Peace, Power, Presence

Recently, I have learned, and reasoned that life without His presence, peace and power is a life full of gifts but lacks a giver.  Even if we get what we think we need, or what we think we truly want, we will fail to really enjoy them.  In a sense, your birthday gifts when you were younger were awesome, but you really wanted a party that included your friends and family along with them.  Gifts require presence.  Otherwise, they are simply gifts that don’t satisfy a deeper longing; the longing of belonging.  Sounds redundant? Interesting that belonging includes the word “longing”.  We all want to belong to Something, Someone, or Someplace.  This is our nature, and also our destiny.  And Jesus knows this more than we know.  He wants to give us more than we really can comprehend in life.  I’m not preaching prosperity gospel, so don’t get scared.  What I’m saying is that His love is more real than the frailty of the circumstances in life.  In this I want to say that yes, the Lord will honor people’s desires of their hearts so that they can best worship and serve Him, and I also want to say with an even stronger yes, the Lord will give us Himself.

 Brokenness cannot be substituted.  I think our culture has taught us absolute numbness leads to absolute happiness.  In this, “If it’s not there, then it doesn’t exist.” This couldn’t be further from the truth, though.  I think I have tried that more than a few hundred times.  I try to believe a lie that the pain that is present can be ignored, so long as I say it isn’t really, truly there.  The longer we isolate from the healing, the longer we remain hurt.  It’s only natural that healing can be painful, but this is the pattern of metamorphosis.  It isn’t easy, but it’s worthy.  Being honest with ourselves and being honest with the Lord is what will release the power of His healing in our lives.  I’m not going to include all of 2 Peter 1: 3-11, but you ought to read it.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”- 2 Peter 1:3 & 4

We have been given everything to live out that which we were called to.  We are asked to live in the faith that the things that we seek in the gifts themselves have already been provided to us in Jesus.  I just want to say, life isn’t easy, especially in waiting for the things you feel you’re going to be given.  But, I think of Jesus’ life, and the joy that He carried.  He didn’t go through His life with the doom of the crucifixion.  Instead, He went forward with the love of God firm and overflowing in His heart, ready to enjoy the life He had ahead of Him (and more importantly), the life before Him in the present, and ready to share that infectious love of the Father with people He encountered. 

So now, you who are weary, rest in the love of God that is ready for you. The Lord has tailored His affections to each child to show them a personal kind of love, and it is ready for you.  Focusing on the Father and His infinite love will lead us to His heart. And this is good; His heart is full of peace, life and joy. 

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”- Philippians 4:7

Missing Meals

I had this thought today about eating and prayer.  Seems logical, to me anyway.  Nowadays, there’s a belief that we’ve been getting it wrong with eating three times a day.  There’s even room to say that maybe we ought to be eating more, say, six total meals, instead.  That would be more like grazing throughout the day, instead of only eating large portions at certain times of the day. Today, I only ate one meal.  It is after eating this meal and not feeling too well that I had a thought about the connection between prayer and meals.  How awful that felt to wait all day and then only to eat dinner. If I feel discomfort, I’m sure that this cannot be a healthy choice, either.  That discomfort and poor choice reminded me of Deuteronomy 8, where God talks about what we live on. 

“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”- Deuteronomy 8:3

I have loved this chapter since my sophomore year of college, but I thought about living on bread alone and living on the words that proceed from the Lord.  It is kind of profound to think that is what we live on.  I mean, really. Alive in Christ and that is our way of being sustained and satiated. 

Who could forget Jesus’ own words about who He is in regards to food. 

“but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”- John 4:14

Jesus is the Living Water, and we have the ability to draw from Him whenever we choose. There’s no well we’re waiting for.  The Holy Spirit dwells within every son and daughter and is there for the drawing.

To even address what was said way back in Deuteronomy, there’s another identity stated by Jesus in John 6.

“Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”- John 6:32-35

After reading everything, we see the dangers of eating once a day in regards to food. But, I am becoming more aware of the real dangers of only eating of the Bread of Life once a day, and drinking from the Living Water once a day. We ought to be eating and drinking spiritually more than just once a day, and continually at that.  Meeting at the well and at the table of God’s Presence all day, and frequently at that.

Love Motivated Purification

I’ve been meaning to blog for some time but I had no idea how to contextualize or articulate all that I have needed to and wanted to share. 

Here’s a verse I ran across that I really like. 
“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”- 2 Corinthians 7:1 (NIV84)

The war between flesh and spirit is one that is in constant need of prayer and life in pursuit of being fully consumed by the Holy Spirit. I have seen my flesh get way ahead of me. I have seen myself hurt people, say things, and feel things that bring me down and make me feel that the Spirit had even left me at points, or was not working in me.  I think we’ve all felt that way, but I know better.  I am a temple, and inside of me, is where Jesus has made His home in my heart. Remembering that is absolutely the beginning and the end of where we gain our life as people who hold faith in Jesus.  When Jesus is on the throne of our hearts, the center of our worship, we bring the Kingdom of God with us into everything we do.  When our selfishness, greed, pride, lust, anger is on the throne of our hearts, we bring that into everything we do, too.  

I believe that we can be accustomed to loving and even doing things out of fear, guilt, insecurity, anxiety, etc. and we accept it as the way of life.  But, when I see Jesus for who He is, that is far from true.  We have the choice to love in those things, or love in the Spirit.  The act of purifying ourselves, or as defined, “Extract something from, remove contaminants from, make ceremonially clean, and rid of an unwanted element”.  I think this is great. We cannot simply do less or be less in our flesh.  We have to be made clean, be healed, be filled, be altered, and be changed.  I think of this verse,

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”- 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV)

“All I can do is be me, whoever that is.”- Bob Dylan

The only good in me is Jesus, but the only me I ought to be is my identity in Him.  It is when we see Jesus as the one who brings change every time He shows up that we are changed.  We are always hungry for an experience, but we’re never ready for the outcome, or even opening up the doors and gates of our hearts to receive what He has to offer.  

You know, I really loathe “theology” sometimes.  I think it’s the worn, conditioned view I have of theology.  I think often of the people I really admire, and how authentic and supernatural their theology was; that is what I desire for my own life.  Not saying seminary, theology are all bad things.  Not at all. I just feel that Jesus is seeking worshippers, not people who are simply knowledgeable about the academia of God. When I look at David, his theology was developed through an intrinsic relationship with the Lord.  He didn’t have the opportunity to be Calvinist, Arminian, or whatever pleases the modern ear and brain.  No, David contemplated the goodness of God in his own life, and saw God’s calling on his, and put his entire hope and security in that intimacy that was his inheritance.  

“You have made known to me the path of life;

    you will fill me with joy in your presence,

    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

-Psalm 16:11

“My soul finds rest in God alone;

    my salvation comes from him.

 He alone is my rock and my salvation;

    he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”

-Psalm 62:1-2

It’s time we be a people that is led by Him into whatever our callings are based upon. Led by His love solely, and never through the means and lens of human understanding.  Our victory was won on the Cross, and we need to be refilled, refreshed, and loved every day in response to that.  We must live in the victory that Jesus has already won for us, and live in adoration of Him.  Not so that we can simply stop doing the things that are bad, but so that we can be like Him. After all, isn’t that what we are called to? Denying ourselves, repenting and following Jesus to become like Him and become one with Him more and more?  I feel my lack of love for Jesus.  He is so worthy to love.  He has never let me down, He has always been there, and He has a hope and future for me.  He loves me so much that He was murdered just for me. Every day, I want to fall in love with Jesus.  His love isn’t like ours. If you’re anything like me, you forget all that He has done and does for you.  The crucifixion, and resurrection are not simply things that we just admire, or fancy; they are our life.  

So, let us purify ourselves through the Spirit, so that we can become one with Jesus. So that we can be clean from ourselves. So that we can live for Him. So that we can grasp and take hold of the intimacy that He died to give us.

Faith In The Middle of Disbelief

I think everyone to a degree has faith in something. Now, I’m not saying saving faith, I’m just talking faith in something.  And then, I also say that the same people who have saving faith often forget that they have it. People who know Jesus, however, have something that cannot be taken, shaken, or forsaken. All too often I find myself doubting. You know, like you really feel like you know something, but you forget, and you say “Man, I just don’t know. Maybe I was lied to. Maybe Jesus can’t offer me hope in this area of my life.” And soon, you find yourself in a hole where nothing seems hopeful.  You see your circumstances as bigger than giants, and your enemies seem to have an uncanny ability to breathe down your neck. This is an awful place to be, and I feel like there are so many veins of how I have experienced this as of late. 

For one, our faith can be damaged by many things.  Maybe it’s un-forgiveness.  As in, “That person hurt me in this way, and that way…and now I’m not sure of what I knew before because of their actions”.  I think what kills me every time I think about Jesus and His mission on earth, He never once was thinking to Himself, “Man. Father, these people are nuts, You know? I’m not feeling this. I have every right to judge and not extend any mercy.” Instead, He said things like, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”, and He described Himself as the “bread of life”, the “living water”.  He extended His love to the same people who crucified Him.  I haven’t read it, but, there’s a book that’s been around for 50 years at least called “The Last Temptation of Christ”.  In it, the author highlights an alternate reality where a humanistic, flesh driven Jesus reconsiders what He came down to our mess for, and He even imagines life outside of being crucified. I am in no way condoning this book. But, we as co-heirs with Christ can be astounded that He didn’t even flirt with these ideas.  He never had those thoughts.  He always has and always offers us steadfast love, forgiveness, and kindness. So when we have the mind of Christ, we should apply that mind to our own lives.  Through the Holy Spirit, we can forgive those who “know not what they do” to us. All because of Jesus, we can do something that’s foreign to our humanistic thinking. And, like Jesus we can embrace the peace and comfort of the Father through doing so.

Maybe it’s a lack of belief that your past has been changed. I cannot tell you how many times people I know say “I’m not ready for that__, because when I was at an earlier place in my life, ___happened and so, I’m just not able to get past that.” I hate when I find myself living in the past. I’ve learned that the enemy loves our past. Yes, the enemy makes his dwelling in your past, and who you were.  Did you ever notice that? The Lord gives us a bright future and new plans to prosper us, and the enemy is always bashing what happened to you, and who you used to be over your head to make you lose focus of that.  It’s really interesting.  The Lord loves to show you His goodness to you today, and remind you that your future is set in Him.  Not only that, but He can heal what was once done to you by the enemy. 

I was reading John 6, and I came across some interesting stuff.  Really cool how the Lord just interrupts your life with the Bible to show you your life and what He says about it.  Anyway, in John 6, Jesus is feeding 5,000, walking on water, shows how He is the “bread of life”, and then is deserted by many disciples. I mean.  Did you see that chronology? He shows all of His abilities, faithfulness, and all of the attributes of someone that people could put their full faith in.  But, I love what Jesus says in John 6:36, “But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.”  Jesus shows up on the scene and shows how He is the One, He is everything they have hoped for, and He proves it, and they still disbelieve.

 I always do the same rhythm as these people.  When I read this, I often forget their foolishness is just like mine.  I recall how much doubt and fear that I also fall into.  Even when I experience Jesus, and see Him, I still question.  What Jesus points out is that faith is never produced by sight in and of itself, it is instead, produced by belief.  If we are always in the business of seeing results, like “Affirmation. Proof. Results. Answers.”, we will never have the faith He asks of us.  We’re just as blind as the people who lived with Him, watched Him heal, feed people, walk on water, do miracles and still question, “Are you really who You say You are? Are You going to come through?”; we have lost the plot.  We haven’t really understood what faith is all about.  Faith is the means to believing there is Light at the end of the tunnel; it’s the unsearchable assurance that Jesus is who He says He is. So, let me encourage you in Jesus’ track record. Has He ever failed you? Has He ever hurt you? Take heart, He has overcome your doubt, fear and disbelief. All we have to do is trust in Him.

Driving In The Rain, And Scared

I really like metaphors and cool things like that in the small things. The other day, God really showed me some stuff just in driving to Target. I offered a few guys I know to go with me to Target, just because I needed to get something (and didn't really want to go by myself).  The weather was fine when we were leaving, but there are some things you ought to know about me: driving for me is nerve-wracking, and I don't drive in bad conditions.  As soon as we were leaving school, past the gas station and heading towards Monroe, the rain really let down. It was pretty rough. I thought about turning back, because I have no experience in something like that, usually, I'm the one riding along.  I was worried, and I had to slow down.  I was worried not only for myself, but for the others. I knew that this beating rain wasn't something I could just wish away, it was something I had to go through to get to my destination.  Of course, people drive awful, so I had to be wise in driving and be safe.  But, the coolest thing was that I felt that as soon as I would get to Target in Monroe, the weather would be fine.  While it isn't a far distance, it was enough to cause me some trouble and make me feel afraid. Sure enough, the weather changed right as I was pulling into Target.  The sun made his appearance, and affirmed my feeling about the clear weather I felt would come. 
How far off is this experience from real life? I mean, sure, I couldn't really connect asphalt, windshield wipers, and turn signals to the Bible, but this story really encouraged me. 
God really honors His children, and His promises always happen. No matter the trial, storm or fear.  I really recommend that you read Deuteronomy 8.  That chapter has rocked me for the last 2 years.  The Holy Spirit showed me when I was going through something rough way back then, and He has been faithful to encourage me with it to this day.  New challenges, new storms, but He always has the same faithfulness.
Check out this passage:
Deuteronomy 8

"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.  Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years."- Deuteronomy 8:3-4



I hope that you find that passage as encouraging as it has been for me. Believe in Jesus, His faithfulness, and His promises.