Speechless

Just thought that everyone needs a reminder of how we should approach God's love

Dave Barnes + Midnight + Coffee = Good, short but sweet Blog

They tell me there’s songs reserved for angels
Would you sing me one, a stranger
Just to prove your love?
They tell me you’ve given poor men kingdoms
And handed guilty freedom
And taken on their stains
And your love will never change
Your love will never change
They tell me that you dwell with good and evil
In alleys and cathedrals
Shadows and the light
They tell me that you hold the world together
Not from guilt, but pleasure
And you somehow know my name
And your love will never change
Your love will never change
So tell me there’s nothing that you can’t do
And you’ll love me though I’ve hurt you
And that you’ll take my blame
And your love will never change
Your love will never change.

-Dave Barnes

Well it is somewhere between 12:30 A.M. and 1:00 A.M. and I can not go to sleep so I decided to blog. It's good for the mind so here we go....

I love good lyrics. If you can't tell I am a music person and over the last year I have learned that I would rather have great lyrics than anything. The song that is posted above is a song by a good man named Dave Barnes. It was the song that came on when I hit the shuffle setting on my iTunes. GREAT LYRICS!!! Barnes is a Christian and often likes to take theological ideas and put them to a setting that allows it to be heard to all people.

After hearing this song and the simplicity of it, I realized how hard it is for me to realize that my God's love will never change. He has done so much, brought me out of so much from my past, and put me into new things. But even if I were to look at Him and say that I do not want to have anything to do with Him, His love NEVER changes. I don't get it. Why and how can he give poor men kingdoms? How can Jesus hand me, a guilty man, freedom with out batting an eye. He didn't even look back.

Every time I screw up he is waiting with open arms ready to except me back, as if I never did anything wrong in the first place. I find myself in a place where I am overwhelmed by the power, grace, and mercy of a relentless God.

God's word tells us in Jeremiah that he knew us before we were formed. He knew how we would respond, act, behave, want, need, and much much more. He took much time on each and everyone of us. God sees us as not something He needs, but something He wants. God does not need us but he wants us. What a wake up call. Jesus did not die just because he said he would, he died because he WANTED too. He saw people in need and wanted to fix the problem. So he did just that. I would say that is quite everlasting. When he could have called upon someone or something else and call it quits his relentless unfailing love never changed. When the status quo could have been settled, he chose to do exactly what he said he would do.

I find myself wanting to be in the same place, in every aspect of my life. Do as Christ did maybe?

Sidenote: Read Francis Chan's New Book...I read the whole thing on a 2 hour plane ride and it changed my outlook on life.

Broom el Blogging numera 2

So slowly but surely I have gotten settled into my house. This house has been through a lot. It has been through air conditioning changes, different paint jobs, new appliances, old appliances, and much more. Nothing has ever been settled in this house. If I were a house I would want find something I wanted and leave it alone. Why is it when I get exactly what I want I can't keep it? I really liked the window unit...why can't I keep it. I mean heck I am THE HOUSE!!! I should have some sort of say in how things are run don't you think. What the house doesn't see is that the owner of the house is making it a better house, one day at a time. Window unit??? Are you for real??? Central Air BABY!!!! That is what the owner had in mind.

Man that has been the story of my real life. I have all of these great things put in my life. Or what I thought was great at the time. Jobs, money, friends, relationships, freedom, and anything you could ever ask for and more. Then when they are taken away...Josh is no longer a happy camper, but a really pissed off camper who wants what was never really his.

I have really been working on my bitterness as of late. I have friends and family who are dealing with the same thing. It's really easy to hold a grudge with God when he takes something out of your life. But just like the house...God takes things out of your life to replace it with something so much better. Honestly I did not want to use this scripture because everyone does, and if you know me I am an original freak! If you're gonna do something, it better have your signature on it and not someone elses. BUT this isn't my story I am telling, it's Christ's. So here it goes:

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

- God (Jeremiah 29:11)

So what happens when you allow your bitterness, grudges, and what not effect what happened to you, or what was taken away from you in the past. A LOT

Yesterday, I talked about how Jesus calls us to be fully devoted to the cause of Love. We are to unconditionally, meaning no matter what, Love those around us. Even if a friendship ends, and you go your separate ways, Love that person.

But put yourself in this scenario, friendship A ends. Doesn't end happily. Apply grudge to that, and friendship B starts with new people. I can almost guarantee that trust will never exist in your new friendship. Until you forgive that person and move on you can never have more than what you had before, in Christ. I have found that this is a very handy tool of Satan, use peoples past to make them think that everyone is the same and that Love can not truly exist in humanity. It is a lie strait from hell. God designed us for relationship. That relationship is created for Him, but is not limited to Him. So when we have relationship with others, if bitterness is in the heart it is crowding out space for Love.

So here is what I will ask you to sweep out of your house when something new comes into play. Do some renovation, replace bitterness with Love. Don't let old things effect what God might have in store for you. Don't take the offer that this witch in the picture has given you...there isn't room on the broom. The broom will crash.

I'm gonna finish using the broom soon, so check later tonight for the last couple of sweeps.

Broom Bloggin #1

Lately I have been obsessed with cleaning things out and up. I just moved into my new house and dust seems to haunt me. It's cool though, I am really excited about my new place. The house really isn't new, but it is new to me. To tell the truth it's really old, but it is my house and I love it. I am sure that a lot of stuff has happened to this house and in this house. I'm sure at some point windows have been broken. I'm sure that the power has gone out multiple times. I am also sure that there are bugs, spiders, roaches, and many other things that I don't want with this house. It might seem kind of frustrating at first but I'm willing to make it work I think. My first night in my house, I didn't want to make it work. All my stuff was laying everywhere and I had lots of sweeping to do. But I decided that it was time to prepare my broom. So I got to work. I'm still working. It will take a long long time, but when it's done, I know that this house is going to be worth it. What is it about working for something, that makes us want to run away? I am so guilty of being apathetic or just getting plain frustrated and quiting. This really takes place in life. I have so many friends that are broken, bitter, frustrated, hurt, scared, and any other kind of pain. I've been told by many this: "RUN!!!!!" Don't have anything to do with these people. They are trouble.

I beg to differ.

Why run? We are all placed in situations with people around us for such a time as this. I heard my pastor say one time, "In all of the armor that God gave us, Breast Plate of Righteousness, Helmet of Salvation, sword of the word of God, so on and so forth, God never gave us a back plate." There is no need to run. Running is not unconditional. So what do I propose?

Prepare Your Broom.

It's time to clean. What if I never cleaned my house? What if I said, "This house is dirty, I can't live here, time to leave." I would be an idiot. What if we packed our stuff up every time our place got dirty? We would be seen as people of apathy and weakness. But how often do we do the very same thing with our friends, family, and just with society in general. When we find out our friends' struggles, we just leave them to fight for survival by themselves.

Commitment is a word that my generation has skewed. It is not a virtue it is a decision. It is not something that is guaranteed. What happened to being unconditional? What do I mean by all of this? Christ calls us to love humanity the way he loved us. How did and does Christ love us? He loves us with an unconditional, unwavering, unceasing pursuit. He never gives up. Is this what he calls us to do? Look to the book of Hosea...God used Hosea to show that his love for us is that of a man who has an unconditional love for a woman who is completely screwed up. This woman was a prostitute, she loved the world and everything in it. But Hosea saw good in her and continually pursued her. He did not give up. Now what if I told you that this is what God calls us to do with the people of this world. NEVER GIVE UP ON THEM!!!! They will make mistakes but continual love, mercy, and yes GRACE is what we should offer them. Now do not confuse that with being of the world.

It easy to get sucked into what many of my friends from school and other places have done, and say this means we are to place ourselves in areas of temptation to reach the lost. I believe this is up to the discretion of the holy spirit in the individual lives of the people who are in these situations. As postmodern as that sounds, I believe the holy spirit works on a individual basis, but has standards that we to use to help determine what the holy spirit wants.

So this is what I offer... an unconditional, unwavering, passionate, dedication to all of humanity .

How do grudges, bitterness, pain, and want all play into being what is described above? Meet me back here tomorrow night and Ill tell you.

Everlasting

Have you ever thought about the word, Everlasting? Everlasting is a word that should not be taken lightly. To last forever, pretty strong words. I have found that this word is more comforting and helpful when everything falls. Nothing has fallen in my life recently, but when thing have, the word everlasting is there standing strong to describe my Lord Jesus.

The song that I posted along with this blog is called "From The Inside Out" When the chorus hits the words are "EVERLASTING, your light will shine when all else fades. Neverending, your glory goes beyond all fame." Have you ever come to the realization that God's glory is neverending? It is really easy as a musician to have your name spread around. But my God's glory will outshine me all day long. His glory is so big that it goes beyond any worship leader, any child, any parent, any friend, any leader, any president, any movement, and any belief. It consumes everything.

I often find that I am easily discouraged when I find that things change. I really hate a lot of change. It makes my life feel that there is no structure...nothing is the same. I believe that everyone can come to the conclusion that nothing is ever the same. As much as I love my family, their character changes...they are not always the same. Jesus found the key to create structure. Something in the lives of these people has to be .... everlasting. Something has to be constant that will never change. His death on the cross created his everlasting glory. Just being God makes him everlasting. He would not be God if he was not everlasting. He will never end.

So God has reached down into a world that has no peace or prosperity and gave it...the word everlasting. When everything fades...His Glory stays as strong as it has ever been. When Friends fail...He is everlasting, his friendship remains. When frustration covers your life...his everlasting grace pushes everything aside. When love fails...Everlasting love has never let go.

I have found that I have resisted God's everlasting grace. There was a time in my life that I did not want Christ to show me what he had for me. I thought his everlasting plan was not good enough. Then when my plans failed, and failed, and failed his plan stood EVERLASTING. It outlasted my plan and Jesus welcomed me with everlasting arms. I realized that his arms never had left the welcoming position that he was waiting on me. God is slowly revealing to me his plan. After seeing how my plans failed recently (like in the last 2 years) I see that I would rather have an everlasting light guiding my path.

Many times I have heard the words, "It's just not enough". The girl who moves from Boy to Boy looking for love seems to say, "That guys love just isn't enough". The man who is a work-a-holic says, "60 hours in a week just isn't enough" The athlete says "breaking state records just aren't enough". Why is it that the things of this world aren't enough. When we try to create the paradise Satan has put in our minds, we find that it is never enough and we are stuck in this endless cycle of failure.

But when we decide to follow Christ's EVERLASTING plan, the plan that will always outlast and satisfy the heart, we find that things start falling into place. The girl finds the love of God through a guy who loves the same God, she finds that this kind of love is enough because it comes from an EVERLASTING source. The work-a-holic finds that when they work for the Glory of Christ that they are finally satisfied with who they are working for. The athlete starts to tap into the fact that they realize that an EVERLASTING God gave them a talent, that talent is meant to glorify Him who gave it to the athlete. So they find that when they glorify Christ, they don't need records to be complete. They need the satisfaction of knowing that their God is Everlasting, he is neverending, and the cry of that person's heart is to bring Him praise from the inside out.

Attack of the Prom Dates

So today was great! I went out with my dad to go look for somethings for my house that I will be moving into in a couple of weeks. Then we just did "man" things and went and looked at cars and drove around for a while. Today was so peaceful and good for me. I finally relaxed a little. So after all of the riding around Greenville, I came home and of course, got bored. So I decided there isn't much to do so I will go downtown and do my quiet time because I have not done it today. I was stoked about going to my spot at falls park. I have a two seater bench that I always sit on. That is spot #1. Spot #2 is a swing that is located on the back side of the park. Spot #3 and the final spot is a place on top of a drain entering the park that is almost toward the end of the falls.

I get to downtown and I forgot that there was the greek festival this weekend but no biggie. I can share my space with everyone. It's fine. But I started noticing Limos coming out of the wood work. THEY WERE EVERYWHERE!!!! Stretch Lincoln Navigators, Stretch Hummers, Stretch Town Cars. Then I remembered that the BMW Pro-Am was this weekend. So those have to be celebrities. Once again I'm cool. Everything is fine. So I go and park my car at the Fall's Park Parking Deck and for the first time ever, I have to drive the very top of the parking deck where I take the LAST spot. Ok something has to be up.

As I make my way toward falls park, I hear what sounds like hundreds maybe even thousands of people. As I turn the corner what do I find... Tuxedos and Prom Dresses as far as the eye can see. I'm glad I wasn't epileptic because the amount of florescent color could have sent me into a convulsion! These people were EVERYWHERE. There was no where to go. Spot #1 was long gone with a line of people waiting to have there picture made in front of or on the bench. Spot #2 had grandmas and grandpas waiting on the grandkids to "hurry up and get it over with already". So I went to my last resort, and God showed me great mercy....no one was sitting on my drain pipe!

It is funny how God can use your surroundings when he wants you to learn something. I was in a very impatient mood tonight. I did not want to be around all of these people. But I knew God had something to share with me. I opened my bible to psalms... I can't remember the exact verse but it said "Give thanks to the Lord, Our God and King. His Love endures forever". He was teaching me that I should be thankful, even when things are not exactly the way I wanted them. I was hoping for some eye opening experience with God tonight that was peaceful. That is why I always go to Fall's Park to do my quiet time.

God showed me that he can work through any circumstance to glorify himself...even the hectic ones. He always wants us to be thankful for everything we do. Even be thankful when things don't exactly go our way because he has set everything into motion.

So, next time you are attacked by the prom dates (unexpected turn of events), be thankful that the God of the Universe has set things into motion, then sit back and watch him work.

Monday's in Margaritaville....

So the title of this definitely sounds interesting. So it's Monday in Myrtle Beach. For some of you that are already questioning my Southern Baptist ethic...no, I don't drink. I have just seen Margaritaville signs everywhere down here. So the title seemed to fit. My Monday has started off great! I woke up at 8:30, got up did my quiet time, and am sitting in my friend Robert's brand new stilt house. Life is good. This Monday seems to be so much more different than most Mondays. I guess it's because I am on vacation. I guess it could also be because I am done with school at North Greenville and this is my week of Celebration with some of my best friends on the planet. I guess it could also be that today is better because I woke up at 4:00 A.M. yesterday to drive back home to see my Mother on Mother's Day. That was pretty intense and it caused me to be exhausted yesterday afternoon. So what did I do...I drove back to the beach, last night. But, I did take a nap so it wasn't that bad. I got on the road about 8:00 p.m. last night after hanging out with someone (I will let your minds wonder, who is this "someone".....hmmm). She and I talked about how Monday's are the worst. Except this Monday is an exception because well, I am on vacation. Anyway, back to the subject

Most Mondays are, well lets face it...hard. You go to bed Sunday night knowing, "well, it's time to start all over again." There are usually 52 Mondays in a year. 52 new starts to a new week. Before I go any further read this:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

-Paul (Hebrews 12:1-2)

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

-Paul (2nd Letter to Timothy 4:7-8)

Why is it that on Monday's, it is so hard for us to want to keep the race going? When Monday rolls around, I feel as if the race just starts all over again. Because of these natural thoughts, I am so glad God is a definite God. He is not a God of "What if". He clearly states to Moses that He is "I AM" which is an absolute truth.

Our world has taught us to believe that every week is the same, Monday being the worst and Friday Night - Sunday is the best because of no work. This causes us to take our eyes off of an endurance race. Each week is the same, mundane. Paul never talked about how long or short the race was. But he did say run the race with perseverance. Keep pushing. Our world sets us up for failure when it has teaches us to think that Monday is the start of another mundane week, because it causes us to take our eyes off of the end of the race.

Have you ever thought about the fact that perseverance isn't boring. In fact, it makes life kinda interesting. I remember the first camp that I ever did with the band, I was 14. The band I was involved with was no little thing. We had about 140-150 members, and worked hard. Here is the scenario:
It was 94 degrees outside, and we had only been outside for 45 minutes. I was ready to say, "Forget this crap." The director was a tyrant, and if we got a break from working hard for a minimum of 3 hours, it included about 30 - 40 seconds of drinking semi-warm gatorade. Then one of my friends said, "Morton, I can already see it on your face man." I new exactly what he was talking about. I was ready to quit. Now granted I wasn't a quitter, so I WAS NOT going to quit. But I wanted to. So that same friend said, "Let's see how long we can go without passing out." Of course being the tank of a 14 year old that I was, I lasted. But I had a goal,a prize, something to go after. Perseverance made it interesting. I wanted to see if I could outlast the other guy. If someone else was going to lose it before I did. It was a rough day, kids were puking, others passed out, but no one sat down. If you passed out, you got some water and sucked it up. Perseverance that day was very interesting.

So here is my final thought:

Because something may seem mundane, may be boring, may hurt, may be hard...never give up. It's not what we are called to do. Push through those Mundane Monday.