Praying When Life Does Not Make Sense
Cast all your cares on him, for he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7) Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. (Psalms 55:17) My mom passed in August and our family made the unexpected trip to SoCal for the memorial and to spend a few days with family. The day after the service, we went with my dad to church. The sermon was on Jacob wrestling with God and was entitled, “Struggle: When life makes no sense.” Pastor Rick Warren, whose son had committed suicide earlier in the year, spoke from a place of personal experience with life not making sense. As I...
Read MoreA Plan & A Prayer for Peace, Love and Happiness
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9–13) The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ answer to the question asked by every person in every culture: What is the good life? Who are the blessed? What is the pathway to happiness? Jesus burst onto the scene, was baptized, proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was available to everybody — right here, right now, and...
Read MoreCountercultural Prayer
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7) We live in a culture where worry is assumed. We live in a culture where anxiety is epidemic. Look across the coffee shop, the classroom or the dinner table and you will see people who are stressed and unsettled about how things will turn out – energy drained and consumed with trying to control the uncontrollable. This is where we...
Read MoreWorship Moves You
Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! (Malachi 1:10) Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty. (Malachi 3:10–12) As the church we are called...
Read MoreEverybody Worships
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. (Psalms 34:8) There is something inside the genetic code of every human being that makes us designed for worship. It works best when we worship God. worship misleads us when we worship gods that are not gods, it creates huge disappointment. It misshapes us. N.T. Wright, in his book Surprised by Hope, writes: “When human beings give their heartfelt allegiance to and worship that which is not God, they progressively cease to reflect the image of God. One of the primary laws of human life is that you become like...
Read MoreTransformed By Worship
When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalms 73:21–26) One way think about worship is being in the presence of God. You cannot worship without being in God’s presence. It is impossible to come into the his presence and not...
Read MoreWho’s Calling?
I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. (Ephesians 4:1) So let me get this straight, according to the apostle Paul — according to the Bible — I need to live a life worthy of the calling I’ve received. Hmmmm. I remember when I got my first cell phone. Almost nobody had one and so I’d often call Kelly just to say, “I’m talking to you from my car!” Now, most everybody has a phone with them all the time. There is no place where we are out of reach and cannot receive a call. Some days it seems like everybody is calling all day long. But we are talking about...
Read MoreGod Is For You
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death...
Read MoreWith God’s Help We Will
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:16–20) This past Sunday met outside as part of Creekside’s Baptism Celebration at Tolt McDonald...
Read MoreLife Changing Truth
The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:26–28) Read the words of the passage from Roman’s above. Read them again. Sit with them. Does anything strike you or stand out to you? If not, read them again. Seriously, read...
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