Wow.
Wow.
God is good. He is good when we are in pain, He is good when we aren't. He is good when sucky stuff happens and he is good when incredible things happen.
For me personally, many things have happened lately. The dynamic of my life is changing daily. But God is not changing. The God I worship today is the same God i worshipped yesterday, same one i will worship tomorrow.
I never blog without first jumping into God's word, and I love the fact that He never ceases to blow me away with the truth of scriptures.
Isaiah 62:6-7
I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the name of the LORD, give yourselves NO rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.
That is the word of God saying, "You believe in me? Don't miss a beat. Even when your down and out, even when you want so badly to sleep, CONTINUE to call on my name." It even goes on to say, give Him, God, no rest! It's not saying that, as if there's a fear that God will sleep. It is pleading with us to call on his name so constantly and so passionately that we never rest, we never stop, and God never has to slow down his process because of us. He will never have to stop or rest and wait on his people because his people will be so passionately pursuing and crying out His name, seeking His will.
That is the church and that is beautiful.
This last weekend God called me to leave the place I had been worshipping and follow his lead for my life into a new adventure that we have come to call Rising Church. The pastor Aaron Young and staff, Ryan Nelson, Lori Cotter, and Sarah DeLotelle are all people who God used to make me and many of my closest friends who we are today. My old church will be missed dearly, but like Aaron pointed out at our first meeting sunday; though churches may take different paths from each other, we are all sons and daughters of the living God and we will all worship the same Jesus in Heaven forever! What a joyful thought! I am excited to take part in this next chapter of my life that God has put me in and to lead a body of believers in musical worship of the Almighty on a weekly basis. I have never felt so blessed and so close to my Father. Great things are coming.
I want to end my post with this.
Rather you are catholic, protestant, episcopalian, non-denominational, whatever you may affiliate yourself with... If you are a believer in Jesus, YOU are a person of the rising. In an incredible song by Brett Younker, the chorus says, "Jesus! Jesus! There is power in your name! We sing Jesus! Jesus! You have pulled us from the grave, we are the people of the Rising."
So to the followers of Christ reading this, WE are of the rising! Ephesians 5:14 says "Awake, Oh sleeper! Rise from the dead and Christ will give you light!"
He has risen us, so let's live like it! Jesus has lifted us out of the grave so why would we ever still live as if we are dead? No matter the church, denomination, or any of that. Tomorrow, ask God how you can reflect his light. Ask how you can live fully, listen to what he says, and do it. I'm going to try doing so.
Thank you for all of you who read this and encourage me. I truly am blessed beyond belief and humbled by your collective love.
Let's truly live.
God Bless!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/come-to-the-water/id528017564?i=528017768&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
Monday, August 27, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Real
It is very late and I am somewhat tired. But looking back on today and looking forward to this weekend, I couldn't be more excited.
A few hours ago I got to lead my church (my family) in worship. Musical worship that is. We sang songs to our God. We shouted out Psalm 100 together proclaiming our joy in the Lord. And to the average person, what I just typed isn't that big of a deal. Even to the "average christian", what I just typed might not have even been that stand out. Churches all over america and the world meet every day and sing songs like we just did. It's so easy to look at it that way. I have been leading worship for about three years now, give or take. I consider my role as being a worship pastor one of the greatest blessings God has poured on me in my entire life. And at a night like this, after having taken part in the musical worship of Jesus Christ again, I am very, very joyful. Why? Because worship is NOT some small, customary, traditional thing that we do in church because we are supposed to. Tonight, my friends, my leaders, and I got to LITERALLY enter the presence of God and walk into his courts singing praises of thanksgiving, like Psalm 100 says. How can we as a believer do that and not be ecstatic? Or even simply realize that Jesus has torn the veil once and for all and NOT be jumping up and down in joy?
Tonight, my friends and I got to raise our hands, not to empty skies, not to the ceiling, not to an imaginary feeling made to give us comfort, but to the God that created you, created me, created the earth we live on and has breathed life into our bones. We got to say glory to you God, not to me. All glory to you, because He deserves it. My challenge now to myself and to any believer that is reading this right now... How can I/we give glory to God to the best of our ability OUTSIDE of the church? Outside of the confides of music. Maybe that means encouraging someone. Maybe for me that means being bold when I'm fearful. Maybe it simply means smiling more, or choosing not to be lazy. Ask God what you can do. He will tell you. I promise. Remember, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find. Let's live by those words.
Oh and my brother gets married in two days, that's pretty cool too. And by pretty cool, I mean freaking awesome.
Have a great friday.
Psalm 100:4-5
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
A few hours ago I got to lead my church (my family) in worship. Musical worship that is. We sang songs to our God. We shouted out Psalm 100 together proclaiming our joy in the Lord. And to the average person, what I just typed isn't that big of a deal. Even to the "average christian", what I just typed might not have even been that stand out. Churches all over america and the world meet every day and sing songs like we just did. It's so easy to look at it that way. I have been leading worship for about three years now, give or take. I consider my role as being a worship pastor one of the greatest blessings God has poured on me in my entire life. And at a night like this, after having taken part in the musical worship of Jesus Christ again, I am very, very joyful. Why? Because worship is NOT some small, customary, traditional thing that we do in church because we are supposed to. Tonight, my friends, my leaders, and I got to LITERALLY enter the presence of God and walk into his courts singing praises of thanksgiving, like Psalm 100 says. How can we as a believer do that and not be ecstatic? Or even simply realize that Jesus has torn the veil once and for all and NOT be jumping up and down in joy?
Tonight, my friends and I got to raise our hands, not to empty skies, not to the ceiling, not to an imaginary feeling made to give us comfort, but to the God that created you, created me, created the earth we live on and has breathed life into our bones. We got to say glory to you God, not to me. All glory to you, because He deserves it. My challenge now to myself and to any believer that is reading this right now... How can I/we give glory to God to the best of our ability OUTSIDE of the church? Outside of the confides of music. Maybe that means encouraging someone. Maybe for me that means being bold when I'm fearful. Maybe it simply means smiling more, or choosing not to be lazy. Ask God what you can do. He will tell you. I promise. Remember, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find. Let's live by those words.
Oh and my brother gets married in two days, that's pretty cool too. And by pretty cool, I mean freaking awesome.
Have a great friday.
Psalm 100:4-5
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Looking and Building
Long time no blog!
The thing with all of this is, I do not by any means want to blog just to blog. However, if something inspires me, of course I'm going to write!
Music is a huge part of my life as most people reading this probably know. I play music a lot, but I listen to it even more.
Many lyrics have stuck with me over the past few years. If you asked me what my favorite lyric is, I would probably spend a few minutes typing you out a list because I could never have one favorite.
I LOVE listening to a song that I have heard 20+ times and getting something completely new out of it. It is so wonderful to see God's beauty and brilliance outside of just the bible or church. When we read our bibles we say "God illuminate something in this for me that I would never notice on my own. Teach me!" The thought that has just recently come in my head is what if we asked God to do that everyday? When we wake up? "Illuminate something to me and teach me something TODAY in my everyday life: school, work, home."
We read a piece of scripture that we have read ten times before, yet God still teaches something completely new through the same words we have been reading for years! So shouldn't we believe that he can show us something new anywhere? God is NOT contained in a book or a building and that is something that we as christians HAVE to remind ourselves daily. He teaches us something new in a passage we have read before, can't he teach us something new in a school we've been walking into for years? Or at the home we have lived in for years? Or in a song we have been listening to for years? He can!... we just have to be open to it.
God isn't stuck in a book. Look for him somewhere that you wouldn't expect him today, tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, the Bible is an incredible tool for coming in contact with God and God has used it to mature and grow me immensely. However, spend some time looking for God and listening for God in places you would never expect him to be or speak.
Today I heard God in a song.
The song is called Onward, to the Garden by So Long Forgotten.
"Theirs is the house without the door. And I am the carpenter that refuses to pass idly by. Theirs is the house with a hole in the roof. And I am the builder that makes it a window for the sun to shine through. Yours was everything I could and could not see…Yours was everything I could and could not see…Yours was everything I could and could not see…Yours was everything, everything…"
This lyric has stuck with me for quite a while now. No matter someones condition, problems, issues, Christ can and will reach them. It is our job as christians to be the carpenters, to be the builders to connect Jesus to the hurting. We get to take part in "Not passing idly by", and "making the hole in the roof a window".
Don't pass idly by. Don't be content with oppression and evil in our world. Fight it.
If you want to give that song a listen... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCm-tj4Xj-Q
-Matthew 7:7
"Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
Friday, August 3, 2012
Stop
Two days ago I was walking my dog, Trip. We got Trip last February while he was only a few weeks old. We named him Trip because he tripped about every other step he took for the first few days, so it was fitting. Trip is now about a year and a half old, however he is a golden retriever. Therefore he's got a few more months of being a puppy.
Anyways, I was walking trip around the neighborhood which was something I hadn't done in quite some time. Usually my mom walks him or we play with him in the back yard. However I just happened to be bored so i decided to walk him. For those of you who don't know, my neighborhood is basically one large oval on a hill, the entrance at the top, my house at the bottom. So when we walk him, we generally just go all the way around said oval. Trip and I had made it about three fourths of the way up the hill when he basically stopped walking. My initial thought was oh he just needs to pee. But then he got weird and decided to just sit down. I shook the leash, yanked him. Yelled a little. Finally he stood up and walked a few feet, then he pulled from me. He layer down in the middle of the road, refusing to go any further. I had thought he was being stubborn because I had heard he got stung by a bee on a walk a few days ago. So i began to pull him thinking I wasn't going to let him develop this habit of being scared of one section of the neighborhood. He fought ruthlessly and after me yelling, pulling, and taking his leash, he got free. His collar was slightly loose and it just slipped right off. We made eye contact, me with a hint of fear/anger and him with a hint of freedom/confusion. He sprinted down the hill, me right after him shouting for him to come back. I am not as fast as him, nor do I have as much endurance. I would have never caught up to him, but finally he stopped. I told him to stay as i approached, he did. I got up to him, slid his collar on. I could have been mad at him... I almost wanted to. But my joy at him letting me come to him overpowered the anger. The joy of him coming back to me, in a sense, overpowered any sort of anger I had. He had the look on his face of "Oh lord, I'm about to be punished." You can tell with dogs. They put their heads down, don't look at you. But i praised him. Good boy, Trip! Good boy! Because at that point I cared less that he rain away. He came back. We eventually got back to the same spot, but instead of tugging him up the hill with the possibility of letting him loose again, I picked him up. He was fine with that, even though he is huge. I had to set him down a few times and rest, and it was hot...But we made it. And once we got to the top of the hill, i set him down and he was completely okay going down the other end of the hill back to our house. It was just one part he was scared of.
I love how closely that relates to the prodigal son. He ran off and eventually he came back. When he came back, the father wasn't the tinniest bit mad. He was ecstatic!
I think for me there are parts of life that are hard to get through. Rather I'm scared, angry, sad, anything. We just want to turn around and go back in the direction we came from. And I know that many times in my life i try going through that block that I know I'm scared of just to get to the comfortable stuff, the down hill, and I can't do it. We have to rely on God to pick us up and hold us if we want to get anywhere with him in this world. If we want to take the next step with him, or if we want to find him. Trip was not fine walking through that block, but he was completely content with me carrying him through it. Open the door that God is beating on and see what he will do.
PSALM 62:1-2
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
Anyways, I was walking trip around the neighborhood which was something I hadn't done in quite some time. Usually my mom walks him or we play with him in the back yard. However I just happened to be bored so i decided to walk him. For those of you who don't know, my neighborhood is basically one large oval on a hill, the entrance at the top, my house at the bottom. So when we walk him, we generally just go all the way around said oval. Trip and I had made it about three fourths of the way up the hill when he basically stopped walking. My initial thought was oh he just needs to pee. But then he got weird and decided to just sit down. I shook the leash, yanked him. Yelled a little. Finally he stood up and walked a few feet, then he pulled from me. He layer down in the middle of the road, refusing to go any further. I had thought he was being stubborn because I had heard he got stung by a bee on a walk a few days ago. So i began to pull him thinking I wasn't going to let him develop this habit of being scared of one section of the neighborhood. He fought ruthlessly and after me yelling, pulling, and taking his leash, he got free. His collar was slightly loose and it just slipped right off. We made eye contact, me with a hint of fear/anger and him with a hint of freedom/confusion. He sprinted down the hill, me right after him shouting for him to come back. I am not as fast as him, nor do I have as much endurance. I would have never caught up to him, but finally he stopped. I told him to stay as i approached, he did. I got up to him, slid his collar on. I could have been mad at him... I almost wanted to. But my joy at him letting me come to him overpowered the anger. The joy of him coming back to me, in a sense, overpowered any sort of anger I had. He had the look on his face of "Oh lord, I'm about to be punished." You can tell with dogs. They put their heads down, don't look at you. But i praised him. Good boy, Trip! Good boy! Because at that point I cared less that he rain away. He came back. We eventually got back to the same spot, but instead of tugging him up the hill with the possibility of letting him loose again, I picked him up. He was fine with that, even though he is huge. I had to set him down a few times and rest, and it was hot...But we made it. And once we got to the top of the hill, i set him down and he was completely okay going down the other end of the hill back to our house. It was just one part he was scared of.
I love how closely that relates to the prodigal son. He ran off and eventually he came back. When he came back, the father wasn't the tinniest bit mad. He was ecstatic!
I think for me there are parts of life that are hard to get through. Rather I'm scared, angry, sad, anything. We just want to turn around and go back in the direction we came from. And I know that many times in my life i try going through that block that I know I'm scared of just to get to the comfortable stuff, the down hill, and I can't do it. We have to rely on God to pick us up and hold us if we want to get anywhere with him in this world. If we want to take the next step with him, or if we want to find him. Trip was not fine walking through that block, but he was completely content with me carrying him through it. Open the door that God is beating on and see what he will do.
PSALM 62:1-2
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
2 He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
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