I am just a guy who has been blessed in ways I don't deserve. I have been blessed with an incredble wife and a daughter who melts my heart. Most importantly, I am passionately in love with Jesus and I want the world to know it.
The following is directly out of a book that I HIGHLY reccommed to any Christian who wants more of God than what they are truly experiencing. Any Christian who is tired of "status quo", tire of games, and tired of "playing church" while the world around us is walking straight off of the cliffs to eternal separation from God. The book is calld God Chasers and is by Tommy Tenney. Here is a link to it on Amazon.
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WE WANT LIFE BUT GOD IS LOOKING FOR DEATH
We need to repent for designing servises that men like, instead of yielding to what God likes. Like most men and women, we have wanted "life" in our services when God was after "death" through repentance and brokenness that ushers in the presence of God and causes you to draw near to the Lord and yet live
Some people get very uncomfortable at this point because its starting to smell a little smoky. THey can smell the odor of burning flesh in the air. It may not smell good to us, but God is drawn toward repentance. The bible says, "When a sinner repents, the angels rejoice" (see Luke 15:10). Death and repentance on Earth bring about joy in the Heavenlies.
Revival must begin in the local church before it can reach into your community. If you are ungry for revival, then I have a word from the Lord for you: Fire doesn't fall on empty altars. There has to be a sacrifice on the altar for fire to fall If you want the fire of God, you must become the fuel of God. Jesus sacrificed himself to win our our salvation, but He has called each and every person who wants to follow Him to do what? To lay down their lives and take up their cross and follow Him. According to Strong's Concordance, the Greek word for "cross," stauros, means "figuratively , exposure to death, i.e. self-denial." Elijah didn't ask for God's fire to fall down on the altar until he had loaded it up with fuel and a worthy sacrifice. We've been praying for the fire to fall, but there's nothing on the altar!
If you are hungry for the fire to fall in your church, then you need to just crawl up on the altar and say, "God, whatever it takes, I lay myself on the altar and ask You to consume me with Your fire Lord." Then we can follow the lead of John Wesley who explained how he drew such large crowds during the First Great Awakening:
"I set myself on fire, and the people came to see me burn."
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If this does not stir you then I think you need to check your spiritual pulse. I am broken at my apathy and complacency for the Kingdom of God!
There is no question that we have covered the "Doom & Gloom"
side of the present crisis pretty well. But one thing I feel we have not discussed enough is the amazing OPPORTUNITY that God is setting before us through this crisis. In fact, it may be that what is happening now could be the answer to years of our most fervent prayers.
Have you been praying for God to act and bring massive change to the church and to our culture? Have you been praying for the return of spiritual hunger and reality? Have you been praying for God to open closed doors, to soften hearts, and to allow the real Truth of the gospel to march forth in the land once again? What if this is His answer to all of that - the only way He could bring about the kind of shaking and hunger that is so desperately required? What if He has spent years setting this up? What if it is the golden opportunity of a lifetime? Are we willing? Are we ready?
There is no question that some of our main enemies are on the run right now in the West. In fact, many of them are in rampant disorderly retreat. The great god Mammon is a good example.
I don't think the "deceitfulness of riches" will be doing too well in the West for awhile, do you? And Mammon's allies - Comfort, Apathy, Materialism and Humanism are starting to look a little shaky also.
There is a "window of opportunity" starting to open - where a gospel that was once unwelcome will be welcomed again - where change that was once thought impossible comes in like a rush. We are living in a rare moment of history.
In times of Depression - froth, bubble and hype go the way of the dinosaur. People start looking for reality and grounded truth.
They want to find a Rock to stand on instead of shifting sand. This happened in the last Depression, and it will happen in this one too.
Are you one who has spent years in the wilderness, waiting for God's moment? Are you a David in the caves, a Joseph in the dungeons? Couldn't it be that this is the very moment that God has been preparing you for, all this time?
You see, the "big boys" with their shallow gospel are in increasing trouble through all of this. They rely on big money, big media, big hype and big budgets to get their message out. And the budget is looking rather sick. Could it be that God is leveling the playing field?
Are many that were "last" about to become first? Are the little guys with their message of repentance and heart-holiness about to break through the glass ceiling that has kept them down for so long?
There seems to be more than one Jesus to choose from these days. Which one is the true Jesus and who am I following?
There’s a ‘seeker friendly’ Jesus, he’s the one who will not offend anyone in anyway. He loves everyone no mater what they do.
There’s a ‘sow and reap’ Jesus, he made a covenant with man so that man could sow his seed and reap wealth and happiness on earth and then go to heaven when he dies.
There’s a ‘blend in with the world’ Jesus, he wants us to look like, act like, and be like the world in order to reach the lost.
There’s a ‘neverending grace’ Jesus, his ‘grace’ covers us no matter what we do or how we live.
There’s a ‘just believe’ Jesus. As long as you truly believe in your heart, you’re saved.
There’s a ‘name it claim it’ Jesus. You name it; anything and it’s yours! If you don’t get it, it’s because you lack faith. It’s your fault.
There’s a ‘carnal’ Jesus. He doesn’t expect you to overcome sin, he understands you’re just carnal.
There’s a ‘heart dwelling’ Jesus. All you have to do is ask him into your heart and voilà, he’s there. You’re going to heaven!
Truth:
There’s the Jesus who said “Repent and believe the gospel, the kingdom of God is at hand.” -Mark 1:15
He said, “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him.” -Lk 9:23-25
He said without Him you are already condemned. -John 3:18
He said He came to save the world -John 3:16
He said unless you forsake all you have, you cannot be His disciple. -Luke 14:33
He said if we love anyone more than Him we are not worthy of Him.-Matt 10:37-39 He said if you love this life you’ll lose it. -John 12:25-26
He said you cannot serve God and money. -Matt 6:24 He said fear God who can destroy both body and soul in hell. -Mt 10:28
He said be extreme in your war against sin. -Matt 18:8-9
He said love God with all your heart, soul and mind and your neighbour as yourself. -Matt 22:37-39
He said He is the light of the world. –John 8:12 He said the gate is narrow and the way is difficult and few find it.-Matt 7:13-14
He said those who believe in Him but work iniquity will be cast out. -Matt 7:21-23
He said you’ll be hated for His name’s sake, but if you endure to the end, you’ll be saved. -Matt 10:22
He said I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me. –John 14:6
Have you ever felt like your pursuit of God is missing something? Do you ever feel like that you are never "doing enough"...that you will never measure up to the expectations of God? What about feeling like your walk has become about nothing but sacrifice and difficulty, which you are "supposed" to subject yourself to in order to measure up to the standard set by those that have gone before you or even those who are currently in your life? Do feel like you are striving for acceptance from God and other believers?
I am convinced that as Christians begin to get dissatisfied with the status quo religion they have been involved in (possibly their entire walk), they begin to desire the "real thing". They begin to seek out holiness which is very pure at first. Somehow along the way, they begin to compare themselves with other Christians and the measures that they see these other Christians taking. They feel as though they will never live up to "that kind" of devotion.
After going through a very difficult season of this in my own walk, the Lord began to, and continues to, teach me and grow me in truth in this area. I finally realized, once I discovered the secret of entering into the secret place of communion with Him, that the simple answer to what I was desiring was right there all along. He taught me that seeking Him in lieu of seeking holiness would produce the holiness that I desired. At first, I had a hard time accepting the notion that it was this simple.
Before I go any further, I would like to state for the record that I DO believe it is very important to our growth to starve our flesh from the things that distract us from the presence of God. There is a fine line here though. Fasting, extended times of prayer, removing things like:TV, Internet, etc., are things that will produce incredible fruit IF they are done with the right motives. Have you ever noticed that you get a completely different result in your heart and spirit when you do something for a loved one out of a desire to bless them rather than doing it out of a guilty conscience? God is more concerned with our heart than He is the sacrifice. If you fast, do it with the purpose of drawing near to Him. If you shut off the TV, do it once you have truly come to the place that you see the harm it is causing and don't want to pollute your mind. Do it because you actually believe that what God has to say to you is more exhilarating than any tv show or spriting event could ever be. You see if you do some thing like stop watching TV because others tell you to, your heart is in the wrong place...the motive is wrong...and what you will get as a result is a resentful heart towards God. It will also leave you feeling like you must be a masochist in order to be a "real" Christian.
Here is the wonderful truth that I pray will set you free if you are struggling with a performance mentality in your walk.
SEEKING HIM WILL PRODUCE WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR!
Think about this with me. If you spend all of your energy in your pursuit of God in the area of intimacy, you will begin to see things change without feeling like you are striving. I know this from personal experience. The more time you spend in the presence of God...the more time you spend listening to Him speak to you...the more time you spend in His Word allowing him to speak to you...the more you will see the character flaws effortlessly melt away! As you begin to know Him...to know His voice...to know His heart, you will begin to take on His character. You start removing the impurities in your life with a joyful heart because it is the Spirit of revelation that has revealed to you the availability of a deeper relationship with Him. When we have His heart, the things that grieve Him will grieve us. The things that break His heart will break ours. The things that bring joy to Him will bring joy to us. As long as our desire remains on Him, the pursuit of holiness will be the area of our life that brings us great Joy instead of feeling like a never-ending maze of frustration.
John 15:4 - Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
WOW - Jesus said so himself. If you desire holiness, then abide in Him.
How do you picture Jesus? Is it similar to all of the images and paintings we have of him? What about how the Bible portrays Him? The following video is a powerful reminder of what the bible says versus how most of us see Him. ENJOY...
I was recently sent an email with the following content. Messages like these are great because they shine the light on th plan of the enemy. If we pursue truth, holiness, and mostly...intimacy with Christ, these things will become obvious to us every day. It really is very sad that we, as a culture & society, have gotten so far off track for the life that God intended us to live.
SATAN'S MEETING:
Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.
In his opening address he said,
"We can't keep Christians from going to church."
"We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth."
"We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their savior."
"Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken."
"So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.."
"This is what I want you to do," said the devil:
"Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"
"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.
"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.
"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow."
"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles."
"Keep them from spending time with their children."
"As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"
"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice."
"Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive." To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly."
"This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."
"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers."
"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day."
"Invade their driving moments with billboards."
"Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes.."
"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. "
"Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night."
"Give them headaches too! "
"If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere."
"That will fragment their families quickly!"
"Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas."
"Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about his resurrection and power over sin and death."
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive."
"Have them return from their recreation exhausted."
"Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead."
"Keep them busy, busy, busy!"
"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences."
"Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus."
"Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."
"It will work!"
"It will work!"
It was quite a plan!
The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and there.
Having little time for their God or their families.
Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives.
I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in his schemes?
This is a great video. Imagery is a powerful way to express our beautiful salvation. What is so different about Christianity? This is a pretty good way of explaining it. When all others tell you to DO something ritualistic or earn your way to heaven, Christianity is the one where God Himself DID it for us and all we have to DO is accept Him & love him back. What an amazing and loving God we have!
Last night we watched the Passion of the Christ again as a reminder of the importance of Easter. I feel as though God really spoke to me as I watched it.
The same people who acknowledged Him as The Christ as he rode into town were some of the same people yelling "crucify him"!
Think about this...these were people who believed in Him, loved him, cheered for him, celebrated him...yet they were caught up in the emotion of what was going on around them (their society) and ended up mocking Him, spitting on Him, and throwing rocks at Him while He was carrying the instrument of his dramatic public death!
I realized that our society today is full of people (professed Christians), including myself, who believe in Him (even the devil does that), say they love Him, cheer for Him (when it is convenient or need something), and celebrate Him (on holidays or even once a week).
If we examine our lives we must ask ourselves: Do we really...love Him?
Did He die for us so that we could say a salvation prayer, say we're sorry, acknowledge Him once a week, ask for His help when we're desperate...and then continue to feed our fleshly desires by spending more time on the internet, in front of the tv, playing sports, doing crafts, etc.?
I am not saying that there is anything wrong with these things; however, are we not mocking Him when we justify our idols, which I believe is anything that we give more attention and money to than we do Him? Were we really born again if our heart is to defend everything that brings us pleasure instead of a willingness to remove anything in our lives that separate us from intimacy with Him.
When we say we love Him and then give Him a our last bit of time, our last bit of money, and most importantly the last available room in our heart; we are placing ourselves right there on that fateful day on Calvary. We become the man or woman yelling "crucify Him". We are picking up the lead tipped whip, striking his body, and pulling away flesh! We are taking the hammer and driving the nails through his hands and feet!
Is it enough to say a prayer? Is it enough to believe? Is it enough to be sorry?
Let us consider this: Sure a few verses say believe and you will be saved; however, there are many that add to that and say we must repent!
Have we forgotten what repent means? One definition is to "turn away". So if we say we are sorry and continue to live in sin once we have heard or know the truth, have we turned away or repented at all?
EXAMPLE
I can say I love you, but how do you KNOW I really do? You know by by my actions! There is NO way to prove to someone that you love them by simply telling them…you must show them.
What about if I say I love you...my actions seem genuine for a while...then I start to spend all my time with someone else, I avoid your calls (His voice), tell you what I need before I go to bed, and no one who knows me has a clue that I have any sort relationship with you.
What if I say I'm sorry? That makes it alright right? What if I say I'm sorry but I still make no time for you, still avoid your calls, always ask you for help but never ask you what you want. Would you think I meant it when I said sorry?
Repentance is not just saying you're sorry! It is something we MUST do every day!
Were you really born again if your life doesn't look any different than it did before you accepted Christ? Were you born again if you use your salvation as a blank check to live any way you want?
You see, there is nothing we can do in our own strength. Jesus paid it ALL. I just think we should all examine our lives and ask ourselves are we truly saved just because we fit in to the requirements of what our pastor says, our family says. What does the Word of God say?
I have recently realized how dangerous it is to base your salvation on someone else's interpretation of salvation and of the Bible. Beware of a false sense of security!
Is it not worth taking the time to examine for yourself?
Has the Christian "majority", throughout history, ever been the group that was walking in the truth? Are we Christians that look like the rest of the Christians in our society? Does that make you feel safe?
How about this…is our life something that is worth Christ dying for? Are we living a live that is worth Jesus being so brutally murdered on our behalf? Does He know we love him by what we say or by what we do? Would our check book and appointment book prove that we have no idols before Him?
I realize these are all tough questions, and I am sharing what God has put on my heart because of my own recent personal convictions.Christianity is not easy!There is a cost that no one talks about anymore!
We have a short period of time on Earth.As a matter of fact, we are not guaranteed tomorrow.Grace is not a blank check as I’m sure we would all agree.Every breath we take is an explicit example of God’s grace…giving us the opportunity to repent from our sinful nature before we sit before the judgment seat of Christ.
You see he is a fair judge.He became flesh, he was tempted, he felt pain, anger, shame, and even subjected himself to death on a cross.We will have no excuses on judgement day.We can cry out to him and say “but Jesus…I believed in you, I asked you into my heart, I was even baptized like you said”.He will say, “You asked me into your heart verbally, but did you repent and make room for me in your heart?Even the devil and his demons believe in me and tremble at my name!When you were baptized, were you truly born again or did you continue to live in blatant disobedience while mocking me by saying that is was ok because of grace?Did you become a new person or did you stay the same?Were you a faithful bride or did you say you love me and then have continuous blatant affairs with the world?You did have grace, I gave you chance after chance to love me…but remember that love is a verb.It requires action and words just are not enough.”
Do you carry heavy cross or do you leave it at home?Do you give anything to your savior that costs you something or just what you have left over?
This is the time of year to reflect on the sacrifice and on Easter we celebrate the VICTORY!
May Jesus get all the glory He deserves!I challenge everyone to think long and hard this Easter holiday about the sacrifice and victory.
Three days later he rose and the tomb has been empty ever since!
Happy Easter!
Below is a powerful video that is a MUST SEE this holiday season!
