Fervent Pursuit

Jesus Died For Me

2011-05-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

     So, last night I led worship for the high school group and after I was finished, Jason(the youth Pastor) gave an awesome message and also lead some worship at the end. In that worship time at the end, I felt like the Lord spoke something very specific to my heart. What I heard was "Christ died for us individually, not collectively". At first glance this probably looks really strange, in fact I'm still thinking and praying through it myself. What I got is this, Christ died for everyone, from history to future in one ultimate sacrifice. Hebrews 10:12-14 says:
"But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified."
     Jesus died for all, and the gift of salvation is available to anyone who will receive Christ and the work of the cross. I guess I realized that I have always acknowledged and worship God as the Savior and Creator of everyone and everything(which He is of course) but I never thought to worship Him for saving me. The fact that Christ died for all doesn't take away from the uniqueness of each individual person's salvation.
     I was thinking about when we receive a gift, maybe from work, or maybe from a family member, wherever it is from, we feel special when we receive it. After we find out that the whole office, or the whole family received the same thing, it might take away from that special feeling a little bit. I don't believe that Jesus bought us in "bulk" so to speak, I believe that if we look at our Salvation as a gift, He would have picked out each one by hand, mindful of each recipiant when purchasing it with His blood.
     When the Lord spoke that into my heart, I immediately entered into a new place in my worshiping. This place was so sweet and intimate, and I knew that it was just between Jesus and me. In that moment there was no room for anything else, and I believe that is where my heart is supposed to be in worship. Every time I open my mouth to sing to the Lord, I want to remember that He saved me from eternal damnation and that now I am able to practice worshiping my Savior forever.

Critical Thinking

2011-02-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

"I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well." -Psalm 139:14

We as the children of God, individually, and collectively are the works of the Almighty God's hand. His Word is full of reassuring statements about His love for us individually. In verses 17-18 the Psalmist writes:

"How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You."

This should be a great reminder to us all of how vast the Love of Christ is. I feel sometimes though like we can take these verses and act like they are meant for us only, like the Lord has some kind of special treatment for us alone. In some sense this is true in that the Lord's thoughts for EACH ONE of US are unique and I believe that no "calling" in life is exactly duplicated. But in the grand scheme of things, just because we are all called to different things in life doesn't mean that God plays favorites. The heart of Jesus leaves no room for partiality, this was perfectly displayed by Christ's response whilst on the cross. "... Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do..." is what Jesus had to say while He carried all of OUR sin and burden. Even when He was being mocked and killed He went out of His way to make a blanket statement to show that the work of the cross is for anyone who will receive it!

God loves us ALL so much and it has been on my heart lately that we are all created equally. That doesn't mean that we can blame our sinful ways or contrary lifestyles on how we were created. That simply means that in the beginning we were created in the likeness of God and we are the ones who continue to "fall far from the tree" so to speak. I can't help but think that the Lord, when He looks at any one of us sees the child that He created to worship Him. Our sin must grieve Him so much because at any time we have the opportunity to leave them at the cross.

I have been think about how much in my own heart and mind I tend to pick people apart sometimes. Unfortunately I am not always the first person to take those thoughts captive when they arise. There is so much negativity when we sit there and criticize how people look or act, and I am certain that some of this comes from insecurity. What if instead of proceeding these critical thoughts with negative actions, we checked our own hearts to see where the root of this superiority complex comes from. If we could tare out the root of our heart's problems it might allow the Lord to truly work in our lives.

Lord, search my heart for inconstancies and remove the root of my wicked ways!

Run!

2011-02-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; 
A good understanding have all those who do His 
commandments. His praise endures forever." 
Psalm 111:10


I am challenging myself today to have that fear of the

Lord at the forefront of my mind. I'd like to encourage

you as well, brothers and sisters in Christ. Remember

that our Father who is in heaven reigning in every

aspect of every dimension of life lives inside your chest,

so long as you are willing. So today be faithful to your

calling, honor, respect, be obedient to, and FEAR the

Lord of hosts. He will bless you, exalting you in this

journey we refer to as life. Run on with relentless

endurance, for the race slows down for nobody.

God's Heart Is A Firefighter.

2010-08-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Recently Laura and I have been reading through the book of James together before bedtime. Last night we studied chapter three which is all about having untamed tongues. In verse five of chapter three James said "So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!". When we read this I was instantly reminded of when people say "Don't burn your bridges", and it got me thinking, how many bridges are burned down in our lives because of our untamed tongue? Whether they are friendships, ministry opportunities, relationships with family members, or even relationships within the work place. The tongue is a direct line to the heart and most of the time we don't think about the repercussions of our actions at the time that we are gossiping, lying, cursing, cheating, or even disobeying by not saying what God wants us to say. In verse nine he said "With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God." I don't know why as human beings we are inclined to esteem ourselves higher than one another but when it comes down to it, we were all created in the likeness of the true and living God. We should be lifting each other up with our words, sticking up for each other when the other one is not around. Imagine the conflict that would be deflated if we just didn't speak badly about one another, imagine the fires that would be put out. After I read this chapter I started praying that God would give me HIS heart for HIS people and that rather than starting fires, I would be on a mission to extinguish the fires that I come across (or have already started). After all, God's heart is the ultimate firefighter.

Life's A Treat

2010-08-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

Every night when Laura and I are ready to go to bed we bring the dog inside and put him in his cage. It is routine that we put the dog in the cage, he sits down, and we give him his treat. The bag of treats comes with about 40 treats per bag so it lasts us a little over a month. Normally we make our trip to Wal-Mart to by the treats when we notice that we are getting low. This month was an exception, due to a temporary lack of funds we actually ran out of treats. The night that we ran out was like every other night as far as Zeke was concerned, he came inside, went straight for his cage, and sat down. He looked at me with such certainty, having full faith that in a couple of seconds he would get his delicious treat. I was sad to let him down so I got on my hands and knees to his level and started hugging him and kissing him. That night really got me thinking, if you think about it, life is like a bag of treats, we have no idea when we are going to run out of time or why. When Zeke had his last treat he ate it with tremendous speed (just like every other night), he had no idea that would be his last one for a while. I drew a parallel to my life and how I take every day for granted. If I knew for certain that this day would be my last, how would I spend it? What really matters in life? We are not guaranteed tomorrow so we must live like today is our last.

Daddy's Little Superhero...

2010-07-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

Having a baby boy has definitely changed things for us. It is a hands-on lesson in selflessness, but I don't even feel right saying that because Laura does 90% of the hard work (at least that's what it seems like to me). People always said "Wait a few years before you have children, enjoy each other.", It's funny though, I love my wife more now than I ever have and my respect for her as a strong individual has grown immensely.

Even though being a parent requires us to die to ourselves, and our own desires various times throughout the day, it's funny how all that you learn to desire is everything that brings joy to your child. Laura displays a great deal of sacrificial love to our baby boy but do you think that she recognizes it? Nope. She doesn't care about herself anymore, she doesn't care that she doesn't get to do things for herself because now her joy comes from seeing our little angel healthy and happy. I am so unbelievably blessed to have Elijah James, he is truly a gift of joy to a family who needs it.

I have often heard people talk about the responsibility that you feel instantly when your child is born. Since Elijah was born, I don't really care about anything other than leading my little family in Christ and providing for them. I used to care about traveling playing music, and other seemingly fun things, not now. All I desire is for my Wife and Son to be taken care of, to not have to worry about a thing. I just love and adore them so much, there is nothing that I wouldn't do for them.

Being a father has given me a new found passion for our Father in heaven, one of my favorite verses now is "Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" -Matthew 7:9-11. I can't even begin to fathom how much God loves His children, I guess that is why ALL of Heaven rejoices over the saving of ONE soul.

I love you Jesus, thank you for my Gorgeous Wife, and thank you for giving me the most amazing son on earth... Use us for Your glory.

BABEL

2010-04-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

We build tall buildings
as an attempt to reach You
We jump through various hoops
Trying to impress You

You, full of grace and mercy have
Gifted us language, a way to communicate
Each language being one of Your countless creations

When we pray, no matter what dialect of human we use
You are there to fully grasp both the verbalized and the unspoken,
You are there

Baptized

2010-03-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

Spirit, You are welcomed in, fill this empty soul
You have cherished the undiscovered places of my heart

Now is the time, use me for Your glory

Gifts are raining down on this burdened heart
Aching for the healing of Your children

Your will be done
Your kingdom come
Your Spirit fall
Your children call out Your name...
Jesus! Direct my ways,
Lord, make straight my path

The Sky

2010-03-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”
Psalm 8:3-4

     Last night I was sitting around a fire pit, enjoying the chill of the air mixed with the heat given from the fire. I was comfortable, content, and then I looked up at the sky. I was in absolute amazement as I looked at this vast spread sky that makes you and me seem ever so irrelevant. I started wondering, what is the purpose of “outer space” as it has come to be known? Then, something so common knowledge, so blatant, and obvious finally clicked. “I am sitting beneath the same stars that inspired David, the same sky that we read about throughout the bible”. I continued to think about the purpose.
     It’s obvious that everything with space works together perfectly, but I was thinking more along the lines of, when God created the heavens and the earth, why not create the earth, sun, and moon? It started to make sense to me as I sat there in that chair. The sky is one of the few things that every human being throughout history has in common. I mean, everything around us if constantly changing, from the polluted air that we breathe, to the dust beneath our feet. Not the sky. We are able to see each other during the day because of the same son that has always been. Most of us around the world fall asleep to the dark, and comforting view of the moon.
     I think that since the beginning of time the sky was set as a reminder of how big of a God we serve. We set idols in our lives, things that we give our feeble minds over to, and every single one of them pale in comparison to the Creator of the heavens and the earth! It’s not only a reminder of how big our God is, but it tells us of His love for us. How could the Creator of all time and space want to have a relationship with little ol’ me? We may not fully grasp all of this until the day that we meet Him face to face. Until then, I will continually be astonished at the thought of our Lord, and how He loves us.

Beautiful Ashes

2010-03-10T01:30:00.000-08:00

How is it that many don't believe?
Physically we leave behind no significant
treasure. You can get the most interesting
and adventurous of lives and at the end of
the day, you're left with a handful of ashes.
The things in which we hold on are the
memories that have gripped us over time.
We are spiritual beings and we were created
to draw near to our creator who longs for
nothing temporary or superficial. We are
capable of perfecting true love because it's
a spiritual act. Any love based off of looks
or anything not of eternal value ends in
dust. For those who believe, death on
earth is the beginning and end of shedding
what flesh is left of true love.

Song

2010-03-03T19:49:00.000-08:00

There is passion contained
Rising up within my being
There is completion to be gained
At the discretion of my mind

An ever flowing river of desire
Streaming from within my chest
Fuel to an undying fire
Planted in the depths of my heart

How to relieve the dam of it's pressure
The flow has been stopped
There is an outlet, an expressed gesture
Paper and a pen to the tune of life

Sing with the voice granted
A gift that was once planted
A song formed over time

The Unnamed Servant

2010-03-02T22:55:00.000-08:00

I set up the chairs in which
You sit on week by week

I brew the coffee that
You rely on

I pick up the trash that
You leave behind

I pray for
You throughout the week

I fold the bulletins that
You throw away

but..
I would not be "I" without
YOU

One Again

2010-02-28T10:35:00.000-08:00

Lover, I’ve seen you grow from the age of twelve
I fell in love with a single pair of eyes

We were one flesh for sixty-six years
I’m not good as a half; we need to celebrate as one again

If one becomes half, how long can he last?
I’m coming my dear, for now it’s sixty-seven.

In Loving Memory of
Sally Ann Enos (03/29/1927-07/30/2009) and
Calvin William Enos (01/31/1925-02/22/2010)

Offer and Listen

2010-02-25T22:18:00.000-08:00

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

-Romans 12:1-2

I've read this portion of scripture I don't know how many times and the other day it finally clicked. In verse one where it talks about presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, it says that it is our "spiritual worship", this goes hand and hand with John 4:23 "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him." I want to be this worshiper! I want to be the kind of worshiper that the Lord seeks. I often wondered prior to this revelation what it takes to worship in spirit and truth like the word says. Here it is, "present your bodies as a living sacrifice", we are called to present ourselves as sacrifices of praise, then and only then will we be able to worship to our fullest extents.

The Word tells us as followers of Christ that we are not to be friends with the world but rather that we are to pursue the narrow road which few will find. In the midst of this stormy life, sometimes stability and answers aren't necessarily easy to find. This is why I love verse two as well, "that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." The reason why I love this is because it gives us hope that if we listen, he will answer. While we're being tested, it's teaching us how to discern the will of God! How awesome is that? When we are hearing too many voices, including those of loved ones, friends, piers, and even our own, we can rest assured that all of the trials will pay off. It seems a lot more basic than we make it out to be, just be still and know that He IS God.

Lord take us as acceptable offerings of worship. Father, speak to us, guide us through Your word, and teach us how to abide with Your perfect will. Amen.

Exodus 33:1-3

2009-03-04T11:02:00.000-08:00

We have wandering hearts, the love of searching for God in all of the seemingly convenient places. If He works within our comfort we are temporarily satisfied. We pour out shallow passions, and they are ignited by our blindness; the lack of desire for the very presence of God. Becoming numb to our desperation we collapse in ignorance.

Lord save us.

Diligence

2008-10-04T21:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been worrying so much lately about everything around me. I've been driving myself crazy trying to make things the way I want them to be. Then it dawned on me, I'm lacking in my prayer life. It's not about making things fit into my plan, it's about surrendering to the perfect will of God. Aside from the fact that I'm being selfish in my prayer life, I'm not praying nearly enough. I really need to learn that God answers when we ask. Recently one of my favorite verses has become James 5:16 "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

The second part of that verse kills me in the face every time! "Fervent prayer", that doesn't mean once a week, or even once in the morning for two minutes. That means a constant mindset of prayer(1 Thes 5:17), and when it comes down to it, it's all about surrendering and being diligent in my asking for the Lord to work.

Revolution: the beginning

2008-08-08T18:55:00.001-07:00

So there is a movement stirring up. This movement involves seeking Jesus with all that we have, absolutely surrendering, calling upon His name, and having faith that His Holy Spirit is going to do amazing things in our presents. This faith is spreading like a wildfire. I've never seen anything like it, when a room full of 300 jr. highers (all of different churches) are laying hands on each-other praying for each-other's needs. Jesus is indescribably extravagant, more than we could ever know.

Thank you Lord for Your willingness, and Your faithfulness to meet everyone right where they are at. Thank you for an incredible summer. You reign on high.

up stream.

2008-07-13T01:17:00.000-07:00

My thoughts, wandering like the blood cells roaming through my veins. Aimlessly thinking, here I am at 1:19am on a sunday morning.

I wish so badly that I could have stronger faith, ah what a beautiful thing it would be to completely surrender to the will of God. Why is this such a task for me? Why does it come so unnaturally to the human nature to let "Jesus take the wheel"? If only I could give all of my cares to the Lord, then I would be sitting pretty. To be in a place where nothing matters because I fully realize that my life is not my own to worry about anyway, that is where I want to be. What a wretched being I am, and yet every time I repent for my sin, God is so gracious that He forgives me every time, not only that, but He forgets it! That is the part that gets me, unlike our human relationships, God won't keep rubbing our faults in our faces even though we deserve it.

It's really comical because in the past 2 weeks things have gone so wrong it's crazy. All within one day of last week things took an unexpected turn. Two thursdays ago my car broke down on the toll lanes on the 91 freeway. I ended up getting towed from the toll lanes to a carrows on green river rd. My insurance only pays for 10 miles of towing, so I got towed from green river road to a pep boys in corona. Then I found out that my Aunt had 100 miles worth of towing so she let me use it to get my car home. So my car is home and my neighbor offers to look at the car, so he does and he figures out that the radiator was the problem, so we got a new one. Everyting was sweet, then Justin(the neighbor) told me that I ought to get the transmission fluid changed. So I did. Backtracking a bit, this past week was "bible blast" at my church, that's like VBS. So I was on my way to Bible blast when my car felt like it was in neutral, so I pulled over and all of the fluid that I had changed was all out of my car and on to the asphalt. It was a crazy time, and it left me wondering... why?

Ezekiel; God strengthens

2008-07-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

People have dogs, this is common knowledge. "Man's best friend" as they have come to be known. My parents had a dog when I was born and he was a rottweiler named "Luke". Luke was a really cool dog but unfortunately he developed cancer of the face and had to be put to sleep when I was four years old. For one reason or another I have not been able to own a dog since then. I have wanted a dog for such a long time, I have always been jealous of the kids that could own a puppy at such a young age.

Anyway, in sometime in February I was standing outside of my house when I saw him. He was the cutest little puppy I had ever seen. So I started asking my neighbor about the dog, and he told me all about the little guy, and he said "we might have to get rid of him". I immediately knew that I had to have the dog. So I had been telling my Fiancee Laura all about this puppy until one day she finally got to see him. We got to babysit the puppy one day and that was enough for us to fall in love with him. He he was almost three months old when my neighbor Justin gave him to Laura and I. We started thinking of names and we decided on Ezekiel just because it suited him well. It wasn't until later on that we looked up the name to see what it meant and we found out that it means "God Strengthens", and that is exactly what was happening in that time.

July 4th, 2008-Ezekiel is now 8 months and 4 days old and he weighs 42 pounds.

Who the heck steals meat??

2008-04-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

Okay so today around 4:30pm I had just finished eating a meal. I was with my dad and we were driving to my mom's work. We get into the stater brothers parking lot when we see a homeless man on a bike being chased by a stater bro's worker. I started wondering what the heck was going on, then I saw it, meat falling out of the homeless man's shirt. Yes, the homeless man had stole meat from stater brothers.