September 2011
1 post
Sacrifice: Bring Our Best
I think all if us at some point and to some degree want to outshine, one up, and “best” other people. It’s part of our flesh, especially men, to want to be better than the rest. Our world rewards this mentality-besting others is seen a achievement and advancement.
I think a dangerous cataclysm arises when this mentality is brought into the church. As we lead, serve, and...
August 2011
2 posts
Something to Talk About
So beginning my reading of the book of 1 Thessalonians, I found something interesting in the first chapter. Let’s look at the passage:
1 Thessalonians 1:8-10
8. And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Macedonia and Achaia, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. We don’t need to tell them about it,
9. for...
Defining Lifechanging Moments
Through various people I have talked to over the past week, as well as searching my own heart, I see a common place that believers are brought to and have a huge choice to make. This would be, therefore, a defining moment.
We often tie defining moments as to sports games, such as the “Immaculate Reception” by the Pittsburgh Steelers, the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team, or historical...
June 2011
2 posts
Instant Spiritual Clothes
It always amazes me how much we can receive from just one or two passages of Scripture. As we all know, we can even read the same passage ten times, and receive something different, something specific to the exact situation we find ourselves in. That happened to me last night as I was reading. Here are the two verses that popped off the page and onto my heart: Colossians 3:14 and 15: Above...
Who Is Jesus: The Son of God
This is the message I had the humble privilege of preaching last Sunday:
Jesus was the Son of God – it was this act of God sending His only Son to this earth – this display of Father-Son relationship that brings at any rate God’s love into reality, and in some small way we can understand because it reflects an earthly relationship. Today we celebrate Father’s Day, and as we celebrate, we can and...
April 2011
1 post
Our God is Alway There
As I was spending some time with the Lord today, I looked out the window as a storm was passing through. Through the dark clouds there was a small break, and through that break you could see lighter clouds, and a glimmer of blue sky. I thought to myself, wow, that storm was dark and intense, yet the entire time the clear sky never left. It was just covered up by dark, storm laden clouds. ...
February 2011
1 post
Our Song is God
Sometimes a passage can captivate my thoughts for an extended period of time. And at times so much where my mind races to connect the meaning of what something is. This afternoon, finding myself quiet before the Lord, I opened His Truth and began to read in the psalms, coming across a verse that penetrated my mind, heart, and soul:
“The Lord is my strength and my song; He has given me...
January 2011
2 posts
The Steadfast Love of the Lord
This morning I just had these verses from Lamentations going through my mind: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases His mercies never come to an end They are new every morning great is Thy faithfulness! What promise and assurance we find in this passage: 1. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. God’s love is not subject to changing - it remains constant, and never runs dry, not...
Who We Are Instead
On my mind today is this: how we often mis-label, mis-tag, and mis-identify ourselves. That’s a lot of mis’s!
The idea of labeling or tagging (facebook reference?) regularly fashions a negative connotation, so for sake of this post, I will now use the phrase, who we are. And the questions is just that. Who are we?
It is so easy to loose sight of who, you and I, have become once we...
December 2010
1 post
Brokenness Births Beauty
We all have heard this phrase before. Out of brokenness good things come. Today as I was resting in God’s presence I was reminded of this theme, yet struck with its appropriate timing.
When we think of a season of brokenness, what are some things that mark that place? Barrenness, the absence of God’s voice or sense of direction, in a valley, possibly even somewhat unclean, not worthy, lowly?...
November 2010
1 post
Are You Running on E?
So you’re going through each day, trucking along, and then BAM! it hits you. When did God every feel so far away? I feel like everything is going wrong. I feel empty. We’ve all hit this wall. And it’s not something that just happens once - there are times where we feel spiritually empty. So now what?
Psalm 42:1 states: as the deer longs for the waters, so my soul longs for...
October 2010
2 posts
What Are We Missing?
So often we can walk day in and day out without really stopping and reflecting on the what God has done that day. Whether something tiny or a huge work, God is alive and moving in and thru us. There must be some amazing things He is working but sometimes we miss it. We think we have complete ownership and control over everything we do - even to a point where we unknowingly actually control...
I Will Follow You
Something came to mind this past Monday during a trip to Michigan. While Alex (my fiance) and I were climbing the giant dunes near Lake Michigan (literally about 10 stories high), the Lord showed me something - don’t you love how He can just stop you in your tracks and speak straight to your heart?! The incline of the dune itself was high and difficult-that’s like our lives in this...
September 2010
2 posts
Powerful Words of Jesus
Let’s look at the familiar passage about the healing at the pool of Bethesda in John chapter 5. Let’s focus on verses 5-9: “A mans was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, ‘Do you wish to get well?’ The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have...
Repentance
What is repentance? By definition:
1. To turn from sin
2. To feel regret
3. to change one’s mind/thoughts
Almost all of us have heard the concept of repentance, and when we give our lives over to Christ we repent for our sins. But that doesn’t mean that we neither sin nor have to repent again. Our heart should maintain an attitude of repentance - turning from sin!
That is a key...
August 2010
2 posts
God's Complete Work
How many of us start different projects, excited to try something new, and end up with some sort of half-finished weird looking “thing.” Or how about this - we are determined to go the gym, and a faithfully committed for two maybe even three weeks and then…nothing. I know personally for me, this happens a lot when I paint. I’ll leave a picture that I began working on...
We Are Called With a Purpose
Let’s look at the passage 1 Peter 2:21-25 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps: who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth, and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges...
July 2010
2 posts
Watch“Beautiful” is a song that came out of a personal prayer and worship time of just me and Jesus. I reached a point where I said in my mind “How can I express everything that you are too me, how can I say it God?” And God reminded me - that it’s more than just words, more than just a song. It’s laying down everything for Him.
So I fall to my knees, I raise up...
What a View
So I was driving the other day and had the opportunity to be on a road pretty high up on a hill. Isn’t is amazing what you see when you are on higher ground! I couldn’t believe what the sky looked like on this particular night. Layers upon layers upon layers of sparkling stars laced on a backdrop of black space. I thought of this verse: Isaiah 40:26: Lift your eyes and look to...
June 2010
3 posts
Ambassadors in a Foreign Land
2 Corinthians 5: 20-21 states:
“So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” Have you every thought what it would be like to represent a country in a foreign...
Never Alone
2 Corinthians 4:9 states:
“We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.”
There’s something about being with dear friends. Something about those close to us being around. We feel safe, loved, wanted. My mind takes me to the holidays - family and friends come over for Thanksgiving or Christmas. You feel surrounded by people who...
Fear Not For I am With You
Isaiah 43:1 states:
But now, this is what the LORD says - he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ”Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
What a promise from the Lord! In this passage, the prophet Isaiah is speaking the Word of the Lord, speaking against the fear of the nation. This passage speaks to the fear in each one of us, an...
May 2010
6 posts
Grace is a gift...so Open It!
Grace
Grace - what a broad topic. I think a lot of time we tend to box grace in - in a nice tidy little package that we think about here and there, sing about here and there. But grace is so much more than that guys.
It’s by grace that we are alive today. It’s by grace that each one of us are able to walk through these doors tonight and worship God. If we look at grace in this way...
plant.produce.seek.immerse
Hosea 10:12 states;
I said ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that He may come and shower righteousness upon you’ This verse is filled with so much good stuff and an interesting progression. Let’s take a moment and look at it:
1. Plant the good seeds of...
We Are Not Our Own
Key Verse:
1 Corinthians 6:19-20:
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body”
So often we hear the phrase mentioned – do you not know that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit? Do we understand what this means? Paul is adamant to addressing...
Wholeness
“God says, We have to go there. You are not well. Not whole and holy yet, not through and through. I want you to have life, but you won’t really have it until you are whole and holy.”
There is so much packed into this one statement John Eldredge infers in his book, Walking with God, and I want to take a few moment and dissect this.
Again He states - you are not whole yet, and...
The Mind of Christ
1 Corinthians 2:15-16 states: “Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, ‘who can know the Lord’s thought? Who knows enough to teach him?’ But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.” Think about this passage: we have the mind of Christ. Now, don’t let your mind go crazy...
Are You Ready for Something New?
Key Verse:
Matthew 9:16-17 (New International Version)
16“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are...
April 2010
4 posts
More than a Song
This past Sunday we sang out the words to Matt Redman’s worship song Heart of Worship. Let’s take a second and look at some of the lyrics: I’ll bring You more than a song, for a song in itself Is not what You have required You search much deeper within, through the way things appear You’re looking into my heart Sometimes when a song become so familiar to us, we can...
Trust the Work of God
It never ceases to amaze me how God is continually speaking, and yet we often miss what He is trying to tell, or we don’t hear Him because we reject what He is saying. If we open our spiritual ears to Him, trust me, He WILL speak - and we will see so much of the Lord’s work. This happened to me while I was driving this past weekend. In looking at the hillside and trees, it was...
Rely on God
2 Chronicles 32:7 and 8 states: “Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him; for the One with us is greater than the one with him. With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. and the people relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.”...
Beginning and Ending with God
Romans 11:36 states: “For everything comes from Him and exists by His power and is intended for His glory.” Looking at this single passage two important truths are found: 1.) Everything comes from God (Beginning). Everything God has placed in us: gifts, abilities, thoughts, dreams, and desires, come from our God the source of all life. Because these things begin with God,...
March 2010
2 posts
Life
Genesis 2:7 states: “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” God Himself, breathed life into man, bringing us into a living awareness of who God is. I find it fascinating that God breathed into us - He is indeed the source from which all life comes from - He is THE living God. Each...
Which cup will you drink from?
God is so incredible in everything that He does. Though sometimes we don’t understand what He is orchestrating, we can rest in the fact that “Father knows best..” in this case, that God has the upmost love for His children that whatever He gives us, we can handle it through the strength He provides! In Matthew 26:39 Jesus prays: “Father! If it is possible, let this...
February 2010
3 posts
illumination
Do you ever come across a word that just catches you, and you let it saturate your thinking for more than a quick second? I love when that happens to me, and recently, I felt that with the word illumination. What a great word. So vivid, so much meaning - to bring light to, clarity, to glow. This very word also describes what the amazing love and power of Christ. 2 Timothy 1:10 states: ...
Open Eyes
Psalm 119:18 states: “Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in Your instruction” If any of us walked around with our eyes closed, we would quickly realize how difficult it was to function - we would have no idea what was around us, and inevitably would smack into something, and possibly even getting hurt - at best we would be delirious and confused! Well the same goes in a...
Focus on Heaven
Let’s Look at Matthew 6:20-21: “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” We all are probably familiar with this passage. Where our treasure is, there is our heart - our desires. Making investments daily in the kingdom of God,...
January 2010
3 posts
Let the Water Flow
Let’s look at the passage found in John 7:37-39 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that...
Living With the Favor of God
Using Matthew 5 as a foundation, lets briefly look at the responsibilities of living with the favor of God. Once we enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we are part of the royal family, under the blessing, that is, favor, of our Father and King. His favor upon us comes as comfort, Kingdom inheritance, provision, mercy, and much more (Matthew 5:3-10). As part of the covering of...
Clay Pots
Let’s look at Isaiah 64:8: “Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand” This concept has always impacted me - we are as clay, constantly molded and perfected by the loving (sometimes firm!) hands of our Maker. From the start - He selected each and every one of us, seeing the potential that we have to bring Him...
December 2009
5 posts
Love
O come let us adore Him Christ the Lord! This day, as the world is blanketed in white, peaceful, calm, and still, may we adore Christ the Lord and bless His name. We have arrived to the week of one of the greatest celebrations for all Christians - the birth of Jesus Christ; the anticipation of the night before Christmas and arrival of God’s own Son the next day. May we remember how...
Joy
Continuing in the procession of advent, lets reflect on joy. What is the essence of joy? What is it the produces such an overwhelming sense of thanks and gratitude that is so infectious - this thing called joy. Joy is defined as the source or cause of delight. So how does joy enter into the picture of the night when all things changed forever. Meet: Jesus. When the angel of the Lord came to...
Peace
Lets follow in the order of advent and for a moment reflect on the Peace of Christ that came with His birth. A key Scripture for this season and topic is Isaiah 9:6:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
This prophecy reveals the coming...
Christmastime
Christmastime is here! I really believe, as the song goes - it is the most wonderful time of the year. Everyone seems happier and kinder. There’s an excitement in the air. And whether the world realizes it or not - we are celebrating the most extravagant gift ever given to humankind from the God that reigns over all. An extravagant gift of a Savior. An extravagant expression of love...
November 2009
6 posts
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, and November is almost complete! It’s so hard to believe we are here already, but what a wonderful season of fellowship and thankfulness, and beyond that the birth of our Savior, Redeemer, Friend - Jesus. What a time to celebrate. Let’s take a quick look at some passages about thanksgiving: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,...
Mighty Trees
While driving this morning, I began to take in the state of the trees - how the landscape so quickly turned from a vibrant, alive, hillside, to a now dormant, barren look. But the appearance of dead is not the right perception, the tree is in fact alive and well, preparing for the season ahead. The life of a tree is just simply amazing. With that in mind, what kind of tree are you? A mighty...
What's Your Story?
Let’s look at the following passage from 1 John: “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does...