Words cannot begin to describe the heaviness of my heart. My heart literally feels like its at the bottom of stomach. Today I sat in the chapel at the Southern Baptist Seminary this morning and heard Matt Chandler from the Village Church in Dallas, TX. He spoke on Hebrews 11:29-12:2 and God used him to pierce my heart and many of the hearts there today.

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

“By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

“People read things about men of faith conquering kingdoms, escaping the edge of the sword and putting armies to flight. Guys think, “Yes: I’m called to ministry.” But no one wants to hear about people experiencing mocking, chains and imprisonment or being sawn in two. Nobody wants that. And what we have with our podcasts, DVDs, books and conferences is guys see men who are shutting the mouths of lions and putting armies to flight and that is what they want. And we have boiled everything down to technique. Technique is what makes the difference. We don’t think about the back end of that passage that tells us not all of us will go through the Joshua life of success and leading the people into Israel. Some of us are Moses. We wonder around for 40 years in the desert, leading a bunch of whiny people around, only to finally get to the promise land, be shown it, but die right outside. None of us desire that. No one wakes up and says, “I want to be a modern day Moses!” But you don’t get a Joshua without a Moses.

Young ministers need more than anything to be holy. To pursue holiness. We must confess and repent, regularly. Matt spoke to these following things so clear: Let us throw off the sin that so easily entangles and everything that hinders us. Oh so often we categorize sin: There are some sins that are unacceptable and some that are acceptable (the one we do we view as acceptable). So, I’m not committing adultery, I’m not doing drugs. It’s okay that I can exegete the Bible, but not share the Gospel with my neighbor across the street. I’m going to teach people how to study the Bible: I don’t have to share the Gospel with them.

We can make regularity of repentance and confession in your life, or we can pretend and be a liar. There are some morally neutral things that can entangle us and hinder us from the race. All to often we are more concerned about our favorite sports team than we are about the things of God. Some of us are more affected by whether or not a 21-year-old guy catches a ball than the things of God. This hits to close to home, and you have to understand our great passions and desires we have are to be of Christ.

Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Cling to Jesus. Hold to Jesus. Your ministry will not be your sustenance in the midst of suffering. Jesus will be.

Video of Matt’s message @ http://www.sbts.edu/resources/chapel/chapel-fall-2009/hebrews-11/

Thank you to Matt Chandler being willing to share what God laid on His heart.

Love Begins with God, Love is defined by God, and Love ends with God. He is the creator of Love, He is the giver of Love, and He is Love. Allow God be Love for you and through you today.

In Reading Luke 5, God talks about when Himself (Jesus) goes walking down by the sea and the crowds are pressing in around Him. Jesus thens climbs into one of the two boats sitting on the shore from which Simon Peter and others had just returned from a night’s fishing trip and have caught nothing. Jesus climbs in and tells Simon Peter to row out a little ways. From there Jesus sits and teaches the crowds. Simon Peter also on the boat being forced to listen. When He finished speaking He turns to Simon Peter and tells to take the boat to the deep and let his nets down for a catch. Simon Peter tells Jesus, “Master, we have worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as you say and let down the nets.” When they did this they pulled up a catch bigger than anything they had every seen. Their nets begin to break from the large amount. The other came and they filled up both the boats with the great quanity of fish! Simon Peter fell on his face in front of Jesus knees. Jesus told them not to be in fear because they would soon be catching men. Then They left EVERYTHING and followed Christ!

It is just amazing to think that most of time we think we have it all together and we are the experts. Like Peter thought he was an expert fisher and he was which is why he was not to eager to drop the nets. But God knows better even if we think we have it all together. God is the ultimate authority! All we have to do is say, “I will do as you say! At Your word, I will!” And God will take you farther and faster than you ever thought you could go! Amazing!

Check this out, the reality of it is phenomenal!

Certain words fly out of our mouths everyday and we don’t stop to think about them before we speak anymore. Yeah the good with the bad words. Yeah the curse words or the words that constantly cut down. But am talking about great words. Some that have such profound meaning and inclination behind them. Okay here is an example, “love”. Love is a word that has been mistreated and misused daily. I’ll admit that in past relationships or even in current friendships I throw the word love around a rag doll. But even with a word such as love has so much behind it. For starters God is love. Bold statement and yet so much more behind it. Okay others like “Worthy”, “Mercy”, “Gracy”, and “Cross”. These words have such substance that come with them but yet we typically use these words and have no idea the impact in what we are saying. These words and others become overly familiar to me and lose their meaning. I just need to sometimes stop and ponder these words.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:20, “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”

If the father is speaking through us, then why do we not dwell and be more conscious of what we say?

What words have lost their meaning in your eyes?