100 Days!

100 Days til I get married to the most amazing girl in the world! Any words of wisdom you would like to give me?

Who Are You?

I asked this question to my roommates the other day. Each of them gave me a good answer. I expected them to talk about their families, calling in life, passion, walk with God, etc. When they were done I turned them to Isaiah chapter 6. I have been reading Isaiah in my devotions and this thought came to my mind. I have noticed it before, I've heard it preached on before, but on this day it particularly touched me and I'd like to share it with you. I was reading verses one through four of the passage. Wow! What an incredible passage. What a privilege Isaiah had to get to stand in the throneroom of God! The verses explain the majesty of God: God's train filling the temple, the angels having six wings: two to cover their face in respect, two to cover their feet in worship, and two to fly in service, and the many other things that I believe Isaiah saw that he was certainly to overwhelmed to write about. In verse 5 Isaiah then says, "is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." Here is my thought. Isaiah did not see his flaws until he saw God. We cannot see ourselves for who we are until we see God for who he is. You may be reading this right now and saying to yourself, "I'm good! I've got no problems." But maybe you think this because you haven't been near the searching light of the character of God lately. Let's try to keep in mind who we are serving.
Woe
The story is told of two families in the hills of West Virgina. The first family (We will call them the Hattfields for sake of story) were discussing with the second family (the McCoys) how they were making the decision to install electric lights into their house. The McCoys didn't like that idea and decided to be content with the natural light from the sun during the day. The day came and the Hattfields installed their electric lights. They flipped the switch and were amazed by the clear and beautiful light that these bulbs up in the ceiling could give out. When the Oohing and Ahhing was over they began to look around. They realized that their home was a mess! With the new light source in their house they could now see into places that had never been cleaned. The Hattfields went on a cleaning spree to get their house into top shape. Meanwhile the McCoys enjoyed their lives with no electricity. They never worried about a messy house. The McCoys lived forever content with their condition in a filthy house because they never knew how messy it truly was. I hope that we will not be like the McCoys. Turn the lights on! Let God near so that he can expose the dirty grime of sin. Most people don't because they are too scared to see where they are wrong. Are you to scared? I hope not. Who are you today? I bet that your answer would be different if you dwelt on the holiness of God.

Revival in Our Time

Revival has been a buzz word in our circles these days. Everybody talks about how they want revival. My roommates and I were talking last night about revival and wandering why God doesn't pour out His Spirit like he did in the days of Jonathon Edwards, D.L. Moody, and Billy Sunday. We didn't figure out anything incredibly groundbreaking (we are only college students after all), but we were reminded of a simple fact, "If my people, which are called by my name will humble themselves..." In these modern times, we are far too self-reliant. We will pray and ask God for help when someone has cancer or we are going through financial struggles but when was the last time we asked God to provide for our simple needs such as allowing us to live another day or providing us with food. One of my roommates said last night, "I am convinced that we will not see revival until we are willing to humble ourselves enough to believe that we can't get out of bed in the morning without God's help." I do not think this is far from the truth. Again, nothing profound, but something that challenged my heart last night. Let's pray for revival, but let's not rely on our technology, or music, or even fiery preaching, let's pray for the pouring down of God's Spirit on our land.

Giving Glory to God

This is my first semester at West Coast Baptist College as a room leader. Despite the fact that I am anxiously awaiting my wedding in 118 days, I am sincerely excited about leading these guys in the time I have. I gave a devotion this Tuesday with a challenge for the semester from 1st Cor. 10:31, "Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." This is my life verse and it has challenged me in many ways in my life. Me and the guys talked about room cleanliness and how it either glorifies God or disglorifies (unglorifies, whatever the word is, I have no clue) God. The question I am challenging my room and myself to ask is this, "Is what I am doing right now glorifying God?" It doesn't have to be a spiritual thing like reading your Bible or going soulwinning. It can be something as simple as how clean your room is or how well you listen in class or even the way in which we eat and drink. Let me ask you: Are you glorifying God with your actions?
The times of Christians blending in with the world must end. Glorifying God in every aspect of our lives will require us to be a little (more like a whole lot!) different from the world. Let us strive to be Distinct Christians by glorifying our Saviour. Because if we don't decide to be distinct we will soon be extinct.

God bless and help America!

We need to pray for our country. I know that as a 22 year old, I do not have the life experience of many people around me, but I find myself saying more often nowadays that I just want Jesus to come back today. As Christians, let us be reminded to hold the banner high. Let us not wait until things get beyond repair. There are not many people who agree with me on this but I believe that America's best days are not gone. God can still bring revival to our nation. I pray He does, I'm not sure how we can handle things getting much worse. God bless and help America!

30 Day Challenge

Here is a challenge for you to take. For the next 30 days I challenge you to read the crucifixion account. You can read it as an augment to your daily devotions or you can make it your daily devotions. I have been doing this for about a week now and I have made it my daily devotions. While you are doing this I want you to make it a point everyday to tell yourself, "He did that for me." I know this, I have only been doing this for a week and it has changed my behaviors. I started to find that as I would go through my day and I would be tempted to sin that the Holy Spirit would remind me about the cross. It is so humbling to be reminded about the cross whenever I sin! The thought has crossed my mind so many times since I've started this that the one little sin that I commit, whether it be a little white lie or a covetous thought, was all it took to hang Jesus onto that cross. So I challenge you, read the crucifixion account for the next thirty days, but don't just read it, let it bathe you so that as you go about your day it will drip off every word you say, thought you think, and thing you do. And comment to me and tell me how it affects your walk. Christ's death is such a deep story full of love, mercy, and holiness. It should never be forgotten, even by those who claim it belongs to them.

The Shadow of the Cross

Something has been burdening me for a few weeks now and with the Easter season rolling around it is good for us to remember this thing: The Cross. Many times we equate the cross with salvation and we are correct in doing so. If it had not been for what was done on the cross we would have no hope for salvation. But I fear that many of us live our lives as if the cross were merely a means to an end. The cross is not just about our salvation but also about our sanctification. Many of us, I am including myself here, wake up in the morning and go about our day and do our own thing but do not care about what God thinks about our lives. We tell our bad jokes, we think our evil thoughts, we neglect to study God's Word and pray all without realizing that Jesus died for the very sins that we are committing. The cross is not an excuse to sin more since the punishment for sin is taken away, but it is a motivation to sin less. I strongly believe that if we took the time every day to consider the pain and agony that Jesus endured on the cross and that he did it all for your sins and mine we would be a different people. The cross should mean so much to us. The one thought that has been racing through my mind is this: Jesus died for me, the least I could do is live for him. Let's determine today that we will live under the shadow of the cross.