It's All About Purpose

So yesterday, I had the privilege of watching two of my close friends get married and it was a genuinely amazing thing to watch. It wasn't amazing because of the decorations or because of the music but because of what was taking place. Here you have two people really saying to each other, "You and I are uniting our purpose together." I could talk all day about the miracle of unity between husband and wife but just as incredible to me is this fusion of purpose that they share. It becomes a lot more incredible when you think about the importance of purpose. It seems like the question that always get's asked is, "Why am I here?" Or you could say, "What's my purpose?" Now if we all are just here by chance and there's really no purpose to our lives, a marriage is an extremely insignificant event. However, if the Word of God is true (and we know it is) and we really do have a purpose here, then the fusion of two purposes together, or maybe a better way to say it is uniting of purposes, is of the utmost importance. I don't want to get to weighty with this but tackle this verse for a second: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11. God's got a plan for you. He has certainly imbued you with Life, and also, a purpose! So now imagine two of those God given purposes being brought together. That amazes me. It amazes me because in part, that was part of the purpose. God really must have thought this one through. And if God put's that much emphasis on purpose, then it seems like something worth considering. What is your purpose? What were you designed to uniquely do or accomplish? I can name you a couple to get you started. You were made to: Worship, Glorify, Rejoice, and live Victoriously. I like what Rick Warren says, "You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense. "

Live with a Purpose.....

The Battle We Face

It's been a while since I wrote last and the thing is, God is constantly changing the playing field. What I mean is, God, I feel, has brought us into a season of time where things are starting to change. If you want to think in sports terms, we are in a season of "game changer" moments. This is a season where I feel like the prayer and perseverance toward God in the last several years of Faith Chapel is beginning to be seen completely. God is really bringing us into view of the promised land so to speak. As I reflect on that, it reminds of the battle field that the Israelites fought through in taking the promise land. God brought the people to what He had promised them and they had to rely on Him to win the next battles for them along with the battles that they had already fought in the wilderness. I say all that to say this. As we enter into what God has promised for us individually and as Faith Chapel, we must rely on God as we enter in the battles. Two things strike me about what the Israelites did. First, God won the battles for them. Look at every occasion when God was for them. They won. And the times He wasn't? They lost. It's as simple as that. We must constantly be seeking the face, voice, and presence of our God so that He can be with us. The second thing I notice is that they still had to fight. I suppose you could make a case that if they had extreme faith, God could have always fought completely for them to the point that they wouldn't have even had to go out. But that wasn't the case most of the time. In the majority of cases, God gave them the strength to go and win the battle because He was with them and so I feel it is with us. There are some cases where God takes the battle for us and times when God requires us to fight with His Hand upon us. Here's the awesome thing. We have a knowledge of something that they didn't. They knew God in one way. We know Him in a very special way. Remember this: We march to battle with a greater weapon than mankind has ever known. It is the power of a name. A name that moves mountains, a name that heals disease, a name that restores hearts and gives life....a name called Jesus. He is our not so secret weapon to overcome! So when we face the battles to come, and I assure you we will face them, we can stand strong knowing that our power doesn't lie in ourselves but in the God who already lade down His life for us that we may be victorious in Him! Just keep this verse at the focus of your heart: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Live Victoriously.....

What Is Holy? Purity....

This week, we are going to continue pursuing God into the question He's tasked us with: What is Holy? God really pressed something upon my heart yesterday. It was all about building an alter to the Lord. He directed me to Exodus 30:7-10. It's talking about the instructions God gave to the Israelites in building the tabernacle. It says, "Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come. Do not offer on this altar any other incense or any burnt offering or grain offering, and do not pour a drink offering on it. Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on its horns. This annual atonement must be made with the blood of the atoning sin offering for the generations to come. It is most holy to the Lord." The most important things about this text is two fold: 1, They would do this for atonement of sins. (and specifically for sins that hadn't even been committed yet!) And 2, this act, was "holy to the Lord". If it was something holy, we need to understand why. The answer is all about purity. God requires purity because He is pure. That is part of holiness. Let's go back to the definition of holiness. Holy means: perfect in all goodness and righteousness. Another way to probably say that is the same way we define purity: without blemish or sin. God is perfect in goodness and righteousness because He is without blemish. Just to share, I felt very much in my soul like yesterday (and hopefully the days to come) we need to set up an alter before the Lord in our hearts and constantly throw our lives upon it. We need to ask that whatever is not pleasing to God would be consumed so that we may be pure before Him. In the Old Testament, they would often name the alter based on what God had done or what they were wanting to remember forever. I feel like God has asked us to call this alter, "Whatever it takes." Basically, we are saying, whatever it takes to be holy, whatever it takes to be pure before the Lord is what we will daily pursue. So as you go about your day today, tomorrow, and so on, take some time to build an alter to the Lord for purity and holiness for our God is holy and requires that we be the same.

Whatever it takes....

What Is Holy? Love....

Let me just say that I couldn't have been more thrilled at the heart to which I really felt like everyone received the new direction for The Pursuit! I am absolutely convinced that if we stay the course and continue to seek God and learn about His Holiness, we will begin to experience a deeper level of worship and a greater understanding of our Saviour in a way we never have before. God really was speaking today and for all of those that were able to make it, I have never experienced a two hour block of time that went by as quickly as that did! That really excites me because as Pastor Brad shared today, we really are Pursuing His presence in this! We are going after being right where He is. Remember the scripture we are using? "Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy." Psalm 99:9 We are going to worship at "His holy mountain". We are meeting Him where He dwells in this encounter. I am convinced that in His presence, our concept of time is honestly meaningless and so I couldn't be more excited that this was the shortest two hours of my life! That just says to me that we are going there! Thank You Jesus for giving us the opportunity to be where you are! So what I feel like God is speaking to me is the characteristics that make up Holiness. Today, I couldn't get away from His love. And honestly, if I could have gotten away, I wouldn't have wanted to. That all encompassing, ever lasting love of God was the first step or the first characteristic and what God wants to convey to us about this thing called holy. I want to rewind and remember the definition of holy. Holy means: exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness. The last part is what I want to note, "perfect in goodness and righteousness." Think about this. You can be perfect at something perhaps. But the definition is very careful to distinguish that this is "perfect in goodness and righteousness." And that is exactly what His love is. His love is perfect in it's goodness. Check out what we normally say about His love. His love is: never ending, all encompassing, everlasting, sacred, pure, honest, etc. That is perfect love and that is what He wants to share with us. His love is holy. In His presence, there is fullness of joy and I know, overwhelming love for His creation. There is nowhere I can run. There is nowhere I can hide. There is no sin I could commit that could ever be great than His love for me! This week, I want to challenge everyone with this. (as I do the same) Take a look at 1 Corinthians 13 but specifically, verses 1-7. Let's take the Jesus test together. In verse 4-7, every time the word love appears, replace the word love with your name. See how far you get. Now go back and replace it with Jesus. Is it any wonder that He was the perfect sacrifice?

Thank you Jesus for Your love....

What Is Holy?

First off, let me say how proud I am of everyone who's been making it to The Pursuit! And I'm not proud because it makes me feel good about myself but because of the heart in which everyone has been coming! It is very easy to see the passion of our church displayed by the willingness to dive deeper into the heart of our Creator. It seems like things have really been going great so far and I think things are about to get even better! God has really placed something on my heart today that I just can't shake until I share it and we get started! It feels like He really wants us to learn about what it means to be "holy". I believe that knowing what it means to be holy will really increase our relationship with a God that is Holy! I don't quite know yet how this will effect the normal flow of The Pursuit yet but in general, we will still be sticking to a time of prayer and worship maybe just geared more towards seeking God and learning holiness together! So let's start with this scripture which I think is gonna be central thought for our times together. "Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy."- Psalm 99:9 The word of God tells us two things here: First, we are suppose to worship Him where He dwells (we are called to worship Him in His Presence) and secondly, we are doing this because He is holy. We tend to throw that term around a lot without a solid grasp on what it means so I wanted to see what the dictionary really says about it. Holy means, "exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness". Righteousness means free from guilt or sin. So in other words, God is saying that He is worthy of everything we've got not because He is just perfect but because He is perfect in all good things! So let's stop there for right now and give it some time to sink in. (that goes double for myself) Our God is not only perfect but perfect in a way that is without guilt or sin. Father, begin to reveal to our hearts as Your bride who You really are. You are perfect. You are righteous.

You are holy....

The Pit

I was scrubbing a pool today. Sort of an odd way to start this but it's the truth. I was cleaning out the pool for the gentleman that I work for. Apparently given all of the storms that have come through, the pool that I just cleaned not more then a few weeks ago is now filthy again. I'm definitely not the chemist or the person that can identify what kind of grime was building up down there but all I know was that I was down in this pool with the brush and this concoction of degreasers that should kill anything you throw at it. I started scrubbing everything I could trying to get this junk off surface. I had just finished the bottom when I went to climb out. I got no traction. Every two feet I climbed up, I slid 3 feet back. I'm laughing on the inside and angry on the outside because I'm totally stuck. That's when I started thinking about sin. That's when I start thinking that in our spiritual lives (by the way, please note that I say "we" and not, "you" because we're all in this together) we are in the same pit. We are stuck in something so deep that we can't get out of it. In our own strength, we slide back down time and time again. We need something to carry us out of the mess we made. Thankfully, we've been given a wonderful answer in Jesus. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8-9 My boss told me that he could've let the hose down for me had I asked. I laughed about that. The hose would've been my climb out of that pit. And honestly, Jesus chose to be that escape for us. He climbed down into our pit, laid Himself down, and let us climb up on Him. I will never fully understand that love but I couldn't be more thankful for it! Thank you Father that you pulled us out of what we were in.

I Have The Right.....

It's 10:15 Saint Louis time and it's 11:15 here in Virginia. The 4th of July celebration will probably start in a few hours if it hasn't already. Soon we will all begin to remember why we have the rights we possess in this country. That thought got me remembering something a teacher of mine told me once. In paraphrasing it, she said that the only right that humanity possessed was the right to death. That's not necessarily a fun thought to think of. But when you get down to it, I'm pretty sure she's correct. The only thing we inherently deserve because it is ours is death. We've taken it upon ourselves to make it a right for us when we sin. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23. I love the way Paul said that. Break it down and you could say it like this. "What we have earned for ourselves because of our sin is death. That's it, period. But we've been given what we didn't deserve in eternal life because of Jesus!" Thank you Father for giving us a gift we didn't deserve and we didn't earn. I don't know what your plans will be tomorrow. I don't know if you'll set off fireworks, hang out with friends and family, work, or something else all together. But what I do know is this. Tomorrow, we should really take a second to remember two things. Firstly, our rights that we have in this country are a gift given by the lives that fought and died that we may be one nation under God. And secondly, thank you Jesus that your gift is so much stronger than my right to death!

Remember.....

The Majesty of Him

Have you ever wondered how big God is? When you were little, did you ever wonder about what God looked like? Did I fit inside His hand or was He about my height? Dark hair? Light hair? Most likely, a lot of those questions will have to wait till we reach the other side of eternity. But there are some things I know for sure. I know what His own words say about Him. I love this verse out of Psalms, "The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw You and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. The clouds poured down water, the skies resounded with thunder; Your arrows flashed back and forth." Psalms 77:16-17. All of that happened just by seeing God. The mere sight of Him is enough to cause the waters to churn. It's enough to cause the clouds to rain for joy and the skies to roar with thunder. He causes lightening to erupt in the sky. Now measure yourself. When the water's see you, do the churn? Do the clouds rain for you? Do the skies roar with thunder for you? No, but they are not suppose to. All creation and all things were created to glorify the Father. You and I? Same thing. We were designed to glorify and awesome God! The relationship we can share with Him helps us to glorify Him more. Check this out. Most of us remember the story of Job. Job was a righteous man. But after the plagues swept through, the children were killed, the sickness hit, he at least got to the point of asking God a few things. And I love God's reply. The word says that God answered Job out of the storm and began to ask Job a question or two. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels[a] shouted for joy? “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb, and as I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness? For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores. I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come. Here your proud waves must stop!’" Job 38:4-11. Incredible. God is speaking truths about what He's done and He's not holding anything back. Laying the foundations of the earth? Check. Determining how big to make it? Check. Making boundaries for the sea? Check. On my best day, and I mean my very best day, I cannot even begin to stand up to an ounce of who God is. And you know what? I love it that way. I love the fact that when we worship, when we pray, we aren't praying to a pretty good God. I'm thankful we don't serve a semi-impressive God. No, we serve an awe-inspiring, star breathing, spirit making, life changing God! Thank You Father for being as awesome as You are. Thank you Lord that even in my weakness, You are still Holy. You are still righteous. You are Majesty.

Ever inspired by You...

Here's The Concept....Love Them....

I was reading this book at the local starbucks the other day and God started to speak to me. I've never started weeping in public before so this was a first for me. I just felt overwhelmed by love. That's when God spoke. He said that this was His overwhelming love for me and that I was designed to love the same. "Love my people." That's been resonating in my heart since the other day. And you know what? That wasn't a special word just for me. It wasn't, "Joseph, you alone are called to love my people." It wasn't "You alone are designed to love the same." No, WE are called to love the same. WE are called to love His people! It's funny how in the Presence of God, you can actually forget things. As I'm writing this, I'm remembering what He said, "Love what I love." How well thought out God. I think that sometimes as Christians, we get in this habit of trying to love each other as if that's enough. What God loves is humanity, not just those who have found Him. " "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16. Did you catch that? It wasn't, "God so loved those who accepted Him.." It was, "For God so loved the world..." No conditions. Zero. God just loves what He created. He wants to share that love with His creation. It seems to me that it was love that drew our hearts to our Savior. Is it any wonder that Paul says, "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13. I have to love. You have to love. We have to love. But remember, we love because we were so loved first. We can't conjure up love on our own. We receive love from God so that we can love others.

Starting to love....

Consequential Words

I'm growing tired of something within myself and within our culture today. We call ourselves followers of God. We worship Him. We pray to Him. And we demean Him all the time. What do I mean by that last part? There's a growing phrase that I catch myself saying and many people saying more and more frequently, "I hope so". Can I just say this? As a Christian, as someone who has a personal relationship with our Creator, should we be saying that? It seems like when a situation arises and we need to put faith into action, we back out at the last minute. It's kind of like saying, "I'm not confident enough to actually speak some faith into what I'm saying, because I'm not sure if God will actually come through." I'm not jumping on a moral high horse because I do it too and I'm having to catch myself. But of all the people on earth that shouldn't have to hope for something, shouldn't it be us? I like what the Word says, "Yet we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, I have believed, and therefore have I spoken. We too believe, and therefore we speak". 2 Corinthians 4: 13 Okay let's look at that for a second. Did you catch the last line? We believe, and then we speak. That's the order and that is what we are called to do. We don't speak with, "I hope so". We speak with a belief inside of us not because of anything we've done but because of who we serve! Or how about this? "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2: 20 When we speak, we don't speak on our own accord but through the power of Christ who lives in us. And if I speak with the power of our Lord, then I'm not hoping for anything. I'm speaking faith! There is a reason why we are called FAITH Chapel. So let's practice this together church! Let's watch what we say and start to introduce some faith into our words!

Prayerfully....

The Stepping Stone of Fear

There's something spiritual about running. I don't know if it is because we were created to run to our Father or if it's a focus that helps narrow the rapid pace of world moving too fast anyway but whatever the case, I know that it's in those moments of pure exhaustion, because I can't run any further and yet He keeps me on my feet, that God really likes to speak to my heart. There was nothing I could do to hide from what He was speaking to me tonight. I think it's a warning for all of us in modern words. I want to call it the stepping stone of fear because that's what He called it. Most of us have heard it before but it needs to be said again, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7 We were not created to live in fear. I hope that goes without saying. But far too often, many of us let ourselves be dragged into fear of the unknown. And as I was having this thought, another popped into my head. Imagine you are in the middle of a lake. You are directly in the dead center. It looks too far somehow to reach the other side and you begin to worry if you can get out of this. Water's up to your waist. You take a step back. You're standing on something but you've sunk a little deeper into the water. You think to yourself, "Now I'm further away then when I started!" You take another step back and another step down submerging deeper into the water. What you are experiencing are the stepping stones of fear. They don't bring you up, they lead you down. Is it any wonder that every time God speaks to humanity in His word, it's almost always accompanied with "Fear not"? God does not desire for us to live in this fear. I think in large part, it's because when we fear, we start to forget who He is. He is the one who protects us. He is the one who comforts us. He is the one who has promised good to us. He even tells us in Isaiah 41:10, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." We are not suppose to fear because He's commanded us not to! He's given us every reason not to fear! Our God is smart enough to know what happens when we start to take those steps backwards and descend into our own fears. But there's a flip side. You've become mostly submerged in the water and you begin to realize, God's in control and He is strong enough to take care of this. You take a step forward. And instead of grabbing ahold of that stone you just walked on, there's another in it's place. It elevates you. You begin to rely on Him for your strength. You take another step. He becomes your deliver and He is the one who vanquishes your fear! You step again and soon enough, you're walking on water. There's another kind of fear that He wants us to cling to. It's the fear of the Lord. This isn't us being scared of God. No, this is us being awed in reverence in the knowledge that our God can do all things! Proverbs 19:23 says, "The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble." Why is there no trouble? Why can we live and rest in contentment? It's because we know that our God is is strong enough to overcome anything we could possibly face. 1 John 4:4 "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater then the one who is in the world." You have overcome the world Father, and as for me....I will trust in You.

The Line In The Sand

You don't have to look very hard at the world around us to see that the times are changing. It wouldn't surprise me very much to wake up one day down the road and start talking about how things use to be. To a certain extent, I probably already could. But it seems like things are starting to really change at a rapid fire pace right now. I think it's time to make a choice on a few different things church but one of the most important that I see is the decision of Passion. Most people don't think of it this way, but really, Passion is a decision. I choose to be passionate about the things in my life. If passion were just a given that was not a decision, there would be a lot more people sold out for Jesus Christ. But instead, I think we see that passion must be decided and acted upon. I think the time has come for us as a church to make a decision. There is a line in the sand and we must choose to either be passionate and sold out for Christ or to walk away. It may sound cold but that is truth of the matter. God is not looking for indecisiveness or a half hearted attitude. Revelation 3:16 says, "Since you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth." It's not enough to say, "Jesus has a place in my heart." He doesn't want a place in our hearts, He wants our hearts! He deserves it all. Simply put, we need to choose where we stand. Is it in a place of complete surrender to Christ or is it giving Him part of who we are? I deliberately choose to say, "The line in the Sand" because the line continues to increase. It moves, it shifts. It makes us go a little bit further each time. Passion is a funny thing like that. Even with the greatest passion's, there isn't ever a place where your passion's are completely satisfied. You continue to grow in that passion. That's the mark of a great marriage I think. Two people continually striving for something better is fantastic! As our passion increases, the line moves to stretch us. Day by day, we must choose to stretch and continually push for a greater, deeper, and more passionate relationship with our Jesus.

Ever in love with Him....

The Cross or The Christ?

So I was having a discussion the other day with a friend of mine in the military and He brought an interesting point to my mind. It seems like everywhere you go, you see the cross. It's become the new "icon" for a lot of fashion even among unbelievers! We have cross necklaces, cross rings, cross's that hang on the wall that are gold plated, cross's on our bibles, cross's cross's cross's. Now before anyone thinks I'm being blasphemous, let me clarify something. Thank God for the cross! What an awesome thing that was done for us! The cross fulfilled prophecy about Jesus' death and was such an important symbol of the lengths that God went through to purchase us! And that to me is the point. In our society, I think a lot of us almost worship the cross more then the Christ that was sacrificed on it. I love the cross and what it is, but I think this is just a quick reminder to all of us to keep our eyes on Jesus. That's what it's all about. That leads me to think about something else. If something that is so closely tied to our Jesus like the cross can distract us from Him, how easily are we distracted by everything else? We live in a world where we are not asked but expected to run as fast as everyone else. We are suppose to be going a hundred miles and hour and rushing through everything. And the times we are allowed to stop? Well, in those times, we have to find something else to keep us preoccupied. You all know what those things are just as much as I do. Somebody told me once to make a ratio. They said to me, "How much of your focus and energy is spent with Him and how much is spent with yourself?" When I thought of how little time I really gave Him, I was disgusted at myself. It's about relationship with Him. It always has been. It always will be. He desires that we would have a relationship with Him and not squander our time on things that don't matter at all. There is a place in life for t.v. There is a place in life for baseball games. But there cannot be a place in life for Jesus because he gave His life in place of ours. He deserves everything. So what are you going to worship with your life?

Choose Him....

Trust Is The Uncommon Choice

Lately, I feel like I've been in that season of life where things definitely haven't turned out how I expected them to. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying things haven't gone well or that things have turned out bad. That is very much not the case. God has worked everything for my good and He has proven once again that He is faithful. It just is one of those times where my human head imagined things one way, and God's infinite wisdom had something very different in mind. And that got me thinking. How often do I sit back and say, "God this isn't what I expected but I'm going to trust you anyway." As I contemplated that, I couldn't find that many instances. More then not, what I was filled with was, "God, this isn't what I had planned at all!" I'm sure God was laughing in those moments and saying, "Exactly son, it's not what you had planned. It's what I had planned." I just wonder how many times we choose not to trust in God even when things aren't going wrong? Stamping that on our money and practicing it are two very different things. It's far more difficult to imagine things working out given, "Nor are your ways, My ways says the Lord...". That leads me to my main thought. We choose a lot of things but I don't think it's normally trust in Him. Trust is the uncommon choice. So where does that trust in our Father get you? Look at every single great man and woman mentioned in the bible and I think you will see a group of people readily willing to make the uncommon choice. I'm sure it wasn't easy for Moses to follow God's direction into the wilderness but He did it anyway. I'm sure Abraham was probablly pretty nervous to go sacrfice his son because the Lord had told him to. It must have been hard for Hannah in some ways to trust God completely with the child He had just given her, Samuel. But even through those choices, they decided to trust Him. I think we need to strive for that. Trusting Him with everything is not a good idea, it is The Idea. It seems to me that this is part of what He desired all along. He wanted humanity to know, He could be trusted. So let's strive for that in our lives church. In the big decision, in the small decisions, in the good outcomes, and in the bad ones, let's trust Him.
Trust is the uncommon choice for all of us.
What choice will you make?

The Fire of Freedom

Freedom, Freedom, Freedom. I keep hearing that word. It's such an interesting thing about freedom that literally, freedom can unchain us and enslave us. We always think of freedom as just inherently good and we move on and in it's purest form, I believe freedom is good. But it also comes with great responsibility. I have the freedom to worship our God however I choose, but, I also have the freedom in this country to go drink until I can't stand up or look at explicit material if I so choose. In that light, I think it becomes evident that freedom is mostly likely dependent on our heart. Maybe a better way to think of this is that freedom is a reflection of our heart. If our heart is seeking purity and righteousness, then so will how we choose to display our freedom. On the other hand, if our flesh is in control and we are actively seeking our own gratification, then the freedom we possess will most certainly be after something much darker. Freedom is like fire. It can destroy, but, it can also purify. But that is just the precursor to what I really want to say. It is extremely important that we don't take freedom lightly. But here comes the really exciting part. As we pursue the Father together, we see more and more what His heart is for humanity and it is truly and awesome and wonderful thing! And if freedom is a reflector of the heart, then it makes sense why we love the Freedom that He gives so much! 2 Corinthians 3:17 "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord's Spirit is, there is freedom." He so desires for us to be free in Him. There is no better place to let someone be free then in perfect love. If there is something that has chained you down, whether it's addictions, your finances, stress, you name it, He wants to break those chains in our lives. He wants to release the prisoners into a life of perfect freedom, a freedom made even greater by a perfect love by a perfect God.

Break the chains Father....

There Is No Backup Plan

There's something that is becoming obvious to me each day. We are required to live a life of faith. I know I've said several times that as the body of Faith Chapel, we are suppose to be people of ever increasing faith but I think it really goes far beyond that. I was sitting there thinking about faith and God simply spoke to me and really said, "there is no backup plan." I had no idea what that meant. And as I started thinking about it, God introduced me to a new concept, His heart. Sounds crazy right? God was speaking to me about His faith in us! He still knows what we are going to do and yet I believe His faith is unwavering in us. I have a calling on my life as does every single one of us and we have two choices. We can either do exactly what we are designed to do or, we can choose not to. But all the way through the journey, I believe that God is believing in me to succeed. It's like, His faith is so strong, that He's saying, "There is no backup plan! You are it!" That really didn't compute to me for a while. How can there not be a backup plan God? What if something goes wrong? And that's where the human head in me started melting away. We humans really like to have security in things. So much so, that we are willing to trade faith for security. Well, I could have complete faith in my calling but in case it doesn't work out, here's my backup plan. It saddens my heart to ever think that I was there once. And yet, God is a clear picture of how we are suppose to live our lives. "There is no backup plan!" That is faith to the extreme! Can you imagine knowing someone was going to do the wrong thing ultimately and still having faith in them? I can't. But the good thing is, He does and because of that, I know what I'm suppose to do. It's a lifestyle of faith that we are suppose to be leading for Him. He has faith in us. Let's have faith in Him.

Prayefully

Knowing Who You Are

I'm almost home from vacation and God has made something very clear to me the last couple days. We all need to have a firm grasp on who we are. Some of us are younger, some of us are older, some of us have kids, some of us don't. And even through all of those things, it's amazing that when confronted with the question of "who are you?", many of us can't answer. I use to spend a lot of nights trying to answer that. I'd have elaborate dreams of what I thought would be great for myself. I'd picture things I could accomplish and try and sort through the ones I liked. And somehow, it completely missed me to ever turn to God and ask Him. If you ask a craftsman what they created and what it's purpose is, they can tell you. I don't think it's any different when it comes it to us. We were all created by an awesome Creator. So why are we trying to define ourselves or figure out why we are here on our own? We all happen to serve the very God that can tell you who you are. And that is the point I'm driving at. If something is never defined, what is it good for? Take a chair. If no one had ever said, this is a chair, you sit in it, no one would have any reason to use it and the purpose of that chair would go completely unused. We need to know who we are. There's something inside of us that in many ways, longs for definition. I'm learning who my Creator has created me to be because to be anything else would be a lie. I hope you all consider this at some point this week church. Let's not be a church of uselessness. Let's be a church of purpose, of passion, and of definition.

Prayerfully

How Much Do You Love Me?

As I read through God's Word, I am struck that He is constantly reminding us through each book of His unfathomable love for us. I like what this says, "For great is Your love, higher than the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the sky." Psalm 108:4 He loves us that much! When we chose sinfulness over Him, we drove a deep wedge in this relationship and created the infinite divide between us. And yet, His love is so great that He looked past that divide and found something that was even greater. With the price that was paid by Jesus, He closed the divide that we may know Him and His incredible love for us! I say all that to say, I feel like the Lord is asking, "How much do you love me?" I guess I'm reminded of the song we learned just a week or two ago now, Center. Are we plugging our lives into Him or are we trying to plug Him into ours? I think that's one of the greatest expressions of love, to choose what has loved you. I'm sure there might be love in a prearranged marriage. But there is just something about loving something enough to give it a choice to love you back. When a man gets down on his knee's and asks, "will you marry me?", he's really saying, "I love you but I want you to choose to love me as well." And I think the same thing is far more true with our relationship with God. He's already expressed His love for us. Then when we chose another suitor, sin , He paid the price so that we could choose Him again! He did not send Jesus so that everyone would instantly accept Him. It was still a choice. Are we choosing Him in our decisions and in everything? Are we choosing to wrap our lives around His life? He has made is position very clear. And now the question rebounds back to us. It falls back to us who have accepted His gift of redemption. How much do you love me? I will love you with my life, with my soul, with my heart, with my mind, and with my strength Father. 

You deserve my love

God's Plan is Perfection

Something God has really been speaking to me recently, and especially today, is about His plan for us. Hopefully, we all are seeking the will of our Father over what we desire for ourself. We all know that His way is best. But something above and beyond is what I feel that He's trying to convey right now. His plan is about perfection. Most people don't believe that God is going to plan something bad for there lives but few grasp that His way is not just good, it is perfect. And more then that, it is about perfecting us. Many times, we wonder why God is letting us go through the trials of life? "Why me God?" "What did I do to deserve this?" We are allowed to go through the fires of life so that we may be sculpted to look more like our Creator. And by extension, that would mean Perfection right? So what about the good times? It's the same thing! "I'm so thankful God!" "Thank you for blessing me!" We truthfully are being tried through another fire. It is called reaction and response. When we are blessed by God in the good times, do we say thank you to Him or do we say something like, "It's my lucky day!" We need to be aware that He deserves a response. You would not go to a friends house, let them serve you dinner and say, "Man am I lucky that this just happened!" No. You would turn to that friend and say thank you. Of course, I cannot forget about the second name of that fire. It is response. What do we do with that blessing? Remember Abraham? He was blessed that He would be a blessing to others! That's the response. I can keep what I've been given to myself or I can pour out into others. And yet through all that, everything is for our good! How incredible is the love of our God when both good and bad are all working at us to be like Him? God's plan is working Perfection into us church. God's plan is Him. Please prayerfully consider this during your week. I know I will be.

Blessings

Nothing Will Be Impossible For Them

So, I unfortunately won't be there for The Pursuit this week or the next as I'll be in Florida but distance doesn't stop God from speaking does it? I'm going to continue to write while I'm here and see what God decides to do during this time. The word on my heart is unity. I'm reminded of the people who came together to build the tower of babel. While what they were doing was wrong, in a manner of speaking, how they were going about it was so right. The Lord even says that nothing they do will be impossible for them because of their unity. There is something amazing that happens when we come together in unity. I could go on and on about this but I want you to dive deeper on your own. (Ironic that I'm saying to do this alone regarding a subject like unity) The point is, that there is so much to learn about us joining our hearts together towards a singular purpose. Faith, can we do the same thing? I would love to see a people united in purpose and heart towards our God. Can you even imagine what could happen if the whole congregation was literally on the same page and we were pursuing the Father together? Nothing would be impossible.  Whether it's our time at The Pursuit or our Saturday or Sunday morning gathering, let's seek after Him with everything we have. Then truly, we will be in one place united together and Nothing will be impossible for us.

Prayerfully

The Season of Declaration...

So for all of those who were there today, The Pursuit was awesome! And for those that weren't, I urge you to come check us out! But more importantly, I urge you to come and find yourself deeper in the love of our Creator. Towards the end of our time together, Pastor Brad felt lead to start speaking out in remembrance. We were basically making a declaration of the things that God has promised us. It is not because we feel like God has forgotten. God remembers His promises. But there are many instances in the Word that the prophets, teachers, and people of God would ask God to remember. Maybe a better way of saying it for todays world would be, "God, we believe these promises are true even though we haven't seen them yet because we know you won't leave a promise unfulfilled." But what has been on my heart is the power in the declaration of these things. There is a very big difference between speaking something and declaring something. If you'll notice, we don't have the "Asking of Independence". We have something much greater in the "Declaration of Independence". There's a feeling of resolution with this. I think with a declaration, there is a component of faith involved as opposed to casually speaking things. When we declare something, we are basically stating as fact something that hasn't happened yet. When we as a nation declared our independence from England, we were not free at that moment. But we spoke it as if we were. That's the element of faith. I say all of that to say that I feel as if God is asking us to make declarations in this season. This is not a season to hope things happen. This is a season to declare the things we want church. Do you want to see faith increase in our church? Declare it. Do you want healing for whatever is hurting you? Declare it. Do you want to see your kid's grow up to be powerful and active follower's of Jesus? Declare it. The choice is yours. As for me, I'm going to start making declarations of my faith knowing full well that when I make a declaration in the spirit, it's not me that fulfills it. It is He who has overcome the world!

Blessings

To know Your name.....

So I've been listening to the song, "To Know Your Name" by Hillsong tonight and it's really resonating inside of me. The lyrics are pretty straight forward. It goes:

Cause I know you gave, the world your only son for us to

know your name, to live within the saviors love and he took my place

knowing he'd be crucified and you loved....you loved, a people undeserving

As I no longer believe in chance, God must have been trying to speak to me today when in an awesome time with Pastor Brad, Pastor Josh, and Pastor Tony, God brought up this scripture. "But the man who loves God is known by God." 1 Corinthians 8:3. It just seems to speak again to God's character. He desires so strongly that we would know Him. That desire was strong enough to send His Son to die that we might be able to know Him for eternity. Jesus says the exact same thing. John 17:3 says, "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." We are so incredibly undeserving of anything. And what continues to strike me is that His love is so overwhelming that through everything, He wants to know me. Father, may we be known by You. May we love You with every bit of who we are. May we know You more intimately each day.

To know Your name.....

The Pursuit Begins.....

So this wednesday will officially begin The Pursuit in its newest form and I've got to say, I'm so excited! I felt as though walls really started crumbling this weekend at Faith Chapel and I fully expect them to continue to break over us as a people. If our main services are where the walls begin to crumble, then I feel like The Pursuit is actively pushing against the cracks that have formed. I was remembering today what a pastor once told me. We are like rubber bands. Very profound right? If you've ever seen a very old rubber band, you know how fragile it is. It literally can snap very easily or crumble all together. It does this because it has not been stretched. The more it is stretched, the harder for it to crumble. Our lives are no different. When we choose the comfortable positions of life, we stop being stretched and in turn, we are far more likely to be brittle. But when you look at the well worn life, you see something else. You see someone who has chosen to step outside of the things they know, follow God through the stretching, and become so much stronger for it! We are rubber bands. God, would You stretch us? Would you continually challenge us that we wouldn't become stagnant and brittle? Let us grow in You Father. 

Passionately Pursuing You

The Pursuit

Welcome to the official blog of The Pursuit! I've got a feeling that God will be speaking long after we've left on Wednesdays so I wanted a place to write down not only those thoughts but my own here and there. First off, in case anyone is confused The Pursuit is the new name for Live Worship Wednesdays. It's really been going great but I feel like the ultimate expression of why we gather is to continually pursue the heart of God in a deeper and more intimate way, hence, why I feel lead to start calling this, The Pursuit. This is more then a time to sing. This is more then a time for words. This is a time to actively pursue He who has pursued us first. As we push deeper into Him and His love, I know that He responds by pulling us into Himself. It is literally commanded in the Scriptures that we pursue righteousness and as our righteousness is in Christ, we chase God. 2 Timothy 2:22 says, "Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." Let's make that the real motive for meeting together. Let's actively pursue righteousness. Let's actively pursue faith. Let's actively pursue love. Let us actively pursue our God.

The Pursuit meets every wednesday from 11 to 1pm at Faith Chapel