Listen.

So quickly we rush to the throne of God carrying all of our cares and worries and laying them before Him. Our lips never stop moving and we unload ourselves onto Him. Now, there is nothing wrong with going to God and casting our cares on Him, in fact the Bible says we can, but often we forget the very real 2 way communication God longs for.

Listening is often forgotten, but is just as, if not more, important than the talking part. God is always talking and guiding. Whispering words of grace and love and sometimes we are talking to loud to hear them.

This is just an encouragement to shut your mouth and wait on God. Listen to Him, He is saying something that you need to hear...

life

Today could very well be your last day walking on the face of this earth. That is the constant reality we all face - religious or not. We have all questioned what is next, if there really is meaning to our lives.

We continually search for the one thing that can satisfy our deep longing for fulfillment, often using the next girl or guy that walks into our lives, or drugs, alcohol, or even learning. But every time we delve deep into our craving we feel the satisfaction for a time but then, like after a sugar rush, we crash. We hit the bottom and feel empty all over again so we head back to whatever it is we use .. girls, drugs, whatever.

At this point I would like to apologize for be so selfish. For years I passed by students and random people and said nothing. I was too selfish to tell you that I know the answer, I know what can satisfy.

In a world where we are taught that its all about you, what you can do for you, and to just leave everyone else on the side, we are seldom truly real about what is going on inside. We hate to think of our loneliness, emptiness, and brokenness even though they are frighteningly real.

Our inquiry about the future has led us nowhere the further we get away from God. To live as though there is no purpose is really not living at all. Fallen humans who are fallible and do incredibly foolish things need a saviour.

There is no other faith that offers the love that Christ does. God's love and grace is inconceivable to Muslims, His peace and tranquility surpasses Nirvana, His sacrifice and suffering baffles Jews, His creativity astounds scientists, His Lordship is longer and more powerful than any other king in history, His freedom brings life, and His passion for you is indescribable.

We all have faith in something, be it God or colliding hydrogen atoms. Just think about where yours lies. He is offering salvation, it is simply yours to take.

Amazing God.

I can very much relate to the difficulty Jews have with grasping Jesus as the Messiah.

When thinking about God it is so much more reasonable and understandable to think of Him as the Big Judge up in heaven looking down giving us right and wrong. Knowing God as a holy law giver is so much easier than knowing God as the one that Loves.

The love that the Bible offers is one that is unfathomable to highest degree and when I ponder it, I often end up frustrated and burned out. It makes absolutely no sense how God works. The grace of God that covers all sins makes even geniuses feel like fools. How could such a perfect God who cannot be around sin extend such grace so the we might know Him. It is truly amazing.

I really cannot even begin to write about it, it seems impossible to start, let alone describe in such a way that you might glimpse it. I know I have seen it at work in peoples lives, in how they are transformed, or how they love god back so deeply, but in my spirit I can feel the yearning to explain this love, but my language restricts my tongue.

Then how do we know this love? That is the beauty of God. He comes to have a personal, deeply intimate relationship with us. We can search for years, question and doubt, and be the best theologian with a knowledge of God and yet still never know God. "For the fool says in his heart there is no God." Psalms 14:1.

I don't really believe God cares whatsoever about how you intellectually know Him. Now don't get me wrong, biblical knowledge is critical, but to intellectualize God takes away His beauty and grace and love and His extreme unfathomability.

Growing up in the church can easily do that to people. Church kids have a great knowledge base of God but don't have a deep personal relationship with God. So as soon as anything comes against them God goes out the door.

WE NEED TO KNOW GOD, not from our heads but from our Hearts. It is the only way to really know Him, and trust me, it blows your mind. I am just beginning this journey of working all of this out and I have been completely amazed. I frequent find myself during my times of doing devotions I end up just singing "Your love is amazing!" over and over again.

I pray you begin to know God not from your mind but from the deepest part of your heart. It CHANGES EVERYTHING!

Bipolar

My heart has a disease. Many of ours do, but many of us go undiagnosed.

My heart is Bipolar. Normally this is a psychological disorder, Bipolar I Disorder, which describes when a person experiences dramatic mood swings from a state of mania - or excited state - to normal to depressed. Like a hug swing, the person experiences the extremes with times of normal in between. But my mind isn't Bipolar, my heart is.

There are the times when my heart is undergoing mania, where I am so alive in Christ, where nothing can hold me back. These moments of excitability feel amazing, one might call it a mountain top experience (I would not call it one of these, for mountain tops and valleys are key in a Christian life, a positive aspect, but the negative of the mania is depression, not a valley, not a good place). Here is where I live selflessly, lovingly, and abandoned to Christ. I enter into the deep emotion places of God and get lost, I could pray and fast for days, temptation don't even bother me. But here is where the decent occurs.

I begin to enter the normal state of heart. Where I love God, I still sing and worship, pray and read the bible, but now its starting to be a chore. Temptations all the sudden seem to be everywhere but it still easy to not fall in and stay strong. But the fire seems to be fading.

Then I hit the depression state, or as I like to call it coldness. This is where I am at my most vulnerable and selfish. The reason I call it coldness and not depressed is because having a cold heart is much easier to hide than a depressed one. I can sing and pray at church and then go home and lust, disrespect, slander, etc. Its a place I hate to be, and even hate the it exists at all. The problem is during it Im to selfish to care. I give into temptation because I feel like. Its like I go into a completely Godless state. Where I am aware of his rules but yet stare at him and break them. I watching him on the cross and laugh. It's the place where the devil sends most attacks on me, in ways you couldn't believe Im sure. No this isn't a valley or a storm, it is Hell, it is a place that is in complete lack of God. Once Satan is chipping away at my heart he goes for my head, my mind, my thoughts. The things I so desperately try to fight off are thoughts of grossness and evil to the very core, but I have no defense. I am in coldness.

Then its begins to get better again. I cry before God and run back to Him and it the cycle starts again.

There is not medication for this type of Bipolar. No doctor, psychiatrist, or counsellor can cure it. But yet it plagues the hearts of many christians, many of which are to afraid or embarrassed to admit to such a disease.

I want to be cured. I don't want to continue going through a cycle of emotions.

That is where I am, I am on the ground with nothing left, ashamed of what I am. I don't want to be fake, I yearn for authenticity. I want to stare temptation down and win always. I want to be recklessly abandoned to Christ.

I can feel the depths of my spirit wrestling with my flesh everyday, I can literally feel the tension. I want to break apart and allow all I am to be destroyed and built by God, but my selfishness would rather be popular and have friends.

I just want to Love God with all I am. I pray that you do as well. I pray you that you get help if you suffer from the disease which I to suffer with. I, We, know the medication - the only medication - so let us go and get it.

Desperate

Desperation isn't a sunday morning emotion but a every second state. Christians love to use the phrase "I am desperate for God." This to is usually said in a sunday morning service. The question then is what does desperation look like? Because I think it's not how most of actually live.

des·per·ate - Having lost all hope; despairing. Marked by, arising from, or showing despair: the desperate look of hunger; a desperate cry for help. Reckless or violent because of despair: a desperate criminal. Undertaken out of extreme urgency or as a last resort: a desperate attempt to save the family business. Nearly hopeless; critical: a desperate illness; a desperate situation. Suffering or driven by great need or distress: desperate for recognition. Extremely intense: felt a desperate urge to tell the truth.

Hopeless, despair, hunger, reckless, extreme urgency, last resort, suffering, extremely intense. These are just some of the words used to define desperate. And the state of desperation is define as recklessness arising from despair. These are huge words.

A hopeless, reckless, extreme, intense and urgent pursuit of God is what defines being desperate for him. That He is our only and last resort. That we pour everything we are, all our effort, laying down our own self for a glimpse, for a taste, for a second of Him - that is desperate.

We sang the well-known christian song Breathe by Michael W Smith, in church on sunday. The one that goes, "And I, I am lost without you, And I, I am desperate for you." But I found my mouth unable to utter the words. The Lord kept telling me to watch what I say. I knew that I wasn't desperate for Him, and if I wasn't why would I dare tell God I am and lie?

That is where God began to work on me. Questioning me, testing me. Asking me if I am desperate. Asking me what the even looks like. The worst part was realizing that I wasn't. But what hit me hardest is that many christians aren't and are not even aware of it.

To many of us walk around completely independent of God. We talk of our love for Him, we sing the songs and pray the prayers when people are around, but when we are all alone, or there are no christians around to make us feel bad, we delve into our own selfish way of life.

Desperation means we abandon everything we think we know, need, and want for God. We get rid of our twisted longing for freedom of authority and run to the throne room of our King. The Bible tells us that we are nothing if not for God, that He needs to be all we are and desire. David writes that more than anything in the world, He desired nothing more then God.

If you were hungry, you would do anything to get food. If you were wet, you would do anything to get shelter. If someone you loved was dying, you would do all you can to save them. You would be recklessly abandoned to your cause. That is what it means to be desperate for the Lord.

Recklessly abandoned to him and all HE REQUIRES OF YOU. Seeking His face with a passion that is unmatched by any other passion in this world.

Hard to Swallow

You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. James 4:4

Just think about it..

Life

Life can get rough. Lets be honest, even with the creator of the universe on our side life can still flat out suck. None of this theological jargon and high lever thinking, being real is the way to go with this one. The weight of life at time seems unbearable.

I found myself at a point where my mind literally felt heavy and I just wanted to close my eyes and sleep. All the expectations of my first year of university were shattered, no basketball, the pressures of money and marks were hurled on my shoulders, and I was just being dragged in the dust of life. Coming off the spiritual high of camp, the place I found myself felt like God was an infinite distance away, that I was back to the start of my spiritual journey. As if I didn't even know Him, that all the promises He made weren't real or happening.

I found myself praying "Where are you!? How long will I be alone?!" quite often. It was like the spirit had departed and left me hanging.

I do recognize that with the sudden jump into the hectic life of university and working, I did not spend the time with God that I wanted. But I still made Him the integral part of my day, giving my day to Him in the morning, trying to listen to Him all day long, and spending quiet time with him at home. But yet I was far away, in a totally different place than He was.

I found myself saying all the right things; I have God I don't need anything else, this is a great learning experience, I know God is faithful and here. But that was just a bunch head knowledge, and head knowledge really, means nothing.

(Now I will say that through this whole time I knew He had me in His hands, and I could wake up every morning and smile because of it)

And I came the point where I went to God and just started praying for other people, sort of giving up on my own cause. Anyone who came to mind I starting praying for. As I finished I ask God what He wanted me to read from the Bible. In the back of my mind I thought, how cool it would be if God would just give me some verse that would give me the answer I needed for my life right now, but really I expected that God would just give me whatever He had.

As I waited on Him, He told me to read Psalms 13. I had no idea what is was. So I turned there with no expectations, and this is what I began to read...

"How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me."

Basically, everything I was calling out to God about David was too! God gave me exactly what I was searching for.

The best part was, that in the Psalm how does David resolve his problem? Despite of his circumstance, which probably didn't get resolved right when he prayed this, he came to rest in one thing : the unfailing love of God. David knew that even when he felt like God had turned his face from him, he still knew that God's love would never fail him, never abandoned him and that because of Gods love anything that happens doesn't need to complete destroy his world. God's love always has your back.

In my time of distress and crap, God showed me the Cross. He showed me the power of His unfailing love. Now my problems haven't left, but I can stare them down and walk as a victor.

So when life is getting you down, let God pick you up. His love never fails, His love conquers all.

I pray that today you will take time just to bask in His love, let him rain down some unbelievable love onto your soul. Be blessed.

.

And I saw the King seated on the throne. His crown shimmering gloriously, and the train of his robe extending all the way down to me. He began to extend His hand out to me, so I tried to grab it. I couldn't reach. I used all my might, jumped, hollered, I did whatever I could even for just a brief grasping of His hand. But nothing, I couldn't reach. I turned in anguish, dismayed I ran the other way, tears flowing down my face, embarrassed and lost.

Then from the Kings right hand side came running His son. The Prince was running after me. I felt Him tugging at my cloak, bidding me to turn around. I turned to see a man, with fire in His eyes, but it was as though the fire burned for me, it was soothing yet terrifying. He took my hand, and reached for His fathers'. He could reach both sides. He uttered to me that this was His purpose, this is what He did for me and instantly we were brought to the middle of a cosmic battle.

Bloody and scarred I saw the Prince fighting a million enemies. Laughing and tormenting Him all the while He stood taking blow after blow until finally He fell, and a loud growl roared from the enemy. They all began to jump on the fallen Prince, as almost to devour Him. Their leader called his legions to retreat so that he could have the final blow. As he walked over he put his foot on the Prince's head, "Today, I have dominion" I heard roll off his tongue. Then I saw it, I saw the Prince's finger began to twitch...He was alive. Was it all a plan? Did He lure the evil one to Him? The evil one noticed just as I had and with a shriek he summoned his legions back on the Prince. But they couldn't pin him down, and like a nuclear blast, a radiant light shown out from the middle of pile, blowing the evil one and his legions in every direction. Thats when I saw the Prince standing victorious. All the evil one's warriors hid their faces and ran from the Prince, but the evil one did not. He began to laugh, almost as if to mock the Prince. But thats when the Prince pulled out the keys, and the evil one's face dropped. He began patting himself down, to check for the keys for he was in denial. The Prince walked over to the evil one and proclaimed, "My Father has dominion, not you." and with that He kicked the evil one right in the chest and I watched him almost fold in half from the blow and fall to the ground. The Prince turned to me, with that fire in His eyes and even a grin on His face for He knew what He had accomplished.

We were back in the King's court, the moment when the Prince extended His hand. When I realized what the Prince had done for me, how could I not take His hand? Before I grabbed it He said, "We offer you all of us, for all of you. Every piece of your heart, the good and the bad, and the parts that you hold as secrets. Come follow me, do as I command. I love you and gave my all for you. You will at times forget me, reject my law, and live in rebellion, but my Love covers you. But give me all of you, your dreams, gifts, freedom and rights, and I shall give you life, and life to the full."

I grabbed His hand with all that was in me. Giving my life was an easy trade in for an audience with the King. The illusion of freedom I had to surrender was nothing compared to spending eternity in the light of His glorious face.

As for me..

¹⁴ "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵ But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."¹⁶ Then the people answered, "Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! ¹⁷ It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our fathers up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.¹⁸ And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God."¹⁹ Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. ²⁰ If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you." Joshua 24:14-20 (NIV)

The covenant between God and His people was being reestablished when Joshua uttered these words. The Israelites have been given the law, they know the law, and clearly have not been keeping it perfectly. I love his opening statement, FEAR the Lord and serve him faithfully. The people of Israel always end up following other idols, these containable "gods". He reminds the people first of the awesomeness of Yahweh, that He is deserving of our fear. Then he urges the people to either choose God fully or just deny Him totally! Joshua boldly calls out a whole nation. And then he publicly declares his choice is God, and not only him, but his whole house and family. And of course, like anyone who was just challenged to this extent, the Israelites say that they do choose God, claiming they know that it would be wrong to not choose Him. But then again Joshua puts them in their place, harshly, but yet appropriately. He bluntly states that we as humans cannot serve God in ourselves. He says God is Holy, God is jealous, and that God does not tolerate an unfaithful heart. But then, Joshua does something incredible; he reminds the people that God is GOOD. He says that God is good to His people, and that God has been, and will be good. So all in all God DESERVES our faithfulness, but just like Joshua said, echoing the words of Moses in Deuteronomy, it is a day of choice! Choose God, choose Him fully. Don't play the risky game of walking on the fence.

Ps 119 is full of the love of God's law. That is what I am trying to say. God is a God of grace and love, but He is also a God of standards and expectations. We have no right to define what is right and wrong, God is the Lord not you. Submit your heart to Him, or reject Him. It is time that a people rise up who take seriously the call to holiness. I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of seeing half hearted Christianity hiding behind the abusing of God's grace, even within my own soul. God never said anything about an easy life, but He did promise life to the full.

Again I say it is a day of decision. Choose life or death, blessing or curse. But choose fully, ready to accept ALL of who God is, not just the parts that suit your life.

The Measure of a Man

What is the measure of a man?

Stature, success, knowledge. These are usually what the world defines a man. But what does the Bible say a man is...

A man is loving, selfless, responsible, respectable, honorable, strong, noble. But in what context?

He loves God with all his heart, everything he does, dreams, or desires, is what the Lord longs for him. He loves his wife selflessly, honoring her in everything he does; in speech, in action, in emotions, in finances, in everything. He loves his children; longing to be the example for his boys of a Godly man, and the standard of the type of man he wants his daughter to marry.

He, like Jesus, takes responsibility for sins (or issues) of his family even when they aren't his fault. He engages, gets involved. Takes the leadership of the home. He is the overseer of the covenant he was brought into by marriage. He loves like Christ loved the church.

He walks in complete integrity. Never hiding, never faking. When he struggles, he gets help humbly. When he speaks council, he lives it. Earning respect from his peers, but more importantly his wife and children.

He works as hard as he can, giving up all his "rights" to provide for his family. Putting down the remote, golf clubs, cars, etc, to ensure the provision of his family. He is the man, he works the field.

But what about us single boys? We don't have a wife or kids yet.

Then you,

You walk in integrity. Put in practice living the life you will want to live one day. Pursue noble character. Treat all women with respect and love, they are the daughters of God after all and deserve it. Love your wife now. Don't go looking for "a good time", don't hook up, don't feed your brain with porn and lustful thoughts. Have some self control. Take captive every thought. Learn to appreciate a women, for more than beauty. Your wife will be your equal and helper, not your object.

Seek the Lord at all times, longing to do His will. A real man can make the hard choice and stick with it. A boy dies when it gets to hard. A man understands influence and strives to be the best he can, a boy lives for himself.

Only a man can love a women, it is not a boys world. There are too many 40 year old boys walking around. It's time for some growing up. Get accountable, pursue integrity.

The measure of a man is simply loving God, loving his wife, loving his kids, and living with integrity. You will fail, you will fall, but how will you get back up? Humbly working to be better? or like a little boy crying and whining, blaming everyone else?

God loves Atheists

God loves atheists. He loves the rapists, the pedophiles, the abusers, the drunkards, the cocaine addicts, the prostitutes, the porn stars, the murderers, the exploiters, the manipulators, the liars, the cheaters, the adulterers, the homosexuals, the arrogant, the selfish, the disobedient, the foolish, the man consumed with rage, the women that hates her body, the suicidal, the insecure, the ones filled with hate, the promiscuous, the drug lords, the sex traffickers, the racists, the sexists, those who support abortion, those who do abortions, the scammers , the frauds, the fakers, and the deceivers; just to name a few. We must begin to understand that God's love isn't superficial, isn't understandable, isn't conditional, and isn't limited. He loves us all the SAME. No sin is greater than the others in the context of eternity.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God." Romans 3:23 (NIV)

Some sin have greater physical consequence, that is easy to understand. You wouldn't want to spend the night alone with a murderer, or rapist. But in the view of eternity, we are all same. A "small" sin is a "big" sin, when standing before the Lord.

So what does this mean for us? If we are to emulate the love that God has for humanity, it means we MUST love all those sinners; from the rapist to the liar. So love. Love big, Love well. God does for you.

Grace..

By faith and grace alone are we saved. Not by any righteous deed can we claim salvation. As Christians this is the truth by which we live. Isaiah said that our righteous acts are like filthy rags before God. John Wesley in his writing mentions that any good work we do is not by our own merit but by the grace of God allowing us to do so. That literally every good work is a gift from God. One line I loved that he wrote was "we will never be able to trust the merit of Christ until we renounce our own."

Bur here is where the problem begins, the understanding of salvation through faith and grace allows men to twist and distort the greatness of God. They take for granted grace and even give themselves license to do as they wish. But hear the words in Hebrews...

"If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10: 26-31 (NIV)

If we, after gaining the knowledge of Christ - through the grace of God - continue to deliberately sin, it says there is no sacrifice for sin. What does that mean? Does it negate the grace which God operates in?

It cannot. After all these are words from the bible, and although it may seem in direct contradiction it is truly not. We are not perfect; that is easy to understand. But here, clearly God states he has some expectations for our lives.

I believe what is being said here is simple. If after receiving salvation through grace, we deliberately abuse and degrade the gift Christ gave us, we are in essence blaspheming God. In the passage it talked of how much more sever the punishment is for those who trample on the Son of Man. Why does he use that imagery? It could be said that, in the act of "trampling on" we are quite vividly rejecting, but also despising the Son of Man. And this is where eternity hits us in the face.

There is heaven, there is hell. One aspect of our lives is living for one of them. Jesus himself said that the way is narrow that leads to life and only few will find it. Some might even say that means the majority of lives are headed to hell - including 'Christians'. Although a fear based doctrine is at the core wrong, the essential knowledge of eternity is needed. Whether we like it or not, there is reward and punishment. And I believe that God is saying, that only by His grace we are saved, but when we, without a repentant heart, purposely abuse his grace, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Again I say, we are not perfect. So the inevitable sin that we as humans commit is not being referenced here, but rather the disregard for the Cross.

Examine yourself. Do you make choices based out of an abuse of grace, or a thankfulness for it. God is so huge, so paradoxical that we will never understand Him. But heed the words in Hebrews. DO NOT TAKE GRACE FOR GRANTED. If you have, as I have, repent. Make right the relationship with God and go on; strong in the faith.

Be blessed today. May the light of God's face forever shine upon you.

Undefinable

As I lay in my bed last night, I finally began to realize the great truth that the more one comes to know God the more he realizes there is so much he doesn't know at all. The vastness of our creator is at the least astounding. So then the question that jumps around in my mind is, why do we settle for so much less? God has revealed himself as the all powerful, all knowing, untamable, uncreated, awesome, incomprehensible and loving God of the universe, yet we think what we know is somehow good enough?

As soon as we let our minds convince us that we "know" God we are deceived. Yes, God is extremely relational and close; in that sense we are called to know him, but with the finite brain we have, we will never really know our God. For as soon as we can grasp God He is no longer God. If anything can be grasped within the human mind than it is easy to call it man made. And that's where the greatness and even humor of our God lies. We can never fully know God, but this was put in place on purpose.

We can all understand the concept of a cube. A six sided, 3 dimensional square. We created it. In the human mind it was discovered and brought to be. It has its limits within our understanding, but God...He is completely the mind shattering God. I find myself literally with a hurting mind after talking about God for long periods. Simply because I cannot comprehend it all. I hate it! I want to know all that I can, but thats where God steps in and says you can't, it's literally impossible.

In all our attempts at explaining God, we can clearly see the divisions it had caused. No man can deny that disagreements on who God is and what He wants is what causes the most disunity between believers. So then the next question seems to be, why do we get hung up on trying to define the undefinable? Paul said that it doesn't matter who you follow, what matters is the central unifying understanding that Christ died for our sins and rose again.

Our personal interpretations of the will of God for personal conduct and right living should never get in the way of our loving everyone. So often we find Christians in quarrels over "this is right and this is wrong". I will say, these discussion can be often fruitful and necessary, but when these overrun our lives the whole point of the Cross is lost. For by grace alone are we saved.

I urge you today to put aside all your presumptions about the rules and regulations and just be in unity with other believers. For the rest of our lives people will always disagree with what we think, there will continue to be arguments and quarrels, but let us not forget how we all got here...the love poured out on Calvary. When disagreements arise let us sit back and ask if this is producing any kind of fruit or are the words you speak just worthless. Love on somebody, that is our goal and Christ's command.

Knowing

"[T]o grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:18b-19 (NIV)

The love of our God will never be understandable. It will never be comprehensible. It will never be graspable; and Paul is very aware of that great truth. But yet we find him encouraging the people of Ephesus to continue trying to grasp it. Even further we can understand that Paul is later in life when He wrote this letter, being in the faith for many years and always growing to understand God in deeper ways more than maybe anyone; yet he still says there is so much more of Gods love that needs to discovered. Paul uses these terms of human measurement to help us understand the greatness of God's love but he never limits it in any way. In fact we know that he is trying to get us to picture the unmeasurable quality of Gods love.

But Paul goes on to say that we might KNOW the love that surpasses knowledge. What does it mean to know the love of God. Clearly it has been portrayed as an infinite, incomprehensible thing. But Paul hear gives us and even deeper insight into the love of God. That in fact it is KNOWABLE; but so great that we will never completely understand it. God's love is a paradox in itself. So vast and great and unknowable, but yet very intimate, close, and in fact knowable. Now seriously try to think about that.

I also believe that Paul had much deeper meaning when he wrote "to know this love that surpasses knowledge." Being in university now, the thirst for knowledge is undeniable when walking the halls; and being a Theology major the hunger for more knowledge about God is evident within myself. But its just another link to 1 Corinthians 13, I could obtain all the knowledge in the world about God, everything everyone has learned but yet, without understanding the love of our Lord it all is for not. What would be the point of Knowing about God if I do not act in the knowledge of His love. Love is what changes things, this has been a reoccurring subject in many of my recent posts simply becasue God has been revealing more and more about its importance, especially with its battle against knowledge. This battle has been being fought in me for a long time. I have always loved the study of God, to try to know him, but in doing so I became caught up in being able to quote the bible and theological theories that, with great shame, I neglected the heart of God. But amazing is our Lord. As I have wrote about before, this summer opened my eyes to the great truth that, although knowledge is good, LOVE IS MORE EXCELLENT. As paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 12 "a more excellent way". And now I can fully say how true this is! Yes, I still have my great set backs, like everyone else, but I know that God is tugging at my heart and making it break for the things that break His.

Never neglect the pursuit of knowledge. But more importantly never neglect the pursuit of His love.

May you be blessed abundantly today with awe and wonder of our Gods great love.

Everything

God is God and we are not. This is very true. We cannot see into the future, we certainly do not know everything there is to know; but yet we find ourselves believing we know what is best. As I have talked to many people of late I have encountered a common theme in some of their ideas. That theme is that they try to literally define God to benefit their choices. Commonly used is the phrase, "if He loves us so much..why...". As is in why doesn't He let me do this or that. Why do I feel this way. Why are there trials that I face.

But what we fail to see is that the Lord is sovereign. Everything that God does or allows must happen. This stretches from the rules He has put in place to the events that take place in our lives. When one comes to realize the vastness of this concept, life changes. By that I mean, when we even start to comprehend that God is literally in complete control, who are we to worry about anything?

Now, we as humans sometimes escape the will of God and He uses situations to bring us back into it - to get our attention back on Him. Money is a huge issue in this case. Are we tithing? Are we giving generously? God tells us to test Him with our tithe. In Malachi, God says He will open the flood gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing we will not be able to contain it. This is His promise, but that doesn't mean we all live according to it. God says this is what could be if you do as He asks. Give money, even when you don't have it. And if you do have it, give all the more.

That was just one example. But another aspect of the sovereignty of God is that He requires, and quite frankly deserves, complete obedience; even when contrary to our own longings. Everything we have is literally a gift from God. This includes our passions, desires, longing, pleasures, and dreams. Understanding this also helps when God asks us for things. We must put God's will before our own desires. Love his pleasures over our own. In God's timing all the desires of your heart will be given to you; but that's exactly it, in HIS timing. When He asks us to do something, even when it will hurt, we must do it for we are to trust Him completely. He knows us better then we know ourselves. We are to be living sacrifices. So sacrifice; everything. Relationships, desires, aspirations, pleasures, gifts, dreams, even every breath we take.

LOVE

It has never been more real to me that Love is the most important part of our Christian walk. Everything we do must reflect Christ's love. Out of God's love does everything we know exist to begin with. He created us so that we might be in relationship with Him. At the beginning there was Love. Now there is love. And His love will never die.

Coming home from camp and reflected on all I have learned, the largest lesson is simply that our world longs for love. From the toughest Gangsta to the smallest girl. I have seen how love can literally change a life.

Her name, Kimmy.

Her life...horrible.

She hated God. She hated men. She ran into the arms of the great deceiver. She bought the lies that she was worthless, that God didn't care, that she was gay; just to name a few. She used her life to worship the Father of lies and was so deeply caught up she knew no way out...until LOVE (1 John 4:8 : "God is love.") met her.

She tried to run and hide, literally, we followed her down the road. Crying out to her about how much God loved her. Than God showed up. Its crazy how He uses the simplest of things. There was a butterfly, its' wing broken. Kimmy bent over to picked it up but it fell out of her hand. So I reached for it but she wouldn't let me touch it; she was saving it. She took it over by the side of the road and made it safe. As we kept walking I began to talk with her about her love of animals. That is when God took over and spoke through me. At the end of the conversation I asked her how many times would she have picked that butterfly up, and she said as many times as it fell. So I said that was exactly what God has been doing for her because of His love. Every time she jumped out of his hand, he picked her back up.

She stopped. Did a 180 and started heading back to camp. No words. Just watery eyes.

I was speaking one night about freedom in Christ. And as I finished I saw Kimmy huddled on the ground weeping. And I went over to talk. But she was just crying.

She stands up and says I want to be free. So I brought her to the foot of the cross but she couldn't kneel; Satan wasn't ready to let her go and she left.

Fast Forward a bit. Thursday night she comes up to me and says "I'm ready." So we went down to the cross and she fell to the ground and began to pray. And with tears in her eyes she looks at me and says "I'm Free!". She went off by herself and began to yell "I'm Free! I'm Finally FREE!"

I have seen LOVE take a satanic worshiper to the foot of the cross and worship the King of Kings. Oh the awesomeness of our God's love. She has dumped her girlfriend, and has told us she is straight again (just mentioning that for you).

Now here is the point to all this...

"But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way. " 1 Corinthians 12:31 (NASB)

Love is the more excellent way. This verse is the transition between Paul talking about spiritual gifts and then Love. Healing, prophesy, teaching, any gift God gives us is literally nothing without Love. Even to the point where we shouldn't concern ourselves for those things as long as we can show love. I am at great fault of this. I was much more concerned with seeing the great wonders of God and very much neglected the heart of our creator. But through one of the most influential person I know, God changed my heart. He showed me the need not for signs and wonders, but for us as Christian to demonstrate the unending, unmatched, unparalleled, indescribable, incomprehensible Love that God is. No other person, philosophy or religion known to man offers such love. And we have failed at letting that love shine forth.

We should strive more to love the people we encounter than convert them. People will always disagree with us, but even still we love them. When we are cursed, we bless. When we have nothing to give, still we give.

This love is literally revolutionary. But only to those that let it changed them. It starts with us. The Christians. Allowing God to reveal the immensity of this love to us. And as we begin to change, we will change others. Its an amazing, but yet humbling, feeling to feel this love surrounding you.

It is truly hard even talking about it with out welling up with tears as I begin to try and put words to this love. He loves us so much. It is truly unknown to us. It is truly mind blowing.

I pray that God takes to so much deeper into his limitless love so that LOVE will change our nation, and our world!

AWESOME

I have seen satanic worshipers fall at the foot of the cross. I have seen people conquer their fears. I have seen boys and girls find their Father; welcomed into their real family. I have seen thugs crying before the Most High. I have seen drug dealers throw out all there stuff. I have seen cutters set free. I have seen AMAZING things this summer. Bottom line...I have seen lives CHANGED. The Lord has become so real to me in many ways. Even in the times where I felt drained and a thousand feet away from Him, He always showed up! Always give me a word of encouragement. All I can literally say is I found God again and He is Awesome, truly Awesome.

Let us give thanks with our full hearts for all the incredible things the LORD is doing and will never stop doing. Praise the LORD.

He is Good

This is just an encouragement to all of you. GOD IS GOOD. I am at camp for the summer and its 2 days into week 2 and God has literally shown so powerfully in campers and in my life personally! Just remember that God is faithful, that he loves and longs for you. He is peace and grace. I will tell you more about my personal growth soon. I pray that in the next little while God will reveal the light of His face to you. May you never go a single day without feeling the hand of God at work in your life.

FEAR

"Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD a man avoids evil." Proverbs 16:6 (NIV)

God is sovereign. Always was and always is. Fearing the Lord is a command that we all must follow, but is one that takes a long time to develop. It is very hard to define what fearing the Lord is. Is it a fear out of respect, as for a parent? Or is it a fear where you are scared? From reading the Bible I have come to realize that it is both. We are all aware of the reverence that we have for God, but how many of us are aware of the knee shaking fear we are to have. In the old testament we find men actually describing fear of God because they realize the holiness of God. I believe that when Solomon wrote that the fear of the Lord causes men to avoid evil, it's not just the reverence he was speaking about but the literal fear of what God could do when sin is present. Just something to think about. Do you view God as he revealed himself, worth to be truly feared as well as respected. HE IS STILL YAHWEH. 

And He will Provide.

It is true... God will provide.

I recently found out the more I came to God, not to complain about how my life was going, but instead coming with the mentality of trusting and knowing that God will provide, is when He began to provide the most. For a time, I was laying all my cares on God, over and over. Now don't get me wrong, we are supposed to lay our cares on him, but when it became more important than just coming to God to find him, a problem arose. Living in fear is a sin. Living with worry is a sin. And whether you realize it or not, a continual complaining session with God is living with worry. Therefore you would be living in sin, and that was me; and I didn't even know it. As I began to change my attitude towards how I spent my time with God I found myself having much deeper and satisfying times with Him, and ultimately that He will provide. Making your heart right, one of trust, one that cares about finding Him rather than answers, is the most important part. Remember always that God will provide, He is your Father. He longs to fix your problems. Trust him, really trust him. And He will provide.

Impact of Impurity

"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body." 1 Corinthians 6:18 (NIV)

Paul clearly states that that sexual sin is different from all other sins in the fact that sexual sin is against your own body. Other sin is done on "outside" of the body. But here is the kicker that many of you maybe not have ever thought about:

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Genesis 2:24

So now here is the connection... when a man and women get married they become ONE FLESH, ONE BODY. So when sexual sin is committed it is not only against you, but against your spouse. That is why it is so important to make habits of purity even before getting married because living with those habits will effect both you and your wife's body. Even as a single man or women, undealt with sexual sin, when married, will effect your knew spouse as well because they will be one flesh with you. So never fool yourself into thinking that sexual sins won't hurt anyone else, they will. Especially if you get stuck in the habit and addiction that comes with it when you are single. Those habits will carry over, it won't get easier when you have your wife or husband. If you plan on getting married one day, take a stand now and deal with the hardships of sexual sin BEFORE the big day. 

Where are You Leaning?

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. " Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)

We have all heard Proverbs 3:5-6 at some point. But I want to hopefully shed some new light on this passage. I want to focus on the word understanding. What is understanding? How does the man who wrote Proverbs define it? Well later on in Proverbs Solomon states :

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

The knowledge of the holy is understanding. That seems not to make sense at all. What is "the holy". I did a word study into the Hebrew language on the word holy used here. It seems to be a reference to the quote "Be holy as I am holy" from earlier in the Bible. It as if Solomon is saying that understanding is the knowledge of what God wants. God would say that quote after giving out the list of laws as sort of a closing remark, saying "this is what I want you to do." So the connection I make is this, understanding is the knowledge of what God wants us to do.

When Solomon says don't lean on your own understanding, he is just saying don't tell God what you think He wants for you, let HIM TELL YOU WHAT HE WANTS for you. After all "if you want God to laugh, just tell Him your plans." When you are actively living the first statement Solomon makes, trust in God, than it won't be hard at all to let Him tell you what His plans are.

When you put God first in all things; you acknowledge His power and presence and He will direct your paths.

You still need to strive for understanding as Solomon describes it, but also realize you are limited and God is not. Trust Him over what you think you know.

Praise Him

In all things we must learn to praise God.
In the good and bad He still deserves all our adoration. When life is looking grim, praise him. When life is perfect, praise him. We are firm in our faith that God is always on our side. I read in Proverbs today that God will not let the righteous get famished. Because we have hope in our saviour we have no reason not to still praise him. This is just a little encouragement, that yes, is easier said than done. But purposing yourself to praise our Holy God in the midst of anything is something we all need to do.

Praise be to our God, for He is good! (Always)

Just a Monkey Clanging a Can.

We have all heard it said, "Jesus did everything in love." And obviously this statement is quite true. At all times, in everything, He operated in love. And this should reign true for us also. No matter what we do, even good actions, if not done out of love they MEAN NOTHING, your just a monkey clanging a can. Making all this noise for no purpose. Even when Jesus was yelling and turning over tables His heart was overflowing in Love. In Philippians it talks about how love grows in knowledge and understanding. Love operates in discernment and understanding.

Love knows when to speak.

Love knows when not to say anything.

Love knows when to discipline.

Love knows when to have grace.

Love knows when to rebuke.

Love knows when to encourage.

Love knows when to listen.

Love knows when to instruct.

Love knows when to move.

Love knows when to sit still.

Love knows when to yell.

Love knows when to whisper.

Love knows how to empathize.

Love knows how to speak the hard truths.

Without love we are nothing. We can't help people if love doesn't guide our choices. I pray that today you go on a search for love and learn how to love at all times. In everything, even when you are at your wits end, you need to operate in love.

Home Makeover.

This is in regards to my last post...

Last night I was lying in bed and just thinking over my day and the times spent with God. I began to recall what I had written in my last post when God decided to speak. A key point in the post was that dwelling had a connotation of inhabiting - setting up a home - where God was. God revealed a very powerful and true perspective to me yesterday, it was this: "before all the fancy toys and fixtures that are found in a home can be present, the hard labour has to be finished." All of the nicest houses ever built started off as an empty lot. Then the labourers built the foundations - the most important part- and made the walls, put in the electrical, the plumbing, heating, cooling, and painting. Only then do the luxuries come. The nice faucets, fixtures, couches, chairs, tiles and, tables etc. The same thing applies to your walk with God. Before all the miracles, the fire and glory, is the laying of the foundations, the building up walls and supports, putting in the intricate details. Don't expect the fire to fall if you have no place to put it. Build your house, do it well, no one - even God - wants a poorly built house. I pray today, that we all demolish the old crummy houses we have built. That we have a complete home makeover. If you are well on your way to a great house, I urge you to never loose sight of the prize. Build that house, only great things come with it!

Take a Seat

"Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said:
"Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?"
1 Chronicles 17:16 (NIV)

Like many people would do, when I first read over this verse I immediately found myself contemplating the humility of David; not realizing I actually missed the greater message. If you have ever read my blog before you will know that humility is an important topic in my writing, but here I found, by the grace of God, something greater. There is one small word that you may have skimmed over, SAT. That one three letter word I believe can actually revolutionize your times with God. When you study what is really being said here you can actually learn the magnitude of this simple action.

When the Jewish people would read this verb their mind would go first to verb to dwell. This word has so many different levels. To start, it simply means to fellowship with; just to be with. But digging deeper we find it to reveal actions like becoming familiar with, to make an acquaintance, to be in unity with, and even one definition is to actually inhabit. The word to dwell refers to a deep level of intimacy in this context.

This is so much deeper than just a casual prayer time, a fifteen minute devotion, or a quick worship time. This action of sitting gives the picture, especially in the Jewish culture, of sitting down for a meal with someone. Have you ever gone out with someone for dinner or a coffee and just sat silently or didn't pay attention to them, didn't listen or didn't take time to grow the relationship? I am quite positive you haven't. When someone goes out for a meal with someone, it is expected that conversation will occur, that a level of connection will be made every time. But even deeper than that, sitting with someone at your own table at home, completely comfortable. The whole idea is to deepen the intimacy level between the two people in great amounts. Inviting someone into your house says that there is a level of vulnerability, and comfort. Letting them pass through the doors into your private area also requires trust. God longs for us to dwell with him in this way, to take to heart the idea of "the meal" when it comes to God. Seriously, taking time for him, just basking in the light of his glory. (anywhere you are, even in your bedroom.)

It says that David WENT and SAT before the Lord. He took the action of going to God than trying to find God. Now get this in your spirit, David went to God. David showed up where God was. Most likely David went to his "prayer closet" and David just dwelt with God. DWELLING TAKES TIME AND EFFORT. To build intimacy, to inhabit, literally to build a "house" where God is, takes time. God isn't looking for your 15 minute dates here and there. Ask yourself, have you ever actually "sat" before God? Have you dwelt with God regularly or are you just punching in and out? Everyone knows that to build a good relationship you need communication, you need time spent, you need unity, you need to know the other person. All this is the same for God. Giving God dedicated set apart time just to get to sit with Him as your creator, friend, father, and lover. We sing songs declaring that there is no where else we would rather be, and dare I say, most of us are probably lying. I even see this in me, at times the last place I would think of being is sitting at God's feet just dwelling with him. But this is so crucial. This is something that you NEED to get deep into you, it needs to penetrate into your soul and take root. Let this revolutionize your relationship with Him. Understanding this I believe can take you to that deeper place in God, beyond the surface and into the intimate. Please, take time just to sit with God, time set apart for Him, only Him. Worship, mediate, praise, let Him love on you. Get intimate, and TAKE A SEAT.

The Most Important Thing is You!! ... Seriously

My ministry isn't this blog. My ministry isn't on the streets. My ministry isn't inside of a church. My ministry is ME. Everything I will ever do and everything I am, all depend on my relationship with God. That is my first priority. If I ever want to change the world, I need to spark a change in me. Only when I am close to God can I bring anyone else close to him. The same obviously goes for all of you. No matter where you find yourself, your relationship with God must and always comes first. When we get out priorities out of order everything else gets out of control. It is a simple concept, but it seems with God some of the simplest things are the most important. Your ministry is your relationship, everything comes out of that. Don't get caught up in the mindset that your vocation is your ministry. Changing peoples lives is the overflow of your relationship with God. Don't define ministry by the "work you are doing for the Kingdom". Ministry is not a job it's your life. If you want to have a successful "ministry" trying having a successful relationship. I don't think I can stress this enough, before anything else, marriage, job, money, kids, school, comes your relationship with God. I can see a time when all Christians are changing the lives of everyone they encounter; but that will only happen when we put the focus back on ourselves. I know what your are thinking..."Put focus on ourselves? I thought our focus was the non-Christians?" And that is somewhat true, we do need to have in our minds at all times the concern for the souls of all people, but how could we ever change them if we are so empty and fake? Everything begins with our relationship with God. You will know a healthy tree by its fruit. We know there are fruits of the spirit. Those fruits are produced when we are close to God, always living in tune with his spirit. And by living in tune with Him we will produce influence in others and begin to show God to them. At the beginning of the process is still OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. Christians nowadays put more importance on the conversion of others and let their own relationship with God fizzle out. The focus should be first and foremost always advancing our relationship with God. I pray that if you do not already have your priority for yourself that you make it one. And if you already have this as a truth in your life, than I pray you never let this die in you. May you bring God everywhere you go, walking with the Almighty and changing the people you interact with.

Just Some Love..

^"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." 1 John 3: 16 (NIV)

What more really needs to be said about that? Do you operate in the undeniable, indescribable, unmistakable, selfless love that Jesus had?

But I would like to point out what John says here "what love is." John didn't say what parental love is, or what brotherly love is, or what marital love is, etc. John just points out that in ALL forms of love there should be the same underlying concrete principal. Complete selflessness is mandatory. Trust me, I know how difficult this. Ask my family, sometimes I just plain suck at it. But nevertheless is it so important to stress the absolute need for this love. This was more of a thought provoker post. Do you love like Jesus? Would you lay your life down for someone? Even if they do not deserve it, like Jesus did? Look at your life, examine yourself, correct yourself. Start loving the right way...

Wise Joab

^"Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the LORD do that which is good in his sight." 1 Chronicles 19:13 (KJV)

These are the words of Joab the moment before a battle. The Children of Ammon and the Syrians were on the attack against the Israelites; just so you know the context. Joab starts of with an encouraging word, followed by a challenge to act valiantly and finally and most importantly, gives the battle over to God.

I find something very interesting here; Joab never asked that God helps them win. This can lead us in two different directions. First being that Joab had faith in the fact that God was already with them and had won the battle for them already. Or secondly, that Joab had complete trust in God that no matter the outcome he knew that it would be what was good in the eyes of the Lord. Both are very valid thoughts.

When thinking about the first train of thought we can gain courage in the fact that HE HAS ALREADY WON. Therefore there is no reason to worry. We are told that "we are more than conquerors". But than that begs the question why do we feel like we loose still? That we still fail and struggle in our battles? Easy! Joab still had to fight in the battle. Even though he had an understanding that God had already won he still met the opposing army with all the willingness to fight as if God wasn't with him. A lot of people tend to go into a battle with the mindset that God has won so I don't need to fight, but that is horribly wrong. In this story of Joab, he runs out to meet the Syrians, and in the act of taking up his sword and actually fighting the Syrians retreat. The enemy would have never retreated unless Joab took his army to fight. Are you actually fighting? or are you just sitting back doing nothing and expecting a victory? God wants action not laziness disguised as trust.

The second train of thought is one that is just as needed as the first. Joab trusted that no matter the outcome, no matter the circumstance, it would be what is good in the eyes of the Lord. In Romans 8 we find that "all things work together for good". It doesn't say that all things are good, but that God will work all things for good, and we see this in the attitude of Joab. I said earlier that Joab knew no matter how the battle turned out, even in his death, that he trust that God did was was right and good in His eyes. And because of this he didn't have to ask God for the victory, it didn't matter; he knew that no matter what God allowed or did had to happen. He was letting God be the master of the universe, and not expect anything else.

Does what Joab said have a place in your vocabulary? Do you say "and let the Lord do that which is good in His sight."? Or are you trying to have control? Know that God has already won your battles. Know that God still wants you to take action. Know that God does what He sees as good and will work out all things for good. I pray that these principles will become so real to you today.

About Him

1 Chronicles 17 (NIV)

God's Promise to David

¹ After David was settled in his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, "Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under a tent."

² Nathan replied to David, "Whatever you have in mind, do it, for God is with you."

³ That night the word of God came to Nathan, saying:

⁴ "Go and tell my servant David, 'This is what the LORD says: You are not the one to build me a house to dwell in. ⁵ I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought Israel up out of Egypt to this day. I have moved from one tent site to another, from one dwelling place to another. ⁶ Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their leaders whom I commanded to shepherd my people, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?" ' ⁷ "Now then, tell my servant David, 'This is what the LORD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock, to be ruler over my people Israel. ⁸ I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name like the names of the greatest men of the earth. ⁹ And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning ¹⁰ and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also subdue all your enemies. " 'I declare to you that the LORD will build a house for you: ¹¹ When your days are over and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. ¹³ I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. ¹⁴ I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever.' "

¹⁵ Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.

David's Prayer

¹⁶ Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said:
"Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? ¹⁷ And as if this were not enough in your sight, O God, you have spoken about the future of the house of your servant. You have looked on me as though I were the most exalted of men, O LORD God. ¹⁸ "What more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant, ¹⁹ O LORD. For the sake of your servant and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made known all these great promises. ²⁰ "There is no one like you, O LORD, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. ²¹ And who is like your people Israel—the one nation on earth whose God went out to redeem a people for himself, and to make a name for yourself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? ²² You made your people Israel your very own forever, and you, O LORD, have become their God.²³ "And now, LORD, let the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house be established forever. Do as you promised, ²⁴ so that it will be established and that your name will be great forever. Then men will say, 'The LORD Almighty, the God over Israel, is Israel's God!' And the house of your servant David will be established before you. ²⁵ "You, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him. So your servant has found courage to pray to you. ²⁶ O LORD, you are God! You have promised these good things to your servant. ²⁷ Now you have been pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, O LORD, have blessed it, and it will be blessed forever."


Take a look at the two passages. The first is God speaking and the second is David's response. I highlighted a very important part in each. When God spoke He used 'I' a lot. It was all about what God had done or was going to do. God never said that David became king because of what David did, no, God said that HE made David king regardless of anything David did. God emphasized Himself; God has a 'holy arrogance'. The thing is though, that God is allowed to be arrogant, He is perfect, He knows more, He is more powerful, etc. I could go on forever with that one. But what I want to focus on is David's response to God. In his response I highlighted how many times David referred to God, and not himself. Often we pray very selfish prayers. God I need this, God do this for me, God I want a new car. But David's focus was purely God. He, the king, referred to himself as God's servant. David knew that position and power fall flat when dealing with God. It doesn't matter who you are and what you have, standing before God you are just a servant. When David prayed he was selfless, he knew what or who really mattered.

How do you pray? Are you the focus of your prayers or is God? Don't get me wrong, lamenting and being emotional with God are needed. You can be real a broken in your prayers, but are your prayers always about you? Do you praise God for what he has done? Do you lower yourself to lift him higher? Are you aware of all He has done for you? Are you thankful? God is and always will be the most important thing in your life no matter how its going. Just remember who this life is all about. Here's a hint, it's not you.

Just a little something to think about...

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due... (No Matter Who is Around)

"Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works!" 1 Chronicles 16: 8-9 (NKJV)

"Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples." 1 Chronicles 16: 24 (NKJV)

"Give to the LORD the glory due His name;" 1 Chronicles 16: 29 (NKJV)


In the Hebrew language repetition was the method they used to make something they said or wrote important. In the English language we use exclamation points or bold fonts or the raising of our voice etc. In David's song of thanksgiving found here in Chronicles, he repeats the theme of giving credit to God for what He has done 3 times, which is the typical amount of repetition. Thus, we know that he was trying to nail down a point. In the first mention of giving credit to God he says "MAKE KNOWN His deeds among the peoples!". David says to tell others of all that God has done, he says to talk of all his wondrous works. People need to hear what God has done, not what luck has done, or coincidence has done, mother nature, karma, etc. the list goes on. We need to give God credit.

In the second mention David specifically mentions giving God credit among the "heathens" as it is put in the Kings James version:

"Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvelous works among all nations. "

He here again repeats the fact that even those who reject God, those who are from a different land, still need to hear the marvelous works of God. But I would assume the real question we should be asking is why? Why do we need to do this? Why can't we just give our testimony on a Sunday morning and that be good enough?

I don't think God just does stuff because He can, He does stuff for a purpose, He does things because He knows best, He does things so that all men might come to know Him. We know that God's heart is that none should perish. We know that God is a God of blessing and love. And what better testimony to His greatness is what He has done in your life, sometimes your best witness are the acts that God has made in your life. The "heathens" who do not know the greatness of God need to learn about it from the Christians who experience it.

Think of it like this. If I tried to build a jet engine it would be a huge mess. Why? Because I don't have the knowledge of how to build one. I don't know the parts inside of it, or how they fit all together. I would have to learn how to. The same goes for God. How are people going to know God if they don't learn. And I couldn't think of a better way for them to learn then for you, as a Christian, to tell them about God and all that HE does.

God is a God who blesses and cares. who delivers and saves, redeems and sets free. So I leave you with the words of David:

"Give to the LORD the glory due His name."

How about a little Blessing?

"So David did not take the ark with him to the city of David, but took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. Thus the ark of God remained with the family of Obed-edom in his house three months; and the LORD blessed the family of Obed-edom with all that he had." 1 Chronicles 13: 14-15

We have no record that Obed-edom believed in the God of Israel. It labels him here as a Gittite and they were Philistines, and yet the bible says that the Lord blessed everything in his household for 3 months. The key here is the ark. David was trying to bring the ark back home, but along the way Uzza touched the ark and God struck him down. This made David fear God and he decided he couldn't bring it back yet, so he dropped it off at Obed-edom's house. Why his house? I don't know. Maybe it was along the way, or the event with Uzza happened in front of that house. Either way it doesn't really matter; all that matters here is that where the presence of God was there was blessing also. Regardless of who's house it was, or even if they believed in God or not, wherever the presence of God rested His blessing was there also. But not just blessing in some areas, in ALL areas. In the bible it says "with all he had". Everything Odeb-edom had was blessed, family, work, relationships, everything. Is the presence of God resting with you? And are you, like David, bringing the presence of God to others? Do not take the presence of God for granted, it is something deep and precious. You should always be striving to have the manifest presence of God with you. It brings power and blessing. If you are going through a rough patch ask yourself if you can really say that you know that the presence of God is with you. If it is, there WILL be blessing. In a earlier post I talked about how Moses and the Israelites had taken God for granted and that God told him that:

"The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here." Ex. 33:14-15

God made His presence optional, not mandatory. Be careful as you walk through this life not to take His presence for granted; but also strive to be in the abundant blessing of His presence.

Encourage People!!

"Anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down, but an encouraging word makes it glad." Proverbs 12:25 (Amplified Bible)

A simple challenge for you today. Be an encourager. The bible says that one encouraging word can make the heart of a man glad. So today be an encourager, everyone loves to be encouraged. This is definitely something I struggle to do, so this is a good challenge for me as well! I pray that you make someones day just a little brighter! Show God's love through your mouth! Be blessed!

I'm sure it will make you feel better too!

Time to Fall

"The arrogance of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in the loftiness of your dwelling place, who say in your heart, who will bring me down to earth?' "Though you build high like the eagle, though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down," declares the LORD" Obadiah 1:3-4 (NASB)

We have all heard it before; pride is wrong and is a snare. But even more than that it is a reason for God to "bring you down". In Obadiah the Lord is talking about Edom and how the people there feel as though they cannot be beaten. Their hearts are filled with arrogance, and even more, are filled with arrogance when it comes to beating and persecuting God's people. But I love what God says, "I will bring you down.". It makes me want to laugh but also tremble in terror. God humbles the arrogant, that is easy to understand and that is why I want to laugh at God's statement; God will humble them and I already know He will. I get to have that insight when I see those arrogant people, but what terrifies me is that I can be an arrogant person that God will have to humble. And trust me, humbling doesn't feel good at all. It is embarrassing and painful. It feels like a demolition of your soul.

Every once in a while I find myself in those situations. I get humbled and it hurts, but it feels good because you know that God is working on you and that you will be better for it after. And what hurts most is when God uses the people that are close to you when He does this. For me it's usually my mother or girlfriend. The people who aren't afraid to tell you that you suck sometimes. I have come to learn that being open to humility and the trials that bring it is something we all need to be. I think it is actually a good thing to be humbled, right? But even more to look for those opportunities to be humbled as well. Do you know what I'm saying? For example, every so often when my girlfriend and I are just talking we will ask each other what are we doing wrong? Asking each other where can we do better, what have we done to hurt each other. Now if you know me you will know I HATE being wrong. Even at an early age I hated it. But one of the biggest lessons that I have come to learn, and still struggle with, is that fact that I'm not always right. So it hurts when she tells me what I have done wrong. I don't like being wrong but even more I don't like hurting her and hearing that I did humbles me a lot. God and people have shown me this time and time again.

When God exposes your arrogance it is not pretty. It awful and hurtful but beautiful and needed. If you find yourself being like Edom and thinking that your high place is safe, just wait, God will bring you down. Strive for humility, strive to place God first. An easy way to remember this is that at the end of the day one little mistake, one thought, one wrong motive, anything, and you deserve to die. Simply, God is holy and deserves perfection, which you can't give. EVER. So arrogance has no place in your heart, only holiness.