Glory of God

I have been more aware lately that a lot of things I do are usually for my glory and when you really take the time to notice it, it is everywhere. It is in our sinful nature to be selfish and only the love of Christ and a relationship with him can help us to become more unselfish and give the glory to God. When you look at the gospel there a couple things that really stand out, and are repeated over and over again. How many times does Jesus say "ye of little faith" ? I don't know the exact number, but it is several times. Faith is the essence of our relationship with the lord and then the gospel also states over and over about the denial of one's self. If we could put our pride away and focus solely on giving God the glory then we will find life. God is love and he views us as holy and blameless. Let us give him the glory because he has given us the gift of eternal life.

I really want to grab a hold of these things and let the lord work in me to help me become closer to him and show his light to the world. I do not want to grow with the motives of self-improvement or Godliness for gain, but to give the Glory to God. That is my prayer for today. The lord has promised us things that we cant conceive and haven't seen or heard. I desire these things and the Lord is good no matter the circumstances. What we see is not reality.

Intimacy

Jonathan David Helser- Intimacy

Nature of Sin

1 John 1:8-9
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

My immediate feeling after I sin is guilt and it is usually pretty heavy guilt. First off, I am glad that sin upsets me because if it didn't I wouldn't have a heart for the lord, but the lord Jesus does not want us to feel guilt from sin. When we have accepted Jesus Christ as our savior and begin to love the things God loves and start to hate things God hates then guilt will be a natural reaction for most of us to our sin. Christ knows that we will continue to stumble, but since our hearts are changed we will strive for righteousness. It is always humbling that our greatest works are like filthy rags to God. This is refreshing because it reminds us that our faith is not a works based religion. Our lord has more grace and mercy than we could ever imagine. Above all else guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.

Romans 8:1 : Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

When we sin the hardest thing to do sometimes is to run straight to the Lord. Usually we feel so guilty that we avoid it for awhile. Recently I have been working on coming straight to the Lord when I have sinned and letting him fill me up with his grace and love so that I experience freedom and repentance instead of guilt and condemnation. Going to the lord and letting him fill you up with freedom can help eventually break habitual sin and also help you to grow and understand even more how loving our God is. This will help us break free from guilt and condemnation. which is from the evil one. Our Lord saved us according to his mercy, and we are justified by his grace.

Another thing that has been on my mind lately is when scripture is taken out of context. Whenever I hear a message or someone quotes a bible verse for a certain situation, I need to make sure that the context is right because scripture can be taken many different ways and justify things that are not biblical. I have done it several times to justify something I do and many times it is not right. A lot of people call these out of context moments half truths and I completely agree. When we seek the Lord he will give us life. When we seek out God's word he will reveal us the truth. God's word never contradicts itself.

Tasting the Lord

For the last several weeks I have been walking with a hardened heart and had moments of freedom but really didn't know how to make that more accessible and I really felt lost for awhile. Sometimes I really forget the heart of the Christian faith and get too consumed with knowledge instead of growing in my intimate relationship with the Lord. I understand things because of my knowledge consumption, but I don't experience it enough, and I feel like that is what the lord has been trying to show me. I have had a religious spirit over me for awhile, but I really feel like this past weekend freed me from this mindset and stagnant and unfulfilling walk.

I went to a church this weekend in Norman and the way the spirit moved there really freed me up from a lot of heaviness that has been on me. When I walked in I saw people dancing to worship music and crying out to the lord and experiencing him intimately. This was so amazing to see and I started getting pumped up. It was so amazing to see my brothers and sisters in Christ just enjoying God and really experiencing real freedom in the Lord. This freedom is what the lord wants us to experience. He wants us to lay our burdens and worries down and feel free in his spirit and be filled with the joy that it brings. He wants us to see that this is not reality and there is obviously more that he has in store. The moments the spirit fills you up is where you get a taste of what truth is and I want more of this in my walk. I am desperately wanting to seek the presence of the holy spirit more.

I know a lot of times in the past when I have attended churches I don't feel the freedom that God wants us to experience and I feel constricted. This is the religious spirit that is taking over me and our churches and I truly pray that the church sees the religious spirit that is overtaking it and tries to come back to the heart and enjoy God instead of letting too much structure take over. Some structure is not a bad thing, but too much takes away from what the Lord has for us. We all want more than just a overly-structured sunday morning and it is available through the joy of the spirit and its presence. I pray today that me and the rest of believers really strive to be more intimate with the Lord. I want it and I know everyone else does, so lets be filled with the joy of the spirit and let it take us over.

The Christian walk is so much more than what we have made it and I am excited to see more believers really persevere to become intimate with him and follow his will with everything in them in the assurance that the heavenly rewards are what matters and everything here will turn to dust.

There is More Than This

Lovers of Self

Lord help me love you instead of myself.

"Lovers of themselves is the sewer pipe where all the other garbage flows"

also this has been around the internet for awhile but just in case you haven't seen this watch it right now! It will change your perspective in an incredible way...

http://claytonsstory.com/

Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. [14] For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it."

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit, which is God, is something that I have experienced this past week and the power of the spirit is incredible and gives us indescribable joy. I feel like sometimes I forget about the holy spirit and that it is in the trinity of God and I do not experience the joy that it has to offer any time I seek it. It is with and inside of me every second of every day.

The other day when I was driving home from Tulsa I had a very intimate moment with the spirit which led to minutes of extreme joy that I couldn't contain. I was so comforted by the spirit that I started crying tears of joy and could not stop. I was feeling so much joy that I never wanted it to end. I have never experienced anything like those 5 minutes in my entire life. At that moment I realized so many things.

First off was that the holy spirit is something that I do not seek and desire as much as I am made to do and that it is always by my side in every step I take. I also realized how fulfilling it is to have your trust placed in the hands of Jesus Christ. Those moments of extreme joy gave me a taste of how much more fulfilling the spirit is than anything on this earth. We all search for things of the world to fulfill us, but the holy spirit is the most accessible and is so much better than anything else. It is a joy that has meaning, truth, and feeling of complete freedom in knowing that Jesus is with you. It is the joy that God intended us to experience and it holds truth. It gives us the feeling of a confident purpose in existence. The purpose of living for the glory of God and putting your trust in the love that goes beyond our understanding knowing that you were made to spend eternity in heaven with the creator of the universe. There is nothing that compares to it. Nothing.

Changing the topic. Some days I just sit back and feel confused and think to myself "what in the world are we doing here and what is going on?" I believe everyone asks this question. It is a question that will keep any person up for hours on end trying to understand the purpose of life. We are just another generation that will pass in the blink of an eye. We were built for something more than this temporary world. We are eternal beings and are minds are built for that thinking. The thing is, we can never grasp how big our God is, so to ponder the questions of purpose will last forever. Our main desire is love and that is why we exist and that is what God offers us. The greatest gift anyone could ever give someone. An eternity spent in love and peace. There will be no tears and no pain. An eternity is something my mind has never been able to grasp. Eternity is never ending. never. I cant even begin to process that in my mind. When I think about that, it makes me realize how short we really do have here. This motivates me to seek God so much because I want to be close to my father who I will spend forever with in perfect harmony and get to know him better. This is what gives us purpose and meaning. To seek intimacy with the perfect and only true love; Jesus Christ.

- The bible is the number 1 selling book in the world and the message of Jesus Christ is being preached to all nations. The truth is Jesus and nothing else matters. Seek and you will find life. There is love there beyond our understanding.

Verses that pertain to this post

- Matthew 28:19

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

John 14:16-17
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you

2 Corinthians 13:14
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all

Romans 8:14
Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God

Romans 8:26
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express

2 Corinthians 4:18

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Seek truth and meaning

there is more than what is in front of you

Fear of Man

Lately I have realized how much the fear of man has effected me. Even way before I was walking with Jesus I was told and most everybody else is, not to care what others think about you and just be yourself. That takes on a pretty deep meaning when it comes to your walk with Christ. Fearing what people think about you will get you nowhere. If you are listening to God's voice and trusting him with all the choices you make you should not let a man influence you otherwise. It sounds really simple, why would you worry more about what a man thinks than what the creator of the universe and the lord of heaven and earth thinks. that just makes us look stupid when we let the fear of man control our lives. We mine as well be praying to men and not God.

My whole entire life I have always struggled so much with how others viewed me. I wanted to please everyone and spent so much time trying to appeal to anyone and everyone. Sometimes it would get so ridiculous that I would change my personality just to fit in with certain people. Now that I am walking with my savior Jesus Christ I have got to get past that and be who he wants me to be rather than please anyone else. If I really believe in my heart that God loves me so much more than a human ever could and that I cant even comprehend how great and unconditional his love is for me, then the fear of man should disappear.

I am getting better with it but somehow still struggle with it every day. In a fallen world with so many people comparing themselves to others and striving for personal reputation I find myself letting these things take over my thoughts, which goes against my Lord because he says the greatest command is to love your Lord God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. 2nd is love your neighbor as yourself. I know that I am going to get better at it with God's help. If I really want to follow God's will for my life then I need to step out and follow him no matter what that looks like to he world, which did I mention is a fallen world anyways. My passion is with you Lord and please help me to understand that at the end of the day there is no one else I would rather be with than you. So knowing this, help me to feel your presence throughout the day and help me focus on your plan because you have made great plans for me under your will already. The fear of man will only lead me astray from your perfect will.

Here are some verses that go along with this topic that have helped me.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind

2 Timothy 1:7

So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me

Hebrews 13:6

The fear of man bringeth a snare; but those who put their trust in the Lord shall be safe

Proverbs 29:25

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened

1 Peter 3:14

Favorite Resources

These are some of my favorite sites to visit for sermons, blogs, and church conferences that are going on across the country.

Life Church

Ed Young's Blog

I am Second

C3 Conference

Online Bible Resource

Passion Conference

Sermon Search

Gotta Get It Out

Something has been eating at me a lot for the past year and it is something I never even took seriously before. It is idolatry. For the past year I have been struck hard with how many things in our culture represent idolatry. I could go on forever but some of the things are obvious if you just turn on a television set. The way I look at movie stars, rock stars, sports stars, or even something as stupid as a character on a fictional TV show blows my mind. I mean we even have a TV show called "American Idol" key word Idol. Without even realizing it I look at these people as better than me. I begin to depict them as something that isn't even a human because they can do things that blow my mind. I even idolize someone such as Paul in the bible because of all his many accomplishments, which is wrong even though he was such an amazing man. I have been trying to learn and put into practice for the past year how to have a good perspective on it all instead of subconsciously idolizing them for things that are of the world. Don't get me wrong, a lot of these people are great people and it isn't bad to watch them or appreciate them, it is just where your perspective lies. A lot of times it is more than people I idolize. I idolize sports and music sometimes more than I do God. I will put my passion into making sure I know everything that is going on in the sports and music world instead of striving for more intimacy with the one I will spend my eternity with. 

As a Christian I should be driving my thoughts and actions on how to become closer to Jesus and know more about him and instead I have been putting my passion into so many things before I begin to even think about him. I have been getting a lot better on this issue but it will be a lifetime struggle as many things are. I can only hope to keep pressing on towards the goal of eternity by working hard to get past the things of this world, this being a big one for me and probably a lot of other people.

I am amazed at how I have changed over the past year. My whole entire life my number one passion has been sports. I used to read ESPN almanacs in school instead of the science or social studies book I should of been reading. I would practice signing my autograph on church handouts when I was younger thinking I would be a pro athlete someday. I played every sport known to man at least one time in my life (except football ha i was way too small for that), and my life goal was to always play a professional sport. Even after the reality that I wasn't gonna go pro in anything set in (7th grade), I still based my life around sports. That is all I watched, did, and read about. Sports is an amazing thing and there are tons of people doing effective ministry in the sports field, but I had an unhealthy obsession with it. I don't know what happened, but all of sudden last year everything that had been so important to me didn't seem as important. The more I was getting into God's word, the more I realized where my true passion and hope lied. Something that is eternal and built with everything anyone truly desires. What a revelation for me. I still love sports and enjoy it very much, but my perspective on it has changed and I don't put my energy and time into it nearly as much as I did for all the years before. This doesn't sound very serious because we are talking about sports, but honestly it has changed me more than I can explain. I feel like my old passion helped me get to the real passion and I am now changed forever. Where does your perspective lie? What is your passion? Why do you throw your remote across the house because of a bad call (I do it all the time and probably will tonight)? Would you do that if it had to do with Jesus? It is all about your perspective on the things of this world. Lets not let anything, no matter what it is, rule our world over Jesus. he is life. Think about it. eternity!

1 John 5:21 Dear children keep yourselves from idols

Romans 1:25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the creator- who is forever praised. Amen

Romans 1:21-23 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images

Mark 7:8-9 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men. And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!"

Isaiah 44:10 Who shapes a God and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing.

Relax...

For the last couple of weeks I have been battling something that was not easy for me to get rid of and I hope it wont come again. Satan has really attacked me with a web of lies that burdened me for a good 3 weeks. The word to describe these burdens is "overwhelmed". When it comes to the Christian faith there are so many aspects of it, that I was getting overwhelmed with trying to keep up with them all. I was trying too hard to be a man of God that I was getting deeper and deeper into Satan's pit. I know that doesn't sound logical, but it is very true. and this is how.

I would go about each day and constantly have a checklist in my head to try and follow. Be gracious today, be humble today, don't gossip today, don't let anger take over today, don't worry, don't be greedy, don't look lustfully, read the word, be patient, feel content, love others, don't idolize, pray alot, and the list goes on and on and on. Now these are all good things to try and work on in your walk with the lord don't get me wrong, but when your mind is clouded with all these things all at once every day then you are burdened and worried about way too much, instead of taking the day as it is and following God's will for you by trusting him in your every step.

The thing I realized is that God's grace is way more than enough for me to even begin to grasp and also he does not want me to feel these burdens. God is not a God of burden. Those are all from the father of lies. I mean I got to the point about a week ago where I couldn't handle all of it and I broke down. I had to come to the Lord and see what he was going to do with this. After reading some verses, praying, and coming to a bunch of realizations I finally got out of the funk I was in. I realized I can't do it all. 

God views us in a way that we can't understand. here is how he looks at his Christ followers...

Romans 3:24 We are justified (declared not guilty of sin)

Romans 8:1 No condemnation awaits us

Romans 8:2 We are set free from the law of sin that leads to death

1 Cor. 1:30 We are righteous and holy in Christ

2 Cor. 5:17 We are new creations

2 Cor. 5:21 We receive God's righteousness

Ephesians 1:3 We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ

Ephesians 1:4 We are holy and blameless

Ephesians 1:7 Our Sins are taken away, and we are forgiven

Ephesians 2:10 We are God's work of art

Ephesians 2:13 We have been brought near to God

Ephesians 3:12 We can come with freedom and confidence into God's presence

Colossians 2:10 We are made complete in Christ

Colossians 2:11 We are set free from our sinful nature

2 Timothy 2:10 We will have eternal glory

Your Grace is Enough