Breathe Deep

A Little Longer

ronsworld — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:44:48 +0000

Jesus Culture & Kim Walker-Smith

ronsworld — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:35:03 +0000

untitled

ronsworld — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:21:45 +0000

God’s Chisel

ronsworld — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:08:18 +0000

Jeremy Blount shared this one with me. Thanks man.

Wanting More of God

ronsworld — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:59:33 +0000

So Paul put it best when he described in Romans 5:18-23 of how we “groan” inside these “tents” (2 Corinthians 5:1-5). Where we long for more of God and long to experience more of Him and our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak. Our spirit just hits the “ceiling” of this body it’s trapped in. But we want more-to break free.

Charles Spurgeon describes it like this:
The Christian man in the present state is like a bird in a cage: his body imprisons his soul. His spirit, it is true, ranges heaven and earth, and laughs at the limits of matter, space, and time; but for all that, the flesh is a poor scabbard unworthy of the glittering soul, a mean cottage unfit for a princely spirit, a clog, a burden, and a fetter. When we would watch and pray, we find full often that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. “We that are in this body do groan.” The fact is, we are caged birds; but the day cometh when the great Master shall open the cage door, and release his prisoners. We need not dread the act of unfastening the door, for it will give to our soul the liberty for which it only pines, and then, with the wings of a dove, covered with silver, and its feathers with yellow gold, though aforetime it had lien among the pots, it will soar into its native air, singing all the way with a rapture beyond imagination… How often does my soul feel like an unhatched chick, shut up within a narrow shell, in darkness and discomfort! The life within labors hard to chip and break the shell, to know a little more of the great universe of truth, and see in clearer light the infinite of divine love. Oh, happy day, when the shell shall be broken, and the soul, complete in the image of Christ, shall enter into the freedom for which she is preparing! We look for that, and we shall have it. God, who gave us to aspire to holiness and spirituality and to likeness to himself, never implanted those aspirations in us out of mockery. He meant to gratify these holy longings, or, else, he would not have excited them. Ere long we shall depart—that is, we shall be set free to go in peace.

Waiting Faithfully

ronsworld — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:29:52 +0000

Wow it’s been 2 months since I’ve written anything here. Busy summer for me. Praying for direction right now as things seem to be in limbo with a few opportunities in front of me concerning different areas of ministry in my church. Waiting for God’s direction is so tough. Patience is not one of my gifts. But I wait faithfully. Worship and Bible study have been pretty good this summer. Going through Luke with Matt Chandler’s podcast. Great stuff. I love learning something new from the Bible after I thought I’ve heard and known it all. Great new music too.

Check These Guys Out!

ronsworld — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:44:46 +0000

If you haven’t heard John Piper preach or Matt Chandler preach then you have to check out a sample. These guys are challenging and passionate about Christ.

Remembering Teen Angst

ronsworld — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:46:34 +0000

I’ve been thinking lately about how it was like growing up as a teen in the 80′s and trying to live as a Christian. After giving my life to Christ when I was ten, I didn’t really have much guidance from a mentor or an older person to tell me how I should live. It was mainly modeled before me in the church I grew up in and watching how my parents lived it in front of my watchful eye. (That always reminds me, now that I have eyes watching me.) I do know that I had something different in me that bugged me. Something that always gave me this sense of right and wrong. It would overwhelm me at times. I know this was the Holy Spirit in me, guiding me at a young age. Keeping me from making some big mistakes in life. But when I wanted to take over and run my life, there would be this battle that would go on, where I thought I knew what was best for me and I would make mistakes (0.k., sin) and I would inevitably end up in front of the church Sunday morning at the altar asking God’s forgiveness. I just thank God that he never let go and didn’t give up on me.

Going to a Christian school wasn’t easy. It seemed like some adults at my small church thought I had it all together because I went there (by choice-left public school in 9th grade). There was a lot of pressure on me. They seemed to think I could “help” their kids by being friends with them and reaching out to them. I remember one lady getting mad because I hadn’t reached out more to her son that wasn’t living like she wanted him to. At 16, I had a hard enough time keeping my own life to together on that narrow path. I really didn’t like the pressure put on me. There were times I just felt like giving up. It sure looked a lot more fun on the “other side”. Giving in to the pressure of just letting go and doing what the majority of my unsaved friends were doing and even my saved friends. I couldn’t keep the lies up for long. The sleepless nights, the voice of the Spirit always telling me it’s wrong.

As a dad I have to remind myself that my kids are growing up in different times. I can’t put expectations on them. Like how I think they need to live out their walk with God or how I think they need to look like or how they should act. I need to model it in front of them. I need to mirror Christ in front of them. They need to see me living a “crazy” life of faith and loving God with all I have.. I think back and I don’t remember my dad ever “telling me ” how I should live, but he lived and still lives a godly life and I just sat back and watched. I still had some sin in my life in my 20′s that I had to struggle and wrestle with God through. But He kept me close and I saw that His way of living was best for me. More of Him, less of me was what it boiled down to.

I know the teens in our church and our christian school are hurting and my wife and I, and other leaders pray for them everyday. Some feel like giving up. Some just want to vent or be heard. It would seem so easy to just give in right now. It hurts us when one of our kids puts on their facebook words like:

If I had one wish,
I would wish to die,
To go to be with God and loved ones,
Into the Heavens, to forever abide.

I cannot continue this,
I can no longer handle life,
Though I try, I always fail,
And I only find more strife.

I’m reminded of a song that came out in ’98 that I think summed up all the teen angst of the 90′s that seemed to be the buzz word then. I think it still resounds today. We all want to belong, to be heard, to be loved, to fit in. Some will even believe the lie of giving in and walking away from their faith to have this.

1 John

2:13: I am writing to you who are mature because you know Christ, the one who is from the beginning. I am writing to you who are young because you have won your battle with Satan.

2:14: I have written to you, children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you who are mature because you know Christ, the one who is from the beginning. I have written to you who are young because you are strong with God’s word living in your hearts, and you have won your battle with Satan. NLT

Freedom of Religion?

ronsworld — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:40:57 +0000

Check out this video about a pastor who has a bible study at his home that was ordered to be stopped!

Reading 1 John

ronsworld — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:26:50 +0000

I’ve been reading the book A God Centered Church by Henry Blackaby and it’s starts with covering 1 John 1:3-7. I think the book of 1 John is such a convicting part of the Bible. It’s really speaking to me and how I need to love my brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes it’s so hard to love other Christians. Why is that? Verses 3-7 says that if I say I have fellowship with God then I will have fellowship with other Christians. I’m really seeing the connection and the reason Jesus gave the commands of “love God” and then “love one another”. It’s His plan of salvation to the world revealed through his body of believers. John 13:34-35. Especially the forgiveness part. Look at Matthew 6:14.

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” NLT

So I carry the weight of sin on my shoulders and I build a wall between me and God when I don’t forgive others. The part of the Lord’s prayer now has some light shed on it for me. “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

So a world that is watching me and ultimately seeing God revealed through me and my relationship with others in my church, has got to see a forgiving God who forgives even the most offensive of sins against me. And I show them Christ’s forgiveness by forgiving those who continually sin against me. A qoute from Blackaby says, “God is seeking to reveal Himself through us, and for us not to forgive is to give a wrong picture of God to a watching world.”

So my fellowship with God has a direct connection with my fellowship with other Christians. Verse 7. This also includes my relationship with my wife and my kids. It is our relationship with God that determines all other relationships in our life.

Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:16-19 lays out the foundation. GOD’S LOVE. Here’s a quote from Blackaby from his book,

“Koinonia between the members-love in action-is absolutely vital to the nature of the church and to the purposes God has for the church. This was God’s strategy from the beginning when He made a covenant with His people, commanding them to love God and one another. These two commandments are dramatically tied together in the eternal strategy of God to touch a world. Jesus prayed that the fellowship He had with the Father would be replicated among His people. Examine carefully Jesus’ prayer in John 17 with a fresh understanding of koinonia.”