Have you ever been in one of those moment's when you know that Jesus is really challenging you? He's exposing some sin or calling you to a deeper place or inviting you to step way out of the boat and do something ridiculous. You know that moment is ripe. It's fresh with potential and it's filled with promise and it could actually change your life.

Despite the reality that the moment is ripe, you choose to spoil the moment. Once again, Jesus is speaking.. it's clear... it's bringing you to a point of life-change... it's poignant... it's you.. it's Him... and you say, "Hey Jesus, can you break a $10?" Ever been there? You know, Jesus is saying 'let's go' and all you want to do is break a $10.. take care of your needs... maintain your personal path of happiness... revel in your sin.

Honestly, I have never felt a sense of 'gain' apart from Christ. I've never chosen sin, small goals, a faithless walk, mediocrity... never chosen any of those and felt that I experienced gain. I lose. Everytime that I trade a $10 for the passion of and for Christ, I lose. That seems to be where this bizarre fella was parked in Luke 12.13. In the midst of Jesus' impassioned teaching, he diverts Christ with a personal, self-serving question.

Here's where I am landing. I want Jesus to expose my sin...lay bare my equivocation about the faith. (Lk 12) I want Jesus to demand that my life be a confession of His grace and His love and His mercy and His justification and His righteousness and His rightness. I want to know that He demands that of me and I want to submit to Him. You know why? I have found that my life, submitted to God, is in the midst of 'gain'. I gain life and purpose and passion and focus and impact. I gain Christ! Is there anything else worth gain?

Jesus asked, 'what does it profit a person to gain the world and lose his soul... his core?' Nothing! I want gain.

Be free to comment.

For the Glory,

Mark

Yesterday was good. It was fun. It was charged with the presence of God. The band brought life. Frank and Silas (and Jimmy) are primed and ready to be the back-up for the 'chick band.' Yeah, it was right yesterday. As we closed out the day in the latter part of the last service, I was caught up by the energy in the room. We were singing "I am Free" and I think that we were truly free! There was dancing, shouts, passion, laughter, singing and it was beautiful! Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom and hope.

As we wrapped up true, I honestly landed on one question. My ability to live a life that leaves an incredible God-impression hinges upon my answer to that question. Will I believe Jesus as much as the 11 disciples as they stood in a vineyard, with their dreams 'caving in' on them? I know that this is a leap of faith and a hope beyond hope, but will I believe Jesus that I might do something on this earth that bears so much fruit for His fame? Is it plausible that a few hundred years from now, people will still be talking about a movement out of this little hamlet in Crestview that was authentic, passionate, and truly expanded the name of Christ? I want to believe Christ as much as the 11 disciples that night in the vineyard! I want to trust Him when He says that our Father will bear so much fruit in our lives that we might actually change the course of history. I long to remain in Him and to prepare the way for His life with that hope driving me

!

So, I am going to dig ditches... create channels for the floodwaters of Jesus Christ to flow in and through my life. That is my role. That is your role! We are to irrigate the way (remain/abide), so that our Father, who is the master gardener, will have deep ditches through which to pour His grace. When His presence and power fall, I long for there to be ample room to catch as much of His life and His passion possible.

Then, I will be true... about True... living for True. He is the True! Enjoy Him. Make much room for Him. Grow, together, in Him. Bring your shovel!

Feel free to add a comment. Enjoy today.

For the Glory,
Mark

I am desperate for Christ. I am hopeless apart from Him. I can do nothing of eternal significance without Him. In John 15, Jesus is standing with 11 people who will make such a radical impression of the Kingdom of God on this earth that the nations will be changed... that the course of history will be changed. Jesus tells them that they are 'competent'. They have followed Him and watched Him and learned from Him, but apart from Him they can do nothing. I think that Jesus actually recognizes that our competency is our achilles heel. We actually have the audacity to believe that we can be 'good Christians!' Okay, forget the 'we' in that last sentence. I actually am so prideful that I will become 'good' at this whole Christian deal and I can feasibly go for hours, days, and even months as a competent follower, with little intimacy with Christ at all and little actual impact.

Maybe that is why Jesus said, in a span of less than 2 minutes, remain in me... remain in me... remain in me. He tells these guys that they must remain in Him and He tells them this 10 times! I want to say, as I read John 15.1 - 10, 'enough already... I get your point.' But, I miss His point so completely, so often, and I so futilely attempt things on my own. For those 11 guys and for me as well, Jesus had to say these words ten times in such a short span so that I will ingrain them in my mind and in my heart. I am desperately in need of Him. I need to speak with Him... I need to read His Words..... I need others who are also passionate for Him... I need to enjoy Him.... I need to memorize much of what He says.... I need to ask Him to change my heart and my mind and my life and my passions for Him and for His glory. I think that I am clued into the reality that I need Christ! Not some form of packaged religion, but an intimate, moving, impassioned, ongoing relationship with Him. I need that if I have any shot at glorifying Him with my life.

So, Jesus says that we must abide in Him. It's not a good idea or a thought of the day. He actually says that we are to remain in Him and it is an imperative. Jesus is commanding us to remain in Him so that we can be involved in things that just don't come naturally. He actually believes that His life, lived through us, will move us into the realm of the inexplicable. So, I must abide. I must act.

I was sitting in life group last night and a friend of mine shared some thoughts from C.S. Lewis. Paraphrasing Lewis, he said that he is digging channels in a waterless land, so that when the rain does fall it finds deep ditches through which to flow. Wow!! He nailed it. I can't stop 'seeing' that image. That is my passion and heart cry. I want to dig deep irrigation channels by my intentional intimacy with Christ so that the rain of His spirit and His presence and His life, when it falls, will find deep channels in which to run. I want flood waters of the living God to flow in and through me!

My action...Your action is to irrigate! Prepare the way. Read the Word. Memorize. Pray. Seek. Hunger. Repent. Know. Live with abandon for Him. Do that and expect a flood.

2000 years ago, Jesus stood with 11 followers believing that they could produce enough fruit of His life to change the world. 2000 years later, He still believes that about us. Abide. Remain. Irrigate. 2000 years from now, history will actually speak about our act of remaining.

Enjoy today. Drop a comment by clicking below if you please.

By Grace.. For Glory,

Mark

Narrow... Focused.... Clear... Pruned. It seems that Jesus was saying to a group of His followers, in John 15, that He longs to bring focus, perspective, and clarity to their lives... and to our lives as well! He is challenging us to love Him more... more than our sin... more than our small goals... more than our good... more than our shoddy definitions... more than our capacities...more than our comfort... more than our view of self. More! God, the Father, is a master gardener. He prunes our lives and narrows our lives in order to allow us into His realm of great. God's definition of great and our definition may differ. Yet, He is great! His character is great. For us to live a life of magnitude, then we must allow God to prune our good and our sin and our smallness in order to release His great.
I love a book by Piper entitled 'Don't Waste Your Life'. He writes, of the focus process, that there are critical questions and thoughts that we must ask and answer. He writes that we must live with impassioned focus, because we are in the midst of an epic battle between Christ and satan, truth and falsehood, belief and unbelief... there are endeavors to be funded and lives to be spent for the most consuming glory. I need to hear this message often, because I drift into lack of focus and lack of passion and a lack of reality that I live in the midst of an intensely beautiful spiritual fray. I am wired to love the same toys that those who don't follow Christ love. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call 'earth' home. Luxuries become needs and I totally lose focus.
I don't think about people perishing... about missions.. about the hungry... about the impoverished... and unreached people groups completely drop out of my mind. I stop dreaming about God-sized triumphs of grace. I am so thankful for those around me who keep pushing me back toward Christ and His Kingdom and His passion. I am so thankful for God, my gardener!
Piper writes that those with focus ask questions like: what can I do to advance the cause? What can I do to bring victory? What can I sacrifice? What risk might I take? What will it take for me to release a taste of heaven in this earth? When I am out of focus, I ask questions like: What can I do to be more comfortable? to have more fun? to avoid trouble? to make light of sin?
I want to find Christ to be all-satisfying, all-consuming and to release a taste of His beauty to those around me. I want to have focus! I want to live with passion for His fame!! I want to live, in community, with a group of people who push me back toward Christ and consistently remind me of the gravity of living well and releasing His life in and through me. That's good. That's focus.

For the Glory,
Mark