We GET to...

Had the chance to speak at a church in Dacula last week. Great people, good time, but it was one of those messages that is very convicting even while preparing and delivering. I talked about evangelism/discipleship. Yes I know lots to cover in a half hour of time, however to sum it up we are way too content to stay in our boat (Matthew 14) instead of stepping out to lend a hand and show the love of God to someone else. The idea is that when you feel the Spirit nudge, just step out, trust Him, and watch what happens. The miracle didn’t happen until Peter stepped out of the boat. Our boat can be anything, church can be a boat, our office space can be a boat, or our homes can be a boat.

The funny thing about stepping out and engaging people is that it’s fun and rewarding. When we don’t go when we feel the nudge, we are the ones that miss out. Then I challenged them by asking how many were actually discipling other people. We can’t disciple if we aren’t engaging with people. Again it’s something that we get more out of most of the time, so when we don’t we miss out. This isn’t something we should do because Jesus tells us too; it’s something that we GET to do. We GET to be used by God, we GET to watch lives be transformed, and we GET to see God do more than we ever dreamed when we decide to move when He tells us.

How many times have you felt the Spirit nudge and you hesitated or didn’t move? How many are you discipling or talking to? The next time you feel the nudge don’t hesitate, you will GET to be a part of what God is doing and watch miralces happen. It just doesn’t get any better.

As you believed

What if Jesus only acted on your behalf as you believed He would?
I’ve never liked the idea of tying God’s hands; I mean I just don’t think we really have the power to do that, realistically. We can control our obedience to Him and our total surrender etc, but does that really tie His hands or does He just find somebody else?
Anyhoo, my point is the faith of the centurion again. Matthew 8:13, Jesus didn’t tell the guy, “go home I’ve healed him completely”, “go on he’s up and about”, no Jesus said, “It will be done just as you believed it would.” What if the centurion only believed the fever would go away, or what if he only believed that his servant’s arms would be healed and not his legs?
Now, how about your belief? Do you believe God can and will straighten out that teen? Do you believe He can and will fully restore your relationships? Do you believe He can and will heal the person you’ve been praying for? Do you believe He can and will reach that lost person you’ve been after for years? There is no faith cap, like a salary cap, where you can only have so much; it should just continue to grow. How’s your belief in what God can and will do?

Astonished

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to preach at a local church. The pastor is taking the church through the book of Matthew and in an effort to keep the flow going while he was gone I told him I would preach on whatever chapter was next.

So I spoke on Chapter 8 of Matthew, now I didn’t cover the whole chapter there is just way too much in there, but I did speak about the leper and about the centurion. The thing that stood out the most to me from the passage was verse 10, Jesus was ASTONISHED! Think about that for second. Now he wasn’t caught off guard or surprised but astonished at the GENTILE, ROMAN, SOLDIER's faith. Jesus turns to the crowd and basically says, Hey y’all see this guy, see his faith, that’s what I’m talking about, that’s real faith.” OUCH! Would Jesus be astonished by our faith? Would he admonish our faith in front of others, pointing at you or me saying this person’s got it? How about this, are our wife, husband, co-worker, children, friends astonished at our faith? Praying that God will expand my faith; that I will rely on myself less and on Him more. How’s your faith? Does it need stretching?

Prayer

I know we all have a gigantic list of people that we are praying for and that need prayer. This is another one I would like you all to add to your list. This guy is one of the leaders at the church my brother goes to in Michigan. My brother said he is one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet and just has a great heart for the lost and concern for those around him. He was saying the prayer for the offering on Sunday when he fell backwards, hit his head on a monitor and starting having seizures. His family is keeping everyone updated through a blog they started here. I don't personally know him but am sure that I will one day, as will you. Big Thanks to all of you!

Yard Work

This past Saturday I had the great privilege of doing…..yard work. I don’t despise yard work; I just wish I had more time to do the stuff I want to do out there. Anyway, for the most part my yard looks good, until it has been mowed. Now it doesn’t look bad when it’s mowed and I’ve yet to find a car after mowing but one thing I noticed is that after I mow you can see the bare spots, where the grass isn’t growing. As long as the grass around the spots wasn’t cut it covered the bare spots and nobody would know even up close that grass wasn’t growing there. This got me thinking, “What are the things in my life that cover up my spiritual bare spots?” It could be anything; I use lack of time, busyness, tiredness, work, school, even relationships, to cover up my bare spots. That looks pretty good on the outside, but I still know they are there and that nothing is growing, I just don’t have to look them. So I’ve been praying for Jesus to reveal the bare spots, but that means I have to cut back some of the other “grass” so that He can and then help me to fill them in with what is missing. What are your bare spots, what is God waiting for you to cut back or trim so that you can be fully His?

Finally

Ok, so my last blog was many moons ago and much has happened since I last blogged. This isn’t some deep thought out post just more or less me re-entering the blog world I suppose. I’ve been out for a while so it may take a little while to get back on the wagon. While I haven’t been blogging I’ve been extremely crazily busy with stuff. I was out due to having wrist surgery, twice. I thought this would be some quick in and out surgery, heal, and get back to life as normal. Oh, I was sadly mistaken, I went in for surgery once, they cut me open, and there was lots of fluid, they stitched me up for fear it could be an infection. Turned out it wasn’t, woohoo. So a week later came the second surgery that I was supposed to have the first time. Everything went well, however the recovery time has been a lot longer than I anticipated. I guess that’s what happens when they do a bone graft, put some pins and screws in your wrist and then later take the pins out. So, I’ve had lots of time to sit around and think, but not be able to write down anything which means it’s all still in my head somewhat til I can get it down here. That’s what’s been happening, thank you to those of you who knew and have been praying, believe me it helps and I can tell. There will be more coming I promise, but for now this is all I’ve got.

Do you perceive it?

For a long time I dealt with the issue of forgiveness. Not necessarily forgiving others really (though I have my moments), but forgiving myself and understanding my forgiveness in the eyes of God. My best friend and now girlfriend,told me a few weeks ago that I had to let stuff go…that I was forgiven, and that I needed to forgive myself. I began looking through a book with some verses in it and came to the subject of forgiveness. One of the verses in there was huge for me: it’s Isaiah 43:18-19,"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." Forgetting the past is not easy. In fact, I don’t know that I will ever really forget. However, I am able, through Christ to not dwell on the past and look for the new things that God is continously doing in my life. This particular time I knew the new thing was my relationship with Melissa. After thinking and chewing on this verse more, though, I began to understand that God is always doing new things in my life and in the lives of those around me…I just don’t always “perceive it”. I’m determined always to keep this verse in mind when I begin to think about the past, and use my past to show and display what God has done and is doing in my life. Don’t dwell on your past. God is doing a new thing, do you not preceive it? If you look, it springs up all around you.