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Yesterday I had the privilege of leading worship at the church I grew up in. First Baptist Church Archer City, Texas has become a bigger blessing than I had ever previously realized. As I stood in front of the congregation before leading the first song I was overwhelmed by memory after memory. The first thing that came to mind upon all the great memories was how beautiful the group of people looked to me. I am sure I was grinning ear to ear and fighting back some of the emotions playing out through my head. As I gazed over the crowd all i could think was how I just knew this was how God saw his beautiful children, his precious creation. He loves us so much and takes so much delight in his creation. No matter how flawed we are he doesnt see that. Romans 8:1 says Now there is no condemnation under christ..Galatians 5:1 says It is for freedom we are free...The grace of God has covered all of our iniquities and he sees beauty. He holds no record of wrongdoing. Im sure some of the people in the crowd had wronged me on occasion over the years of growing up in Archer city but at that moment all I could see was beauty and was struck by how much more God must love each one of us. At that moment all my fears and all my shortcomings no longer mattered. All that mattered was playing my part in seeing his kingdom come. Whatever our role is we wont play it until we begin to wrestle with his great love. Be overcome by his love today. come face to face with the beauty of creation. in turn you will overcome the world and begin to see your neighbor the way intended. LOVE. IS. WHAT. LOVE. OFFERS. FREEDOM. IS. WHAT. FREEDOM. OFFERS. CHRIST. IS. WHAT. CHRIST. OFFERS. Salvation is here.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 1 John 5:1-5...

We are overcomers. As children of God who have been saved by grace through faith we have already overcome because he claimed victory over the grave. We as people LOVE when people overcome. Rocky, or an underdog team in March Madness we LOVE to see this type of activity. If this is the case why so often are we defeated as christians? We sin and get caught in our shame and stay defeated bc we havent done right...Well if there is nothing we can do to earn Gods love there seems to be no point to living this way. He has overcome and called us his own so we will overcome this world. Lets begin to look at life through this frame. Lets stop trying to earn this grace so freely lavished upon us, and just walk in the victory that those who have a HOPE should walk in..Overcome the world this week. Hes called you to it...Overcome the world and shine brightly with peace love and joy today!

Living simply

In our culture we busy ourselves with trinkets and appointments and make less and less time to live intentionally for the sake of others. When text messaging and Facebook reign supreme it is a tough thing to discern where we draw the line of being in the world or of the world. This concept of simplification is something ive thought abot often and contemplated just exactly what that means. Im understanding more and more that if we begin to remove all the junk it frees us up to focus on others. The common theme this generation is "me". It shows in all of our technology that allows ME to do what i want now. This has only led us as a people to continually seek ourselves and rarely seek for the betterment of others. Our calls as christians our to live outside our agendas and take on the kingdom agenda. This means to live for others and to show love to others and constantly pour out in hopes of seeing souls transformed for the name of the Lord. When considering living simply it doesnt mean living with nothing but it means only living with the things that benefit and not what can possibly hinder. Hebrews 12 says to throw off all the things that hinder and the sin that so easily entangels and run the race marked out for us. When it says the things that hinder maybe its talking about the morally neutral things that steal our affections from God and his kingdom work? This is something to ponder because in 1 Corinthians paul says all things are permissible but not all things permissible. Maybe we should consider what it is that sends us to him and not to ourselves. His yoke is easy and his burden is light but we so often burden ourselves with plenty of unnecessary things. Lets run this race. effectively. together.

Be still my soul be still...

Turn down the music
Turn down the noise
Turn up your voice oh God and let us hear the sound
Of people broken, willing to love
Give us your heart oh God a new song rise in us

How often do you look up at the end of a week and notice you have spent very little time engaging God?
How often can you say I did a lot of Christian things such as listen to great music, hear a great sermon, or read a good spiritual book?
Maybe its time we turn down the music and turn down the noise and engage our creator. Its so easy to busy ourselves and never have to get out of our comfort zone for the sake of the gospel. I bet if we turned down the busy nature of our lives and spent some time in reflection on all the blessings and little miracles in life or maybe spent some time studying the word to allow God to reveal himself a little more our lives would call for drastic change. In philippians 2:12 Paul says to work out your salvation with fear and trembling...I challenge anyone reading this to take some time this week and slow down, turn off the music, and let God speak...and by the way even through silence we are receiving an answer...Psalm 37: Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him...

Do NOT QUENCH THE SPIRIT

I understand the need for practical application but I hate the thought of Doing things rather than being. So often we are not walking with the Spirit that was so freely given to us. In John 14 Jesus says,"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. ¹⁴You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." Im not sure i need to say another word it speaks for itself, but what i will say is that the MOST IMPORTANT thing in ministering is being cognizant of the Spirit right now. That is the only thing that will mend hearts and fix broken people. When we are in tune witht he spirit and allow his presence to reign in our lives others receive that. In matthew 10 Jesus says freely you have received, freely give. We need to stop trying so hard and let God do the work. Lets spend more time engaging and drawing near to him. He will send us and take care of the rest. I just returned home from a conference and am overwhelmed by what God did tonight. Lets just say IM no longer a skeptic. God truly has no limits and I pray that he will continue to break chains in my life that hold me back from believing that. Freely you have received; Freely give...Matthew 10:8

All i need is You

Can i let go of the things I DONT NEED long enough to become HIS HANDS? I so often grab and take hold of the things of this world. These things dont satisfy and they take away from intimacy with my savior. Im constantly reminded that as long as I cling to the things of this world I cant possibly be His hands or his feet, his eyes, his ears. Who will listen? Who will see? Who will speak? Who will go? Who will hold tightly to his truths? It is the one who loses his life. Jesus says anyone who loses his life will find it. Lets let go of this world and open ourselves up to be his today. Hearts will change. Brokennes will be healed. Christ will reign. Be a part of it.

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The Waiting Game

Following Jesus means to drop our agenda and pick his up. In life it is great to have drive and dreams but they must be rooted in furthering of the Kingdom. When it comes to discrimination and issues like this it seems we will compromise at all costs to keep the church setting comfortable. Its easy to minister and love a community of people who are like you. The problem is we were never called to minister to the people similar to us. We were called to minister to all and to love our enemies. When we drop whatever drive we have to be recognized or comfy and begin to recognize the humanity of others and the need for all to be loved it certainly shifts the paradigm. I long for the day that ministers want to minister at all costs to the people No one else wants to love or be there for. I am certainly in no way there yet but as of late Ive began to understand that I would LOVE to go to africa or romania but how much do I want to be put near the meth labs of hawley, or spend time on cedar street near high levels of gang activity? Maybe somewhere along the journey we liked Jesus enough to claim him but haven't quite submitted our lives and allowed him to claim us and truly become his, myself included. As believers Jesus has to be given Lordship in our lives and from that grows humble action. WE WERE MADE FOR GOD BY GOD AND EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW AND TONGUE CONFESS THAT HE IS LORD. Why not now?

From the Inside Out

As i sat down this morning to reflect a little bit before i Began to do anything I was listening to some music. From the inside out by hillsong was on and as i listened these words pierced my heart..."Your will above all else my purpose remains, the art of losing myself in bringing you praise"...Im not even sure that at this moment in time I grasp how deep and wide that statement goes. How often do I sing the songs or hear the words and say thats great, yet in no way make an attempt for that to be a reality in my life. Songs such as I surrender all, or None but Jesus quickly come to mind when I think about this. How often in "bringing him praise" am i completely a part of it, and often only praising for my sake. If worship isnt about me why do i constantly feel the need for it to feel good or to have it go a particular way. If thats the case is it not simply again worship of my desires and fulfilling that? God is worthy to be worshipped in all things because he is God and not bc a catchy song about his glory was written. How often do we set aside our agendas and just praise him? How often are we cognizant enough of who he is to let our lives reflect his glory? Bringing him praise is never about me...Its about him...Lets hit our knees and rediscover the ART of losing ourselves to bring him praise...
Everlasting your light will shine when all else fades. Neverending your glory goes beyond all fame...He must become greater I must become less...John 3:30