Want something better!
2. Remember that Heaven is better than anything this world has.
3. Fight the brokenness of the world for as long as you can but know
that there is more.
4. Always long for Heaven.

It was the first time in a long time that I was a spiritual wreck, but when the day was over I felt closer to the heart of God. My request for prayers is still open. I now know what I want you to pray for. Pray that these things are not quickly forgotten. Pray that I will keep my eyes open for God’s will on this Earth while longing for Heaven.

If I Stand

There is a reason for me posting this video right now but I can't even put it fully into words. Not yet anyway. Maybe soon all the right words will come. I love this Rich Mullins song. Here is the chorus.

And if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

Watch the video for the rest.


Pray for me today! Please Pray!

Something is wrong...

I am currently reading a book titled Crazy Love by Francis Chan and another book Compelled by Love by Ed Stetzer and Philip Nation. While reading them this week I came across statements in both of them that started out by saying, "Something is wrong..." Both of these statements really stuck out and I think we should ask ourselves if these statements are descriptors of our lives.

"Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers." --Francis Chan in Crazy Love

"Something is wrong when a person claims to belong to Christ and yet fails to love others." --Ed Stetzer/Philip Nation

Does your life make sense to unbelievers? Does the way you spend & save your money make sense to the lost world? Do the things you watch, say, and do make sense to the world? If we are truly living out our faith, the answer should be and emphatic "NO!" Unfortunately I would have to say that much of my life has made perfect sense to the lost world.

What about your love? Do you love others as Christ does? Not just some people, but all people. Remember what Jesus says in Luke 6? "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same…Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:32-33, 36. If I am claiming to be a Christian, I need to see people differently and love people differently. If not, then can I actually say that Christ is living through me?

Let us look at scripture to see what we should look like, compare that to our lives, and ask ourselves “What’s Wrong?”

God help us line up with your will and your ways and not the world’s will and the world’s ways.

Upside of Messy

When you look at the Pharisees in the New Testament they were disturbed by the fact that Jesus would eat with the tax collectors and sinners. More literally translated “scum.” Their thoughts were, “How can he be from God if he is willing to stoop so low?” Jesus’ response in Matthew Ch. 9 is “The healthy don’t need a doctor but the sick do. I am calling these people to repentance.” Yesterday I was reading a sample chapter from a new book coming out called Church Planter by Darrin Patrick. I liked this quote that he included in the book.

We are able to see the “upside of messy” only because Jesus went into the mess first in order to heal it. He left heaven for a womb, a stable, a wilderness, and a cross, so that the world would be saved through Him. We are able to love and pursue the healing of messy people because Jesus did it first—befriending tax collectors, sinners, pimps, and prostitutes, and then making many of them His apostles! --Scott Sauls

That quote just really hit home what I have been feeling lately. I don’t want to ignore someone because of their mess. It is easy to overlook someone because of their differences, problems, or strange behavior, but that shouldn’t be the case.

Christ stepped into the mess of my life and yours to save us. Shouldn’t we in turn step into the mess of others’ lives with that Good News?

Yours

Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now. --St. Teresa of Avila

If you believe this, what are you doing about it?

Teller of Tall Tales

My wife says I am a liar. We disagree with each other on this subject quite regularly. I don’t think I am a liar at all. I am a teller of tall tales. They aren’t lies but stories created for someone’s enjoyment, especially mine, but others are invited to enjoy these stories also. I inherited this gift. I don’t know if I genetically inherited it, or if it was willed to me from my grandfather, but either way it is part of who I am and who I will always be. My grandfather’s stories were wonderful to listen to. Even when I knew that he was telling a tall tale, I would listen and ask questions. My grandmother would make sure that we knew that none of it happened, but that didn’t matter to me. The story, real or not, is what I wanted.

As the years go by I am certain that my stories will grow and hopefully will get better. I hope my children and maybe one day grandchildren will listen to my stories and hang on every word just like I did with my grandfather’s stories. I hope that no matter how fantastical or exaggerated the stories are, they will ask questions knowing that their questions will just cause the stories to grow even more. That will make me smile, just like it made my grandfather smile and I am guessing just like it made the man who passed this gift on to my grandfather smile as well.

I have a reason for bringing this up. It is not just so you will start questioning the truth of what I tell you. I started reading Crazy Love this week by Francis Chan. I loved this quote. It made me smile!

Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate? --Francis Chan

It made me smile because I am a teller of tall tales and an exaggerator by nature. It made me smile because no matter how tall a tale I can tell about God, it will never be an exaggeration. My stories would never be able to exaggerate the Love of God, or the Wrath of God, or the Wonder of God. The tallest tale I could tell about any aspect of God could at best only scratch the surface of the reality of who God is. And that is great news for all of us!

Watch This

I found this video and liked what it had to say. A lot of it is geared towards men, some towards pastors, but if you don't fit either of those categories, it still applies to the church as a whole. Good thoughts about vision for your church and community and passing on the faith that we have to younger generations.

Check It Out

A Good Place to Start

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4: 17-19

I think this passage is a great reminder of the needs that Jesus met. He just spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by Satan and the next thing we see him do is show up the Temple to bring the word. And the word was not “Well done good and faithful Pharisee!” The word was “I am here to help those in need!” Now spiritually speaking we know that is all of us, but Jesus is also talking about meeting physical needs.

Do you want to be used by God, but don’t know what to do? Maybe we should follow Jesus’ example and reach out to those in need. Reach out to the poor, those in prison, the sick, the oppressed, and proclaim the favor of God to all those you can.

The Gospel Can Shake Some Sense Into You

This year has been a significant year for Sarah Grace and me, spiritually speaking. We have been reading challenging books, listening to challenging sermons, and discussing these topics with ourselves and with others. We have been reading the Bible more and praying more. In all of this we have been seeing the spirit of God work in our lives. The Word of God has been revealing changes that we need to make in the way we live. The Spirit of God is showing things He wants us to do with our lives. If I pause to think about it I ask myself “What is going on?” The only answer that I can give is that the Gospel is starting to shake some sense into us. And it is exciting!

Jared Wilson has a post titled Hijacked by the Gospel. I love that title! It really expresses what has started to happen in our lives. Here is a statement from the blog that I liked.

I have been laid hold of. I've been apprehended. I was writing my own life story, and it was a tragedy despite my own best efforts. But my life story got hijacked by the good news. –Jared Wilson

He also includes this quote from Michael Horton’s book The Gospel Driven Life.

"The Gospel is not just a series of facts to which we yield our assent but a dramatic narrative that re-plots our identity." - Michael Horton

Click here to read the full post. Wilson challenges me when I read what he has to say about the Gospel and what it should be doing in our lives.

Amazed

We just finished reading the book of John in our reading of the New Testament and are now on to Acts. It was awesome to read through the 4 gospels over the last month. It is exciting to see the different styles of the 4 authors and how they recorded the events of Jesus’ life. It is also amazing to see all that Jesus did and makes me wonder how people chose not to believe. When we see all that Christ did, it should fill us with a since of awe and wonder. We should be amazed by Him. We should be like Job when God shows up in a whirlwind to confront the questions. Job chapter 38-39 is a barrage of questions hurled at Job which Job could not answer.

“Then the Lord said to Job, “Do you still want to argue with the almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” Then Job replied to the Lord, “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will put my hand over my mouth in silence. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.” Job 40:1-5

I was reminded of that passage from a book I am currently reading. The book is titled The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani. In the chapter that he mentions this passage, he is discussing the fact that we have worked so hard at trying to perfect our knowledge of God that we have lost the awe and wonder we should experience when we think of God. He had this to say about it.

With our endless and unqualified words about God, the awe-inspiring Lord that Job encountered in the whirlwind looks today like a tempest in a teacup—a containable, practical, and manageable deity. –Skye Jethani from The Divine Commodity

Now this is not to say that we shouldn’t study the word and try to dig deeper into what God has to say. It means that we need to make sure that we don’t get so wrapped up in our knowledge of God that we forget the mystery of God. So the next time you open up the word, be amazed by it. The next time you look up at the stars or stare out at the ocean be amazed by the one who created it all. Consider your life and where it would be without Him, and Be Amazed!

Sweet as Honey

The voice said to me, “Son of man, eat what I am giving you—eat this scroll! Then go and give its message to the people of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll. “Eat it all,” he said. And when I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey. Ezekiel 3: 1-3

I have mentioned before the fact that Sarah Grace and I are reading through the New Testament right now. We decided we would start with the New Testament and once we finish that we will move on to the fun stuff like Leviticus. We have been reading together at night before we go to bed. Two weeks ago I read this blog post about a family tradition of reading the bible together after a meal. The post is awesome. Click here to read the post. It is beautifully written as are all of her other posts. Here is a small segment of the post but I really recommend you read the whole post.

It's the way he was raised, the way his parents had been raised back in the homeland. You never leave the table without chewing the Real Bread. Even if there were cows to milk and you had to run, or you were late for prayer meeting at the church, or you had company for dinner. If you sat down to eat, you never left the table without eating Words. –Ann Voskamp

Then last night when I pulled up Jared Wilson’s blog he had posted a video that is titled What is the bible basically about, that comes from a message from Tim Keller. I thought it is another good way to approach the bible as we read it.



I wanted to share these two things and encourage you to spend some time in the Word today. It truly is “as sweet as honey!”

Point of Convergence

This guy rocked my world at Men at the Cross this last weekend. He is awesome! I found this video and wanted to share it.

My Only Hope

The Psalmist in Psalm 119 discusses the hope that he has in God's word and some of the truths about the word. It is filled with beautiful statements. Please take 5-10 minutes to sit down and read through this Psalm.

One of the things that is important about this passage is that the writer is not only praising the promises of God. He does praise God for His promises, but he also praises God about His laws and commands. This is something that I think many Christians have gotten away from. We like the promises of God. We like the hope that we have because of those promises. But we don't treasure the law of God like the author does. At least I don't. Check out this quote from Matt Chandler about this issue.

The law is a shadow of the Kingdom to come. God says in the law, "This is how I have designed things to work. Live in accordance with how I have designed things to work." The Law, although our generation talks about it as it is a dirty word, they don't talk about the law as if its a dirty word in the Old Testament. David Praises it "Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!" Because the law lines us up with how the universe is supposed to work. --Matt Chandler from the Right Now Conference 2009

Here are some of the truths about the word of God that come from Psalm 119.

The Word of God revives us(vs 25)
The Word of God encourages us(vs 28)
The Word of God gives life(vs 37)
The Word of God is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path(vs 105)
The Word of God is our only source of hope(vs 114

Hebrews 4:12 tells us the "Word of God is living and active." But for that to be true in our lives we have to know it. We have to cling to it as the Psalmist does. And we have to cling to all of it, not just the parts that make us feel good.

This last week while I was reading through a passage that I have read before, the Spirit of God showed me what was meant by this familiar passage. It was like a light was turned on. I thought "How in the world did I not realize this is what that passage was about?" It is amazing when God reveals to you something from His word. No matter how big or how small the message is, the fact that our God, opens our eyes to the truths in His word, is awesome.

Does your life need to be revived? Do you need encouragement? Do you need to know what direction God wants you to go? Do you need the hope that can come only from God? Then there is only one thing to do.

Open up His word!

(note: The painting used at the top of this post is titled Still Life of Bible. It was painted by Vincent Van Gogh)

Prayer by Saint Patrick

I came across this prayer on the website/blog of Eric Sandras. Sandras is the author of Plastic Jesus and two other books. This is a prayer from Saint Patrick from during the 4th or 5th century. As you read it, meditate on what each statement is asking and recognize your need for each of these items in your life.

May the strength of God pilot us.
May the power of God, preserve us.
May the wisdom of God, instruct us.
May the hand of God protect us.
May the way of God direct us.
May the shield of God defend us
May the host of God guard us against the snares of evil and the temptations of the world.
May Christ be with us.
Christ before us.
Christ in us.
Christ over us.
May Thy salvation, O Lord, be always ours this day and forevermore.
--Saint Patrick

Thorny Ground

Last night while reading in Luke I read the parable of the four soils. Here is Jesus' words explaining the parable:

"This is the meaning of the story: The seed is God's Message." The seed that fell on the hard path represents those who hear the message, but then the Devil comes and steals it away and prevents them from believing and being saved. The rocky soil represents those who hear the message with joy. But like young plants in such soil, their roots don't go very deep. They believe for a while, but they wilt when the hot winds of testing blow. The thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity. But the good soil represents honest, good-hearted people who hear God's message, cling to it and steadily produce a huge harvest." Luke 8: 11-15

When I read the passage the Thorny ground really stuck out to me. It just seems like so many believers fall into this category. Especially American believers. And don't take this as a finger pointing post about how everyone else has it wrong and I have it right. I fully admit that I have been in this category for extended periods of time.

Let's take a look at verse 14. Those in thorny ground hear and accept. They believe what they have heard to be true. Then something happens. They start worrying about things in this life. They start focusing on money and on enjoyable things. When I read the that I get the image of most Americans whether they are believers or not. The truth is crowded out by worry, desire of money, and the desire to have a good time. I think this is a problem even in many people's lives even in the believers who are in church each Sunday. Do you see this in churches? More importantly do you see it in your life? Is your life filled more with worry or consumed with the American Dream? Are you constantly seeking bigger and better pleasures in life? Are you stuck because of those things and unable to spiritually mature? If so maybe we need to ask ourselves if Jesus was talking about us when he told about the thorny ground.

Now let's take a look at verse 15. This is where we need to be. Good soil represents honest and good-hearted people who hear God's word and cling to its truths. All of the truths, not half of the truths. They cling to both the good news and to the commands. His way becomes their way of life and good works are constantly producing a spiritual harvest.

God, I pray my life will always represent the good soil in this passage, and always for your glory.

Do Something If You Can

I wonder how much of God's work has been interrupted by doubt. Now of course I know that God is supreme and can do whatever He chooses to bring glory to himself even if people doubt. We see stories in the New Testament where people doubt but Jesus still performs the miracle to bring glory to the father. But Jesus does say how if we have faith, we could move the mountains. So if we believe the word of God, why don't we move the mountains that our in our lives and in others lives? We don't move mountains for one reason: Doubt.

Jesus says to the disciples on several occasions that they need to stop doubting. Doubt has been an epidemic since Christ started his ministry. Some of his family doubted who he was, some of his disciples doubted His abilities. What is really crazy is when his disciples doubt the abilities of Christ after they have already seen him take care of a problem before. Example: Jesus feeds five thousand with 5 loaves and 2 fish and it is amazing. Just a little while later there is a crowd of four thousand and the disciples say "How are we supposed to find enough food for them here in the wilderness?" I don't know why Jesus didn't say "Ok guys, pack it up. You can go home."

My wife and I just started reading through the New Testament recently. We came to this passage and I thought, "This is our problem!" By "our problem", I mean the churches problem.

"How long has this been happening?" Jesus asked the boy's father. He replied, "Since he was very small. The evil spirit often makes him fall into he fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us. Do something if you can." "What do you mean 'If I can!?" Jesus asked. "Anything is possible if a person believes." The father instantly replied, "I do believe, but help me not to doubt!" --Mark 9: 21-24

Did this guy seriously just have this conversation with Jesus? "Do something if you can" and "I believe but help me not doubt." He just told Jesus, The Son of God, God himself, "Do something if you can." Why didn't Jesus say "Dude! I was there in the beginning. I was involved with making all of creation. Just ask my disciples what they have seen me do in the last year. And in a couple of days when they finish telling you about half the stories, come back and see me."

Of course this guy isn't the only person with this problem. I feel like this mind set is running rampant in the church today. We believe in the Power of God. We have heard the stories of His awesome power, probably even seen His power in our own lives, but we still doubt. We take our prayers to God with a heart of "Do something if you can." We believe but we still have doubts. What kind of faith is that?

I want us all to be encouraged to believe God without doubt. Mark 6: 1-6 shares a tragic story that I don't want to happen to any of us. Jesus goes to his hometown and the people don't believe. Verses 5 & 6 say "And because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any mighty miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief." Don't let Christ look at your life and say, "I can't do anything here because they won't believe!"

Just Believe!

Open up

A while back I posted on my blog: They Will Know We Are Christians by our...T-Shirts One of the points of it being that we needed to use our words. We need to tell people about Jesus. We can't just be good and expect people to understand the gospel and accept Christ. We have to open up our mouths and share the Good News.

Jared Wilson posted this video of John Piper titled Telling People the Gospel from a Heart of Love and a Life of Service. Piper is awesome! Watch what he has to say about the importance of words and actions.



One of the reasons this really caught my attention was our joining with Compassion United to feed the homeless in our area. It is easy to cook some food and show up serve it with a smile. But if that is all that we do all we have given them a full stomach, which is temporary, with out meeting any spiritual needs, which is eternal.

Forget the "Yeah, But..."

I finished reading Radical by David Platt a couple of weeks ago, and now I have listened to over half of the Radical sermon series that Platt did at his church(Thank You Jeff & Jessica!) Let me start with WOW!!! I highly recommend both the book and the sermons. As far as listening to the sermons you can listen to them or watch them online, or you can download them from ITunes for free and put them on your ipod.

Radical challenges us to consider the true implications of claiming to be a Christian while looking at some of the tough passages in the New Testament. The one thing that I would recommend while reading and listening to the sermons is that you fight the urge to say "Yeah, but..." Many believers have gotten to a comfortable spot, myself included, and we don't want to consider how some of these passages apply to us. We try to say, "Yeah, but Jesus didn't really mean it that way." Or we say "Yeah, but Jesus didn't say that to all followers just to some." And we assume that these verses don't really apply to us for one reason or another.

If you can avoid the urge to dismiss the verses, you are likely to be challenged to examine your life in a way that you never have before. It will also challenge you to examine the gospel in ways that you never have before.

If you have read the book or listened to the sermons, please share your thoughts and experiences connected with it. I can't express enough how God is using these sermons and this book to open my eyes to what He is calling me to.

God, I pray that you give us strength to fight the urge to downplay your words and instructions for our lives. Change our hearts so we can see the ways we are disobeying your instructions. Forgive our disobedience and guide us into a life dedicated to bringing you Glory. I ask this in the name of Jesus.

Moment-by-Moment Obedience

“This is my son whom I love, with him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Matthew 17:5

For the past 10-15 years(off and on), I have pondered, prayed about, even distressed over this one question. What is God’s plan for my life? Throughout all of this time I have come up to several solutions that I felt He might possibly be leading me to. Many of them have been dismissed entirely, while some of them I have merely shelved to wait for God’s go-ahead nod. Surely any day now a bright light is going to come from heaven on my road to Magnolia journey and God will reveal himself and his answers to me. The problem with this is that I am spending so much time thinking about the future that I am dismissing the most important part of the plan. That part of the plan that I am missing is the “Now” part.

The verse above comes from the passage when Jesus went through the transfiguration on the mountain. I have heard and read this passage numerous times. The other night as I was reading through Matthew the part that stuck out the most of this passage was “Listen to Him!”

This is the plan God has for my life. He is showing me Jesus and His plan is that I will listen to what Jesus has to say and I will follow those words. I may try to respond to God with, “But what about next year? What about grad school? What about law school? What about Seminary?” His response back might quite possibly be “Quit over complicating things and quit focusing on the future! Listen to Jesus and share Jesus. That’s what I want you to do!”

Oswald Chambers put it this way in My Utmost for His Highest.

“God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for the very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience and are wrong to concern ourselves with it...However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.”

Dancing in the Minefields

Beautiful song about Marriage. You can see Andrew Peterson's post about this song and the video here.

Feeling Inadequate

Do you ever feel inadequate to do a task that is before you? I did this week. I had to install a new faucet in our kitchen sink. Our old one had sprung a leak. I am not good at most things that call for the use of tools so we bought a faucet that clearly stated "Easy to Install!" There should have been a disclaimer that stated "Easy to Install (if you are a skilled plumber who has 15 years experience.)

The old faucet came off super easy so I was feeling like this was going to be much easier than I originally thought. Then I got to the directions for the new one. I read step one about 10 times and thought to myself, this makes no sense to me at all. It pretty much went down hill from there. 2 hours later, we finally got our new faucet installed. 2 hours, Easy installation right?

When ever I start a task like this, I get so frustrated before I even get started. I know that I am not going to understand it and I fear that I am going to mess something up so I get worked up. Which probably just makes things even worse. I would seriously rather get someone else to do the job. I know I won't be good at it, so why even try.

Unfortunately I also do this in my faith and I fear many other believers do also. We feel inadequate at certain tasks so it is easy for us to make excuses and look for other people to do our work for us. Each day God can put us to work doing something for the kingdom. Each day Satan is going to try to convince us that we are inadequate for the task. What we have to remember is that God doesn't need people who are able, just people who are willing. When we try to give excuses He says I don't care what you are or are not, because "I AM!"

Have You Settled?

The greatest enemy to the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. -- Oswald Chambers

While reading My Utmost for his Highest the other day I came across this statement and loved it.

So many people are settling for the good and accepting the good. I am not talking about gifts and blessings from God. I am talking about settling for living a good life when really we should be living a great life. This of course should look much different than the definition the world gives for "a great life." Our great life should be about sacrifice. The kind of selfless sacrifice which always leads people to Jesus.

Have you settled? I know I have. Let us strive for greatness in order to show the glory of God.

Rendering to Caesar What Belongs to God

I have been thinking about this subject for over a month now and finally decided to post it. I guess my thoughts center around this question. Does there get to be a point where our patriotism to our country gets in the way of our service to Christ. Our country is constantly wrapped in heated political debates and Christians are quite often found right in the middle of them. There is this sense that patriotism and our faith go hand in hand and any God fearing American Christian should fight to restore something from days old when in reality I think this allows us to be distracted from what we really should be doing.

Jared Wilson had a post a while back that was about prayer and the right to pray publicly. You can read the entire post HERE. I really liked these words.

"I just wish Christians wouldn't put so much passion into prayer being recognized by the government. I think we can actually harm our witness by constantly crying about our rights and trying to throw our rapidly diminishing weight around. The Church isn't growing in China b/c the government recognizes it and gives it freedom to do whatever it wants."

Dustin told me that on Wilson's twitter account he made a statement along the lines of: "The gospel doesn't need the government." Those two statements really made me think. It seems like Christians fight desperately for their rights to pray, profess Christ, or live out their faith but they spend much less time actually doing any of these things. What good is it for us to have the right to share the gospel if we aren't going to actually share it?

A while back I was at a school function where they started out with having the crowd say the pledges. Everyone was reciting the pledge to the American flag and we were all sounding like a bunch of robots as we recited this memorized pledge of devotion to our flag and country and then we get to "one nation..." and over the entire crowd one man's voice bellows above all others, "UNDER GOD!!!!!!" It was a guttural yell that sounded like it came from someone who was about to go into hand to hand combat with the devil himself. I am sure that man walked out of that assembly with his chest swollen with pride that day. He had made a stand for God in front of all people. The irony of course is that we are not one nation under God and we haven't ever been. Even in times when Americans may have been more spiritual than they are now this has never been a country of only Christians. The second irony comes the fact that we were pledging our devotion to a flag and country who supports and will continue to support things that are disgusting to our God.

Yes there are plenty of individuals in this country who do honor God, but I don't believe our government or our nation as a whole does (even when a Republican is in office.) My pledge of devotion should solely be given to God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe I can do that while still being proud of my country and thankful for the people who have made this country what it is.

"A man may have to die for our country:
but no man must, in any exclusive sense, live for his country.
He who surrenders himself without reservation
to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class
is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things,
most emphatically belongs to God: himself." -- C.S. Lewis