The Pursuit of Love

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ephesians 3:19

I am in a constant pursuit of God, and with knowing that God is love, I pursue love constantly.  I am not satisfied with having less when I know by reading scripture that there is more.  The pursuit itself makes life worth living because it’s not just a pursuit…  it involves a lot of finding as well.

As I discover new facets of His love I am overwhelmed and amazed by His glory—which is His goodness.   His love never fails me and He is always faithful.  I know that sometimes we can throw around those words in a cliché type of way…  But it’s truth.  He really has never ever failed me.  I can say this about Him because I have not only read it in scripture but I have experienced it for myself and I continue to experience it.   It is this revelation that compels me to dig deeper past the surface—which is theology and understanding of who God is through reading the scriptures—to a further realm of knowing Him and experiencing who He is in relationship.

I do however have to be careful that my pursuit itself is rooted and ground in love.  I’ve realized that in the past at times my pursuit was fueled by fear.  It was as if I tried to force Him into an encounter because I was so scared of my faith being tested.  I wanted evidence of His existence.  God did reveal Himself to me in time, although it was not so much in the ways I expected Him to.  He knows what’s best for our development.

Trust Him through this season.  Trust Him because He really is a good God.  Trust Him because His love will never fail you.   Pursue love.

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.  –Ephesians 3:14-19

What are you living for?

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Psalm 37:4

What are you living for? 

I like to people watch.  I’ve always done it.  I can’t help but be amazed that there are so many of us; and each one of us with our own life, our own thoughts and our own goals.  We are all so different but yet we are very similar at the same time.  We are all wired for purpose.  There is a deep desire in every one of us for our life to have meaning.  We have to feed this desire with something but what we end up feeding it with can vary extensively from one human to another.  Some live for their kids, some for their spouse, some for their jobs and some for themselves.   It’s easy to get caught up in pursuing a purpose in something and before you know it years have passed by.

I pursued music for years.  Over ten years of my life I lived for music.  I put so much time and energy towards being successful with music.   I had some good success and made it farther than many others do but the success left about as quickly as it came.  It was about that time that the Lord got my attention and I shifted my focus and began to live for God.  But what does living for God look like?

While I lived for music I did everything I could to achieve success so naturally when I started to live for God I was doing the same thing.   But as I got to know Him better I realized that it doesn’t work like that in the Kingdom of God.  Jesus doesn’t grade us by achievement.  This was a hard lesson for me to accept because after all I am an achiever.  I took my Clifton Strengths Finder test in college and there it was… “achiever” as my third top strength.   So here Jesus was saying, “It’s great that you’re an achiever.  I don’t want you to change who you are.  But my love for you has nothing to do with your achievements.”  It kinda messed with my head.  It took me quite some time to get it.  I think I’m still learning to get it.  And there’s some of you that need to learn to get it too.

God loves you regardless of what you accomplish in life.  Your purpose is not found in accomplishments.  Your purpose is not even found in ministry.  Your purpose is not found in serving others and your purpose is not found in evangelism.  Your calling is not to be a pastor, teacher, apostle or prophet.  Those things are great and I’m not saying we don’t need them.  What I’m saying is that your title and the way God decides to use you is not your purpose.  Your purpose is very, very simple…  Your purpose is simply to know Jesus.   Ministry is to be a bi-product of knowing Him.  It’s an after effect, but it blows my mind that so many make ministry their main thing so that they will minister before they will spend time with Jesus getting to know Him.

There’s a popular scripture that says, delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

This doesn’t mean try really hard to memorize scripture, pray every day before dinner, stop using cuss words when I drop a heavy object on my foot, and put on a fake smile in front of other Christians—then my life will look delighted in the Lord.  And if I appear to be delighted in the Lord then He will give me that desire I’ve always had to [insert your dream of being successful here] and my life will finally have purpose.   No, I think what this verse really means is know the Lord and He will become your heart’s desire.

If you have truly delighted yourself in the Lord it’s because you have begun to know Him, and once you start knowing Him you cannot help but fall in love with Him.   He will become your heart’s desire.  Oh and one more thing…. He won’t relent until your whole heart is His.  His desire is to know you.  Please open your heart and let Him in.

Good World > Bad World

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Philippians 4:11-13

Good World > Bad World

Optimism:
1 : a doctrine that this world is the best possible world
2 : an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome

Pessimism:
1 : an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome
2 : the doctrine that reality is essentially evil

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:  I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. –Philippians 4:11-13

With God renewing my mind He has taught me to view the glass as half full.  He wants us to see the good in life.  Which actually means He wants us to find Him in life… yes, in this world.  He wants us to become so optimistic that everywhere we go we are filled with the presence of God and literally bring goodness with us into a room and change the atmosphere.

Lord today I choose to be an optimist.  I choose to see the good in this world.  I choose to be rooted and grounded in love; and I choose this because of the reality of your love which you have shown to me. 

Without the love of God in my life I tried to be an optimist but it was hard—it was honestly a lot of work.  But with the love of God, He makes it easy.  With the love of God I’ve realized that this world is far more perfect than I had ever thought or imagined.

May your minds be renewed today to see the good in this life:

Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. –Colossians 1:27

 

Beam me up Jesus

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Ephesians 2:6

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. –Ephesians 2:4-6

A common theme this season has been perspective—how am I viewing the world?  As Christians we often talk about “looking up” and what we mean by this is to look to God.  But I’ve realized that Christ lives in me and I am most connected with Him through the Holy Spirit inside me.   So instead of turning outward and looking for God in some area outside of me, I am learning to turn inward to reconnect with Him.  It is amazing!  Once I catch myself having gone to being led by my flesh and own mind again I can quickly say “Jesus,” and turn inward to feel His peace with me.  It’s become a tangible experience where I can call upon Him at any moment.

I think we need to realize that to have the mind of Christ we need to find Him living in our own hearts.  By turning inside to the Holy Spirit I have a direct connection to heaven, and at that moment I am seated together with Him in heavenly places.  I have been “beamed up” so to say, but rather than looking up I have looked in.

My friends, Christ is closer than you think.  We are in Him and He is in us.

Redemption Destroys Shame!

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Isaiah 61:7

Instead of your shame you shall have double honor… -Isaiah 61:7

God is doing it again—He’s freeing many from bondage!

Redemption destroys shame and God is breaking the chains of shame at this very moment!  Hallelujah!

Believe what He says about you today.  Draw the line in the sand and step over it to never look back.

Be a believing believer … it’s your destiny.

Rest in Hope

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Numbers 6:26

My flesh also will rest in hope. –Psalm 16:9

The Lord says, “Rest in Me today and I will restore your hope.”

I think sometimes we forget the human side of Jesus…  I know I do.  I get caught up and amazed by His eternal glory and infinite power that I forget He was just as human as we are.  He’s been through human life.  He understands your every emotion and struggle and He loves you through all of it.  We need to understand this to have an accurate perception of God.  He’s not some angry god that is like a mean dad waiting for his kid to mess up so he can yell at him.  He’s our friend and a loving Father.  He’s on your side.   He’s in this with you, not against you.

God spoke to Moses telling him to bless the children of Israel by telling them, “the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” (Num 6:26)

How do we get peace from His countenance?  Well, the only way that is going to happen is when you have an accurate perception of His countenance—His expression towards you.  When He looks at you what He sees is love.  He sees a saint.  He sees family—His sons and daughters.  He is smiling at you because…

He’s proud of you.   

Believe this word today and rest in the hope of God.  It will change your life.

 

Your Testimony is Truth

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Rev 19:10

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. –Rev 19:10

With having a blog about Christianity and spirituality geared towards seekers I of course every now and then have a reader with atheistic views. I completely welcome them and I try to get a better understanding from them at where they’re coming from. I’ve often asked God how I should reply to their arguments against His existence and I often would not hear much back from God about it. I would read all the books like The Case For Christ and books that give you theological and Christian philosophy answers to the “tough questions”; but no matter how many books I read I still couldn’t give them a good answer to their points. And what I realized is that they often had the same exact arguments and tough questions that I used to affirm my agnostic/borderline atheist views for years. What I’ve realized is that theology and philosophy will not change anyone’s view. What changes your view on God is when you encounter His love.

In realizing that I recently asked the Lord, “How can I show what you’ve given me to others? How can I show them the truth that you’ve shown me?” One of the things He told me is “Your testimony is truth.” My testimony is a story of what God is doing, the stories of Jesus in the Bible are testimonies of what God has done, and prophecy is a testimony of what God is going to do. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So I’m going to make it a point to share more of my testimony in hopes that sharing the experiences of Jesus that I have had will become prophecy to others. I hope that they will see what He has done in my life and ask Him to do that in theirs. What God has done, He will do again. It’s in His nature to constantly be doing good things—new things! So below is a recent reply I wrote to an atheist reader. I felt led to share this today since it has quite a bit of testimony in it.

Basically for me what it comes down to is experience and intuition. I’m sure you’d agree that most of us learn best from experiencing something ourselves. That’s what life is all about in my opinion. But I’m a very analytical person myself too. If someone tells me something I don’t just believe what they say, I ask “why?” And I’ll research until I come up with satisfying answers. The thing is though, with a subject like the meaning of life and spirituality, intellectually I cannot find satisfying answers on a lot of things. We can try and that gives us religion and philosophy like you mentioned. But with me I have to approach life’s meaning and my own spirituality by intuition and personal experience. I then try to intellectually tie together my intuition and experience and it becomes my world view. This doesn’t mean I understand all the ways of God, in fact the more I come to know Him the more I realize things I have been wrong about in the past. It’s a process of humility in yielding our understanding to a higher power. Many people (many Christians) are afraid to do this and they try to come up with black and white answers on things like salvation. I avoid having black and white answers on topics like that because I don’t think God works that way.

But let me ask you this… If you encountered God, and had a similar experience to what the Apostle Paul had in the book of Acts where God basically knocked him on his butt, blinded him with a bright light and spoke to him in an audible voice, would your misunderstandings of God matter to you at all to believe in His existence? Of course not! You would have experienced God first hand and you would know He existed though you would only have your testimony and story to tell others. Many would probably think you were crazy – as they did to the apostle Paul. Well something happened to Paul on that day that caused him to have a drastic conversion from killing Christians to being one of the most influential people of history in spreading Christianity. This is just one story of thousands – probably millions of testimonies of people who have encountered God. And not just stories of encountering God but also of encountering the demonic and spirit realm in general. For example all the ghost stories and near death experiences we hear of again and again.

I was talking to a man yesterday whose son died three years ago after being a drug addict and overdosing in a hotel. The man told me his son came to him in a dream and told his father that he was ok and he was with Jesus now. The father instantly converted to being a believer in Jesus Christ. Did his son repent and accept Jesus by saying a “sinner’s prayer” before overdosing? Probably not. He wasn’t a regular church goer and who knows if he read the bible. But regardless he came to his dad in a dream and said he was with Jesus now. That’s just one story and this stuff happens every single day. I go to a charismatic church where we believe and pray for miracles. We’ve seen some crazy stuff. My friend’s wife was almost completely blind and was a Christian for about ten years when in a healing service one day her eye sight after prayer was completely restored! I used to watch her walk around with a cane and could see the cloudiness in her eyes. To this day she can see! Just one more story of many that happen every day.

For over ten years I was an agnostic/borderline atheist. I had the same conclusions that you did. Christianity did not make sense and therefore God must not exist – or at least not the God that Christians believe in. Well one day I was at an old Inn and I encountered the demonic. I was woken up in the middle of the night by a strange cranking noise. The entire room was cloudy and the wall behind me started glowing. An evil presence (How do I know it was evil? This is just one of those intuition things) came on top of me. I could not move and I thought this thing was there to kill me. I could barely breathe but I cried out to God and the demon went away.

From that day on it’s been a long journey of finding humility in yielding my limited finite understanding to what is eternal and beyond my full comprehension. Since that day I have had many encounters with God. I have trembled in the power of His presence, spoken in tongues, been delivered from alcoholism and porn addiction, I have heard his audible voice a couple times, I have had many spiritual dreams and I feel His presence with me every single day. He is more real to me than anything else. And if you want to believe that I am deceived then I am completely fine with that. I have found a better way to live than the way I used to live. He makes me come alive! He makes me experience life like I never could before. I have never felt so free before in my entire life! I love Him and will praise Him for the rest of my days. Whether my life is blessed abundantly or burdened with hardships and loss, nothing will ever change my belief in God because I have personally experienced His love and salvation.

One of the first things Jesus is recorded saying is, “the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” He said it’s at hand. Not you’ll get to heaven when you die. Approaching Christianity as only a get out of hell when you die concept is not the Kingdom of God that Jesus was talking about. He said the truth will set you free. He was talking about finding peace and truth in this life and being set free now from the bondage sin has on us. I have experienced this personally which makes my testimony the only truth I need to believe whole heartedly in God.

Jesus said, “Seek and you will find.” I have found this to be absolute truth. The more I seek the more I find. But you should know that it’s not easy. The deep encounters of God that I have had have been when I am so desperate almost to the point of wanting to die if I could not encounter Him. Why He works that way?? I don’t know.. It’s a process and He designed life to be that way. It’s a journey and the ups and downs make us appreciate the ups. It’s life and the process of seeking truth. I’m not in the rightful position to question Him and tell Him the way I think life should be – although I tried that for a period of time and became very angry with God. Things are what they are and me being mad at God is not going to change that. Anyways I’ve rambled for quite some time and am not sure if I even answered or gave you a good opposing argument to any of your points. I guess what I’m trying to get at is that God is not found intellectually. He is found intuitively when we humbly yield ourselves to that which is beyond us -the power that gives us life. I pray that you find Him. And once you do you’ll realize that He’s been there right in front of you the whole time. Happy seeking my friend.