This morning I concluded my quiet time with Acts 1:1-14.  This passage contains many great things: the disciples would soon receive the Holy Spirit; the Spirit would give them great power; they’d be Jesus’ witnesses throughout the world and so on.  Great things!  But that’s not what directly touched my heart this morning.  It was actually the final verse – 14:

“All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

The phrase “were devoting themselves to prayer” hit me hard.  Prayer has been a very important part of my journey with Christ, but I KNOW I have MUCH MUCH MUCH room for growth.

What would devotion to prayer look like in my personal life?

What would devotion to prayer look like in my family life?

What would devotion to prayer look like in my ministry life and in the church generally?

I’m not sure how this will play out or what goals will be set but I definitely know that I need to continue working this “devotion” thing out in regards to prayer.  What about you?

Tommy

Today I came across an interesting blog post by Perry Noble.  In it he talks about how he doesn’t want a normal life or a normal church.  He wants one where lives are changed and people are drawn towards being a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.  I’m with Perry.  Below are some of his thoughts from his post.

“God chooses what we go through in life…we choose how we go through it.  And so…I’ve decided that for the rest of my life I am going to embrace the day that the Lord has blessed me with…I am going to seize it with an intense focus…and I am going to celebrate each epic moment that Jesus allows me to experience.

And…for the record…EVERY Sunday for the rest of the history of NewSpring Church will be EPIC and worthy of celebration.

• Every Sunday the Bible will be preached…HIS Gospel will be declared…and Scripture promises us that His Word will NEVER return void (Isaiah 55:8-13)…that’s EPIC!
• Every single time ONE PERSON surrenders their lives to Christ I/we will celebrate it like crazy…because that person has crossed over from DEATH to LIFE…that’s supernatural…that’s EPIC!  (AND…in Luke 15 we see the angels throwing a party over ONE!!!)
• Every single Sunday people are convicted of sin and confess and repent…that’s EPIC as they take one more step in their journey with Jesus.
• Every single Sunday children learn about Jesus in an environment that is custom designed for them…that’s EPIC as I believe the next generation will lead the greatest awakening this world has ever seen!
• Every single Sunday here in America we have the freedom to gather together as a body of believers for the purpose of worshipping Jesus…that’s EPIC as many of our brothers and sisters all over the world do not have that same freedom!
• Every single Sunday as the Scripture is taught people are given HOPE…that’s EPIC as we live in a world that tries to rob us of our hope!

I could go on and on…but reality is that if we do not see EVERY SINGLE DAY as EPIC…as a gift from the MOST HIGH GOD and then EMBRACE it with passion and persistance…then…we become normal…and normal really does suck!!!

I don’t want to live a normal life!

I don’t want to have a normal church!”

I felt inspired by these words and I hope you do too!

Tommy

This morning in my quiet time with the Lord I came across an interesting verse in 2 Samuel 5:10:

“And David became more and more powerful, because the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies was with him.”

The first thing that stood out to me was that David became more and more powerful.  God was blessing his life.  Something was going right for him.  Good things were happening for him.

When we see that the Lord is blessing something, the natural response is to ask why.  So why was the Lord blessing David?  Well it’s pretty simple – “because the Lord God…was with him.”  What a simple and yet profound statement.  The Lord was with him.  Yes the Lord is with all who have a relationship with him and have received forgiveness of their sins, but I believe that there’s something deeper here.  The Lord was WITH him.  I believe this idea of “with” implies the closeness of their relationship.  I believe David realized how much he needed God.  In a way I believe he understood in a profound way what Jesus said many years later in Matthew 5:3 – God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him.  David knew he needed God.  He wasn’t trying to go about his life on his own power and strength.  He was WITH God and God blessed him (became more and more powerful).

This makes me think of what David wrote in Psalm 23.  Look at how often David alluded to being WITH God… (more…)

This morning as I spent some time reading I came across a great verse…

Proverbs 14:15 (NLT)- Only simpletons believe everything they’re told!  The prudent carefully consider their steps.

Over the last several years I have tried very hard to take this verse to heart.  You really can’t believe everything you hear.  When I first started out in ministry I can remember hearing students complain about their parents and thinking, “Wow!  What’s up with their parents?”  Later on after hearing the parents side of the story I came to believe that there are always two sides to every story and we have to be very careful to take someone’s account of a situation at face value.  I think it’s a natural human tendency to always spin things in your own favor.  You may not always do this intentionally, but it happens all the time.  Even if you share some of your faults in a specific situation, most people naturally don’t share all of them because they want you to be on their side.

So don’t be a simpleton!  Be careful.  Don’t believe everything you hear.  You may not be getting the whole story.

T.

Why?  When was the last time you thought about that question?  How would you answer it?  Is it because of the great things he has done in your life?  Is it out of habit?  Is it because of your relationship with him?  Other?

As I was reading this morning I came across a couple interesting verses:

John 6:2 – “And a large crowd was following (Jesus), because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.”

John 12:37 – “Though (Jesus) had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.”

So why do you follow Jesus?  Or maybe another question needs to be asked, what is keeping you from following Jesus?

Tommy

*By the way, the graphic to the left is from my churches’ current Sunday morning series called “Authentic Christianity.”  Feel free to check it out.  It’s good stuff!!!

This afternoon I spent a few minutes reading Mark 4:26-29.  After reading I immediately left thinking “what?”  So I read it again slowly.  Then I took a few minutes reading through a commentary I have and then read it again.  Here are a few thoughts that stood out to me from the commentary:

“This story teaches us that spiritual growth cannot be measured by a stopwatch.”

“Spiritual growth is a continual, gradual process…”

“We can begin to understand the process of spiritual growth by comparing it to the slow but certain growth of a plant.”

There are times in my life where I wish spiritual growth would happen overnight.  But that doesn’t happen.

There are times in my life where I wish I could miraculously help a students grow in their faith overnight, or even make them care about it.  But it doesn’t happen that way.  I can’t make someone care about their faith.

When I turn the focus onto myself I’m reminded that ever day matters.  The choices I make today will either help me grow more into the image of Jesus or further away.  Every day matters.

As I was thinking about this post I was reminded of a few things I wrote in a paper.  I hope you enjoy it. (more…)

John 3:30 – “He (Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease.” – John the Baptist

John knew his role well, which was to “make straight the way of the Lord” (Isaiah40:3; John 1:23).  It wasn’t about him and he knew it.  John’s disciples didn’t really understand this…

“And they (John’s disciples) cam to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, he (Jesus) who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him’” (John 3:26).

Essentially they were worried about John because his ministry was getting smaller, but not John!  He realized something that many of us fail to understand.  Life isn’t about us.  It isn’t about huge crowds following us.  It isn’t about getting what we want.  It isn’t about making tons of money or even having a huge 1080p HDTV.  It’s about being faithful to the call Jesus has placed on our lives.  It’s really all about God!

John knew his role well – “He (Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease.”

God, help us realize what John knew well.  It’s all about you and being faithful to the call you have placed on our lives.

T

Check out these words from 1 Samuel 12:20-22:

“You have certainly done wrong, but make sure now that you worship the Lord with all your heart, and don’t turn your back on him. ²¹ Don’t go back to worshiping worthless idols that cannot help or rescue you—they are totally useless! ²² The Lord will not abandon his people, because that would dishonor his great name. For it has pleased the Lord to make you his very own people.”

The part that stood out to me about the verses above is that the people had sinned against the Lord.  There was no denying it and they couldn’t take it back.  But they also had a choice of today.

After you make a mistake you have two options.  You can continue down the spiraling path of sin or choose TODAY to worship the Lord and turn to Him.  No matter how far you have fallen, I want you to know that the Lord doesn’t abandon His people and He won’t abandon you.

In case you’re wondering if God would really listen to your prayer, check out Psalm 66:16-20:

¹⁶ Come and listen, all you who fear God,
and I will tell you what he did for me.
¹⁷ For I cried out to him for help,
praising him as I spoke.
¹⁸ If I had not confessed the sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
¹⁹ But God did listen!
He paid attention to my prayer.
²⁰ Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer
or withdraw his unfailing love from me.

I hope and pray that you will choose God with me!