Do you believe?

Read Mark 9:14-29

We need to quit trying to figure out the impossible things that the Lord wants us to accept by faith. One of the greatest problems we face today is perspective. That is, we tend to focus on the situations of life instead of looking at the One who is in control of our situations.

How many of us can relate to the man in Mark 9? He is a man experiencing the troubles of life, a man who is need of a deliverer. And so what does he do? He turns to Jesus. Here standing in front of the Son of God the man begs Him, “If you can do anything, please help me.”

If You can do anything…Seems like a silly thing to say to Jesus, but how often do we say this very thing. It is like we are pleading to God in hopes that He is who He says He is. It is like we pray without really believing in the words we are praying. And how does Jesus respond…

“If you can!” The question is not “if Jesus can,” of course He can. The question is, do we actually believe He can?

Like the dad, Jesus turns to each of us and tells us that, “All things are possible for one who believes” (v 23). We have only to believe but if you are like me, when you hear these words, “all things are possible for one who believes” I have to admit that sometimes I struggle to believe.

I mean how many of us are willing to respond with the honesty of the dad? He said these words, which have been the encouragement of many since: “I do believe; help my unbelief!” 

Out of the honesty of his weakness, he cast himself on the Lord. “Yes, Lord, I do believe; but I feel my unbelief and I don't know how to handle it. Fill me with Your Spirit and make me believe.”

The moment he said those words, the moment he cast himself in his weakness back on the Lord was the very thing that Jesus wanted. Our Lord spoke the words, and his son was delivered. Jesus wants us to give everything to Him—to believe in nothing else before Him.

He wants us to risk stepping fully into His presence so that He might increase our faith.

Question is, do you believe?

Grace Happens

Read 2 Corinthians 4.5-18

What if our lives lived out the truth of... Grace happens?

Unearned gifts and unexpected pleasures bring exceptional joy. This is not only a human truth, but a significant theological point. And the greatest outpouring of unmerited favor…the Cross.

There on the cross our Lord cried out to each of us so as to tell us we are worth the love of the Godhead—that we need do nothing but accept the most significant, unexpected, unearned gift …salvation (eternal life).

There on the cross our Lord showed us that He would go to any length to find us, embrace us and love us. This is who He is; He pursues us at the cost of His own well-being, to the point of death. Think about it, God searched and found Adam and Eve ashamed and hiding; Noah amidst the wickedness of humanity; Abraham who was “old and advanced”; He found Moses lost, running and without purpose; Joseph in a ditch; Daniel in a lion’s den. And He found you…

Our gracious God has a curious habit of showing up in the midst of trouble and reviving our souls.

Where the world sees failure, God sees future by pouring out hope. Rather than question His gracious presence, embrace it by becoming it, always remembering that the Spirit tends to recruit from the pit, not the pedestal.

Today you can make a difference. Become grace so as to erase the darkness of ungrace. Let us who love Jesus reclaim the truth of His love that has been tarnished by graceless Christians so that daily, grace happens. All we have received from God is undeserved…let us become His people who nourish a culture of God’s abounding love and grace.

Unspeakable Joy

Read John 16.16-33

Many of us have heard that we have to choose joy. Sure, one could argue that joy is a choice, an attitude, a perspective. But truth be told, we will never find joy until we find Jesus… 

You cannot be raised up from the cross if you have not first laid down in the cradle. See so often we look to the rewards of the cross as opposed to the One nailed to the cross. So often we look to the joy of the cross as opposed to thanking the One whose joy led Him to the cross. So often we want joy before wanting Jesus…

But joy is only found in Christ and through the Spirit. Joy is received when we first receive our King who was born so as to die in order that joy might overwhelm our souls. When we fall to our knees so as to embrace the Spirit, we are taken deep into the heart of Jesus so that His love covers our souls as His joy rises up and never lets us go…

Truth is, we will never bask in the glory of Easter if we have not broken down and cried with the King who gave up His throne so as to be born in a manger. If our hearts need joy, we must daily crawl into the manger so as to ascend upon the cross in order to embrace our Savior who reigns.

Take a moment, listen to Chris and let your heart be swept up in prayer as you give thanks to the One who is the joy of the world because He came to die and give us unspeakable joy…

Awestruck Wonder

Read 1 Thessalonians 5.12-28

I am convinced that in order to be one who “rejoices always” we must be one who “prays without ceasing” so that in everything we will “give thanks.”

As Paul writes:
“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (vs. 16-18).

Our call to rejoice and to pray are not suggestions, they are expectations. And why? Because Paul knows that when our hearts our consumed by prayer then all we experience, all we encounter awakens us to our need of Jesus, and in this need we come to realize His unceasing love. We come to recognize that in Christ and through the Spirit we are the beloved, that in Him we are given eternal joy. Such joy that wants nothing more than to give thanks to the One who transforms us into more than conquerors.

To give thanks in everything is the result of a heart of worship. It is the natural result of one who has come into the holy presence of Jesus. For when we cry out to the Holy Spirit to take us into the heart Jesus, our King of kings, we can do none other than rejoice always.

When our lives become a fountain of prayer our hearts overflow with the sweet eruption of hope and joy that spring forth from divine love poured out. For when we embrace the Holy Spirit so as to go deep into the heart of Christ, our lives become drenched in His love so that as Kari Jobe sings,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
Holy, holy is He
Sing a new song to Him who sits on
Heaven's mercy seat”

Go and listen to Kari and let your heart be filled with awestruck wonder at the name of Jesus. Let us give our hearts to the One who was and is and is to come, through unceasing prayer. For such an offering is that which in Revelation is called “incense,” because, when it ascends to heaven, God smells the sweet savor of our hearts (Rev 5.8).

Oh let us bow down in prayer and sing with all creation the glory and wonder of our Lord. Let us embrace His love so that our lives might erupt in the truth of His joy. Amen Jesus!

His greatness lived out

Read Psalm 96

Can I tell you something that might rock your world… Jesus wants to be our everything. He wants to be the greatness of our life and yet so often we hinder His desire. Why? Why do we stop Him?

Jesus wants His greatness to become our everything. He wants our lives to live out the greatness of our God…

Daily He cries out to us:

“You are my treasured child and I want to show you great and marvelous things if you seek Me with all your heart. Delight in Me and I will give you the desires of your heart for I am able and wanting to do more for you than you could possibly imagine. I am close to you when you are brokenhearted, the One who comforts you in all your troubles. I carry you close to My heart and have given everything I loved that I might gain your love. When you accept My love I promise that nothing will ever separate you from Me again… Come home to Me and let us celebrate love. I am waiting for you…”

When we come home to Him we celebrate His love poured out. We celebrate His greatness lived out through our lives. Question is, what is stopping us from coming home?

Yesterday I was running and Chris Tomlin’s song came through my ear buds. Half way through the song I had to stop, the tears were falling because Jesus’ presence was overwhelming when I thought of His greatness in my life. And there in that moment I had to ask, “Do I live out the truth of my God’s greatness?”

Listen to Chris and ask yourself, does your life sing the greatness of Jesus? Does your life tell the world that your Jesus is truly great?! How Great is our God...

He is listening

Read 2 Corinthians 5.11-21

How many of us have wondered if our prayers ever reach the ears or better yet, the heart of God? And yet if you have ever been to church or talked to a Christian and told them you are struggling, what is the response we receive… “Well have you prayed about it?”

Oh the times I have been told I needed to pray and then listen for the Lord. Oh the times I have wondered what exactly does this mean, to pray and listen for the Lord. I mean, how do I know He is even listening?

But He is listening… Even before we ask He is listening because even before we turned to Him He was for us. And how do I know He is for me? I open my Bible and read…

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (v21)

If you took a moment to think upon your life I know you would recognize times when the Lord not only heard your prayers but overwhelmed you with His grace, His mercy, His love, His presence. Because constantly our Loving God not only shows up, but He shows off the glorious power of His amazing love by stepping in and taking care of us. Truth is, He is always present and He is always listening and He is waiting for us to surrender so as to know Him.

Our prayers are heard…they go straight to the heart of God and daily He reminds us that He is listening by pointing us to the cross. For when we look to the cross we see how passionately we are loved. Reminds me of the beautiful song I Surrender.

Take a pause…listen to the song and know that He is listening… Look to the cross and see that He has heard your prayers and has become your sin so that you might become the explosion of His hope, joy, peace and love.

It is well

Read Philippians 1.15-30

Has your need become Jesus? Take a moment and look around. Close your eyes and listen to your thoughts. Is your heart filled with contentment?

When Jesus is our need, contentment is the ocean we swim in. No matter what waters we might be in, when Jesus is our need we swim in the beautiful truth of contentment.

Have you given thanks today regardless of your earthly situation? Because when suffering comes our way, and trust me, it will, do we turn to Jesus and say thank you?

“For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake” (v29).

Let not one of you think your suffering goes unnoticed. I don’t care if it is cancer or criticism, slander or sickness. It isn’t meaningless. Of course you can’t see what it’s doing but it is doing something. Don’t look to what is seen, look to the One who is the Author of all that is seen and unseen. Don't look to the unknown, look to the One who came so as to be known.

In Jesus and through the Spirit, our Lord God has given us the melody of rejoicing in our suffering so as to show the world what hope, what joy, what love is…

Again and again, “It Is Well” has met and carried saints through the worst kinds of suffering, reminding us of the deep, abiding, sovereign Well at the bottom of our hope, joy and love.

Jimmy Needham recorded “It Is Well.” The passion in the singing reminds us of the passion Horatio Spafford, the author of the song had for his Savior. Listen, be moved, and then move on your own.

Say yes to Jesus because the truth is, no matter what may come your way, when we are in Christ and through the Spirit, nothing in this world can separate us from His love and because of this, we can always sing:

“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.”