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?

DON’T DO IT!

Don’t go through today without praising God all that He has done and accomplished. Praise Him for your salvation. Praise Him for the Gospel through Jesus Christ. Praise Him for Him getting the Glory in our lives. Don’t miss it today. Don’t go without Praising Him and thanking Him for all that He is. Don’t Do It.

“Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.”

Psalm 43:4

If I were Jesus, I would have given up on me a long time ago.

I’m am slow to change and my stubbornness keeps me locked up. I’ve struggled with the same sins for many years, making painfully slow progress. Every day I struggle with pride and the craving for the applause of people. I’ve struggled with fear since I was young. I’m not always the first to show mercy but I am the first to want it. Jesus should have thrown me to the scrap pile years ago.

But in John 6:37 Jesus makes a wonderful promise that gives hope to scrap like me. He says: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” Do you hear the grace and mercy ringing from those words? It doesn’t matter who you are, Jesus will not allow you to be cast out. Your faith is weak, Jesus won’t cast you out. Your love feels cold, Jesus won’t cast you out. You’ve sinned in anger again, Jesus won’t cast you out! Jesus keeps us in His grace. Shows us His mercy. Doesn’t this motivate you to continue fighting your sin? When we sin, the temptation is to stay away from God. But these words from Jesus are an invitation to return again to the fountain of grace for fresh strength to fight our sin. Let’s return to Christ through prayer and through the Scriptures, and let’s ask Him for grace. He didn’t throw us out when we first came to Him, and He won’t throw us out now.

Do people hear an invitation to the party through the way you live your life?

Picture this: You remember back in middle school when friends would have birthday parties. They would either have it at a park, at their hug houses, or at the always popular choice…the skating rink. They would mail out invitations or hand them out at school. Well depending on how you lived your life, whether you lived in the popular crowd or not, meant you would get an invitation or not.

All to often our lives are very similar. Depending on how you live your life shows to the rest of the world what stature you hold. Christ wants us to live our lives in such a way that we show the stature of Him. So by living as Christ we are given an invitation to give. By the way you live your life, you show others their invitation to the party. What is the party? The celebration we will one day be apart of with Christ!

Galatians 5:1

You should live your life as an invitation for others

Having a hard time finding peace. I seek Christ and seek His Word, but yet I find myself coming up short. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t in all areas of my life and I don’t find myself struggling. But in certain areas of my life, I don’t have peace. I find myself like sheep just feeling lonely, lost, and stupid with these certain ideas or things in my life. These things seem to stay implanted and on my mind throughout the day. Sometimes dwelling on them way more than should be. I find myself overlooking God’s gifts and looking for alternatives that lie empty.

Psalm 46:10 tells me, “Be Still and know that I am God.” A verse that has meant good at times and overlooked others. But today I read Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you, you only have to be still.” When I saw this verse I linked the two. (God Speaks) Be still and know that I am God, that I will fight for you. You only have to be still and I will manage it for you. Find yourself in Me and I will give you peace. God has been faithful through every situation, yet I still show unbelief. God has worked out every detail yet I still worry. He has paved the way, yet I still look for peace elsewhere.

Praise God for peace that passes all understanding.

God you are my rock, my salvation, I shall fear no one.

Revelations 22:17 – “The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”

Thought: Christ is calling us home. The reason God came in flesh was to go to the cross to bear all our sins. Wow! He did so to bridge the sin gap between us and God. God made a way for us to return to Him. What then? God calls us Home. He commands all through scripture to return to Him. God calls us to “Come” Home. By our sin, we are weighed down and think we are unreturnable and well you are right. You can’t return to Him…on your own that is. You are not unreturnable through Christ though. Christ in us, makes us able to return to the Father who calls us to come home.

There is a common misinterpretation that we need to fix something in our lives to be able to return. “Oh, if I can just get this out of my life first then I will return.” You see you need Christ to rid those things and so by returning to Him; He will reconcile you back from those sinful things. God has already worked it out for us and He is waiting on our faith. Returning to Him is taking that step of faith.

“Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever.” Jeremiah 3:12-14

It is the promise of God. You have to cling to Him to break free. In spite of who you, what you have done, who your parents are, and what has been done to you; God washes you clean and calls you home. Because by God’s grace, you can break the power of your past. You can break the power of sin all together, whether committed by you or against you. In Christ we have a fresh start and we are made returnable.

Humble yourself and experience a total salvation for your life. So what is keeping you from returning to Him. Don’t continue to ask questions and question the power of the Gospel. Return to Him and you will find peace and comfort.

Christ wants you to Come Home. Return to Him in obedience.