random thought....

Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Therefore, He is still triumphing over the grave and the kingdom of hell.
He is still walking on the waves... He is still inviting us to come with Him.
Do you want to walk on water? I'm not gonna lie: I do.
I think it would be sweet awesome fun.
You don't get to do it by staying in the boat.
So, I'm going after the heart of the Lord.
I don't want to be a lone Peter... who's coming with me?
Let's go. Walking on the waves.

and for the record, i'm not really being metaphorical. We can literally walk on water in the name of Jesus, i repeat, He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Our faith has just shrunk. Who's wants it back?

the Kingdom is at hand...

On Friday a thief
On Sunday a king
Laid down in grief
But awoke with the keys
To hell on that day
Firstborn of the slain
The man Jesus Christ
Laid death in his grave

He has cheated
Hell and seated
Us above the fall
In desperate places
He paid our wages
One time once and for all
-John Mark McMillan

I'm just saying: Christ overcame the world (john 16:33) and when He came back from death on the cross and the battle in hell (where He beat the crap out of satan.. don't miss His awesomeness), the first thing he said was "Peace be with you." If anyone has the power to bestow some peace it's freaking Jesus, and if Jesus proclaimed peace after the cross and the battle, He wasn't kidding!! Peace in Christ is no joke, it's not a teaser, and it's not a promise reserved for heaven. I'm telling you: Christ wouldn't walk around saying "peace be with you" if we couldn't have peace on earth. Hence, since Christ triumphed over death and proclaimed peace into our lives, we can have it and have it right now! Heck to the yeah... if you need some peace, seek the Lord and go after it in prayer, and the Father, our Daddy, who inclines His ear to listen to our cries, will delight to to give you His good gifts of wholeness, peace, and rest. Jesus didn't die on the cross so that we could one day not have to go to hell, he freaking took all of our deep brokenness and pain and carried it on His shoulders to the mount of cruxcifiction so that He could defeat all of it and we would not have to walk in our sorrows and infirmities. Is the world perfect? Look around- We still live in a place feeling the affects of the curse, but heaven rejoices to invade earth and why would we not ask for that more and more? Yeah! Should we not live in an expectation of the Kingdom of God reigning on earth as it does in heaven? Should we not pray for greater glory so that we would walk as Christ did when He was made human and lived among us? Don't miss it! He was human!!! He felt as we felt, breathed as we breathed, was tempted as we are, and felt the weakness of human flesh, but He was transformed by the presence of God because He was united with the Father and therefore He walked around bringing the goodness of heaven to earth. Can we not walk the same way? I claim that Christ said we can do the same things as Him and even greater things. Look it up, it's in the Bible and if you grew up in church and have never heard that verse, it's probably just because its scares the crap out of people, and I don't know why... the promise of the Lord to reveal His power in His servants is a good thing!! Ah!!! I can't get over it. It's so good. Lord, don't let me preach anything other than the glory of your cross.

Oh, this is it....hear what i'm saying: don't seek the Lord for the crazy things that He does.. I'm not talking about walking around searching for signs and wonders. The Bible says a wicked and depraved generation will seek for signs and wonders, and i'm thinking it's probably because signs and wonders and small, simple, lesser things when compared with the incredible glory and intimacy of the Lord's presence. I'm just saying seek the LORD! Ground yourself in His presence and in His word and crazy things will happen! Forget physical healing... i mean it's good and from the Lord and stuff, but i'm saying just go after healing of the soul! New Joy, new peace, That's the desire of the Father. Go after it! Walk it out! I'm just telling you cause I've seen it, i've had it, i've tasted God's healing and it is so good. Mhhhmm! You've got to get this! I don't care who you are, how long you've known the Lord or if you've never known Him at all. You've got to get this! More, more more... We've got to have more. I can't say it enough. God is so good. Wholly good, complete LOVE, perfect compassion, ridiculous glory. And if you don't know that, if that description of the Lord doesn't resound with you, then you need to either meet Him again or for the first time. Let me know if you need some prayer, i want to go after some peace for you. You've got to get this! Ask me what the deal is if you're confused and don't know what i'm talking about, i'll tell you in person. I have to preach of the goodness of my King. I have to see more people know this, just so that more voices can cry out praise. He is so good.

mas que conquistador

I am a junior nursing major at Clemson, and I have 53 people in my class with me (all the other 1st semester junior nurses). The Lord has been continually showing me recently how much He loves my class and how much He is working in their hearts. So I had been praying for all my classmates for awhile, and eventually the Lord really laid it on my heart to speak to my classmates and tell them about His love. Specifically on a Wednesday night (at transition… yeah good stuff) the Lord told me to speak to my class the next morning. So my 8:15am class I went up to the front of the room and asked my professor if I could make an announcement. She said that it was fine with her so I faced my class and waited for them to be quiet. When everyone was facing me and listening I told them all that the Lord had told me to tell them that He loves them all so much, and that He is coming for them; that they are his daughters and his son (I only have one guy in my class) and that He wants to claim their hearts! I told them that they shouldn’t let anything come between them and the Lord; I told them to enjoy His love and be blessed by it. Then I sat down. Multiple conversations have occurred after this. The Lord is continuing to impress Himself upon their souls, and it is super fun to see how much He is chasing them down!

Later that same day, I was leaving FCA and had gotten in my car to drive back to my apt, and as I was driving by downtown, my heart was breaking for all the students crowded into bars just trying to find some satisfaction in life. I was so broken for how much they need the Lord, and I kept thinking about how good it would be if someone would go to them and speak the Gospel. So then the Lord told me to do that…. No lie; I was like, “say what now? Lord, girls like me don’t just walk into bars and start talking about You.” But the Lord just really laid it on my heart that I was a conqueror through Him and that He wanted these people to hear about his love. So after Jesus talked me through this, I ended up parking my car and walking up to the first bar I saw on the corner of downtown (Griffins? I think that’s the name) and there was a guy singing and playing guitar at the front of the bar, so I waited for him to finish his song and then completely by God’s grace, I walked up to him and asked if I could borrow his microphone. He asked me why and I told him that God had told me to make an announcement. He was a Christian and after asking if I would be brief, he just handed me the mike. I faced the bar and told everyone that the Lord told me to come and tell them how much He loves them. I told them that it didn’t matter how they felt about the Lord, even if they hated Him, that He was so in love with them and that He was coming to claim their hearts. Then I gave the mike back to the singer and walked out.

The Lord is good. He is a God of love, and He wants people to know it, so get ready. He’s gonna be using his children to spread the news. New boldness is coming down from heaven, and some "ordinary" Christians are about to get jacked up.

"Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.....
Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of the light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing or drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife or jealously, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts."

Romans 13:8 & 11-14

I've got to have it.

mmhhmmm....
Freaking JESUS

love it.
It's just the craziest best stuff ever.
None so High and Holy. King of Kings One and only.

i literally can't describe the way that i am seeing the Lord move, other than fire. Flames from the Lord consuming all. It's so good.... I don't even know what to say. Fullness of Joy... better than any pleasure on earth. Better.
Don't look for anything else. Don't search, don't test, don't try anything else. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Just taste it. It's that good. No convincing, no debates, no persuasion. Just taste it. It satisfies. Nothing else brings this satisfaction. Oh it's so good.

The harvest has come. Look up! Do you see it? Do you want it? Are you hungry, aching, broken, crying out for the Kingdom to come? Ask for it. Let's be hungry for it. Let's be HUNGRY for it. Ah, we're asking for it. It's coming.

"the cross of Christ is such a burden as wings are to a bird or sails to a ship"

oh the love of Christ... it blows my mind everyday. I don't know what to do with it. But i know that i can't do anything without it, and that is cause for celebration. Oh how good it is to be dependent on God. How good it is to rely on Him for every need, every desire, every breath. There is nothing else like this, nothing so beautiful, nothing so holy.
For some very strange reason, we have been told in the past that dependence is somehow a burden. That it's hard, but we Christians just have to make that sacrifice. How many times have we heard that having a "quiet time" (gosh, i hate even that phrase. What if God wants to be loud? No lie: sometimes Jesus and I scream together.) is just a daily sacrifice that we need to find time for? But that's not the way it has to be, in fact, i am willing to claim that it is not even the way that God intended it. Ha. Boo on that satan, you will not convince me that spending time with the Lord is a chore.
Let's talk about what God intended, the Bible speaks of this wonderfully insane relationship of a bride and a bridegroom. This beautiful metaphor names Christ as a husband and the church as His wife, and just to clarify, by Church He means His body of believers, not a building or a steeple cuz we get that one confused sometimes too. For clarification see Ephesians 6, the book of Hosea, and Ezekiel 16(the latter two are written more specifically about Israel, but the comparison still holds true so don't let that stop you).
So God created and redeemed us in the beautiful image and desire of alluring us intimately. Mmmmhmm. That's good stuff. The Lord of all, dying on a cross, crying out, "I want to be your lover. Your husband. Your beloved." How utterly mind-blowing. The more i see it, the longer i stand around speechless. Oh the call of Christ is wild. Wild, and terrifying, and risky, and beautiful, and bold. And the scariest part is that we have made Him out to be mundane. In this slightly ridiculous power that we have to impact the world for good or for bad, we have spoken into generations of dying people that Christ is commonplace. We have preached that we go to church every week out of duty and that we open our Bibles twenty minutes a day because that's what God wants us to do, or even worst yet, because it makes us better people. Let's no longer live this lie. Forget what anyone has ever told you about what your time with the Lord is supposed to look or feel like. Jesus just wants to be with you. Dance with Him, Lay in His arms, Sing, Cry, Laugh out loud, Go running with Him, throw your arms in the air and scream about His love, paint, write, rap, take pictures of His creation, Go eat with Jesus, Go driving and roll your windows down and know that the Lord is good enough to create simple pleasures like the wind on your face. Let's all give up the idea that we have to sacrifice a certain amount of time everyday for God and that its a burden but He wants us to do it. Freaking no. Humanity is the burden. Christ is the liberation. We should be enjoying the freedom.

"I want to sit at your feet
Drink from the cup in your hands
Lay back against you and breathe
And feel your heartbeat

This love is so deep
It's more than I can stand
I drown in your peace
It's overwhelming."

the stirring....

The irresistible revolution..... it's coming, it's even among us now. Christ is stirring up a new way of living against the backdrop of our own selfishness and consumerism. Oh, let it come. Let it change us all. Let's surrender to a different life, a different way a of thinking, a new way of celebrating, a different way of understanding community, a different way of following Christ. What if Christians walked as Christ walked when He was made love incarnate? What would happen? Who would change? Would we change the world or would we see ourselves changed from looking like it?

I'm so tired of Christians with narrow visions, small dreams, and inclusive communities. Really? Really though? How does that even happen? I'm so tired of seeing Christ's body pulled so far apart that it no longer remembers how to work together. What have we done when the church in the suburbs has all the resources and doesn't see the church twenty minutes downtown that is meeting in a condemned house and has all the needs? Shane Claiborne says that "The greatest tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor, but that rich Christians do not know the poor." I know lots of Christians who know the names of lots of charities that donate money to the poor, but they don't know any of the poor themselves, and I include myself because i willingly admit that I too have wandered far from the path that Christ walked. Christ went to the margins of society. He walked under the bridges, through the tent cities, and in the alleys behind the wealthy office buildings. He knew the dumpsters that people searched through to find food. He went to the red-light district of the city and found the woman selling themselves for a glimpse of "love". Christ dwelled in the places where we not only often refuse to walk, we condemn the people who do. We live as if we have the right to have anything we want and as if we have no responsibility for the state that the world is in. How many people have seen the needs of poor and maybe even done something to "minister" to them, but refuse to change to change their day to day lives in order to help? We claim that "we know that alot of people are in need, but that doesn't mean that we have to feel guilty for being blessed." That's not only a sorry excuse, it's a huge load of crap. Christ's love took Him to the cross but ours won't even take us out of the suburbs? "I'm just not called to inner-city ministry or world missions." I don't claim to know where Christ calls everyone to be specifically, but he calls ALL of us to sacrifice.

"but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has been truly perfected, by this we know that we are in Him; the one who says that he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." 1 John 2:5-6.

I don't claim to be an expert of following Christ(i fall everyday), but I can promise this, if are really going to walk as Christ did, we are going to have to do away with our selfishness, our fear of getting hurt, our small love, and our enjoyment of comfort and normalcy. Christ lived out none of those things, instead we adopted and accepted them from our own humanity.
The time has been long past for surrender. Give in to the stirrings of a new way. They are coming, a long-lost rain after a dry season and a thunderstorm cracking the sky and disturbing the quiet. Breathe deep the beauty of Christ; exhale selfish humanity, and inhale this life-changing grace.Let's go to the world with love on our lips.

love is strong & christ is freedom

...just for the record cause i know we all forget

Christ is our freedom from condemnation, sin, guilt, and shame. Beautiful release from the things that we no longer have to be burdened with, let's claim this peace and walk it in day by day, moment by moment. salvation is joy.

Agape love is strong. It never fails, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. This is love that we will forever need, love freely given from the Lord, and love that we should always pour back out. In a world as broken as this one, you might never know who is aching and in need of rescue. There are many broken hearts and love of Christ has the most remarkable healing powers. So embrace the full strength of Christ's love in your own life and then from that overflowing well let the Holy Spirit through you live out that love to others.

this is good stuff, in fact, its the best.
"To live on Christ's love is a King's life."
-Samuel Rutherford