So Loved...

How do we really know that God loves us?

Have you asked Him?

This weekend we witness how much love has been poured out on our behalf...

This weekend the tragedy of Friday, the silence of Saturday and the awakening of Sunday should erupt in joyful jubilation as we remember just how much we are loved. Oh yes, we are so loved...


So why not right now stop…take a knee and ask…Ask the Spirit to speak to your heart. Ask Him to destroy, remove, crush any obstacles that are hindering you from hearing the voice of the Crucified King as He hangs there on that rugged tree. Ask the Spirit to touch the eyes of your heart…

“Then He touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith be it done to you.’ And their eyes were opened” (Matt 9.29-30).

We will only see when we are blinded by grace. When we turn to the cross so as to embrace the silence, the surrender, the solitude, the strength, the beauty of this weekend. 


In our embrace of His heart, that was drained for us on that cross, we lose the dead weight of selfishness so as to gain the greatness of Savior. And when we are engulfed in the greatness of Savior we realize the greatness of ourselves.

We realize that to be in His image is to be extraordinary, it is to be the deed and truth of love. For when we recognize the staggering reality of this weekend, we realize the truth of how much we are so loved...

So go ahead, ask Jesus how much He loves you. Ask the Spirit to open your heart so you might truly see. And when you open the eyes of your heart, you will find the divine hand of love stretched out so that it might embrace your heart and softly whisper, 

“My child for this I have waited, for this I came. To receive you into my arms, broken, lifeless, dead to self so that I might cover you in My love, fill you with the Holy Spirit and raise you up into our divine heart so that now you might finally realize you are so loved.”

Fall into His heart

Read James 1.2-25

Ever have those times when you feel like doing nothing but crying? Times when you hardly want to get out of bed and have no energy to do anything, let alone prayer or reading the Bible. You know those times when every door seems to close, every way seems to be darkened and everybody seems to have turned their back to you?

Times when even God seems distant and unloving and you actually wonder if He even sees you…

Strange truth of faith is that through our trials we find growth, because we find Him… 

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (vs. 2-4).

Joy? How so? Because such trials have a way of pressing us to go deeper with God. When we are brought to our knees we see fresh truths about God intersecting with our lives in the hardest of times. When we fall to our knees so as to cry out to His heart we realize what David did: “He sent from on high, He took me…He rescued me,” –and here is the best part—“because He delighted in me” (Psalm 18.6-19).

How many of us, when we cry out to Jesus, realize that He has entered into our suffering with us, broken down the barriers of sin and eradicated death so as to reach out and rescue us because He delights in us?

In our trials we are not expected to fall back on our own power, control or resources. No, Jesus wants us to embrace the Spirit so as to “rely not on (myself) but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor 1.9).

All Jesus wants is for us to fall into His heart so that He can take care of us.

There in our suffering and through our trials Jesus says to us, “I want you to have peace. I want you to be deeply joyful. I want you to believe in what I say and what I do — to have unshakable faith. I want you to have the kind of peace that I give, not the world. The kind of joy that I give, not the world. The kind of faith, I give, not the world. I want you to have the truth of love and the truth of faith—I want you to have Me.”

Do you want Jesus? Then go to Him, embrace Him and receive His love…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…

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…

Seeing Empty as Full

Georges Rouault (French, 1871-1958)
Christ among the poor

One of the most beautiful yet challenging chapters of the Bible is Philippians 2—why? because it illumines the aspects of humility and servanthood. The idea of emptying ourselves so that we might be filled up is an interesting concept, but such a reality sits in opposition to today's culture.
Think about it, to empty yourself in today's world is to surrender. That is, to let go of your rights or deserved rights is equivalent to surrendering because instead of "demanding what is yours" you are placing the sake of the other first. And let's be honest, surrender is not a popular issue or philosophy; in a society that says win at all costs, surrender (or to empty yourself) in order to gain or be elevated, is an extreme paradox.

Here is the deal: the church will always have a foundational belief and being that is counter-culture but this must never be to the eradication of culture. That is, the church will often times be in opposition to the ways of society but the church must not discount or discard the voice of society. Dialogue is essential for the sake of the world hearing the "Good News" of Jesus Christ.

The reality is this:

• society does not understand how surrender can bring about glory, victory and elevation
• society does not understand how Jesus could have the audacity to call His followers to die so that they might live
• society does not understand how Jesus can say that in order to be first we must be last

Jesus goes against everything we have been taught about who a King is supposed to be, or a ruler, or a person of power and prestige. Jesus comes and takes all our concepts, turns them inside out so as to turn them right side up. In his letter to the Philippians Paul urges his readers to be humble and to follow the example of Christ, who, although He was “in the very nature of God,” became human and underwent death on the cross. God therefore exalted Him to the highest place (2.1-11). This leads to a further exhortation to his readers to serve God faithfully (2.12-18). In this beautiful hymn (Phil 2.1-11) Paul explains the truth of Christ, that He "emptied Himself, taking the form of a Bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men (v7). Here Paul draws directly from the book of Isaiah, specifically Isa 52.13-53-6. Isaiah writes, "Behold My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted" (52.13). And then Isaiah goes on to illumine the reason for this exaltation. This is what it says of the Bible's crucified King:

He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him (53.2)
He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him (53.3)
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted (53.4)
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed (53.5)
All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him (53.6)

We express the heart of humility in the same way Christ Jesus did, when we promote peace and unity among the church as well as the world. We are the church when we look out and stand up for the good of others, not our own selfish interests; when we live out this reality, we demonstrate and actualize the heart and mind of Christ, which is the truth and realization of humility (Philippians 2.1-4).

Jesus’ teaching on servanthood and suffering was not intended to merely inspire good behavior. Jesus wanted to impart (to give a part or share; to communicate the knowledge of; to make known) the spirit of servanthood, the sense of personal commitment and identity that He expressed when He said, “I am among you as He who serves” (Luke 22.27). Christ is calling us to “empty” ourselves of our selfish ambitions and self-centered acts. What a paradox that stretches our mind’s eye, to think that as we become “empty” of self and dependent on God, the Holy Spirit will use us mightily, but this is the life we are called to live faithfully and obediently.

Empty in order to be filled...how are you doing today with this? How can the Church transform society - by becoming greater servants and lovers of the other. How can you, how can I, how can we become more of a servant today and tomorrow? As Jesus reminds us, "When you did it to the least of these you did it to Me" (Matt 25.40). Come Lord Jesus Come!