Lord Of All Creation

Over my entire time in California, I saw so very many beautiful things.  I saw giant, towering sequoia trees, snow-capped mountains, rolling hills, lush green valleys and incredible rock formations.  One perticular day my brothers and I climbed a hill overlooking the Pacific.  I looked out over the cold blue and green water lapping up on the rocky shore, the small scraggly cliffs to my right and my left, the fresh breeze blowing wispy clouds through the hills behind me, the beautiful beach on the left down below me, beyond that a hill full of gorgeous homes, and in the distance, dark and shrouded in mist, the city of San Francisco.  Everything around me was illuminated by the bright sunshine.  At that moment, all I could do was sit on the ground and soak it all in.  I was amazed as I watched small flocks of white birds soar along the cliffs, and I really did start to wish I could fly.  And then it hit me: “God made all this.”  Over everything in this earth, He is Lord.  And it is good, because He said so.  He truly is an amazing God, to create the entire world, the entire universe, and then love me, a sinner.

Do yourself a favor today and think about something lovely.  I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.” -Psalm 19:1-3

Lift Your Head

I believe we should all follow Jesus as our example for living a holy life.  Healing the sick, loving the unlovable, giving his life away for the sake of others, teaching the true way to God, growing others into strong disciples: these are all things that Jesus did while here on earth.

I was reading my Bible the other day when I stumbled on a very interesting verse in Psalm 110.  Now, I believe that this is a prophetic psalm about Jesus ruling and reigning on the earth in His second coming.  At least, that’s what I’ve heard.  Anyway, after saying a bunch of really amazing stuff about Jesus coming and destroying nations and killing rulers, the last verse stuck out to me as extremely interesting:

“He will drink from the brook by the way;
   therefore he will lift up his head.” -Psalm 110:7

Now, if you’ve been in church as long as I have, you’ve probably heard this phrase or something similar: “If you see a ‘therefore’, see what it’s there for.”  I think this is a really great practice to have when reading the Bible(or anything, for that matter), because the word “therefore” implies a cause-and-effect relationship.  If you want to know why something is what it is, just read backwards a little.  In the case of this verse, the answer lies in the first half of the verse.  You see, those two lines are not disconnected at all; they have everything to do with each other.

Since this verse is about Jesus, I think we can apply a Biblical principal to our lives here.  Here we see the purposeof refreshing, vacations, sabbaths, resting.  What is the purpose of gaining strength?  It is this: to lift up your head and keep going.  Use the energy gained in times of refreshing to do your job better than ever, whatever God has called you to do.

Growing up in the charismatic church, I’ve heard people say things like this a lot: “Wow, that worship was awesome.”  Not that there is anything wrong with an awesome worship service, but I get the feeling that some people misunderstand the purpose.  Worship is praise to God, not entertainment for you.  Worship should definitely uplift your spirit, because through worship, you are communicating with the Holy Spirit of God, the source of all comfort.  Resting in His arms should give you the most satisfying refreshment you’ve ever experienced.  If a worship service doesn’t produce this in you, I question the attitude of your heart.

Anyway, to get to my point, the purpose of this Water of Life is not selfish.  Refreshment from the Lord is not just for personal use.  You’re a dealer.  If you’ve been raised up with the strength of Christ, the love and peace that does not fade, the world around you should be getting the same thing from you.  It is because of your connection to the One that you will lift up your head to see the world around you.  Lift up your head to see the hurting and the discouraged, and then do something about it.  We have no excuse, when we are connected to the source of all life.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” -Galatians 5:22-23a

The Worldwide Body Of Christ

Hey all!  I know I haven’t been writing much lately, but hopefully that will change very soon.  As some of you may know, I’ve been on a five-week vacation to California.  It was really great, in case you were wondering.  I think I learned a lot about myself and my family in the past few weeks, so maybe I’ll get to share some of that pretty soon.  But I’ll get to my point for today.

In my travels over the last several weeks, my family and I visited five different churches.  In fact, I’ve been to seven different churches in the last seven weeks including both of my home churches in Pensacola and Tallahassee.  It really was a new experience for me, and a very good one at that.  I loved seeing both the diversity and similarities among all the local churches.  Each one had its own style, its own way of worshipping God.  And that’s what was so great!  Whether the church was in a base chapel, YMCA or their own building, they all had one thing in common: Jesus.  They all worship the same God.

Honestly, I can say that I felt at home in every single one of them.  I even got to thinking, “What if I stayed here?  How could I serve the Lord from here?”  Of course, that’s all hypothetical thinking.  I know where God has me for this season of my life, and that’s a great thing.  I’m sure that God has each one of you in a great place too; either that or He’s in the process of bringing you there.  But don’t be afraid to move on, if that’s His will.  It’s funny: I made some fast friends in some of the places.  It was so amazing to see the family of God, even though we didn’t even know each other, recognize the bond we all have together, the Word of God.

If you get anything from this post, take this: in Christ, we’re all family.  It doesn’t matter where you’re from, what your traditions are, or what language you speak.  We are all children of the Most High.  We can worship together.

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
-1 Corinthians 12:27

Learning To Love

In this day and age, it’s very easy to stop loving other people.  Just look around, and you’ll see a great many people looking out for themselves, lost in a cycle of work and entertainment.  Most people couldn’t care less about their neighbor two doors down, the homeless person on the street corner or the hitchhiker on the highway.  Even as Christians, we get caught up in the daily grind, focusing on our own small group of family and friends.

Everyone seems to know that we all should reach out and help others, but most of the time we don’t do it.  Most of the time, when we start to feel convicted about it, we’ll give a little bit of money to make us feel better.  We’ll give a little something to charity, put a few dollars extra in the church offering.  Politicians want to raise taxes to help the poor.  Sometimes, we’ll even volunteer somewhere for an afternoon.  These things are all great, I suppose, but they miss the point.

What is the point?  Look to the words of Jesus: “Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”  That means, every single time you pass by on the other side of a person hurting, you deny Jesus.  Every time, every chance, every opportunity we get: we must use them to love.  Love is a choice that we each have have to make personally, every moment of our lives.  No government program or community can drive can rid you of that responsibility.  We must pour out our lives for the sake of others.  It sounds a bit daunting, but just try following the Holy Spirit, and I’m sure the load will not be too much.

Here’s another one: “Love your enemies.”  Wow.  How can we do that?  The world, and this American culture, likes to tell us all about this “good versus evil” thing.  Look at all the crime television shows: we like knowing that we are “good” and other people are “evil.”  And even if we have a little bad side, we’re not as bad as “those people.”  Democracy is good, and communism is evil.  You are good, and a rapist is evil.  Our military is good, and terrorists are evil.  This is just not true.  According to the Bible, we were all evil.  The only way we can be redeemed is by the blood of Jesus Christ.  And this salvation is not of ourselves.  It is a gift from God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

Basically, this is the way I see it: I don’t even have the right to judge others, because I was no better.  God, in His mercy, forgave me, and nothing I ever did deserved that.  Now, I suppose we have the right to defend ourselves, so this isn’t some post against war; war has its place.  What this is, is a post against hate.  That murderer who killed your father?  Forgive him.  That jerk who stole your job?  Forgive him.  The man who stole your heart and then threw it in the garbage?  Forgive him.  The terrorist organizations across the world who would love to see you dead?  Love them, for they are not your enemy.  Our enemy is not made of flesh and blood.  Our enemies are the spiritual forces of evil, aka the devil and his demons.  If you have time, read Acts chapter 7.  It is the story of the first martyr, Stephen.  Think about this as you read it: Even as those men were throwing stones at him to kill him, he loved them. 

This all sounds crazy, right?  It’s because the world doesn’t work this way, and lies have been forced into our heads: love some and hate others.  But God is love.  How can we start to think right?  As the Bible says, “renew your mind.”  That’s all we can do.  Trust God; meditate on His Word.  Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you.  Learn to love.  Here’s a couple verses in closing:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” -James 1:27

“This is real love – not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” -1 John 4:10