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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