What was that?

Listen. How many time do we do that each day? My guess is more then you think. Maybe you're at Starbucks and listening to make sure they got your drink right. Or maybe you're on the other side and making sure that you get the customers drink right! Anyway you look at it, listening is not just a every once in a while thing. You are doing it all the time.
Now the listening I'm talking about here is stuff that if you miss something then really no big deal usually.


What about those times when you really need to pay attention? In today's culture do we take time to actually listen to other people? And what about listening to the Holy Spirit?


During this Christmas season it is almost impossible to go anywhere that isn't playing Christmas music. Its on at the store, its on in your car, it on at your house, you have it on your iPod, its EVERYWHERE. Now I would venture to say that it is this way year around. Probably not with Christmas music but the news, the latest podcast, music, or your favorite talk shows. We are inundated with noise! And while none of those things are necessarily wrong per-say, when they are always on we lose a chance to hear something else. That still small voice.
¹¹ So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORDwas not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, butthe LORD was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  1 Kings 19:11-13


God wasn't in the great, strong wind. He wasn't in the earthquake. Nor was He in the fire. He was in the gentle blowing. Now when I think of gentle blowing I think of that being in the Colorado mountains next to an aspen grove. And you might not feel the breeze but you can see it moving through the top of those aspens. Not even noticeable unless you are looking for it. I feel like that is the way that God talks to us. Unless you are looking for it, pursuing and seeking after God, you might just miss what He has to say to you.    Now there are other ways that God speaks to you. Through what is commonly known as you "Conscience." For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, ¹⁵ in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, ¹⁶ on the day when, according to my gospel,God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. Romans 2: 14-16


You know what I'm talking about. As a kid did you really need someone to tell you that it was wrong to steal or lie? No, you knew that it was wrong in your heart. And that same conscience "pricks" us sometime as an adult. 
"You really shouldn't run that red light"
"It is really the best use of your time to play video games for 6 hours on end?"
"Haven't you been on Facebook just a little to long???" (Guilty as charged...)
We all have felt that nudge from the Holy Spirit now and then. Sometimes we "listen" and sometimes we just drown it out. 


Imagine if you will, a guy (lets call him... Bob) at work who walks around all day with his really nice, Bose noise-canceling headphones in and his music blasting. Bob doesn't take them out for meetings, phone calls, conversations. Nothing. At the end of the year there is this big project due. So the day before it's due Bob takes out his headphone while everyone else is finishing up last min details, making last min revisions and asks "Hey what do you want me to do?" Do you think anyone is going to answer? He hasn't been listening all along so why should they think that Bob is starting now?
Is that you and I sometimes with God? We are always immersed in everything else and he is trying to talk to us. Tell us whats going on. Tell us "The Plan." But we can't hear anything. And then when we really need to know the plan we quickly pop out of our loud environmental and are like "Hey God I need that plan like RIGHT NOW!" And God's like "I already told you the whole thing..."


I wonder how much we miss cause we aren't listening to God? If you look back at the great men of faith in history, from Moses to David. From St. Augustine to R.C. Sproul. These men had devoted prayer lives. And when I mean prayer lives I don't mean praying for hours on end for every little need they could think of. No, you see prayer is not your monologue to God. Its a conversation with the Creator of the universe. The Alpha and the Omega. The Beginning and End. The Always Has and the Always Will Be. The King of kings! And yet, He cares enough about you to not just listen to your grocery list of needs/wants/desires/ect. But he wants to have a relationship with you. So much so that He sent His own Son to die on the Cross for our sins. If that doesn't impact you then I don't know what will. Doesn't matter how many times you hear that truth. You hear it again and should just be in awe that the one who could have just destroyed us after Adam sinned, and started over. No! He loved us so much and desired relationship again that Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Phil 2:6-7 
This is the Christmas story. A story of a God who loved us. A story of one who left all his majesty to come to this earth and be born in a dirty stable. And have a bed of half eaten hay. This is the greatest story ever told. 


So this Christmas season, in the midst of shopping, working at a busy Christian retail establishment, planning parties, going to parties, making food, entertaining relatives, decorating, ect, ect, ect, ect. 
Make time to be silent. To listen. To hear what God wants to tell you. And to thank and worship the One who came for you. 

Long Time, No See

Well hello everybody.
Its been a while since my last post. I have tried to start 4-5 different post but they are all still in rough draft stages. Why you may ask? Well. They just haven't finished themselves yet. I'm sure that a few of them will eventually make the blog someday. But see the way i write blogs is to just kinda type for a while and see what has come out and go from there. Sometimes its bad. Sometimes its awful. Sometimes it works. (those would be the ones you see =D)


So why the hiatus? Well there are a couple of things.


1. This past 2-3ish months God has been really working on me. And I have to say that some of it hasn't been easy. In fact some of it has been downright hard. But I know that He is slowly trying to mold a stubborn me into the image of His Son. And while that is sometimes Un-Fun, there is a verse in 1 Peter that has helped.


So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.  1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT


2. (Though its more like 1b ;D) For the 1st time in my life I have faced intense spiritual warfare. I knew that it existed, like when it says in Ephesians that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. but until recently this was head knowledge that was "oh ya I believe in that stuff" but figured that it happened to "other" people. 


Let me tell you something. The devil IS a roaring lion. Seeking whom he may devour. And he will NOT give up. Well their may be "cease fires" at times this is the time when your defenses MUST be at their highest. When your defenses are down is when he will attack the hardest.


Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ⁹ But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. ¹⁰ After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect,confirm, strengthen and establish you. ¹¹ To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Pet 5:8-11 NASB




So that is what I have been up to. While this time has been some of the hardest of my life, I wouldn't give up what God has been molding me into during these trials.


"To Him be the dominion forever and ever. AMEN!!"

Erasing Hell??

So as most of you know I really enjoy Francis Chan's books, both Crazy Love and Forgotten God. Well he is coming out (releases July 5) with a new book, Erasing Hell. Now I could tell you what the book is about but I'd rather let him do that. And please take the 10 min it takes to watch and/or listen to this video cause what this book is about is more then just hell and whether it exist, ect. But this goes to the core of who we really are as Christians. When we say Jesus is Lord over all do we believe that? Do we believe that God is ACTUALLY a Just God?
Please watch:



Did it make you go hmmm?

See what so many people miss in the debate about hell is the simple fact that there might be people who are going to spend the rest of eternity separated from God. In eternal torment and utter damnation. Doesn't that make you stop? And if it doesn't, shouldn't that be a warning sign for you? The guy at the gas station, the lady at the fast food place, your co-workers, your boss, the person in the car next to you on the road, who among those people are not going to spend eternity in communion with God?

And what are YOU going to do about it?

"Your" Stuff????

The earth is the LORD'S, and all it contains,The world, and those who dwell in it.
Ps 24:1


I'm sure that you have all heard this verse before, but do you actually realize what it is saying? Every in/around/on/contained/happens on the earth belongs to Jesus. 


See if you look at the New Testament we see that Jesus is called "The firstborn of all creation." Now to understand what that actually means we are going to have to look at the Old Testament. If you look at the story of Jacob and Esau (Gen 27) we see how the firstborn was given the blessing of being the heir of his father's estate as well as the fact that the other kids were supposed to serve/worship the firstborn. 


So since Jesus is the "Firstborn" of all Christians then guess what??? (I thought you would never ask...) Our purpose on this earth is to worship and serve our "Older Brother!!" And everything on the earth is actually his and we are just supposed to "take care" of all of it for HIM!!!


So this begs the question. Why are we so selfish when it comes to "Stuff?" Or our time? "Where ever you treasure is, there is your heart also" 


So I challenge you. What is one thing in you life that you just "can't" give up? 


Whatever it is, do whatever it takes to make CHRIST the center of everything you do and everything you are!!

How can you not love Him?

The face that Moses had begged to see—was forbidden to see—was slapped bloody. 
The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth's rebellion now twisted around his own brow...

"On your back with you!" One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier's heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner's wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier's life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only the Son do "all things hold together." The victim wills that the soldier lives on—he grants the warriors continued existence. The man swings.

As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm—the sensations it would be capable of. 


The design proves flawless—the nerve performs exquisitely. “Up you go!” They lifted the cross. God is on display in his underwear and can scarcely breathe.

But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feels a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being—the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his Father’s eye turns brown with rot.

His Father! He must face his Father like this!

From heaven the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognize these eyes.

“Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped—murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten—fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk—you, who molested young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list never end! Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp—buying politicians, practicing extortion, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves—relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, loathe these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me! Can you not feel my wrath?”

Of course the Son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself. The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.
The Father watches as his hearts treasure, the mirror-image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah’s stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.

"Father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!"

But heaven stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.

The Trinity had planned it. The Son endured it. The Spirit enabled him. The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The Rescue was accomplished.


~From Joni Eareckson Tada's When God Weeps

Good Works....

Have you ever heard the idea that "Oh God will have to let me into heaven cause I did all this good stuff on earth"?

Well I can't remember where I heard this but I saw/heard a quote that said something like "Trying to save yourself by good works will never work because the motivation for your good works is simply an extension of you selfishness"

Which is really true. If you true to "earn" you way to heaven, you will fail every time.

"I am the way"~Jesus



Thats all for today. =D

I really like this song =D One of my favorites that is played during the Thorn each year.

What your favorite "Easter" song?