Thursday, April 1, 2010
Oh how He loves!
The song called "How He Loves Us" has become one of my all time favorites. The story behind this song is also really powerful.
One night during a prayer meeting a youth pastor named Steven was praying and said, "Lord, I would give my life today if it would shake the youth of this nation."
Later that night, Steven died in a car accident. John Mark McMillian (one of Steven's best friends) soon after Steven's death became a youth pastor. Nearly three years had gone by since Steven's death, and nothing (that John could see) was happening. He was angry and confused that God would take his friend and then seemingly do nothing. John Mark said he felt like people had forgotten about Steven.
Funny how God works…little did John Mark know that the Lord was going to use Steven's death to inspire him to write this song that literally gets played all over the world.
Now EVERYWHERE John Mark or whoever else plays this song, said they get thousands of emails and messages from kids and adults alike saying that this song has changed their lives...that they were SET FREE and DELIVERED and SAVED by the power of God!
I literally get chill bumps every time I hear this song...Oh how He loves!
(In this video, Kim Walker (whose voice I love) is singing the song John Mark wrote. I prefer her version over the original just because I love her voice so much!)
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing
Life is exciting, and challenging, and full of adventure. But it seems like my heart always longs for more. I always just think I can go deeper, there's something else great and more wonderful that I've met to find. Then I remember it's not that I haven't found it, it's what I won't find it this side of heaven. We get to experience a taste of what is to come, God gives us a small whiff of fellowship but it won't be complete here. This feeling reminds me of what C.S. Lewis talks about in "Weight of Glory" where we find beauty:
"The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust in them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things- the beauty, the memory of our own past- are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself; they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not yet found, the echo of the tune we have not yet heard, news from a country we have never yet visited."
Another Lewis quote from Mere Christianity: "Creatures are not born with desire unless satisfaction for those desires exist. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing."
We were made for that home, we will be complete and unified forever. It's hard for me to comprehend how big the world is and traveling overseas always sends a burst of liberation up my spine and through my spirit. This sense of freedom is in full force when I give up and realize I'm not in control, that this planet will continue to spin without me...that there's something more important than the life I live. Though I don't always understand this truth, each day provides experiences that continue to give meaning and beauty to our lives.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” (Mark Twain)
"The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust in them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things- the beauty, the memory of our own past- are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself; they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not yet found, the echo of the tune we have not yet heard, news from a country we have never yet visited."
Another Lewis quote from Mere Christianity: "Creatures are not born with desire unless satisfaction for those desires exist. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing."
We were made for that home, we will be complete and unified forever. It's hard for me to comprehend how big the world is and traveling overseas always sends a burst of liberation up my spine and through my spirit. This sense of freedom is in full force when I give up and realize I'm not in control, that this planet will continue to spin without me...that there's something more important than the life I live. Though I don't always understand this truth, each day provides experiences that continue to give meaning and beauty to our lives.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” (Mark Twain)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
"My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness." 2 Cor. 12:9
This is from the daily email I get from Charles Spurgeon:
My grace is sufficient for thee.--2 Corinthians 12:9
If none of God's saints were poor and tried, we should not know half so well the consolations of divine grace. When we find the wanderer who has not where to lay his head, who yet can say, "Still will I trust in the or, when we see the pauper starving on bread and water, who still glories in Jesus; when we see the bereaved widow overwhelmed in affliction, and yet having faith in Christ, oh! what honor it reflects on the gospel. God's grace is illustrated and magnified in the poverty and trials of believers. Saints bear up under every discouragement, believing that all things work together for their good, and that out of apparent evils a real blessing shall ultimately spring--that their God will either work a deliverance for them speedily, or most assuredly support them in the trouble, as long as He is pleased to keep them in it. This patience of the saints proves the power of divine grace. There is a lighthouse out at sea: it is a calm night--I cannot tell whether the edifice is firm; the tempest must rage about it, and then I shall know whether it will stand. So with the Spirit's work: if it were not on many occasions surrounded with tempestuous waters, we should not know that it was true and strong; if the winds did not blow upon it, we should not know how firm and secure it was. The master-works of God are those men who stand in the midst of difficulties, steadfast,unmoveable,--
"Calm mid the bewildering cry, Confident of victory."
He who would glorify his God must set his account upon meeting with many trials. No man can be illustrious before the Lord unless his conflicts be many. If then, yours be a much-tried path, rejoice in it, because you will the better show forth the all-sufficient grace of God. As for His failing you, never dream of it--hate the thought. The God who has been sufficient until now, should be trusted to the end.
Amen. My heart couldn't have expressed it any better. Something I've seen in women is we have this weakness of feeling like we're either "too much" or "not enough." Our tendency is to run on either extreme of feeling too complicated or not accomplished. Jesus talks a lot about sufficiency. "Daughter, My grace is sufficient for You. You will be made rich in every way so you can be generous on every occasion." By His grace I am sufficient. Paul found the key to God's power being manifested in his life. He didn't rely on his own strength, wisdom, or understanding. One of the things I struggle with the most is self-sufficiency. John Piper writes, "Pride, or self-exaltation, or self-reliance is the one virus that causes all the moral diseases of the world. This has been the case ever since Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because they wanted to be God instead of trust God. And it will be true until the final outburst of human pride is crushed at the battle of Armageddon. There is only one basic moral issue: how to overcome the relentless urge of the human heart to assert itself against the authority and grace of God."
"If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; You will remove iniquity far from your tents. Then you will lay your gold in the dust, And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. Yes, the Almighty will be your gold And your precious silver; For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, And lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, And you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down, and you say, 'Exaltation will come!'" Job 22:23-29
My grace is sufficient for thee.--2 Corinthians 12:9
If none of God's saints were poor and tried, we should not know half so well the consolations of divine grace. When we find the wanderer who has not where to lay his head, who yet can say, "Still will I trust in the or, when we see the pauper starving on bread and water, who still glories in Jesus; when we see the bereaved widow overwhelmed in affliction, and yet having faith in Christ, oh! what honor it reflects on the gospel. God's grace is illustrated and magnified in the poverty and trials of believers. Saints bear up under every discouragement, believing that all things work together for their good, and that out of apparent evils a real blessing shall ultimately spring--that their God will either work a deliverance for them speedily, or most assuredly support them in the trouble, as long as He is pleased to keep them in it. This patience of the saints proves the power of divine grace. There is a lighthouse out at sea: it is a calm night--I cannot tell whether the edifice is firm; the tempest must rage about it, and then I shall know whether it will stand. So with the Spirit's work: if it were not on many occasions surrounded with tempestuous waters, we should not know that it was true and strong; if the winds did not blow upon it, we should not know how firm and secure it was. The master-works of God are those men who stand in the midst of difficulties, steadfast,unmoveable,--
"Calm mid the bewildering cry, Confident of victory."
He who would glorify his God must set his account upon meeting with many trials. No man can be illustrious before the Lord unless his conflicts be many. If then, yours be a much-tried path, rejoice in it, because you will the better show forth the all-sufficient grace of God. As for His failing you, never dream of it--hate the thought. The God who has been sufficient until now, should be trusted to the end.
Amen. My heart couldn't have expressed it any better. Something I've seen in women is we have this weakness of feeling like we're either "too much" or "not enough." Our tendency is to run on either extreme of feeling too complicated or not accomplished. Jesus talks a lot about sufficiency. "Daughter, My grace is sufficient for You. You will be made rich in every way so you can be generous on every occasion." By His grace I am sufficient. Paul found the key to God's power being manifested in his life. He didn't rely on his own strength, wisdom, or understanding. One of the things I struggle with the most is self-sufficiency. John Piper writes, "Pride, or self-exaltation, or self-reliance is the one virus that causes all the moral diseases of the world. This has been the case ever since Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because they wanted to be God instead of trust God. And it will be true until the final outburst of human pride is crushed at the battle of Armageddon. There is only one basic moral issue: how to overcome the relentless urge of the human heart to assert itself against the authority and grace of God."
"If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; You will remove iniquity far from your tents. Then you will lay your gold in the dust, And the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. Yes, the Almighty will be your gold And your precious silver; For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, And lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, And you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down, and you say, 'Exaltation will come!'" Job 22:23-29
Thursday, February 18, 2010
sad reality
Read this fact the other day and it literally made me want to throw up:
The cost of the halftime commercials during the Super Bowl could feed the world's entire refugee population...TWICE.
Pathetic and sad. It must break God's heart to see the way His creation has chosen to live.
During our Young Life weekend retreat at Windy Gap the speaker played a short clip of a Tom Brady interview. This guy has reached the pinnacle of success. He is a 3-time Super Bowl champion quarterback of the New England Patriots and already a sports legend. He has won the Super Bowl MVP twice and been named to the to the Pro Bowl 5 times. He has dated actresses and supermodels and makes millions of dollars a year. According to our world's standards...Tom Brady has it all. That is why America was fascinated and intrigued by his statements during an interview with Steve Kroft on 60 minutes:
"Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something great out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, 'Hey man, this is what it is.' I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think,'God, it's got to be more than this.' I mean this isn't, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be."
When Kroft said him, "What's the answer?" Brady responded, "I wish I knew. I wish I knew. I love playing football and I love being quarterback for this team. But at the same time, I think there are a lot of other parts about me that I'm trying to find."
Most people would KILL to be Tom Brady. Very few people have experienced all the happiness that the pinnacle of success can offer. They think if I just had his life then I would be happy because what more could you possibly want?
Tom Brady has discovered such happiness is fleeting.
Pascal puts it well: "All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves."
I wish I could tell Tom Brady the good news...that there is MORE! This desire for something greater is inevitable because "God has put eternity into man's heart" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Tom Brady you were made to know God.
Don't believe the lies that success brings happiness. I have to fight that battle everyday because I know a lot of times I fall into that trap. Until we know Jesus our hearts will never be satisfied...no matter how many Super Bowls you win. As Augustine said, "You (God) made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace til they find rest in You."
The cost of the halftime commercials during the Super Bowl could feed the world's entire refugee population...TWICE.
Pathetic and sad. It must break God's heart to see the way His creation has chosen to live.
During our Young Life weekend retreat at Windy Gap the speaker played a short clip of a Tom Brady interview. This guy has reached the pinnacle of success. He is a 3-time Super Bowl champion quarterback of the New England Patriots and already a sports legend. He has won the Super Bowl MVP twice and been named to the to the Pro Bowl 5 times. He has dated actresses and supermodels and makes millions of dollars a year. According to our world's standards...Tom Brady has it all. That is why America was fascinated and intrigued by his statements during an interview with Steve Kroft on 60 minutes:
"Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something great out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, 'Hey man, this is what it is.' I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think,'God, it's got to be more than this.' I mean this isn't, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be."
When Kroft said him, "What's the answer?" Brady responded, "I wish I knew. I wish I knew. I love playing football and I love being quarterback for this team. But at the same time, I think there are a lot of other parts about me that I'm trying to find."
Most people would KILL to be Tom Brady. Very few people have experienced all the happiness that the pinnacle of success can offer. They think if I just had his life then I would be happy because what more could you possibly want?
Tom Brady has discovered such happiness is fleeting.
Pascal puts it well: "All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves."
I wish I could tell Tom Brady the good news...that there is MORE! This desire for something greater is inevitable because "God has put eternity into man's heart" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Tom Brady you were made to know God.
Don't believe the lies that success brings happiness. I have to fight that battle everyday because I know a lot of times I fall into that trap. Until we know Jesus our hearts will never be satisfied...no matter how many Super Bowls you win. As Augustine said, "You (God) made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace til they find rest in You."
Sunday, February 7, 2010
This prayer is from the Valley of Vision- a book of puritan prayers:
O God of grace,
Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute, and hast imputed His righteousness to my soul, clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe, decking me with jewels of holiness.
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags; my best prayers are stained with sin; my penitential tears are so much impurity; my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin; my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness; I am always standing clothed in filthy garments, and by grace am always receiving change of raiment, for Thou dost always justify the ungodly.
I am always going into the far country, and always returning home as a prodigal, always saying, Father, forgive me, and Thou art always bringing forth the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it, every evening return in it, go out to the day’s work in it, be married in it, be wound in death in it, stand before the great white throne in it, enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, the exceeding wonder of grace.
O God of grace,
Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute, and hast imputed His righteousness to my soul, clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe, decking me with jewels of holiness.
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags; my best prayers are stained with sin; my penitential tears are so much impurity; my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin; my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness; I am always standing clothed in filthy garments, and by grace am always receiving change of raiment, for Thou dost always justify the ungodly.
I am always going into the far country, and always returning home as a prodigal, always saying, Father, forgive me, and Thou art always bringing forth the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it, every evening return in it, go out to the day’s work in it, be married in it, be wound in death in it, stand before the great white throne in it, enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, the exceeding wonder of grace.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Francis Chan on Taking Risks
I love this video from Fancis Chan about how we seek safety instead of taking risks.
This message is so true. Often times I find myself pursuing security instead of the ultimate Protector. A big prayer in my life is that I would stop hugging the beam and get out there! That I would not let the fear of failure paralyze me. I heard someone say recently that we should dream and live life in such a way that is destined to fail without divine intervention. That kind of faith isn't afraid of failure.
"If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:28
This message is so true. Often times I find myself pursuing security instead of the ultimate Protector. A big prayer in my life is that I would stop hugging the beam and get out there! That I would not let the fear of failure paralyze me. I heard someone say recently that we should dream and live life in such a way that is destined to fail without divine intervention. That kind of faith isn't afraid of failure.
"If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:28
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Young Life
I took some Cedar Ridge High School girls to Windy Gap this past weekend and as I'm sitting here typing this I can't help but think how special Young Life camps are. Emma, a girl on my young life team said it well, "There's just something about Windy Gap...you walk away completely exhausted yet completely refreshed." Young Life has sets up camps in a way that the daily distractions of high school kids are pushed aside in order to show them what real life is about. It's not Windy Gap's beauty, (although Windy Gap is beautiful) its far deeper then beauty. Many places and things are beautiful to the eye but you walk away unchanged because beauty in and of itself is shallow. The peacefulness and serenity found at Young Life camps is something you can't put into words, I am convinced it is holy ground.
If I knew beforehand the things I would have to sacrifice as a young life leader I probably would not have signed up for such an adventure. However, I can honestly say NOTHING in college has been sweeter and more worth it.
God has taught me more then I could ever put into words, but probably the biggest thing I am continuing to learn and discover is that even in my walk with the Lord I am still in rags; my best prayers are still stained with sin; my receiving of the Spirit is colored with selfishness; and my ability to lead apart from God's grace will fail. I'm incredibly prideful. I'm in the process of learning again that I am pretty mediocre at everything. I, in and of myself, really have nothing to offer the world and whatever few things I claim to be "good" at, my faults multiply all the more. Not only is the Lord teaching me about Him but also who I am along the way. In leading Young Life, I'm beginning to see how small I am in comparison to the Lord, and I have never felt so insignificant and humbled. Despite what I may think, God doesn't need me. God would move, change, and work in crazy, incredible ways without me and anything that I bring to the table someone else could too. He doesn't need me but He wants me. He wants my meager "talents" and "gifts". When I finally came to this realization all the pressure to be the "best leader" I can be was lifted off my shoulders and I am now able to see that Jesus is...Jesus does...Jesus works. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus...NOT Mary Norris.
We spend so much time trying to fill our lives with things that we hope will bring us fulfillment. I have truly tasted and experienced full and abundant life. God has used Young Life to show me His face through so many people (going all the way back to when I did work crew summer of 06). I have made so many friends within the Young Life circle (in both high school and college) and I have felt and seen the love of God immensely. It's been so much fun to live this journey with people who are passionate about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. What a privilege and blessing it is to be able to love on high school girls and walk through life with them. I've found there is nothing more exciting to share than the truth of God's loving embrace upon one's life. It really is true that the times in my life I have experienced the greatest joy is when I gave it away.
I have so many questions about what the future might hold but something excites me in these questions of uncertainty. Something invites me to loosen my tight grip on the life I call my own and instead gives me an image of what it means to give it away.
"The fundamental building blocks of the kingdom are relationships. Not programs, systems, or productivity but inconvenient, time-consuming, intrusive relationships. The kingdom is built on personal involvement that disrupt schedules, and drain energy. When I enter into redemptive relationships with others, I lose much of my "capacity to produce desired results with a minimum expenditure of energy, time, money, or materials" In short, relationships sabotage my efficiency. A part of me dies. Is this perhaps what our Lord meant when He said we must lay down our lives for each other?"
-Theirs is the Kingdom by Robert D. Lupton
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