08 23 09

Well I was sitting backstage on the day that I had been working towards all week. Sunday morning is such a wild time because there is business to do, having to manage all that goes on behind the scenes. There is excitement and there are attacks from the enemy.The enemy tries to distract, tries to shake confidence, tries to sow seeds of doubt, and all in all go against what is getting ready to happen once the service starts. It is always a day of spiritual warfare but it is also a day of immense blessings. Sitting backstage getting ready for the day, praying and reading the word before everyone else shows up I get this word from God….

Romans 8:30 And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

Just kind blows away all those stupid little attacks doesn’t it. Kind of makes you want to go out there and take some ground for the kingdom……

08 22 09

ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST
When the darkness tries
To hide my way
Your word is the light
That guides my faith
I will trust in You
I will trust in You

When my heart is weak
And I’ve lost my way
I will lift up my eyes
And choose to say
I will trust in You
I will trust in You

I can do all things through Christ
I can move a mountain
If You are the strength of my life
I can do all things through Christ
When You are the strength of my life

More to look forward to tomorrow at Highlands Fellowship in the worship service tomorrow. When the darkness tries to hide, God’s word lights the way. When the heart is weak and you are lost, lift up your eyes and CHOOSE….I don’t know what kind of week you have had, mine has not been one that I would choose, but tomorrow I will choose to lift up my eyes and worship the one who lights my way, I will choose to worship the one who is the strength of my life. I invite you to do the same.

08 21 09

I will tell you that the worship this weekend at Highland is going to be incredible. As I have been preparing these songs this I have been strengthened and encouraged and reminded just who God is. My hope for this weekend is that people will do more than just sing but will let these songs get down deep and have the same experience that I have had this week.

UNFAILING GOD

Though my eyes may fail me
I will follow after You
Though Your promise seems forsaken
I’ll remember the world’s in Your hands

You’ll find me singing

You are unfailing God
Your love’s unending
And Your word is eternal
Firm in the heavens it stands

Though sorrow’s my condition
And pain holds back no blow
Though this be my darkest hour
Your lamp is leading me home

You’ll find me singing

You are unfailing God
Your love’s unending
And Your word is eternal
Firm in the heavens it stands

Eyes can’t see
But I feel You near
I know You’re working
Through my tears
I trust You
Lord, I trust You
For You never walk away

Sometimes our walk isn’t easy, we were never promised it would be. I heard a quote earlier this week that went something like this, don’t look for a God that will keep you out of the fire but serve a God that will be with you in the fire. That’s the thing that keeps me going, I belong to an “UNFAILING GOD” whose love is unending, his word which says HE loves me, HE forgives me, HE walks with me, HE gives me strength, HE knows my pain, HE guides me, HE will always be there for me,  HE IS ETERNAL!

This is just one song from this weekend, be ready, it is going to be ……………

08 20 09

Roomans 6:16 don’t you realize that you become a slave of whatever you choose to obey?

Something to think about. What are you becoming a slave to? Is it hunger? Is it Fox news? Is it materialism? Is it being entertained? Is it ________, you fill in the blank. Check out the lines from this old hymn….
When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His word
What a glory He sheds on our way
While we do His good will
He abides with us still
And with all who will trust and obey

Trust and obey
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey

Enough said……….

08 19 09

This was in the margin of my bible as I was reading Romans 5 this morning. I thought it was beautifully written and thought I would share it with you.

As a sinner, seperated from God, you see his law from below, as a ladder to be climbed to get to God. Perhaps you have repeatedly tried to climb it, only to fall to the ground every time you have advanced one or two rungs. Or perhaps the sheer height of the ladder seems so overwhelming that you have never even started up. In either case, what relief you should feel to see Jesus offering with open arms to lift you above the ladder of the law, to take you directly to God! Once Jesus lifts you into God’s presence, you are free to obey—out of love, not necessity, and through God’s power, not your own. You know that if you stumble, you will not fall back to the ground. Instead, you will be caught and held in Christ’s loving arms.

²⁰ God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. ²¹ So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5

AUG 18 09

¹ Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. ² Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. Romans 5:1,2

Man I am thankful for this passage today. When everything around me is chaos, it is comforting and liberating to know that I have peace with God today. Not because of anything that I did but because of what Jesus Christ did for me. I am standing in that place of undeserved privilege, looking forward to what God has planned for me this week.

do this in remembrance…

I was spending some time reading through Deuteronomy and came across this next passage, and the idea is repeated again later on in the book. It is something that spoke to me and something that I think is as important to us today as it was when written.

¹⁸ “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.

“So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine….. God is calling us to complete devotion and obedience with these words. Wholeheartedly, with our whole hearts, not just a part of it but with all of it. And when you think about what the heart represents, it represents life to us. Without the heart which pumps blood throughout our body we would all be dead. The heart is central to our existence and it is a good place to start, the very central part of your being, the thing without which life would not exist, commit that to the words of the Lord. The center of your existence needs to be centered on the words of God.

Tie them to your hands…  think of the times through the day that you use your hands. You touch, you feel,  you scratch, you pick up, your hands are pretty much central to all you do through out the day. They represent your interface with the world and God is telling us to tie his words to our hands so that everything we do we have a visual and constant reminder of his words and every part of our day is effected by this.

Wear them on your forehead as reminders…. represents our thought life. Wrap your thoughts around the words of Christ.

Teach them to your children…. It is important to pass them on to the younger generation

Talk about them at home…. talk about them, make God’s words the topic of conversation at your home

Talk about them on the road….  talk about them at work, at play, at the store, share God’s words with all the people you come in contact outside the wall of your home.

When you are going to bed…. Let your thoughts be on God’s words as you go to sleep.

When you are getting up…. Let your thoughts be on God’s words as you start you day

Doorposts of your house…. Put them on your door frame so that as you are going out or coming in you are reminded of them.

The idea is do whatever it takes to remember the words of God because our very existence depends on it. Jesus tells us in Matthew;

Matthew 4:4

⁴Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’^[a]“

Our “life” depends on having God’s words in it. It is as important as the food we eat. The thing to do then is be in His word, read it, study it, share it, live it, and remember it……..

walls, hobbits, such and so forth….

I have a friend who is a hobbit and he is always talking to me about my walls, the one’s that I have built around me to keep people out or at a distance. I know they are there, have always known it and to be honest have most of the time embraced them. I have crafted them well and each provides a different thing for me. Some offer protection, some offer peace of mind, some keep people out and some keep people in, and some if not all are barriers to things in life that maybe I should be experiencing.

I wrote these lyrics probably two years ago about these very things:

Walls

Walls painted red
Walls painted black
Walls there in front of me
Walls at my back

Every where I turn
These old walls are just screaming at me(surround me)
Everywhere I turn I start screaming right back
I want to be free
Free
free

Walls around my heart
Walls built up in my mind
Walls so high
Walls I can’t possibly climb

Every where I turn
These old walls are just screaming at me(surround me)
Everywhere I turn I start screaming right back
I want to be free
Free
Yeah free

These walls are killin me
I’ve built them brick by brick
I needed shelter
And these walls haven’t done the trick
Now I’m stuck on the inside
A place I once thought was safe
I need to get outside
i need to escape

i want to be free

I am trying to live outside the walls now, trying to get past the past, the past that started the wall building enterprise in the first place. Stepping outside these walls comes with a price and it is scary territory to be in. It’s always easy to turn back to the protection they offer and maybe even build new ones but freedom I think is worth the risk and cost.I know that I have been talking about me but I realize that we all have walls and I also know that there are many of you who are actually as good at building walls as I am. I am not alone here. We all get hurt along the way and being hurt is never fun, and the natural reaction to that is to do something that keeps that hurt from happening again. Remember the old joke, the guy goes to the Dr. and says every time I move my arm like this hurts. The Dr. looks at him and says, don’t move your arm like that. Ha ha ha ha!

Well the deal is we are all going to experience hurts but we can’t let those hurts keep us from experiencing life, keep us from experiencing relationships, keep us from experiencing love. We need to learn from the experience but not let the experience keep us from experiencing.

Romans 5 ³ We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. ⁴ And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. ⁵ And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

There have been walls between us and God, sin is one of those walls.

Romans 5

¹⁸ Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. ¹⁹ Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.

Our sin hurt God but that didn’t keep God from continuing to pursue us and make a plan where we can be restored and I am so thankful for that.

There were walls in the tabernacle and the temple that kept all but the high priest from God, but Jesus came to break those walls down, and once again I am so thankful that.

Matthew 27

⁵⁰ Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. ⁵¹ At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

Because of this we have direct access to a God without walls and are able to have a relationship with Him that was not possible before Jesus. Since God is in the business of tearing down walls and I am in my Father’s business I am going to work at tearing down walls in my own life. I will probably start by building a few doors first then move on from there……….

on staying awake…..

There has been an underlying theme in the time I have spent with God lately. It has shown up in the songs that He has given me to write, it has shown up in the scriptures that jump out at me when I am spending time in the word, it is in that still small voice that I hear during times of prayer. The theme is “It’s time”.

“It’s time” to draw nearer to Jesus than you have been in a long time

“It’s time” to take seriously the call that He has on your life

“It’s time” to reach out to others with an intensity like never before

“It’s time” to love others more than you ever have

“It’s time” to expect God to do what He says He will do

“It’s time” to expect God

“It’s time” to worship God through out the week

“It’s time” to come into church worshiping God before the first song starts

“It’s time” to take off the cover and let your light shine

“It’s time” to be that voice in the wilderness

“It’s time” to be used

“It’s time” be wary

“It’s time” to be AWAKE!

You are probably aware that before Jesus was captured and taken to be tried,  He was praying in the garden. He was crying out to His Father and asking if there was any other way let it be, but if not he was willing. He had also asked His disciples to go and pray with him. But each time He walked away the disciples would go to sleep. He would come back and find them asleep and wake them up, stressing the importance of the moment. Still, each time He would walk away they would fall asleep until finally Jesus said the time had come (It’s time) and they captured Jesus.

I found another place in the scriptures where this happened, in Luke 9:

²⁸ About eight days later Jesus took Peter, John, and James up on a mountain to pray. ²⁹ And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white. ³⁰ Suddenly, two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared and began talking with Jesus. ³¹ They were glorious to see. And they were speaking about his exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem. ³² Peter and the others had fallen asleep. When they woke up, they saw Jesus’ glory and the two men standing with him.

Still yet another time where Jesus invited them to spend some time with Him and they fell asleep. Luckily they awoke in time to see the main event but who knows what they missed because they were asleep. It is easy to lose focus, to even take Jesus for granted in this world because it is easy to put our needs first and being self centered is part of our natural make up. The disciples even as they walked with Jesus on this earth would lose focus, would let their personal needs get in the way of what Jesus was doing at that time. I am sure if we all could look back on even last week and see what we missed out on because we were asleep would literally break our hearts.

“It’s time” to be AWAKE!  Jesus has invited us all to be with Him, to be a part of what God has going on in this world and we have to be careful not sleep through it. We need to be alert and looking for His voice as we go through this thing called life, as we go through each day, and follow where He leads. We need to not let any opportunity slip past us because we were not aware, alert, awake.

It’s time to go
It’s time to show
It’s time to let the world know
It’s time to praise the lord

“line from new song called “It’s Time”)

You won’t find
My heart hardened
You won’t find
Me asleep
You will find
My passion
You will find me
Letting you lead

(line from new song “Lord Where You Lead”)

It literally only takes about ten minutes of watching one of the news channels to realize this world needs Christ Followers to wake up. So let me encourage you with two of my life verses:

Romans 8:15 (The Message)

^15-17This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!

Live this week adventurously expectant, knowing who God is, not being timid and willing to follow through the hard times  as well as the good times.

Isaiah 6:8 (New Living Translation)

⁸ Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”

I said, “Here I am. Send me.”

Be that person who stands up, who realizes all that God has done for you, who is willing to hear and answer God’s call and God’s challenge, who is willing to wake up, and tell God here I am, send me!

the view

There is a place I like to go that overlooks the town of Abingdon Va and it helps me keep perspective about life and other things. At night you would be suprised by the lights. Everywhere you look you see lights, and Abingdon looks like a large city at night. I love the view.

As I look out at the lights I think of the lives they represent. Each life a conglomeration of ideas, troubles, successes and excesses, dreams and broken dreams, hopes and disillusionment, relationships and lonliness, fears and failures, gains and losses. A common thread that runs through all these lives that is seldom understood or realized, and that is we all share these experiences. No one is immune to any of these things and we are all really in this thing together. We are not alone, even though many times we feel we are.

Romans 8:18-25 (New Living Translation)

The Future Glory

¹⁸ Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. ¹⁹ For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. ²⁰ Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, ²¹ the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. ²² For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,^[a] including the new bodies he has promised us. ²⁴ We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope^[b] for it. ²⁵ But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

The place I love to go to allows me to see Abingdon in a totally different way, this scripture allows us to look at life from a different perspective as well. We all are waiting eagerly for something, all creation waits for the answer to this thing called life. We were all subjected to God’s curse and are all in the same boat looking to get out of it. We try different things, but the real answer is God. His plan is that we accept His gift, Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he gave for us, and become the children of God. And because we are children of God not only are we new creatures now but we will be given everything new in the future. New bodies, FULL rights as children of God and all those things that make up life as we know it now, ideas, troubles, successes and excesses, dreams and broken dreams, hopes and disillusionment, relationships and lonliness, fears and failures, gains and losses will be different or gone. We will experience the very thing we have desperately been searching for for so long.

This vision is what my sights are set on, looking for that day, this is the view I desperately, along with all of creation, want to see.