Our Need

Read Psalm 46

Have you ever gone through a period when life is heavy? When the air you breathe seems so suffocating? When such times wrestle us down, how do we escape so as to step onto the victor’s stand?

Well let me tell you, it is not by your might or by your power… Our peace, our joy, our laughter will only come when we actually stop fighting. Believe it or not, it is only when we finally lay down so as to look up that we will be overcome with the tears that flowed from the cross on our behalf.

Jesus came, was beaten and nailed to the cross so that He might be our refuge in the time of trouble. He gave His life for us and to us and everyday the Holy Spirit cries out to us to let go and let Jesus become our need.

Jesus as our need… reminds me of Matt Maher’s beautiful song. Take a moment a listen to Lord,I Need You and as you do, close your eyes and open your hearts. Ask the Holy Spirit to make Jesus your all in all so that in everything you need you turn to Jesus. For when you do you will find that it is He who will suffocate the pain and heaviness of life so as to fill you up with the joy of His amazingly insane love!

What are you waiting for… Need Jesus and find your joy…

Just to love

Read 1 John 4.7-21

We all want to know love because deep down inside of us is the desire that burns in our bones for love. As we learned in Moulin Rogue! 

“The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”

Love catches hold of the heart and sets in on fire. Love makes us act in ways that transcend the normal of this abnormal world. As Christian tells Satine, “Love is a many splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love.”

Tragic reality of life is that so many of us waste away believing as Satine does that we are unlovable. But this is not the truth of the Cross. There on the cross Love cried out, “I would do anything for you. Death…I will become it and destroy it. Sin…let me take it into my lungs and suffocate it. Pain…I will eat of its poison so as to pour out joy. Yes I, who am Love, would do anything for you…You need only to receive Me…”

There raising from the grave Love turns to embrace us, “Are you surprised if a drop of my Heart’s blood trickles into you every thought and deed when you fall to your knees? Are you surprised if the thoughts of my Heart quietly infiltrate your worldly heart when you fall to your knees? Too long already has My grace, has My love been flowing into your hollow vessels, still you let them lie empty within you, still now does your heart hold back…”

We were created in love, from love and for love and so often we hold back as if we cannot receive love, understand love, deserve love. But Christ is unwilling to let us go. He will pursue us until we let go and let the Spirit take us into His heart.

Our God wants our hearts—He wants us to find freedom in His love by His love becoming perfected in us. And when this happens then, and only then will we find life as we embrace the Father together in the heart of the Son through the touch of the Spirit…

Let us this day fall to our knees and press into the unthinkable, mysterious, all-consuming, earth-shattering, audacious, mind-bending, heart-wrenching love of Christ. Let us this day sing out, “You are my everything. And I will adore You.”

For the sake of the other

Read John 13:1-35

A gospel that does not reconcile is not a Christian gospel at all. And reconciliation is rooted in love. Yet so often we do not really believe that the proof of our discipleship is in our Love—that we love the Lord our God so that we might love one another.

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (v35).

To be in love with Jesus is to become as He is. That is, our love for Christ is manifested not only in our willingness to live as He did, but also to sacrifice for the sake of the other.

Participating in the will of God occurs when through the Holy Spirit, Christ becomes the pattern of our life, when He becomes our first love. As Paul writes:

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5.1-2).

A life that has this world as its first love seeks peace and hope in the comforts of the world. But a life in love with Jesus stands in stark contrast to a life lived in love with the world. For the truth of the Christian faith is that peace and hope are only found in the One who is peace, the One who is hope.

Jesus does not tell us that life is all about comfortability, and yet in Christ we find comfort. Jesus does not tell us that life is all about the easy road and yet in Christ we find that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. To have Jesus as our first love is to live out His love for the sake of the world. To have Jesus as our first love is to not only remember that audacious claims of Scripture that tell us how Jesus joyfully “endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God," (Heb 12.2), but more importantly, to embrace and embody the way, the truth and the life of Christ by running “with endurance the race that is set before us” by looking to and loving fully the author and perfecter of our faith—Jesus Christ.

To love Christ is to live sacrificially and in so doing you will receive generously the joy of life! Who do you love?

Heart of the Savior

Read Hebrews 11

Living by faith is often perplexing—leaving us feeling at one point completely confused while at another point completely confident. Such a reality encompasses each one of us…a reality which is why, I think, Paul prays incessantly that followers of Christ would have “spiritual wisdom . . . and bear fruit in every good work” (Col 1.9-11).

Truth is, faith and “good works” are risky, inconvenient, dangerous, inopportune and will hardly be written in the sky or spoken in a dream. In fact, such faith and works will most assuredly bring about persecution, pain, turmoil or disruption. And this is precisely why Paul prays for spiritual wisdom.

Paul prays that we might have spiritual wisdom so that we might have spiritual tenacity. In order for us to catch fire of faith, we must be consumed by the wisdom of heaven. We must wrestle with the flesh so as to be crowned with the spiritual. We must saturate our hearts in prayer. We must engulf our minds with the words of Scripture. We must embrace the Spirit so as to consume the heart of Christ. For there in the heart of the Savior we will find the assurance of faith. 

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Faith is the truth of stepping into the inconceivable acts of God. The wonderful acts of God - both extraordinary miracles and more ordinary acts of providence - come about “by faith.” When we enter into the scene of Hebrews 11 we see that:

By faith they passed through the red sea (v29) . . . by faith the walls of Jericho feel down (v30) . . . by faith Rahab . . . did not perish (v31) . . . by faith [they] conquered kingdoms (v33) . . .

In our faith we come to realize at the deepest of all levels just how crazy God loves us. And in this love our hearts are drawn into the delight and wonder of surrendering to His everything so that we might become everything He created us to be. Amen Jesus!

Wrestling for the souls of the world

Read Psalm 16

David writes in Psalm 16 “I have no good apart from You” (v.2). God was all the world to him. This did not mean that David wasn’t thankful for his family, kingship, and other blessings. It simply meant that God Himself is incomparably greater than any of His gifts—that He was the all-sufficient, all-satisfying joy, truth, and purpose of David’s life.

Many might not know it, but across the nation wrestling championships are taking place this month and early next month. I know this because a part of who I am is wrestling. And at one time, wresting was my world. I wrestled through college and a bit beyond. Went on to coach, lead camps etc... Through it all, I got close but never achieved what I thought I needed in order to fulfill who I thought I was.

What I did achieve though, was to realize that faith is like wrestling. We have to have heart in order to succeed for everyday we come face to face with turmoil, pain and contention. Everyday Satan seeks to pin our hearts to the mat of discontent, hopelessness and unjoy. But like David, if we are willing to wrestle with the One who is life, we will come to find all we truly need.

Truth is, in wrestling with Jesus I found my heart, my joy, my hope, my strength. I found myself by finding the glory of His grace. Yes, when Jesus saw me finally let go and let Him be my everything it was then that He lifted me up so as to give me His everything.

Everyday Jesus cries out to us to let Him be our everything. Everyday the Spirit wrestles with my heart so as to awaken it to Jesus in order that He might be my refuge, “my chosen portion and my cup” (v5).

Everyday we need to step further into the heart of Jesus by surrendering to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us that apart from Him, we can do nothing (Jn 15.5). This is the very truth David was pouring out in Psalm 16 – God must be our refuge, He must be where we find identity, where we find our everything.

Let us this day wrestle with the darkness by wrestling with the Crown of the Cross. Yes, let us embrace the Spirit so as to embrace the heart of Christ. For when our heart steps into the heart of Christ so as to know Him we come to know ourselves. For it is from Christ, through the Spirit, that we find our identity. And in finding ourselves in Christ we find the strength to begin wrestling for the souls of the world…

Dance a jig...

Read Matthew 7.7-23

When we choose to swim in the river of self we will quickly find ourselves drowning in the waters of self-deceit. Our hearts need to fill up on the music of love…we need to dance a jig with Jesus.

If we want this world to shine with the light of Christ, then we must not dance with the devil because one dance will lead us into the abyss of darkness. Our hearts need to reach out and accept the hand of our Savior. We need to step into His light so that we might dance a jig with Jesus. And how do we do this? Prayer…

Everyday our hearts, our minds, our souls need to be overwhelmed with the sweet perfume of prayer. Everyday the essence of who we are needs to be saturated with the truth of who He is. Everyday Jesus needs to become our breath so that through the Holy Spirit we might breathe in His righteous love.

In prayer the traitor in me meets the insane love in Him. In prayer the rebellion of my heart meets with the compassion of His heart. In prayer He welcomes me home so as to cover me with the truth of His way and the light of His life. In prayer the Spirit takes me into Christ so that I might enter into His dance of forever love…

What is stopping you this day from dancing a jig with Jesus?

Love beckons me

Following Jesus…what does this mean? The journey of faith is one that is exalting while causing pain. It is a road that so often seems bumpier than it does smooth. And yet I don't simply want to carry on in faith, I want more…more everyday. Yes, because of His love I long, I desire, I must press on in faith, because my faith in Jesus is who I am. My identity is in Christ…

Today is the day for each of us to stare our struggles, our hurts, our pains in the eye and say no more… No more will you have control over me because I belong to Jesus. Yes, today is the day you let the darkness know that the light of love has entered and You are His.

In Jesus the healer meets the hurt. Darkness is overcome by love. Glory confronts pain as love swallows suffering.

On the cross love washes over the trouble of my soul so as to lift me up into the arms of divine peace. On the cross I am washed clean through the love birthed in the cradle that now erupts and overwhelms the brokenness of humanity. On the cross love beckons me come to life by coming to My heart…

At the Cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words so lost in love
I am sweetly broken wholly surrendered

When we fall to our knees and surrender our hearts we quickly realize that from cradle to cross our name was engraved on Jesus’ heart. For in His coming heaven meets your heart so as to make you His bride…His forever love…

Why follow Jesus? Because without Him I am nothing and because of Him I have everything… Today, step into the Holy Spirit so as to find the path of Holy Love and in doing so you will find the truth of who you are.

Why follow Jesus? Because He passionately pursues us and in His grip we have eternity. For when we embrace the heart of Christ we realize that through the Spirit His heart embraced us some 2000 years ago as it was pierced by the cross. Yes, when we embrace the Spirit we are swallowed up in divine love and His name is wonderful, counselor, prince of peace…His name is Jesus…and He is calling out to you today…

Like a parched land

Read Psalm 143

When people celebrate love I always wonder what it is rooted in? In other words, is their love rooted in worldly things like gifts, feelings, physicality, etc… Or is it rooted in the One who is love?

That is, are our hearts a parched land thirsting after the One who is love?

I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land (vs5-6). 

Love is tough, it doesn't make sense, it is insane, and yet if you know love you know that it is worth dying for…it is worth fighting for...

Problem comes when what we thirst for is temporal when right there before us, the eternal is crying out for our hearts. The only way to know love is for our heart to become a parched land…and this happens through our prayers. We must seek the Spirit so as to find righteousness and the steadfast love of Christ.

What does it mean to thirst so heavily for Jesus that your soul thirsts like a parched land?

My beautiful daughter wrote this:

Thirsting for Jesus…It’s like saying “All I want is to live Christ.” Can I really live up to this? Does anyone else struggle with this? And does living for Christ mean no fun, no love, no true joy? This is what Satan wants us to think.

Thirsting for Jesus is living out the Christmas miracle intentionally and intensely. It means to live out the newness of life every day—to go against the world and its lure of comfort and pleasure, to be the joy of Christ every day. It doesn't make sense and this is why we call the love of Jesus insanity because to be covered in His love is to be covered in insane love. It is a love that makes you do crazy things like loving the unloved, giving to the homeless, liking those who everyone makes fun of, it means being the Good Samaritan not because you want people to notice but because you want nothing else but Jesus.

If you take just a moment to ask what you really want in life, I think you would quickly realize how much you want joy, peace and happiness. And this is who Jesus is! He is our joy, our peace and our happiness! Like you always say, I don’t need anything, I just need one person – Just give me Jesus. What this means is that we want to grow in our love for Him so that we can love each other more.

We don't need anything to remind us of love, we only need Jesus. Thirsting for Jesus means that we are parched for His love all the time, every day. It means that we want nothing more than to live Christ. Thank You Jesus for living for us…

Out of the mouth of babes…

Our Bridge

Read John 10:1-39

This past Wednesday the Church celebrated Ash Wednesday, and with it, we celebrated the beginning of lent. Lent marks out the 40 days leading up to the greatest representation of love this world has ever come to experience…

It is my hope that over these next 40 days each of us would stop, contemplate and reflect…

How many of us have found our bridge over troubled water?

Not many of us find someone who will lay down their life for us – someone to become our suffering. Sure, most of us have close friends, but even in these friendships we come to find that there is a limit to how much they will sacrifice for us.

In today’s world of consumerism and utilitarianism, it is hard to find someone who is as Simon and Garfunkel sing of in their cover of Elvis Presley’s song:

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

Truth is, the world does not promote a sacrificial lifestyle. Our society seeks to make a better America by making a better life for “me.” And the result of this mentality is that life becomes saturated in selfishness. But it doesn't have to be this way… If only we believe…

Jesus came to be our bridge over troubled water. He came to lift us up out of selfishness so that we might begin to see the other—to see the beauty of self because it sees through a heart of selflessness, not selfishness. Yes, when we give our hearts to Jesus and believe in His truth we come to see what it means to actually become a bridge over troubled water for the sake of the other.

As Jesus tells us, He came to be our bridge. He came to lift us up by laying down.

“I lay down my life for the sheep…For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life” (vs 15-17).

Jesus is our bridge over troubled water so that we might become His bridge for the sake of the world. But know this, when we live Jesus, the world (and sometimes those in the church) will think that such living is ridiculous, even insane…

“Many of them said, ‘He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?’”

Today we face the same question, “why listen to Jesus?” Why believe in Him?

Do we want a life of abundance according to the world or do we want the abundant life according to Jesus?

Let these next 40 days be a time of reflection—a time when knowing that there is one who was slaughtered for us so as to be our bridge over troubled water elicits tears from the heart. To know someone is willing to traverse the oceans of despair and become our suffering so that we might have peace…and have it abundantly. Let these upcoming days pierce your heart with the truth of His insane love…

Become His grace

Read Hebrews 4:1-16

Have you ever tried to wash away society? That is, have you ever thought of fasting from the world? To attempt to remove all the malice, envy, darkness, evil from your midst… Is this even possible?

Yes and no. Yes, it is possible, no it is not possible by our own means. When we take up the posture of prayer we enter into the power of presence. That is, in prayer we enter into the presence of the Holy Spirit so as to be taken up and consumed by the power of Jesus Christ. So yes, we can fast from the world, but no, we cannot do it on our own.

In prayer the Holy Spirit beckons us to go deep the word of God. To seek to incarnate the word of God by engulfing ourselves in its meaning so as to taste and see the goodness of the Word of God.

The Author of Hebrews writes:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (v. 12)

When we, through the Holy Spirit, enter into the drama of God’s word we encounter the Word of God so as to become engulfed in the active truth of His amazing presence. This is an active presence of God that seeks to change the core of who we are by reaching deep into our hearts so as to fill them with His grace. And in His grace we find the strength, the resolve, the desire to fast from the chaos and confusion of this world so that might taste and see His greatness. And there in His greatness, we encounter our greatness such that we are captivated by His powerful presence in us so that we might be propelled to live out the truth of His life by standing strong in our faith.

Only when we cover ourselves in His truth can we put aside deceit, envy, hypocrisy. And when we put aside the darkness of sin we make way for the beautiful truth of peace, joy, hope, selflessness. When our hearts are consumed in prayer our lives erupt in the grace of God so as to become His grace. Yes, when we become prayer we draw near to the throne of Jesus so as to be pierced with the craziness of His love.

In the Spirit of His truth we are invited to become His ministers of reconciliation. We are called to fast from the world and feast on Christ. What are you hungry for this day? Let us fall to our knees and become pierced by Christ’s love so that our hearts bleed for the sake of the other by covering them in grace...