Mr. Prime Minister

oh mr. prime minister

twisting scripture for your own use

that's cute and demonic and stuff

if you're going to quote scripture, then do it in context :)

The whole slave argument is invalid because scripture is not saying that being enslaved to unjust masters is okay, but instead scripture is telling Christians  to live worthy of the calling, even if they are enslaved to an unjust master because in the end Justice will be served. Either through Christ on the cross or their souls in Hell forever.
     If you really want to make a valid argument for people who claim Christianity but hold a grudge against the homosexual community all you have to say is "Look at the life of Jesus."
     I'm not saying I agree with homosexual marriage. I don't, and that's my stance! I am saying that Christians ought to love people who are homosexuals, and people who support homosexual marriage. I mean why wouldn't we? Because we disagree? So what...
In the same way that slaves ought to shine the light of Christ by being obedient to their masters, we ought to shine the light of Christ by loving people, even those that disagree with us.
     That being said, if you claim Christianity, yet will not stand for what's right in this, then you must hate homosexuals. If you truly believe that there is a Hell, but you say it's okay to live in sin, then what you are saying is "I don't care if you go to Hell!" That's not love!

Let's remember that Jesus always said "Go and sin no more!" He never said "keep sinning it's okay :)"

He gives wisdom generously

Without finding fault

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

     I came across this scripture this morning and realized something that I hadn't really realized before. The part that says "without finding fault." 

     Now when I read this I look back on my own life and can see many times, when God could've simply said "You got yourself into this hole now you can get yourself out." But instead He generously gave me wisdom and a way out of different situations. Other times in life God was generous to give me wisdom before I got into the hole, even though everything else in my life wasn't exactly okay. Without finding fault, God generously supplied me with wisdom! 

     Another big thing that stands out in this verse is actually closet to the beginning of it.... "You should ask God." Think about that for a moment. How easy it is to simply skip over that, and just jump head first into a pool of acid sometimes. We look around at our friends and say "Hey is this safe?" And they don't always know. To be fair often times God uses our friends to supply the wisdom, after we have asked Him for it, but when we don't ask Him for wisdom, we can often find ourselves asking the wrong people. We can often find ourselves inquiring of ourselves or this world. We need to remember two things

1. We need to ask God for wisdom because we lack it.

2. We live in a world that is lacking in Godly wisdom.

     So when are in need of wisdom, we should ask God. When we ask God He gives generously without telling us that we're stupid and finding something wrong with us, and lets be honest... there's much wrong with us, but He doesn't look at that. He looks at a humble heart that has come to Him seeking to follow His will. That's the beauty of it all. When we go to God for wisdom He sees that. He is not blinded by our past sins, or even the sin that we may be trying to get out of. He sees us in a humbled state saying "God I need You!" and He gives!

We're not called to be loners

 2 Timothy 2:²² Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

You know it's easy to read all of that and totally omit that last part

the ALONG WITH THOSE WHO CALL ON THE LORD FROM A PURE HEART

part...

     It's as if we could read that as if it was just a suggestion. How often we get together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and neglect to talk about Christ and what He is doing or has done in our lives. How often many skip out on being apart of small groups of people running after Christ thinking to themselves "I can do this on my own." 

But God's word tells us to pursue these things

along with those who call on Him from a pure heart

    We are after all a part of the KINGDOM of God. We're not called to be spiritual hermits, but instead to be joined with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, in the pursuit of righteousness, faith, love, and peace. 

I believe that one of Satan's greatest schemes

is getting us to believe that we can walk this Christian life

on our own

Getting us to believe that we are strong enough

leads us to places of constant failure

and disappointment

and that's not okay

that is not what God has for us

Jeremiah 29:11(look it up)

tells us that He has plans for our welfare, not for disaster

plans to give us a hope and a future

This is the same God that calls us to be apart of the Kingdom

He's not called us to be apart of the Kingdom that fails,

but to be apart of the Kingdom that is to prosper

let's not be loners about our walk with God

let's do more than just hang out, but when we come together with Christ followers

let's talk about something God is doing

let's talk about struggles and be real with one another

Lord remind me daily that this life cannot be lived alone! Remind me that You call your children to pursue you together, and that You call us to be real with one another about life.

HE'S JUST SO DANG GOOD (PSALM 19) Giving Light to the Eyes

Psalm 19:8b

The commands of the Lord are radiant,

giving light to the eyes

     God's commands they aren't just do's and don'ts, but they brighten up our world! In a world so dark we need the light of His word to guide us. Without them we end up in terrible places, but with it we find ourselves walking with Him in glory! 

     How can we truly expect to walk this world blindly with all of its twists, turns, dead-ends, and holes. Oh but that God for His commands that give light to our eyes. 

That you would continue to be my light

in a world so dark

That you would continue to be the eyes

of a man so blind

Without you I simply won't make it to where You're leading me

  

If I May For A Moment, Take A Breath,

And just look out at the view

The beautiful view of all that I've been through

The beautiful view of all He's brought me through

All of my messes

Turned into beauty

But only at the point of surrender

At the point of Surrender

I find myself glorified

Only to point the glory

To the One who makes me glorious

Though this mountain climb is not yet over

Though I know there are sure to be rough times ahead

I have this eternal hope and joy

Christ has made me His

And He has overcome the world

Nothing this world can throw at me can break me

As long as I trust in Him

As long as I follow His plan

With the simple understanding 

That sometimes My wants are not His plan

But He is my only need

So I chase Him

As He brings me with Him on this adventure called abundant life

If I may stop for a moment

and just look out at the view

knowing that even the most beautiful of pictures

couldn't amount to You

HE'S JUST SO DANG GOOD (PSALM 19): Rejoicing The Heart

Psalm 19:8A

⁸ the precepts of the Lord are right,
    rejoicing the heart;

     So what's a precept? I bet that is what many are asking as they read this... If many are reading. Well one really cool thing about this here internet thingy is the fact that we can type in things like dictionary.com and lo and behold.... A DICTIONARY!!! :D

     

Precept-a commandment or direction given as a rule of action or conduct.

     I find it simple to restate it this way 

"the commands of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart..."

     When I read God's word I see many commands, but I've never really thought about them this way until I recently found my way through this psalm again. His commands are not only right but they rejoice the heart. 

     Now that isn't to say that following His commands will always be easy, but in my experience God's commands have brought joy to my heart when I follow them, even when they were hard to follow. There is a joy of knowing that we've done what is pleasing in God's sight regardless of what the world thinks.

     What we must be careful of is the fact that this world also has commands. It has many, and most of them are not Godly at all. This world commands us to get the biggest toys, commands us to have the most money, commands us to be the most popular, commands us to do things that leave us empty in the end. It's crazy because the world may never admit that it does command these things, but look at what this world glorifies on television, and the internet. We've glorified things that do not truly rejoice the heart, and getting caught up in chasing the demands and commands of this world will lead us into a state of joylessness.

     I think simply of the first commandment

Exodus 20:3

You shall have no other gods before Me

     This simple command is such a great reason to rejoice. The ONE TRUE GOD that rejoices the heart does not want us to give our lives over to anyone/anything else. He's the eternal God, and apart from Him we are eternally broken hearted. The only one who can fix an eternal brokenness is the Eternal One. 

     His commands lead us to Him ultimately. Why settle for the commands of this world. The world doesn't rejoice the heart. It may bring about a temporary happiness, but it doesn't rejoice the heart. God's commands rejoice the heart, when we look at them the correct way, and follow.

HE'S JUST SO DANG GOOD (Psalm 19) Making The Wise Simple

  Psalm 19

⁷ The law of the Lord is perfect,^[c]
    reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,    making wise the simple;

Testimony-the statement or declaration of a witness under oath or affirmation, usually in court.

    Have you ever thought about the fact that every word in the Bible is inspired by God? Well if you didn't, Paul did :)

2 Timothy 3:16

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,

     That being said think about even the testimonies in God's word. Those things that make the modern day wiseguy say "THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!"         

     

The creation of the earth

The sun standing still

Jonah and the Whale

Super old ladies giving birth

Abraham and Isaac

Seas being parted

Dead being raised

Fire falling from the sky

Angel Armies surrounding enemies

...........

Christ living a sinless life

Christ on the Cross

Christ risen from the grave

     Things that the modern wiseguy says don't make sense.... Are the same things that the wiseguys have been saying don't make sense since the beginning, and yet God still does them and still testifies about them. 

     But what about us, those who claim Christ? Do we find ourselves doubting the testimonies of God's word? Do we look back on such great power that He has displayed in His word and even in our own lives, and yet still find ourselves walking in lives of doubt?

     Now understand that when I say walking in lives of doubt, that I don't mean having doubts here and there. What I mean is living a doubtful life. A life so much led by doubt that we simply miss out on seeing God move, because we chose not to do what He's called us to. 

     When we choose not to do what God has called us to do, we walk in doubt that what He has is good for us, we live in doubt that He can really bring us through what it is He's called us to do, and we live in doubt that He is truly powerful over all things. We find ourselves leading ourselves.... We're deaf with no hearing aide and blind with no walking stick, and we trust us?!

His testimony is sure

Making even the wisest of men simple

His testimony tells of His power

His testimony tells of His love

His testimony testimony tells of His heart for us

His testimony is sure

Let's be sure of our God

You know how people say

"You're so full of yourself."

Let our prayer be this

"Lord if I'm full of myself

empty me completely, and fill me with You.

I want to be so full of You! I don't want to be sure in me,

but in You!"

HE'S JUST SO DANG GOOD (Psalm 19) Part 1 reviving the soul

This may blow your mind

read slowly and pay attention

and just allow the blowing of your mind to happen

capiche :)

Psalm 19:7-9

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;

The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;

8 The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;

the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;

9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;

the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether

   
Take a moment to think about that first part!


(Open moment here)




(close moment and continue reading)


The law of the LORD is perfect. Perfect meaning without flaw. Not only is the law of the LORD perfect, but it revives the soul. Now lets not think of the law as just rules okay, but seeing as God is the sovereign ruler of all things, lets look at the law of the LORD as His very word. The word of God is PERFECT and it revives the soul. 

     Every word that comes from His mouth is without flaw, and theres pure beauty to that. Not only are His words without flaw, but, being perfect, His words also come with power. When God speaks, what He speaks becomes! Lets look back at the creation of the world. God SPOKE it into existence, with His perfect, soul reviving word. He did not lie when He said "Let there be light." Nor did He lie when He said "It is good." AND HE SHOOOOOLE DIDN'T LIE WHEN HE "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make for Him a suitable helper." CAN A BROTHA GET AN AMEN!!!

(say "Amen" out loud)

     So why do we ignore the words He says to us sometimes? When He tells us to put something down, or when He tells us to pick something up. When He says "Do not be afraid. I am with you." When God speaks to us personally or through His word, why do we ignore and rebel? His words are not to harm us. If we read Jeremiah 29:11 we will see that God has BIG plans for us. It's not God's intention to harm us with His words, but instead to give us a life worth living. 

     Now don't get me wrong here. The things He says to us will not always be easy to take in, but we must remember something. His LAW IS PERFECT AND SOUL REVIVING!  By His word's He calls into a life led by Him. The life that we are meant to live. It will most definitely be a dangerous life in some way, but we must remember God's plan is not to bring us harm, this doesn't mean that the world will not aim to harm us in some way, and it does not mean that God will always stop them from harming us, but God's plan for us is to give us the life that He has for us. The life that deep down we all truly long for.

     

We can't experience true life, a soul revived, 

apart from Gods word. We WILL NOT experience that. 

Don't just read God's word

take it in, and trust Him

     many will just read His word

and pretend that it doesn't matter,

and the many will miss out on the revival of their souls

will you?

IN TENTS WORDS FROM JESUS

John 5

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 

Jesus said that to a man that He had healed, earlier that same day.

     Sometimes I feel like the world makes Jesus out to be a God who condones all of our sinful actions. It's as if the world tries to tell us, and has convinced many of us, that Jesus is simply okay with us sinning. All we have to do is toss our "repentant" prayer up into the air, and BOOM washed clean. We will be okay. We can continue on in sin....

"What shall we say then?

Shall we continue on in sin so that grace may be abound?

CERTAINLY NOT!!!!" -Paul

     This verse really reached out and caught me, and I don't even think I've begun to grasp how much this verse has caught me. To know that Jesus doesn't just sit and condone sin, and to know how much we act as if He does. 

      Notice that He doesn't say that He will do something bad to us, but instead that it is our sin that does bad to us. Jesus says these words to this man in love. "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." These words must be loving words. I sense an urgency in these words! "STOP SINNING!"

     Sin is a destroyer;in fact, God's word says that it seeks to devour(Genesis 4:6) us, and it is the weapon of one who seeks to kill us(John 10:10) 

I'm not saying we could ever be perfect here on this earth,

but I do think that we should take sin more seriously.

I imagine this man who had been healed 

didn't take sin seriously up until this moment.

He sinned and treated it as if it wasn't bad....

Kind of like having an infected leg, and not getting it treated...

Eventually you either have to cut it off or it spreads and destroys and eventually 

......

well eventually it kills

Healing is found in Christ, and when we receive His healing

we ought not open the wound back up!

Anything Else But You

     Sometimes that is how we live towards God isn't it. God I know You told me to do this, but right now I'm not feeling Your word, so I'm going to listen to anything or anyone else but You.....

     Oh man how deadly that is. To quench the Spirit of God and go about our fleshly ways. It always lands us in trouble, and sometimes it just leads us to death, and I literally mean death. If we look in God's word we see people taking their focus and trust off of God and putting in many different things. Things that lead them to dark places of sin or to death.

     Now obviously if you are reading this right now you have not been lead to your death, but lets take a look at one huge moment in God's word when someones unwillingness to follow God, the same God that time and time again had rescued his people and done great things before him, led him to his death. 

1 Chronicles 10:13

13 Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the Lord because he did not keep the Lord’s word. He even consulted a medium for guidance,

    Lets look at what's going on here though. God had given Saul instructions, and not only did Saul disobey God's instructions, but he thought it would be okay to consult a medium for guidance. A medium being a person supposedly used as a spiritual intermediary between the dead and the living.... Someone who supposedly conjurs up spirits.

    Saul was no noob to who God is. The spirit of God had come upon him many times. He prophesied and God even brought Saul through great battles, but for some reason Saul stopped trusting God, and decided to trust anything else. This decision ultimately led him to his death. Saul was a great leader when he trusted in God, but the moment he started trusting himself, things just began to go downhill and straight into a pit of death.

This happens to us in our spiritual lives

     When we are trusting God, we see Him bring us through the greatest of battles in life. We see Him empower us to do great things. When we trust God we walk with Him on this epic adventure to change eternity for lost souls.

     When we trust anything else, we may see what looks like progress for a moment, but the walls will surely come crumbling down on us. 

     We see the death of ministries when people trust in themselves. We see the lost stay lost when people trust in themselves. We see Christians fall away from the church when people trust in themselves. We will see people literally just DIE telling God "No I won't trust you! I will find someone else to take advice from." 

     Trusting in ourselves doesn't just lead to sin. It IS sin! When we say to God "I won't trust You!" We are sinning, and it only gets darker and darker from there. We lead ourselves toward death, all the while Christ still stands saying "Turn around and follow me." The more we refuse to listen to that call, the darker it gets for us. Rightfully so. If we separate ourselves from the source of light in a dark world then we only end up in darkness.

The Beauty of this Situation

Though we lead ourselves into darkness

when we turn around in repentance

Jesus is there!

He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us 

from all unrighteousness

Even in the dark 

we can still see the light

all we have to do is turn around

Urgent!

     You know a few days ago I read a quote from D.L. moody. Now I'm about to paraphrase because I can't find it right now, but the quote was along the lines of "What business does a messenger of God have changing the message?" The question has been on my mind lately. This morning as I'm just spending time in God's word reading Jeremiah, God spoke to me.
     God was sending Jeremiah to stand in the court of His, the LORD'S, house and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship there. But God said something to Jeremiah that really just jumped out at me.

Jeremiah 26:2

"Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the LORD's house and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the LORD ALL THE WORDS THAT I COMMAND YOU TO SPEAK TO THEM; DO NOT HOLD BACK A WORD.

     All the words that I command you to speak to them do not hold back a word. This was a time when prophets were saying that God was saying things He wasn't saying. This was in a time when prophets were tickling peoples ears with lies, and God was sending Jeremiah a true servant of the Lord into a danger zone. These people had accepted all the lies and were headed to disaster. Not only had they accepted the lies, but they grew comfortable with them. God was sending Jeremiah with TRUTH something that was about to flip their worlds upside down. 

    God continues on to say in verse 3 

"It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds."

and then in verses 4-5

"You shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets WHOM I SEND TO YOU URGENTLY, though you have no listened

now I stop there because what's in bold are the things that jumped out to me most

not the parts about the people in sin, but the parts about those who are on mission with God

     We are on mission with God, and it is an urgent mission. He has given us His word and we are to proclaim His word in all the earth. The chain breaking, life giving gospel has been given to us, and this world is in a state of emergency. We as His children, as His people, as His servants must not hold back a word from the rest of the world. IT MAY BE THEY WILL LISTEN, AND TURN FROM EVIL AND WALK IN THE LIGHT OF SALVATION, AND JOIN US IN MISSION WITH GOD, AND JOIN US IN ETERNITY WITH HIM!

The message of the gospel!

It's Good news,

but it is also URGENT

Missed....

     They are aren't they? Not just in a sense of how people are these days, but think about how often we tell ourselves "I've got time. I'll get around to it."
     Only to never get around to whatever it may be. Oh the days are evil. Tricking us into believing that we have time to waste.

God says to His Children in Ephesians 5:15-17

look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,

making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is

     Those days when we just know God is calling us to do something! Those days when we don't feel Him calling us to do something, but can recall the great commission. We have to be on guard because those "get around to it" thoughts are sure to pop up. Though we have the intentions of getting around to it, we often don't. We will miss out on so much wasting time. Full days spent on video games or spent watching a series of a television show on netflix. Cooped up in a house by ourselves not reaching out to anyone. Oh but we will get around to it someday. Right?

we will right?

Today is our day

we've gotta make the most of what is now

we simply have no idea what is to come

they could die...

we could die...

we could simply never see them again....

and just like that

opportunity to impact eternity...

Missed

My prayer is that God would remind us

that we as His children need to make the most of the time He's given us

that He would remind us of the mission we are on together

that we wouldn't get so caught up in wasting time, but instead

using that time so that others may know Him!

"Missions exists because worship doesn't" -John Piper

lets remember this!!

     

Don't lead them astray!

Jeremiah 23:28

Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream,

but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully

Faithfully- 1. In a loyal manner.

2. In a manner that is true to the facts or the original

     Really quickly lets take a look back at what was going on here. Jeremiah was writing at a time when people were prophesying "Thus says the Lord" things that God was definitely not saying. God was confronting this issue in a very big way. You see God has never been a fan of false prophets! The people were living lives that were slapping God in the face, yet these prophets were telling them that it was okay. Not just telling them that it was okay, but they were telling them that God was saying that it was okay! GOD DID NOT, NOR DOES HE NOW LIKE THIS!!!! The people were being led astray by the prophets. Led eternally astray by them. All the while, God was speaking through Jeremiah telling of the destruction that would come to the people if they kept living the way that they were. 

     People were worshipping idols. Man made idols. They would actually offer their babies up to one particular god known as Baal. They would burn their own children in hopes order to worship this huge statue, and the prophets were saying this was okay. 

This is what God has to say about that

Jeremiah 23:16-17

Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They say continually to those who despise the words of the LORD, 'it shall be with you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you."

     Understand that what God is calling out here are the words of FALSE PROPHETS! Something huge stands out here. in verse 17 God calls out a lie from the false prophets "And to everyone who stubbornly FOLLOWS HIS OWN HEART, they say, 'No disaster shall come upon you.'" 

Woah woah wait wait wait

    If that's the lie, then the truth must be that those who stubbornly follow their own hearts shall soon find disaster... But we live in a world that tells us all the time to follow our hearts. Don't we? In fact, don't some of us(Christians) tell people it's okay to follow their hearts? 

     I'm reminded of the last youth camp that I played at. The speaker was talking on this matter, and made it a point to say "I can't stand when people say to follow your heart." Can I just say I completely understand and agree with this statement. You see when we tell people it's okay to simply follow the heart, we become false prophets. We lead people astray! Just as these prophets were leading God's people into disaster, so do we when we tell people it's okay to follow the heart. "Why?" you ask. 

Genesis 8:21

"......For the intentions of a man's heart is evil from His youth."

The honesty of the situation is that

our hearts are just not fit to lead us in a good direction

because apart from Christ....

our hearts are busted and filled with evil desire

     As the people of God, we must first of all be willing to follow Christ and yield to the Holy Spirit regardless of how we feel at the time, secondly remember that in Him we've been given a new heart one that is no longer busted and is filled by Him, and finally we must be truthful about God's word. We must not twist it to fit what we want others to hear lest we lead others eternally astray into disaster and away from abundant life!

Don't be a false prophet

That just aint cool 

In our words and our actions

let's lead others to Christ and not astray

I knocked and love opened the door everytime...

     Ya know I've never been so free as I am today. Now that I look back on how God has continued to free me from things holding me down, I realize that He has brought me so far from where I began, a lost sinner stuck in the belief that this world was golden. He's brought me closer to Him to the truth that He is all I'll ever need. He is my hearts desire. He is my reason for living. He is the provider of the abundance of my life, and He gives so graciously. He rescued me from the dead life, and has poured abundant life out onto me as I've followed Him since. 

    Now don't get it twisted. This hasn't happened just because I said some prayer, but because I've sought God out in my life, and as I've knocked He has answered. He has revealed Himself to me as I have searched for Him. Whether it has been with the bad breakups, the feelings of loneliness, or even just every day "simple" things in life. As I've sought Him out, He has shown Himself to me, and has lead me to places I'd never have dreamed. 

    There were times when I would lose focus of Him though, and those times often started off with me thinking I had things all figured out. Especially when it came to relationships... I let one person into my life for six years that I thought that I could rescue, and sought with my heart to rescue. Meanwhile God was calling me to just let go. That relationship was causing me way to much stress, and in the end I would always get hurt. When I finally just surrendered that to God, the most amazing things happened. One I found freedom in the fact that I was able to stand up and say "no more" because of the strength found in Him to persevere. Two I got my relational focus back onto Christ, who has helped me to pour it out on those who treasure me. Three I've learned to treasure the right things: Christ, my friends, justice, opportunities to share the gospel, the passion to lead worship that God has given me. God has awakened my heart more and ore in life, as the things that get in the way get surrendered. 

     I use this example simply because I know that people can really understand this example. I don't know how things went for the other person. I do know that God has revealed Himself, in something I thought would be a tragic loss, to be my hearts deepest desire.

So I'll Chase You

I'll Chase You to the ends of the earth

and God I wont stop cause I know that You're worth it

You're worth it 

Yes You are

Emotional Disaster

Today

I was looking forward to a good day

but this morning when I woke up

all I could think about is all that I've lost in the past 6 months

     It's crazy though every thing I lost in the past 6 months has been something I thought was good for me that just ended up hurting me in the long run, and since I've lost those things and just been running toward God, and even shutting the door on opportunities to pick those things back up again... For some reason this morning I feel as if I've lost.... After such an amazing weekend that God brought me through and blessed and I know He is even blessing me now with His comfort and presence here and now.... I feel.... well ya know that feeling in your chest when you're just upset about something. That's how I feel. 

so here's what I'll hold onto in the midst of this emotional disaster

Romans 8:28 for we know that God works all things together

for the good of those who love Him

and are called to His purpose

not all good things happen to those who love Him and are called to His purpose,

but whatever happens good or bad He molds it into something that

works out for the good of those who love Him and are called to His purpose

God's gonna bring me through this day

He's all I got to hold on to

Beginning of a Judas Kiss

     Last night things were very slow at work, and that gave me some time to pop out the kindle and spend some extra time in God's word. I began reading through Matthew chapter 26 and something popped out at me. In Matthew 26 we see a woman with a very expensive bottle of perfume, and I do mean VERY EXPENSIVE, pour it all out on Jesus. We see a beautiful picture of pure worship. We see a beautiful picture of pure ministry. This woman was giving all there was to her name to worship Jesus!
     As the disciples looked on at this situation, they became very pharasitic<---- made up word :). They started to rebuke her under their breath. I can imagine they were saying things to each other like

"Oh she's crazy!"

"That is very expensive perfume! Why would she do that!?"

we know they said "She could've sold it and gave that money to the poor."

     But what they didn't get was that this was an act of worship! They didn't quite at this moment understand giving their all, simply because Jesus is worthy. They had walked with Him and talked with Him for so long, but didn't quite understand this act of passion. So Jesus rebuked them. He explained to them that the poor would be with them later, but He would not. Jesus was getting ready to go to the cross, and here this woman is still saying "YOU ARE WORTHY OF MY PRAISE!" 

     Not with her voice, no, but with her actions.

     When Judas saw this I can imagine something terrible happened in him. He simply gave up on Jesus. The life that Jesus called them too was "too hard" or "too crazy" for them. He felt inside that Jesus needed to go. So he went and it gets me even how we asked the question. "How much will you give me if I give Jesus over to you?"

WOAH!!!! 

Judas hadn't even put any worth in Christ......

Think about that question!

He wasn't even willing to haggle!

THEY GAVE HIM 30 PIECES OF SILVER!!!!!

COME ON!!!!!

now yes we are well aware that this had to happen

for Jesus to go to the cross

this was prophesied, but lets really think about how this went down

in the heart of Judas

     Judas was a disciple. He had seen Christ do great things, and he even did great things in Jesus name, such as cast out demons and many other things that many will say LORD LORD about (Matthew 7:22-23), but there was still a disconnect. A disconnect with the heart of Judas and who Jesus is. I imagine that Jesus wanted super power Jesus, who only did miracles, and used His powers to gain earthly status, but such was not the case. Jesus wasn't who Judas wanted Him to be, and eventually that got to Judas. Judas had yet to accept Christ as who He truly is. Not just some earthly king here to overthrow the government, and free the jews, but the Lord of all here to overthrow the powers of sin, break chains, and restore us back to God. Judas didn't get that. He wanted action and he wanted it now, and when it finally clicked for Judas that Jesus wasn't who he thought He'd be, Judas walked out with his heart.

     Judas was with Christ all that time and yet he still had a misplaced belief of who Christ is. Once his belief fell through, he found Christ as worthless, and thus began the beginning of the Judas kiss.

Oh but how often do we see this in todays culture

many grow up in the church believing things about Christ that are wrong

yet they wont go and spend time in His word to truly know Him

after all it is the preachers job to tell us about Jesus

Many parents don't spend time teaching their children about Christ

after all that is AWANA's job

that's the youth pastors job

that's the life group leader, or sunday school teachers job

Lack of being in God's word

leads us to a misplaced belief in who He is

when our beliefs fall through

for the most part we tend to want to walk away

two things

1. If you have walked away because Christ isn't who you thought that He was

I challenge you to read the gospels and see who He IS

2. If you have a belief in who Christ is, but you KNOW YOU DON'T SPEND TIME IN THE WORD, GET THERE FAST!!! Don't end up finding out that you never knew Christ!

YOU DON'T WANT THAT!!

Nobody Knows The Day Nor The Hour

Tis True

Nobody but God know the day nor the hour that Jesus is coming back

ah the end of the world

we quote that scripture a lot

the whole nobody knows the day nor the hour,

but I wonder how many of us remember what else was said there

I wonder if many actually paid attention to the part about the signs of the end

     Yesterday on my journey through the book of Matthew I made it to chapter 24 and I realized something. I realized that though God's word does say that nobody know the day nor the hour, He doesn't leave us in the dark about the signs. He says that there will be many coming and saying that they are Him, but they will be false yet still deceive many. There will be wars and rumors of wars. There will be earthquakes in various places, and what I gather from various places is that there will be earthquakes where earthquakes should not be. There will be famine in many places, and He says that this is just the beginning of the birth pains of the return of the King!

    

Think about that though. 

Those things sound horrific. Don't they? 

But these are signs of the returning of our KING! 

They are signs of the true ruler of the world coming to reveal Himself to the world!

In all of His splendor and all of His glory!

     Jesus says later that there will be great persecution upon His people! People will be betrayed by friends and loved ones for Christ name sake. The persecution the church will face will not be simple internet bullying, or dealing with arguments at school, work, or other places. No the persecution we will face will be us being put to death! But Jesus says in verse 13 

"But the one who endures will be delivered!"

Which brings me to today

as children of God

as the Kingdom of God

the question we must ask ourselves

is this

Where do we stand?

Think about that question...

There are clearly rough times ahead

Will we choose to endure in Christ or will we relent to this world

that choice is not a choice that can be made 

when the time comes

but one that must be made DAILY

it's a choice that must be put into practice DAILY

how can we expect to stand for Christ in the midst of all that

if we won't even say His name in public now,

if we won't even spend time with Him now,

and if we won't live for Him now

what will we ever do when that time comes?

Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross;
Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss.
From victory unto victory His army shall He lead,
Till every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed

     

Something beautiful?

     Last night before youth group, my day seemed to be falling apart. From having problems with my family to issues with our church sound system. I had plans for that day, and none of them came to fruition. God had different plans. I just didn't realize it yet. I probably will never really understand what God's intention on everything was, but it was a most humbling day for me. You see I had a worship set planned. A ROCKING WORSHIP SET! It was supposed to be EPIC! The first night of 2013 BRINGING IN THE NEW YEAR WOOHOO!!! Oh but God had something different planned. Something better. Something that nearly brought me to tears quite a few times.
     First the truck was taken by a family member so I had to find another way to get to church, and when we stepped into the fellowship hall to practice we noticed that someone had tampered with the sound system. Everything was turned all the way down and no sound men were there to help us get things back on track. Now as for turning things up, we totally understand that, but someone had tampered with it in another way, and we absolutely couldn't fix stuff at all. We've had this issue before though. We were kind of hoping not to do an acoustic set. Turns out that's what God wanted. This was the first time that I was able to really hold my composure under this circumstance, which shows me that God is growing me.
     During the practice I found myself throwing up silent prayers about my pride. Though I was holding my composure, on the inside I was angry with the fact that people would mess with that sound system again. It had just got fixed and it was great! I had plans for it! To be honest on the inside I was pissed off. My bandmates were trying to make jokes with me, but it was just making things worse, but I had to hold my composure. That is one of the hardest things to do. When you really just want to tear into someone for something they have said or done, but the only things you can do to make it better is accept that they did it and forgive them. Stuff just seemed to be piling up! The printer stopped working for some reason, so I couldn't print out new music, and with the time spent trying to put everything back together I couldn't quite get the words to get onto the screen.
     It seemed like a disaster.

Sometimes the beginning of something beautiful

seems like a disaster

     Before we began I really didn't want to talk about the sound system issue, and the first thing our youth pastor did was let the group know that the sound system was down once again. -_- sigh

Then we began to play the song "Your Love Never Fails"

All that stuff seemed to go away 

when faced with these words

"Nothing can separate even if I run away.

 Your love never fails. I know I still make mistakes but, 

You have new mercies for me everyday. Your Love never fails."

My heart had to turn away from the fact that technology had failed

that my family had failed me that day

that I felt like I was failing other people

and I realized something

I can't plan the Holy Spirit moving

I don't get to make the plans of how God is going to show up,

but I do get to join Him where He is

I don't get to choose what God is going to use for His purpose,

but He does let me join in on the mission

     That's when the peace came over me. There were actually times where I almost just couldn't say words because I wanted to cry. So they probably kinda sounded like slurred words, but just thinking about my day and how much faith I had put in so much stuff it just hit me. I'd put my faith in me, the truck, the sound system, my family, and the printer. All of these things let me down that day, and even still. GOD DIDN'T! He instead used all of my misplaced faith to show me what I was missing out on. 

2 Timothy 2: 13

if we are faithless He remains faithful,

for He cannot deny Himself

     So caught up. I'm seeing that God is really showing me how easily my focus can be rattled lately. Not just for the purpose of saying "HEY YOU SUCK" but for the purpose of saying "Here's something I'm working out of you." It was peaceful to sit there with a piano and sing about God. Just to sing about who He is. He reminded me and the those worshipping with me of who He is. . . . 

funny thing is....

had things gone my way....

we would have never done that first song

we would have rocked out

and no change in my heart would have been made

I would have went home thinking to myself

. . . .

that was fun

. . . . 

instead

I went home changed

Romans 8:28

for we know that God makes ALL(this includes the hard things) things

work together for the good of those who love Him

and are called to HIS purpose

it's His purpose

we don't get to pick how He carries it out

but we do get to join in and experience Him do GREAT things

things beyond our imagination

We get to see Him take things we think are small

and blow the worlds minds with them

BECAUSE HE'S JUST THAT GREAT