Jump

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. –Isaiah 41:10

There’s been a stirring in my spirit the past couple weeks and the word I keep getting from the Lord is “Jump!”

Yes, there are seasons of waiting but there are also seasons of entering.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. –Hebrews 11:8

We have everything we need in Christ, through Christ and by Christ in us. God wants more of us to walk in this reality. I’ve never bungee jumped before but I could imagine the fear and adrenaline that would build up right before letting go. This is human nature to be afraid of making bold moves, to enter into what we do not yet know or fully understand, but with God all things are possible! He goes before you and says, “Don’t worry I’ll catch you.”

He will not allow you to be robbed of your hope. Jump into Him and receive all the glory of the fullness of God. Speak and proclaim to your soul as David did: “Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.” –Psalm 116:7

“Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me.
See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.”
-Song of Songs 2:11-13

** photo by Chau Thai Ly @ http://instagram.com/shoutabovethenoise **

Turn Aside

Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
–Exodus 3:3

We are a generation that is plagued with busy work, information and sensory overload. I find the work weeks flying by and before you know it months have passed. My perception of time seems to be speeding up. In all this I find myself sometimes forgetting about Emanuel (God with us).

A couple years ago the Lord gave me a dream where He said to me, “Lest you forget.”
This is an important word for all of us in this age. It’s so easy to get caught up in our daily lives that I fear I’ve missed God in certain aspects and areas of my life in the past. Sometimes in hindsight I can look back and go, “Oh that’s where You were.” But still I wonder how many burning bushes I have just whizzed right by without turning aside to see the One who is more important than anything else in my life.

We are in a new season now where God is touching hearts and giving eyes to see Him in areas where we have not before. There’s been a season of silence for some but this was a teaching season. The silence has not actually been silence at all, but it has been God speaking in ways that we had yet to recognize. It’s not that He wasn’t there, it’s that we didn’t notice. There are doors opening, opportunities arising and placements being shifted. This is all to put us closer in line with heaven’s perspective and teach us to coexist with the realization of Christ in us.

As you go about this next work week and you notice a little flicker out of the corner of your eye, turn aside and look. Gaze upon the One whose eyes are like fire. The One who goes before you, is beside you and has always been with you.

Be still and know that He is God.

** photo by Chau Thai Ly @ http://instagram.com/shoutabovethenoise **

More Than Words

Peace is more than a mindset.

Joy is more than an emotion.

Love is more than a feeling.

Faith is more than belief.

Knowledge is more than intellectual thought.

Grace is more than redemption.

Be My Lord

Forget all the religion.

Jesus, just be my Lord!

Our New Grace-Sovereign Country

So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land! That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country. Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did. (Romans 6:1-11 MSG)

Have a grace filled day! It is the Father’s will. 🙂

A Completely New Creation

A new creation is not just a cleaned up old you, it’s a completely new you. The new me in Christ is a living sacrifice because I am alive, resurrected in Him through the cross, and the old me is dead. A renewed mind is one that is continuously aware of this and lives through the lens of this truth: I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

I refuse to repudiate God’s grace!

What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily. (Galatians 2:19-21 MSG)

Come on Message Bible!

Paul was a man of great revelation and his central message was simple: It’s all about the grace we have been given through the cross. You were crucified with Christ and that is our salvation and unity with God, not our performance or futile attempts to earn it.

If You Can Believe

Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

 What is belief?  Is belief the same as faith?  This is important to Christians because we know that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). 

I’ve found myself worrying about this.  But the funny thing is that the only way it is possible to worry about lacking faith is by having faith.  So to reassure some of you, if you’ve worried about this verse before you don’t have to worry.

“Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”

Cognitive Dissonance: the discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions.

I recently met with a psychologist and one thing he told me is that we are all full of contradictions.   It’s like saying we are constantly trying to make up our mind but unintentionally cannot.  Another way of putting it is we are all trying to find ourselves.

In the process of looking for ourselves I think we often look for God.  But in looking for God we have made the first mistake.  The popular saying when you lose something is, “It’s always in the last place you look.”  I’ve traveled the country looking for God.  I’ve traveled the country looking for faith so I could please Him.  I’ve complicated things.

In looking for faith, I already have faith.  In wanting to believe, I already believe.  God is not found externally.  He does not exist more in one church than He does in another.  He does not exist in one country more than He does in another.  He does not exist light years away in space more than He does here on earth.  He does not exist more in heaven than He does in hell.

Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” –Luke 17:20-21

It’s always in the last place you look.  I think the secret is to stop looking.

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

There is no escaping, and there is no need to look.  He is everywhere.

Colossians 1:15 says, He is the image of the invisible God.

Who is He, and where do we find Him? It is a mystery which has been made known.  He is:

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Feeling Insufficient?

Myself and many others have often bought into a lie of Satan that we are insufficient of God’s grace.  We believe a lie that giving up is an option and that losing is actually possible.  Out of ignorance and pride we believe that we can single handedly mess up God’s plan.   Well I’ve got good news for you my friends:

You are not insufficient! Giving up and losing are impossible, and you cannot mess up God’s plan!

Do you know why?

Because, “It is finished!”

WE’VE ALREADY WON!

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” -2 Cor 12:9

The Pursuit of Love

I am in a constant pursuit of God, and with knowing that God is love, I pursue love constantly.  I am not satisfied with having less when I know by reading scripture that there is more.  The pursuit itself makes life worth living because it’s not just a pursuit…  it involves a lot of finding as well.

As I discover new facets of His love I am overwhelmed and amazed by His glory—which is His goodness.   His love never fails me and He is always faithful.  I know that sometimes we can throw around those words in a cliché type of way…  But it’s truth.  He really has never ever failed me.  I can say this about Him because I have not only read it in scripture but I have experienced it for myself and I continue to experience it.   It is this revelation that compels me to dig deeper past the surface—which is theology and understanding of who God is through reading the scriptures—to a further realm of knowing Him and experiencing who He is in relationship.

I do however have to be careful that my pursuit itself is rooted and ground in love.  I’ve realized that in the past at times my pursuit was fueled by fear.  It was as if I tried to force Him into an encounter because I was so scared of my faith being tested.  I wanted evidence of His existence.  God did reveal Himself to me in time, although it was not so much in the ways I expected Him to.  He knows what’s best for our development.

Trust Him through this season.  Trust Him because He really is a good God.  Trust Him because His love will never fail you.   Pursue love.

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  –Ephesians 3:14-19