Fight for you

If you are anything like me you have faced some challenges and really hard decisions in your life these last few years. We made the move back to Michigan for a handful of reasons, but really felt like God was leading us home. We had been living in Nashville for a few years, we loved it. We loved the friends we made, we were involved in a sweet church there. From an outside observer it looked like we were on a normal path.

The reality was money was always real tight, even with my wife and I both working living is expensive. Rent, food, insurance, cars, kids, jeans, coffee... well the coffee was always entirely worth it. All this to say life was always a battle, but i tried to start with my eyes on Jesus. The days i didn't start right, the enemy would feed me lies and distractions like; you will never get ahead financially, you will never get promoted, you will only loose what you have, what are you really doing with your life... you know the lies very well i'm sure. And i fought, every day to keep my head up, to look for my hope, and i found it in Jesus. When you are seeking, you will find, and Jesus loves to be found by us each day. Sometimes we get so used to fighting our battles, we forget that He fights for us.

"Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." -Romans 8:33-34

Let us paint a picture of the battle in the spiritual places. The enemy, Satan condemns, accuses, calls us names, wants God to abandon us. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to kill our hope, wants to steal our joy, wants to destroy our potential for ministry. BUT while Satan attempts to condemn us before God we have the best attorney that ever walked this earth, Jesus. The one who was there when the foundations of the existence was spoke into being. Who was co-author of light, to whom all knees will bow and all tongues confess Him as lord. Yeah, i'm glad he is on my side. I am glad he lived a perfect life and died and was raised from the dead, and he sits at the right hand of God the father.


What does this mean for our worship?
It is easy to think about ourselves, it is easy to spend that one min we have in the morning to try and focus on God. It isn't easy to live our entire day with an attitude of worship, at least not at first. When we are focused on OUR battles we will stay focused on ourselves. We must first remember that He, Jesus fights for us. We don't need to take that on, we need to trust that we have the best and only blameless attorney in Jesus. Once we remember that our response should be worship, always our go-to should be worship. Our worship and our love, our obedience, thats what He wants.
All that time i spent fighting battles, i thought they were my battles, and the world told me they were, that was the cost i had to pay in life. Honestly those things don't matter in the big picture. I was following what God had told me to do, and that obedience had a purpose in retrospect. My family is in a wonderful place now, my marriage is stronger than ever, my kids amaze & challenge me every day. I have more love in my life, and i owe it all to Jesus the one who fights for me. So it is Him i will worship.

This is our battlefield, the stage where we join together and remember who has already won.

Gift of Jukebox

"Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness." (Romans 12:6-8 NASB)

It is amazing to serve a God who gives grace. Having just celebrated Christmas and the greatest gift to man in history, Jesus. I am struck with the generousity of  our God. The depth of his love, that is constant toward us. Through that love He pours out gifts, and expects us to play with them. Like a child on Christmas morning, who upon receiving a new gift decides spend his day using the gift to its every possible application of fun. When was the last time we spent a day with God asking Him how we can use our spiritual gifts? 

The beauty of a gift is it's voulentairy, and we can't earn it. All you can do is receive it, and enjoy. I love the picture of a persons attitude that looks at life asking God what they can give. No matter what has happened to them, no matter what the world tells them they lack. 

The world wants us to feel empty, so we can try to fill those holes with what they are selling. We can apply that to ourselves, and wonder why we can't dance, sing, and be as funny as Justin Timberlake. 

The question is not if we have been created equal, which is a perspective of entitlement. Instead, have we prayed to receive our full portion of His grace? 

God is a giving God. He who is seated on the throne in full glory, whose robe is light. He who sent His spirit to dwell in us, He calls us to use the gifts He gives. I like to see Him like a father on Christmas morning helping us open up our gifts, and ask us what we are going to do with them. If we are dedicated to prayer we should be asking Him consistently to play  with us. Gifts are best when shared. 

I remember as a young boy a friend of my dad gave me a classic jukebox. Like any respectable jukebox it came preset on the local oldies radio station. Being young and enjoying oldies, I assumed for some reason that was the only radio station it could play. I mean why would a jukebox play country or hip hop? So for about three years I listened to oldies. Until one day my best friend asked me why I always listen to oldies. Before I could even respond, my friend had flipped down a secret panel and was tuning through the vast space of FM radio. My world was rocked, and my perspective of the gift I had been holding for years was radically changed. 

-=What does this mean for our Worship=-

Do you have a Jukebox? A gift you know God has given you that you kept to yourself. I think it is good for our hearts to share. If we ask God to flip down the panel on our jukebox to open up what He can do with our gifts, I think he answers that prayer. 

I know we can get distracted asking for more, more, more. When what we really need is perspective that what we already have is good. When I think about the family and friends God has blessed me with and the gifts He has grown in me, all I can do is worship Him. In a spirit of thanksgiving I give Him praise, and desire to spend time with Him. 

I pray that God would help you to open up the jukebox of your gifts, and receive your full portion of His grace. 

Yet i will Rejoice!

"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor the fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet i will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places."
-Habakkuk 3:17-19

I will have days when it seems like God isn't near to me, or i am not near to Him. On those days or hours, minuets, seconds what attitude should i take? It is easy to pout, or be grumpy and say things like, "Lord why?" or, "I just don't feel like praising you right now, I'm not in the mood."

The word of God says something should be different in the heart of a worshiper. The example of worshipers in the old and new testament are like Habakkuk, Job, Paul... the list goes on. They worship God regardless of the day, what has happened to them, how they feel, or what He wants them to do. (Jonah isn't in this group, his fish might be)

What does this mean for our worship?
God is to be worshiped always, regardless of our mood, our state of heart, our worldview, our distractions, our sin. Simply because He is God. Worship is taking joy in God, delighting in Him, and giving everything to Him no matter the times. This is a state of worship, to be giving to God.
We tend to talk about "corporate worship" as "worship," when we sing and pray together, and that is when God moves in us together. I cherish those times, but maybe God is calling you to one-on-one worship. To grow your heart, and shape it like his, into an obedient joy.

I think that complaining is the enemy of giving praise. Pray against the spirit of complaining.

Pace your Face, take a love day

Sabbath, rest, hanging out, relaxing, kicking back, or my personal favorite, bustin a chill.
All things we might use to describe a day of Sabbath. I want to look at our personal motivation for a day of rest.

I think a lot of people genuinely work hard and feel like they are "owed" a day to relax. Considering we cant earn salvation through works, I'm going to say we can't possibly be "owed" much. All these diversions aside, do you ever think about why God gave us the Sabbath? I know i do.

Was it to spend time with love ones? Was it to recover from our labor? Was it to have something to rush toward every week, and pass up 6/7 of our lives? (or 1-7/7 depending on your work ethic and how much you long for the weekend)

What i do know is Jesus said that the Sabbath was created for man, and not man created for the Sabbath. So i shouldn't place busting a chill on the top of most exciting things to do this week? I think we can be quick to put rest on a pedestal, and then if something gets in the way we get grumpy or cranky. I know this has happened to me before.

So what does God intend the Sabbath for?
"But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, "You shall surely observe My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you."" - Exodus 31:13

Here is God speaking to Moses, giving him the Ten Commandments. What i gather from this EPIC verse 13 is this: The Sabbath belongs to God, it is a sign of our relationship, and it is to remember Him, that He is God and He alone cleanses us of sin.

What does this mean for our worship?
Like usual the questions about Sabbath i ask first are all "me" questions. We can be so focused on ourselves. Here God has made it obvious that Sabbath is all about Him. All the me questions melt away in the fire of God's passion for us. When you think about how He gave us the Sabbath to remember Him. I am going to go so far as call the Sabbath a day of romance with God. Like escaping with a lover, or a honeymoon. But we get to have it with God every week! When we think about it in this context the questions about "what should we do on the Sabbath?" also disappear.
And all that remains, is intimate worship.

Crazy Faith of Abram, Bilbo Baggins

Do you ever desire to have a crazy faith? We know that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. Chew on Abram's faith with me, and his desire to say "YES" to God's plan for his life.

"Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that i will show you. And i will make of you a great nation, and i will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you i will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran."
-Genesis 12:1-4

Whoah, so much there to dig into. First God told Abram to leave everything he has ever known, and he said what? Time to pack. I don't know about you but if God gives me such a huge thing, like leave everything you have known for the last 75 years and go to this place you have never been. I don't know that my first response would be, "sounds fun, lets roll."But Abram had the faith in God's promise, and didn't even question him, there is a great example later on in Sodom and Gomorrah where Abram barters with God about saving people from the sin infested land. Yet in this call, Abram just responds with im going to put my feat on the road. It reminds me of what Bilbo Baggins says to Frodo his nephew when he leaves for Rivendale in "The Fellowship of The Ring."

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

Abram heard God's promise, and he trusted that God would  Keep his feet, he understood shepherding.

What does this mean for our worship?
I believe any heart that is ready to say "YES" to anything God speaks to you, is a heart devoted to worship. In worship we submit our own desires, our wants, and we give them to God. Don't get me wrong we know that He wants to give us the desires of our hearts (they pure ones.) But our attitudes should be like Abram, a willingness to give it all up for the Lord. He paid the price for our sin, a high price, His own son Jesus. Anything we think is hard to give up compared to that is... puny, insignificant, and kind of arrogant. So let us forge forward with an attitude of "Yes Lord," seeking with a readiness to worship Him with all of our hearts, and a willingness to give up everything we have ever known. He WANTS to bless us, so let Him, obey his call. Amen.

Emmanuel God with Us?

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel," which translated means, "God with us." -Matthew 1:23

Did you ever think about what it means for God to be with us? The one who mixed the stars with His fingers, who called light into shining. The God who with a word separated the oceans from the land. This God comes to earth, and He doesn't ride down on a falling star, He is born. Its hard to think about, i think because it seems so vast and bigger than anything we see in our daily lives. (little tangent.)

Anyway, this God wants us to call Him "God with us." Take a second and think, how do you respond to a God that wants to be with you? Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine God with you.

We know how the world responded to Jesus or Emmanuel when He was born.
Take your pick, no room at the inn, or Herod killing all the baby boys under two years old. Not a very welcoming environment for the Creator of all. It's almost like the world is saying, "God go away, we don't want you, we don't need you, leave us alone, or we will kill you!"

How arrogant does that sound? Why would we react this way to a Holy God?
I think it has to do with the fall in the garden, and our sin that separates us from God. We get used to being separated from Him, then when He shows up its kinda awkward.
Ever see someone when you were on bad terms, or you make that eye contact from a far. We try to avoid that don't we, because its awkward.

What does that mean for our worship, this Christmas?
God came to us, to bring us back to Him, and to conquer death! Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies, He didn't come just to save us, He came to take back all that belongs to Him. We like to think His only purpose was to save us, but God was writing the end of the story. When Jesus conquers death at Easter, all of creation and the keys of death are His. Those keys he uses to unlock our hearts, He send the spirit to be with us, and gives us HOPE.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And i heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold the tabernacle of God is among men, and He weill dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death, there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain, the first things have passed away."
-Revelation 21:1-3

Hope, Hope is born

Our God is a Jealous God

Today i wanted to look at God's Jealousy, and why its important to us as Christians, and in our worship of a Holy God.

"They made Him jealous with strange gods;
With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
They sacrificed to demons who were not God,
To gods whom they have not known,
New gods who came lately,
Whom your fathers did not dread.
You neglected the Rock who begot you,
And forgot the God who gave you birth."
-Deuteronomy 32:16-18

I think the first impression we have is,
"how can God be jealous, he has emotions like this?"
It can be hard to understand God having negative emotions, after all He is perfect. Yet He gets angry, jealous, and wrathful.
Imagine this with me, you are a parent of a teenager (big imagination i know.) One day your kid comes home from school and doesn't talk to you, which could be normal. Then over time still no contact with you, no words shared no eye contact, nothing. One day they bring home someone claiming to be their parent, which you know is false. Your kid has taken this other person as a parent, neglecting who gave them birth, cared and provided for them and loves them unconditionally. The worst part is this "new parent" is someone they just met, and no matter how "nice" they are, its false, you are the parent. Doesn't something boil inside of us?
I wonder if this is how God feels when he is jealous?

What does this mean for our Worship?
When we look to idols God is jealous, and we all know our own idols well. But i would go one step further, even when we aren't focused on our idols, are we avoiding God?
Funny thing about jealousy is, it doesn't matter where someone is spending their time, if its not with you. Just like young lovers calling and texting constantly, God wants our attention, affection, and obsession. Can you imagine if the only thing people said about you was,
"he/she is obsessed with God, always talking about Him, Praying, Worshiping Him with his/her attitude."
I think God wouldn't be jealous if we were obsessed with Him.

I think our Worship has a lot to do with Obsession