I see a body of believers that can gather together and bring down strongholds and dominions through praying in faith. I see a place where people can feel safe to confess their fears and failures and not fear condemnation, but instead find acceptance and love. A place where shared joys are multiplies and shared sorrows are divided.

I see a body of believers who are stepping out in faith and doing what the rest of the world, including most Christians, say can’t be done. I see a body of believers whose faith is in a God to whom the impossible is not even remotely difficult, who believe that all His promises are true and for them.

I see a body of believers for whom church is not four walls and a roof, but two or more gathered together in Jesus’ name and in Jesus’ power, proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is breaking through and that all the wrongs will soon be made right and that the rightful King is coming and will be here soon.

I see a body of believers who believe the best about each other and believe the best for those who can’t believe it for themselves. A bunch of believers who will not stop praying for each other until healing is loosed in their lives. Or in the lives of their family or friends.

I see a body of believers who will stop at nothing short of full-blown, Holy Ghost, fire-falling, Spirit- drenched, earth-quaking revival in the land. Nothing short of Acts 2 coming to life and God moving mightily in His people. We want to see a mighty outpouring with our own eyes and we are foolish enough to believe it can and will happen!

I see a body of believers where unity is priority and love supercedes having every single theological I dotted and T crossed. Where correcting every perceived doctrinal error cedes to seeing the person as God sees them– a masterpiece in the making and someone who is already righteous and just because the Cross makes them so.

That’s my prayer. I hope it’s yours. I don’t want to play church or go to church anymore. I want to BE THE CHURCH!

Amen and amen!

There’s a popular saying often attributed to the Bible that goes something like, “God won’t ever give you more than you can handle.” Two words for that in my opinion; ba- and loney. I’ve found that to be so far from the truth it’s not even funny. God does very often give us more than we can handle. Just ask Paul about his thorn in the flesh or look at Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

If all God have us were things we could handle, we really wouldn’t need Him, would we? How would God get any glory out of putting me in situations that I could solve on my own? The point I think is that God very often puts us in situations that He knows and we know we can’t handle expressly for the purpose of showing us our dependence on Him so that we rely solely on Him and He gets the utmost glory. I’ve seen that many times in my life.

There’s that person in your life that God is calling you to love. That annoying person that grates your nerves every time you have a conversation. Someone you can’t possibly love or even like on your own. But God calls you to do both.

God takes away your career or your health or a loved one and you are left in shambles and you feel like you will never possibly ever recover. You can’t handle it. God can. He knows what it’s like to lose Someone close to Him; just ask Jesus. He can and will walk with you through your pain and see you through to the other side, more confident in His love and His faithfulness than ever before.

Maybe God is calling you to step out in faith and do something outside of your comfort zone and your talents and abilities. You know you can’t do what He’s calling you to do on your own, so you learn to lean on Him and rely on Him for everything.

If you’re in a job you think you can’t stand and wonder how you can make it through the day, you find that God is sufficient to carry you through. If you’re in a marriage that seems past salvaging, you will find that God will be your strength just when you need it. If you feel like a hapless romantic with no hope of ever getting married, you find that God meets you at your deepest need and shows Himself to be the very truest desire of your heart.

Don’t look at your circumstances and what you perceive God is doing; look at His heart and trust in His character. Trust in His faithfulness and believe His love never fails. I surely don’t have a lot of answers, especially when it comes to pain or suffering, but I know I’ve never seen my God abandon or desert one of His children in a time of need. His specialty is rescue and restoration. He will do it.

Amen and amen.

First of all, this is not another dating/marital blog. Just for the record. I think this applies to any relationship between two people at any stage of their lives. And this blog was inspired by Pete Wilson’s sermon on Expectationw at Cross Point tonight.

Expectations are about what you will do for me. Expectations are something I expect from you and you probably won’t hear from me about them unless you don’t meet them. Kinda like how no one is ever rewarded or given a raise for showing up to work on time.

Expectations in any area kill the ability for the other person to love you in that way. You can only get back to a zero balance and not be in debt in that area. That’s not love. That’s a contract.

As believers, we’re called to look at our relationships differently. We’re commanded to put the other’s needs above our own and seek their good first and to consider the other person as better than ourselves. Essentially, love means laying down your life, not in the dramatic way of taking a bullet for someone, but in a thousand small ways such as taking an interest in what the other person is interested in, giving up your schedule, not demanding your rights, saying that word of encouragement even when you would rather criticize. The list goes on.

Jesus modeled the ultimate friend. He laid down His life for us and never quit on us, even when we gave Him a million reasons to. He’s done everything in His power to see our brokenness made whole and healed and He’s not about to quit until He’s finished with what He started in us.

We as Christians, or little Christs, are to do the same. We lay down our lives for our friends and never give up on them. We do everything in our power to see them come fully alive in Christ and find healing and wholeness. We want to see their joy made full and their hearts captivated by the love of Christ.

Am I saying to not have any expectations? Maybe. Maybe not. What I am saying is that maybe our expectations should not so much be in what the other person will do for us, or even what we will do for them, but what God has promised to do in those of us who are surrendered and availble for His service. We should expect that His love will conquer any opposition or obstacle. We should expect that God will be faithful always and work all things for the good of those who love Him. I think those are great expectation!

Amen and amen.

After my dad told me of witnessing the aftermath of a fatal car accident, it got me thinking. What if that had been me? What if I were the one lying on the street, covered by a tarp. Not to be macabre, but it’s a reality that I must face (and so must all of you who read this) of human mortality. The question remains: what will my legacy be after I’m gone? What will yours be?

Will it be a legacy of an obsessive need to prove yourself to the world, always striving for acceptance? Will it be a legacy dominated by a career and not much else? Will people look back on your life and see someone who was safe and careful, but didn’t do much of significance? What will people have to say about you at your funeral after you die?

I want my legacy to be one of love. I want it said of me that Jesus loved me and I lived as His beloved and His love overflowed in my heart until it spilled out on every person I touched in my life. I want it said that I loved not just the pretty ones or the popular ones or the influential ones, but all the ones God made. I want people to say that I had a special place in my heart for poor, the sick, the homless, the friendless, the outcast, the widow, the orphan, and those God had a special place for in His heart.

I want to say that I helped to awaken in people a longing for Jesus and enabled them to see themselves as Jesus sees them– as His beloved. I want as many people to know that they are not alone in this world. That there is hope and healing and wholeness and restoration in Jesus. That no one is ever too far gone or too lost or too messed up for Jesus to save. That Jesus will never ever give up on His own or stop loving them.

What will your legacy be? What do you want it to be? May it be a legacy of love that causes people not so much to remember you, but to see Jesus and fall in love with Him. That’s the best kind of legacy to have.

Amen and amen.

You are not your past. Whatever you’ve done or has been done to you is not you anymore.

You are not your failures, fiascos, and mistakes. You are not the screw-up that some people have said you were right before they threw up their hands and walked out on you for good.

You are not what your fears speak into your mind on the darkest nights when you’re at your weakest.

You are not what you imagine people think of you. You don’t have to run after their approval anymore.

You are who God says you are. You are what He has declared you to be. You are as deeply loved and accepted as you will ever be in Christ.

Jesus saw you at your very worst during your very lowest point when you were as far away from God as you could possibly be and set His love on you. He fell in love with you then, so don’t you think He loves you at least that much now?

You are not inferior to anybody. You don’t have to apologize to anyone for who God made you to be. You are equal with anybody in God’s sight.

You are good enough and you are pleasing to God right now because when He sees you, He sees Jesus and is pleased. He is overjoyed with you and dances with delight over you. If you’ve repented of sin and come to place your faith in Christ, these things are true.

You are just as righteous as Jesus. You have EVERYTHING you need right now in Christ. It is His good desire to give you the Kingdom and to see you walk in the victory He won for you.

As you see more and more the lies of the devil for what they are and more and more the love of Jesus for as deep and wide and high and long as it is, your addictions and sins fall away. You are a new creation. The old self has already passed away.

Believe it. Live it. Savor it with every breath God gives you. You are the BELOVED and nothing will ever change that. EVER!

Amen and amen!

I get caught up in my rights as a believer and in trying to fit God into my plans and get Him to bless what I’m doing. I want God’s stamp of approval on my goals and aspirations. I have the mentality that most other American Christians have that if I am faithful, God owes me a good marriage and family, success, good health, long life, etc.

Then again, that goes against Biblical Christianity. I am not entitled to anything. In fact, it’s not even about me giving up my rights and choosing to go where God leads. It’s about recognizing that I have no rights in the first place to give up and understanding that if I call myself by the name Christian, I have no say in where God tells me to go or what He tells me to do.

I am God’s slave.

I know most translations will say servant, but that doesn’t quite capture the radical nature of who I am in Christ. It’s too soft. I am a slave, completely owned by God and completely at His mercy to do with me what He will, whenever He will. My job is to obey. Period.

The good news is that in slavery I have freedom. The good news is that when God calls, He enables me to do His bidding. I’ve always liked the old saying that God doesn’t call the eqipped, but He equips the called. And if Jesus is in me, then I have everything I need to be all that God has called me to be, according to 2 Peter.

We will either be slaves to sin and addictions or we will be slaves to Christ and His love for us. Anything else is a myth. So I choose this day to be Christ’s slave and to serve Him only.

What (or Whom) do you choose? And if you don’t decide, you’ve made your choice anyway. Choosing not to serve Christ, even if you’re not overtly choosing the other way, is still choosing sin. That’s just the way it works. So I urge you in view of all God in Christ has done for you and how much He loves you, to choose Him every single day.

Amen and amen.

”My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everyone you know. Everyone you see. Everyone you talk to.  He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement” (Patricia, a character from Joe Versus the Volcano).

Too many times I have sleepwaked through my life and been on autopilot. I have not really been awake or alive and have missed out, wondering why my life is so dull and why nothing ever seems to happen. God is calling me, along with the rest of His children to wake up to what He is doing in the world He made.

When we are awake, truly awake, we will be astonished and amazed on a daily basis. To borrow a favorite acronym from my church, our response will be one of W.O.W. as we are left With Out Words. We will see God in everything and see that everything really is a direct result of His power holding it all together and His grace keeping it from falling apart.

We need to be a people saturated in God and in His word. We need to be a people who are recognized for having been with Jesus. We need to be known as a people who live and love radically, whose lifestyle matches what comes from our lips. We need to be a people who have learned to see ourselves through the Word of God.

I heard a great definition of obedience. Obedience is when the Word that is implanted and dwelling in you comes out and manifests itself through acts of love, compassion, and kindness. Obedience shouldn’t be a have to done out of fear or duty, but a get to done out of joy and love. The fact that we get to be a part of the amazing work God is doing should amaze us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “There is no object so foul that intense light will not make beautiful.” Lord, let your light so shine on us that we are transformed into something beautiful that will leave those around us WithOut Words. Fill all of us with all of You until we can be You to the world and be the change that the world needs to see.

Amen and amen.

My grandmother, Iris, grew up in an orphanage. I knew that part. What I didn’t know was the reason she was there– her mother had her out of wedlock and neither her real father or her father who was married to her mother wanted her. In fact, she spent the first 12 years of her life in that orphanage not even knowing she had brothers and sisters. She often said she grew close to the Lord when she would go into the bathroom and pray for someone to come get her and take her out of that place.

She always said, “I’m a child of the King.” Whenever anyone would point out a group of livestock grazing on a hill, she would say, “My Father owns all those cattle.” Her strong faith came out of an identity that was securely rooted in what God said about her, not what her earthly father or anyone else said about her. Her confidence in her final destination of heaven came from trusting the ultimate Promise Keeper. Even when alzheimers took away everything else from her, it never could touch her faith.

If you’ve trusted Christ for salvation, you are equally a child of the King. No one has the right to tell you who you are or to define you by your past or your mistakes, because your Father has spoken the final Word on the matter, and that Word trumps anything and everything else. No one can change that or ever take that away from you.

When you’re all alone in your bathroom, crying out for God for deliverance, He’s there with you. He’s holding you in an embrace so secure that nothing can break it and whispering words in your ear that not the devil, not the world, not even you, can refute. He’s telling you that He’s your Abba and that He’s very fond of you in that moment, in the middle of the mess you’ve made or the mess you’ve found yourself in. Know that you are never beyond His reach and no situation is ever too hopeless.

He specializes in healing broken hearts, mending broken lives, and turning catatrophies into miracles. He sees not who you are, but what you will become. In fact, His promises are so sure, that you can already begin to thank Him for them now. He’s promised that you will be more than you ever dreamed possible and that He can make your life such a testimony of His grace and power that the world will be left without words.

Rest in His love for you and let His love transform your ashes into beauty, your pain into rejoicing, and your sorrow into dancing. Let that love spill out onto those around you and you walk with His feet and reach out with His hands and be His face to them. That’s what a child of the King is.

Amen and amen.

As one astute observer once said, “You can pick your nose and you can pick your friends, but you can’t wipe your friends underneath the seat.” How true. How very true. Except maybe in the case of true friends, you don’t pick them. God does. In my case, I’ve always been surprised to see who God places in my life and what that person has to teach me.

True friendship is about believing the absolute best about people, even when they have stopped believing it themselves. It’s about believing in them when they can’t believe in themselves anymore.

True friendship is about hoping the best for your friends, even when they’ve lost hope. It’s about you being their strength and sometimes carrying them when they can no longer walk.

True friendship is about doing everything in your power to see them moved toward healing and wholeness and freedom. It’s your job to see them looking more like Christ and to be open to them doing the same for you. Because you need just as much healing, wholeness, freedom and Christlikeness as they do.

True fiendship is about never, never, never, never, never, never giving up on your friends. Even after they’ve blown that 10,000th chance, you still offer the 10,001st, because God has offered way more fresh starts to us than that. Way more than we can count, in fact.

Ultimately, being a friend is about being Jesus to that person. For as long as he or she is in your life, you are to be Jesus to him or her. I’ve always loved the saying that goes, “A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” I truly believe that the song you sing to that person is one that reminds them of who they are in Jesus and how He sees them.

So that’s what I am striving toward in my friendships. I pray you do the same. Because ultimately we need each other and the world needs to see us loving each other with the love of Christ. That’s the kind of radical living that will change the world.

Amen and amen!