These are some really amazing lyrics.

What Sarah Said

-Death Cab for Cutie

And it came to me then that every breath is a tiny grant of father time

As I stared at my shoes in the ICU that reeked of piss and 409.

And I rationed my breaths as I said to myself,

"Did I already take in too much today?"

As each descending peak on the LCD took you a little farther away from me.

Amongst the vending machines and your old magazines

In a place where we only say goodbye,

It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend

On a faulty camera in our minds.

And I knew that you were a truth I would rather lose

Than to have never lain beside at all.

Then I looked around at all the eyes on the ground

As the TV entertained itself.

Cause there's no comfort in the waiting room.  

Just nervous paces bracing for bad news.

Then the nurse comes round and everyone lifts their heads.

I'm thinking of what Sarah said,

"Love is watching someone die."

So who's gonna watch you die?

Hope

In most of my writing I am persuaded by someone who misses reading it.  They miss it because I'm never consistent.  Someone ask me to write today and my response was, "I'm not sure if anyone wants to hear my thoughts right now."  So I've searched for something that I think might be beneficial to someone...something that might meet someone where they are.  

So in this searching I found hope.  Hope always meets us where we are.  Hope is what smiles for me on bad days; hope is what wakes me up every morning.  

One of my favorite quotes is from Tom Hanks' role in Castaway where he says, "I gotta keep breathing...because tomorrow the sun will rise.  Who knows what the tide could bring."

Thats hope.

There is always tomorrow and God is faithful to make the sun rise.  It happened yesterday and the day before and every day before that.  And if the sun doesn't rise for me tomorrow, then I'll be wrapped up in the arms of grace.  Either way...I win.  Either way...there is something greater coming.  There is always something great on the horizon.  We strain our eyes and see something mounted on the edge of the world but can't quite make out what it is or if it is even coming towards us.  Sometimes there is nothing in sight...but that doesn't mean that there won't be tomorrow.  I hate waiting on things.  Some friends talk about mixed martial arts.  Oh how I would love to be a black belt, but I don't have that kind of patience waiting on something to mature and develop like that.  Thats also why I don't really work out.  I like to see results.  I'd work out everyday if I could see a difference everyday.  

We are all waiting.  We all have a hope for the future.  Thats what keeps us going....thats what keeps us alive even.  

Thats all I got..........

“When will you allow yourself to be set free from the past that you’ve created?”

-Jason Stone

Phil. 3:13-14

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

What in your present is affecting your future?

*Maybe you’re a slave to a past that you had nothing to do with.

*Maybe you’re a slave to a present that you have no control over.

Some of you may be going home to drunk parents...

Some, maybe to parents that don’t tell you how much they love you or how special you are. 

_______________________________________

Are you going to let someone else blaze your trail for you?       I know I’m not.

YOU ARE SPECIAL TO GOD

Deuteronomy 32:10-11 (The Message)

He found him out in the wilderness,
in an empty, windswept wasteland. He threw his arms around him, lavished attention on him, guarding him as the apple of his eye. He was like an eagle hovering over its nest,
overshadowing its young, Then spreading its wings, lifting them into the air, teaching them to fly.

I hope that you can feel God’s love tonight.

He is wanting to father you.

Wanting to teach you how to fly!

He is the Father of fathers...the perfect father.

REGARDLESS OF YOUR PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE, GOD IS CALLING YOU TO FIX YOUR EYES ON ONE GOAL, JESUS CHRIST!

WORSHIP!

What is worship?

“Worship is...our response, both personal and corporate, to God--for who He is!  And what He has done!”  -Louie Giglio

“We don’t initiate worship; God does.”

God works and we respond...

Has God worked in your life?  What has he done in your life?

2 Samuel 6:12-15; 21-22

12 Now King David was told, "The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God." So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13 When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.

21 David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. 

David saw God’s blessing and he responded with complete abandon.

How does God desire us to worship Him?

1)  With your life

Romans 12:1

  1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship.

2)  In Spirit and Truth

John 4:23

23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

God will still be God even if we don’t worship Him.  He doesn’t need us; He wants us.  It’s an invitation.

Luke 19:37-40

37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives— the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." 40 He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."

Even the rocks cry out!

The Wild Dance

The Wild Dance

Wild- stormy; violent. Savage; ferocious. Extravagant; fantastic.

Dance- v. move quiveringly from emotion. n. a party for dancing; ball.

The Christian life is a STORMY, FEROCIOUS, EXTRAVAGANT party filled with EMOTIONAL DANCING!!

It is a wild dance.

There is nothing tame about it.

If your walk with God seems tame, boring or mundane, YOU AREN’T LIVING A LIFE IN LOVE WITH JESUS.

Jesus is romantic.

He is wild, unrelenting, persistent, courageous, bold, valiant.

He is LONGING to engage you in a PASSIONATE dance.

Are you dancing?

“You turned my wailing into DANCING; you removed my sackcloth and CLOTHED ME WITH JOY, that my heart MAY SING TO YOU and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.” (Psalms 30:11-12).

Why are you not dancing?

You fell out of love.

Rev. 2:2-5

Doing the “right” thing is not good enough....

In the midst of you trying to be the BEST CHRISTIAN YOU CAN BE, “You have FORSAKEN your first love.”

You have left Jesus out on the dance floor all alone... 

How do I start dancing again?

“Remember the height from which you have fallen.” (Rev. 2:5)

You were once in love with God.

Jesus is waiting right where you left Him to pick up right where you left off.

There was a time when God was your pursuit and Jesus was your delight.

Jesus is simply saying, “Come back!”

There is no need to be cleansed...He’ll take care of that.

He doesn’t care where you’ve been; He just wants you with Him.

“I want to get lost in the BEAUTY OF JESUS and DANCE through the night around your throne.” –Evan Earwicker

“God is not merely the reason behind existence, nor the curer of ills and confusion. Matter and thought are a canvas on which god paints;  ...a painting of tragedy and delivery, with sin and redemption. Life is a dance toward god. And the dance is not so graceful as we might think. For while we glide and swing our practiced sway, god crowds our feet, bumps our toes, and scuffs our shoes. He lowers his head, whispers soft and confident, 'You will dance to the beat of 'amazing grace' or you will not dance at all.'  So we learn to dance with the one who made us. And it is a taxing dance to learn. But once learned, don't we glide. And don't we sway. And don't we bury our head in his chest. And don't we love to dance." -prayer and the art of volkswagon maintenance (Don Miller)

Hearing God's Voice

Hearing God’s voice is so important!

We are all about talking TO God...but how often do we just pause to LISTEN?

We are so selfish!

I love hearing God’s voice.

It makes me feel important that the creator would direct His words towards me.

1 Kings 19:9-12

How does God not speak?

Boisterous

Boastful

Through Wind, Fire, and Earthquakes

It’s amazing to me that God doesn’t speak that way.

He has all the reason in the word to be a boastful God.

How did God speak to Elijah?

“A low whisper”

We are always looking for some huge display of God.

3 Ways God Speaks To Us:

 Directly

I don’t mean through some audible voice.

God gave you a conscience for a reason and you know right from wrong and you understand what is wise and what is foolish.

Sometimes the decision isn’t between right and wrong...it’s between wise and unwise...good and best.

The problem with this is that Satan is VERY smart.

He is very good at sounding like God

 Through other people

Godly advice from those you trust is very important.

The danger in this is that you may try to find someone who will tell you what you want to hear.

WHAT YOU NEED IS SOMEONE TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH!

 His Word

It’s already been written...it’s already been said.

2 Tim. 3:16 -  ALL SCRIPTURE IS GOD-BREATHED

Why do you have to pray about it?

GOD’S WORD IS THE FINAL AUTHORITY!

The Changes of Seasons

I love the changes of seasons.  I especially love the change from Summer to Fall.  I love the colors, how they change from greens to brown, reds, and yellows, and especially the fresh new cool in the air.  I get excited at first hints of Autumn.  I'll notice a smell in the breeze that signifies fall and it brings nostalgic memories.  I always love the smell of household heaters firing up for the first time in months, the smell of burnt dust.  I've been praying that more than the season will change this year.  I pray that my heart will change.  I don't feel far from God, but I've let my heart be filled with things that aren't close to God.  Being engulfed in an unhappy, sinful lifestyle doesn't happen all at once.  A Godless life is something that creeps in without the person noticing any difference.  I'm not by any means unhappy; there are things happening in my life that I couldn't imagine being any better (good job, nice car, great ministries, great relationships with real friends where real things are talked about).  But having all the things that make you "happy" and not having God, is an unhappy life.  God is definitely present in close to all areas of my life, but is he precedent?  In some, yes.  In others, no.  I want God to lead the pack of all the priorities and people in my life.  This is not a matter of me moving from a Godless life to a Godly life; it's a matter of me moving from a God-present life to a God-consumed life.  My God is a consuming fire.  My God is worthy of my most devout affection.  I'm learning more and more that God is not found in knowledge and all the right words.  God is found in my complete reliance on Him.  I think thats faith, me knowing that I have no idea and relying on God for all the answers.  I long to be dependent on God for all things.  Dependency leads to intimacy, and there's not anything I want more in this life than to know Christ and him crucified.  His blood that makes me pretty in the Father's eyes.  His purity that brings acceptance that, otherwise, I could never deserve.