What's in a Name

Acts 11:19-26 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

So why were believers/disciples first called Christians at Antioch? What was so different about them? Let's look at our passage.

The first thing I notice is that they got out of their comfort zone as they reached the greeks not just the Jews. They didn't just win people for the Lord that they were familiar with, they went way outside the box and won Greeks (who believed in many gods) over to the Lord. We also see that because of this, the Lord's hand was with them...They had God's favor on their side.

Second was that the evidence of the grace of God was visible in their lives. They weren't just talking about Jesus and preaching to people, they were living the way Jesus did when He was on earth. They were walking examples for non-believers and believers alike.

Third, they were sent a great leader, Barnabas (who was in the Spirit and strong in faith) to encourage them. I believe that encouragement helps everyone. What if no one ever encouraged them to keep it up?

Friends, I ask that we examine our own lives. Are we getting outside our comfort zone for the good news of Jesus Christ? Do we recognize God's favor in our lives because of this? Can others see the grace of God through us, or are we just a billboard...we have a lot to say, but never go anywhere with it...just wait for others to come to us. Do we live like Jesus did? Do we encourage others in the faith to stay strong...keep it up?

Sadly, I know for many of us we do not answer yes to enough of the above questions. But that doesn't mean we cannot change...it doesn't mean we cannot grow. Each day we should be striving to be more like Christ; to walk as He walked. Let's step outside our box, live like we mean it, and go out and encourage our fellow bros and sis' in the faith!

Someday I'll be called "Christian." Why not today

My Hope

Jeremiah 14:22 "Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, O LORD our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this."

Psalm 33:20-22 "We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you."

Too many of us put our hope in the things of this world. We put our hope in other people even. But what does God's word say we should put our hope in? HIM of course! The rain cannot fall, nor the sun shine, nor the clouds boom without the LORD commanding them to. So why then would we put our hope in anyone or anything else? If our God can calm the seas (Matt. 8:26) what more can He do for our lives! There is so much promise in God's word. I know that if I wait on HIM that my hope is secure. Waiting is having faith and thanking HIM in advance for that which he has already done...we just may not see it yet.

So put your hope in the LORD and wait to receive your blessings that He has promised of those who believe HIM.

Callin' All Calebs

Exploring Canaan
Numbers 13:30-32"Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, 'We should go up and take possession of the land for we can certainly do it.' But the men who had gone up with him said, 'We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are...'"

Numbers 14: 6-9 "Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, 'The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the LORD is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing of milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.'"

How many of us are Calebs or Joshuas? How many of us look towards the positive instead of the negative? How many of us are willing to do the LORD's Will even against all odds and even when others think we are not going to succeed, and may even talk bad about us? After all, that is what Caleb and Joshua went through....but it wasn't just that they were talked bad about; some of the Israelites even suggested stoning them (Num 14:10).

We have to understand that in doing God's will, there are going to be many of our own brothers and sisters (Christians) who will try to cut down what we believe to be true and God's will in our own lives. They just don't understand. Should we condemn them for that way of thinking? Well, no...they just don't see as Caleb and Joshua did....the positive side...the God side of things.
They do not understand that we are "More than conquerors through HIM who loves us"(Rom. 8:37).

Listen to Caleb's words...they aren't just going to have mere victory over the giants of that land of Canaan, they are going to "swallow them up." That sounds like more than conquerors to me! It sounds like a divine appointment that they shouldn't miss.

How many of us get down when others don't see our vision? Sometimes it's hard to keep on truckin' in the way God wants us to go when we feel all the negativity around us....but we must keep striving towards HIM. We must TRUST in HIM. If we don't we will truly be miserable...caught in a rut never to reach our promised land...not to mention fall out of favor with the LORD. Oh yes, and not to mention have a dead faith (James 2:26).

Numbers 14:11-12 "The LORD said to Moses, 'How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they REFUSE TO BELIEVE IN ME in spite of all the miraculous signs I have given them? I will strike them with a Plague and DESTROY them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.'"

Well, I don't know about you, but I certainly don't want to be one of those who refuse to believe IN God. Just think of how many signs we ignore...writing them off as just a coincidence. Friends, those signs aren't just coincidence...they are divine signs from our El Shaddai. Our God of more than enough; all sufficient;God of strength and courage, power and promise.

Speaking of promise...
Joshua 14:13 "Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly."

Are we willing to follow God WHOLEHEARTEDLY? I know I am. I know that I am sick of running in circles just to try and please others besides the Living God. I know that I am unable to do anything but the Lord's will, and like Caleb and Joshua, I refuse to let anyone tell me different. I refuse to let mere people get in the way of my Canaan.

Negative Christians beware...God's callin' all Calebs!!

Food for Thought

Wanted to share this entry with you all from one of my favorite books...The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.

"Kids and homeless mothers preached the gospel. We shared communion - old apple cider and stale bagels or whatever we could find - and many of us were experiencing true communion for the first time in our lives.

"The body of Christ was alive, no longer trapped in stained-glass windows or books of systematic theology. The body of Christ was literal, living, hungry, thirsty, bleeding. Church was no longer something we did for an hour on Sunday, and church was not a building with a steeple...The church became something we are - an organism, not an organization. Church became fresh and vibrant, it was like we had brought something dead back to life."

No matter how many times I read through this book, this same passage speaks to me. How many of us are so worried about rules (many of which aren't even backed up Biblically...just what you've always done), that we have trapped ourselves into thinking that church is by any means systematic. We try so hard to fit it in our own little box of conformity that most times we close the box without even making sure Jesus made it in...We have to study these kinds of lessons, invite those kinds of people, say that kind of prayer, play this style of music. Sometimes it isn't about how a message is delivered, only that it is delivered in God's love and Spirit. I don't think Jesus meant for church to be so difficult or He wouldn't have said to "come like a child...have faith like a child."

I have had a lot of time away...a lot of time to think about where my relationship with Jesus has come these past couple of years. It was something I needed, but God knew I wouldn't take a break from the "system", unless He stepped in and made it so I would have one. In this time God has really shown me that it's not all those things we do that add up, but instead the time we spend in humility and submission to Him, allowing Him to take over so that my church becomes His church again. It's time to be literal, living, hungry, thirsty, bleeding. It's time to trash the box and start living abundantly, in dangerous wonder and reckless abandon.

My Savior is alive...I should be too...and so should His church.

He's waiting Are you ready?

Going VS. Being

22:37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 22:38 This is the great and first commandment. 22:39 And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 22:40 On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."

Matthew 22:37-40 RSV

5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23 RSV

21:13 He who closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself cry out and not be heard.

Proverbs 21:13 RSV

Going to Church VS. Being the Church

Show up VS. Prayed up

Love others VS. Love the unlovable

Help ourselves VS. Help those in need

Sing songs VS. Praise God

Hear the word VS. Live the Word

Talk to Christian people VS. Talk to the unlikeable

Carry Bible VS. Carry your cross

Wait for lunch VS. Serve others

Sundays & Wednesdays VS. Each and Every day

Living with Jesus VS. Living for Jesus

Work 'cause no one else will VS. Anointed for Work

Talk about VS. Show and be: love, joy

peace, patience,

kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness

self-control, humility,

generosity, forgiveness

Let us not confuse going to church with Being the church. God has called us to a highter calling. We are to go out and do. Go out and love. Go out and be.

My God

Who is God to you?

I believe my God is a God of love and understanding. A God that gives answers to those who believe.

I pray believing that God is already making a way. I hear an answer in my heart, and I take it to be nothing less than the Holy Spirit showing me the answer.

This gives me great peace in situations most people would be fretting over until they saw the answer they wanted to see. It's not always about the answer we want, but about the answer we need.

My God holds the whole world together, so why would He not know just what I need.

I have learned to thank God for the blessings as soon as I hear His answer. No matter how long it takes to actually see the fruit, I believe He will provide.

Funny thing is, God wants to bless us. It's just that so many have lost the belief in everyday miracles. No longer is God the one we turn to in every situation, but only in trivial matters.

So what happens when we turn to Him with reckless abandon? Well, we learn to expect the answer and to thank Him for it. We learn that we still serve a God of wonder and amazement, a God of miracles and blessings.

I talk to God in a specific manner. This is whether I am praying for personal issues or for others.

The fact is, when we stop second guessing God, and put our foolish pride aside, we get out of God's way so He can finally bless us in the way he so desires for each of us.

Sometimes all we need to do is let go. Sometimes we just need to recognize who God is, pray believing, and let Him do His job.

Do you believe you receive answers when you pray?
Do you pray believing you will receive?
Do you expect God to move in your life?
Are you willing to get out of His way?

Jeremiah 29:12-13
"Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

1 Chronicles 5:20b
"He answered their prayers, because they trusted Him."

Search me

Psalm 139
"Search me, O God..."

Funny how the simplest words can have the deepest of meanings.

Notice how the psalmist David cries out to God. He spends the entire chapter 139 telling God how He knows him and how God has searched him and made him. He declares how awesome his God is.

Then we get to verse 23.
It's not enough to know who God is, and what He can do in our lives, or what He has done. We must invite Him in to intimacy.

Notice that David doesn't ask God to Search him, he demands it. David truly is a man after God's own heart. David knows that only God can be his judge.

Telling God to search our hearts and minds is inviting Him to show us who He sees. Maybe we're ready, maybe we're not. Are we ready to change? Ready to grow? Ready for intimacy with our King? Oh how the world would change if our minds and hearts would just open to the one true God who made every part of us; who already knows each care and thought, strength and weakness.

The world may never be ready, but GOD IS! Search Me, Oh God...One heart at a time changing the world to lead on it's knees.

Heart of a Songwriter

Some would think it easy, writing a song. Just throw down some words that rhyme and after time we'll have one line, then not too long and we'll have a song.

But the truth of it is, it is sometimes easy to write but not easy to come by. And sometimes it's easy to come by, but hard to write. Let me explain...You may be going through something wonderful...there is a song in your heart, but you can't quite make them into lyrics on a page. Other times it is easy to write the lyrics, but the way they came about meant that you had to go through something that was particularly...well, uncomfortable to go through. Written pages make thoughts and visions tangible...good and bad; praise and cries.

The lyrics of our songs reflect the inmost part of us. It displays our walk with our Savior. Loud and clear, people who listen or read our lyrics will know what makes us praise, shout, be joyous, loving, aggravated, sad.

Charlie Parker once stated,"Music is your own experiences, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn."

A song is what happens when life happens.

Music is what happens when the song purely and holy comes out of your horn...or mouth...guitar... drums...keyboard...base...whatever you shout to God with.

Songwriting for me is an outpouring. I give a piece of myself in each song. I open myself up; I put my heart on my sleeve, and crawl into the arms of my Lord.

Whether we write songs about who we are in Christ, who He is to us, praise & worship, cries to God, cries to society about God. Whatever it is, it must be real. It must be God speaking through us. It must be our best for God.

We write upward, He brings it out to those around us.

We are... just the messengers.

"Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won't be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they're not backed by a godly life, they accumulate as poison in the soul." - 2 Timothy 2:15-16 (The Message)

Allow God's Presence

Revelation 3:20 states,
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

Many times we hear this verse when the sermon is in regards to salvation. But what about us who already believe? I believe this verse speaks loudly to us as well.

God knocks on the door to my heart daily. It is my choice to let him in. God speaks to my heart daily, but again, it is my choice on whether I listen or not. How wonderful it is to answer, "YES!", to God. "Yes I will open the door and yes I will listen today." When God is invited in, He showers us with His presence. It is His undeniable presence that begins to lead our lives everyday. His presence puts away conventionalism, and comfort goes out the window. His presence lights our fire and brings us straight to His table. It is only in His presence that we do things that we could not, would not, and do not do on our own.

Only by opening the door. Only by listening. Only one answer.

What is your answer today?
Is God calling you out of your comfort zone?
Is God challenging you to open the door?

It's time to eat with Jesus...the only truly fulfillment of your day.