The Beauty
I look down at the earth below and see the beauty of the creation and I see the hope you have for us all. Why is there such evil in the hearts of men that they would destroy the image of God in the name of God? I know you desire so much more for your kids than what we have put our hands to so far. God give us the courage to hope for more, there has to be more than this. This is my prayer that the groaning of this world would be that your sons and daughters would arise to see the beauty in all you have created. In each of us is the image of God, in the clouds we see the face of God, in the songs we sing we hear the ache of all creation longing for more. How much longer can we stand idly by as young girls are trafficked for something as cheap as money? How much longer can we stand idly by as the poor, the addict, the lonely people hope for someone to hear? What are you doing about it right now? Do you change the channel so you don’t see the need? Do you pop another pill to cloud the day or silence the night? Wake up O sleeper, arise and lay hold of what you where created for. There is so much more to life than this! The older I get the more I have to remind myself of the truth that I oft need a slap in the face to make me see what you see God when you look down at the clouds and when you look up in the face of a child. That since we are created in the image of you, you ask us to see it all and embrace the hurting, the sick, the addict, the girl who is trafficked, the refugee, you ask us to call out to the hope of glory in each of us. You call us to resist evil, to turn back the tide of destruction that seeks to destroy the beauty of your creation in each of us. So God , I am asking you to lovingly slap us in the face to remind us of the truth. Awake O sleeper, arise people of the Way and make a way where there seems like there is no way. There is so much more, so get on with the grand work of art and leave the preschool finger painting on God behind, there is so much more. (Euguine Petterson) You call out to us to join you in the dance and what do we do? We see the privilege as a burden. We would rather live in our glass houses holding stones than to walk out into the light of day and see the mansion you have awaiting us. O comeon there is so much more! Sing loud, sing long, dance until you can’t dance any longer and give until it hurts, love like there is no tomorrow and build His kingdom like there is an eternity. In the words of Yellowcard “They say you don’t grow up you just grow old, its safe to say I haven’t done both. I’ve made mistakes I know I know but here I am alive.”
I am here alive, God use me.
I look down at the earth below and see the beauty of the creation and I see the hope you have for us all. Why is there such evil in the hearts of men that they would destroy the image of God in the name of God? I know you desire so much more for your kids than what we have put our hands to so far. God give us the courage to hope for more, there has to be more than this. This is my prayer that the groaning of this world would be that your sons and daughters would arise to see the beauty in all you have created. In each of us is the image of God, in the clouds we see the face of God, in the songs we sing we hear the ache of all creation longing for more. How much longer can we stand idly by as young girls are trafficked for something as cheap as money? How much longer can we stand idly by as the poor, the addict, the lonely people hope for someone to hear? What are you doing about it right now? Do you change the channel so you don’t see the need? Do you pop another pill to cloud the day or silence the night? Wake up O sleeper, arise and lay hold of what you where created for. There is so much more to life than this! The older I get the more I have to remind myself of the truth that I oft need a slap in the face to make me see what you see God when you look down at the clouds and when you look up in the face of a child. That since we are created in the image of you, you ask us to see it all and embrace the hurting, the sick, the addict, the girl who is trafficked, the refugee, you ask us to call out to the hope of glory in each of us. You call us to resist evil, to turn back the tide of destruction that seeks to destroy the beauty of your creation in each of us. So God , I am asking you to lovingly slap us in the face to remind us of the truth. Awake O sleeper, arise people of the Way and make a way where there seems like there is no way. There is so much more, so get on with the grand work of art and leave the preschool finger painting on God behind, there is so much more. (Euguine Petterson) You call out to us to join you in the dance and what do we do? We see the privilege as a burden. We would rather live in our glass houses holding stones than to walk out into the light of day and see the mansion you have awaiting us. O comeon there is so much more! Sing loud, sing long, dance until you can’t dance any longer and give until it hurts, love like there is no tomorrow and build His kingdom like there is an eternity. In the words of Yellowcard “They say you don’t grow up you just grow old, its safe to say I haven’t done both. I’ve made mistakes I know I know but here I am alive.”
I am here alive, God use me.
What happened to revival? part II
I need to write a follow up to my last devotional. A lot has changed since I wrote “What happened to revival” back in December of last year. It seems I was hearing from God but it was God wanting to speak to me and to some of you as well to remind me (us) of some things, not at all what I expected.
A couple of weeks ago I attended a gathering called the Acts 1. This was a gathering of leaders from YWAM campuses in the United States, the premise being to not have a speaker led event but to seek Gods heart for the next wave of missionaries He wants to bring into YWAM. I went into the time with some level of skepticism as to what that meant or what I thought about it, my opinions and my critique.
At the first worship time a song was sung that brought me back 10 years to a gathering of young people who came together in a very similar way, to seek God face and to see a new global awakening happen in our generation. A song called “Surrender” was given by God to a friend of mine during that week in Kona. For me that song has marked those years we strove together, worshiped, prayed like it all depended on us, and sought vision like it all depended on Him.
At this recent gathering when Kenny Peavy lead us in worship to “Surrender” it brought up so many emotion, memories, and vision. I began to ask why? Why now and why not then? What happened to those dreams?
Brian Brent who brought this word to our mission said that often God has conversations with us that take years. For us it is years, for him it is just a conversation. He may say something and ten years later we get the rest of the sentence. Maybe that is what is happening.
In December when I wrote “What happened to revival?” God was bringing memories up, maybe in preparation for now, to remind me of some things, to remind you of some dreams.
In Acts chapter 1 we see the birth of a new order, of a new way of seeing things and the establishment of the church. We see at the end of the chapter the believers gathering to pray for the Holy Spirit to come. The focus was on Jesus and His Spirit, they had no idea what was going to happen. In the same way we need to be gathering to pray, to focus on Jesus and His Spirit. Not a new wave of missionaries, not a global awakening, not revival, but His face.
I believe a shift has happened that maybe the world is ready now, or maybe I am just ready now. Maybe as a generation we needed to grow up a little, maybe we didn’t even know what we were asking for, I know for sure as a mission and as a church we probably were not ready back then. That is what some of our movement was about. Maybe that was our task and now we can get on to the grand work of art leaving the preschool finger painting exercises on God behind us.
Whatever is going to happen I still believe as I did when I wrote “What happened to revival?” is that the world is in desperate need for a new move of His Spirit and to see the first real global awakening which will transform nations. In Isaiah 66:8-9 God asks a rhetorical question, “Can a nation be born in a day?” The answer for me is a resounding yes.
What is the answer for you?
What happened to revival?
Do we get old and settled or do we just forget the visions of our youth? Do we even forget to dream? I had a vision of global revival, of a generation so sold out that nothing could hold them back. We stood, jumped, prayed, and laid face down on the floor for that vision, hundreds of us around the world with a common vision, a common goal of ushering the greatest revival ever seen. It was a roar that echoed off of the Factory, buildings, within cities, and outside fields. We ripped our shirts off in passion and wept over our sin. A movement was being born and yet it seems still unborn. My heart awakes from time to time to that vision which has now become a dream. But will I awake?
I look out on the streets of this world and see now more than ever that vision is needed. The vision of stadiums, market places, of city centres, of gathering points in mega cities, filled with people worshiping God and people running to join the vision of revival in the streets, of every believer becoming a history maker. It seems that we have become settled in to the status quo of our tidy religion conformed to the likeness of a box that seems so big to us but lacks depth. It is a box and a shallow one at that. I speak to myself right now as well. I seem to have fallen asleep at the wheel but I am awakening. Maybe that is what needs to come first?
Awakening.
Awakening that our destiny doesn’t lie in the status quo, that it doesn’t lie in a platform or a title, that our leaders don’t always have all the answers but that the answer lies in Christ in us which is the hope of glory. We need to awaken from the dream to the vision. Awaken as from a deep sleep that things can be different, that there has to be more. We need awakening to the fact that we need to live dangerously like Jesus again. It will take a generation willing to lay down everything to see it happen, a generation that is tired of just playing the game of suburban spirituality and move into the downtown core of discipleship. Is your heart burning within you? We need to see a generation of worship leaders willing to sing songs worthy of the lamb and who are desperate for His vision, of intercession leaders who are willing to pray dangerous prayers, to stop praying for the lamb and pray for the lion. There is more. I don’t think we talk about it because we don’t believe it anymore. We have moved on and seem to feel that, at least for some of us, that was youthful zeal as season in time. We have matured.
There is a fear at writing this, fear for one that I am the only one left on the island. Fear that we have all moved on. There is also a fear at what it might cost me. I write this sitting in down town Mae Sot, Thailand. A city on the border between two countries’s that need revival more than ever in a world that needs to see a global awakening more than ever. Only Jesus and a people, an entire generation so sold out that they are willing to go and do and be the answer will bring this about. It won’t be in our buildings, our organization, our strategies, our funding, in our words but in deeds as well, not in dreaming but in vision, not in our facebook status but in where our status puts us that we will begin to see an awakening in the hearts of His people and once that happens we can see the global awakening that my generation once prayed for happen.
Be the answer.
I look out on the streets of this world and see now more than ever that vision is needed. The vision of stadiums, market places, of city centres, of gathering points in mega cities, filled with people worshiping God and people running to join the vision of revival in the streets, of every believer becoming a history maker. It seems that we have become settled in to the status quo of our tidy religion conformed to the likeness of a box that seems so big to us but lacks depth. It is a box and a shallow one at that. I speak to myself right now as well. I seem to have fallen asleep at the wheel but I am awakening. Maybe that is what needs to come first?
Awakening.
Awakening that our destiny doesn’t lie in the status quo, that it doesn’t lie in a platform or a title, that our leaders don’t always have all the answers but that the answer lies in Christ in us which is the hope of glory. We need to awaken from the dream to the vision. Awaken as from a deep sleep that things can be different, that there has to be more. We need awakening to the fact that we need to live dangerously like Jesus again. It will take a generation willing to lay down everything to see it happen, a generation that is tired of just playing the game of suburban spirituality and move into the downtown core of discipleship. Is your heart burning within you? We need to see a generation of worship leaders willing to sing songs worthy of the lamb and who are desperate for His vision, of intercession leaders who are willing to pray dangerous prayers, to stop praying for the lamb and pray for the lion. There is more. I don’t think we talk about it because we don’t believe it anymore. We have moved on and seem to feel that, at least for some of us, that was youthful zeal as season in time. We have matured.
There is a fear at writing this, fear for one that I am the only one left on the island. Fear that we have all moved on. There is also a fear at what it might cost me. I write this sitting in down town Mae Sot, Thailand. A city on the border between two countries’s that need revival more than ever in a world that needs to see a global awakening more than ever. Only Jesus and a people, an entire generation so sold out that they are willing to go and do and be the answer will bring this about. It won’t be in our buildings, our organization, our strategies, our funding, in our words but in deeds as well, not in dreaming but in vision, not in our facebook status but in where our status puts us that we will begin to see an awakening in the hearts of His people and once that happens we can see the global awakening that my generation once prayed for happen.
Be the answer.
Life
We are defined after we are gone by what we leave behind, our legacy if you will. I saw a news piece on the Guinness world records book and some of the ridicules things that people do to get mentioned in a one line word on some kind of strange record such as high kicking themselves in the head the most times or the poor kid who put on the most underwear, how is he going to live that down when he gets old enough to care?
People strive to leave something behind, to be recognized, to get their 10 seconds of fame. What as followers of Christ should we be striving for, to leave behind?
There was a man who most people will never remember but who had an incredible and lasting impact on my life and others who have in turn impacted countless other. His name was Richard Bohrer and he founded the Teen Challenge that I went through. He wasn’t a former addict, he wasn’t a counselor, he didn’t have any formal training in dealing with drug addicts, he was an evangelist in his 60s who saw a need in his city. He believed in people. He and his wife never owned a house and sacrificed everything to win people to Christ and to disciple those who no one else wanted to. He passed away a number of years ago. I was honored to have known him. He helped to form whom I would be as a follower of Christ. I had a one year DTS in that program because of the way he ran it, much different than Teen Challenge is run today. I had more time in the word of God in that one year than the average bible college student gets in 4 years. Not many people in that town probably remember him but his legacy lives on in me.
I had the privilege of attending a celebration of the life of the sister of my good friend. Autumn Leigh Lee was in a tragic accident at the age of 30 years old she was a wife and mother of 6. There were over 500 people at the event, far more than anyone expected. Autumn had an impact on so many and countless others beyond that number that we will probably never know about. Her legacy is in her family and those she impacted. That will be remembered. What I saw at the celebration is that life is fragile; each day is a gift of God.
I find myself striving or alternately wasting time. Pushing towards something that is manmade or achieving some vain goal. We live with eternity in our hearts; we were created for Eden friends. We were never meant to strive vainly nor feel the pain of the loss of a loved one. God created us for Him and relationship with Him. He created us to be complete in Him and to impact the world around us.
I just recently read the book of Ruth again. It is the story of a woman who left a legacy. Ruth was gentile woman, a Moabite. Moabites descended from an incestuous relationship with Lots eldest daughter. Ruth was married to a bengamite, the son of Naomi an Israelite. As you know from the book of Ruth she lost her husband, her brother in law and her father in law. Her mother in law, bereft of her husband and two sons decided to go back to Israel in shame. Ruth, a gentile, stays with her mother in law instead of going home and moving on. She sacrificed much to move to another country to a people who were not her own to follow a God she had just met. If you read the story it has a happy ending scripted in Hollywood in which she is the great grandmother of King David. She walked through tragedy, pain, discomfort to be sure, against what most would say is right, and founded a legacy that is recorded for us to see. Did she know what she was leaving behind; did she plan on having a book in the bible? Probably not. She was following her heart and following God.
I heard a quote today “God always gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him.”
When we are allowing God to be our choice our legacy is certain. We wont be striving for something that doesn’t last. No matter what it looks like to us God is establishing something. We need to leave the choice to Him to know where we are going and what we are leaving behind. There is so much more!
People strive to leave something behind, to be recognized, to get their 10 seconds of fame. What as followers of Christ should we be striving for, to leave behind?
There was a man who most people will never remember but who had an incredible and lasting impact on my life and others who have in turn impacted countless other. His name was Richard Bohrer and he founded the Teen Challenge that I went through. He wasn’t a former addict, he wasn’t a counselor, he didn’t have any formal training in dealing with drug addicts, he was an evangelist in his 60s who saw a need in his city. He believed in people. He and his wife never owned a house and sacrificed everything to win people to Christ and to disciple those who no one else wanted to. He passed away a number of years ago. I was honored to have known him. He helped to form whom I would be as a follower of Christ. I had a one year DTS in that program because of the way he ran it, much different than Teen Challenge is run today. I had more time in the word of God in that one year than the average bible college student gets in 4 years. Not many people in that town probably remember him but his legacy lives on in me.
I had the privilege of attending a celebration of the life of the sister of my good friend. Autumn Leigh Lee was in a tragic accident at the age of 30 years old she was a wife and mother of 6. There were over 500 people at the event, far more than anyone expected. Autumn had an impact on so many and countless others beyond that number that we will probably never know about. Her legacy is in her family and those she impacted. That will be remembered. What I saw at the celebration is that life is fragile; each day is a gift of God.
I find myself striving or alternately wasting time. Pushing towards something that is manmade or achieving some vain goal. We live with eternity in our hearts; we were created for Eden friends. We were never meant to strive vainly nor feel the pain of the loss of a loved one. God created us for Him and relationship with Him. He created us to be complete in Him and to impact the world around us.
I just recently read the book of Ruth again. It is the story of a woman who left a legacy. Ruth was gentile woman, a Moabite. Moabites descended from an incestuous relationship with Lots eldest daughter. Ruth was married to a bengamite, the son of Naomi an Israelite. As you know from the book of Ruth she lost her husband, her brother in law and her father in law. Her mother in law, bereft of her husband and two sons decided to go back to Israel in shame. Ruth, a gentile, stays with her mother in law instead of going home and moving on. She sacrificed much to move to another country to a people who were not her own to follow a God she had just met. If you read the story it has a happy ending scripted in Hollywood in which she is the great grandmother of King David. She walked through tragedy, pain, discomfort to be sure, against what most would say is right, and founded a legacy that is recorded for us to see. Did she know what she was leaving behind; did she plan on having a book in the bible? Probably not. She was following her heart and following God.
I heard a quote today “God always gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him.”
When we are allowing God to be our choice our legacy is certain. We wont be striving for something that doesn’t last. No matter what it looks like to us God is establishing something. We need to leave the choice to Him to know where we are going and what we are leaving behind. There is so much more!