John 6:1-13
I feel kind of like the boy that went to hear Jesus speak to the 5,000, and all I have is 5 loaves of bread and 2 lousy fish. Odds are they were not the finest pieces of bread and the most desirable fish that kings would want. But our King did.
I struggle so much with insecurities and what God is and has called me to do, who I am in general, how I look, and my abilities. I really feel like if you put everything together that I have, it probably would not amount to much more than 5 pitiful pieces of bread and 2 plain fish. But for some reason, Jesus wants that. He wants me.
The beauty of it all is that when our loaves and fish are put into the hands, the holy hands, of Jesus Christ, we can watch them become something so much greater. He can use them, multiply them, taken them so much farther, and actually feed people with them.
To me, and everyone else, all we may see is a sorry excuse for a meal, but Jesus sees a great feast. Our gifts, our callings, our desires… they all belong in the hands of Jesus, as well as our lives completely.
I’m putting what I have in the hands of Jesus and expecting to see miracles and watch Him take what I have and use it far beyond what I have ever thought I could possibly do with it.
--Jesus, this is all I have. Some bread and some fish. I wish I had more options to choose from, but I don’t. But I give it to You. Bless it. Use it. It’s Yours. You are the God who made man from the dust, and You can take the dust of my life, my loaves and fish, and make something amazing from it. And I know You never leave anything incomplete. You are a God who finishes what He begins (Philippians 1:4-6). I love you so much Jesus. It’s all Yours. Amen.--
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Miracles
Everyone wants to see miracles, but few believe that they exist. They may say they believe, but their hearts prove them false. Everyone wants to see a light appear out of darkness, but few will open their eyes. Everyone wants to hope in something bigger than themselves, but few will give control over to stronger hands.
There are miracles. There really are, but they must be received. They must be believed in. They must be hoped for. Even if you can’t quite see it just yet, you still have to know that it is there. That is what faith is. “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Or, it is “being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Can you believe in someone you cannot see? Can you trust words never audibly spoken? Can you wait for a promise that has not yet come?
Miracles can happen everyday. When someone believes in faith unseen in a world full of doubt that demands proof, a miracle has taken place.
There are miracles. There really are, but they must be received. They must be believed in. They must be hoped for. Even if you can’t quite see it just yet, you still have to know that it is there. That is what faith is. “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Or, it is “being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Can you believe in someone you cannot see? Can you trust words never audibly spoken? Can you wait for a promise that has not yet come?
Miracles can happen everyday. When someone believes in faith unseen in a world full of doubt that demands proof, a miracle has taken place.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Battlefield Altars
I feel in my spirit that I got this word from the Lord yesterday, and I wrote this down in my journal:
“Your battlefields will become your altars. With what the devil brought about to harm you, the Lord will heal you.”
In Old Testament times, when God would deliver the children of Israel somehow, like in a battle or something, they would make an altar right where that was. So when they passed by it again, it would be a reminder of the deliverance and goodness of the Lord. (Exodus 17:15-16, Genesis 35:7, 1 Samuel 14:35, etc…)
In my life, and in others’, I’m declaring the places we have battled will become the places we break bread. The places we have been wounded will become the places that we worship. The Lord will deliver you out of your troubles, and your heart ache will become your heart’s praise.
Psalm 20:6-7
“Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He answers him from His holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
Here in the power of Christ we stand. So get some stones together, I feel like we’re gonna be building some altars pretty soon here.
“Your battlefields will become your altars. With what the devil brought about to harm you, the Lord will heal you.”
In Old Testament times, when God would deliver the children of Israel somehow, like in a battle or something, they would make an altar right where that was. So when they passed by it again, it would be a reminder of the deliverance and goodness of the Lord. (Exodus 17:15-16, Genesis 35:7, 1 Samuel 14:35, etc…)
In my life, and in others’, I’m declaring the places we have battled will become the places we break bread. The places we have been wounded will become the places that we worship. The Lord will deliver you out of your troubles, and your heart ache will become your heart’s praise.
Psalm 20:6-7
“Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He answers him from His holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
Here in the power of Christ we stand. So get some stones together, I feel like we’re gonna be building some altars pretty soon here.
Monday, July 13, 2009
For She Loved Much
Luke 7:36-50
No one is really put together are we? The way this life seems to work is that you get a little bit of growth and then you are knocked down again. You turn your back on your past and before you can completely turn around, there it is staring you in the face again. Sins that we've confessed, cast out, and condemned seem to hunt us down and have free reign in our lives at times.
Why is this? Why does life work like that? It's as if God made us just strong enough to realize we can change our ways, but too weak to pull that change off. Could it be that God's perfect design is imperfect people?
God makes all things well, but He also makes all things new.
Ecclesiastes 7:29 - "This only have I found: God made man upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes."
God made us upright and in His perfect design, but sin corrupts and perverts perfection. We are born with sinful natures because of the fall of man, and in a sense powerless to the power of sin. Helpless and hopeless.
But through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, we have been given the power to change. The power to be free. The power to be made perfect again the eyes of the Father.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come."
We have been created weak enough to find the strength of our Savior and Healer, Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus is so amazing that He can take our sin and create what is now gain for us; He can produce love from our sins.
Luke 7:47 - "Therefore, I tell you, her [my, your] many sins have been forgiven-- for she [I, you] loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
And that is why I love Jesus so much. Because I am so weak, because I have sinned so many times, because I am not put together, and I am not ok. But I have been forgiven much, so I cannot help but love much.
Our pasts, no matter how distant or recent, cannot keep us from the love of Christ. For all of the extent of our sins, we can come to know the extent of His love, His great love for His precious children.
He has loved much. So much.
No one is really put together are we? The way this life seems to work is that you get a little bit of growth and then you are knocked down again. You turn your back on your past and before you can completely turn around, there it is staring you in the face again. Sins that we've confessed, cast out, and condemned seem to hunt us down and have free reign in our lives at times.
Why is this? Why does life work like that? It's as if God made us just strong enough to realize we can change our ways, but too weak to pull that change off. Could it be that God's perfect design is imperfect people?
God makes all things well, but He also makes all things new.
Ecclesiastes 7:29 - "This only have I found: God made man upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes."
God made us upright and in His perfect design, but sin corrupts and perverts perfection. We are born with sinful natures because of the fall of man, and in a sense powerless to the power of sin. Helpless and hopeless.
But through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, we have been given the power to change. The power to be free. The power to be made perfect again the eyes of the Father.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come."
We have been created weak enough to find the strength of our Savior and Healer, Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus is so amazing that He can take our sin and create what is now gain for us; He can produce love from our sins.
Luke 7:47 - "Therefore, I tell you, her [my, your] many sins have been forgiven-- for she [I, you] loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."
And that is why I love Jesus so much. Because I am so weak, because I have sinned so many times, because I am not put together, and I am not ok. But I have been forgiven much, so I cannot help but love much.
Our pasts, no matter how distant or recent, cannot keep us from the love of Christ. For all of the extent of our sins, we can come to know the extent of His love, His great love for His precious children.
He has loved much. So much.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
don't phase me bro
well i just got my 3rd flat tire in about 3 weeks. this is getting ridiculous. but here's the good news, i'm becoming more of a man with each new tire i change. pretty soon i will be able to grow a mustache. i can feel it.
with all the car problems i've been having lately, i feel that i've learned so much more, at least about car problems. feels like i've been to the mechanics about 20 times in the last 19 days. but these flat tires and broken things don't phase me no more. cause you can either get upset, or you can get even... wait that's not right. not get even, i meant you can either get upset or learn something new. you can learn how to rejoice in the annoying bad times, or you can sulk over it.
the night of my first radio show a few weeks back, i got a flat tire on the way to ocala, and i was getting drenched in sweat trying to change it and it was taking forever. i was getting upset, and then what i've been talking about just now hit me, i decided i was gonna just praise the Lord. i turned my speakers up in my car and put on "blessed be your name" and some hillsong stuff and just started singing. then, 2 angels appeared before me and said "do not be afraid." and then lifted the car up off the ground and filled the tire up with air and screwed in the bolts again...
ok that didn't really happen, but I did end up getting the tire changed and i did it with joy in my heart. the Lord really just made things better, that's the best way i can describe it. you see, your attitude affects everything.
what you put in your atmosphere changes everything. if you put negativity and doubt in your atmosphere, then you are going to live in a world full of it. but if you put the joy of the Lord and His words in your atmosphere, that atmosphere of God can protect you from attacks of the enemy and of this world. stupid things that eat some people alive won't phase you. not to say we're never emotionally moved by anything or nothing can ever annoy us, but you'll be surprised what some time with Jesus will do for your life. petty prayer allows petty things to destroy your life. but persistent prayer can bring about persistent joy, a joy that will hunt you down. that's pretty good.
check out the famous Psalm 23, verse 6-
"Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all of the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
Notice David doesn't say, "I will look for goodness and mercy and find it," he says that they will follow him, meaning they will go where he goes as long as he is walking with the Lord as his Shepherd.
Put the things of God in your atmosphere. pray and read your bible. praise the Lord even when you ain't at church. spend time with God, and all these dumb things won't phase you like they do other people. and that's good news right there!
trust and obey.
with all the car problems i've been having lately, i feel that i've learned so much more, at least about car problems. feels like i've been to the mechanics about 20 times in the last 19 days. but these flat tires and broken things don't phase me no more. cause you can either get upset, or you can get even... wait that's not right. not get even, i meant you can either get upset or learn something new. you can learn how to rejoice in the annoying bad times, or you can sulk over it.
the night of my first radio show a few weeks back, i got a flat tire on the way to ocala, and i was getting drenched in sweat trying to change it and it was taking forever. i was getting upset, and then what i've been talking about just now hit me, i decided i was gonna just praise the Lord. i turned my speakers up in my car and put on "blessed be your name" and some hillsong stuff and just started singing. then, 2 angels appeared before me and said "do not be afraid." and then lifted the car up off the ground and filled the tire up with air and screwed in the bolts again...
ok that didn't really happen, but I did end up getting the tire changed and i did it with joy in my heart. the Lord really just made things better, that's the best way i can describe it. you see, your attitude affects everything.
what you put in your atmosphere changes everything. if you put negativity and doubt in your atmosphere, then you are going to live in a world full of it. but if you put the joy of the Lord and His words in your atmosphere, that atmosphere of God can protect you from attacks of the enemy and of this world. stupid things that eat some people alive won't phase you. not to say we're never emotionally moved by anything or nothing can ever annoy us, but you'll be surprised what some time with Jesus will do for your life. petty prayer allows petty things to destroy your life. but persistent prayer can bring about persistent joy, a joy that will hunt you down. that's pretty good.
check out the famous Psalm 23, verse 6-
"Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all of the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
Notice David doesn't say, "I will look for goodness and mercy and find it," he says that they will follow him, meaning they will go where he goes as long as he is walking with the Lord as his Shepherd.
Put the things of God in your atmosphere. pray and read your bible. praise the Lord even when you ain't at church. spend time with God, and all these dumb things won't phase you like they do other people. and that's good news right there!
trust and obey.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
trust the River
check these verses out...
Jeremiah 17:5-8
5 This is what the LORD says:
"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
8 He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."
There is so much truth in this passage and so much good stuff. But the first thing that stuck out to me was that the difference to blessing and cursing in life is where you put your trust. Trust in man = cursed. Trust in God = blessed. And I really think it is just as simple as that. What really stuck out to me too was the fact that the Lord said, “Cursed is the one who trusts in man.” He said “cursed.” Not just “out of luck” or “too bad you missed out on this,” but cursed. Apparently God takes this whole trust and faith issue very seriously. I get the impression that He is angered by lack of trust and lack of faith. And that makes sense because the Bible says in Romans 10:17 that, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Ipso facto, God gives men faith. And for us to take the a gift from God and not use it… well yeah, I can see how that would be pretty annoying. God takes faith very seriously, and so should we.
I love the imagery of the tree planted by the river. If our faith is in God, we will blessed and never be lacking any good thing. While the rest of the forest (the world) is depending on rain (the economy, jobs, relationships, etc.) to give them what they need to live, the tree planted by the river (God – the River of life) doesn’t even care if it stops raining, because its roots run to the river. It has more than enough water. And I got a hunch that trees that grow by rivers are the strongest. Run your roots to the River.
Put your hope in the Lord or you will die. That’s blunt, but true.
trust and obey.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Showtime!
Tonight is the night my Monday night radio show starts back up! I've been off the radio airwaves for about 2 1/2 years now. Kind of crazy. I'm really excited. Hopefully I'm a little bit smarter now. I definitely feel older. and much has changed in my life since the last time I was on there. quite a lot. but here goes round 2! and JT is pumped like a pair of pump shoes that I had in elementary school that we bought at payless so they didn't really even work and ended up breaking and i still had to wear them cause we didn't have enough money to get me another pair until the next year of school started.
listen here Monday nights from 8-11pm: http://www.daystarradio895.com/daystarradio/listenlive/
chew on this - "You will either fear God or fear man, but you will not fear both." - Mike Patz sermon www.first-assembly.org
listen here Monday nights from 8-11pm: http://www.daystarradio895.com/daystarradio/listenlive/
chew on this - "You will either fear God or fear man, but you will not fear both." - Mike Patz sermon www.first-assembly.org
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