New Year, New Love

The new year is here and I have had some interesting things happen to me already this first week of 2010. I have read over and over for the the past two months the Book "Crazy Love" by

Francis Chan. Which by the way is the best book I have read in a long time. I loved it so much that I have given out to many students, and even family as gifts. The book deals with God and how his love for us is so amazing that we just have to stop and just think about it. God for me has proven Himself time and time again, but then when I think I have a better understanding of God's love, I open up our devotional book, and the first three days this year it has been talking about love. But the story doesn't end there. I am currently taking a NT course and all day yesterday we talked about the love of God. So I began to think to myself, God is really trying to get my attention and let me know how much He loves me. The fact is, he is always trying to get our attention and show us His love, but the sad reality is that we are usually to busy to even begin to grasp how much he really loves us.

Peyton and I always play a game and it is is trying to see who can show the other that they love them more. It is funny to see what things that we do to show it. From stretching our hands out wide, to smiling, to giving those big tackle hugs. But all of this still cannot show Peyton how much I love him. So this made me realize one more thing about God, if God who created both of us has allowed me to love so great for my children, how much more then does He love me. Just the thought of being loved by God and knowing that he had also played the game with me, when he sent his Son to earth, who stretched out His arms as far as He could and let me know how much He truly loved me.

John makes it abundantly clear that great spiritual gifts without love is worthless and might as well be like noise pollution and ultimately worthless. The world places value on talents, skills, and what one can do or accomplish. But the Lord showed us humility, patience, and sacrifice – so that His love could be communicated to us. I’m reminded of what a terrible Dad I would be if I measure my worth as a Dad based solely on how well I provide for my son yet not spend any time with him or express my love for him through all the various ways of sacrifice, patience, and affection I can show him. Peyton doesn’t know the difference between $1 and a million dollars, or that I’m the most gifted man in something, nor does he care, but he knows that I love him and that I show that he matters so much to me. To him the times we share playing games, wrestling, and as he calls it hanging out mean more than anything I can ever buy him, just look in his closet and you can see that.

As a youth pastor in a very busy church, husband, father, and student, it is easy to allow busy schedules and many other things to replace the heart of love for God and people that needs to be my motivation. I can be doing all the things that the father asks yet slowly lose sight of why I am living the life I am. Looking back at my life, I know I missed many opportunities to grow because I had been placing worth on my life on all that I was doing in ministry or what I was able to offer back to God or feeling insecure that I was not this or that. That is why it is so essential that I reflect and pray constantly do truly realize this thing called love. One thing God has taught me in these past few weeks is that actions can equal love and therefore I must not merely say the words I Love you and then not prove it, but I must follow through with all that the word love means. In the same note, it is very easy to say I love God, but then never spend the time with Him, I must, and we must show God, our Heavenly father, how much we cannot live with out Him, because without Him, our lives are meaningless.

Dear God, I know that my attempts to fully understand your love and the limitless boundaries that it brings to my life, it is my prayer that I can grow closer to you and show you how much I truly love you. I also pray that my love for my family grows greater than ever before. May I show them the power of love as it comes only from the Father above. To all my extended family and friend, may I be a light that can show each of them the love that You have for each of us and may I continue to serve You until You come.

Send to God

When we look at sending praise to God, it most focus around our worship.  We are created for this very purpose.  When we worship we have the opportunity to encounter a God that is worthy of our praise.  When we worship, we send our emotions and our love towards heaven.  If we ever expect to receive all that God has for us we must send our up our praise and have an open line of communication with him.

 So in order for us to worship the creator we must understand what true worship is.  It is not an act that we may do on a Sunday morning after the fast songs, it is not saying I love you Lord on Sunday mornings and then living every day in the opposite, it is however a lifestyle.  True worship is an outward expression of the heart.  Not only does every person have a desire to worship, but every person does worship something.  God created us to be people of worship, and until he becomes the true focus of our worship, our lives will remain meaningless.  As we “delight ourselves in the Lord” we will discover the desires of our heart (Psalms 34: 4). 

In Luke 7:36-50, we look closely at a woman who had the send part of her life down pat.  She had a burning desire to send all that she had to him in hopes that he would then give her something far greater than she had ever received and in the end connecting with Him deeper than she ever had before.  Our story begins as the woman finds out that Jesus is at a house and she drops everything and goes to this house.  In verse 38 we see her begin the sending part towards him, it says that she stood at His feet and then we find her kneeling at His feet.  She took steps to get to were she ended up: 

She heard about him being there. 

She dropped what she was doing and went to the house.

She stood besides Him.

She knelt at His feet.

We see her progression beginning at her burning desire to worship.  She had a true love for Jesus.  True love for something or someone will cause hindrances or pride to fade away.  She didn’t care what others thought of her. 

As the story moves on we see her continue in this act of worship as brings something of great importance with her to purposely use as a sacrifice of love towards Jesus. She knew that true worship would always require great sacrifice.  She knew that with her true worship that true rewards would come, and she received all that they were.  She received forgiveness, salvation, and peace (Luke 7:49-50). 

Today we have to prepare our hearts to give worship to God:  From this story we have the outline to how we should prepare our hearts to send up towards God. 

1. We must separate ourselves from others so that we can find out were Jesus will be. 
2. When we find out where he is we must put all things aside and get to that point. 
3. We must humble ourselves before the lord in all that we do. 
4. In our prayers and worship we must be willing to sacrifice some things in our life that are very important to us. 
5. After the sacrifice we must thank Him for the forgiveness, the peace, and the salvation.

God help me to always give you all that is within me.  Let me get to the point that nothing else matters, and lay everything else aside to get into your presence.  Lord help me to listen for your voice, and to know Your will.  

 

 

Fire

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I wish you were one or the other. So then because you are lukewarm, that you are neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:15-16) 

Does this verse challenge you? Bother you? Identify you? Scare you? Do you remember a time where you had finally rid yourself of whatever killed your fellowship with God? Where you had strength over temptation, joy to spread around, and love for prayer? You felt like you had finally discovered what being a Child of God was all about, and your peace was unmatched. Somehow, sin, disbelief or complacency nursed their way back in and interrupted your fellowship with the Lord. Now all your joy is forgotten, and when you look at scriptures that mention God’s peace and happiness, you wonder if you can ever get back to that place, or even remember what it was like. Then in today’s verse, you see what Jesus had to say about lukewarm life, and you feel even worse! 

So what is the solution? Jesus said he would have us either hot or cold, and we certainly don’t want to become cold, so there is only one choice. We must get to a point where we are spiritually hotter than ever. But how? When Jesus mentioned spewing us out of his mouth because we are lukewarm, we get the image of a beverage that is either served hot or cold. What beverage do you know of heats itself? No drink - coffee, tea, hot chocolate, anything - becomes hot without flame or heat from an external source acting on it to make its temperature rise. 

It’s the same with spiritually. While many people seek to fit the term on fire, the truth is we cannot heat ourselves. Even if we devote hours to reading scripture, promise not to sin, and fight with all our heart to avoid tempting situations. We may get discipline from it, but we still won’t have that spiritual hotness that we and God both desire. We cannot heat ourselves! But we CAN make the decision to change, restore our fellowship by confessing and repenting of sins, and ASK God to put the flame to us. As soon as we acknowledge that it’s not about what we do, but about what God does for us, then we will experience grace. True zeal for God is caused when he affects our lives, when he stokes the fire, and when he gives us the grace to be all he desires. 

Then with grateful and joyous hearts, we have no choice but to be zealous for Him. And it is done this way so He gets all the glory. So, cold or hot? How about on fire!? It can be yours if you simply repent, believe, and ask. And keep asking.  He rewards faith, and faith doesn’t give up. Your Fathers good pleasure is to give you the Kingdom. He wants to be pleased by you just as much as you want to be pleasing to him. So pray, and wait for His answer. The word promises that if we ask, and believe, we have what we asked for. And when God answers, when he stokes your faith up again - you will be able to identify yourself without hesitation as one of the few and happy who are on fire for God.  

God, in the many decisions that we face daily in our lives, let us always trust you in all that we do.  Let me always look forward to the future and who holds it!  I thank you lord for giving us hope and I cannot wait to see what You have in store for us!  Help me to always be on fire for You!  

Prayer

Why pray? 

      That’s a key question on know many people have asked me throughout the years.  In fact, its a question I have even asked myself. How we answer it will inform our entire prayer life.  Most people would say that we pray to make things happen. One theologian says, “Prayer is God granting man the dignity of causality.” I think that means prayer gets things done. People pray; God moves; things happen. It makes sense.

     

        But other people say that prayer isn’t so much about making things happen as getting in touch with God. It’s not to change God or change the world, but to change us. The ultimate purpose of prayer is to bring our hearts into line with God’s, so that we think his thoughts and feel his feelings.

      

       Is prayer for the personal man or the community of faith? Is prayer a way of doing or a way of being? Or is it both? The Bible doesn’t seem to see this as an “either/or” dilemma but a “both/and” reality. Sure, prayer gets things done, but it works because the hearts of the pray-ers are synchronized with the heart of God. Prayer gets things done when it’s practiced “in the name of Jesus.” To pray in Jesus’ name is not to use a magical potion, but to pray with the vision and values of the Son of God. It’s to pray what Jesus would pray if he were in your shoes and on your knees.

      

      A great example of praying with God’s heart took place 2,000 years before Christ. In Genesis 18:17-21, God told Abraham what he intended to do to Sodom and Gomorrah, which was burn them to the ground. This revelation moved Abraham to intercede on their behalf. In one of the most famous bargaining session of all time, Abraham haggles for the lives of the entire population. He finally gets God down to ten righteous people—if just ten good people can be found in Sodom and Gomorrah, God will spare both cities. 

       Of course, the ten righteous people don’t exist. So God executes his judgment, although he does spare four righteous people, Lot and his family. So prayer got something done as Abraham aligned his heart with God’s. Moved by God to prayer in the first place, Abraham appealed to God’s justice, entreating him not to punish the righteous along with the wicked. God responded by sparing the lives of those who were still faithful to him. That’s godly, effective prayer in a nutshell.

       Lord help me to be a man of prayer.  Don't ever let my life get so busy that I forget that time with you is the most important thing.  I pray for our lives now, and ask for your guidance, direction, and will to be done.  Bless my family, our church, and help us bless those around us.  Thank you for hearing us when we pray! 

 

Reaching out

It seems pretty obvious that God’s main plan for the church is to connect them with one another. The is the model of the church that we read about in Acts 2.  One sign of a healthy church or in my case student ministry is when many different groups (groups of students who normally wouldn’t hang out together at school) connect.  The church is designed to bring people together and to get the word of God out to the lost.   We see Jesus reaching out to people that others would not even associate with. 

As Easter approaches, I have a feeling of overwhelming responsibility to get the gospel to all generations and regardless of race, background, financial status, or any other thing the world may choose to label people with.  We know that we have to become more like Him, in order to make this plan work, but how can we do just that?  

It is by no surprise that none of us are perfect.  No one has it all together.  Everyone has disappointments, bad attitudes, and imperfections.  The good news is that we can have a new beginning when we accept God, and our relationships can become more important to us than they were before.  Jesus knew about the power of love, and showed it throughout His ministry.  He went about His Father's business often times against the grain of the norm. He didn't care what others thought, just as long as he could show love to those that needed it.  

We see in 1 John 4:7-12 that John has acquired this attitude of becoming more like Christ with his intentions and wants to share the love of God with everyone he meets.  Take a look:

 7-10My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

 11-12My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love! 

I do know that I still have a lot of imperfections, and I can hear Christina saying Amen, but I know I am trying to live the life that God has created me for.   

It is my prayer that we don't run through this important season, and forget the reason that Christ died for us, we must remember that the reason He died was because he LOVED us.  We must in turn share this love with everyone we meet.  

God, help me to be love to those that need it most.  Open the doors of opportunity that I may share your love with all.  Never let me back down from the challenge of sharing your perfect love with others.  Thank you for saving me and giving me hope for tomorrow.  Amen.  

The Image of God

 The Image of God.  What does it mean to be in made in His image?  Does it require a commitment on our part or was it just a one time thing?  Do we live in His image?  Are we living the life that God has for us?  Are we at the level where God wants us to be?  These are questions that we must ask our self when we think about the image of God. 

Are we taking His image and using it to take our spiritual man to the next level.  The level where God wants us to be.  The level where we show God through our actions, our thoughts, and our prayers.

The Image of God.  What does it mean to be in His image?  Are we the only person that can stop our self in becoming the man or woman He wants us to become?  The answer is yes.  It should make us feel good that our past can’t stop is, our problems can’t stop us, our circumstances can’t stop us, other people cant stop us.  Only me myself and I can stop me from becoming who God intends for me to be, and that is in His image. 

How many times do we look at this as an opportunity to bathe in self-pity?  Or make excuses that start with the word if,  if I had more money, if I went to a better school, if I wasn’t so tired or busy I could do more for God. 

When I think about this in relation to my marriage, no matter how wonderful it is, it could still be better.  You can move to the next level even in your marriage.  What about our jobs, our relationships, our finances, our relationship with God?

 Are we really satisfied with where we are or do we really want to walk in His Image? 

 If we are truly hungry for God it requires us to do several things:

 1.    Have a greater responsibility: everyone must be responsible for themselves.  We must take the blame ourselves and be responsible for our actions. I must make a conscience decision to follow Him and not merely rely on others to get me through it.  

2.    We must have a greater commitment:  There will be plenty of opportunities to quit! But when you make a commitment, quitting is not an option.  It may seem hard to keep commitments but God always honors His!  

3.    We must have greater discipline: Discipline is a must.  Discipline helps us say yes to the important things and keeps us from becoming lazy. Discipline in life allows us to stay focused on the task at hand. 

4.    We must have a greater sacrifice.  No great thing is ever accomplished without sacrifice.  Jesus said to find your life you must be willing to lose it.  Jesus did just that!  

5.    We must be accountable to one another.  Everyone must be accountable to someone.  Tom move to the next level in anything, the accountability becomes greater.  Jesus said to whom much is given much is required. 

6.    We must take risks: Life Is full of risks.  The greatest hazard is to risk nothing.  Because the person who risks nothing, has nothing and is nothing. No matter what image we may resemble today, we will always be striving to walk in the Image of Christ.  

Lord help me to be molded into your Image.  Help me not to get too busy to stop what I am doing and listen to what you are saying.  Help me not to hear just hear your voice, but help me to respond to it!  Thank you for keeping us, and help us to move closer to you! 

The Dreaded flu

I know that this may seem like a horrible topic write on, but I have to give thanks to God in advance for getting us through it.  It is times like these that we all fall on our knees to God and beg for His mercy.  But the thing that really stirs me up inside is why is it that we always feel like we have to wait to get His attention.  Only in the desperate times do we feel we can call on Him.  As I have laid in bed the past few days, I know that God has had to had his laughs at my expense, as I can remember sleeping for longer than I have ever slept.   Even since my teenage years. But then I wonder does God know when we have just had enough and forces us to stop and be thankful for what we have been given.  In my case, I know the answer is yes.   He did.  And it made me realize how great our God is.  

I have found out that I never want to be in the middle of a storm or trial or in this case sickness, where I haven't called upon the name of God in a long time.  It is in these times that we need God to answer right now.  Today one of the hardest things hit me, I was the one that made my son sick.  Peyton is right now sick with the same flu I have had for the past few days.   It bothered me, it worries me, but the God thing that I stand on is doesn't surprise my God.  It doesn't even worry Him in the least little bit.  This past week has been a very busy one, so much to the point I feel like I have barely seen my sons, but I know that I have a Father who has been with them every second of every day.  

After reading this morning in the word, I see Moses getting specific instructions from God to give to the people.  They are supposed to set aside time to honor God and to give Him the due respects.  But then I find it even more interesting when one person asks him, what do we do if we are unclean?  God then responds with they can still celebrate the passover, but they must do so at the appointed time.  

Isn't there a need for an appointed time for us to meet with the Master.   I feel like we are all so unworthy of celebrating and worshipping Him for who He is but I know that He cares about even the small things in our lives.  He cares about each one of us so very very much.  We all nee dour appointed times so that we can stop and just listen and give back to Him a little of what He has given to us.  So even if sickness does come, and it might, just no that you have God's full attention and maybe now He has yours too!  

The past week has caused me to realize that without Him, I am definitely nothing.  When I am weak, He is strong.  He has been there to hold my family together when I haven't been around, and has protected my baby and my wife from this!  I plead the blood of Jesus of them so that they do not get this sickness, and that Peyton will be restored to health asap.  

God I thank you for allowing me to have access to You at all times.  We no longer need the sacrifices as of old, but we must never forget that all of us are unclean. The good news is that you can wash us white as snow, and nothing can ever separate us from your love.  I pray for the health of my family, and my extended family, as they have been a great help in the time of need. I thank you for the love and support of a church family that knows how to pray, and ask that You be with each of them.  Be with us and wash this house free of germs.   AMEN.