changing location

Just to let anyone know who pays attention to this that I'll probably be doing all my blogging from now on at our church website www.faithevanchurch.org so come check it out.

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!