Who Am I? Who Are You?

“I wish that for just one time, you could stand inside my shoes, and just for that one moment, I could be you”- “Positively 4th Street”~Bob Dylan
Who do you say I am?
I think lately, I’ve been dealing with the idea that people have an idea of who I am, but they don’t actually know me. To know of something, is to have an idea of it, but to Know something is deep. It’s an intensive definition. I like the way Bob Dylan talks about this concept in this interview. If you want to watch the whole thing, I reccommend it. But if not, and you just want to know my reference, then you should watch starting at 3:00. While it is entertaining, there are some real concepts to what he's rambling about.



I don’t want to come across as the type to just be upset at the world, we all should be that type anyway. I think, I’ve got this notion that no person (here on earth) really knows me. I’m glad my relationship with Jesus Christ says differently. When I read Psalm 139, it reassures me that I’m alright. I like what David records in the first few verses:
“You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
You, LORD, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain. “-Psalm 139:1-6

Right there in the very first verse. “You know me”. I’m so thankful to have the Creator of the universe Know me. He doesn’t look at my history; He doesn’t hold me at fault for who I used to be. I really believe the Scriptures when it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, that I am a “new creation”. Do you? Do you think you are liable for the person you were? Do you think you are limited by who you once were, and disbelieve that the Lord can change you? I think it’s worldly to think amongst Christians that we will always do that which we have always done. If you really believe this, then it’s false. What Hope is that? That says you’ll never change, and you’ll never become closer to God. That your righteousness is in a sense, based on who you were. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”- 2 Corinthians 5:21
I don’t believe those that have the false doctrine that we’ll always do what we have done. If someone is focusing their whole person on Christ, and His goodness, how could they not come away changed? How could they not be someone else? The disciples were ordinary men (Acts 4:13), but had clearly been with Jesus. Do you see that in your brothers and sisters? A verse that rocks me to the soul is found in 1st Samuel.
“…The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7b
The Lord sees your heart. He doesn’t see just your outer shell. You may walk around with an idea, of who you are, and maybe people view you in a certain way, but the Lord sees differently. It is intimate. To Know someone’s heart is another level. I don’t need anyone to see me for what God has put in my heart, my security rests in what He says about me. Despite all of my shortcomings, there is love in me; there are things to be done.
I think our identities can be wrapped up in our baggage sometimes, as well. Where you’ve been, who you were hurt by, or who you hurt need to be reckoned with Jesus. In sincere repentance, and sincere devotion to His saving power, that baggage doesn’t need to follow you. With a burden that is light and a yoke that is easy (Matthew 11:30), Jesus actually wants to take your baggage. What a marvelous gift, we just have to be sure to give Him our hurt, our wounds, and our failures. When we do that, we will Know Him more, and we will experience the freedom that He gives us.
So now, let us love one another in Christ, and not in our circumstances. God’s done a mighty work in me, to change the awful boy that I once was, into a broken, saved child. We’re still sinful, and we need to know where we fall, but the fear to stop trying doesn’t come from God. A fear to love, a fear to go on is from the enemy. We have to be careful that we don’t take that fear in to our hearts, and embrace it. But embrace the power of God, and embrace the love that offers us. After all, God’s love has conquered the grave.

Square One, Before Ministry

Ministry and intimacy. We think they conflict for some reason. Often times, I think that ministry and worshipping are two separate acts. But in reality, they are intertwined and so connected that it’s ridiculous! In fact, Graham Cooke says this, “ALL of life is spiritual, so all of your life is a ministry.” What a great Truth to remember! If we aren’t walking in the Spirit, not talking to the Father, not experiencing the Spirit of God, then we are failing to do life with Him. He is worthy of our love and thoughts. And even as I write this, you have to know this comes at a time of fluctuation. I haven’t been feeling this. Times have been hard, and not easy to be in the Spirit like I enjoy and was created to be in. But, God draws me back to Himself, showing me that this world just cannot cut it. That chasing after Him is an everyday, every moment sprint. It’s fast. We can’t have any part of us that is lagging or wanting to go back. The biggest scare that I have had has been to be walking the same way and the same speed I did when I first became a Christian. It was good for then, but now He is calling me to give even more, to love Him even more. Why? Because He deserves every breath I breathe, every thought I think, every smile I smile. He deserves my worship. And, He is my greatest delight. The joy of the Lord is my strength (as written in Nehemiah 8:10). How true of a statement that really is. In times of struggle, I think we can all count the losses, and the heartaches. We feel the brokenness. We feel the weight of our shame. As Paul even wrote about suffering:
“We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us”-2 Corinthians 1:8b-10
We have to rely on God. Not ourselves. Last time I checked, I didn’t possess any power in the confines of my weak flesh to overcome my circumstances. But the power of God can. And He does. It is when we worship Him, that we proclaim His beauty, power, steadfast love, and comfort over our hurt as well as the enemy. Jesus said that if we abide in Him, and ask anything in His Name, He will do it (John 15:7). The power of our pleas, requests and proclamations have to be understood. The Holy Spirit inside of us can proclaim eternal yells and truths. Our praises not only reach God whom we worship but pierce the enemy who is after our soul.
I hope this encourages the Church to realize that there is power in the words He gives us. There is Life that is spoken. Love the Lord. Love people around you. Give yourself to Him and give your words to Him. He will honor you in His Kingdom, and on earth. Let Him resurrect you out of the grave of shame and disappointment, and allow Him to sink the gospel into you. It is a fight we have to fight until He comes back.

The Father's Will; My Joy

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one."
- Matthew 6:9-13
I think something that has been really become true for me to pray is “Your Will be done”. How hard it can be to pray that. But what is in the Father’s Will? Only goodness, peace, and love come with the Father’s Will. He has loved us with an everlasting love and has drawn us with an everlasting kindness (Jeremiah 31:3). With that being said, He is not a god that He can fail…or lie. How often do we treat God as if He is a friend we had in high school that stabbed us in the back? All the time. We act like God isn’t God. Something I struggle with is really trusting that His Will can actually bring me happiness and Joy. I always feel as though His Will could almost hurt my happiness. But it is when I sacrifice my limited, dirty, and weak will that I can see Him for who He really is. The question is this, can I allow my heart to believe this:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. “
-Jeremiah 29:11-13

If I honestly believed that, then I would clearly see that my plans can’t prosper me like my Father’s, and that my plans would in fact, harm me. And I know that is true. This passage also says I will find the Lord when I seek Him with all my heart. I will find Him! Not His stuff, or His gifts, but the Lord Himself. And that is what we desire ultimately. I want to love God because He is worthy of my worship; not because of what that will mean for me in return.
Ultimately, I want to look at Jesus. That’s all I really want to do.

“Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.”
- Psalm 34:5
I will be radiant when I look to Him. No more shame. I will be radiant!

“For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light. “
- Psalm 36:9
Jesus is our fountain of life. The Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). He is our whole purpose here. And through Him, we can see Him, and His Light. I want to be in that light of His.

“Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart. “
- Psalm 37:4
This is a great verse. Firstly, delight yourself in Him. Take pleasure in in Him, enjoy Him, adore Him. That is key! Also, the Lord really broke me of something regarding this verse. I used to see it as in delighting once in a while and then expecting, “Okay, God…why are You not giving me the desires of my heart already? They have to be good, because I’ve delighted, haven’t I?” That doesn’t work! So, “Delight yourself….” Is not a once in awhile thing. It is a constant devotion and dedication. I don’t think anyone ever delighted in something once. Delighting in the Lord must be constant. He can change our hearts if we give them up to Him.

My goal is to seek the Lord. And I want to be filled in the Spirit, to be joyful in Him, and to not worry about anything about my relationship with Him.
“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
- Ephesians 5:18
Or as The Message says:
“Don't drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him” - Ephesians 5:18 (The Message)
Jesus enriches my life, and all my broken cisterns leave me restless.


Father, in You, I commit my trust, and my Spirit. It is Yours. Do with me what You choose; You are my security, and my Joy. I can’t leave Your presence without feeling changed. Change me. Fall on me more, I want to see You. That is all I want.

Reconciliation

“For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. “
-Romans 5:10-11

I have been doing a lot of thinking about what that word, reconciliation, really means. What does it mean? I think often times; we desire reconciliation, peace, armistice between us and the ones that we love. We hate awkwardness and desire conformability with us and those around us. All too often, this type of reconciliation falls short because of our sinfulness, our selfishness, and our pride. To be humbled enough to forgive someone, is in-human. How can we forgive someone who has hurt us, and won’t be able to save us from our own scars? I think we desire that peace because to be at odds with someone is hardly the way we wish to live. We wish to live with our ducks in a row, to live like we have it all figured out. But, I’ve grown to learn we don’t. Often times we burn our bridges before we can apologize.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”
-Matthew 5:23-24

I have begun to grow even more thankful now that I know the true reconciliation that is in our Lord, Christ Jesus. Had He not atoned, forgave, and reconciled us; we’d be living one life full of unrest, cynicism, and disunity. But we don’t have to! Jesus has already paid that debt. That debt that lingers in our hearts of not being okay with each other.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
- 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

We have to remember that we have to be first reconciled to God. He is using us to make one giant, extraordinary, grand, lovely, majestic, marvelous, wonderful, splendid effort of offering “the message of reconciliation” to people all around us. Offering Jesus Christ’s love to someone is heavy, and the fact that His Spirit dwells in us allows us to make that happen. If it weren’t for Him living inside, we’d be full of arrogant apologies, silly accusations, and stupid excuses.

Reminds me of the Year of Jubilee (a Jewish tradition where all debts would be cancelled for that year):

“Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.”
-Deuteronomy 15:10-11

So go out, be reconciled with your Maker. Be reconciled with His love. Don’t worry when people come against you, burning bridges you want to maintain. He is your Grand Architect; He has already made that Bridge through Jesus.

Worship

For me, as a drummer, worship is something I long to be a part of. What is more significant than worship music? I haven’t anything. What I love is that worship is so free. Spirit-led. It’s taking gifts from God and allowing the Holy Spirit to move in a group to bring praise. That’s all.

“Then David and all Israel played music before God with all their might, with singing, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on cymbals, and with trumpets. “
-1 Chronicles 13:8

I have been able to witness a few Spirit-led people in worship.

MorningStar Ministries ( http://www.morningstarministries.org/ )
Anyone from there. They understand worship because they know it is about dedicated, un-divided devotion to worshipping our Saviour.

John Mark McMillan / All The Bright Lights (http://thejohnmark.com/ )
He understands what it is to bring God praise. Period. It is all about allowing the Holy Spirit to move. Seeing him live, as well as his backing band open was a unique experience. All The Bright Lights truly worshipped. Minimal lyrics, yet so worshipful.

Jonathan David Helser (http://www.jonathanhelser.com/jonathanhelser/Home.html )
I saw him lead worship at MorningStar, and it was so pure. He worships & he is so submissive to the Spirit. I suggest you buy his albums as soon as possible.

Rob Walden ( http://www.mycalvarymusic.net/ )
He played drums at the “AL!VE” conference I attended in December through Campus Outreach. I had never witness someone understand his role in worship until I was able to see him play drums with the Josh Ridings Band. Check out his group, MyCalvary.

I say all this to say that worship is so freeing. We make it so structured. We make it so predictable. We need to allow the HS to lead us to worship. Feel the freedom in worship. God intends for us to worship Him however we are led to. Don’t let anyone tell you to be restrained what is in the norms. Embrace your identity in Christ and embrace the unparalleled love He has for us.

Proverbs 31:30 (Not Just A Girl's Verse)

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”

This post is going to be broken into two audiences.

Fellas:
I just want to share with you how real this verse is. If you write this off as, “Oh, that’s just one of those verses all the Christian girls I know like…” and don’t give it a second thought, then I’d encourage you to study it. If it is one thing I have experienced, it is this: “beauty” and charm are a dime a dozen. So, there has to be that “other” factor. Because if everyone is beautiful and charming, what makes someone worth giving any recognition to? A woman who follows the Lord, and knows what is worthy and good in life is rare. If the purpose of being married is to be glorifying Christ, then it only makes sense to want to be with someone who is seeking Him, and wants to encourage you to do the same. I’ll end this with one last thing; wait on Him, and seek Him more, and you will see what He finds beautiful.

Ladies:
I know you have heard this verse (probably a million times). But don’t become calloused to it. It is true! If a girl’s heart is caught up in Jesus, then I’d say the transitive property would prove that if Jesus is attractive, then so is the girl is who is caught up in Jesus. Make sense? As with the rest of the Bible, this verse is really important, and be encouraged knowing it is true. And all I have to say is, keep seeking Him, and keep following. Because Jesus is beautiful. And He makes all of His followers beautiful.

I had learned this awhile ago, but I never put it in a blog. I learned by experience, spending time with Jesus, and His Word.

The HS

The HS. The Holy Ghost. The Spirit. I have become so fascinated by the Holy Spirit. The very fact that Jesus Christ lives inside of us amazes me. If there is any way to explain that properly, I think every believer fails at it. I mean, how awesome is our God to come into our lives? Literally.
Here is one passage from Luke that really amazed me:

"Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
-Luke 17:20-21(New King James Version)

A Sufjan Stevens line:

“You gave Your Ghost,
To be alone with me”
-from “To Be Alone With You” (Seven Swans)

Another verse:

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
-John 14:16-17 (New International Version, ©2010)

I am just amazed by the Joy, Peace, Hope, Confidence, Comfort, Love we gain from Christ. Thanks be to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus,
I want to worship everyday in Your presence. I pray Your Spirit would fall on me heavier each time, and I pray that I can see Your face more each time I pray. I praise You for not only dying for my sin, resurrecting for me to have a relationship with You, but also for giving me Your Holy Spirit to feel and experience You.

And, I have to add a John Mark McMillan quote to end this post…

“Make my chest a place where Your Heart can rest”
- from “Who Can See”