Francis Chan - If you just open your Bible

OUR GREATEST NEED IS TO RETURN TO THE WORD OF GOD!!!

MY HEART WILL SING NO OTHER NAME

Oct 31, 2016 | Blog

I know tattoos are and have always been a topic of controversy. Everyone has their opinions about them and they are all valid and respected. Just as politics, religion and many other topics, we will never see eye to eye on a lot of things, and that’s why I’m leaving that topic off for now. The reason why I am sharing these pictures are for something different. I have these two tattoos on my arms because a while back I was going through a season where God was doing something really deep within me. A work of convincing, conviction and captivating that led me to encounter this truth that rang super deeply in my heart and that brought me to a place of awareness and understanding that I had never experience before. One of those “a-ha!” moments that completely changed the way I looked at my relationship with God and at God Himself!

It was the revelation, the truth of God’s sufficiency in my life, in our lives, and in our world! The revelation of Him being enough, more than enough, to fill, fulfill, complete, provide, everything in everything!

That He is indeed, the GREAT I AM!

The song goes like this “And oh, I’m running to your arms, I’m running to your arms, THE RICHES OF YOUR LOVE WILL ALWAYS BE ENOUGH…” and then there’s this part that says “my heart will sing no other Name, Jesus, Jesus…”. And this is where this truth hit me really hard. Our hearts have been made, created and design to worship. And we are all worshipping something. We are all running somewhere for our comfort, our worth, our value, our peace, our joy, our significance, our love. We are all giving ourselves and of our time to look for ways to be happy, to be fulfilled, to be full, to be comforted, to be at peace, to find joy, etc. And we are all in some way or another in a hot pursuit for that which will make us feel satisfied. But let me tell you what I’ve found…”salvation (meaning, peace, joy, love, comfort, peace, wellness, fulfillment, worth, value, freedom, etc) is found nowhere else, for there is no other name under heaven given to man by which we can be saved” ACTS 4:12

This is what salvation means. And it is found nowhere else. No where else that you are looking in! Stop it! It’s not there. There’s only one place. David says in in Psalms 73:25 “Whom do I have in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire more than you; my heart and my flesh may fail, but God, YOU’RE THE STRENGTH OF MY HEART AND MY PORTION FOREVER!!!”

So, what are you in pursuit of and where are you trying to find it? MY HEART WILL SING (look for, pursue, believe, trust, surrender to, yield to, worship, lift my eyes to) NO OTHER NAME, JESUS, JESUS!!!

Here’s my prayer today:

• Father, i want you so much more than anything else on earth. My soul can feel the deep cry for you and for your courts, knowing and realizing and being aware that nothing on this earth could ever satisfy and fill me with life, wholeness, fullness, meaning, worth, value, joy, peace, love the way you can.
• In fact, I wasn’t meant to find it anywhere else.
• Only in you. Everything else is fake. Everything else falls short. My heart aches cause it realizes and feels also the deep cry of the flesh for the things of this earth. It is a battle that i know has been won, yet the intensity and reality of it can be felt in my chest, as it struggles to truly give you everything and yield to your love.

• Why is it that our hearts, my heart, refuses to yield, to believe, to trust, to embrace the very thing that can satisfy me and complete me?
• Why is it that my heart battles your love, your pursuit, your calling me to your side, to your courts?
• Why does my heart rejects the invitation to dwell with you, to abide in you, to listen to you, to hear your words, to let them wash over me and speak into the core of who I am?
• Why do i fight your spirit and your prompting to let go of all I am and find that as i lose everything i hold dear and that deceitfully keeps me trapped in a false security I will find the very thing I am divinely longing for?
• Daddy, let my spirit and my soul be swept away, struck down and completely submitted to the furious strength and power of your love, that i might have no other choice but to completely yield, surrender and allow myself to be captivated, enamored and committed to your heart.
• That in every way my heart will belong to you!
• That no matter what the situation, the challenge, the struggle, the fight, the battle, the trial, my heart will SING NO OTHER NAME!!!

GRACE TO GRACE - A song from Hillsong

If love endured that ancient cross
How precious is my Saviour’s blood
The beauty of heaven wrapped in my shame
The image of love upon death’s frame

If having my heart was worth the pain
What joy could You see beyond the grave
If love found my soul worth dying for

How wonderful
How glorious
My Saviour’s scars
Victorious
My chains are gone
My debt is paid
From death to life
And grace to grace

If heaven now owns that vacant tomb
How great is the hope that lives in You
The passion that tore through hell like a rose
The promise that rolled back death and its stone

If freedom is worth the life You raised
Where is my sin, where is my shame
If love paid it all to have my heart

How wonderful
How glorious
My Saviour’s scars
Victorious
My chains are gone
My debt is paid
From death to life
And grace to grace

When I see that cross I see freedom
When I see that grave I’ll see Jesus
And from death to life I will sing Your praise
In the wonder of Your grace

I’m sharing this song from Hillsong with you because it speaks volumes about what life is truly all about and it puts us in a place of accountability. What do I mean with that? It puts us in a place of looking at something that has been done for us, in our favor, completely underserved, whether we know it or not, that has liberated us, freed us, pardoned us, forgiven us and changed our status in the justice system. But let me make this clear. I am not talking about this world’s justice system. No, not even close. Our system is so flawed, untrustworthy, corrupted, bias, etc. No, not this system at all. What I am talking about is the cosmic, heavenly, divine, Holy, perfect and unfallible justice system of our Creator, our God, the King, the Ruler, the absolute authority in the universe, beyond time restriction and limitations, the Righteous Judge!!!

In His system, we are doomed, broken, lost, hopeless, guilty, condemned and sentenced to death. Absolutely no good deed, no good work, no good thing that we could come up with would ever be good enough, could ever satisfy the punishment, the verdict, the sentence that our disobedience, sin and rebellion have earned. The wages of sin, any sin, all sin, is DEATH! That is how the system works. Yours and mine works of “good behavior, going to church, doing the right things, not drinking, swearing, gossiping, generosity by giving, being a good person, working hard, etc” will never be enough.

God’s system doesn’t work that way. And thank Him for that!!! In an of ourselves we cannot fix what our disobedience has brought on us. We cannot earn anything. Freedom, salvation, being absolved. No, nope, no way!

His word says that our good deeds are like “filthy rags”. The word used here for filthy rags is not a pretty picture. The word filthy is a translation of the Hebrew word iddah, which literally means “the bodily fluids from a woman’s menstrual cycle.” The word rags is a translation of begged, meaning “a rag or garment.” Therefore, these “righteous acts” are considered by God as repugnant as a soiled feminine hygiene product.

So, what hope do we have? Why do I say that thank God that in His system these works, deeds, won’t work?

Because that allows for the awesome display of His true nature, His true character and His identity!!!

He is unfailing love. Unconditional love. Underserved grace. Underserved forgiveness. And He offers all of these things to us. Freely. Because of His love.

The only problem is that most of us have not known this, believed this, embraced this and own this. We live our lives unaware that everything that needed to be done to get us back into relationship with God, which is the ultimate purpose of our very own existence, has been done. That we cannot save ourselves. That we have been granted and given the salvation, the pardon, the forgiveness and the freedom from the curse, the condemnation, the verdict, the sentence and the punishment.

What we don’t understand is that this gift, even though is free, needs to be embraced, accepted, welcomed, wanted and lived out, used!

His love is available to us today. His freedom. His life!!! But we need to reach out and grab it, make it ours, believe it, and live it out. And that means letting go of the one old, broken, sinful, filthy, hopeless, lost and dead life we live now. I’d say it is a great exchange, don’t you think?

What about our lives right now, without experiencing life and life to the fullest, is worth hanging onto?

Let’s respond to this amazing pursuit and let His life blossom in ours!!!

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN…

What does this mean? How can it be true?

Why did Jesus teach us, showed us to pray this way? Your kingdom come, your will be done, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN? Why this way?

It has been a while since i felt Dad speaking to me about this, and it has been a very long and intimate and sweet exploration of this thought that has brought me to truly believe that this is one of the most important aspects of our faith, of the gospel, of our experience of life here on this earth.

The idea that His life, His kingdom, His realm, the way things are in heaven are available to us here on earth, that they can be experienced here on this earth, today, as we live and go through our lives everyday.

That his love, his peace, his comfort, his provision, his freedom, his power, his friendship, his abundance, his healing, his promise and his fullness can be lived out in our lives everyday regardless and in spite of our situations, our challenges, trials, tribulations, temptations, mistakes, brokenness, darkness and just everyday happenings. That it can truly affect for the better every relationship, every friendship, every word, every emotion, every feeling, every pain, every wound, aching, disappointment, failure, eetc.

But how? How can this be possible? Is it true to hope for something like this?

Or are we doomed to go through life struggling without hope? Without joy? Without peace? Without joy?

Why are we here? Why did Jesus come to die for us? Was it just to pay the price for our sins? To rescue us from the penalty of dead? To cancel our debt? To get us a ticket to heaven? WHY? I always ask the why’s because it is so important to explore, to dig deep, to wonder, to inquire, to look for the answers.

WITHOUT EXPLORATION THERE’S NOT DISCOVERY. WITHOUT DISCOVERY THERE’S NO EXPERIENCE AND WITHOUT EXPERIENCE THERE’S NO KNOWLEDGE!

So, if Jesus’s whole stint on earth was just to save us from death and sin and damnation, then why are we still here on earth? Why not just take us with Him once we have embraced His forgiveness and the gift of His sacrifice for us? Why not just rapture us right now and bring us with him and end this whole thing?

Why are we in the midst of political turmoil, a rise of immorality, hatred, injustice, war, despair, murder, lies and deceit, division, indifference, etc?

What’s the purpose, the deal with our lives here on earth?

I’ve heard it said that in this life we are not to look at our situations as “troubles” or “struggles” but just as events. That we ought to change our perspective from looking at what life brings us and calling them troubles to looking at them maybe as events, or opportunities or something else like that. And i maybe get the point they’re trying to make. But this is not the way of the word of God or what Jesus said.

He did say “in this world you WILL have trouble…but TAKE HEART, i have overcome the world”

And Paul says it over and over to the people he writes to in the different churches that he help plant. To the people that he dearly loved and cared for. He knew that in this world we would have trouble.

But he also knew there was a reason that we we still here on earth even after having embraced God’s gift of salvation, and that was to bring others to the knowledge of the hope, the salvation, the life, the freedom and the peace we could experience and live out everyday of our lives. To bring the hope of the true gospel of Jesus Christ!!!

“On earth as it is in heaven” reminds me of that song that has truly made a huge impact in my life and i know in other people’s lives as well, and in some cases it has impacted others with a negative connotation. Which is sad because we are so narrow minded that we lose focus of truth, and we twist it and dismiss it and overlook it or criticize it without truly looking, digging, pondering, meditating, and exploring its meaning.

The same thing we have done with the word of God. We have failed terribly at holding the word of God as what it is…the INSPIRED, GOD-BREATHED and POWERFUL word that comes from the very heart and mind of the creator of all things! WE have forsaken, sugar-coated, minimized and made irrelevant the very word that was given to us for life, for teaching, for admonishing, correcting, disciplining, and forming in us the very character of Jesus in us.

***But that’s another topic which i will touch on on my next blog about this election and our prayer meeting that we had at Spider Lake Church last night.***

The song I am referring to is John Mark McMillian’s “How He Loves”

And the part i am quoting is “and we are his portion and he is our price, drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes, if his grace is an ocean we’re all sinking; so HEAVEN MEETS EARTH LIKE A SLOPPY WET KISS AND MY HEART TURNS VIOLENTLY INSIDE OF MY CHEST, AND I DON’T HAVE TIME TO MAINTAIN THESE REGRETS WHEN I THINK ABOUT THE WAY THAT HE LOVES US!!!

Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss? I asked the youth what they thought about this line and they were all like “gross!!!”

And that is exactly the response a lot of people have gotten from it. And here’s where I think is so sad that we have missed the point.

When i hear this phrase and think about the mental picture it brings to my mind, what i can see is this intimate, very passionate and yes, maybe gross to look at, kind of physical expression. But what gets me is the meaning, the intention, the strength behind it.

This reminds me of passion, of true lovers, of an expression of intimacy that should only be experienced in the right and holy realm of committed love before God, (marriage) but nonetheless a gross, unashamed, unreserved and very intimate expression of desire, love, unity, connection, harmony, consent between the two parties involved, a fusion of bodies expressing their feelings and their connection with each other.

Maybe i am being too graphic, but it is with a purpose. Because when i hear this phrase in relation to the kingdom of God meeting earth, meeting us, like a sloppy wet kiss, it makes me thing of heaven, God, with all His passion and desire for us, with all his promises, his love, his joy, peace, his thoughts of good for us, his plans, his purposes and his riches, provision and comfort and healing, forcefully and furiously breaking the realm of dimension and time and space and connecting with us with all the power and force and strength and majesty and divinity of His nature!!!

And when Jesus says “on earth as it is in heaven” it makes sense then that as he lived this way Himself, healing, comfort, peace, joy, freedom, forgiveness, and all other kind of miracles were possible, cause helped his life experiencing heaven on earth. When he touched a person it was the kingdom of God being present and available and here with us. When he loved someone it brought not only physical healing but real wholesome healing to their souls. When he said “all these things you will do and ever greater things than me you will do” he meant it! He knew and believed that everyday we could experience the kingdom on heaven here on earth.

But what does it take? It takes truly embracing his word, what he offers, what he promises, and in order to do that we need to let go of our own way. Our own wisdom. All that we hold dear. We need to repent. WE need to surrender. We need to empty ourselves of ourselves. We need to relinquish all power, all control, all fear of what it might look to truly trust him, rely on Him, believe him, abide in him, and not pursue what our hungry and thirsty souls are running after.

Which sadly are all empty pursuits. Things that will never satisfy the true need of our souls. HIM!!!

IF WE ARE WILLING TO LOOK AT THIS, AND EXCHANGE THE PURSUIT OF ALL OTHER THINGS FOR THE PURSUIT OF LIVING HIS KINGDOM AND EXPERIENCING HIS LIFE EVERYDAY, WE WILL BEGIN TO SEE A CHANGE IN EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES. INDIVIDUALLY, AS FAMILIES, AS SOCIETY, AS A NATION AND THE WORLD!

WHAT DO YOU THINK? GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS. AGREE? DON’T AGREE? WHY DO YOU AGREE? WHY NOT?

LET’S BEGIN TO PRACTICE THE DIGGING DEEPER, ASKING QUESTIONS, CONVERSING ABOUT THIS AND EXPOSING THE LIES AND THE DECEIT OF SATAN. IT IS TIME

ELECTIONS...?

***Disclaimer: This blog, this one specifically, does not reflect the opinions and stances of the leadership and staff and council members of the spider lake church. it is absolutely the conviction and the view of the writer and the writer alone. Any comments, complaints, disagreements should be brought only to the writer of this blog, which is me, David Teran. It is also not an attempt for any political conversation or argument or discussion. It has no political agenda or any other agenda of any kind. it is merely, again, what i believe God laid on my heart. Thanks***

ELECTION???

What’s really going on???

It has been the craziest season of election and political turmoil in the last few months. I need not say anything else. All things have been said. All sides have spoken their views and thoughts. All parties have gone back and forth, and sadly, both you and i have been a part of it one way or another, whether posting other people’s posts, creating our own, or commenting on everything we see on all the social media sites.

But, what is truly going on?

People are asking for prayer for this country. People are worrying, fretting, going overboard with fears and anxiety, the atmosphere charged with uncertainty, hopelessness, despair, etc.

People are making statements like “i’m leaving if so and so wins” or “if so and so wins we are doomed” or “there’s no good choice” or many other statements that let us see into how and what we believe.

But as we were at our prayer meeting last night @ the Spider Lake Church i couldn’t help but feel irritated and uncomfortable. WHY, you might ask.

This is why.

As we were praying, it was as if, (and this has been going on for a while now as I hear people say what we need to pray for and how we see this whole situation) we feel or think that this situation can be fixed with a miracle, or that somehow God needs to come and fix this in a “magical” sort of way. We don’t know how. We have no idea. But we are hoping and praying that maybe God will, in some “hocus pocus” kind of way just come in and save the day!!! WHAT THE HECK ARE WE THINKING? WHY DO WE EVEN THINK THAT THIS IS THE WAY THAT GOD WOULD MOVE? WHY DO WE PUT ALL THE RESPONSIBILITY ON GOD TO FIX THIS? OK, YES, I AM GOING TO GIVE YOU THIS POINT…HE ALONE CAN DO IT. WE HAVE NO POWER WITHIN US TO DO ANYTHING. WE HAVE NO POWER TO CHANGE ANYONES’ HEARTS. AND AS WE LOOK AT THE CANDIDATES AND THE PEOPLE RUNNING FOR OFFICE AND THEIR CAMPAIGNS AND EVERYTHING RELATED TO THIS ELECTION WE REALIZE THAT YES, WE NEED A CHANGE OF HEARTS! BUT EVEN THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ACCOMPLISH IN AND OF OURSELVES!!!!

So, what is truly going on? As we were praying there last night, God shared with me, I believe, that we are very deceived in the way we are looking at this whole thing. And that is the BIGGEST PROBLEM WE ARE FACING IN AMERICA, OUR LIVES, OUR FAMILIES, OUR SOCIETY, OUR WORLD TODAY!!!

We have forgotten to really look at where the problem lies. We are so busy blaming each other, finding fault in everything else, blinded by pride and arrogance and a lack of conscience and honesty.

Really, brothers and sisters, the problem lies in one thing and one thing only…OUR HEARTS!!!

We have forgotten God, have taken him out of schools, allowed for murdering of our babies, allowed for our freedoms to be taken, our morals to be erased, our values to be compromised, our families to be infected with lies and deceit, etc.

Now, you might say “aren’t you being a little hard on you or on us”, and you might be right. I am being hard. First of all on myself. I am so prideful and arrogant that I refuse to take ownership of my own faults and sins and lack of commitment and lack of gutsy attitude to stand up for what I believe and know and confess and declare with my words that is right.

I spend so much time talking about it at church, in my group of “safe people” to share with, or thinking about it, but very little time living it out, allowing it to change me from the inside out, and transform me.

And what I am talking about is THE WORD OF GOD.

The problem that we are facing is due to us, our decisions that we have made everyday. This is not something that just happened overnight. This is a problem that has been brewing for decades, for generations, as we have slowly forsaken the holding on to the word of God, allowing it to change us, to mold us, to teach us, to discipline us, to guide us, to transform us, etc. YES, we preach it from the pulpits, we blog about it, we post cute quotes online, we share it here and there as a cute thought or as something to make us feel good about ourselves, put in on t-shirts, signs, cards, etc. But very few of us are actually living it out, experiencing its power everyday of our lives, and we can see that reflected in the condition of our world today. We marvel at the hatred, the turmoil, the division, the murders, the injustice, the bitterness, the quarreling, the rapes, the cheating, the deceit, the divorce rate, the pornography and double lives lived by so many, the indifference, the lack of attendance in our churches.

But why do we marvel at these things?

We have allowed for all of this to happen. It is our fault. We are reaping what we have sown.

And this is what I am referring to about what God spoke to me last night about.

We are hoping for some miracle.

Hello people, God doesn’t work that way.

He didn’t even spare His own people Israel.

When they sinned and walked away from Him, he brought judgement. Loving judgement. I am not calling for judgement for this nation. I AM NOT SAYING WE NEED TO PRAY THAT GOD WILL JUDGE THIS NATION. The judgement is already upon us regardless of anything. That is the way God works. Like I said, all we need is to look at scripture and know that when a nation departs from God, judgement will come. He is A RIGHTEOUS JUDGE. His word says that.

So, stop thinking we are going to escape the consequences of where we have gone and what we have planted. No, we won’t.

But this is not the point. He is in control. We know that. We know that whoever wins it is of no surprise to him. He already knows. Again, if we go by His word, it says there that he sets up kings, establishes leaders and rulers and he also takes them away and brings them down. This world, this nation, belongs to Him. So, don’t worry about who will win tomorrow. He already knows, and he is the one that decides that. Not you and me. We don’t know better. We could be praying for Trump to win and God might want Clinton there. “How could he want that”,  you would ask if you are a republican or conservative. We could be praying for Clinton to get in and God might want Trump there. Again, you might ask the same question if you are a liberal or Democrat. But, hello???How arrogant have we gotten that we assume that we might know what’s better for this nation???

Do you see how useless and deceived this kind of thinking is?

I might get in a lot of trouble or step on a lot of toes, but reality is, we need to look at the WORD of God and what it reveals about the character of God.

He is more interested in the hearts of his people, and where we have wandered and gone so far off to.

So, if we do this, then we can take a look at the history of the world and how God has dealt with these situations.

Every time Israel would sin he would discipline them. He would bring other nations to subdue them, to enslave them, to take them captive, etc. He would bring other nations to plunder them, to kill their people, etc.

When they disobeyed in battle he will allow for other nations to beat them, to rout them, to capture them, etc.

When they offered the wrong sacrifices, when they tried to do things their own way, God came hard on them and rebuked them, admonished them, corrected them, disciplined them.

So how can we think that he won’t do that to us? He loves us people!!! And like every parent that loves their children will discipline them and lovingly punish them when they’re disobedient and rebellious, so will our Father in heaven. Now, that is also in His word, isn’t it? So I am not giving you any new wisdom, cause I have none. All I am doing is looking at his word and allowing it to speak to me and hopefully to us.

What else can we look at?

Well, that when a nation was being addressed by our Father about their situation, specifically about their rebellion and disobedience, their response was very important. What were they going to do with what God was presenting to them?

And that is what God shared with me last night. Examples of nations’ responses and the outcome of that response.

Let’s take Sodom and Gomorrah. What happened there? An admonition, a call to repentance, a warning and a sentence was given to them. They were brought to the knowledge that God was not happy with their lifestyle and he told them to repent. What did they do? IGNORE IT. REJECT IT.

And what happened? BOOM!!!! You can read it for yourself.

Another example: Pharaoh and Egypt. Result? Same.

Another example: ISRAEL time and time again when the didn’t heed God’s word and call to repentance. What was the outcome? Slavery. Exile. Death. Hopelessness. Punishment. Defeat. Destruction. You name it. Read it. Go ahead. Take the time to explore these things.

Now, what happened when they did hear and heed His word and his call to repentance?

Let’s look at some examples.

NINIVEH – Jonah and the whale, remember? Yes, they were naughty, a very naughty nation. But when they heard the warning, when Jonah told them what was going to happen, what did they do? HERE IT IS PEOPLE, THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS BLOG AND WHAT I BELIEVE IS GOD’S MESSAGE TO US TODAY IN THIS NATION AS WE LOOK AT THE NEAR FUTURE…THEY REPENTED!!!!!!!!

YES, THEY REPENTED. THEY HEEDED THE WORD OF THE LORD AND REPENTED. THEY FELT BAD ABOUT THEIR SINS AND LIFESTYLES. THEY ACKNOWLEDGED THEY HAD DONE WRONG. THEY HAD A SPIRIT OF REPENTANCE.

Brothers and sisters, what we need in this nation, in our lives, is God to bring a spirit of conviction, of repentance, of godly sorrow over where we have gone, over our lifestyles, our choices, our decisions, our compromises, the way we have forsaken his word, his ways, and have traded the beauty of His gospel and the meaning and power it is meant to have in our lives as we embrace its truth and have embraced instead a philosophy of fatness, of comfort, of compromise, a gospel of pride and arrogance, where we are comfortable and safe, unwilling to suffer, sacrifice and yield to his will in our lives. We have accepted satan’s lie that tempted us to want to “be like God” or “become like God”. WE have bought the lie that somehow we know better than God what’s best for us.

And if we do not pray and ask God to bring this spirit of conviction, godly sorrow and repentance to our lives and to our families and our country and world, then we will continue to see these things rise and fear the worst.

The example God brought to my heart last night about this spirit of conviction and repentance came from the story of King Josiah in 2 Kings 22.

If we are serious about His word and that word being powerful, then read the story and see what happened.

I’ll tell you a quick version of it. He was in his 18th year as a king, and in a mission he had sent some of his people to fulfill, they found the book of the law. He didn’t know what it said, so someone read it to him. What happened next is what I BELIEVE NEEDS TO HAPPEN IN OUR INDIVIDUAL LIVES FIRST, THEN OUR FAMILIES AND THEN OUR NATION AND SO ON AND SO ON.

VERSE 11 “ WHEN THE KING HEARD THE WORDS OF THE BOOK OF THE LAW, HE TORE HIS ROBES!!!”

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THIS IS AMAZING. THE KING ASKS GOD “WHAT’S UP WITH THIS?”

AND GOD SAYS “I AM BRINGING JUDGEMENT UPON THIS NATION ACCORDING TO EVERYTHING THAT SAYS IN THERE”

SO, DOES IT LOOK LIKE GOD WITHHELD THE PUNISHMENT FROM THEM? KEEP READING THE STORY

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE READ THE STORY ALL THE WAY THROUGH CHAPTER 23.

VERSE 25 OF CHAPTER 23 SAYS THIS “NEITHER BEFORE NOR AFTER JOSIAH WAS THERE A KING LIKE HIM WHO TURNED TO THE LORD AS HE DID – WITH ALL HIS HEART AND WITH ALL HIS SOUL AND WITH ALL HIS STRENGTH…”

So, brothers and sisters, the answer is not anywhere else but in coming before God and allowing his word to convict us, to allow His spirit to bring us to a place of repentance and godly sorrow for how far we have fallen away, and to ask him to help us experience a new hunger for His words, his laws, his decrees, his commandments and for the strength to follow them everyday of our lives, and to end the compromise we have made with the world and with the enemy.

We need to come back to God. And that will not happen with a “hocus pocus” magic trick. It will happen when we, as Josiah did, allow His word to penetrate deep into the most intimate parts of our souls and let it rip apart the kingdoms we have built so that he alone has all say and control in our lives.

THERE’S HOPE FOR OUR NATION – HIS NAME IS JESUS!

It's been a while

It has been a while since I last wrote a blog, and as I look at my last blog, I am amazed at the things that have happened since then. Amazed at how little I knew was happening to me, to my world, my family, wife and children, and everything in between. To write it all in one blog would be like writing a book, because so much has transpired through the last almost 6 years. But one thing I do know...this Father of ours, the one we call "Lord" has blown my heart and mind away in ways I didn't know were possible. His truth, life, character, spirit, word, gospel message, love, joy and everything He represents and has chosen to reveal to us has become so much more than I ever had imagined. His trustworthiness, faithfulness, unfailing love and pursuit and lovingkindness have become our daily bread through all the trials, challenges, changes, highs and lows, and He has never been so real and active and alive in our lives. Well, He has always been real, active and alive. It is just that our hearts were not truly awakened to it.
But like I said, I wouldn't even know where to begin, so as I sit here, I will ponder on what things I feel like I could share that would best reflect and expose the glory he deserves through everything that has happened in our lives these last 6 years.
One thing I do know. In December of 2010, a few months after I wrote my last blog, Leah and the kids and I made a very hard decision. We left Mexico when things looked and felt very good as far as ministry goes. It really all looked so good and we felt that God was truly at work in the small community of Cerro Azul, Veracruz. But we knew something was not ok within us, in our family, our children and marriage. On the outside it looked great, but inside we were falling apart, broken, hurt and hurting each other. We were wounded soldiers trying to aid others. We were wounded people wounding others without knowing. And here is where the craziest thing was revealed to us. God didn't need us doing things for Him, achieving great dreams for His glory. He didn't need us dreaming up great dreams for Him, as we had heard so many times before. He didn't need us doing, going, planning, envisioning, achieving, etc. Not the way we were doing it. Not with a wounded, broken vision of who He truly is. You see, our perception of Him was not right, healthy. We were living our lives running on what little we knew about our Father, mostly because we were fed the awesome idea that to serve God you didn't really need all that preparation. All you needed was a passion for Him. And passion we had. Yet, our intimate knowledge of His word, His character, His heart and His truth were very limited, short sighted and broken.
You see, we were living life from the perspective that once you get saved, once you ask Jesus into your heart, you are good, or "gucci" as my kids put it. We are led to believe that once you are saved, then you should be able to overcome anything and that we have instant victory over sin and everything else that life brings our way. That swearing, anger, porn addiction, lying, cheating, unfruitful and filthy thoughts, greed, bitterness, adultery, drinking, smoking, anxiety, lack of trust, overworking, overachieving, low self-esteem, cutting, depression are things that needed to be blotted out of our lives instantly. That we needed to get our acts together, and that struggling and battling these things was shameful, embarrassing, worthy of judgement and scolding. And these things resulted in our putting up a fake face, a mask, a big smile when someone asked us how we were doing. We were trained to say "God is good brother!!!" And if we ever did share with someone, the cliche response is always "well, there must be something wrong with you. You are not trusting enough. Christians cannot be depressed. Gotta pray harder. Gotta do devotions everyday. Go to church more. Attend every single activity. Go on a fast. Read the Bible more.
But inevitably these things come around again and get a hold of us, making us fail, throwing us down on our faces, ashamed, embarrassed and left thinking "why can't i get rid of this?"
And the more we fail, the more we struggle with these things and don't get a victory over them, the more we feel like we are failing God, that we are letting Him down, and these feelings, instead of making us come to Him as the only way to be free from these things, make us create an image of our father in our own image, as one who won't take us back again, who is mad, disappointed and frustrated with us, and who will reject us.
This is the way we lived and served. The more we struggled, the more we tried to do, to accomplish. We needed to compensate for what we were struggling with, our shame, our feeling of inadequacy, being disqualified, insufficient, etc. So, this drove us to be more effective. Bigger events, numbers, houses built, bibles passed around, clothes given, food provided, programs developed, schools ran, evangelistic campaigns, events planned, etc. It was not coming out of a heart to bring others to Jesus' truth, feet, salvation, and liberating gospel. On the outside it was, and we believed it to be that way. But deep inside, the real motive was an unseen, yet very present feeling of shame and torment that drove us to do all those things for US...yes, for US! We needed to feel better about ourselves, so we kept telling ourselves (without knowing) that the more we accomplish the more appeasing we would be doing towards God's anger and disappointment in our lives. We did things to try to keep Him happy, satisfied, not-so-angry and frustrated at us. We did things to appease that feeling of inadequacy within us.
Sound familiar?
I'll get to more later. I think it is time for me to go home and pick up my wife. We are having breakfast with some really cool people. Until next time, peace out!

Drained out

Well, one more time I sit here thinking on what is happening to me, and how hard this road is. In the emtying of me, God is truly taking everything away from me. All my securities, my anchors where I held onto, and stripping away everything known to me. I am being left to force myself to wait on Him, to not come up with the answers by myself, on my own, and it is being very difficult. Specially since that is all I have known up until now. So, to wait in him while reading, or being quiet in his presence is so foreign to me, that is really causing me to change, to wrestle, to go against my old nature and it feels good but weird. I want to be emptied out of all that is me until there's nothing else but a heart that is ready to be poured into by my Father. Strip it all away God!


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