So wonderful

So amazing is the Lord our God, Holy is He who comforts me with His rod,
Guiding me in paths of Good, Providing me with all I need,
Holy is He, Holy is the Lord

In the midst of my sorrow, I'm blinded by the light,
Circumstances of tomorrow, nothing's going right.
I can't stand the pressures on me,
I can't hold my shoulders straight,
My back is crushed by the weight upon me,
All help to come, it's just too late,

Where is the hope I dreamt about?
Where is the God for whom you shout?
Where's the power you claim daily?
Your authority seems too shaky....

Darkness consumes my habits,
This hole I'm in, I just can't stand it
Pull me out, here's my hand, please grab it,
And don't let go.....
I need someone to save me
I've lost all my safety,
Money's spent, life lived poorly,
God, You are Who You are, surely

Come rescue me now,
I need you grace,
Place Your hand underneath me, cup me to You face,
Rub your cheek against me, grasping me close,
Oh how You saved me when I needed You most.

Praise You name! Holy God!

King to be

At his fingertips, the Kingdom stood,
At the end of his blade, a man of no good,
Couldn't move past the conviction that his assailants could
Take the life of the King, a most grievous thing.

Touch the Lord's anointed, sudden judgment comes,
Break past the will of the King, and the thunder strums,
Edge your way to the front, letting God know what needs to be done,
Tell Him to hold back until you shine like the sun...

No, change your heart lest it break in pieces,
Hardened all alone where pride never ceases,
In the mind of the haughty men, leavened creases,
Hold onto lies before the Spirit's wind breezes.

Holy fire, flame through our hearts,
Purify our deeds, protect us in our thoughts,
Guide in our walk, Your power moving through,
Give us all that we need to do what you desire us to.

Come let us

Come let us worship the God of Salvation and restoration.


God I'll fall face-down as your glory shines around.

Holy holy holy, God Almighty, Worthy is You name, always
Perfect in every way. Every day is a day that You've created.
O how I want to please You

I sing joyous choruses, I pray fervent prayers,
I pour out my heart, O lend Your ear.
Hear me when I cry, vindicate my soul,
Lead me to Living Waters, feed me Your bread until I'm full
Show me visions beyond my comprehension,
Give me words too great to speak,
Give me a heart of flesh, Your strength where I was weak

I sing praise, Him, praise Him
Give Him what was already His,
Show Him devotion
Let us be reverent
God we can not fathom Your love
It's so good

My heights are under water, drowning my soul,
This life has taken a beaten, I'm losing control,
Guide me where you want me, feed me with Your will,
Align me to Your Spirit, make me sensitive to Your feel.

I want visions, I want to dream dreams,
I want to pray in the tongues of men and angels about so many things,
I want to move the mountains, with the faith of my Father,
I want to heal the nations so my God is honored.
I want so much to please you as a miracle-worker,
I want to know the future, cast vision where the followers wither.

I want the world for You, Jesus, my Savior. But if I have not love I'm nothing but an ambitious fool...

Bless the Lord O my Soul, rejoice in Him!

Sick

I'm not feeling the greatest right now...physically I'm wasted...mentally I'm pretty much in the same position...spiritually...I have to be very vigilant...it is at times such as these where it is most easy to fall, where we are most susceptible to attack...subtle attacks...a negative thought here, a flippant comment there...an unbridled thought....down the path we go...only to realize too late that our destination is not something we would choose for ourselves....or would we? We do make the choices...we do live with the consequences...


Please pray for me brothers and sisters...O how I crave life...GIVE ME LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blessed be the man

Bless the Lord who gives us friends.
Bless the Lord, O my soul rejoice.
His blessings know no words worthy of their explanation,
For His greatness knows no bounds.
Moving beyond, constantly abounding...O How great is our God!
Sing with me, O you people of the Earth.
His mercies are new every morning,
May our praise for Him be the same.
May we love with abandoned hearts.
May we love Him with all that we have...all that He's given us to give.

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

It's been awhile

Well I've been away for awhile....I was on a SOAR debriefing retreat for three days. After that, I left immediately the next morning for Pre-teen (5th and 6th grade) summer camp for another 3 days. Finally, I had a day off to relax, wash clothes, and do the required readings for the leadership analysis course in which I'm currently enrolled here at Hillsdale College. God has been amazing to me - as always - these past few months. I've seen depths the likes of which have never been revealed to me before in my walk with Jesus. The Spirit's presence has been guiding has been comforting beyond comprehension. Bless the Lord O my soul! Rejoice for the joy of the Lord is our strength! I'm out to bed now, as I have an early morning of more leadership training and self-assessment....Hooray :-P

The following is the final message that I delivered to the high school students at NMC. It's based on Philippians 4:1-9

Note: I didn't present it completely identical to what you are reading (but I would say 90% or so)

Picking up the Peaces

• Questions Intro.
• Worries
• What makes you worried? What do you worry about?
• Do you worry about what guys think of you, what girls think of you, death, test scores, having food for dinner, or like me, giving Sunday messages?
• Consumed, plagued
• Why does this stuff consume our minds? Why do worries and anxiety plague us so often in so many ways? Proverbs, in speaking on anxiety and a life centered on the worries of this world says, “A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.” We live in a broken world, a world devastated by sin.
• Healthy anxiety? “Real” statistics
• So, why do we get so caught up in this worrying act? Is this type of lifestyle healthy? Most of us would agree and together say no to that question….but in reality…now that’s an interesting thought….reality…what’s real and what’s not….There are some famous organizations that do studies on things like psychological patterns and this one guy, Dr. Warren Wiersbe noted a statistic that only 8% of what we worry about is even real…that means 92% of what people are anxious about, what people worry about day in and day out…doesn’t even exist…The word used for anxious, or careful in some texts is the same word used in the parable of the sower…in the parable Jesus describes different soils and seed which is scattered among the soils and how each grows….one of the soils is fruitful for a time, but then it is choked by vines and weeds…Jesus goes on to describe how these represent the pressure of the world...greed and the desires of importance among men….this is the same type of anxiety to which Paul is referring…it’s interesting to note that such instances the soil is fruitful for a while, but then it becomes unfruitful…it is choked out…it can’t sustain the pace…it can’t last in the environment on it’s own…it needs someone to tend to the weeds and vines or it’ll die…
• Single and Hopeless
• Perhaps the anxiety most often cited among young adults and students….is the anxiety of related to being in a romantic relationship…does he like me, does she like me, do I look good enough, I’m not important unless I’m in a relationship…I have nothing to offer….the list goes on…and like Proverbs notes…it dries up our bones………We’re in a valley of dry bones……..but God desires to raise up an army…..
• We break…
• When trees dry up…what happens to their branches? They become brittle don’t they….they break much easier when they’re dry…when the life giving water that nourishes the tree is no longer present…the branches can’t bend and return to their original shape from the daily stresses and pressures of the wind and the storms that come upon it….they break….
• à The root of the problem is not talking with God (no casting)
• What are we really talking about here…we’re talking about ourselves…We’re talking about prayer…We’re talking about nourishment in the Word of God and in constant communication…constant connection between that which gives life and that which needs life to stay alive…We know and accept that we need relationship…and we need is desperately. And Paul says this comes through prayer…

• PrayeràPhilippians…
• What is prayer? Can we get any more specific?
• According to this Middle Age (you know, knights and chivalry and stuff) Christian mystic…this guy was a hardcore follower…persecuted like nuts…very intense spiritual walk with Christ….when talking of prayer he said, “to tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, it’s pleasures and it’s pains…Prayer is the pouring out of one’s heart to the Lord…it’s communication with God…it’s not one-way…it’s two-way…it’s not a soliloquy….that’s like a speech that an actor or actress will give when no one else is around…we’re actually speaking with God…or not speaking with God depending…it’s best we recognize that immediately.
• Prayer consists of many aspects…some include thanksgiving as Paul mentions here…others are praise, confession, repentance, and surrender…
• What isn’t prayer? (illustration of children and fathers)
• Prayer isn’t a proponent of anxiety…it’s not a stress-creator just in case you were wondering…or at least it shouldn’t be…Prayer ought not to be a multiple choice test we give God…have you ever said those types of “prayers?” I know I have before…it’s pretty ridiculous…it’s like I’m telling God, “Hey here’s the request…you have one of 4 ways of answering me…ohh yeah and just so you know…there isn’t a “none of the above” answer choice….you’ve all heard and been influenced by the analogy of God as our Father…and we are His children…since when have you heard of a child go up to his or her dad and say when asking for the car say…”O father, great payer of bills and lender to us…you who pay the mortgage and bless us with your paycheck, might we beseech thee to use some of thy funds for frivolous purposes (meaning spend money on fun)…I know that’s extravagant and ridiculous, but sometimes we get lost in the forms of prayer when we’re praying…don’t get me wrong here…I want to be very clear that the analogy of Father-children is not enough, there also exists the relationship of King-servant…Therefore, reverence is necessary and we should never forget that. Yes, we’re talking with our heavenly Father…but He’s also God.
• What’s God saying here about one of prayer’s purposes overall (changing people – us?
• So okay, we’re to pray, good we know this….but Paul, like Jesus did, talks about praying in accordance with God’s will….Paul tells us to pray and present supplications (or requests) with thanksgiving….What are we giving thanks for…well we can rest assured that when we call upon God with the right motives and a focused heart, He hears us and answers us…God is always answering prayers that are spoken in spirit and Truth…We can be thankful for that…We can be thankful that when we cast our cares upon God, He can carry them…As Paul tells Timothy in the second letter we have between the two…”I know Him whom I believe and am persuaded He is able to keep all that I have committed to Him until that Day.” All that we’ve worked for in life…God’s the only one who can make sure the work we do for Him while on this earth is not in vain. When we are able to transfer our cares to Him….at that point we can focus…at that point we can bring our eyes upon only one Master…at that point we can set our eyes upon Jesus, and only Jesus. And that brings us joy…the work of the Cross, the love of God…all of that can come into focus when everything else is unloaded…Paul basically says that prayer is like a ferry…It moves our cares to Him…it brings us from worry to joy…it brings us from us…and it takes us to Him.

• Joy
• What is joy? (The joy of the Lord is our strength)
• The Word tells us that the Joy of the Lord is our strength…what is joy? It’s the confidence we have knowing that God is in control…that our God shall supply all of our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus…that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him
• What isn’t joy?
• It’s not manufactured by us…we can’t work it up…it’s a fruit of the Spirit…it stands in peace, not hype
• How does joy relate to prayer and synergize us in praying more?
• As we pray…as we grow closer to our Lord…allowing Him to take our burdens, that we might share in His joy and surrender all we have to Him, knowing that He desires the best for us, and the best for us is always that which is best for Him…When we have joy in the Lord…we’re empowered…we’re empowered to care and love others…we’re able to become selfless…we’re able to pray for others with authenticity…we’re able to connect with God’s will and be so aligned and so very intentionally walking with God, that we’ll actually desire His peace more than answers to our “why questions” in life.

• Silence and Peace
• Illustration (prayer on bed)
• So I was praying the other day…man I was wrestling with something and it just kept getting me anxious…it kept stepping in my way to the point where I felt very emotionally, physically, and spiritually stressed out…I collapsed on my bed and continued talking with God…I was suggesting…no I was telling Him that I couldn’t handle this stuff anymore…I needed Him to make it clearer for me…to just squash the problem if it was going to remain a problem and not be resolved…the moment I said that…I mean, I’m not even sure if the last word had left my lips, and God made the appearance and SQUASHED it….it was as if God, knowing I was risking it my own desires in that prayer, yanked it from my spirit to His ear, empowered me with his peace that passes all understanding and left me in awe of his desire to love me…I, breathless, immediately thought….oh no, what did I just pray!...I tested the peace against conjuring up some anxiety and it didn’t even phase me….it’s some powerful peace I tell you…
• What’s silence before the Lord? (Is heaven silentàKOH within us)
• Really quickly making some final comments…to truly turn inward toward the Lord…we must be what some call “silent before the Lord.” Now this can be misinterpreted if we’re not careful and so I’d like to address what that means…Some might say…that’s impossible, I can’t shut off my thoughts…or it’s too hard to do that…the minute I try to stop thinking I realize I’m thinking about that…Being silent before the Lord is not the same thing as being absent of thought…or even absent of prayer…I mean, do you really think heaven is ever silent…with the glory of the Lord always present…His manifest presence at all times demands praise… In Luke 19:40, when some Pharisees approach Jesus and tell him of the disturbance his disciples are causing in their praise of Him, Jesus says, "If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise." The kingdom of heaven is within us…the meaning of being silent before the Lord is that we ought to silence the self of ourselves before the Lord and focus on His glory…
• Is your prayer for His glory?
• Is your prayer about God’s glory? Or is it about your tomorrow, and do you just tag His name at the end for hope’s sake…hoping that He doesn’t really know your motives…Prayer is about talking with God, focusing on God….knowing God….because it empowers us to be like our God…to be selfless…knowing that He’s got our lives under control if we surrender them, and so we are free to focus on Him and love others
• Think on what?
• It’s interesting what Paul says at the end of this passage in Philippians…he says, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” What’s this mean?
• Prayer centers us…on Christ
• Paul is telling us…to think on what things….well Christ is the Truth, Christ is Just, Christ is pure, Christ is Grace in the truest sense, Christ is perfect….He is worthy of all Praise…Paul is telling us to think on Christ…..

Remember, therefore, my brothers and sisters….when you pray…not if you pray…think on Christ and may your prayers never cease and may our Father in Heaven always pour out His ultimate peace upon us, that we may be free to serve Him and others to His glory. Amen.