I heard a song while I was speaking in Australia last year. Powerful song. At the time, it touched my life in a way I can't really fully explain. The word I felt was He is "restoring my soul". It is a Hillsong song called Healer.
God can (and wants to do) in a moment what we can never do in our entire lifetime. He is a God that heals.
We used it this last weekend and you could feel that same ONLY GOD healing power.
Here are a couple of videos about the song. It always helps to know the story behind the song. The first video is about how the song was written and the second video is the actual live performance at Hillsong. (From FaithEngineer.com)
Jesus is the One who suffered, who was pierced for US. He is the One who knows everything about you and me. He has never stopped loving us despite the fact we have failed him so much. IN fact, it is failure He built the church on. It is failure that allows your heart to desperately need ONLY HIM. Our failures become (as they are surrendered) the very platform where God chooses to work the most powerfully.
I love the name Jesus. I love that when everyone in your life (or church) walks out, He is the One who walks in.
I love that He had the reason to judge people the most and chose to love people instead. John 3:17 says, "God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him."
If we believed that (really), it would change so much. It would change me, it would change the church and ultimately change the world.
For those of you who don’t know, he was in the hospital, then a rest home, and that was for over a month long period. He's been home now for almost five or six weeks, on oxygen full time BUT his conditions are stabilizing somewhat.
What’s amazing to me is that less than three months ago the doctor told me to prepare myself, that he would be in hospice, and although he’s not drastically better, he’s stabilized, in good spirits and at home where he wants to be and I just want to say thank you for all your prayers. Every weekend, someone asks me about "pop" I appreciate your thoughts, prayers and compassion.
I love being part of a community (family) of people who care for each other, who serve each other, who pray together and cry together.
This weekend will be one of those weekends I won't quickly forget. God did SO much in so many lives.
Remember how bitterness poisons YOUR life.
In Hebrews 12:15 and Ephesians 4:31 the word for bittnerness is "PIKRIA". It is a word that actually is a plant. A plant that produces both toxic and poisonous fruit.
Hebrews 12 talks about making sure NO ONE misses the grace of God. Bitterness is really just causing someone to miss the grace of God. The author is almost pleading with the christians in the early church who, because of pain, misaligned expectations, trials, etc were allowing their hearts to slowly become bitter. Then, by default, people who were checking out this new Jesus movement were MISSING God's grace. Personally I think it is what is wrong with so many places where Christ followers gather. Places where people gather, who have allowed bittnerness to take root in their hearts.
Bitterness really does that. It is like a fortress I build around my heart. Walls to lock me in. I was reading a book that talks about how bitter people will only let people who will affirm or validate their bitterness into their lives. Solomon talks in Proverbs how it is easier to break through the walls of a fortress than it is to break through a person;s bitterness. Basically, IF I am not experiencing God's grace, why should you?
Churches should get and give grace more than any place on planet earth.
The words are the same. Good words for a culture who has been so terribly affected by pain and brokenness. Same words, seperated by a couple thousand years. Make sure NO ONE misses the grace of God.
Revealing is the beginning of healing. This weekend we looked at Sarah and how her bitterness finally came out. THEN, God's grace came in. Powerful story that in so many ways is our story. She laughed, Abraham laughed, and then God "gave them laughter". Issac means "laughter". I guess in some ways you could say God gets the last laugh. The point of change for Sarah was being real with where she was at.
I said this weekend that isn't bitterness like drinking something that is poisonous and expecting what I drink to kill someone else? I think the (fruit) or poison from our own bitterness hurts the people around us the most.
Anyway, it was a good weekend. Actually a good series. The programming and worship teams are such a blessing to Living Hope. Thanks to everyone who does so much to make just one weekend happen.
OK. I am pretty tired. Today is a day to rest, but my kids are all helping with our Kids camp at the Brush Prairie campus.
Maybe I will get another haircut? Maybe two. I heard someone say the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is about 2 weeks.....
I guess most things do? Sometimes just not fast enough...
Today started out to be one of those days. A good day. Good weather. Good footing on the message for the weekend. Good walk with my wife. Good lunch (Taco Time, new burrito I had never tasted).
THEN IT HAPPENED. Impatience set in. Urgency took over. Irrational thinking began to cloud reality. AND, subsequently life changed in just a few minutes for me.
I have been waiting to get a haircut from Kathy Bosch. The best haircutter in the known world. She has cut my hair for as long as I have known Jesus. I have trusted her hair cut wisdom. Her timing. Her color techniques. Her advice on staying cool. You know. What is a pastor to do?
ANYWAY. I desperately needed a haircut. My bangs were so long that last weekend I had to hairspray them sideways.
Today, in my glorious impatience, I decided to take matters into my own hands.
I WENT TO MASTERCUTS.
YES I DID.
AND, the nice person cutting my hair made some decisions that will affect my life.
Decided to NOT cut the length, but TO cut my bangs.
I have officially experienced haircut abuse. I look like Memphis, who I love, but is a child....
Michelle hasn't stopped laughing. She says I look like an old man with a little girl haircut. Pretty encouraging.
Nice.
SO, I am requesting to have someone (really anyone) be a guest speaker this weekend. Topic? Who cares? I am going into haircut treatment or at least haircut counseling or hiding.
How much do we dream? I am not talking about sleeping, but really just the opposite. How much do we dream about stuff?
I think the older we get the more the dreams in us become both crushed and refined. Crushed because sometimes I think it is what "we" want or think we need. Refined because don't we in the end want what God wants for us?
I NEVER thought I would be or planned on being a Christian, let alone a pastor. Ever.
When my dreams were "crushed", it seems God used who I was to make who He wanted me to be.
Now. I look at God's purpose and simply thank ONLY HIM for all that He and He alone has done, will do by His strength and purposes.
You might want to write this down.
Your biggest dreams are small compared to God's dream FOR YOU.
Dreaming is about asking. It is about thinking. It is about hoping the best. Something that hasn't happened.
When I think of God's power working in us, to do something through us, it is overwhelming.
Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus. It was written around AD 60, from Rome, while Paul was in prison there, for crimes he didn't commit. It was written to encourage the church. I imagine they had stopped dreaming or asking or hoping. Things weren't good for this church.
I wonder sometimes how much we are like them. We begin to stop dreaming. We come to this place where all that we had "thought" or "asked" for isn't happening. I think we slow our dreams down. We become tired of hoping and thinking and asking. We give up on our dreams and honestly we quit asking God.
Nothing new to God. The church at Ephesus went through it. A couple thousand years. Same story, different church, different locations.
Look at this, "Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." Ephesians 3:20
I often wonder "what if" we believed that??
What would change if we believed that God was able?
What if we believed THROUGH HIS mighty power?
What if we believed ONLY GOD could accomplish INFINITELY more than we could ask about or think about?
Ya. Good questions.
Some things never change. Although they ought to.
God is able.
Believe Him. He believes in you. He has purposed amazing, incredible, unthinkable or unimaginable things for YOUR life.
Today I was thinking about life, leadership and the lessons I have learned by watching so many people who have walked with God, and walked away from God.
Mostly as I think about the last 20 years of being a Christ follower, one of the biggest differences is pain in a Christ follower's life. And, the response to it.
Pain. It is both universal and yet so personal. Pain isn't partial to culture or country. It isn't democratic or republican. It is something every one of us can relate to at some level and in different seasons. We all are either walking toward it, in it, or walkng away from it.
What (if anything) does God really say about it? Why do certain things happen to us or to people we love?
This weekend I want to talk about the reality and devastation of bitterness. There is an Old Testament story that is so good, and thousands of years later SO relevant for us today. A story where a promise was made and apparently God didn't show up "on time." It is our story in so many ways.
As I am preparing for this weekend, interestingly bitterness is neither consistent or even rational. A person who is bitter becomes his own worst enemy. When I think of my own life, I can only say that chronically bitter people are difficult to maintain an authentic relationship with.
It often lies sleeping beneath our inability to forgive or reconcile. It both denies rest and reconciation AND destroys relationships.
I guess the question then becomes who? Who am I bitter towards?
Look at this classic text:
"Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many." Hebrews 12:15
The Greek word for bitterness in this passage (pikria) comes from the root word pik, which means "to cut" It also carries a meaning of something that tastes bitter.
Our last series we looked at the life of friendship between Jonathan and David. One of history's best friendships.
Another series could be the differences between David and King Saul. The difference between a heart (like Saul) riddled with bitterness, envy and strife and a heart (like David) that was truly about ONLY GOD.
Bitterness can hide under the cloak of shame or guilt. In fact, we can end up IN OUR bitterness blaming others. Bittnerness is ultimately never cool. It is always wrong. Relationally, it is never acceptable before God.
As I look back in my own life, I notice a few things:
1) Nothing good has ever come from resentment.
2) Unchecked and unconfessed it has unraveled my joy and has taken the focus from God to others.
3) When someone has resented or rejected me, I have made a conscious choice that I will either be BITTER or BETTER. It has been very difficult as people have left the church, or have been frustrated in our family. OR as I have felt judged, to choose the way of God has been difficult at times. Especially when the pain or gossip has been from people who (I thought) loved me. Bitter is the easiest initial choice to make, but like in all things that choice "makes" you. It sucks the joy out of your life.
Choosing "better" always works but it is always work.
to utter a succession of small, tremulous sounds, as a bird.
2.
to talk lightly and rapidly, esp. of trivial matters; chatter.
3.
to titter; giggle.
4.
to tremble with excitement or the like; be in a flutter.
What a weird definition! Maybe true a bit? From my limited research, it seems to be "a succession of small" entries. Not sure about the sounds like a bird? It seems to be "talking lightly about trivial matters". It is (I guess) the thing to do. I am learning alot these days about our country's finest church leaders......
So thanks Missy. I appreciate your twitter wisdom. Your twitter insight. Your thinking ahead to "set me up" to talk in small entries.
Maybe we should start "twitter preaching" ?
Small, "short" sounds. Like a bird.
Maybe we should twitter and "giggle" more? Maybe we ought to tremble with excitement from the pulpit.
OK, just wanted to share that I am twittering and I got a bit carried away......
The series will be good. Learning to get unstuck in our faith because of our pain.
I have family all over this place, some that I am actually related to. But there is Spirit genetics here that I also recognize at other places to which I am traveling. A hunger and drive in the direction of authenticity, a desperation for grace, wanting more, wanting all. The family, I sense, is growing up, is becoming whole. A struggle to keep the bride simple, elegant and full of wonder; a war against those things that might turn living flesh into concrete and steel. Listen close and you hear the cry of the individual who was lost and now found; of the family that is always waiting for the ones who are on their way home. Such a celebration, where the fire of trial is mingled with the songs of triumph, and where the lion people are finding a way to live with the lamb people. So grateful that the family is not a place where performance is the basis of relationship, where poor choices do not trump the affection of the Father, where Jesus stands as the Truth who is Love and the Spirit sings into being our wholeness through process. New friends, each on a unique adventure designed and overseen by the One who knows us best and loves us most. Praise to the Three who never act alone, who incite us to growth and draw us by deep tenderness into the wonders of grace.
For all 5 weekend services at Brush Prairie we will have William P. Young here. I believe it will be a good weekend.
I encourage you to bring friends and family to this two week series. This weeknd, we will be hearing William's story. And, I will be interviewing him. Thanks for the questions you emailed in.
Next weekend, I will be talking about what does God say about pain? How are we to understand it? If God is good, and pain can be so devastating, how can we as Christ followers interpret what is going on? Also, where is God in pain? And, how long will it (pain) last?
I remember when I had gone through cancer, I was so completely frustrated and really felt levels of depression.
The one verse I claimed and read over and over was Psalm 73:25-26, "Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever."
In pain even though we can't "see" God in our immediate circumstances, knowing He is there means everything.
I think this short, two week series will be very very good for so many people.
Pain is the one thing that will ALWAYS bring you closer to God or will push you further from Him.
Today I am meeting with Dr. B (Gerry Breshears, Chairman of the Theology Dept at Western Seminary where I graduated). He has always been someone who has been there for me, and having lunch with him will be a good time to talk and catch up. I think he has long forgotten more than I have ever known about God.
Then later this afternoon (Friday) I am meeting with William Young to talk through some of the questions for this weekend.
I am excited to hear his story. It will be a good weekend.
AND, tonight our mission team is putting together a "World Missions Night."
Did you know that there are close to 200 children adopted so far at our orphanage in India? I am so excited about what ONLY GOD is doing in our lives. To invest in a country that has such incredible needs is a blessing. Dr. Kumar (who I was blessed to hang out with yesterday) will be there tonight. IF you can, come and hear his heart and learn about ONLY GOD international.
That's it. Quick updates.
Sorry for the longer than normal blog silence. I know. I have been spending time this week (in the midst of so much) with just Michelle. It has been good.
2. Registrations are being taken now for our Kidsworld "Kids Carnival Day Camp." Cost is $30 per child. If you can help out at the camp or provide a full/partial scholarship, just let us know.
3. William P. Young, author of the "The Shack" is coming... Invite your friends, get the book. You won't want to miss this opportunity.
If you are able to help with any of these events, please email info@livinghopechurch.com or call the church office at (360) 944-3905.
I am really excited about our NEW LIFE CLUBS. I think for connection it will be a great step toward friendships. To step into relational environments with affinity, we put ourselves in places where God can work in our lives.
You can get to Living Hope LIFE CLUBS by going through our website. Currently there are hundreds signed up for different clubs. In addition to our newly established LIFE CLUBS we have 200 LIFE GROUPS, with close to 2000 people connected. Thanks to all of our LIFE GROUP leaders. You each are so important to the life and health of Living Hope. Thank you. Thanks to our conection team. ALL YOU DO MATTERS.
Did you know...
-56 percent of adults (114 million people) belong to some sort of membership organization.
-Churches, temples and synagogues are by far the most widely joined establishments, according to our analysis, with 83.3 million members nationwide. In fact, 41 percent of all Americans claim they are members of a religious organization.
-Overall, women are slightly more likely than men to be joiners: 58 percent of women belong to at least one club, compared with 54 percent of men.
-Americans who are not members of an organized religion are generally less likely to get involved in clubs.
34.4 million Americans belong to a health club
20 million Americans belong to a book club
17 million Americans belong to record clubs
7 out of 10 Americans belong to at least one club or association
How many club cards to you own? So far the record that I could find is 37 club cards.
Take a look at our Connection opportunities this summer. Take a look at our SUMMER OF CONNECTION calendar. Take a look at different camps. Takes time to connect. Worth it.
At one of our services we had the honor to pray for Cody Miller, who is now enroute to Iraq, to serve. He is a marine.
Today, thousands of businesses across America are closed. Banks, government offices, and millions will be spent to do fireworks.
We celebrate Freedom on the 4th of July. Here is young man who represents what sometimes we take for granted. The freedom I enjoy so much has cost alot. Our freedom is worth alot but over the last couple hundred years IT HAS COST ALOT.
I hope today, we can pause to Pray for our soldiers. Thank God for freedom. Have fun on the fourth of July.
To all of the soldiers and families: May the God that put breath in your body bless your life beyond comprehension.
May He bring peace where it is needed and may He be the strength of your heart. THANK YOU.
Two words, but they carry so much power in the hands of a Holy and loving God.
Both words work hand in hand.
DESPERATE. "One of the best definitions is "making a final, ultimate effort; OR giving all".
To be desperate is to come to the end of myself. It is to do what Paul did and told the church at Galatia to do. To die to self. To be crucified with Christ.
Galatians 2:19-20 says, "For when I tried to keep the law, I realized I could never earn God's approval. So I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
To be desperate is to come to the end of me and finding ONLY GOD. It is only through the door of desperation that we have the motivation to stay dependent. Either we will live and eventually die or we will die to authentically live. In fact, unless or until we die to self, we can't fully experience an ONLY GOD life.
Truth is, I think it is easy to get desperation drift. I think what used to be amazing to us can become ordinary.
To stay desperate is to stay crucified with Christ. It is to continually stay connected to the LIFE of Jesus, by staying crucified with Him.
Desperate to die and dependent to live.
DEPENDENT. "relying on someone or something else for aid, support, etc."
"Trust in the LORD (Yahweh) with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6
That one verse encapsulates desperate and dependent.
Trusting God may not always make sense, but His commands ALWAYS work and ALWAYS trump our finite reasoning.
To trust him with all my heart means I probably ought to do the difficult work of figuring out what I am not trusting him in.
This is the ultimate way of blessing. To be desperately dependent.
In fact the word translated from the Hebrew "direct your paths" actually is better rendered "He will bless your lifestyle".
Ultimate blessability will be to completely trust God. Our whole life will be marked by times we did and times we did not.
Complete trust is total dependence.
As your story is being written, just remember God knows you best and loves you most.
Each chapter or each day of your journey ought to be started with this prayer. It is a dangerous, life-changing prayer. Let's pray this prayer together:
Father, you want me to have faith. It is what pleases you. Help me to believe you are in complete control of my life. Thank you that you know me the best and love me the most. You know every detail of my life. Help me to WALK in faith, to DIE to self and to LIVE LOVE. Help me to be desperately dependent on you and ONLY YOU, for Your glory and by your strength.
A dangerous prayer that will change your life. Count on it.
