My God is awesome. I was just thinking about Him a few minutes ago when He brought this verse to my memory. There is no one like our God. We need to remember that every day. It's so easy for some people to walk through their day-to-day and forget that God is God. He is our almighty and our strenth and our joy.
(Isaiah 40:25-31 NASB)
"To whom then will you liken Me
That I would be his equal?" says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these stars,
The One who leads forth their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD,
And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God"? Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Coach K(im)
I came home from work on Monday to the cutest and most beautiful sight. Kim and Kelsi had been working in Kim's flower garden. I can't tell you how cute it is to see your gorgeous wife in work gloves with dirt on her face. Funny thing is that the first thing I noticed was her big smile. I don't know if it was becuase she was happy to see me or because she was having so much fun planting her flowers with Kelsi. You just have to picture an almost two year-old working as hard in the dirt as her mom, it was priceless. With Kassidi, Kalli, and coach K's basketball schedule I don't know how she found time to plant flowers but she did.
I changed clothes and me, Kassi, and Kalli all pitched in either helping with the flowers or watching Kelsi (thanks Kass!) and we had a great family night. As the sun was fading and I was weeding another flower bed, I hadn't noticed that Kim disappeared. I was disturbed from my work by the smell of frying bacon. Kim had made us BLT's. Now I don't know about you, but I really enjoy a good BLT, ESPECIALLY when someone else makes it.
As I was eating, I looked over and there Coach K was folding clothes. Now Kim had been working outside longer than any of us and she had made dinner so if anyone deserved a break it was her. Nope! There was work to be done and a family to take care of.
Flowers, dinner, and laundry. I'm not saying Coach K is perfect, but who is? But heaven knows that she is as close as it gets as far as I'm concerned. God has truly blessed me with an amazing wife. More importantly, He has blessed my children with a remarkable mother. She sacrifices more for her children than any other mother that I know. I pray for Kim daily but I also pray for myself. I pray that God will teach me and help me to love Coach K the way that she deserves.
Husbands, I encourage you to stop and think about what your wife does for you and your family. Please take the opportunity (besides her b-day, anniversary, or mother's day) to remember her and thank her. She may not be perfect but she is your wife. Love her the way that she deserves....the way Christ loves the church.
Thank you God for giving us Coach K!
I love you and God does too!
I changed clothes and me, Kassi, and Kalli all pitched in either helping with the flowers or watching Kelsi (thanks Kass!) and we had a great family night. As the sun was fading and I was weeding another flower bed, I hadn't noticed that Kim disappeared. I was disturbed from my work by the smell of frying bacon. Kim had made us BLT's. Now I don't know about you, but I really enjoy a good BLT, ESPECIALLY when someone else makes it.
As I was eating, I looked over and there Coach K was folding clothes. Now Kim had been working outside longer than any of us and she had made dinner so if anyone deserved a break it was her. Nope! There was work to be done and a family to take care of.
Flowers, dinner, and laundry. I'm not saying Coach K is perfect, but who is? But heaven knows that she is as close as it gets as far as I'm concerned. God has truly blessed me with an amazing wife. More importantly, He has blessed my children with a remarkable mother. She sacrifices more for her children than any other mother that I know. I pray for Kim daily but I also pray for myself. I pray that God will teach me and help me to love Coach K the way that she deserves.
Husbands, I encourage you to stop and think about what your wife does for you and your family. Please take the opportunity (besides her b-day, anniversary, or mother's day) to remember her and thank her. She may not be perfect but she is your wife. Love her the way that she deserves....the way Christ loves the church.
Thank you God for giving us Coach K!
I love you and God does too!
Monday, April 16, 2012
Get ready, the 3rd day is coming!
I've been reading Exodus lately and its funny how much I have forgotten since the last time I read it. There are some great stories there and I encourage you to read it the next time you aren't sure what to read.
The bible is amazing to me. The bible, from Geneses to Revelations, was written over a span of over 2000 years and yet the whole thing points to one event; the resurrection of Jesus. Our faith is worthless if Jesus didn't raise Himself from the dead. In the garden, God told the devil that Eve's seed would bruise the devils head (Gen 3:15). He prophesied that Jesus would come to step on the devil and the crucifixion would be no more to Jesus than a bruise on his heel compared to what Jesus would do to the devil. I'll never understand how people doubt the validity and inspiration of the bible when you know how it was written, by whom it was written, and over the long time span.
In Exodus 19 God was speaking to Moses telling him that He would come to Mount Sinai and visit with Moses and the people could watch. But before the people could be in the presence of God, they had to prepare themselves. They had to be consecrated by Moses and then they had to wash their clothes so they would be ceremonially clean. Then in verse 11 God says "and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people".
Obviously, this was symbolic and prophetic regarding the coming of Christ. I believe it was also symbolic toward us today. We know that Jesus came as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins and that our sins have been washed in His blood. Nevertheless, the 3rd day is coming. God wants to come to our Mount Sinai but before He does, we must be ready. We need to wash our symbolic clothes and consecrate ourselves. To consecrate means to set aside as sacred, to consecrate yourself means that you have declared that you are God's and God's alone. Not only that, you are presentable to God because you are sacred.
Are you presentable to God as sacred? Are your spiritual clothes clean? God wants to meet you on your Mount Sinai but first, you have to be ready to meet Him. I'm not saying that you have to clean up before you get saved, heavens no! What I am saying is that if you are saved, its time to set yourself aside as a sacred presentation to God. When you do, He is faithful and will present Himself to you.
I encourage you to be a peculiar people (1 Pet 2:9), set apart for God so that you can have a deeper relationship with Him.
I love you and God does too!
The bible is amazing to me. The bible, from Geneses to Revelations, was written over a span of over 2000 years and yet the whole thing points to one event; the resurrection of Jesus. Our faith is worthless if Jesus didn't raise Himself from the dead. In the garden, God told the devil that Eve's seed would bruise the devils head (Gen 3:15). He prophesied that Jesus would come to step on the devil and the crucifixion would be no more to Jesus than a bruise on his heel compared to what Jesus would do to the devil. I'll never understand how people doubt the validity and inspiration of the bible when you know how it was written, by whom it was written, and over the long time span.
In Exodus 19 God was speaking to Moses telling him that He would come to Mount Sinai and visit with Moses and the people could watch. But before the people could be in the presence of God, they had to prepare themselves. They had to be consecrated by Moses and then they had to wash their clothes so they would be ceremonially clean. Then in verse 11 God says "and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people".
Obviously, this was symbolic and prophetic regarding the coming of Christ. I believe it was also symbolic toward us today. We know that Jesus came as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins and that our sins have been washed in His blood. Nevertheless, the 3rd day is coming. God wants to come to our Mount Sinai but before He does, we must be ready. We need to wash our symbolic clothes and consecrate ourselves. To consecrate means to set aside as sacred, to consecrate yourself means that you have declared that you are God's and God's alone. Not only that, you are presentable to God because you are sacred.
Are you presentable to God as sacred? Are your spiritual clothes clean? God wants to meet you on your Mount Sinai but first, you have to be ready to meet Him. I'm not saying that you have to clean up before you get saved, heavens no! What I am saying is that if you are saved, its time to set yourself aside as a sacred presentation to God. When you do, He is faithful and will present Himself to you.
I encourage you to be a peculiar people (1 Pet 2:9), set apart for God so that you can have a deeper relationship with Him.
I love you and God does too!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Where are you God?
In several of my past posts I've talked about spiritual troughs, those are the times in your life that God seems to remove the ability from us to be able to feel Him. Recently, Kim and I had the misfortune of going through a spiritual trough. This was really tough for us. Since we both were going through it, we didn't recognize subtle changes that were taking place until last week we knew something wasn't right. Nothing was wrong, we weren't fighting, but something just wasn't right. When Kim pointed out to me that we weren't the same, I knew immediately what was going on. We talked quite a bit about it and we talked about what to do.
During this time of test you will have one of three reactions; 1) Recognize what's going on and continue to seek God, 2) Run from God because you are upset, or 3) You don't recognize it until damage is done. For Kim and me, I think we recognized what was going on and we began to seek God.
During our talks about this, Kim asked how to get out of the funk that we were in. It really felt like we were going through the valley of dry bones. I told Kim the only thing we could do is to continue seeking after God, read our bibles, and pray. That is what we did. Kim and I have an awesome marriage, I don't know another couple that loves each other like we do. I'm not saying that we're perfect because we aren't, but we sure do love each other. So when we recognized that each of us was in a spiritual trough, we prayed for each other. Because our marriage revolves around God, if we aren't growing closer to Him, it feels like we aren't growing closer to each other. God is so good to us and we give Him the glory for everything. We put our marriage and our kids in His hands and He has always been faithful to us. My hope is that we are as faithful to Him.
If you follow my blog then you know that I love music and God ministers to me through music. I heard a song that is a couple of years old today by Thousand Foot Krutch called "Breathe you in". There is a line in the song that says "Through the highs and lows, there's one truth I know and its you". This one statement is what should carry us through any spiritual trough that we go through. Life is easy during the highs. During the low parts of our life, and there will be low points if you're a Christian, if we just remember that the one truth in life is Christ we will be OK. One truth? He is the one thing that we can always count on. He is the one God that will always be faithful to you.
I encourage you to recognize the low points; whether it is a test from God or whether you have just slipped. Recognize them and fight to get back to feeling God.
I love you and God does too!
During this time of test you will have one of three reactions; 1) Recognize what's going on and continue to seek God, 2) Run from God because you are upset, or 3) You don't recognize it until damage is done. For Kim and me, I think we recognized what was going on and we began to seek God.
During our talks about this, Kim asked how to get out of the funk that we were in. It really felt like we were going through the valley of dry bones. I told Kim the only thing we could do is to continue seeking after God, read our bibles, and pray. That is what we did. Kim and I have an awesome marriage, I don't know another couple that loves each other like we do. I'm not saying that we're perfect because we aren't, but we sure do love each other. So when we recognized that each of us was in a spiritual trough, we prayed for each other. Because our marriage revolves around God, if we aren't growing closer to Him, it feels like we aren't growing closer to each other. God is so good to us and we give Him the glory for everything. We put our marriage and our kids in His hands and He has always been faithful to us. My hope is that we are as faithful to Him.
If you follow my blog then you know that I love music and God ministers to me through music. I heard a song that is a couple of years old today by Thousand Foot Krutch called "Breathe you in". There is a line in the song that says "Through the highs and lows, there's one truth I know and its you". This one statement is what should carry us through any spiritual trough that we go through. Life is easy during the highs. During the low parts of our life, and there will be low points if you're a Christian, if we just remember that the one truth in life is Christ we will be OK. One truth? He is the one thing that we can always count on. He is the one God that will always be faithful to you.
I encourage you to recognize the low points; whether it is a test from God or whether you have just slipped. Recognize them and fight to get back to feeling God.
I love you and God does too!
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Crucifixion Outline
I spoke at RIO 180 last night. Here is the outline that I used. I don't have time to fill in the details but this is a very good summary for you to go on to understand what our savior did for us.
1) Jesus was betrayed by Judas
2) He prayed until his sweat became as great drops of blood
3) Abandoned by all of his friends
4) Walked 2.5 miles during a sleepless night
5) He had many people bearing false witness on him yet he did not defend himself
6) He was beaten on the face and mocked at Caiaphas’ house
7) He was beaten by the cat-of-nine tails (according to Roman custom), 39 lashes (Deut 25:3)…Describe what that does
8) He was robed…but when de-robed later, the pain would have been horrific.
9) He was crowned with a crown of thorns
10) He had to carry the top part of his cross
11) The nails were 8 – 10 inches long and they went in his wrists, not hands…explain the tearing
12) One nail was used for his feet
13) When the cross dropped into the ground, his shoulders and elbows would have dislocated (Psalm 22)
14) He was crucified naked (Roman custom), they cast lots for his clothes.
15) His heavenly father turned his back on him...“eloi, eloi, lama sabacthani”…My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? All this because he became our sin. II Cor 5:21
16) His blood began to thicken as water started gathering in his lungs because of the short breathes he was taking. His lungs were working overtime to try to get oxygen from the blood. This is why that blood AND water flowed when his side was punctured. A clear sign of what was happening.
I'm happy to field any questions.
God loves you and I do too!
1) Jesus was betrayed by Judas
2) He prayed until his sweat became as great drops of blood
3) Abandoned by all of his friends
4) Walked 2.5 miles during a sleepless night
5) He had many people bearing false witness on him yet he did not defend himself
6) He was beaten on the face and mocked at Caiaphas’ house
7) He was beaten by the cat-of-nine tails (according to Roman custom), 39 lashes (Deut 25:3)…Describe what that does
8) He was robed…but when de-robed later, the pain would have been horrific.
9) He was crowned with a crown of thorns
10) He had to carry the top part of his cross
11) The nails were 8 – 10 inches long and they went in his wrists, not hands…explain the tearing
12) One nail was used for his feet
13) When the cross dropped into the ground, his shoulders and elbows would have dislocated (Psalm 22)
14) He was crucified naked (Roman custom), they cast lots for his clothes.
15) His heavenly father turned his back on him...“eloi, eloi, lama sabacthani”…My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? All this because he became our sin. II Cor 5:21
16) His blood began to thicken as water started gathering in his lungs because of the short breathes he was taking. His lungs were working overtime to try to get oxygen from the blood. This is why that blood AND water flowed when his side was punctured. A clear sign of what was happening.
I'm happy to field any questions.
God loves you and I do too!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)