Worship
Have you touched heaven yet? Have you been lifted into a place of utter contentment, peace, the throne room of the Christ? What is the expression of that? 300 jumping, pumping, screaming youth crying for holiness and passion, for the awakening of this generation while guitars scream and drums beat. Is it on a mountaintop with the whisper of heaven blowing through the trees, where nature itself cries out!
Is it on the sand of a beach with the roar of oceans voice beating on the gates to the kingdom crying out for the redemption of the ages to come, to come quickly. With the rustling of ancient prayers in the tops of the palm trees waving their praises.
Could it be in the midst of a coffee shop where the kingdom comes, headphones on the praise of a generation longing for the time, now is the time. O Jesus let it come.
Don’t you feel His heart beat in the midst of the city, on the street corners, on the bustling Indian train, in the hum of humanity on a warm summers night. Can you see it coming on a trail high in the Himalayas, on the shores of Lake Isikkol, along a dusty road in the Philippines?
O people worship in the mountain, on the street, in the Factory, on your knees, worship is in the heart and its expression lifts even the most downtrodden heart to the eyes of our Lord.
“for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea”
May our worship to our God cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and may our praise fill the throne room of the most high. Praise His name all you saints.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
The Fathers Love
I am beginning to understand what the creation means to God the father, to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit, what we really mean to Him.
As I was on a trip recently thinking about my little girl, how her smile can disarm even the most stern look. How even when she cries’s tears of frustration it brings laughter to my heart.
When I think of my son, whom looks so much like me, it brings me to tears and my heart leaps within me. His smile and laughter is like the rising of the son and the setting of the same.
I am wrapped up in them. The thought of them suffering because of sin breaks me, it brings me down. What would I do if I gained the whole world but lost them? What kind of father, what kind of teacher would I be?
God’s heart is wrapped up in us His creation. Jesus just breaks at the thought of us hurting or of us walking away from Him. When He thinks of us, of you and I, His heart leaps! Can you feel it? Our undivided devotion and love out of a pure, innocent heart is all He wants, all He desires. There is nothing we can do to earn that, nothing else to do besides be who He created us to be. When He looks on us the sun rises and sets…on us. We are His all in all and the reason for life. To have a relationship where we say Abba Father! O how I long to hear that from my children it is all I need and want at the end of the day. All else is wasted time; all else is as a vapor that is like the dew in the morning that is gone at the rising of the Son. When I am away from them I want to be near them. When I am near them I don’t want to be away. That is the groaning of all creation, to be brought home. He is completely wrapped up in us and it would break Him to loose us. There is nothing He wouldn’t do to keep us near. May we know the love of the Father. May our hearts break over separation and that we would not rest until we are truly home surrounded by those we love and that love us.
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek is own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
As I was on a trip recently thinking about my little girl, how her smile can disarm even the most stern look. How even when she cries’s tears of frustration it brings laughter to my heart.
When I think of my son, whom looks so much like me, it brings me to tears and my heart leaps within me. His smile and laughter is like the rising of the son and the setting of the same.
I am wrapped up in them. The thought of them suffering because of sin breaks me, it brings me down. What would I do if I gained the whole world but lost them? What kind of father, what kind of teacher would I be?
God’s heart is wrapped up in us His creation. Jesus just breaks at the thought of us hurting or of us walking away from Him. When He thinks of us, of you and I, His heart leaps! Can you feel it? Our undivided devotion and love out of a pure, innocent heart is all He wants, all He desires. There is nothing we can do to earn that, nothing else to do besides be who He created us to be. When He looks on us the sun rises and sets…on us. We are His all in all and the reason for life. To have a relationship where we say Abba Father! O how I long to hear that from my children it is all I need and want at the end of the day. All else is wasted time; all else is as a vapor that is like the dew in the morning that is gone at the rising of the Son. When I am away from them I want to be near them. When I am near them I don’t want to be away. That is the groaning of all creation, to be brought home. He is completely wrapped up in us and it would break Him to loose us. There is nothing He wouldn’t do to keep us near. May we know the love of the Father. May our hearts break over separation and that we would not rest until we are truly home surrounded by those we love and that love us.
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek is own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Intentional- Done Purposely (websters)
Why am I here? Everyone has asked this question to the air at least once in his or her life sometimes with a shout sometimes with a desperate whisper. I don’t care whom it is everyone has found themselves in a moment of utter desperation lost in thought wondering what am I doing? If you are a Christian you have been told by the Church why you are here, as a generation the media tells us why we are here. Friends tries to define our existence in a make believe reality that only works on TV. Why are you here anyway? Is it to be healthy, wealthy, or wise? Is it to have the white picket fence with 2.5 kids in the van? Is it to go to collage so you can meet the right person and get the right job to live the right way? Are you to be the great minister of the Gospel winning hundreds to the Lord? I don’t think any of these answers or even the answers we that have been pushed upon us are necessarily wrong it’s just that they may often be other people’s dreams for our lives.
Why do we flock to movies like The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, The Last Samurai? It is because we long for the hero epic, the person who knows there is something different about themselves, that there is a destiny to be fulfilled with only the spark to ignite it. But we walk out of the movie satisfied for the moment but left longing for the spark. Maybe we seek to change our lives for the moment but when the moment passes we move back to societies mundane expectancy for our lives.
God has so much more for us, He longs for us to live intentionally! He desires to have us live for Him everyday. Often it is in our desperation, our calling out in the night or the desperate whisper that we find ourselves in Him. There is an intimate fellowship Jesus has with us because He walked this out in His own life. In the Church we are raised to believe that Jesus is this otherworldly person but really he was the Man God, 100% Man 100% God. The same man that cried out on the cross “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” He was the one that had to bleed and die for us, the perfect sacrifice. He had to die to get there, he suffered as it where great drops of blood in the Garden pleading with the father “I suffer this cup to pass from me but not my will by yours be done”. At some point he asked the question and found the answer. Maybe it was when He was a child when He stayed behind in the Temple. But wherever, whenever He lived His life with intention not wasting a single moment after that point. There have been times that I have felt as though the weight of the world is resting on my back. There have been times that I felt utterly lost, without friends, without much but the hope of glory to keep the dream alive. The dream of a movement of young people that sweeps through the world so filled with the Glory of God that past revivals pale in comparison. I can either try and carry this dream on my own strength or I can be crushed under the flood of Jesus love and find the reason for living. The world is dieing to know why they are alive, seeking after life on Mars when we barely have it here. Trying to find a destiny in materialism, causes to die for, or that one true love of a woman or a man. The sad thing is this is what the Church often looks like as well.
Jesus has it all but yet we do all these other things to find our purpose, to give us a reason to get up in the morning. One day we find ourselves sick and tired and when we are ready to give up then He can use us. He wants us to live lives of purpose, of intension, to find our destiny in Him. Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring gives Frodo this advice when he wishes the ring had never come to him “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought...”
As with the ring there is a purpose for our lives individually, we are not just characters in a script written thousands of years ago. We are His penmanship, His workmanship created to do good works which He purposed before time began! Isn’t that comforting! But we must be willing to live lives with intention, we must be willing to let Him light that spark that will release the destiny that He has purposed for our lives.
Are you willing to let Him be the Why of your life?
Why do we flock to movies like The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, The Last Samurai? It is because we long for the hero epic, the person who knows there is something different about themselves, that there is a destiny to be fulfilled with only the spark to ignite it. But we walk out of the movie satisfied for the moment but left longing for the spark. Maybe we seek to change our lives for the moment but when the moment passes we move back to societies mundane expectancy for our lives.
God has so much more for us, He longs for us to live intentionally! He desires to have us live for Him everyday. Often it is in our desperation, our calling out in the night or the desperate whisper that we find ourselves in Him. There is an intimate fellowship Jesus has with us because He walked this out in His own life. In the Church we are raised to believe that Jesus is this otherworldly person but really he was the Man God, 100% Man 100% God. The same man that cried out on the cross “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” He was the one that had to bleed and die for us, the perfect sacrifice. He had to die to get there, he suffered as it where great drops of blood in the Garden pleading with the father “I suffer this cup to pass from me but not my will by yours be done”. At some point he asked the question and found the answer. Maybe it was when He was a child when He stayed behind in the Temple. But wherever, whenever He lived His life with intention not wasting a single moment after that point. There have been times that I have felt as though the weight of the world is resting on my back. There have been times that I felt utterly lost, without friends, without much but the hope of glory to keep the dream alive. The dream of a movement of young people that sweeps through the world so filled with the Glory of God that past revivals pale in comparison. I can either try and carry this dream on my own strength or I can be crushed under the flood of Jesus love and find the reason for living. The world is dieing to know why they are alive, seeking after life on Mars when we barely have it here. Trying to find a destiny in materialism, causes to die for, or that one true love of a woman or a man. The sad thing is this is what the Church often looks like as well.
Jesus has it all but yet we do all these other things to find our purpose, to give us a reason to get up in the morning. One day we find ourselves sick and tired and when we are ready to give up then He can use us. He wants us to live lives of purpose, of intension, to find our destiny in Him. Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring gives Frodo this advice when he wishes the ring had never come to him “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought...”
As with the ring there is a purpose for our lives individually, we are not just characters in a script written thousands of years ago. We are His penmanship, His workmanship created to do good works which He purposed before time began! Isn’t that comforting! But we must be willing to live lives with intention, we must be willing to let Him light that spark that will release the destiny that He has purposed for our lives.
Are you willing to let Him be the Why of your life?
Monday, June 20, 2005
Bond
It has been nine years that we have been pursuing this dream. This dream of seeing a global awakening, a movement of young people transformed into the likeness of our Lord Jesus moving into every nation and every area of society. I believe this is a dream birthed in the heart of the Father.
I was recently at a gathering in North America where we had over six hundred mostly youth together seeking his face for the nations, and calling out for His plans and purposes in the earth to be reveled in us and that we would lay down our dreams and pick up his. I have been at many such gatherings over the years seeking revival, seeking the face of God. I have cried out many times these past nine years for it to happen not knowing what it would look like. I have read about the past revivals in a hope to see what the future one may look like. What we have been seeking is something that is really found within us already. God has been bringing a global network of relationships around the world all marked with this common bond of Jesus, a passion to see this movement of Marked people going into the earth and a love for each other that transcends all national boundaries. We are a people that are different and may not agree on all things but the bond of our love is deep. There is a commitment to our relationships that is worship to the Lord; it is a bond that hell cannot break nor time diffuse.
At this gathering I looked out during worship, looking into the faces of my friends, the relationships God has given me. And in that moment I saw the beauty of the Lord. I saw the worship that those friendships are. I wept over my friends, I battled for them, I became better because of the love and bond that I saw and that all we experience together. There is so much to this life besides what the world says is important. I live and die by my friends. Our love is our bond. What we have all the world seeks after. It is why we see a disenfranchised youth culture; it is why we see such problem with gangs. It is why we participate in blogs and online forums. It is what the world is dieing for, true life or death relationship and it is what we have.
But how do these relationships affect the world? Why has God given them? It isn’t so that we keep them to ourselves is it? My friend Tre gave me an illustration that goes like this. I have been married to a beautiful woman for the past 15 years named Ellen. We have wrestled and struggled through so much together and we are the best of friends. We practically grew up together getting married at the ages of 18 and 19 respectively. After almost nine years of marriage we came to a place that we wanted children. Why do you think we wanted to have kids? Was it merely to pass on our heritage, our family name and carry on the human race? No, we wanted to have kids so that they could join us in the party! This dance that the Godhead has been in since eternity past and which Jesus is calling us into, we wanted them to be part of it and to feel the joy that we feel. We were not satisfied with keeping it to ourselves. That is what the kingdom is like, we were never meant to keep it to ourselves, within the four walls of the church, it is for the streets. Shouldn’t this Gospel affect every area of society? Shouldn’t it affect the AIDS orphan in Africa, the poor, the homeless, the refuge, and the imprisoned?
Shouldn’t it affect every area of society? That is the power within these relationships and that is the thing that will spark a revival affecting every area of society. Will it happen if
we just pray and fast long enough for it? Maybe. But Jesus gave us friendship and relationship for a purpose and a plan, yes for our benefit and enrichment but ultimately for His Kingdom. As we act together we will see the transformation happen.
God the father gave Jesus friends, don’t think for a minute that Jesus was merely the teacher and the disciples his students they where far more than that. They where His mates, his accountability group, his best friends in the whole world and also the ones He planned on to take this Gospel through out the Earth. Eleven guys did it, they went out and shared the love and was it deep! They had a dream to bring Gods kingdom to Earth through Jesus. We are called to do the same with these precious relationships we have. Some have more and some have less but they are all given to us by God. Ellen and I have been in YWAM for over 10 years now and O have they been the richest years. I would not trade the world for these years and the depth of what God has given me. YWAM may have many problems but what is at the core is relationship. It was founded by a bunch of friends that dared to believe and followed a crazy dream of youth going out into all the nations. What is the dream you and your friends have? Is like mine, to see a global movement that is going out to transform every area of society? If you don’t have a dream, ask God, He will give one to you as well. We need to ask God what His dreams and desires are for our lives. We think so small and temporal. God has a dream and destiny so much larger so much deeper then you can even imagine. He is not interested in Lone Rangers who trumpet their own calls but He is interested in the building of something bigger, our God is a consuming fire. He puts us together with others who dare to dream the same crazy dream of God and O is it so worth the sacrifice. Let me tell you a story of sacrifice and humility that is personal to me. God introduced me to what have become two of my closest friends in the world, Tre and Trent Sheppard. At the time I didn’t know that it was God who was introducing us but as I began to see, God is often the one who connects us with what become some of our closest relationships. I met them at a DTS gathering we held in Kona, Hawaii in January 1999. We brought together the three schools from Honolulu, Maui, and Kona for a week of worship, prayer, and seeking God for revival in our time.
God met us so strongly during that week we where all marked forever. I have never been the same after that time and it re-fired an idea that had faded in the previous years of seeing a global awakening in our generation. My heart was also knitted to Tre and Trents and thus began a friendship that has grown these past six years but it wasn’t without testing. Later that year as Ellen and I wrestled with the idea of moving to England to join up with the Factory, a ministry they had started to pursue this dream, I faced a challenge to these new friendships. Because of simple miscommunication on my side of the world the enemy planted a seed of frustration that began to develop into what became animosity in my heart towards these dear friends. We were to meet again at conference later that same year in Colorado. Weeks before this God revealed that I had begun to allow this frustration into my heart. He led me to repent of my pride and selfishness in not defending this bond and in allowing the enemy and my flesh to break what God had given. To Tre and Trents surprise I grabbed them on our first meeting in Colorado and I
washed their feet and asked forgiveness for my attitude towards them. The funny thing was that they had no idea the battle that I had been fighting. It took them by surprise that I had asked them to allow me to do this. I was walking in obedience to God to defend and protect what have become two of my best friends and most valued relationships I have today. If I had not walked in obedience to what God asked of me Tre and Trent would never have know what was in my heart but it would have forever brought a wall between my heart and theirs. I illustrate this point to say that there is nothing I won’t do to defend the relationships that God has given me. They are a gift from God and they are one of the treasures that the enemy seeks to destroy. I am not sure exactly how that would have changed my life but I have a feeling I would not be where I am today without them, their input into my life and I am sure it is mutually true. Every relationship is not without its testing and trials. Our response to these trials are what either bind us together even closer or what can drive an invisible wedge between them. In the series “Band of Brothers” a true story about a group of soldiers that became so much more than friends as they faced the specter of war. They grew in this bond beginning during their training time running up and down a hill called “Churahee”. The eternal bond and friendship of this Band of Brothers is something that came out of the intensity of the conflict and the need for each other. Are we not engaged in a conflict with the stakes so much higher? I feel that we have been in a season of training these past years and are now really entering the true battle.
Out of these and many other connections God has given to Ellen and I we have grown the stronger, the Kingdom has been advanced, and we have drawn closer to seeing a movement birthed. Not out of one mans dream but the dream of God placed in a bunch of friends who dare to believe the impossible. Loren Cunningham’s quoted as saying “The key to YWAM is the creating with God the things that are on Gods heart.” The call is simple, hear the voice of the Lord and obey. As we walk out together in obedience the word of the Lord to us and to be open to the dreams of God we will see this movement go out into the entire world affecting every area of society. It will be a nameless faceless army with Jesus as the General. What is the crazy dream of God you are dreaming?
I was recently at a gathering in North America where we had over six hundred mostly youth together seeking his face for the nations, and calling out for His plans and purposes in the earth to be reveled in us and that we would lay down our dreams and pick up his. I have been at many such gatherings over the years seeking revival, seeking the face of God. I have cried out many times these past nine years for it to happen not knowing what it would look like. I have read about the past revivals in a hope to see what the future one may look like. What we have been seeking is something that is really found within us already. God has been bringing a global network of relationships around the world all marked with this common bond of Jesus, a passion to see this movement of Marked people going into the earth and a love for each other that transcends all national boundaries. We are a people that are different and may not agree on all things but the bond of our love is deep. There is a commitment to our relationships that is worship to the Lord; it is a bond that hell cannot break nor time diffuse.
At this gathering I looked out during worship, looking into the faces of my friends, the relationships God has given me. And in that moment I saw the beauty of the Lord. I saw the worship that those friendships are. I wept over my friends, I battled for them, I became better because of the love and bond that I saw and that all we experience together. There is so much to this life besides what the world says is important. I live and die by my friends. Our love is our bond. What we have all the world seeks after. It is why we see a disenfranchised youth culture; it is why we see such problem with gangs. It is why we participate in blogs and online forums. It is what the world is dieing for, true life or death relationship and it is what we have.
But how do these relationships affect the world? Why has God given them? It isn’t so that we keep them to ourselves is it? My friend Tre gave me an illustration that goes like this. I have been married to a beautiful woman for the past 15 years named Ellen. We have wrestled and struggled through so much together and we are the best of friends. We practically grew up together getting married at the ages of 18 and 19 respectively. After almost nine years of marriage we came to a place that we wanted children. Why do you think we wanted to have kids? Was it merely to pass on our heritage, our family name and carry on the human race? No, we wanted to have kids so that they could join us in the party! This dance that the Godhead has been in since eternity past and which Jesus is calling us into, we wanted them to be part of it and to feel the joy that we feel. We were not satisfied with keeping it to ourselves. That is what the kingdom is like, we were never meant to keep it to ourselves, within the four walls of the church, it is for the streets. Shouldn’t this Gospel affect every area of society? Shouldn’t it affect the AIDS orphan in Africa, the poor, the homeless, the refuge, and the imprisoned?
Shouldn’t it affect every area of society? That is the power within these relationships and that is the thing that will spark a revival affecting every area of society. Will it happen if
we just pray and fast long enough for it? Maybe. But Jesus gave us friendship and relationship for a purpose and a plan, yes for our benefit and enrichment but ultimately for His Kingdom. As we act together we will see the transformation happen.
God the father gave Jesus friends, don’t think for a minute that Jesus was merely the teacher and the disciples his students they where far more than that. They where His mates, his accountability group, his best friends in the whole world and also the ones He planned on to take this Gospel through out the Earth. Eleven guys did it, they went out and shared the love and was it deep! They had a dream to bring Gods kingdom to Earth through Jesus. We are called to do the same with these precious relationships we have. Some have more and some have less but they are all given to us by God. Ellen and I have been in YWAM for over 10 years now and O have they been the richest years. I would not trade the world for these years and the depth of what God has given me. YWAM may have many problems but what is at the core is relationship. It was founded by a bunch of friends that dared to believe and followed a crazy dream of youth going out into all the nations. What is the dream you and your friends have? Is like mine, to see a global movement that is going out to transform every area of society? If you don’t have a dream, ask God, He will give one to you as well. We need to ask God what His dreams and desires are for our lives. We think so small and temporal. God has a dream and destiny so much larger so much deeper then you can even imagine. He is not interested in Lone Rangers who trumpet their own calls but He is interested in the building of something bigger, our God is a consuming fire. He puts us together with others who dare to dream the same crazy dream of God and O is it so worth the sacrifice. Let me tell you a story of sacrifice and humility that is personal to me. God introduced me to what have become two of my closest friends in the world, Tre and Trent Sheppard. At the time I didn’t know that it was God who was introducing us but as I began to see, God is often the one who connects us with what become some of our closest relationships. I met them at a DTS gathering we held in Kona, Hawaii in January 1999. We brought together the three schools from Honolulu, Maui, and Kona for a week of worship, prayer, and seeking God for revival in our time.
God met us so strongly during that week we where all marked forever. I have never been the same after that time and it re-fired an idea that had faded in the previous years of seeing a global awakening in our generation. My heart was also knitted to Tre and Trents and thus began a friendship that has grown these past six years but it wasn’t without testing. Later that year as Ellen and I wrestled with the idea of moving to England to join up with the Factory, a ministry they had started to pursue this dream, I faced a challenge to these new friendships. Because of simple miscommunication on my side of the world the enemy planted a seed of frustration that began to develop into what became animosity in my heart towards these dear friends. We were to meet again at conference later that same year in Colorado. Weeks before this God revealed that I had begun to allow this frustration into my heart. He led me to repent of my pride and selfishness in not defending this bond and in allowing the enemy and my flesh to break what God had given. To Tre and Trents surprise I grabbed them on our first meeting in Colorado and I
washed their feet and asked forgiveness for my attitude towards them. The funny thing was that they had no idea the battle that I had been fighting. It took them by surprise that I had asked them to allow me to do this. I was walking in obedience to God to defend and protect what have become two of my best friends and most valued relationships I have today. If I had not walked in obedience to what God asked of me Tre and Trent would never have know what was in my heart but it would have forever brought a wall between my heart and theirs. I illustrate this point to say that there is nothing I won’t do to defend the relationships that God has given me. They are a gift from God and they are one of the treasures that the enemy seeks to destroy. I am not sure exactly how that would have changed my life but I have a feeling I would not be where I am today without them, their input into my life and I am sure it is mutually true. Every relationship is not without its testing and trials. Our response to these trials are what either bind us together even closer or what can drive an invisible wedge between them. In the series “Band of Brothers” a true story about a group of soldiers that became so much more than friends as they faced the specter of war. They grew in this bond beginning during their training time running up and down a hill called “Churahee”. The eternal bond and friendship of this Band of Brothers is something that came out of the intensity of the conflict and the need for each other. Are we not engaged in a conflict with the stakes so much higher? I feel that we have been in a season of training these past years and are now really entering the true battle.
Out of these and many other connections God has given to Ellen and I we have grown the stronger, the Kingdom has been advanced, and we have drawn closer to seeing a movement birthed. Not out of one mans dream but the dream of God placed in a bunch of friends who dare to believe the impossible. Loren Cunningham’s quoted as saying “The key to YWAM is the creating with God the things that are on Gods heart.” The call is simple, hear the voice of the Lord and obey. As we walk out together in obedience the word of the Lord to us and to be open to the dreams of God we will see this movement go out into the entire world affecting every area of society. It will be a nameless faceless army with Jesus as the General. What is the crazy dream of God you are dreaming?
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Destiny
The destiny of our generation is a kingdom come. An ushering in of a King of old, from ages past memory before time. We are to be the fulfillment of His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
What is destiny? It is the fulfillment of every dream, the very heart of God in mankind. Of the expectation of the ages consummated on a generation willing to lay down their own visions, dreams, destiny to become the embodiment of His vision, dreams, destiny and in that laying down finding a dream so much bigger, so much more fulfilling as to make the other but a fleeting vapor, dust in the wind.
And what can that destiny be? To see a nation born in a day? To see the chariots of heavens host on the mountains, to see nothing short of a global awakening sweeping through every nation, peoples, tribes, tounge. To see every area of society on its knees to the one King the Lord of all.
What can be the cost of this Kingdom come, this destiny revealed? The question should not be at what cost but more so at what price is too high to see it fulfilled. The answer is nothing? There is nothing to great to pay to see the fulfillment of this dream of God.
Much blood, sweat, and tears will be lain at the alter of freedom. Freedom from pain, despair, sin, and death. What is your reality? Is it a nine to five prison, is it the matrix, “the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the Truth”. Or is it His reality, the Truth embodied in a man called Jesus Christ. Who showed us something more real, more solid than this earth. That there is nothing that can stand against a Kingdom come in the flesh of people like you and I. That there is nothing of eternal value outside of Christ but in Christ there is nothing we cannot do.
Jim Elliot, someone who understood this Kingdom and laid down his life to see the Auca Indians enter it said “He is no fool to give what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” This is how we should live our lives, a drink offering poured out to Him.
What is destiny? It is the fulfillment of every dream, the very heart of God in mankind. Of the expectation of the ages consummated on a generation willing to lay down their own visions, dreams, destiny to become the embodiment of His vision, dreams, destiny and in that laying down finding a dream so much bigger, so much more fulfilling as to make the other but a fleeting vapor, dust in the wind.
And what can that destiny be? To see a nation born in a day? To see the chariots of heavens host on the mountains, to see nothing short of a global awakening sweeping through every nation, peoples, tribes, tounge. To see every area of society on its knees to the one King the Lord of all.
What can be the cost of this Kingdom come, this destiny revealed? The question should not be at what cost but more so at what price is too high to see it fulfilled. The answer is nothing? There is nothing to great to pay to see the fulfillment of this dream of God.
Much blood, sweat, and tears will be lain at the alter of freedom. Freedom from pain, despair, sin, and death. What is your reality? Is it a nine to five prison, is it the matrix, “the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the Truth”. Or is it His reality, the Truth embodied in a man called Jesus Christ. Who showed us something more real, more solid than this earth. That there is nothing that can stand against a Kingdom come in the flesh of people like you and I. That there is nothing of eternal value outside of Christ but in Christ there is nothing we cannot do.
Jim Elliot, someone who understood this Kingdom and laid down his life to see the Auca Indians enter it said “He is no fool to give what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” This is how we should live our lives, a drink offering poured out to Him.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Sunset
What is the presence of the Lord like anyway? Isn’t it like a sunset? How can you truly describe a sunset anyway? I have one particular sunset burned into my memory for eternity. It was a day that could have been called an ordinary day, one which a bunch a friends where sharing together. Maybe it was one particular friend that was there who has a special place in my heart named Misha. It was a day that God spoke to me in a very personal way revealing His great love. Maybe it was all these things that made the sunset so spectacular. Not only that particular evening when we suddenly pulled over at of all places Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu to behold this most amazing of Gods creation that was set just for us, the sun blazing towards the deep blue pacific ocean, the thunder clouds off in the distance bringing perspective as the sun rays shot through the edges red, crimson, fire-orange, yellow. Silver and Grey contrasted against a backdrop of deepening blue with the dropping sun outlining distant clouds. It seemed that time stopped for an eternity in that moment. The sense that there was nothing that God couldn’t do, the sense of eternity in our hearts of all creation longing for the redemption of the sons of man. The creation was worshiping God in that moment and asking us to join in. I don’t know if anyone else besides us felt the longing of God in that moment or the beckoning of the Angels to come join in worship. But the presence, the beauty of God and all that He has for us in creation, our relationships, in knowing Him and each other as He is known spoke to me that day.
It was later that evening as we drove back, still reeling from the moment talking about our friends, people we know, the depth of relationships that God was creating that He spoke into my heart an answer to a deep longing I had had for those kinds of relationships earlier that year. It was a deep desire for friendship for belonging, to have lifelong relationships. That year God had brought so many relationships into my life I hadn’t even thought about it till that moment. It was a hearts cry prayer that I thought wasn’t even a prayer but God did. He spoke into that moment that He had heard that cry from the heart, the longing for deep friendships and had answered it with so much love that only I would know and only I would see. It was a moment that would forever change the way I viewed Gods presence, His love for us, His longing for relationship with us and the depths that He goes to see our fulfillment. But it is not a selfish fulfillment but one in which He gets to share with us, like that sunset He decided to create. We can never take any credit or glory for a sunset; it is just Him pure and simple yet with so much depth and forethought. He longs to have relationship with us and He longs for us to have relationship with each other in ways that we could never have without Him. He wants us to practice being in His presence and to talk with Him, to Love on Him. I believe as we learn to do that with each other we better learn how to do that with God. I have said it before but that is why the enemy so seeks to destroy our relationships, to foster disunity, complaining, jealousy, anger, and strife. He can never have that kind of relationship again so he seeks to harm our relationships with one another which will ultimately harm our relationship with the Father as well. Maybe that is why I can often have a deeper sense of God in the midst of a crowd of people, or in a worship time the 20 of my friends. It is about experiencing the presence of God together. A friend of mine described the Triune God head this way. It is like an eternal dance, a relationship that is eternal, and a perfect image of what relationship was meant to be like. The giving and sharing of love, encouragement, joy, peace, and we where all meant to join in it. God is inviting us to join in the dance that the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have had since before time began. It is a relationship that Adam tasted of as he walked with God, that Moses saw a glimpse of, which we have all sensed at times but have yet to fully participate in. I don’t know if we will fully be able to know the fullness of it this side of Heaven but I do know that the Angels look on in wonder and long to have that kind of relationship, the relationship that we are destined to have with each other and the Father.
Remember what is truly important at the end of the day. Don’t get so lost and busy in all that we think is important and miss the sunsets that God is calling us to join with Him in creating.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
First Impressions
First impressions leave a lasting taste so I intend to add mine to our global community. I am going to post some devotions and thoughts I have written for all to enjoy as well as random thoughts that pass, that seems to be the theme of many blogs.
We are now more than ever connected in a global community that crosses cultural, national, and racial boundaries. There has never been a time to live in such as this to engage eachother across these traditional boundaries that used to separate us.
Lets see where the rabbit hole goes!
We are now more than ever connected in a global community that crosses cultural, national, and racial boundaries. There has never been a time to live in such as this to engage eachother across these traditional boundaries that used to separate us.
Lets see where the rabbit hole goes!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
