transformed by the renewal of my mind and reformed for His glory
I have been a complete loser when it comes to writing in my blog. Part one because no one reads it and part 2 becuase of time. However I realize I need an outlet and this seems to be the only platform that I will have…so, I’ll have some stuff up this weekend….be blessed ~Jason
So I havn’t bloged in a while so I thought I should put something out here….
I’ve heard some interesting conversations lately about difference of “opinion” regarding God….or Universalism. In other words that there is one God but there are many ways that you may get to Him. Needless to say at the same time I am learning about picking my battles..but that’s another story.
There is a need to get the Gospel right. And we need to get it right, now. We need to take a serious look at the fact that we are responsible for what we “claim” to know or believe. There is only one Gospel, one God, one Jesus, one Spirit, and only one means of Salvation.
So then each of us will give an account of himself to God
to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel
Over the past month or so God has been dealing with me on the depths at which I know Him vs. how well I THINK I know him. What I’ve realized is that although I do know Him in an intimate fashion I do not know Him at the depth’s that He desires, Yet. I find that I had been putting of the study of scriptures that seem to be rather difficult at a first glance. Simply becuase at the moment I was being lazy…just thinking I would get to it later. However, now is the time. We must get the Gospel, and we must get it right now.
21Jesus said to her, (A) “Woman, believe me,(B) the hour is coming when(C) neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22(D) You worship what you do not know;(E) we worship what we know, for(F) salvation is from the Jews. 23But(G) the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father(H) in spirit and(I) truth, for the Father(J) is seeking such people to worship him.
Worship seems to be on of the many keys that put us in line for an incredible encounter with the Creator. Here is what I have learned from Piper. Worship is an inward feeling and outward action that reflects the worth of God. And the inward feeling is the essence, for Jesus said,This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me.
Now, I am not saying that we should base worship on a feeling because that is very dangerous. However, Pastor Marc Sikma recently made a statement that when the right emotions meets the RIGHT doctrine/theology, that is when the feeling or emotions are right. Very powerful statement to me. I have always been a very emotional person the way that it is. So I have learned to be very careful and not determine how worshipful I am based on how emotional that I may become. In either a corporate setting or privately.
The intensification of worship as an inner, God ward experience of the heart is seen in the words of Jesus that the hour is coming and now is when worship will not be located in Samaria or Jerusalem, but will be “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21-23). Inner spiritual reality replaces geographic locality. And we see it again in Matthew 15:8-9 when Jesus says, “This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me.” Worship that does not come from the heart is vain, empty. It is awesome see how Jesus destroys what was once defined by law. Think about it….once your ability to worship was once based upon where you were geographically and now it is based on the heart. That rocks!
Here are a couple of other verses that I have been looking at as well.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like o whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and p all uncleanness.
I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, “Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God.”
It is awesome that one of the last instructions in the Bible is to “Worship God”!
Psalm 29:2
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.
Psalm 86:9
All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.
I guess the bottom line is that we have this incredible opportunity to worship the King daily. How ofter do we pass it by? If your anything like me you pass it by more times than not. My goal is to come to a deeper understanding of Christ…and to get there now. Not later.
2 Timothy 3:16–4:4 (ESV)
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. 4:1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.
I have been doing some reading online and watching some video’s of different “preachers”. What I have come across is horribly disturbing. It seems that many “preachers” are more comfortable speaking about things that are more likely to touch your ear than your heart. I don’t need to hear another watered down message about how I “deserve” the best that is out there…or that if I don’t have the best them my faith is weak. Really? Is that right….well then I guess guys like Paul, Peter, and John had weak faith, becuase I am pretty sure that they did not have the best that was to offer at the time. There is so much preaching about Prosperity that I don’t see how anyone can see past the false hope of wealth and get to the truth of the full Gospel.
Jesus warns many times about the search to obtain wealth. 1 Timothy 6:9, Luke 14:33, Mark 10:23-27. Not to say that wealth is completely bad but it definatly can obscure your vision. I think that it would be difficult to see your true dependancy on Grace and Mercy when you feel you have supplied all your needs on your own.
I guess one of my questions is what responsibility does the church have with all this mess. How does the church get involved and hold those accountable that are focused soley on finances and obtaining all the goodies one can stand? Jesus would have walked right into the church and set some folks straight. Is that what we are to do?
Just some thoughts….I guess the bottom line is it’s driving me a tad crazy. I just don’t get it. I guess if you can overlook suffering for Christ you can latch on to some of this teaching quite easy.
For His Glory,
Jason
Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Life has been about as crazy as it could possibly be the past few months. It has really made me realize how great of a Hope Christ is. Life can really deal an icredible blow to the spirit and the body. I have had such stress due to some work issues that it had spread to every aspect of my life. Family, study, worship…you name it. It had gotten to the point that the stress had made me physically ill. My focus on the word and my intimacy with Christ had suffered. I was not being whom God has called me to be. Sometimes taking a look at you own failures, regardless of cause, can be staggering.
Faith. I realized is so much more than a term that Christians use to make a statement about there life. For example we are easy to tell someone that we have “faith”, however, trying to explain that faith is a different story…and a different blog. Faith is forsaking everything BUT Him. Knowing of what is to come with out having it visibly in sight. Faith is getting up in the morning with excitement (zeal) and knowing that God has something great for you today and He has equipped you to do battle and have victory.
Patience is knowing, in my case, how to just be silent…and listen. He is speaking, moving, breathing into my life. I just tend to breath a little heavier and little more audibly..(LOL. That suppose to be funny.)
It all comes down to pursuing Joy in Christ. It’s so easy to find joy in stuff. Instead of digging into the word we tend to dig into “stuff”. I feel like we all need to get past being entertained. My 12 year old is a great example….every weekend it’s the same thing. If she’s here doing “nothing” she’s bored..and if she’s not out doing something than she is looking for something to do. Always has to be entertained. We are like that with God. At least I am.
This week I quit my job. I had to put all 3 or these into perspective. There is no price tag on being able to lead a family effectively, and I was not. I had let things get in the way…so I just removed the obsticles. My faith is stregthened by knowing that my patience and obiedence will result in more Joy in Him.
And though you have not seen him, you love him, and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.
Everyday I look for times when God is showing me somthing about His character or another glimpse of His glory. Today I was reminded that we should ALWAYS be ready to give a word of encouragment or to receive a word from someone else. Today, at work, I was sent a phone call from our sales dept so I could speak to a young lady and maybe provide her with some assitance. Well about 15/20 minutes into the call we began to discuss her career. She is a 2nd grade teacher, 25 years old ( i think) and a Christ follower. I was very encouraged to hear that there are youn Christians teaching our kids in the public school system.
Long story made short is that I do not know who was blessed more, she or I. God had clearly set this whole thing up. So…check this out Isaiah 42:1-3:
I have put my Spirit upon him…
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.
Here is what Piper says…..
Do you feel like a “bruised reed”—like one of those big top-heavy Easter lilies whose stem has been squashed so that the flower slops to the ground and gets no juice? Do you ever feel like your faith is just a little spark instead of a flame—like that little red dot on the wick after you blow out the birthday candle?
Take heart! The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of encouragement: he will not snap off your flower; he will not snuff out your spark. “The Spirit is upon me to preach good news to the poor” (Luke 4:18). “The Sun of righteousness is rising with healing in His wings” (Malachi 4:2). “He is meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). “Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage; yea, wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14).
It may be a grief to us that we are only a spark instead of a flaming fire. But listen! And be encouraged: yes, there is a big difference between a spark and a fire. But there is an infinite difference between a spark and no spark! A mustard seed (of faith) is infinitely closer to being a mountain than it is to being no seed.
Open the window of God’s promises and let the Spirit blow into every room of your heart. The Holy Wind of God will not break or quench. He will lift up your head and fan your spark into a flame. He is the Spirit of encouragement.
God really dealt with me today about encouragement by the Spirit in our lives. I pray that I would not look past how the Spirit moves in us and around us in others….so Ms. Morris…if you happen to read this…remember what I said to you today..God Himself has you right where he wants you…check this out:
5You(E) hem me in, behind and before,
and(F) lay your hand upon me.
6(G) Such knowledge is(H) too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Be encouraged!
I was going to blog on this video but I thought I would just post the link instead…it’s worth the 8 minutes…trust me.
Until just a few weeks ago I had been without Internet at home for about 8 months….and can you beleive it, we survived! Anyway, I have been uploading pictures off the camera and I have going back and looking through all the pictures that we have taken this year. One of the pictures that I had come across makes me smile every time I see it. I find myself looking at it everyday just to get that feeling of joy that comes over me. So, I began to think about why it makes me so happy when I see this picture.
I realized that when I see this picture of my family I feel a since of pride and joy. Pride in the fact that God has in-trusted me to be a leader, a pastor, a father, a husband, a friend, a provider, a protector, a shoulder to cry on, a pair of hands that holds, ears that listen, a heart that is compassionate and to be the liver of a life that is pleasing to Him above all things. I feel joy because I can see Christ in my bride and my daughter.
I also realized what a lesson it is for a fathers heart to swell when his child is obedient and does what honors him. So, as I see my family, God also sees us; His children. When we are obedient and honoring Him with our lives I believe it brings Him joy because His Glory is seen by those around us (the church).
The issue is that I don’t spend enough time preparing my family to be reflectors of His Glory. I am at a point that I have to work harder and harder to stay connected with a 12 year old girl then I did to a 6 year old girl. For example…when I ask for a hug…I get the side hug. You know…the kind you might give a friend or a relative that you see once every 5 years. But not your dad! Oh yea…and now I’m dad, not daddy. I am not sure that sits well with me…but none the less I am honored that God has called me to this challenge and I am happy that he teaches me from my mistakes and my wife and daughter don’t hold it against me when I screw up…well they don’t that often anyway.
Not to mention seeing your wife grow in Christ and becoming something that allows you to see Gods Glory in the life of the women God has put in place to make you step up to the plate and be what you need to be…..I’ll blog on that at a later date more…I got lots to say about that.
Bottom line is this, I don’t get why God puts a idiot like me as the leader of anything. Let alone 2 other lives that depend on me for food and clothes, but I sure am happy every day when He makes the sun rise and allows me to see there beautiful faces.
“ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.”
Earlier this week I came across this verse in Romans. Now, I am sure that I have read it before this week, however, this time it smacked me dead in my grill ( that means my face…). I probably read it over and over at least 50 times then went back to the begining of chapter 7 to make sure I had a clear picture of what Paul was saying.
Paul is very clear here that no matter how right I think I have it at the moment I am just a thought away from sin. The battle of the flesh is nasty and we, as Christ followers, have got to become more on the offensive in pursuit of holy living and seeking out Gods Glory in or victory over sin. I had a glimpse of my ugliness in this chapter this week. I realized that many times I do not engage in battle unless I absolutely have got to! What a spiritual wuss I can be. What God has done in regenerating my heart is worth fighting for…post victory. What I mean is that God has declared me rightous because he is, but I need to live like it.
Living with passion, pursing His Glory, being involved daily in spiritual warefare, and doing it all with reckless abandonment is what we are not use to. Many of us are to afraid of sounding charasmatic if we say “spiritual warfare” and then some of us think we are such prayer warriors that eveyone should know were in the fight because we are so super spiritual. Yuck.
Live like you know that Christ is whats good, and that we are intended for His Glory…that means we should pursue it all with staggering confidence. Take hold of that which God has set us on coarse for. Oh that I would strive to be daily what He has called me to be eternally.
