Return of the King

In the gospels, we are introduced to a man named John the Baptist. He was God's prophet to Israel, coming as the forerunner for Christ. He played the part of the hype man. Getting everybody ready for Jesus.

It's interesting, we don't have any sermon's from John the Baptist, or any long messages. His message was short and to the point. "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand."

Basically, he was telling the world, "Jesus is coming. Get ready." It ended up being an awesome time of revival in Israel. Mark 1:5 says that all of Judea and Jerusalem were coming to John in the wilderness and getting baptized. There was a response to John's message. People didn't take lightly that the Kingdom of God was coming. They acted based on John's words. They were repenting of their sin. The nation was turning back to God.

We can look at this and see it as just a nice story, an interesting piece of history. Or we can see it as relevant to us today. You see, there is a similar message that has been given to us.

In Acts 1:10, Jesus has just ascended into Heaven, and two angels appear to the Apostles. They give the Apostles some inside information, a spoiler alert. The angels tell the Apostles that Jesus will return in the same way that He departed.

Jesus is coming back. He even said it Himself in Mark 13:26, "And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory."

John the Baptist's message was a simple one, but a convicting one. "Jesus is coming, are you ready?"
We have been left with a message no different from John's. "Jesus is coming back. Are you ready?"

With identical messages, our responses should be identical to that of Israel at the time of John the Baptist. This message of the return of Christ isn't something to note down and then forget.

The return of Christ demands action on our part. Preparation is needed. We live in a world that loves to prepare. Preparation is in our nature. I went camping last weekend, it was one night in the woods in a sleeping bag. I took over 100 feet of rope, just in case. I didn't use any of it. It sat in my bag the whole time. But I was READY! If I had needed to tie a bear to a tree, or rappel down the face of a cliff, I was prepared!

Preparation is in all of us. How many of us charge our phones every night, even if it's still almost fully charged. Because what if we need that whole 100% of our battery tomorrow? We love to prepare.

Now I leave you with this. Preparation is in our nature, we long to be ready. Jesus is coming back. Jesus Himself said that nobody knows when. It could literally be at any moment. Are you ready? Turn back to God today. Don't wait. Get prepared for the return of the King.

Contaminated

If you've ever drank bottled water, you've probably seen the "Nestle" Water. They sell it at Walmart, and grocery stores, and gas stations, pretty much everywhere.

I was drinking some today, which is pretty standard. I noticed that their slogan on the bottle is "Pure Life" That really got me thinking. They say that to remind you that it doesn't have any junk in it. The water doesn't have anything that would pollute or contaminate it. It did at one point, but it was put through filters, and those things were worked out of it so that we could have Nestle Pure Life water. 

If it said "Kind of pure" or even "mostly pure" we wouldn't want to drink it! I don't want to drink water that has "only a little bit of pollution" in it. I want pure water! We even go so far as to support getting clean water to other countries. We send money to dig wells and get purifiers to them so that they don't have to drink contaminated water either. Clean, pure water is a big deal to us.

What about ourselves though? James 4:8 tells us, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." 

1 Timothy says that we should be setting the example in purity.

Throughout the Bible we're told to be pure. We're told that we need to rid ourselves of the contamination and the pollution. Christ made us His bride, His pure bride. 

We're made pure by the blood of Christ. His death paid for our sin, it removed our impurity. However, that doesn't justify lifestyles of sin. We're called to live pure and blameless lives! (Philippians 1:9-10) 

We're not okay with putting contaminated water into our bodies, why should we be okay with leaving contamination in them? We need to rid ourselves of the pollution from sin.

Just like with water, that requires a filter.

Our filter is the Word of God. God has given us His standard within the Bible, we are called to live by it.

Philippians 4:8 is one of my favorite verses, and I've often described it as a content filter. 

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

These things are what we're called to live by. That implies that things that don't qualify in this list don't belong in our lives. Remove the pollution! Decontaminate! 

I recently saw the new movie, "Monster's University" and it reminded me of it's counterpart, "Monster's Inc." In that movie, one unfortunate monster gets contaminated by items belonging to humans on multiple occasions. Every time the clean up crew runs in yelling "2319!!!! We have a 2319!!!" They put him in a bag, and they shave his entire body, and they spray him down. All with the goal of decontaminating him. 

We need to become like that towards our sin, urgent to decontaminate ourselves, no hesitation to remove anything that might get in the way of our walks with God. 

Father, purify our hearts, create in us new hearts with a desire only for You. Change our focus to Your face and Your glory. Lead us in Your paths, make us like Jesus. Amen.

End of the Story

We're closing out our 3 part series on the book of Jonah today. We've followed Jonah, a man of God, a prophet, the equivalent today of a pastor or a missionary as he runs from God.

God asked him to go to Nineveh, but instead he ran the opposite direction, and ended up in a fish because of it.

Jonah turns back to God while he's in the fish and the fish vomits him out onto dry ground. That's where we pick up. 

Jonah 3:1-2, "Then the Word of The Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you."

The Word of The Lord came to Jonah.... AGAIN! You know, if I had been God in this situation, I probably wouldn't have sent Jonah again. I would have found someone who would cause less trouble. Maybe send the fish, that would get people's attention.

But you see, God is all about second chances. God knew Jonah would run the first time before he even told him to go. 

God gives second chances to people who don't deserve first chances.

God already knows every mistake that you will ever make. He knows how you will drop the ball and how you will fail and mess up, but He still chooses you! He still has plans for your life.

Ephesians 2:10 tells us, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

No matter how badly you mess up, God still has a calling on your life.

Jonah 3:3-4, "So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the Word of The Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"

This time Jonah obeys. He's learned that it ends better for him when he follows God.

That is one heck of a city! It took three days just to walk across the whole town.

History tells us that the walls of the city were 100 feet high, and they had 200 foot towers on them. The wall was wide enough for three chariots to ride side by side on top of it.

I think that it's interesting.. Jonah's message isn't the kind of message that people like to hear. He basically says, "You're all going to die in forty days."

Jonah 3:5-9, "And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."

Check this out: Jonah preaches, and EVERYONE listens! All the way to the point of the king finding out about what's happening, and he repents and tells the whole city to repent!!

They all turn to God, and look at verse 9 again. "Maybe God will relent." Maybe... they don't even know if he will.

Jonah preached, and the people got convicted. God's light was poured into their city, and it made them see how dark they were. When they saw their darkness contrasted against God's light, they abandoned their darkness for God.

The last verse of chapter three is one of my favorite Bible verses. It shows God's response to their repentance.

Jonah 3:10, "When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it."

God saw what they did. He saw how they repented.

They didn't "say the right words" or give enough money to the right organization. 

They changed what they were doing. Their lives began to reflect God's light.

When God saw the fruit in their lives, He held off the disaster.

What's interesting is the contrast we see between the people of Nineveh in chapter 3, and Jonah in chapter 4.

Jonah 4:1-3, "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."

Hold on a second.... The whole city of Nineveh just got saved, commentators estimate that there were about half a million people in the city. Jonah has just led the biggest revival in history, and he's upset about it. WHAT?!

Jonah knows that God is gracious.

Jonah knows that God is merciful.

Jonah knows that God is slow to anger.

Jonah knows that God is loving. 

Jonah's knowledge of God was not the problem.

Jonah's response to God was the problem. 

Jonah even admits that he ran from God because he didn't want to see God forgive the city of Nineveh. Wow. We get a real glimpse of Jonah's heart here, and it's nothing like God's.

Jonah tells God that he is so upset about this that it would be better if her were just dead.

The Messsage paraphrases this like this, "So God, if you won't kill them, kill me! I'm better off dead."

Whoa Jonah. This dude is DRAMAAAAAAAAA.... But God still responds to him lovingly. 

Jonah 4:4-9, "And the LORD said, "Do you do well to be angry?" Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, "It is better for me to die than to live." But God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry for the plant?" And he said, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die."

So here's the scene - God calls Jonah out on getting so upset, so Jonah goes outside the city and sits down to watch God destroy it. While he's sitting there, God sets up a little illustration for him.

A plant grows up and gives Jonah some shade. Jonah was "exceedingly glad." Jonah was stoked about this plant. At least Jonah is never apathetic. God forgives Nineveh, he's mad enough to die. God sends him a plant to give him shade, he's stoked. 

But the next day, God kills the plant. No more shade, and God even sends a hot wind to make it worse. You can probably guess the outcome here. Jonah gets upset, specifically " so upset that he'd be better off dead."

God calls Jonah out again in love. "Should you really be angry?"

Jonah's response, "Yep! I'm so angry that you might as well kill me here." Whoa, dude! Take a chill pill! But then God explains this illustration to Jonah. 

Jonah 4:10-11, "And the LORD said, "You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"

Jonah is upset that the plant died. It was just a plant!

God is much more concerned about the people of Nineveh. 120,000 people that don't know their right hand from their left.... Kids don't know their right hand from their left. (the one where your pointer finger and thumb make an L is your left.) 120,000 kids in the city. 

God cares about Nineveh.

Look at this contrast here,

Nineveh hears God speak to them, they repent, turn around, and start living differently.

Jonah hears God speak to him, runs away, then gets angry with God.

Nineveh (a city of wicked people) have a better response to God than His own people do. When it comes down to it, this book ends with Nineveh being closer to God than Jonah. 

Now I want to ask this question, which category are you in?

Not which category would you put yourself in, but honestly today, which category are you lined up wtih? What does your response to God look like? Are you against God, or mad at Him? Are you doing what He says only because you have to? Or are you really responding to God, making changes in your life to reflect Him?

Jesus came and died on the cross for us, so that we could be lined up with God, joined in relationship with Him. 

Jesus didn't die on the cross so that we could go to church, or so that we could have cute Bible verses to post on our walls when we want to feel better. He didn't die on the cross to give us a prayer for before we eat.

Jesus died on the cross to offer you a radical, joyful, hopeful, Spirit filled life with Him. I heard it put this way, "the Gospel is the story of God covering His naked enemies, bringing them to the wedding feast, and marrying them rather than crushing them."

All He asks us to do is respond in faith.

Jonah's story ends with a man who is completely unrepentant, completely unwilling to turn towards God and resond. Your story could end any day. Which camp are you in? 

As God's light is poured on you, are you repenting with Nineveh, or getting upset and emotional with Jonah?

Worst Case Scenario

A quick review from last week, Jonah: Dramatic dude. Prophet, religious guy. RUNNING from God.

God told him to go to Nineveh (city of blood) and preach to them. 

We left off with sailors getting saved, and Jonah getting thrown overboard.

Jonah 1:17, "And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."

I think it's important that we notice, God APOINTED a great fish. God chose a great fish. God is able to use whatever He wants to. Jonah wasn't willing to be used, so God used a fish. 

A lot of people read this verse, and they dismiss Jonah as a fictional work, because "how could Jonah have been in a fish for three days?"

Well, let's look at some facts. There have been a few stories of people being eaten whole by whales, one James Bartley, has a pretty intense story. He was whaling and the whale broke his boat, then he got swallowed. When the crew of another boat killed the whale and began to cut it up, they found him in the stomach. The acid from the stomach had bleached him white and burned off all of his hair.

This is only a rumored story, but some marine biologists in San Diego, California did some research. Sperm whales have a 1.5 foot wide throat, they don't chew their food, and they have multiple stomachs that slowly break down their food. These whales have been known to eat 450 lb. squid whole. They also are natural habitants of the Mediterranean Sea, where Jonah would have been.

The second candidate is also a natural habitant of the Mediterranean, the Great White Shark. With the size of their mouths, it is possible for them to swallow someone whole, and they have very slow metabolisms, so Jonah could have survived for quite some time.

It's possible that Jonah was part of the original "Shark Week" up close and personal!!

This is a real person, a real story, something that actually happened. Jesus referenced it as real. 

Just imagine being Jonah for a second here. You're running from God, you get thrown off of a boat, and when you think that you're about to drown, you get eaten. 

Imagine what it would be like to realize that you're inside an animal, and you are still alive. 

That is where we pick up in Jonah chapter 2. This chapter cover's Jonah's prayer to God from inside the fish. It's hot, it's smelly, and Jonah is realizing that God isn't done with Him yet. 

Jonah 2:1-3, "Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish, saying, "I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.  For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me."

Jonah still knows that God can hear him. Even from inside a fish. Jonah gives us a fantastic example of how we can pray anywhere. There was no cell phone service down there, no 3G, not even the EDGE network! Jonah was in quite a dead zone. Almost in more ways than one. 

When Jonah says "out of the belly of Sheol" that word "Sheol" is literally, "the grave". Jonah is expecting to die.

Jonah 2:4, "Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple."

God is letting Jonah know what it feels like to be separate from Him. I think that's interesting, because Jonah worked so hard to get away from God. Now that he's there, he's calling out for God to come back. 

God shows His love and His grace here though, He comforts Jonah in the fish. We don't have the specific details, but something changes so that Jonah knows things will end up okay. 

I can't speak from experience on this, I've never been in a fish, I'm only assuming. But when you get eaten by a fish, I doubt that you're thinking about how it will end up okay.

When Jonah turns to God, God comforts him even when he's gotten himself into the worst possible circumstance. Turn to God, and let Him comfort you.

Jonah 2:5-7, "The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple."

Jonah recounts what happened, kind of poetically. He was sinking down to the bottom of the ocean. He was expecting to die. Then God saved him. I love how he puts it, "When my life was fainting away, I remembered The Lord."

A life that forgets God until the end is a life saved, but a life wasted. Don't be Jonah. Remember God today. 

Jonah 2:8-9, "Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!" 

The NIV translation says "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs."

Worthless idols can be anything that you have replaced God with. Even unintentionally. People can be worthless idols. Possessions can be worthless idols. Things that we want can be worthless idols.

Don't forfeit grace. God is handing it to you right now.

It's kind of interesting. This is the only time that we see the correct heart attitude in Jonah. Things are as bad as they can get. He's in the worst case scenario. Think of how different things would have been if Jonah had started out with this attitude. 

I promise that you do not want to look back on your life one day and think of how different it could have been if only you had followed Jesus. Don't wait, follow Him today!

In this chapter, Jonah references 20 other Bible verses. Jonah KNEW the Bible!! But he didn't submit his life to the words within it until everything was crashing down around him. Jonah knew God. Jonah knew God's Word. Jonah was openly for God. But his life didn't reflect it. Jonah knew God's character and God's Word, but chose to act against it.

Please, don't be Jonah.

Jonah 2:10, "And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land."

God gave Jonah a second chance. Even with everything that Jonah had done wrong. Running from God, putting other people's lives in danger. God's grace still extended beyond Jonah's sin.

God's grace will always go farther than your sin.

God gave Jonah a second chance, but Jonah ran so far that God used Jonah getting swallowed whole to get his attention. You don't want to be eaten by a fish. Don't be Jonah.'

Any of us without Jesus are a lot like Jonah in this situation. We're stuck somewhere, not getting anywhere on our own. We're done for if we don't get out. This is the end, this is it. We can't keep going this way. We need something to interrupt us.

Just like how God gave Jonah a second chance, God is giving you a second chance right now.

Our second chance is found in Jesus. Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sin and make you right with God. He rose again on the third day. 

Now we have something in common with Jonah. We know the truth. We have the information that Jesus loves us and died so taht we could be right with God. I've said this a few times, and I'll say it one more time.

DON'T BE JONAH!

Jonah saw God's truth and he didn't respond to it until he was dying. Next week we'll see how long the change lasts.

Don't wait to respond to God. You know this truth that God loves you more than you could imagine, and He wants a relationship with you. Respond to that today. Give your life to Him. Stop running from Him and run into His arms. 

Don't forfeit the grace in front of you. Your second chance is today.

OVERBOARD

This is part ONE of a three part series on the book of Jonah. Every Thursday, the next part will be posted!

Jonah 1:1-2, "Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me."

Jonah was a prophet. Jonah was a "religious" guy. Modern equivalent would be a pastor, or a missionary.

Throughout the book, we see the picture of a man who hears God speak, who knows God's character, but refuses to respond to or reflect God.

God spoke to Jonah. The Word of The Lord came to Jonah. Don't ignore that.

God still speaks today.

Nineveh - Capital of Assyria. Wicked city. "City of Blood" (Nahum 3)

They would kill people by peeling off their skin while they were still alive.

God is going to judge them. He sends Jonah to warn them, give them a chance to repent.

God gives a chance to repent.

Jonah 1:3, "But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD."

Jonah is a very passionate person, he is going to do something. He's not a sit around and wait and see kind of guy. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah went the oppisite direction.

Jonah didn't just stay home and disobey God. Jonah ran from what God asked.

Jonah knew what God said, and intentionally acted agaisnt it. Jonah was running from God's calling on His life.

Jonah 1:4-6, "But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, "What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish."

Jonah is on his way to Tarshish. He thinnks that he has "escaped" God, but God has been following him the whole way.

There is a big storm, so big that the professional sailors on board are fearing for their lives. They all think that they are going to die. 

But Jonah isn't too concerned, he's actually asleep. Jonah is the only one with a solution to this problem, but he's completely disregarding God's calling.

Don't be a sleeping Christian in a dying world.

Every Christian has a calling on their life. That calling is to be an active part of God's Kingdom, to reach the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ. Don't be Jonah. Don't disregard that calling.

At this point in the story, the captian of the ship is closer to God than Jonah. He doesn't understand yet, but he realizes that they need God's help.

Remember that Jonah is a "religious" person? Here the world is doing better than he is! It's a sad day when the world is better at seeking God than God's own people are. Jonah should have been setting the example. 

Jonah 1:7-8, "And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, "Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?"

So they all get together, they've thrown everything that wasn't needed off of the ship. The storm is still too bad. They know that if it keeps up, they won't make it. They've come to the conclusion that this storm is someone's fault. Storms this bad don't happen on their own. 

They're right. It's important to notice that they don't blame God for the storm. They know that God has caused the storm, but they realize that it's because of one of them.

Don't blame God for your storms, seek God in your storms.

You had probably already guessed it, but the lots point to Jonah. The whole boat is now looking at him, asking him questions. They're trying to get some background to figure out what he did.

Jonah 1:9-10, "And he said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, "What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them."

Jonah tells them who he is, and that' he's running away from God.

Kind of interesting... Now that Jonah is in trouble, he fears God. When he was safe and sound, he didn't.

Don't wait until you see danger to put your trust in God.

Jonah wouldn't be in this situation if his trust had been in God at the beginning.

Jonah acknowledges that he is running away from God. It probably sounded really dumb when he said it, but he admitted his sin. Part of Jonah coming to God was admitting that he didn't have it all right. Part of us coming to God means admitting that we don't have it all right. 

Jonah 1:11-15, "Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you." Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the LORD, "O LORD, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you." So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging."

The sailors know that something needs to happen to make the storm end. Kind of funny, Jonah's first response is "Throw me overboard!"

Forget logic and reasoning, "Throw me off the boat."

Wait what? That sounds more like a last resort.

The men around Jonah try to reason with him, they want to row back to shore. 

The response of these men shows the heart of the world. They want to do it themselves. 

Eventually they realize that they are getting nowhere, so they throw Jonah overboard.

Guess what? It works. The storm calms, and the men are safe.

This makes me think of another storm that we see in the New Testament.

In Mark 4, all of the Apostles are in a boat with Jesus, and there is a storm that seems like it's going to kill them. Jesus calms that storm with three simple words. 

"Peace, be still."

Jesus has the power over the storms in our lives, but we have to let go and let Him take that control. We can't command storms to cease, but in the storm we can cling to the one who can. 

This part of our series ends here in Jonah 1:16, "Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows."

The result of this whole adventure, the crew of the ship gets saved. Making vows meant that they were setting themselves apart for God. The beginning of a relationship with God.

This story is a great example of how God uses everything together for good (Romans 8:28)

Jonah was running from God, completely in disobedience, and God used it to save a crew of sailors.

Next week we'll look at Jonah in the belly of a great fish. The whole storm could have been avoided, and Jonah wouldn't have been eaten if he had just obeyed God. Some storms in life will come no matter what, some storms we bring on ourselves through disobedience.

Stick close to Jesus, and He will bring you through every storm. But don't put yourself through extra storms because you don't feel like doing what God has called you to. 

Our lives can end up looking a lot like Jonah's. Maybe we haven't been eaten by a fish, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of us have decided not to do something that God has called us to do, or we've avoided God until the storm is so bad that we can't go on.

Don't wait for the storm to get that bad. You can throw your whole life overboard, and wait until you're the only thing left, or you can run to Jesus today, and let Him speak "Peace, be still" over your storm and over your heart. 

Remodeling

Ever watch those home improvement shows? Some of my earliest memories are of those shows. As I got older, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition began to take the stage, and it became tradition to watch it with my family. Every Sunday night we had dinner together, the kids cleaned up from dinner, then we all watched our show together. 

I think we like those shows because it's always more than just a building that is involved. The crew shows up and they send away the family. While the family is gone, the crew tears apart everything that the family owns. They break windows and walls and completely gut the house. Then they rebuild the house again, but better. 

At the end of the show, the family comes back and sees this new house, and they're beyond excited. More often than not, tears are involved. Never once have I heard any of them say, "but I missed how the old house was.... It was broken and messed up and I loved it....." They are always rejoicing in the newness.

Isn't our walk with God kind of like that? We might not be comfortable with Him ripping down our lives, there are often tears. We hate that part, where we're torn apart. But if God doesn't tear us apart, He can't remodel. We would much rather redecorate than remodel. We like to move things around so that our current situation looks better. Maybe a fresh coat of paint on this mess, or move the couch to that wall to cover the hole. We do this with our sin all the time. We go to church, to feel better about our sin, we repeatedly make the same mistakes, saying "I'll never do that again" but a week later, we're in the same place. I believe that is because we just try and redecorate our lives. We don't want radical change, because that isn't comfortable. We make just enough changes to feel better about the wrecks that our lives can become. 

But Jesus never aimed to redecorate our lives. He was pretty straightforward too. He said "I am the way, the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father but through Me." That doesn't sound like a paint job and moving the table. That sounds like a complete remodel. 

Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

Wow. Paul says that the old is dead and gone, because the new has come. Jesus wants to remodel our whole lives! The Gospel should change us entirely!! It's not just making us look better, making bad good, it's so much more than the remodel that a house gets, because this remodel makes dead ALIVE. 

Jesus will remodel your whole life if you will let Him, and you haven't really lived at all until you let Him have His way in you. However, just like with the families on those TV shows, you have to get out of the way and let Him do what He wants. You can't hold on to the parts of life that you like. The remodel won't be comfortable, there will be pain and tears as you let go of the old, familiarity of your brokenness, but just like those families, as the new begins to be seen in your life, your tears will turn to tears of joy at what Jesus has done with you. 

So that leaves the question, will you open yourself up to Jesus and let Him remodel you? Or will you stick with redecorating, trying to put a fresh coat of pain on something that's really dead?

New

Spring is my favorite season. The temperature rises, birds begin singing, it's light out for longer, everything comes alive, everything becomes new.

2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

In the same way that Spring comes, when Christ comes into us we become new. Spring brings life with it, everything turns green. Everything wakes up. Ephesians 2 tells us that we were dead, but Christ has made us alive. 

Spring is just a season, but if we stop and think about it, our lives spiritually are just like that. Jesus comes and fills us and we come alive, we wake up spiritually. Life enters into us. 

We have this life, not to just sit passively on the sidelines, but to engage in God's plan. He hasn't made us alive for no reason. Think about how out of place it would look if we saw a group of birds singing, and one bird sitting off to the side watching. If we saw a tree that had a limb without leaves on it, while the rest of the tree was bearing fruit, we would assume that this branch was dead. 

Christ has made us alive in Him, so we should take that life and live it. The life that we have in Christ is what we were created for, just like trees were created to bear fruit, we've been created to live our life in Jesus to the fullest! 

We've been made new, so let us take this new life up, and run with it. 

Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."

Breakthrough

If you've ever been in the ocean, you've more than likely experienced waves knocking you down, being held under the water.

If  you've never had that happen to you, I can only explain it as what it must feel like to be in a large washing machine. You're being tossed and thrown in every direction all at once. You have no idea which was is up until the waves push you down so far that you hit the sand beneath you. That gives you some point of reference, but you still have to fight through the weight of that water pushing you down just to get a breath. It can be scary, multiple memories come to mind where I wasn't sure if I was going to come back up at all.

Isn't life like that sometimes? Things push us down, and hold us underwater. We can't breath, and we get overwhelmed by all of the pressures around us. We're all familiar with the feeling of being held down on the bottom, trying so hard to get a break in life. I think a lot of us are even there right now, today. We need a breakthrough. 

Ephesians 2:14 says, "For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility"

The "He" in this verse is speaking of Jesus Christ. Before you dismiss this as another Sunday school message about how Jesus can solve our problems, hear me out. 

This verse doesn't say Jesus brings peace, or even that Jesus offers peace. It says that Jesus IS peace.

Think of the most peaceful situation that you can imagine. I think of lying in my hammock way up in a tree, I have my headphones in, relaxing in the sun. Those peaceful situations give us a chance to take a deep breath. To let go of the struggles and pressures around us, even if it's only for a moment, and breath. In a way, those situations are small breakthroughs for us. 

Jesus IS our peace. 

In Jesus, we get that deep breath that we need, we get that breakthrough from the struggles of life. Our relationship with Jesus is the most important factor to our breakthroughs, because in Jesus, we're made right with God. That verse from Ephesians says that Jesus broke down the wall of hostility between us and God. That's the gospel! Our sin had put up this wall between us and God, and we couldn't cross it or go around it or get over it. We were stuck. We were being held underwater by our sin. Jesus saw this, and He came and broke through that wall. Jesus didn't show us a path around it, or build a bridge over it. Jesus broke down the wall. Jesus removed all of the separation. We have full access to God through Jesus.

This is huge, and it is a complete game changer. We don't have to be overwhelmed by the struggles around us, or held down by the pressures of life. We have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead living inside of us! We have the promise that we will spend eternity with God. Our God is alive and loves us. The peace that comes with that will overwhelm every circumstance or pressure that could ever rise. 

Our relationship with God is a vertical relationship. The things going on around us today are just horizontal, and Jesus promises to be our peace, not just in the vertical, but in the horizontal as well.

When our vertical life is right, our horizontal life is doable. 

No weapon that is formed against you can prosper, God has promised to reveal His goodness through every circumstance that comes your way. Waves will come. Life happens. We will all be held under at some point or other. This isn't a promise that life won't be tough, but it is a promise that we have a breakthrough in Jesus. When the vertical is right, the horizontal is doable.

Plugged In

I think that every single one of us has wondered, we have all asked the question... What am I here for?

We all want to know what God's purpose for our life is, where we fit in the grand scheme of things. People tell us verses like Jeremiah 29:11 which says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

We take this verse, and others like it and decide that it is future tense. We go through all of our lives waiting for "the plans I have for you" This might come as a surprise to you, it might not. But either way I pray that you consider this.

God's plan for your life is today.

God knows everything that will ever happen in your life, and He has set works ahead of you for you to walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 declares, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

That verse excites us. God has plans for me! God has good works for me to walk in! Wahoo! It's true, and it is exciting, but I think we're all guilty of wanting to be at the exciting parts today. We want to fast forward the boring dialogue and get to the action.

However, we can't do that. We need to start at the beginning. This calling on our lives, on my life, on your life, it's a lot like a building. We have to start on the first floor, then we can build off of that. We can't remove it, we can't ignore it. Every part of our calling must flow through that.

As Christians, the first floor we must tackle, where our calling begins, is in abiding in Christ.

John 15:4-5, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

Abiding simply means to remain in, to continue in, or to dwell in. We need to take up residence in Jesus, because without Him we have nothing.

It's kind of like a cell phone. You can do a whole lot of things with phones these days, but if you don't charge them, they're useless. A cell phone with a dead battery doesn't accomplish anything. The more that you do with your phone, the more often you will need to charge it, and there is no other way to charge it than by connecting it to a power source.

A Christian who isn't plugged into God is useless. There's no way to get recharged other than getting with God, connecting to the Source. You have to charge the phone before it becomes effective, and we need to be charged in the same way. Without the constant refilling of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we get burnt out, we wear down, and we become inneffective.

We all want to know what God has planned ahead of our lives, but we need to start with being plugged into God, abiding in Him. As we remain consistent in that, God will bring us into what He has for us. When we remain faithful in the general calling He's put on our lives, He'll be faithful to lead us into the specific calling on our lives.

White Washed Tombs

In the second chapter of Joel, God commands Israel, "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster."

I was reading this in my quiet time the other day, and it just got me thinking. God is calling Israel out on their sin of rebellion and idolatry, and He says, "stop trying to look like you care, and let this hit your hearts." Notice, God doesn't see their outward show as repentance.

Repentance is an inward turn of our hearts towards God, which is followed by our actions. Our hearts will define our actions, not the other way around.

Jesus said something similar in Matthew 23, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

Jesus calls out the spiritual leaders of Israel for the same thing. His rebuke is even harsher! He tells them that they look great, but they are DEAD inside.

That's the real problem with religion if we think about it. It looks awesome, we do all this stuff for God, we make sacrifices, and we tithe, and we serve, but inside we're dead.

Jesus knows that. That's why He came to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus came to defeat religion, and bring it back to relationship. Before the law even existed, Adam walked in the garden with God, Abraham was considered a friend of God. God has always been about relationship.

God has always been about getting deeper than the surface of our actions to the heart behind them.
God is more concerned about your relationship with Him than your tithe check.

Those verses in Joel might look a little bit different today, they might say something like "stop tithing your money and start tithing your hearts!"

Tithing isn't wrong. It wasn't wrong for Israel to show that they were upset with their sin, but the problem rises when it never goes deeper than the show.

We can end up in a worship service singing things like "break my heart for what breaks yours" or "I surrender" But then we leave church and the words become empty. They were nothing more than words we sang during the song.

Those worship songs weren't intended to stay on the projector screens. God's Word wasn't written to give us lots of books that we only use so our bookshelf looks more full.

Those words were inspired by God, so that we would take them and let them change the way that we live, and mold our hearts.

Ephesians 2 tells us that God, being rich in mercy, took us from being dead to being alive.

God brought us to life in Him. That isn't just an outward show of life that looks cool. It's a life that takes root in our hearts, light springs from the darkness and consumes us with the Spirit of God.

There is nothing fake about it, when we have the new life in Christ, we aren't white washed tombs, but resurrected men and women, living and acting in the power of God.

We have the opportunity to be more than mediocre, we can be part of the greatest community, the greatest cause, the greatest Kingdom ever. It all begins with going to Jesus and allowing those words to become real to us, allowing those words to change us from the inside out.

commUNITY

Everyone wants to be part of something. We all want to have our place that we fit in. Whether it's with our friends, or our jobs, or our families, we long for community.

I believe that the desire for community is something that God has put inside of us. He designed us to be in community with Him, and with other believers. In Galatians 6, Paul exhorts the church to bear each others burdens, and to do good to everyone, especially the other believers.

Paul tells the church that we're in this life together. We don't need to try and go at it alone.  The sad thing is that this seems to be something that the church has missed. Instead of bearing each others burdens, instead of seeking to do good to everyone, we judge, we condemn, and we gossip about whatever sin "they" fell into.

God's church should be the greatest community on earth, but far to often we reduce it to what would be expected of children. We miss the point that we're supposed to help each other, and we end up pushing each other down with the false idea that we're better than them.

Forgive me if it sounds like I'm ranting, and I know that I'm just as guilty of this as the next person. But I believe that it is time for a change. It is time that we raise the bar of community in the church.

If you read through the book of Acts, the church was a beautiful example of the community that God calls us to, not without fault, but unified. It was the way that they lived, and the way that they treated the people around them that brought people into the church. The ones looking in from the outside witnessed the community, the grace, and the love in the church, and they craved it. People were being added to the church daily.

Today, there are still people looking in from the outside, but what they often witness is something far from community. The way that God's people interact with each other, and with the world is no longer what brings people in. It has become what keeps people away.

Christians are known today for being hypocritical and judgemental. That breaks my heart, for the people who won't give Jesus a chance because His church has misrepresented Him, and for the church who has apathetically allowed itself to fall to such a place.

There is grace. God is a God of love, and forgiveness. I pray that as you read these words, let Jesus infiltrate your heart and change how you interact with those around you. Let's become the community that shows the world Jesus.

Lord, we aren't worthy. We aren't good. We are empty and in such need of You.
Fill us, equip us, break our hearts for this world.
Let Your name be glorified in Your church, amen.

Outsiders

I think that every one of us at one point or another has felt like we were an outsider. We've all felt like we didn't belong. Whether it was true or not, we've all had those feelings, and nobody likes that. Nobody likes to feel out of place, or unwanted.

If you look at the Bible, that's why Jesus came! Because of the sin in our lives, we were separate from God. We had alienated ourselves, making ourselves outsiders, we couldn't go near God. So Jesus came and He died on the cross to make the payment that was needed for our sin, so that we could have that relationship with Him. So that we could enter into that fellowship with our Creator.

The more that you look at the Gospels, the more you will see that Jesus came for everyone, but specifically the outsiders. There was a religious "in crowd" made up of Pharisees, and teachers, and scribes, but Jesus didn't pay too much attention to them. His harshest words were in their direction.

More often than not, we see Jesus with the people who were social outcasts for whatever reason. He hung out with tax collectors, and prostitutes. Jesus made a point to reach the outsiders.

One of my favorite stories is in Mark 1:40-45. A leprous man approaches Jesus, and falls at His feet crying out, "If You will, You can make me clean." In that day, leprousy would make you a total outcast. You were forbidden to come too close to people, and if you broke that barrier, they would begin to throw rocks at you. It was impossible to be more of a social outcast.

This man runs up to Jesus, and falls in front of Him. Everyone is waiting to see what Jesus will do. Will He spit on him? Will He throw a rock at him? Will He even notice this lowly, disfigured outsider?

Verse 41 says "Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him and said to him, "I will; be clean."

Jesus doesn't ignore this guy. Jesus doesn't insult this man, or throw a rock at him. Jesus TOUCHES him.  Just think about that for a moment. Imagine the reaction of the crowd. They might have even been holding their rocks, waiting for Jesus to give them permission to throw them at him. But instead, He touches this man.

Jesus did the last thing that they expected, but exactly what this man needed.  Jesus wasn't worried about the crowd's reaction. He saw the need of this man, and He reached out and touched him.

Jesus broke the  awkwardness for this guy. Instead of leaving feeling out of place, he left healed, with a part in what God was doing. Now he belongs.

God wants to do the same thing in your life. That's why when Jesus died on the cross, the veil to the Holy of Holies was ripped in two from top to bottom. There is nothing keeping us from access to God. The sin that blocked us from Him has now been paid for.

In Jesus, you belong. In Jesus, you have purpose. In Jesus, you're no longer an outsider, but a child of the King of Kings.

Are you living on the outside? God loves you so much that you can't even comprehend it. So much that He willingly sent His Son Jesus to die in your place. Jesus died in your place so that you could have unrestricted access to God. Take hold of that! Enter into that fellowship, that community with God.

Maybe you're reading this and you're thinking, "That's nice and all, but I'm not on the outside.... I have an awesome relationship with Jesus."

If that's the case for you, then I offer you the same challenge that convicts me today. Are you reflecting Jesus in the way you treat people? Jesus reached out to the outsiders, He touched the untouchables.

Are you following the example that He set for His church, or are you following the example of the Pharisees, who were ready to throw rocks at someone who needed a touch from Jesus?

For Freedom

Galatians 5:1 says, "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." 

The words that stick out to me there are "stand firm" Stand firm. Seems simple enough right? The idea behind that is like an army facing an enemy. The army that stands firm is an army that refuses to back down, they refuse to be defeated, they refuse to even yield an inch to their foes. As Christians, we're called to stand firm. We have an enemy, and Jesus has given us the power to stand firm against him.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5, "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ."

I love that verse, because it doesn't just say that we stand firm, but that we attack. We take our own prisoners. I think if we are all honest, there are things in our lives that satan has managed to get a grip on. Areas that we haven't stood firm, and now they are enemy territory. We are called to take back that enemy territory in the name of Jesus. Galatians 5:13 tells us that we are called to freedom. Keep in mind, partial freedom isn't really freedom. We're either free or we aren't. The freedom that we have been offered was given to us by Jesus when He laid down His life on the cross for our sakes.

Jesus bought our freedom.
Don't give satan the victory that Jesus died to purchase. 

This freedom that has been given to us is something that we must fight for. We must choose to stand firm against the repeated attacks of our enemy. We need to refuse to give him any ground, because that ground was purchased with Jesus' blood. Jesus owns that territory, and He has given it to us for the taking. Let us rise up in faith, and reclaim what the devil has stolen.  

Traffic.

Have you ever been stuck in traffic? For a long time? I remember driving home from Christmas last year… It was supposed to be a ten hour drive, but it became a thirteen hour drive. For three hours, I didn’t go more than ten miles an hour. We were inching along. It was terrible. I hate traffic. I was just ready to get home. I think that we all hate traffic, because it keeps us from reaching our destination. It makes us take longer to get where we’re going.

Traffic keeps us from our goal.

I think all of us have some Spiritual traffic in our lives. I know I do.

We all have things in our life that keep us from becoming more like Jesus.

If we were to rate our walks with Jesus on a scale from 1 – 10, none of us would have a perfect 10. We won’t have perfect 10s until we’re with Jesus in Heaven, and that’s because there is traffic here that keeps us from Him.

So, what’s your traffic?

What is it in your life that is keeping you from getting to Jesus.

Galatians 5:1 – 

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery."

When Paul says, “Don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery” he’s saying, don’t let the traffic slow you down.

Jesus knows about the traffic in your life. That's why He came and died on the cross.

His death paid the price that you owed for your sin, so that through faith in Him, you have the power to bypass all of that traffic. 

It doesn't happen naturally, we don't just end up past the sin in our lives.  

Sin isn't something we outgrow.  

We have to choose to fight against it, we have to choose to put on Christ daily.

I love how Paul says it in Romans 13:14, 

"But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." 

We have to stop feeding our flesh. We have to cut out the things in our lives that create traffic, keeping us from Jesus.

God wants to take you to a deeper place in your walk with Him. Will you remove the sin, and bypass the traffic in your life to get to Him?

The Big Question

In three of the four gospels, the time when Jesus asks the disciples who they think He is. He asks them who the crowds say He is first. He asks, what have you heard of me? The crowds say that He is John the baptist, or possibly Elijah.

Then Jesus gets down to the big question. "Who do you say that I am?"

Peter chimes in giving an accurate response, "You are the Christ." Peter knows that Jesus is the promised Messiah, come to save His people.

This story can seem insignificant, and it can often be blown over, but I think it deserves a few moments of reflection. In reality, Jesus asked the most important question that we could ever answer.

Who do you say Jesus is?

What we think of Jesus is the one thing that will define who we are and how we live. The weight that we give to Jesus' words and actions will find itself duplicated in our lives.

What I mean by this is that our lives will reflect how seriously we take Jesus.

Jesus said to love one another as He loved us. He called us to be lights in a dark world. He calls us to die to self, to pick up our cross daily and follow Him. How seriously do you take those words?

We don't just need to give weight to Jesus' words, but to His character as well.

Jesus promises that He loves us, that He will provide and never fail us. He promises to be with us always.
He promises to give us the strength that we need. He promises to never give us more than we can handle.

Do we trust those promises about God? Our view of who God is and what He says will define the way that we live our lives.

Dig into His Word, see His character. Get to know Jesus, and who He really is. I promise it will change you.

Dead Branches

Picture this scene with me. There is a tree in the woods, it was knocked down years ago and now it is just a rotting log. The inside is hollowed out, there might even be some animals living in it. Now someone comes up and sees this tree, and they get rather upset that the tree doesn't have any fruit on it. They see a branch that has fallen off of the dead tree, and they frantically try to re-attach the branch, saying it was what was best for the tree. It was what the tree needed.

If we saw this happening, we would think that the person in this story was completely insane. You can't fix a dead tree by re-attaching its branches! Nor is it expected that a dead tree would be bearing fruit. We would lock this person up in a mental asylum!

But before we put them in a straight jacket, let's pause and consider something. How often do we do this with people? We see our unsaved friends living like the world, and we get upset that they aren't living like Christians. We should not expect people who don't know Jesus to want to reflect Him. Or we see our friends from church, and they are dealing with a sin.

I am speaking for myself here, but I believe that this is true for many of us. We are so quick to notice dead branches, or a lack of fruit, and immediately we assume that the problem can be solved by gluing fruit onto the branches, or trying to re-attach those branches. Lack of fruit and dead branches are a completely normal thing to see when a tree isn't attached to its roots. If the tree isn't in the ground, the problem isn't that there is no fruit! The problem is that it isn't planted!

We all need to be planted in Christ, every aspect of our life will flow directly from our relationship with Him. When we notice an area that isn't right, dead branches in our lives or in the life of someone around us, I think it's vital that we look past the branches to the roots. If the roots aren't attached, we have found our problem.

Lack of fruit is still cause for concern in a Christian, as are dead branches. But those problems rarely cause themselves, and if we aren't willing to look past what we see and get to the root issue, we won't help anyone.

Jesus talks about something similar in John 15:1-11

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."

Don't Sell Yourself Short

C.S. Lewis once said "The man who is most effective in this world is the man who is the most focused on the next."

How true a statement, yet I think we have missed that path in many ways. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that people aren't focused on Heaven, and if you are focused on Heaven, I commend you.

I am only trying to make the point, that for many of us, myself often included, we have allowed our focus to be pulled down to this world. When we think of being pulled down by the world, our brains automatically think of sin. We think of the things in the world that want to pull us away from God. What we rarely think of are the things that are good, but not intended to be our focus and ultimate goal.

I find myself often getting caught up in serving, and all of the things that our Christian culture has around us today. Serving isn't bad, Bible studies aren't bad, reading isn't bad. However when we replace our goal of being face to face with Jesus with those things, they can become idols just like anything else. When our goal is to have a good ministry, or to read the next Christian book, we sell ourselves short.

God has offered us Himself, and not just from a distance, but in an up close and personal way. We can approach the throne of grace boldly.

Why should we trade God for anything of this world, even the aspects of life that pertain to His Kingdom.

When our focus shifts from Christ, to the world around us, we burn out. We live in a dying and hopeless world. Christ is the only hope for the world around us. If our focus isn't on Him, this world will steal our hope.

You might be asking the question, "Don't we still need to be concerned with those things?"

Yes, we do need to be concerned with them. Our ministries, the areas that we serve God in, and the different things that we do (that aren't sin) are still good things to do.

The issue isn't as much of what we are doing, as where our focus is. When our focus is on this world, it breaks us down. When our focus is on Christ, He compels us to serve, and His power enables us to serve excellently.

1 Corinthians 13 says that now we see dimly, but then it will be face to face. We will be united with God, and worship the One who gave it all for us. That is our hope and goal. Don't settle for a goal that this world can satisfy.

Hostage Situation

If you go to the Old Testament, specifically the book of Judges, you watch God's people, the Israelites, repeatedly turn from God. In fact, the whole pattern of that book is this.

Israel is following God. Israel turns from God. God judges Israel. Israel is taken hostage by one of their surrounding countries. Israel repents. A judge shows up and leads them. Israel is following God, and the cycle starts again!

I don't know about you, but when I look at this, I tend to find myself laughing at Israel a little bit. God has done so much for them, but they keep turning away from Him. They turn away from God to worthless idols over and over and over and over again.

It's easy to think about how dumb they are for doing that. However, don't we do the same thing?

Every day, we fight a continual battle to keep God as the highest priority in our lives. We can replace Him with money. Making our paychecks the biggest priority in our life. We can replace Him with status, giving everything that we have to get that next promotion. We can replace God with virtually anything.

I think that this is because God has designed our hearts to worship. God has created us in such a way that our hearts are easily captivated.

God's intention in this is for us to be entirely consumed with Him, but we so quickly get lost amidst the cares of this world. The words of Jesus ring true, "seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you."

It's not bad to make money, or have nice things. It isn't bad to get promoted, but when those things take precedence over our relationship with God, they become idols, and they make us hostages. If God isn't the one thing captivating us, everything else will be out of sync.

The question remains, how do we keep God on the throne of our hearts? How do we keep ourselves captivated by Christ?

The answer to this is rather simple in understanding, but more difficult in application.
The way that we keep our hearts captivated by Jesus is by spending time with Him. We need to invest in our relationship with our Creator.

A car won't run properly if it doesn't have gasoline, oil, or coolant in it. It needs to be filled up properly if you want it to be used properly.

Our hearts work the same way. Not that we should put gasoline into them, but if they aren't being fueled, they won't operate in the way that they have been intended to.

Where we invest our time and energy most will show what our hearts are being captivated by.

If you continually invest in your walk with Christ, your heart will continually be captivated by Him. 

THE FIGHT

Have you ever noticed that every single movie has some kind of conflict? There is always something that has to be overcome, a problem that must be solved. You would think with all of the problems in life, we would want to be entertained by something that doesn't have any conflict, but when a TV show or movie comes out without conflict, it crashes and burns because it doesn't hold our interest.

The more I think about it, we have been created with conflict in our hearts and minds. This is a Biblical concept as well. Think of all the verses about spiritual warfare, or how Satan is a prowling lion seeking whom he may devour. It's funny, none of those verses attempt to convince us of the conflict. Their aim is to prepare us for the conflict.

High up on the list of my favorite movies is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'm going to nerd out a bit, so hang in there with me.

In Lord of the Rings, this hobbit named Frodo kind of stumbles upon a ring of power, and it turns out that said ring contains all the power of all evil. Frodo and 8 companions set out to destroy the ring in the fires of Mount Doom. It takes them three movies to get there, and they face unmeasurable difficulties. Literally everything in their entire world is set against them. Their chances are beyond slim. Throughout all of the movies, you see them press through, and even though the darkness around them seems to never let them through, you know that in the end they will destroy the ring. The trilogy ends with the ring being destroyed, and good triumphing over evil.

Even though there are few doubts that they will complete their quest, this story manages to inspire such hope. This hope doesn't come from a happy little trip without difficulty, but from a journey that seemed impossible. The conflict is more than they could ever bear, but they don't give up.

We are in such a conflict today. Whichever aspect you look at it from, the people around us that we struggle with, the sins that seem to ensnare us, or the spiritual battle that we know we are in, we are in such conflict that it should blow our minds.

However, Jesus Christ has already won the fight. When He died on the cross and rose again on the third day, He defeated death. He defeated Satan, and He robbed sin of all its power over us.

If you're a Christian, you are on the winning side. Satan is going down swinging, but God has the victory by a long shot.

Being in conflict gets tiring, it gets hard. There are always going to be moments where it seems impossible, and you want to give up. Don't forget that the God we serve, the God who we have an intimate relationship with, He has already taken the victory. Live in that victory.

I'll leave you with a few words from Lord of the Rings. Frodo is at the point of giving up, and Samwise encourages him with these words.

"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. Because they were holding on to something... There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."

Let our apathy bring You fame?

In the song, "Burning Ones" by Jesus Culture, there is a line that has stuck out to me since the first time I heard the song. "let our passion bring You fame."

When I think about it, Christians are the people who have the most reason in the whole world to be passionate. We have more of a reason to be stoked because of the Gospel.

Jesus has come and with His death He paid the debt that we owed, but He has risen from the dead!

There is no other religion that can say that they serve a loving God who has conquered death. Beyond that, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside us, giving us strength. No other religion on the face of the planet has a God who reaches down to His people to save them. We are accepted before God because of our faith, and that is the biggest game changer out there.

A lot of people look to the book of Acts and wonder why the things from that book aren't happening today. This could be attributed to many causes, but I believe that a portion of the difference is our attitude toward God and His Word. The church in the book of Acts saw Jesus die and rise from the dead. That changed everything. They realized that they had personal, intimate relationship with the God of the universe, and they realized the power in that. This realization got them so excited that they HAD to tell the people around them. At one point, they are arrested and they tell the Pharisees that they couldn't not share about what Jesus had done.

I think today, we are aware of the intimate relationship, and the power that Jesus has, but we have dismissed the importance of it. We can't take our next breath without God letting us. So that means that if you're still breathing, God has you here on purpose. He has you here to further His kingdom.

We pray for revival in our cities and streets, but that revival isn't going to come until we get passionate about God, and we get passionate about His Kingdom.

If you see yourself getting apathetic, or are stuck in that rut, focus on the fact that our Savior is risen. We serve a King who is very much alive. Death has been conquered, not so we could be apathetic, but so we could join Christ in that new life. That new life is full of passion, and joy, and love in Christ.

God has big plans for you. You can walk in them, or you can keep being "okay where you are" and miss seeing God move in HUGE ways... your choice.

doors

Two years ago I was about to start my final semester of college. I can remember watching everyone get jobs lined up, and before I was even moved in, it seemed like everyone knew what they were doing. I however, didn't. I had a few cheesy sounding answers to what I was going to do after I graduated. My two favorites were that I was going to be a Christian, and that I was going to follow Jesus. At the time, I had said these somewhat sarcastically. However, since then I've seen the wisdom that I didn't even recognize in that.

As Christians, our calling is to live by faith, and not by sight. That means that even when things don't make sense and we can't see the road ahead of us, we keep following Jesus.

Two weeks before I graduated, I found out about an opportunity to intern with the church that I now work at. It wasn't until the week after I graduated that I knew for certain I was coming here. I had never heard of Wilmington, North Carolina before in my life, but two weeks after graduation, I was driving down the coast to walk through this door God had opened.

I had met Pastor Clay and his daughter in a coffee shop in California, but apart from them, I didn't know a single person here. It was the biggest leap of faith I've ever taken.

One of the quotes that has made it onto the wall in my office says "A ship in a harbor is safe, but this is not what a ship is built for."

This quote is a fantastic reminder that we weren't created to live safe lives, where only expected things happen. We've been given the opportunity to live the wildest, most fulfilling adventure that we could ever have.

That adventure is the daily pursuit of Christ, and the doors that we will walk through in following His lead.

I believe that God will open doors in your life. It might not be today, or tomorrow even,  but if you are faithfully seeking and obeying Jesus, you'll know when He opens the door.

While its scary, and seems crazy to go through those doors sometimes, if God is opening the door, its always worth going through.

During that final semester, my prayer throughout wasn't big and fancy, it was simple. I just kept praying, "God, I'll go wherever You want me to go, as long as You open the door."

He opened the door, and I walked through it, even though it was difficult. Today I can look back on the time since I've moved to Wilmington, and I don't regret a moment of it.

Ask God to open doors in your life, and ask Him to give you the strength to walk through them. He will.

Just Ask.

My verse for the year is Ephesians 3:20. It says, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.”

I love this verse. I actually put it on my wall in my office, to remind me.

I like this verse a lot because it says that God is able to do a heck lot more than we could even imagine, and more than we could ever ask. Not just abundantly more, but far more abundantly. God gives a super abundance beyond what we ask or think.

This has really gotten me thinking. If God promises that He can do more than we could ever ask, why aren’t we asking bigger things? Now let me clarify; I am not saying that if we ask God to provide a car, He will provide a Ferrari. Jesus said that if we ask according to His will, God will give, because God knows how to give good gifts.

If our hearts are aligned with God’s will, He’ll give us whatever we ask for.

Take the example from Mark 1. There is a leprous man that hears of this guy Jesus, who can heal people. He gets this idea in his head that maybe; just maybe Jesus could heal him too. So he comes up to Jesus and kneels down in front of Him.

Quick pause in the story – In Israel at this time, leprosy was considered the result of a major sin. People didn’t go near lepers. It was totally against everything to be in contact with them, to the point that people would throw rocks at them to keep them far away.

When this leper kneels in front of Jesus, it’s most likely already the closest he’s been to another person since he became a leper. He’s hoping and praying, trusting that Jesus can heal him.

Go check out the story for yourself in Mark 1. Jesus doesn’t just heal the guy. Jesus reaches down and touches him. This guy gets healed, and Jesus gives him what was probably the first physical contact he has had with anyone in years.

Wow, talk about going beyond what we could ever ask or imagine. That is huge.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Scripture promises that. If Jesus is still the same today as He was that day when He healed that leprous man, what is stopping us from asking big things of Him?

Is it doubt? Do we not think He can do it? Or is it fear? Maybe He won’t do it.

I think of the song, “God of This City” where it says, “Greater things have yet to come in this city.”

I believe that with all my heart. There is revival ahead of us, but that doesn’t happen without God’s people on their knees before Him.

This year I want to ask big things of our big God. If they are in His will, I am promised that He will do them. If they aren’t in His will, I don’t want them to happen anyway.

Will you join me?

Do You Favorite or Retweet?

As the world of Twitter has become more and more popular, the terms “favorite” and “retweet” have become common among us. To favorite something means to declare that you like it, while to retweet something means having the post duplicated to your own profile for people to see.

I saw a tweet a few days ago where someone posted that they didn’t want favorites, but they wanted to be retweeted. This got me thinking a little bit. What does Jesus ask of us? Jesus didn’t ask His followers to favorite his message.

Jesus was preaching good news, the best news ever. Jesus preached that anyone could come to God, exactly how they were, and when they put their faith in what He did on the cross, they would receive grace, and forgiveness. Mankind can be joined into a relationship with God through faith in Christ’s death and resurrection. That is huge, exciting news.

A message like this is certainly worth favoriting.

But as Christians, we’re not called to favorite this message.

We’re called to retweet this message.

Throughout Scripture it’s shown to us that we’re supposed to grow more and more to become like Jesus. Our lives are supposed to be retweets of His life.

“But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”’ – 1 Peter 1:15-16 (ESV)

This word “holy” carries the idea of being set apart, being different, or being called to a different standard. We’ve been called to reflect Christ.

Be careful in how you think about this. It’s easy to favorite Jesus. We talk about how awesome Jesus is, and we sing songs to Him at church. However, it’s not a difficult task to favorite Jesus without retweeting Him. We can like Jesus, we can think Jesus is great, but if who Jesus is doesn’t change who we are, it’s pointless.

Don’t fall into the ever growing category of people in the world today who favorite Jesus and stop there.

Be holy as God has called you to be holy. Be different. Live by the higher calling which God has for you.

Let your life retweet Jesus.