My Utmost for His Highest / April 16th

I just had to share this, it comes right out of the devo book My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers.

John 12:36 "While you have the light, believe in the light . . ."

We all have moments when we feel better than ever before, and we say, "I feel fit for anything; if only I could always be like this!" We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to even when we do not feel like it. Many of us are no good for the everyday world when we are not on the mountaintop. Yet we must bring our everyday life up to the standard revealed to us on the mountaintop when we were there.
Never allow a feeling that was awakened in you on the mountaintop to evaporate. Don't place yourself on the shelf by thinking, "How great to be in such a wonderful state of mind!" Act immediately - do something, even if your only reason to act is that you would rather not. If, during a prayer meeting, God shows you something to do, don't say, "I'll do it" - just do it! Pick yourself up by the back of the neck and shake off your fleshly laziness. Laziness can always be seen in our cravings for a mountaintop experience; all we talk about is our planning for our time on the mountain. We must learn to live in the ordinary "gray" day according to what we saw on the mountain.
Don't give up because you have been blocked and confused once - go after it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by an act of your own will. Never change your decisions, but be sure to make your decisions in the light of what you saw and learned on the mountain.

We Are the Body???

Last night, my wife Ali and I attended a Casting Crowns concert in Cedar Rapids along with like 3,000 other people. I have to say first of all that I love Casting Crowns and Mark Hall! I feel as though they are extremely down to earth and they sing truth in every one of their songs. The concert started out with the song until the whole world hears which is a new song of theirs that I really neither like nor dislike but as I sang the words with those 3,000 people, the question began to dawn on my mind, "Do we mean the words that we sing?" The song says that we'll keep singing until the whole world hears and yet so often it would appear that we could care less if the world hears the gospel! After this song they began to sing one of my favorites, We are the Body and as they sang the words "Jesus paid much to high a price for us to pick and choose who should come, and we are the body of Christ." I couldn't help but feel a mixture of extreme conviction and anger. The truth of the matter is that we are the actual Body of Christ, His ambassadors on this earth and yet what we portray to those around us is NOT love, is NOT acceptance, is NOT understanding but rather indifference at best and down right hate at worst! I am increasingly convinced that we are, for the most part living in ignorance at the call God has placed on the hearts of those who call themselves His disciples. Oh God, that we would actually begin to live like we were the Body, that we would actually begin to reach with His hands, see with His eyes, and love with His heart!

a broken heart and new perspective

Recently I feel as though God has begun to do a new thing in my heart, waking me up to the reality of the lost. It amazes me at times how naive I and many others can be about the reality of unreached lost people in our so called modern world. I just recently realized that a little under half of the world's population have never heard the gospel message, a little under HALF! Doesn't that strike you as impossible? We hear the gospel every day and yet there are millions of people living and dying that don't even know the name of Jesus. So what does that mean for them? This is also something that I have been struggling with because my human logic tells me that a loving God would never send someone to hell who has never heard. But isn't this the same logic people use in our culture for explaining why there can't possibly be a hell, because God is to loving? However the Bible tells us that the only way to heaven is through Christ and also, Romans 10 says "How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?" To be honest, this disturbs me. I believe it is God's will that none should perish, but we also live in a fallen world plagued by sin which makes us enemies of God. So I guess what I'm saying is that as Christians this should dominate our prayer life and as Jesus said, we should pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the field, and then ask yourself, am I to be one of those workers?

sacrifice?

This past weekend was Acquire The Fire in Minneapolis, MN where we joined 5,000 other people in seeking to encounter the love of God. These events are always high emotion and high energy and as we began the weekend the MC screamed to the crowd "Are you ready to see God move this weekend?" The crowd yelled back in agreement. Then he yelled "Are you ready to have God change your life this weekend?" Again the crowd yelled in agreement and as I watched what was happening I couldn't help but ask myself if those youth actually knew what they were agreeing to. I don't think we comprehend the life that God is calling us into, we don't grasp the fact that this isn't just another religion, not just another job, not just another list of rules to try and keep. We don't get the fact that God want's to give us everything but in turn we must give Him everything. We must give everything we are, everything we think we have, everything that we might be, we give it all sacrificially and then walk where He tells us to walk. We wrongly assume that this is a price to high to pay but in reality all that we really have to offer is brokenness, pain, confusion, and death. In return God gives us hope, joy, peace, and life.

Stand and Fight

Allow me to rant. I love war movies! Saving Private Ryan, The Band of Brothers, Braveheart, anything with a lot of action and heroic speeches I'm hooked. I think the reason why I love these movies so much is that it speaks to a deep desire within my soul to give my life for something bigger than myself. In these movies you see men dying for a greater good, for this idea of freedom, for their brothers at arms, and then after a few hours of on screen action I return to the real world. The real world of bills, and repairs, and office hours. The real world dealing with drama, and feelings, and monotony. And I have to wonder, where is my great cause? Where is my battlefield? Where is my defining moment in the heat of battle where I decide to either lay down and die in the mud, or pull myself up and face my enemy gun in hand?
I feel all to often like the men towards the end of Band of Brothers when the European conflict is all over, Hitler is dead and they find themselves without an enemy so they begin to fight each other. I feel as though I am so ready to stop talking about being more, and giving more, and engaging the enemy; that time has past. I feel as though it is time to rally the troops and storm the gates of hell, and yet I am without a direction in which to march. I am sick of the status quoe, sick of inactivity, sick of half hearted commitment. I feel like the guy on the horse in front of the army, or the guy standing on the battlements yelling to the troops, "Who will join me? Who will fight? Who will die if necessary for the sake of the King?" So, will you join me?

God's Will?

At times I find it comical that we are so prone to extremes, or perhaps I shouldn’t lump everyone into the same mold. I guess you can just read this and see if it applies. I started reading a book today called “Just Do Something” where the author makes the argument that there are times when we find ourselves guilty of not doing anything because we are waiting on God’s will. He claims that there are times when believers try and find God’s will in a situation when maybe God is indifferent to that situation. Now granted I am only half way through the second chapter but it is an intriguing idea.
On the other hand, my devotions this morning form Oswald Chambers claimed that if there is any doubt in the heart of a believer about a situation one is in, then the believer is not in the will of God. He states that we must wait until God’s will is absolutely clear before we make a move lest we run ahead of God’s plan and mess the whole thing up.
Well, what is one to think? It can easily be tempting for believers to adopt one or the other extreme: to just run through life doing whatever pleases you, all the while claiming it is the will of God; or to not do anything, take no chances, exercise no faith because you feel a shred of doubt and so therefore it must not be God’s will. I’m sure that both of these authors would agree that it takes equal amounts of both views to follow God’s will. In scripture we see where Jesus’ disciples tried to run out ahead of God’s will and had to be reigned in. On the other hand we see where God wanted His people to move but they were afraid of what that might mean for them.
Ultimately I believe that when we are truly seeking God we do not have to fret about whether or not we are or are not in his will. In Isaiah 30, the prophet is telling the Israelites that when they repent and come back to God, He will receive them and forgive them. Then in vs. 21 he says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” Meaning that when we truly seek God, we can take comfort in the fact that he will guide our steps, the only thing we have to do is keep following where He leads.

After Christmas

I really hate this time of the year! Christmas is over but the snow is still around for another two months, It is so cold that I don't even want to go outside, and the Christmas lights are still up but everyone knows they have to come down soon. I think it might be this last thing that is the most depressing to me. The lights are so beautiful and before Christmas I love to look at them because they point to Christmas. It's almost like every house that is lit up with lights is a reminder that Christmas is almost here. Now, however the lights mean nothing. Oh there still beautiful and I still love to look at them but they have a sort of hollow beauty now. Not to overspiritualize everything but I couldn't help but think of how this is a good illustration. To me it represents so many who really do look the part. They try so hard to be put together, and shine as brightly as they can and yet there's is a hollow beauty. We need to realize that if Christ is not who we shine for then we are nothing more than disappointing to those who stop to stare at our efforts to shine.

dead in the pews

So last Sunday, I believe it was, an older gentlemen in town passed away while attending Sunday mass at the Catholic church. As I spoke to a member of my church about what had happened, they exclaimed how that would be the way to go, right there in church, where you're supposed to be, doing what your supposed to be doing; yet I couldn't help but see something different. By no means am I trying to down play what happened or disrespect anyone, but the only thing I could see was a sad illustration of the state of many church goers; to be dead in the pew.
I believe that for many who go to church, it is nothing more than their weekly ritual. Something they have done since they were children and so it continues to be just that, something they do. For others I believe they go to church out of a sense of guilt, with this idea that if they aren't in their pew on Sunday morning then God wont bless them on Monday. For these, I believe it can be said that they are dead in their pew, or at least they might as well be.
I Do Not believe that this is what God desires. God doesn't want people coming to be with him out of a sense of duty. He doesn't want them coming to Him out of a sense of fear, or guilt. What God wants, what he has always wanted is fully engaged relationship with people who want to be with Him. I can't help but wonder how many church goers are dead in the pews just waiting to be buried.

Eat Your Soup!

Last week, Albertein made some awesome potato soup that I absolutely love and am quite sure I could eat my weight in! It's full of bacon, cheese, and of coarse potatoes and for some reason Jackson got it into his head that he just would not eat it. Well, the way it works at our house is that what we have for supper is what we have, and if you don't like it well, tough. So as Jackson made his displeasure known, I informed him that he was going to have to sit there until he ate his soup and that was that, and of coarse that caused more whining, which in turn caused my temperature to go up and so on and so forth. Anyway, after quite a while of this, Jackson decided that it would be better to just suck it up and eat his soup than to have to sit at the table all day and night and low and behold, he found out that he loves potato soup. As I watched him scarf down his soup that he finally tried I said, "See Jackson, isn't it so much easier when you just do what I ask?" And in my mind or heart, or both I heard God say "Yes Luke; isn't it so much easier when you just do what I ask?"
Why is it that the majority of the time we fight so hard against what God has for us, and yet when we finally shut up and follow Him, we find out that following Him is where we always wanted to be.

Following closely

So yes I realize that it has been forever and a day that I have written anything on here and that probably everyone has assumed that I have abandoned this whole blogging thing forever but, here I am, and I pledge to do better with this whole thing. With that being said . . .
I was listening to one of my favorite pastors the other day discussing his "conversion experience" or in layman's terms how he began to follow Jesus. He explained that he really didn't know anything about what he was doing, he just knew that he had been forgiven, and that he now had a hunger for scripture and a longing to live however God wanted him to live. Because of this hunger, he began to read his bible every morning and every evening; not out of a legalistic sense of having to, but because he wanted to know what he was supposed to do. He explained that he also had a lot of baggage, like a filthy vocabulary and as he read what God was all about, he realized that the way he talked didn't match up with who God was, so he changed the way he talked, and so on. The thing that I found very interesting about this (and it certainly isn't anything new) is that Chip didn't change because he set out to specifically change this or that about himself, he changed because he realized his actions didn't add up to what he now knew.
One of the problems that I have to be mindful of is the fact that I get to focused on the action; in order to be a better Christian I must do this, this, and this. The action then becomes the important thing, and if I don't do these actions in a certain way then I have failed. In actuality, I believe that God isn't about the actions. What I'm going to do is not focus so much on the actions, and instead focus on who God is, on who Christ is and then think, if I want to be closer to Jesus, these things in my life can't stay. If I want to be closer to Jesus, I need to talk to Him, I need to spend time with Him. If I want to be a Christ follower I need to know Him more so I can follow Him more closely. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Engaged Christianity

So, two weeks ago we went down to Sea crest Beach, Florida right outside of Panama City Beach for a week long vacation, and for the most part it was good. The weather wasn't all that cooperative but we made the best of it, and the beaches were absolutely beautiful. I would say that the only part of the trip that was frustrating and disappointing was my dad. Here we are in beautiful Florida, staying in an amazing house and pretty much all he wanted to do was lay on the couch, talk on his cell phone, and watch the hunting channel, which I don't even know why that is a channel by the way. It was frustrating because; first of all he doesn't get to spend a whole lot of time with my kids in the first place and so I assumed he would want as much face time with them as possible; and second I haven't hung out with him in forever and I assumed he would want to do a little catch up. But sadly neither seemed to be true for dear old dad. Now admittedly I am being hard on him, but aren't you aloud to do that with family? I mean isn't your family supposed to want to be in deep relationship with you? Aren't they supposed to want to engage you and share their lives with you? It seams as though some family members are just OK with being family in name, and not in any relational sense of the word and as I began to think of this more over the past few weeks God began to reveal something about this to me.

He began to reveal to me how many times in my own life I have done this very thing to Him. Like my dad, I have settled so often for a relationship with God in name only. I have assumed that adopting the title of Christian means that I am one, and instead God wants so much more. Again, like me with my dad, God desires a deep, involved relationship where we aren't just satisfied with him being around somewhere in the background. This is easy to fall into though isn't it? With family it is easy to simply take them for granted and just simply be there, but not really be engaged but in reality this just doesn't work. Again, like with my dad, my kids aren't really going to have any memories of him from this trip because he wasn't really there. Jesus tells us that in the end when we stand before God, he will either say yes I know you, or no I don't, and many people will be surprised at what they hear. Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

The question is, do you have a relationship with Christ or not, not how much have you done, or how many Sunday school classes have you taught, but do you know Him?

commitment phobia

As I set here on vacation in Florida, a few of the people who are here with us are watching the season premier of the bachelorette, which has to be one of the worst shows ever conceived; alright I can think of worse ones, but it's close! Now, I admit I have watched a Bachelor episode or two, and I have held my breath as that final rose was handed out, but as I hear this episode playing in the background I am just struck with how wrong the whole concept of the show is. Here's this lady who is basically trying out an endless line of guys, initially judging them on their surface attributes. Then as the show goes on she'll kiss this one, and this one will get a special weekend away with her, and everyone will cry at least once. Then in the end she will pick one of these guys that has turned out to be her "soul mate", hand him a rose, and give him a commitment to maybe someday possibly become engaged to him. Maybe.

I believe that this show illustrates the problem that our culture has with commitment incredibly well. Seemingly in everything we do, we have this fear or phobia of being too committed. We lease cars, we have tract phones, and we move in with the one we "love" instead of getting married to them, just in case. this phobia has even crept into our spiritual lives as well. We have this idea, or attitude that we just want to date Jesus. Nothing serious, just a promise here and there, maybe go to church every now and then but we want to keep our options open, just in case. However nothing could be further from what we are supposed to do, and what we are supposed to be.

Jesus tells us that unless you hate your father and mother, then you can't be a disciple of mine. Meaning that the relationship we have with Christ has to be so far above our most intimate relationships that they look like hate in comparison. Jesus isn't looking for a casual relationship, he is calling us to a deeper, all in commitment that makes everything else pale in comparison. The question is, are we willing to accept?

Living like You've won

The other day Bruce Luebbers came over to help me set up the trampoline which my kids have been begging for even before all the snow melted. For the winter months I stored the majority of the trampoline above the garage in a storage place between the rafters; I've also stored a lot of my air soft stuff up there just to keep it out of the way. When Bruce climbed up there to get the trampoline stuff down, he also found my bag of air soft supplies, with the intention of ambushing me when I came out of the house. What he didn't realize was that I had taken out my best guns, one of which was setting just inside my door. SO, here Bruce is trying to ambush me with a puny little pistol and I come out of the house with my shotgun! As you can imagine, this didn't last very long, One because the gun he had chosen to use didn't hardly work; and two, the gun I had really stings when you get hit by one of it's pellets.

The feeling that I had from this really got me thinking about my Christian walk. You see, I knew that Bruce probably wasn't going to hit me with the gun he had, especially when he abandoned the pistol and picked up another gun that didn't work at all. I also knew that what I was using, the gun that I held in my hands was so much better than what he had that I knew the fight was over even as it was beginning. Do you see the corillation here? The Bible tells us that we have power through the Holy Spirit! It tells us that we can do anything through Christ who gives us strength! Jesus himself told his disciples that they would do incredible things when the Holy Spirit came upon them. But when you look at Christians around you today, or when you look in the mirror, is this what you see? Do you see power, do you see joy, do you see victory??? My answer is a big NO. The point is that through the blood of Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice on the cross we have already won the battles we have yet to fight, and it is time that you and I begin to live like it! We must stop justifying why we aren't live the way we're supposed to live, and instead begin to rely on the promises of God's Word to live a victorious life, full of joy, and power! After all when we realize that the weapon of God's Word is superior to anything that will come against us, it makes all the difference!

grasping for understanding

I feel as though there are so many things that are just simply beyond my capability to comprehend! All last week I focused on Psalm 73 where the writer, Asaph was having a real crisis in keeping his faith. He writes about how he was becoming sidetracked with all the things in life that just didn't make any sense and in vs. 16 he says "When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me." I am amazed at how often I feel like this! Not that my faith is failing, or that my feet are slipping; just that when I try and understand what is going on, it is "oppressive to me."

Last night Albertein was struggling with the pain of RA in some of her joints, which made her very nervous because today is a big day for her. Because of this she asked if I would pray for her so that God would take away her pain and that she could focus on what she needed to do; and so I began to pray. I prayed last night that God would simply touch her and take this thing away, I mean He is the one who put her joints together, He could simply take the RA away from her. Again this morning, all morning I have been asking God to do the same, in the name of Jesus I have been asking for healing, yet when I woke Albertein up this morning my hopes were dashed as her wrist was swollen and throbbing with pain.

It is not a question to me whether or not God can heal, the real questions begin when He chooses not to. Even though Jesus tells us that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we will see mountains thrown into the sea, I know that at times whether or not we experience God's healing does not have to do with how much faith we may or may not have. Paul asked God three times to take away the "thorn in his flesh", and three times he was denied. The reason was not that Paul had a lack of faith but that being healed simply didn't fit in God's bigger plan. This bigger plan is after all what we sign up for isn't it? It's just like when Jesus told Peter not to worry about what the other disciples would do, but simply that he should follow Him regardless. I read in My Utmost for His Highest yesterday that we need to see Jesus for who He truly is, and not for what he Has or Has Not done for us. It is only when we do this, can we truly follow Him no matter what situation we may find ourselves in. So that's what I'm going to try and do today, whether the healing comes or not.

The idea behind relevance

As you can probably tell from the title of this blog, the idea of relevance has been on my mind a lot lately, or more importantly are we relevant? Don't get me wrong, we are extremely busy, busy to the point that our days are full to the brim and we continuously wonder why there aren't more hours in the day. What I wonder though is how often are the things we are filling our days with actually relevant to what we are here for?
Each of us, if we claim to be a follower of Christ have been given a commission to go into the world and make disciples. Christ has bestowed on us the responsibility to be ambassadors for him, to basically be Him to a world that is lost and dying. Jesus describes His followers as being salt and light, yet how well are we flavoring the world around us, or shining light in the darkened places? If you look at the cultural trends having to do with our society and the generation at hand, it's not hard to come to the conclusion that we are missing something somewhere, and I can't help but think that it's because Christians have portrayed the message that Christ is no longer relevant. We love to preach loudly to anyone who will listen the evils of abortion and gay marriage, but then we don't love those around us. Maybe our message has become irrelevant because we are yelling too loudly, and loving to sparingly. Now don't get me wrong, sin is still sin and we should stand up for what we believe, however Jesus was relevant to those he spoke to because He offered the down and outs something that no one else would, He loved them.
I wonder if we should stop trying to play the part of the Holy Spirit, stop trying to guilt people into repentance of their sins, and just start loving them because Christ loved them. I think that it's when we strive to do this that we will find our relevance once again, and people will actually begin to see Jesus.