Carried to the table...

11.23.11

"I'm carried to the table of the Lord."

Leeland "Carried to the Table"

My family, much like a lot of families, has there traditions at holidays. During the Thanksgiving holiday there is one tradition that always has and always will hold true in our household. This tradition is something that we can always count on. In fact I bet a lot of you will relate to this tradition. In our house there is always two tables when we eat. There is the grown-up table and the little kids table. The grown-up table is pretty self-explanatory. The kiddy table was something that you wanted to get away from because it meant you were separated away from the people you knew the best, your parents. We always wanted to get off the kiddy table and onto the grown-up table.

If you are under the age of about twelve, in our family you will eat at the little kids table during the Thanksgiving meal. You can cry, yell, kick and scream all you want but if you are under twelve than you stay at that little kids' table. I remember when I was old enough to finally sit at the table with the grownups. My parents came to me and gave me permission to get my plate and move up to the big leagues with them. In fact there was even a name tag on my spot. I don't think I could have been any more happy and thankful for anything else in the world. This was it, everything I had wanted. I was so absolutely grateful to be sitting there with the adults.

The one thing I didn't realize as a pre-teen sitting at the table with all of the adults is that I still didn't belong. What I mean is that I didn't understand most of the conversation and all of the jokes went right over my head, but something made it all better. My seat at the table was right next to my dad. I got to sit in the one spot that made me feel comfortable. No matter what was said that I may have missed out on, it was ok because my dad made me feel safe and like I belonged. That is a Thanksgiving memory that I will always remember and be thankful for in my life.

Our position with our Heavenly Father is a lot like the tradition of the "grown-up" table on Thanksgiving. The reality is we don't belong at the table with our Father. We don't deserve to be in the presence of God. We are sinners, separated from God.

Our blessing, our gift is that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and destruction of death means that we don't have to EARN a seat at God's table, we are invited to a seat right next to our Father. Not only are we seated next to Him, but we can sit there blameless in the His sight. Jesus took the blame on Himself. We don't deserve grace, it's not something we can earn, but Christ offers us grace because of how much He is so in love with us as His children. He doesn't want His children, NOT ONE, separated from Him away from His table. He offers us all a seat at the table of the Lord, blameless.

I hope that this Thanksgiving you will know that you have a Father who wants you to sit right next to Him at His table. He wants to celebrate with you forever. I hope that you can be thankful for the grace you don't deserve, you haven't earned but that is freely given because of a savior who is madly and passionately in love with His children.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Thought question: What are you TRULY thankful for this Thanksgiving? Have you found your seat at your Father's table? He wants you to sit right next to Him.

Head on the pillow...

10.19.11

Hebrews 4:9-11

"So then, there remains a Sabbath, rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from His works as God did from His. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest..."

When I was in high school I was a wrestler and I absolutely adored the sport. I devoted my entire heart and every extra second of my time to getting better at the sport. I wrestled during the regular season, but I also wrestled in the summertime in tournaments all over the place. It was very hard to get me off the mat. Some of the best times I had when I wrestled were at Saturday afternoon tournaments.

These tournaments usually started early in the morning and lasted until the early evening. One of the coolest things about wrestling in tournaments was the feeling you got when you signed the paper saying you won the match. The feeling of knowing you accomplished what you had set out to do by winning the match was absolutely thrilling, but you really have no energy left in your body to even lift the pen so you just scribble something on the paper and walk away.

The hard part about these tournaments was the lack of rest between matches. Like I said your body is completely spent and you don't get much time to rest and regain energy. You have to find some way to rest or you will be useless for your next match, and it can truly mean the difference between winning and losing the next match.

Our spiritual lives aren't much different folks. We spend hours and hours on getting ourselves prepared to do the work of the Lord. We get excited when we have a great conversation where we see a life change or if the friend that we invited to church shows up for the first time. We love God with all of our heart, mind and souls and He in turns instills us with a passion to serve Him.

I think we should truly be thankful for how God uses us, but full obedience to God means that we follow all aspects of His teachings. Finding rest in the midst of His work is not something that God suggests or politely nudges us to seek, but it is truly a mandate from Him. The author of Hebrews says that we should strive for rest, not just hope to get it. We need to make finding a rest a priority amidst our service to God.

If we burn ourselves out living our lives and trying to do the work that God has set forth us than it might mean, just like at a wrestling tournament, the difference between winning and losing. Seek to refuel yourself through rest. Seek time alone with God because I believe that is where we get a chance to hear from him the most. If we keep going at full throttle than we may just miss out on hearing what God is trying to teach us. Slow down, rest and hear God's voice in the midst of your busy life and service to Him. He doesn't tell us to think about resting, He tells us we must.

Thought question: What keeps you from truly resting and finding alone time to refuel your spirit? What can you give up to find the time to rest?

40...

10.13.11

Psalm 40:1

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry."

Psalm 40:17

"You are my help and deliverer; O my God do not delay."

Do you think that you could sum up an entire relationship with someone in 17 verses? Isn't that exactly what David does here with His relationship with God? Although David wrote many Psalms, it's Psalm 40 that catches my eye as far as how He feels about God and his life.

He starts out in verse one as someone seeking God and needing to wait patiently for God to answer. From the very first verse of this Psalm we see that David recognizes that there was something missing from his life before God. He also recognizes that he needs God in his life, but why?

As he continues in the Psalm we see that it is because David knew without God he was in a "slimy pit" and the "mud and mire". David describes himself as being stuck in the mud, in a swamp without God in his life. He knew he was stuck to sin without God. When he recognizes what God does for him he says he wants to sing praises to Him. When he sees how God saves him from his sin, from being stuck, He says that God has changed his life and given him a new purpose, or as he puts it "a new song in his mouth".

David then begins to speak of spiritual growth. He talks about how blessed we are to trust in God. In the midst of the psalm we see David's heart for those who are far from God. He recounts the wonders of God. Next he moves to a place of wanting to give everything of himself back to God. To truly make his entire life an offering to God. He gets to a place where he says to God protect me as I stand for You Lord.

Even in the last verse of the Psalm we see David humbly saying I am "poor and needy" and praying for God to remember him and praising God for being his help and deliverer. We can truly see someone who has gone from far from God to praising Him with every ounce of his person.

Psalm 40 paints a great picture of what I wish my life to be. I wish to be able to say that God you have saved me from my sin. Jesus you have changed my life from what it is, to a place of salvation and mercy. I want to be able to sing the praises of grace from my new heart. I want to get to a place where everything I have is a sacrifice back to the God who saves. I want to get to a place where all that I am is for the use of God, for others to see how amazing His grace really is on this Earth.

In other words I would love to make Psalm 40 the story of my life.

Thought questions:

What do you think it takes to get to a place where our lives reflect Psalm 40? Is there something that keeps us from making this the story of our relationship with God?

Refining Fire....

10.11.11

Zechariah 13:9

"...I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God."

Is hindsight truly 20/20? Do you ever take the time to look back at what has happened and realize that you and your life were remarkably changed by the circumstances that surrounded different situations in your life?

If we think back to when we were children and teenagers we can not help but notice that the things that happened to us shaped who we are today. For some of you it may have been a conversation with someone significant to you. For others it may have been an event that changed the way you looked at someone or something. It doesn't always have to be a HUGE event or conversation but a simple phrase or word of encouragement.

In our life times we are going to constantly go through things that shape who we are, how we look at certain things and how we react to things. Sometimes these things aren't always easy, but that doesn't mean they are not worth the ride. The question that we have to ask ourselves is are we willing to look at the things that we go through as stuff that God uses to shape and mold us into who we are as disciples of Christ?

We have got to get to a place in our discipleship where we allow God to use the flames of the fire to refine us into what HE wants for us to become. This isn't to say that the flames won't hurt, but are they worth it to you to be exactly what God wants for you to be and further more how He wants to use you?

Will you allow yourself to be refined by God? Are you willing to sit in the refining fire in order to burn away the things that get in the way of being a true disciple of Christ? Will you allow God to mold you into the person that can proclaim as Zechariah says 'the LORD is my God'?

Thought question:

Have you ever felt like God was refining you? Have you ever taken the time to look back at how God has shaped and molded you, how He has refined you? What events, in your life, is God trying to use to make you a creation that exclaims how powerful their God is?

LOST....

10.08.11

Luke 15:4

"Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?"

A few years ago I started doing something because I have a horrible memory. I started carrying around my keys, wallet and cell phone and anytime I would put them down I would always put them down together. I did this because I knew that I couldn't go anywhere without my keys and as long as my wallet and phone were with my keys than I would never risk the chance of losing them. God help me if I ever misplace my keys.

I want to give you all some freedom right now. If you are reading this and you are like me I am going to give you the freedom to admit that you flip your lid if you lose something. If you lose your keys or your wallet or even some piece of paper that holds value. Some of you right now are reading this and raising your hand where you're sitting because you know that's you. WE ALL hate to lose things, and furthermore it's in our very nature to tear things apart until we find them. Do a little experiment with yourself next time you lose something. Don't see what you will do to find that item, see what gets broken in the process of trying to find it. Notice the chaos and disorder that ensues to find that item. In fact I'll go as far as to say that you will probably lose something else in the process of trying to find the first item.

It's amazing the lengths that we will go to in order to find something we've lost. We will invest our time, efforts and most importantly our heart in order to find it. And this usually involves something as simple as our keys or TV remote. God forbid we lost the TV remote.

In the Luke story Jesus is addressing the pharisees when he asks them a very simple question about going after lost sheep. He asks them wouldn't it be worth it to go after just one lost sheep? Jesus knows that this means leaving the other ninety nine behind but wouldn't it be worth it to find just one LOST sheep? In fact, Jesus wants to know, isn't it worth it to celebrate it when you find that one lost sheep?

Jesus knew what it meant to know something is lost. He pursued the lost with every thing he had, including his very life. He did what ever it took to make sure every lost sheep had a chance to come home. Everyone that we come into contact with matters to the Father. Every single person means so much to the Lord. He gave His son to prove how much each and every lost sheep matters.

Think about the amount of heart we will put into the finding of our car keys. Think about how much you want to find your TV remote when it's lost. Imagine how many people would come to know Jesus if our hearts bled for the lost sheep like Jesus wants for them to. We should be doing everything in our power to make sure that not one sheep, NOT ONE goes lost.

John 3:16, one of the most popular Bible verses, says "For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son...". God's heart is for this world. God's heart is for the lost, those far from Him. He wants to use us reach the lost. My challenge for you, my challenge for myself is that we would have a heart that wants to make sure that not one lost sheep stays far from the Father. NOT ONE!!!!!! Pursue the lost with the heart to reach them for Jesus. Not to prove that we are right and they are wrong, but a heart that truly wants them to experience the warm tender embrace of a Father's grace. Don't leave the lost sheep out in the wilderness.

Thought question:

Who has God put into your life that is far from Him? What would pursuing them with love look like in your life?

Easier than it looks...

8.06.11

Matthew 18:3-4

"And he said: 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

Have you ever been trying to do something and felt like it should be a lot easier than you're making it. I was a child of the eighties and I can tell you back than one of the hardest things that someone could do was program a VCR. One of the funniest things that you can watch is someone spending hours trying to program the time and date on a VCR. It always starts out to be a simple task that should take moments but ends up taking hours. The person doing the programming goes from calm cool and collected and ends up in an Incredible Hulkesque rage about how to get it done. They would consult the manual and call the phone number to get help. They called 15 of their friends and still nothing.

Hours after sitting down to complete what should have been a simple task, that took moments, the most humorous part of this whole process would be to see a small child no older than 8 or 9 walk up to the VCR and have it programmed in a matter of moments. I often wonder why this was so simple for the younger child. What made it so easy for them? Many thoughts run through my brain maybe the younger generation was born with a special mutated gene that made them good with technology. Maybe we really do live in the The Matrix and somebody else is controlling that child's surroundings. (That's not it by the way) Truly I think it is much simpler than all of that. I think the child's mind doesn't cloud itself with everything around it. It doesn't have to focus on the stuff around it as well as the task at hand. They aren't distracted by all the stuff leading up to the programming of the VCR and all the stuff that needs to be figured out afterwards as well.

Watch a child at play, it's the same thing. They can imagine themselves in a far off world for the matters of play in a matter of moments. It isn't hard for them, why? Because they don't care about what others say and they don't let things get in the way of them playing. They don't let "things" distract them from the simple joy of enjoying their playtime.

I truly believe that we let things get in the way of what we believe and our faith. We wonder why things happen so much and do not truly commit to the idea of following Jesus and loving others the way He taught us to love. We want answers to stuff that frankly we may never find the answer to while we are here on earth.

In Matthew 18 two of Jesus' closest disciples are arguing about who will have better favor and position in the kingdom of God. Jesus basically says to them that you are making this harder than it needs to be fellas. Just be like a child and believe because you're Father says. That is all you have to do. You guys are making faith harder on yourselves than it really needs to be.

I am not saying that you will not have trials and life will not be hard, but faith in Jesus during those times should be "like a child". We should trust our daddy, our father, our rabbi and the lover of our souls. Have you ever wondered something about God and wondered why He doesn't reveal it to your heart. Could it be as simple that God knows that we don't necessarily need the answer the way we wanted. He didn't look at the disciples and give them the answer they expected. He instead answered by telling them to focus more on simplifying your thoughts on faith and be like this child and don't let your mind get distracted by stuff that doesn't matter as much as faith in the Father.

As followers of Christ our jobs is not to argue over things, but rather to trust that God is sovereign, all powerful and that His love does conquer everything that can stand against us. Being right about the details of the faith does not weigh nearly as much as the faith in a Savior. Keep you're eyes focused on the Savior of your soul and watch what he can and will do through you.

Thought question:

Is there anything in your thoughts or life that keep you from just trusting in the Jesus and having "faith like a child"?

Being led to the cross...

3.03.11

Sometimes I can really connect with a song and it can become almost an anthem for my life. I can remember back to high school when the song "Santa Monica" by Everclear came out. I listened to that song like there was no other song on the face of the planet. When I had the CD playing in my car I would instantly rewind it to the beginning of that song every time it ended. I bought the sunglasses that the lead singer wore in the video just to show how much I loved the song. I would open my car windows and blast that song, because I wanted everyone to know how much I loved the song. We can all look back to high school and think of that one song that was our "anthem". The song that defined where we were at in our lives at that moment.

To this day it amazes how much a song, a story or a some sort of art form can really have such an effect on our hearts and our lives. God truly brings awe to my heart and mind with the way He speaks to me through the words of a song even today. This past weekend I was on a retreat with nearly 200 high school students and the band played a song called "Lead Me to the Cross" by Hillsong and for some reason I got lost in the words of the song. Since I got back I have been glued to that song. I have not been able to take my mind off it. I was wondering why God has been putting that song on my heart so much, so I looked up the lyrics again and there is one part where they simply sing "Lead me to your heart..." over and over and than the singer goes back into singing "LEAD ME TO THE CROSS".

This song has been such a good reminder this week to the sacrifice and love that Jesus displayed on the cross. It is such a reminder of a selfless servant. Even as I write this my heart is consumed by how powerful Christ's sacrifice and love are. As I think about the words of the song that God has been laying on my heart I am overtaken with appreciation and awe for what an amazing sacrifice the cross is. The final words again of this song are "Lead me to your heart...". The reality is that YOU are Jesus' heart. He chose to be tried and tempted, beaten and shamed and hung on a cross because YOU are his heart. When we pray to be led to Christ's heart we are being led to the cross because He loves us so much that His sacrifice on the cross was His way of showing His love for us. He knew bearing our sin on the cross was His way of showing that He loved us so much.

God's heart is for his creation....human beings. Jesus wants us to love others and be the aroma of Christ because he wants everyone to know how much HE loves them. He wants everyone to be led to the cross because that is "where His love poured out" as the song says.

This post is merely an encouragement. As the Easter season quickly approaches I hope that what you take from it is how much the God of the universe loves every single one of us. My prayer is that this Easter season you are led to the cross of love, mercy and grace and that you realize that Jesus' heart is for you. That two thousand years ago He hung on the cross with you in his thoughts.


Thought question:
How often do you think about the idea that you are Jesus' heart? How much power is there in the idea that you were the one in his mind when He choose the nails of the cross?

A Father's Embrace....

1.27.11

Luke 15:20

"...he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."

How important can an embrace of a father be to a child? Do you know how much it can mean to someone who needs it more than anything in the world. When I was a little boy my father would sometimes travel for business and nothing felt better than the day when he would come home and I would rush into his arms and give him a big hug. I remember one specific time when my mother took me to the airport to pick up my dad after a week away from home. When we got to the airport and to his gate I was so excited to see him I ran to the gate and grabbed his leg and started hugging. There was only one problem, when I looked up I noticed that it wasn't my father's face I was staring into, it was the face of someone I didn't recognize. Like any four year old would I yelled "Hey you're not my dad banana nose" and ran away screaming. My father quickly caught me and said gave me a big hug. At that moment I had never felt more comfortable, I had never felt safer in all my young life. My father's hug was the only thing that could calm me down at that moment.

Sometimes in our lives that is exactly what we need. We need to be safely secure in our heavenly Father's arms. We have to feel comfortable and sound in our Daddy's embrace. That is exactly where our Heavenly Father wants for us. He doesn't want us to be away from Him for a minute, but the truth of our lives is that we will leave him, we will turn away from Him. We are sinners, but how great is it that we can go back to our Father anytime we want. How ever greater is it that He will run out to meet us and embrace us as a loving Father no matter where we've been, no matter what we've done.

Your heavenly Father is waiting for you to come back to Him daily and spend time embraced in His arms. There is nothing more comforting that no matter what we deal with, no matter what hurts us, the Father's embrace can comfort us.

I love spending time with the Lord, but for some reason whether it be laziness or distractions, I go through stretches where I don't spend time with God for several days and even weeks. Every time I have one of these stretches I honestly feel like the son that Jesus spoke of in the parable of the prodigal son. I feel distant from God, I feel far away from Him. I feel, like the son, that I am trying to do things on my own, in my own way. But than I make the time to go back to the Father and I feel so amazing loved that I can spend time with Him again. I can feel His love embracing me. My encouragement is this, if you are far away from the Father, or you are feeling like you you can't feel His embrace get alone with Him. Spend time with Him and let His embrace fully engulf your heart. Let Him hug and kiss you like a Father, take the time out of your day to feel safe in His arms.


Thought question:
When you haven't been with the Father, what do you miss most about Him? Do you miss His embrace, do you miss the safeness of His arms?