Thursday, December 08, 2005
His Divinity and Our Depravity
Im standing there in C hall at thursday worship. We are praying over our hearts preparing to worship the Lord. The low hum of the air-conditioning, the constant chatter of the people during lunch. The guitar begins to play. All other sound is drowned out. Our circle seems to be somewhat off center, not exactly perfectly alligned, not perfectly the way we wanted it. Like our love. God loves us so much, His love is huge, His love is perfect. Our love is deceitful, it is so small, so imperfect. It is so amazing how God continues to love us so much even tho are attempt to love Him back is pitiful. And yet in our pitiful attempt, God is pleased. He delights in our failed attempts to show our love for Him. So as the guitar begins to take over, every other sound is reduced to nothing. Until all that is heard, is a guitar, and praises being sung by 40-50 people. At that moment, I realized. We were bringing heaven to earth. There was a divine connection between us and God, and it was hitting us right there on our campus. God showed me that even tho our attempt to express our love for Him is so feeble, He loves it, and it makes Him so incredibly happy that we cant even understand. The fact that we weren't afraid, even for that brief a moment, to say, "Lord, I love You. Thank You, for everything." For in every song that we sing, in every dance we dance, in every clap we clap. That is wat we say. No matter how you worship God, it all translates back into that one thing. Father teach us to love like You.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Boldness
God gave me a vision of myself as i was sitting at jon's house. something so simple yet so amazing. i saw myself walking to class from the north gym. from wat seemed to be an ALLIES wednesday meeting. as i walk past that big canopy, there is a group of guys. football players and some gangsterish guys. as i walk past them i stop. i am carrying a Bible. i walk right into the group, and i tell them that i want to tell them about Jesus. God then shows me again walking into another group of people who used to be people that i hung out with all the time. i sat with them and starting reading the Bible to them. i believe that this is part of God's plan for me. that He is going to give me this boldness, a boldness that comes from intimacy with Him, a boldness that comes from the Holy Spirit.
Friday Worship (Dec. 2, 2005)
So im there on my knees just basking in the presence of God. mike and justin playing guitar and the people of God on their knees worshipping Jesus. all with one focus, all with one heart, all eyes on the Lord. my mind clears, and i see my heart. attatched to my heart are two chains with weights on them, each representing something. one is blue, and one is red, and my heart is both blue and red. then i see God reach out with both of His hands. slowly He grasps both chains. He breaks both of them off. then there was a third chain that attatches to my heart, this one is a dark red color. my heart quickly changes to this dark reddish brownish color. then the Lord takes this chain into His grasp, and pulls it off. my heart turns white, showing that it's clear of those things that were chaining me down. so as i was trying to understand this vision, i thought that the Lord was telling me that i needed to break of those chains from my heart. but then i realized that the Lord was saying that He was going to do it. He was breaking those things from my heart even at that moment. and that He was going to make me pure, so that i could walk into His purposes for my life.
Put on Christ
Romans 13:11-14
Put on Christ
(11) And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. (12) The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. (13) Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. (14) But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
I was going through some tough stuff recently when I opened up to Romans and read this very passage. I was so moved and touched by God's heart when I read this. I began to declare and proclaim this for my own life. That I would cast of the things of darkness, and "put on" our Lord Jesus. Declare this for your own life, that you would cast off the things of this world, and that Jesus would just take over.
Put on Christ
(11) And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. (12) The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. (13) Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. (14) But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
I was going through some tough stuff recently when I opened up to Romans and read this very passage. I was so moved and touched by God's heart when I read this. I began to declare and proclaim this for my own life. That I would cast of the things of darkness, and "put on" our Lord Jesus. Declare this for your own life, that you would cast off the things of this world, and that Jesus would just take over.
The Altar
This is something that the Lord revealed to me a a while back, when I was having problems with a friend of mine. I think this is a message we all need to hear, its something we tend to forget.
Deuteronomy 27:5-7
5 And there you shall build up an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall not use an iron tool on them.
6 You shall build with whole stones the altar of the Lord your God, and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God.
7 You shall offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, rejoice before the Lord your God.
build an altar of whole stones without the use of an iron tool. the"whole" stones are made by God, they are exactly how he intended them to be, unbroken and untouched by man's "iron tools". in the same way God wants us to hav an altar of our own, not necessarily a physical place, but an altar in our hearts that is not tainted by the things of man. God wants us tolove Him and embrace Him the way He intended us to. full and complete devotion coming directly from our hearts. many times we come to the altar of theLord within our hearts and we have been broken and torn by something man hasdone to us. whether it be that a person has done wrong against us, that we hav done wrong against another person, some immoral thing we hav seen, some immoral thing we hav done, or something else along those lines . now,God says to bring these things before Him and confess, however many times we dwell upon these thoughts in our mind, even when we come before theLord. when these things begin to take center stage, our focus begins to shift away from God and onto watever that thing is that is bothering us. THIS IS BAD. firstly. we must confess these sins right from the beginning of our timeof meeting with the Lord, and then move on. if we go into time with theLord without first confessing, we are building Him a broken altar, an altarshaped by man, not shaped by the Spirit. and in this way we arehindering the Lord from fully sending us His blessings. secondly. we cannot spend that time with the Lord dwelling on that event, for in doing so, we allowshame and guilt to seep into our hearts. God does not want us to be ashamed or guilty, these thoughts are from the enemy. we have to allow theSpirit to guide us into wat we need to pray for, or in watever message God wants to send to us during that time. also, such things as pride and self-pity can be seen as these "iron tools". if we meet with the Lord and become prideful of an accomplishment we had that day, that is not of God, that is of ourflesh, and we are tainting God's altar in our hearts. we must glorify God forthe accomplishments of the day. in the same way we cannot do the opposite,we cannot come into time with the Lord and pity ourselves. saying, man mylife is bad. or, man i hated this today. or something else along those lines. The enemy is putting those thoughts into your mind to turn you against God. The enemy is trying to make us question wat God is doing. we must be reminded of God's Plan. we must surrender to Him and trust Him to lead us. so when going into our time with God, instead of having self pity, we need to surrender to His will and ask Him for wat our next steps should be.
so here's some what of an overview:
the altars to God in our hearts have to be shaped by the Spirit, not by our flesh. we cannot allow our sins to hold back the Lord's blessings which He wants to shower upon us. and that can only be done if the altar in our heart is of God, not of man. the altar must remain untainted by our flesh.
Deuteronomy 27:5-7
5 And there you shall build up an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall not use an iron tool on them.
6 You shall build with whole stones the altar of the Lord your God, and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God.
7 You shall offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, rejoice before the Lord your God.
build an altar of whole stones without the use of an iron tool. the"whole" stones are made by God, they are exactly how he intended them to be, unbroken and untouched by man's "iron tools". in the same way God wants us to hav an altar of our own, not necessarily a physical place, but an altar in our hearts that is not tainted by the things of man. God wants us tolove Him and embrace Him the way He intended us to. full and complete devotion coming directly from our hearts. many times we come to the altar of theLord within our hearts and we have been broken and torn by something man hasdone to us. whether it be that a person has done wrong against us, that we hav done wrong against another person, some immoral thing we hav seen, some immoral thing we hav done, or something else along those lines . now,God says to bring these things before Him and confess, however many times we dwell upon these thoughts in our mind, even when we come before theLord. when these things begin to take center stage, our focus begins to shift away from God and onto watever that thing is that is bothering us. THIS IS BAD. firstly. we must confess these sins right from the beginning of our timeof meeting with the Lord, and then move on. if we go into time with theLord without first confessing, we are building Him a broken altar, an altarshaped by man, not shaped by the Spirit. and in this way we arehindering the Lord from fully sending us His blessings. secondly. we cannot spend that time with the Lord dwelling on that event, for in doing so, we allowshame and guilt to seep into our hearts. God does not want us to be ashamed or guilty, these thoughts are from the enemy. we have to allow theSpirit to guide us into wat we need to pray for, or in watever message God wants to send to us during that time. also, such things as pride and self-pity can be seen as these "iron tools". if we meet with the Lord and become prideful of an accomplishment we had that day, that is not of God, that is of ourflesh, and we are tainting God's altar in our hearts. we must glorify God forthe accomplishments of the day. in the same way we cannot do the opposite,we cannot come into time with the Lord and pity ourselves. saying, man mylife is bad. or, man i hated this today. or something else along those lines. The enemy is putting those thoughts into your mind to turn you against God. The enemy is trying to make us question wat God is doing. we must be reminded of God's Plan. we must surrender to Him and trust Him to lead us. so when going into our time with God, instead of having self pity, we need to surrender to His will and ask Him for wat our next steps should be.
so here's some what of an overview:
the altars to God in our hearts have to be shaped by the Spirit, not by our flesh. we cannot allow our sins to hold back the Lord's blessings which He wants to shower upon us. and that can only be done if the altar in our heart is of God, not of man. the altar must remain untainted by our flesh.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Under Construction
This blog is currently under construction. I was moved to create this blog in order to reflect upon the Lord and what He has done for me. I hope to encourage those who read this in their walks with our Lord Jesus. Feel free to comment and ask questions if you have them. This blog will be strictly reserved for sharing what I have learned through the Lord and what He has shown me. Consequently, every post on this blog will be either a vision, a lesson learned, a word, a prayer, or just something to share...all of which will have everything to do with Jesus Christ and our REAL BIG God. I will begin posting soon, and I hope that what I share will be helpful to you. God Bless you.
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