Walking and Wondering

You know the what the trouble with light is? The trouble with light is that it is awfully hard to hide it in the darkness.  Around other light, not so much of a problem.  But in the midst of darkness, light has a way of standing out doesn't it?  In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus uses the following illustration: You (my followers) are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.   It struck me when I read this recently how powerful a truth this is.  I've skimmed over it dozens of times, but something jumped out at me this time.  As believers, we won't be able to hide who we are and what we stand for in this world.  God has made us to stand out!  As light in the darkne...

Surrender 21-Day Challenge - Day 1 Matthew 4:1 - Then Jesus was led up BY THE SPIRIT into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.   This is an interesting verse.  "Jesus was led ... by the Spirit ... to be tempted by the devil.  In my limited view of things, I think if you asked me to led one of my children to be tempted by the devil, I would say, "NOT A CHANCE!"  I mean, what parent in their right mind, if they had a choice, would sit by and let their child walk into a place of temptation ... much less led them.  Yet this is exactly what the bible tells us the Father did.  Curious? Watching my kids grow up has been such a joy.  And as they have grown, my wife and I quickly realized that we can't protect them from the world.  In fact, our job as they grow is to equip them to influence the world.  As much as we would like to keep them in their Christian cocoon, we can't.  And it's hard to watch them discover how sinful and broken t...

For the next 21 days, we have challenged Surrender, the young adults group at Destiny Worship Center, to read through all 4 gospels.  Our goal is to focus on Jesus and to "make more room" for Him in our schedules and our lives in general.  We want to expand the discipline of reading and praying through God's Word.   So yesterday was day 1 from Surrender's 21-Day Challenge.  In reading through the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matthew 1, the thought hit me ... I never think much beyond the generation before me (my parents) and the generation coming after me (my children). But think about this ... one day, will we be standing next to those who went before us for the past generations? Who will we meet in our family line? Will there be any spiritual giants who's prayers are being answered through us right now?  What about the stories of redemption through the ages?  It prompts me to begin praying with more of a generational view. You never know what...

Christine Caine, an evangelist with Hillsong Church in Australia, spoke at church this weekend.  I love when speakers come who are engaged in a global ministry.  It always opens my eyes to a bigger picture of the church and challenges me to get my vision off of my own little world.  She through out a couple of lines that, on the heels of the Passion 2012 conference, are continuing to mess me up.  Here's a few: The church has mistakenly adopted the idea that following God is about reaching a place of safety ... as if we can control our lives in the first place anyway.  But we can't run from risk. The truth is that Jesus didn't come to earth to make us safe.  He came to set us free so we could be dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. We aren't a product of our time here, but a product of eternity. Some of us live our lives as if the purpose of our lives is to arrive at death safely.  And you avoid any kind of situation where miracles can happen....

I'm just back 2 days from going to the Passion Conference in Atlanta, Georgia with the young adults group (Surrender) from church.  The worship, the messages, the themes, the people ... they're all still rattling around in my brain as I figure out how to process it and what to do with it all.  In one of the messages, the speaker, Francis Chan, related a conversation he had with some Jehovah's Witnesses.  After sharing their faith, he shared, not his belief, but what God was doing in His life in response to prayer.  Curious!  He didn't argue theology, history or anything of the sort.  He just declared what God was doing in his life RIGHT NOW!  So this morning as I sat to read, believe it or not, I had a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses come to my house.  They were both young adults from this area, a guy named Brandon and a girl named Hannah.  I was able to ask them about their story and talk about mine.  When I asked the guy how he got plu...

So I'm going to give this a try.  I've thought for a while about starting an on-line blog and I figured it's time to go for it.  I've had the itch to write for quite some time now, and I'm pretty excited about it.  As we step into 2012, it just seems like a natural time to start.  The word that resounds in my spirit these days is INTENTIONALITY.  I can be so guilty of allowing my days to dictate what I do rather than the reverse.  And days turn to weeks, and weeks to months, and months to years.  But lately, as I'm sure I'll get into more, I'm being stirred to be super intentional about my life and what I'm both committed to and living for.  It could just be that I'm getting old ... but I feel like it's more than that.  I just have a sense of expectancy about the future.  So here goes.  Let the year begin and let's see where Jesus takes us this year!