Circumstances

I have been reading this book call Under the Overpass written by Mike Yankoski. I wont go to much in to it right now because i will when i finish it, but it is a book about he and his friends journey as homeless men.

As i have been reading things have been sticking out to me and stretching me but this one paragraph i can not shake. I decided to share;

"Maybe the reason so many people, Christians included, are so discontent is that we hold too elevated an idea of comfort, too grandiose a notion of pleasure. That sets us up to get frustrated by every passing circumstance. We can end up focusing more on our circumstances than on the One who ordains them."

I know i find myself being frustrated or upset about things and when i look back i think, "why the heck was that worth even a seconds frustration?" I have to constantly check myself to make sure that my focus is upon God and Him alone. Christ tells us, more than once, in the Gospels that we should not worry about anything because God has in under control. Why is it that we, I, still get stressed, worried, and frustrated at situations. it is because of what Mike said, "we hold too elevated an idea of comfort". We should be satisfied in the Lord in ALL circumstances.

I would maybe add to Mike's idea here and say another problem here is that we hold an idea of control, when in actuality we have none. We make plans and come up with ideas but how often do they get changed or failed completely?

God is in control. So, stop worrying, stressing, and getting frustrated. Be who He calls you to be, be who you claim to be, and go where He calls you to go. (i am speaking to myself just as much as i am speaking to you reading this.)

Beggars

"We are all equally privileged but unentitled beggars at the door of God's mercy."
~ Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

Jesus Promises

I came across this quote and thought I would share.

"Jesus promises a life in which we increasingly have to stretch our hands and be lead into places we would rather not go."
~Henri Nouwen, In The Name of Jesus

The Giving of Thanks

ok, i dont know how many people know and/or care about the past few months of my life. Nothing really big or anything but that was the problem, there was almost nothing.

When i got back to MS from an amazing summer in Cali i went home to Moss Point to live with my parents for, what i thought at the time, just a couple of weeks. But, that turned in to 3 months of sitting in Moss Point, MS doing nothing. I felt so defeated, useless, unsatisfied, and alone (from time to time on that last one). My plan was to get back to MS and find a job, then find a church job and start doing ministry. Now, here i am on Nov. 22 just having found a job a couple of weeks ago and hopefully soon will have a Church job. Not what i saw for myself a few months ago but God has definitely been working things the way He wants and it is evident.

I know it isnt quite Thanksgiving yet but we should live with hearts of thanksgiving. So, i am going to take this blog space to thank some people in my life. I am thankful for all the people God allows to be in my life but over the past few months there was a few people that God used to keep me sane and focused on the Lord.

Mr. Bryan Cirlot was one of those people, weekly lunches with him were incredible and refreshing, thank you sir. John Michael George, thank you sir for always being willing to listen to my rambling and ridiculousness and thanks for the guidance. Joe Kuykendall for the willingness to listen and always knowing how to lift my spirits. Darin Wong for the great theological discussions and such. Matt Wallace for always being you, haha. There are a few others who helped during that period of my life but the main person who kept me in check and kept me from going insane was Ms. Katie Taylor, thank you ma'am for being you. Thank you for challenging me and encouraging me when i was down and out.

I look back now and see that God taught me so much during that time even though it was painful sometimes. There were good times had so dont think i was just sitting around depressed all the time, haha. But i know that i have never had so much time in my life to just sit and think and read. I was able to bury my head in scripture like no other time in my life and it was great. I was able to experience a few things for what they truly should be when the Lord is the center.

I am very thankful for the sovereign plan of God and His self-centerness for His glor y. once again thank you to all of you that let God use you in my life.

Am I a "Real" Man?

Some rambling about a thought process i have had as of late.

My friend Joe Kuykendall and i were talking just the other day about how he and i are the kind of people who, generally, wear our feelings/emotions/thoughts/etc... on our sleeves. I mean, i am not the kind of guy to just tell strangers my life story and all of that but if you are a friend then if you ask me how i am doing i wont give you the cheesy "im fine" answer, honest answer is what you get. People usually know when i am upset or if i am happy, im not good at faking things really.

I have thought about this since Joe and i discussed it and have had up and down feelings about it. I ask myself, "should i be so open with everything?" Of course, openness is a good thing but i know some people who dont particularly enjoy people's openness. I also think of what i am been taught about "being a man" and know that, stereotypically, i am suppose to be strong and rarely show emotions and always be in control.

I also look at scripture and see how we are suppose to live life in community. The only way to be a community is live life together and to know about each others lives and the only way to do that is to be open with one another.

Thus, i become conflicted on if i should be open or not. On one hand i feel that if i am open then i wont have secrets and i dont have to worry about all the junk that goes with that. And, on the other hand i could leave myself to vulnerable (and "real" men are not suppose to be vulnerable).

But the conclusion i have come to is this; Love (in all forms not just dating or marriage relationships) is being vulnerable and you can not truly love God and your neighbor if you are not vulnerable. That is the beauty of it all, allowing God to take your vulnerability and make it into a beautiful glorifying "thing".

So, i choose to remain open and vulnerable, trusting in God that He will remain faithful and keep me from being crushed in my vulnerability.

Rescue

Rescue by Desperation Band

You are the source of the life
I can't be left behind
No one else will do
I will take hold of you

I need You Jesus
To come to my rescue
Where else can I go
There's no other name by
Which I am saved
Capture me with grace
I will follow you

This world has nothing for me
I will follow You
This world has nothing for me
I will follow You

Truly take a minute and meditate on the words to this song and ask yourself if you can honestly sing these words with a worshipful heart. THIS WORLD HAS NOTHING FOR ME! I WILL FOLLOW YOU! our self-centered, self-involved culture keeps us from truly believing this way of life sometimes. and i do mean way of life, because following Jesus is not a casual, whenever you feel like it kind of thing. He calls us to give EVERYTHING we have for Him.

I am guilty of taking Christ for granted more than i would like to admit. I try my best to live desperately for Him but sometimes i just get caught up in this world.

How beautiful it is, though, when i am truly desperate for Him and live as though He has captured me with His grace or that no one else but Him will do. The truth is that this world doesnt have anything for us and that is why Christ commands, not asks, us to store our treasures in heaven and not earth.

my life is crazy right now and sometimes i dont know what is up or down or right or left but the beautiful thing is that Christ has rescued me and continually does. My life's goal is to Glorify Him with every breath that fills my lungs.

I CANT BE LEFT BEHIND!!!

Life or Work?

As inheritors of the Kingdom of God, should we not live in the ebb and flow of the Kingdom? Then why dont we? So many children of God do not live in the ebb and flow of the Kingdom. how much different would "church" look? how much more would the true gospel be spread? how many more people would truly know the love of God? The ministry that could be done and the lives that would truly be changed would be outstanding!

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you who {people} insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me." Matthew 5:3-12 (NASB)

To truly live in the ebb and flow of the Kingdom as we are called to do means a lot of things. it means that you should HUNGER and THIRST for righteousness because it is only then will you be satisfied. You should be merciful, pure of heart, and a lot more than that, the lifestyle of the Kingdom is all over scripture. It can all be boiled down to LOVE, not little acts of love or saying "the three words" but true unselfish, unhindered love.
Love that is not so afraid of upsetting people, so it doesnt water down the true gospel. A love that is so pure that there is no grey line between living in this world and being of this world. A love that gives ALL.
I call this blog "life or work?" because so many Christians (myself included sometimes) are only going into the Kingdom on occasion to "do there good deed" like when we go to work just to make a pay check. They are casually going in and out of the Kingdom when ever they choose, but life as an inheritor of the Kingdom of God is to be spent in the Kingdom, living in complete love, not watering down the gospel of Christ for seeker sensitivity but also not speaking with intentions of offending. Only seeking truth and merely telling the truth because of how amazing the truth we hold is.
I challenge you and myself to live every minute within the Kingdom. Living unselfishly, unhindered, not afraid of truly loving people, and not withholding anything. How beautiful that would be!

Is the Kingdom a work place or a home for you?

Celebrate!!!

I have been listening to Charlie Hall's newest CD "The Bright Sadness" a lot and it has sparked a lot of thought and renewal for me. here are a couple of thoughts it has sparked for me.

In his song, "You Are God", Hall says in the chorus;

You fill our hearts with love and faith,
You fight for us, You make us brave,
You are God, You are God.

You walk with us, You lead us on,
Faith, hope and love wakes up with dawn,
You are God, You are God

When was the last time that you remembered that God fights for you? Because that is when you will be brave. That is when God makes you brave, remember He fights for you, all you have to do is stand firm (Ephesians 6:11). When was the last time you remembered that as a child of God he fills your heart with love and faith and when was the last time you acted upon that love and faith? HE IS GOD!!

Another part of a song, that sparks thought and praise, is the bridge of Charlie Halls song "Mystery";

Celebrate His death and rising,
Lift your eyes, proclaim His coming.
Celebrate His death and rising,
Lift your eyes, lift your eyes.

When was the last time you really CELEBRATED the death and rising of Christ? Sure we talk about it and think about it, but when is the last time you truly celebrated in the fact that Christ gave his life and defeated death to rise again to glorify His father and so that you could have a relationship with Him?

These songs have brought a renewal of Praise and Adoration for my King. I am daily trying to truly celebrate His death and rising and trying to remember that he fights for me and makes me brave.

Is God in Hell?

For the past couple of months i have been pondering this thought, "is God in hell, we are told that He is omnipresent and if He is that, then He would have to be in hell, right?" Everyone's immediate response to the question, "is God in hell?", is "absolutely not". Then my response to that would have been, "how is He omnipresent then?", a very logical argument, i think. The problem here may be that all together, logic. Like i said, i have been thinking and working through this in my head.

Finally the other day i came across this in scripture:

"and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might," 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 (ESV)

Verse 9 there answered my question, "away from the PRESENCE of the Lord and from the glory of His power,". The flaw in my original question is, as i stated earlier, logic. God's ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts.

In all actuality, my question was invalid and completely unnecessary. No matter the answer to the question God is still Love, Wrath, Justice, Grace, Mercy, and ALL that is perfectly good and perfectly beautiful.

Who am i, an imperfect creation, to question THE Perfect Creator?

Guard Your Heart, Dont Suffocate It

I know i have deferred the past couple of blogs to other writers but they seem to put it better than i can. This one below was written by Tyler Kenney of Desire God Ministries and his point here really hit me hard and caused me to be repentant.

“Guard your heart” is a good command. That’s because it’s biblical:

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

In its context, this verse suggests that keeping—or guarding—your heart means to retain wise words and resist wicked desires. But I’m afraid some people—ahem, me, too often—use it to justify being cowardly or cold instead of loving others, because we think that “guard your heart” means “don’t get hurt.”

C. S. Lewis provides the necessary rebuke:

Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as “Careful! This might lead you to suffering.”

To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience. When I respond to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Christ. If I am sure of anything I am sure that His teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities.…

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. (From The Four Loves, as found in The Inspirational Writings of C.S. Lewis, 278-279.)

(Me again) Lord forgive me of my selfishness and suffocating my heart. Please allow me to be truly vulnerable and to truly Love like you have called me too.

Lord AND Savior or just Savior?

hey everyone, today i am going to send you to my friend John Michael's blog because he said it far greater than i could. click on the title of this blog and it will take you there. please, go read it.

I Need Words

I Need Words
by: David Crowder

I need words
As wide as sky
I need language large as
This longing inside
And I need a voice
Bigger than mine
And I need a song to sing you
That I've yet to find
I need you, oh
I need you
I need you, oh
I need you
To be here now
To be here now
To hear me now
To hear me now

Psalm 103

Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, {bless} His holy name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits;

Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases;

Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;

Who satisfies your years with good things, {So that} your youth is renewed like the eagle.

The LORD performs righteous deeds And judgments for all who are oppressed.

He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.

He will not always strive {with us,} Nor will He keep {His anger} forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Just as a father has compassion on {his} children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are {but} dust.

As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges it no longer.

But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children's children,

To those who keep His covenant And remember His precepts to do them.

The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.

Bless the LORD, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word!

Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, You who serve Him, doing His will.

Bless the LORD, all you works of His, In all places of His dominion; Bless the LORD, O my soul!

misunderstood or mispoken or all of the above?

This blog is just going to be a thought process i've had of late. so you can go ahead and ignore this one if you would like. I just need to get this one out i think.

More and more often recently i have found a lot of my words and actions being, what i thought, to be misunderstood or misinterpreted. In prayer, relationships, and just life in general but the more i step back and look at all of this it might be me not speaking or acting correctly. Not that i have been lying or doing ridiculous things but maybe i have misunderstood things around me and reacted differently than i should, who really knows? I just know that things have not been going the way i would like, want, or think they should and that is when i realize my selfishness. The only time what i want matters is if what i want is what Christ wants.

still, there are just somethings the past few weeks that i look back on and see where i could have not done somethings and things would be different now. Then i remind myself that you cant change the past, you can only effect the future. That is where i would like to apologize to those who i have not acted quite right towards or said things wrong too. My parents, friends, and wise counselors. I apologize for my selfishness, never once have i lied to any of you but maybe i should have learned my boundaries a lot sooner that i did.

So, i humbly ask for your forgiveness and ask for patience and understanding as i am trying to be the most God centered, God glorifying man i know how to be.

Lost Days

I mentioned a few blogs back that i was reading a book called "The Practice of the Presence of God" about Brother Lawrence, a man who served in a monastery in the 16 hundreds. It was a really challenging book to my prayer life and my general attitude about things. The last sentence of the book was the most challenging.

"believe me, i count lost all the days i spent not fully loving God."

That caused me to fall on my face and repent for wasting days because i am selfish and ridiculous and spend some days not fully loving God, not being completely hid in God.

Another really challenging paragraph was this:

"Nothing can give us so great relief in the trials and sorrows of life, as a loving intercourse with God; when such is faithfully practiced, the evils that assail the body will prove light to us. God often ordains that we should suffer in the body to purify the soul, and to constrain us to abide with Him. How can anyone whose life is hid with God, and whose only desire is God, be capable of feeling pain? Let us then worship Him in our infirmities, offering to Him our sorrows, just when they press upon us, asking Him lovingly, as a child his dear father, to give us strength, and mold our will to His."

I want to desire only what God desires and to be completely hid within Him.

Two Reasons I Love the Book of Jonah

I love the book of Jonah. Most of the time when I hear people talk about Jonah there is one thing that is interpreted incorrectly. A lot of people use the story of Jonah to talk about God changing His mind and that is not true. If anything it is a story of God’s consistency and His will being done no matter what we do.

This is why I believe that; the story starts with God telling Jonah to go to Nineveh and speak against their wickedness. He does not say anything at this point about Him destroying them; He wants Jonah to point out their sins. Well, in the last chapter we see Jonah say in anger:

"Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my {own} country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.” Ch. 4:2 (NASB)

What I see here is that it was always Gods plan to restore Nineveh and not destroy it. That is why Jonah is so angry at the end because he knew from the beginning that God would do just as He did. It is not a story of God changing but rather a story of God’s consistent loving-kindness, grace, and compassion.

The other main thing I enjoy about the book of Jonah is God’s relentless plan to Glorify Himself. Even as Jonah runs from God He (God) brought the sailors to see His power and sacrifice to Him. Also, at the end of the story it feels like it ends to soon because there is never a resolution of Jonah’s anger at God. But, in actuality the story ends just as it should, with God revealing His Glory. Jonah asks God to kill him and let him die over some seemingly ridiculous things to be angry about. How many times are we unjustly angry or unjustly questioning God about ridiculous things? God ends by saying this:

Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and {which} you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know {the difference} between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?" Ch. 4: 10-11 (NASB)

God points out to Jonah that He (God) is in charge and knows what He is doing and is loving, gracious, merciful, and patient with those whom He has created. So, next time you are angry at God or questioning God, step back and see if your anger and/or questioning is justified.

God is Light

I may be down but i will rise,
It may be dark but God is light.

Sin has lost it's power,
Death has lost it's sting,
From the grave You've risen,
VICTORIOUSLY!!

Into marvelous light im running,
Out of darkness, out of shame,
By the cross you are the truth, you are the life, you are the way.

I may be down but i will rise,
It may be dark but GOD IS LIGHT.

2 Peter 3:9-13

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. there is a good question in there that i will repeat; Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? You tell me... what sort of people are we to be?

In Waiting

Psalm 130 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD.

Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications.

If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope.

My soul {waits} for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; {Indeed, more than} the watchmen for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption.

And He will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.

Does It Change Things?

There are some things, as Christians, we let consume our thoughts, distract us from God, and divide us, that are not evil in of themselves but can be counter effective. Some of these topics include, women in leadership, free will vs. predestination, traditional worship vs. contemporary worship, and etc… etc…

You and I definitely have our thoughts/beliefs/stances on these topics and others like them, but there are some foundational things that ALL Christians MUST agree on. The calling of ALL Christians is to spread the Gospel, the Good News of Christ in what ever context God calls them too. We are all called to go into all the nations furthering the Kingdom of God. Our reason for living is to Glorify God.

Now that that is established, my questions are this; Do these topics that we have spent decades arguing about, as Christians, Change our calling? More specifically, Whether God chose you or you chose God, does it change the fact that you are called to further the Kingdom, to tell of the Good News of Christ? Whether you worship with good ole Baptist hymns or with guitars, drums, and lights, does it change whether or not we are called to the ends of the earth?

I definitely believe that we should think about and discuss these topics because they help us shape our understanding of God and it helps us mature our faith. It is counteractive, though, if we let these topics distract us and divide us like it does to so many people.

The other dangerous direction our human nature takes us with these topics is pride. I know so many churches and people who will not work with people who believe differently on these topics and that is just ridiculous. How much more would God’s Kingdom be furthered if FBC anywhere would do ministry alongside/with First Presbyterian anywhere?

If churches worked together instead of just trying to be the “better” church in town, you would see entire cities come to live in the ebb and flow of the Kingdom.

Oh how I long for that day!

A Good Quote

Bryan Cirlot shared this quote with me a while back and I found it to be eerily true.

Three things confuse a Christian;
Yeah, four confound any man.

Unbelief masquerading as wisdom,
Enthusiasm presenting itself as faith,

Fear pretending to be patience,
and permissiveness claiming to be love.

Thabiti Anyabwile

Read it a few times and let it sink in.