2 Kingdoms

Jesus standing before Pilate…

John 18:36a   “My kingdom is not of this world…”

These thoughts are from Louie Giglio’s message “Glorious Rescue” found at http://www.268generation.com/.  Had to share a simple question from it.

Right now there are 2 kingdoms.  One is a broken down kingdom with a broken down king.  Yet it’s deceivingly appealing, and it only leads to death and decay.  The other option is the never ending kingdom of Jesus Christ.  One simple question comes out of this…

IS LIFE WORKING FOR YOU IN THE KINGDOM YOU’RE LIVING IN?

That’s a bigger question than “Are you a Christian?”

Some may say “Yeah, I’m living the life of this world, partying, sleeping around, doing whatever culture is telling me to do. And it’s not working for me.”   Maybe in your heart you feel shrinking instead of swelling-more decaying on the inside than living on the outside.  There’s another way-another option-another kingdom to choose.  Maybe you don’t feel you’re good enough.  Well God’s already done all the work to qualify us and to rescue us.

Colossians 1:12-14  “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.  For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transformed us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Make Him your king.      

This has been a great song to start this week and the words are a great worshipful prayer to my King.

Acts 2:1-3

How He Loves

This week I started with listening to a great sermon from Louie Giglio called “Glorious Rescue.”  The link is here if you want to listen to the whole 40 mins.  It’s “talk 1″ on the “Watch Louie’s Talks online” page after you “enter” the site.  He goes on to read Colossians 1:12-13:

vs.12  …giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Light

vs. 13    For He has rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,

When I sit and think about these words in red that describe an action from God Himself, moving on my behalf.  What am I, that God would do this for me?-a speck of dust.  He did all the work to qualify us.  He moved and performed this for us!  Here is God the Creator of billions trillions, and trillions of stars and planets and universes making a way for us to be rescued!  Some may be going through a time in their life where they feel that God doesn’t care or He’s not in control.  But just grasping the reality of how much God loves us and how much He wants to have close personal communion with us just amazes me and turns my focus on Him and His glory and greatness and my afflictions and trials pale in comparison to Him and all that He is.  It’s all about Him .  Not us. The Creator exalted over the created. 

Romans 11:36  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever! Amen

A song titled How He Loves by John Mark McMillan has made a big impact on my worship time with God.  Some would say it focuses on a “what God has done for me” mentality.  All about me, me , me.  But I’ve been able to take it a step beyond the obvious and I can worship Him for “who He is”, and “ how great He is”  in the good times and the darkest times of my life.  Check out the video of him explaining the story behind the song.  For youth pastors and youth ministry workers.  It will speak to your heart! Powerful and moving.  May we in the ODSM have a heart for the youth as Steve Coffey did for the youth of America and everywhere else.   Second video is of Kim Walker singing the song.  Can be found on the cd/dvd titled “We Cry Out“.  Go to www.ibethel.org/store to buy.  Some of the songs/videos by Chris Quilala, Melissa Wise, and Kim Walker can be viewed on my Vodpod in the right margin.  This cd is definitely in my top 3 “desert island cd” picks. 

I AM

In John 8:53-59 some of the Jewish leaders confront Jesus and point blank ask Him, vs. 53 ”Who do You make Yourself out to be?”

 vs. 54 “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is my Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, but I know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.  Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad. “

vs. 57  So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?

vs. 58 Jesus said to them, ” Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born,   I  AM.”

This was Jesus declaring His divinity!  He is God.  This infuriated the Jews because He declared Himself the Great I Am. 

I’ve seen your face on stained glass, in colored lights
In pictures of you looking to the sky
You been portrayed a thousand different ways
But my heart can see you better than my eyes
‘Cause it’s love that paints the portrait of your life.

I’ve read your words in the pages of your life
And I’ve imagined what you were like
I may not know the shape of your face
But I can feel your heart changing mine
And your love still proves that you’re alive

Let us see…Let us be Your face.

An Audience Of 1

What a great weekend.  Filled with friends, family, food, God, church, and hunting.  Started Saturday morning:

Last Saturday I spent the a.m. in the woods-just me and Him. An audience of one- first He showed me an incredible sunrise that set off the praise and worship for the day. A successful morning of hunting had me in thanks living mode and everything seemed to remind me of verses and how great He is and what a creative Creator He is. Everything from the thorns that would pierce into my legs as I walked through the brush (Gen.3:18- Matt 27:29-thank you Jesus for taking those thorns for ME!). God’s glory was evident in His creation of some of the bluest bluebirds and reddest cardinals I’ve ever seen in the woods. Woodpeckers communicating back and forth breaking the silence of the woods. And I ended the hunt just sitting in the middle of the woods praying, worshipping, praising Him and listening to a hawk glorifying God as it just filled the woods with a high pitched scream for 20 minutes. amazing. worship.

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Wordless Wednesday-You Do The Math

ODSM Experiencing God Bible Study

 We are starting a Bible study in our small groups on Wednesday nights using the Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God Youth Edition by Claude King and Henry Blackaby.  

Here are the verses I’m gnawing on today from Proverbs to help me prepare for this  this study.
2:1
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2:2
turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,
2:3
and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
2:4
and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
2:5
then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. NIV

Wrap your mind around the “if/then” challenge of those verses. Look at all the action verbs- accept, store up, turn, apply, call out, cry aloud, look, search! Circle all the “ifs” of those verses, change your thinking and start digging for the treasures in His Word and “THEN” you will start to experience God.

Take the Experiencing God Bible study and let God do all the work. Just joining us in this Bible Study gives God the opportunity to work in your life. God can and will renew your mind and the way you think if you ask/let Him.

Ezekiel 36:26
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
36:27
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Ask God to “cause” you to love Him more. verse27
Pray that He will “cause” you to be holy. That way God is doing the work and not you or me (we fail when we try to do it !), then He gets all the glory! Think of it this way. If I go into this study and ask God to help “me” do it that’s like saying “God I can do about 70% of this on my own power, but I’m gonna need You to come through with the other 30%.” Don’t just ask Him to help you, ask Him to “cause you” like in verse 27. Then He gets 100% of the credit!

Cat and Dog Theology

Another book I am trying to read through again is Cat & Dog Theology by Bob Sjogren and Gerald Robinson. I read it several years ago and also viewed the dvd series and it really changed my whole thinking about my Christian life. 

A dog says, “You pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, you love me, you must be God.”

A cat says, “You pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, you love me, I must be God.”

With these two underlying themes, the book gave me a whole new perspective on how I viewed God and the Bible.  I was definitely a cat thinker before by thinking that I existed for God to serve me.  But the way a dog thinks is “I exist to serve God.”  The main point from all of this is a quote from the book-

“Life was defined to be a series of events to reveal God’s glory and point us and others to to that glory. That is what life is all about!  It’s all about Him, not us!

New Year, New beginning?

Most people probably look at celebrating New Years as a way to look back at the old and hoping for the new.  The thought of, “Man things have got to be better in the next year.”  It’s a sense of a new beginning, a brand new start, a clean slate.  Commitments and promises are made and the beginning of a brand new year just seems like a good starting point.  I have some of my own God-sized commitments for 2008.  I don’t have any of the details worked out, but I know God does.  Only because I have said, “here God, I am making myself available and willing for this and this and anything else You want, but since I am weak in these areas, You are going to have to guide and help me.  That way, You get all the glory and not me.  

We don’t need a brand new year to commit our lives to God.  Every new day of life is a chance to turn to God.  He is waiting for that broken heart inside you that cries out like David did in Psalm 51:1-17 and you declare your depravity and His divinity…

vs.10  Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a right spirit within me.

Thank you Lord that You are always there waiting no matter who we are or what we’ve done.  Romans 8:38-39