He Desires To Be Close

I read this passage about a month ago, and I loved it. I’ve never seen it before, but it’s New Testament truth, spoken in Old Testament times. I’ve wanted to write a blog about, and now I finally have. I know it’s not a new revelation, or anything like that. But I just wanted to share it.

“Like water spilled on the ground, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remained estranged from Him.” -2 Samuel 14:14

I love this verse. God’s desire is not for anyone to be separated from Him. This verse is saying that just like water that is spilled on the ground, that can’t be gathered up again, we all will die someday. But after that death, we either have eternal seperation from God, or eternal relationship with God. The beautiful thing is that, for all of history, God has devised ways for people to not be separated, or “banished” from Him, because He loves us, and desires to be close to us, and for us to be close to Him. It makes me think of falling in love. How you will devise any plan, no matter how inconvenient it may be, for you to be close to the one you’ve fallen in love with! That’s what God has done. He doesn’t just want a relationship with us after our life on earth is over, He wants it now! He wants it now, because He knows that He is what is best for us. He has worked out a way for us to never be seperated from Him, a way that will never fail, that way is Jesus.

How do you respond?

Last night, I was at The Garden, doing a Bible study/preaching with the ladies. The text was Luke 20:1-8. Jesus is teaching and preaching the Gospel(which is really cool to think, because the Gospel is Jesus came to save the world, so he was preaching about himself!), and some elders and teachers of the law, came and asked him who has given him authority to do the things he’s been doing. Jesus being so wise, answers their question with a question of his own: “John’s baptism – was that from heaven, or from man?” Well these guys knew they were stuck…if they said it was from heaven, then Jesus would ask them why they didn’t believe him. After all, John was preparing the way for Jesus, and if they really believed John, they would believe Jesus is who he says he is. But, if they say John’s baptism was from man, then according to the law(remember, they were teachers of the law), they would have been stoned to death for rejecting, or denouncing, a prophet of God. That’s a tough situation for them to be in…so they answered, “We don’t know.”

The way these guys responded revealed their ignorance and pride, it revealed their hearts. Which is always what happens when we encounter the words of Jesus. However you respond after hearing the words of Christ, or having an encounter with God, reveals your heart. Example…if you get mad when a pastor preaches on tithing, you’re just revealing your greedy heart.

Even when confronted about an area of your life, that maybe some friends have noticed, do you make the effort to change, do you consider their advice, or do you get upset and start calling out things you notice about them. We’ve all heard this, “You can’t judge me!” or “You think you’re better than me? Who do you think you are to confront me?” However you respond in those situations reveals your character.

People can see who you really are, your heart and your character are always revealed, by the way you respond. So how do you respond?

What I’ve learned from John Mayer & Frank Decker…

John Mayer (is in my top 5 favorite artists, I’m not sure who the other 4 are, but he’s definitely in there) has a song on his Continuum album, entitled “Belief.” It’s been one of my favorite songs off that album since the first time I heard it, a couple years ago. The very first lines are:
“Is there anyone who ever remembers
changing their mind from the paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who really recalls
ever breaking rank at all
for something someone yelled real loud one time?”
I love this line because they are real questions, that make you step back and think about how you are getting across your message of what you believe in.

Frank Decker is an awesome man, with an awesome heart. He loves God, he loves telling people about God, and he has done so all over the world, as a missionary. He’s the Cluster Group Pastor at The Vine, and is also the Vice-President of Mission Operations at The Mission Society (sidenote: where my wife now works!). A few Sundays ago, Frank was preaching at The Vine, and said so many things that have just taken over my thoughts since that day, but one of the things that really hit me was this, “It’s not a bumper sticker, a tract, or a mini-sermon to someone over lunch…the best witness for Christ is a life that is experiencing transformation.”

I love how these quotes come two very different people, speaking with different motives, but are saying a lot of the same thing! I can paint signs, yell at people, put bumper stickers on my car, hand out tracts, and preach mini-sermons all day long…but unless people see me living those beliefs, no one will care! The way I can think to sum it up is this: “people will listen to your beliefs, when they see you living your beliefs!”

The best way for me to “preach” to people in my life, and tell them who God is, and what God is all about, is to live the life that God calls us to live. The only way to live the life that God calls us to live, is to live a life that is being transformed by the Holy Spirit. A life transformed by the Spirit of God, should be different than the life we lived before, and different than the lives of those who do not have the Spirit of God living inside them. If we live like this, people will see it. It will be evident that there is a power stronger than us, living inside us, because we’ll be living with renewed minds, and transformed hearts.

John Mayer believes music is important to life, it’s easy to see that in his lyrics, and the work he puts into making an album. Frank Decker believes that God is the ultimate source of life, love, and hope, it’s easy to see he believes that, by looking at his life and the way he lives. Now I don’t have this all figured out, and I don’t claim to, that’s why it’s important to note that my life is being transformed…it’s a continual process. But hopefully people know what I believe, because of the transformation that’s taking place. So here’s the challenge: what does your life say about what you believe?

Stride for Strength 5k

On September 26th, I’m running in the Stride for Strength 5k, in Suwannee, Ga. I’ll be running to raise money for Amigos for Christ. Below this blog, you can see a video, of some of my friend’s mission trip with the Amigos for Christ organization. I would love it if you’d consider donating to this, anything from $1, $5, $20, or any amount you feel comfortable with. Here is the link for my fundraising page. Thank you so much!

Amigos for Christ video

Recently, some friends of mine, and members of The Vine church, went to Nicaragua with Amigos for Christ. Here is a video I put together with some of the pictures that were taken on their trip…

The Rose

This is Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church, in Texas. This comes from his talk at the Desiring God conference from February ‘09. I can’t really say much more about the video, because I’m afraid I would take away from the video. So here it is. I love it.

I’m the rose…you’re the rose….Jesus wants the rose!

Rain vs Shower

The other day, after leaving the gym, I went back home to my apartment, in desperate need of a shower. While on the way home, it started to rain, pretty heavily. At first I was annoyed with it, but then I thought, “it would be nice to have some soap right now, I could shower in the rain and save time!” But I didn’t have soap. So when I got home, I walked through the parking lot in the rain, to get inside and take a shower, then it hit me…”why do I get aggravated by the rain, but welcome the shower? I mean, the only difference in walking in the rain and standing in the shower, is clothing. Well that, and the fact that I can control the shower.” Then it hit me again (yeah, ‘it’ hits me a lot), “I know what it is…I can’t control the rain!” Well I also can’t walk around naked, but the ‘controlling’ thing is what’s most important here. See when I’m in the shower, I’m in control of everything, I’m prepared for everything that happens during and after the shower. But in the rain, I have no control at all. I can’t turn off the rain when I’m ready for it to stop. I can’t adjust the temperature of the rain. I can’t press a button and control how hard the water falls, like I can do on my shower head. But you know, walking in the rain is so much more fun when I realize that I don’t have control. When I just let the rain do it’s thing, and go with it, I can enjoy the freedom that comes with not having to be in control.

Isn’t that what life is like with God? Seriously, I’ve been shown so many times, how insignificant and meaningless my plans are. I mean, when God is going to do something, He’s going to do something, and me trying to hold on to whatever little bit of control I think I have, isn’t going to change anything. One of two things happen when I try to maintain control: Either I go with the flow of things, but stay aggravated and ticked off, or I say “No, I’m going to do things my way” and stubbornly walk right out of God’s plan.

But think of this, how awesome would it be to just surrender everything, EVERYTHING, to God, and be confident in the fact that He has your best intentions in mind. He wants what’s best for you, and what glorifies Him most…and that’s what this life is about, making most of God!

So what would your life look like if you were to take part in this beautiful surrender? What if you could just fall right in to whatever it is God is doing, and go along for the ride? Maybe, just maybe, walking in the rain would look a little less like this…
…and start to look a little more like this… …or maybe even a little like this…

Drew

Here is another video from Mark Horvath (invisiblepeople.tv). It’s a common, but devistating story. Here is Drew’s story…

Ulysess

Ulysses lives in Atlanta.  Not in a high-rise apartment, not in a trendy condo, not in a suburb, or in the hood.  Ulysses lives under the I-20 & I-75/85 interchange.  I met him a few years ago, when, through the discipleship from Jason, I first started to understand that God has a passion for the least and the lost.  If you look at scripture, it was often the “least of these” that Jesus would reach out to, in order to demonstrate His love, miracles, and desire to forgive sins and save the lives of anyone who would accept His forgiveness, and surrender their lives to Him. 

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Mark Horvath (invisiblepeople.tv), and introduce him to some of my homless friends, so that he could capture their story on video.  Here’s Ulysses:

How Can I?

The third, and final, devotional…

        How Can I?

 You were created by God, to worship God, to glorify God in your life and with your life.  God desires for you to be righteous.  That’s a huge statement, and it seems so overbearing.  “How can I glorify God with my life?” or “How can I be righteous?”  You may think it’s hard to do that, you may think it’s difficult…but it’s not.  Truth is…it’s impossible.  That’s probably not what you expected to hear, but it’s true. 

When Jesus was on the cross, right before he “breathed his last”(Mark 15:37), Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”(Mark 15:34).  After hearing that it’s impossible for you to be righteous, that may be exactly what you’re thinking, “God, why have you left me like this?  You want me to be righteous, but it’s impossible!”  But God knows that.  He knows that it is impossible for you, by yourself, to live a righteous life that glorifies Him.  But see the cool thing is, Jesus did live the perfect, righteous, God glorifying life.  

So here’s God’s plan, He wants to put the Spirit of the one that did live the righteous life, inside of the ones who can’t live that life, so that the ones who can’t live that life, can live that righteous, God glorifying life through the power of the Holy Spirit!

 Now don’t misunderstand what that kind of life looks like.  Here is what that kind of life is not:  it’s not just trying to be a nice person, not drinking, and not cussing.  Living the kind of life that God calls each of us to live, means surrendering.  Surrendering yourself to God, and living your life in response to the love that he has poured out on you. 

So now that you know what kind of life God desires for you to live; and knowing that the power of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from death to life, is available to you…what will you do with it?