You are my Hiding Place

You Will Always Be

Highlands Worship Released their second album this week, and I will be sharing some of my favorites here. I'll start with "You Will Always Be". Enjoy!

Your Value

No Wonder We Call You Savior.

        My emotions were wrecked a couple of Sundays ago. To put it nicely, I was a blubbering mess. There, among the crowd of 600 or so who came to Church of the Highlands that day, I was very aware that I had an audience of One.  There was no one there but me and Jesus. At that very moment, I sensed that time stood still.

        His penetrating  presence was not just all around me, but somehow He went through me. As I stood there, soaking in all His Glory, I realized I was residing in the Holy of Holies.

         I was swept into the most inner sanctuary, the sacred place. There at church, pressing in, I poured out of myself, until I was empty. Empty of all the shame, the guilt, the heaviness, the broken heartedness, and filled with light....triumphant light.  I felt as if the veil had been torn, and I was truly experiencing the goodness of the pure presence of God. He washed me in grace, mercy and forgiveness, and my day of atonement had arrived.

         As I was ushered into His presence, the song, No Wonder by River Valley Church (video link) was playing. I want to share the lyrics with you. (I also want to let you know that you can purchase the song on itunes, google play and amazon. I listen to it on spotify as well.)

 I see my Savior
With love in His eyes
His body broken
With no sin to hide
 
 I see my Jesus
Eyes blind with blood
His face is crimson
His cry is love
 
No wonder we call You Savior
No wonder we sing Your praise
Jesus our hope forever
You made a way, You made a way
 
I see redemption
Ravage the grave
The triumph of Heaven
Christ Jesus our King
 
See the light tearing through the darkness
Hear the roar of the rugged cross
Jesus Christ You alone have saved us
We worship You now 

         So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body.

           So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.
Hebrews 10: 19-25    The Message

Oh, Taste and See.

Be Set Apart.

          I want to take a little peek into Jacob’s journey, and see what steps he took to set himself apart. The story of Jacob, starts long before this, so you might want to get a little back ground history of Jacob and his family first. (Genesis 25-28).

         God told Jacob through a dream that he would have many descendants, more than he could count, that He would stay with him and protect him wherever he went, and he would bring him back to this very place. God said He would be with him until He has done everything that He promised. vs14-15, Genesis 28

          If you feel like you are stuck, just spinning your wheels but not getting anywhere, be sure to remind yourself of this verse from Philippians.

—Philippians 1:6   “I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished.”

           Write it on the wall of your heart, because there’s one thing I know for sure, this won’t be the last time that you feel defeated.

        Just like so many of us, at this time in Jacob’s life, he felt very unsure of his future. So, when he felt like all hell was coming against him, he did what he knew to do, he rested. He rested and trusted in God. Sometimes we just need to be still long enough to hear God telling us that He won’t leave us, that He’ll continue to help us grow in grace, and He will complete the vision that He set out before us. I truly believe that Jacob set himself up for victory from the beginning, because he took time before his journey to rest in God’s presence. How can we set ourselves apart once God has given us a vision? Let’s see what Jacob did and follow his example.

1st-   He praised God, right after he woke up. It was the very first thing he did. He did this while he was still unsure of his future. Let’s set apart the first few minutes of our day to simply thank God and praise Him for what all He has done.

2nd-  Jacob made a stone of remembrance - don’t forget where God brought you from, and where He’s leading you. It’s a journey, it is a process that will take time. Take the time to remember all of your past victories and it will build up your faith and confidence to know that God will complete what He started.

3rd-  He poured oil on it. A sacrifice. Oil was one of the three staples of living. Notice, in verse 18, he poured the oil of sacrifice, and in verse 20, he prayed for food and clothes. He trusted God to provide his basic needs. Now in today’s life, I’m not asking you to go and pour out a bottle of oil from your kitchen, I’m asking you to make a sacrifice. It’s different for everyone. It could be your time, it could be money, a service, a talent, you need to sacrifice, you need to give to God something that you trust Him with. Or better yet, give Him something that you have a hard time trusting Him with. Let it go, and trust Him to provide your needs.

4th-  He renamed it. (God’s House)- The way I see it, you now belong to God, you are His property. God wants to give you a new identity. Satan will try to do the same thing, he wants nothing more than to “rename” you and claim you for his own. Don’t accept the labels that Satan has set out for you. Separate yourself from him, and take on your new identity in God. You no longer need to be known for your past, you’re not living there any more.

5th-  Jacob made a covenant, and sealed it with a promise that he would return a tenth to God. So, he no longer made the whole process about him, but others. He wanted to “give back” what God had blessed him with. See the big picture here, the end result is not just to be a glorified version of yourself, but to become a vessel that is used by God. It’s not about us in the long run, it’s about how many others we can bring to God, because we decided to take the journey ourselves.

God Dependent, Not Independent.

          Throughout the course of self discovery, my hope is that you will thoroughly anchor yourself in His Word, trusting that His plan for your ultimate destination, is far better than anywhere you might have imagined for yourself.

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!  Ephesians 3:20

          You need to unashamedly welcome the help of the Holy Spirit and let Him be fully operational in your life, if you are to maximize the purpose for which He was given to you.

          The deep-seated counsel of the Holy Spirit is fully accessible to you the moment you become a believer, and is able to guide you, even (and especially) when you are lost and seem to have found yourself off course. Once you realize this, you will become less dependent on yourself, and with time, wholly dependent on God.

          My whole life, people have said to me, “God won’t give you more than you can handle”, well, as good as their intentions were, I call “poppy-cock”. It’s absurd to think that God would make our life so perfect that we never needed to call on His name. If we are able to take care of all of life’s dilemmas, then why is there a need for a Savior?

          Using wise discernment, follow your inner “God-prompting”, and allow the Holy Spirit to have a voice. Can you trust Him for direction, or do you need to see miraculous wonders and signs? I will unwaveringly put my trust in Him, just as the writer of Hebrews did. He encouraged the Hebrew nation with these words,

“Trust in God. Your faith is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It is the certainty of what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.”Hebrews 11:1

          God set out a straight path before us and we keep running in circles, taking detours, trying to figure out why we’re not making any progress. If you want a different outcome, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done. I challenge you to be confident in your faith and rely on the nudging of His Spirit.

          I have to constantly be aware that I don’t get out of step with God. I’ve had to learn to tune into those God promptings, and overtime, it has taken me on an unexpected direction on my journey of discovering who I am. So I want to leave you with this.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2

The Beginning has Begun.

          Let the journey begin. I’ll go ahead and make you a promise, it’s not an easy one to take, but never the less, it is necessary if we want to live a fulfilled life. A life that is liberating and no longer under tyranny. Through the process, you will gain the benefits of living with hope, knowing that you have a purpose.

          You CAN embrace the freedom that God has given you. Sometimes, it is a daily choice, and other times, it seems, can even be a minute by minute choice. Determine to maximize your potential , and start the process of getting to know your true identity.

          There was once a man who truly loved the Lord, in fact, God himself, said that this particular man was a man that ran after God’s own heart. As much as he had devoted his life to God, he still blew it. Big time, blew it. It was after a huge life altering mistake he made, that he penned these words :

Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
    scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
    set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don’t look too close for blemishes,
    give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
    shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
    or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
    put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
    so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
    and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
    I’ll let loose with your praise.

          Like this man, David, we also need a clean start, a fresh beginning ( a “do-over”!). Let’s begin a life that is tuned into God and His plan and purpose.

          The great news is that you don’t have to do it alone. God has given you a friend to help along the way. Jesus said in the book of John chapter fourteen, that The Friend, the Holy Spirit, that my Father will send you, will make everything plain and clear to you. Isn’t that great!? It’s like having someone to assist you in every aspect of life. He went on to say that He would leave us well and whole, that it was His parting gift to us. Do you know what that means? That we can be made whole. Through this journey, God is going to establish us, restore us, and gloriously complete what He has begun.
          Make the choice today to begin this new life. Today can be the First day of the rest of your life, the Best of your life.

Pursuit of Truth

          In my pursuit of truth, I asked God, "If I find the truth, what am I to do with it?" This same question was asked by a prophet named Habakkuk. God answered him in the same way he answered me. 
          Like me, Habakkuk was on a journey, a quest, for the true nature of the things of God. The concept of Habakkuk's journal of his & God's relationship is trying to grow from a faith of perplexity and doubt to the height of absolute trust in God. The prophet Habakkuk's name comes from the Hebrew word "khavak" meaning "embrace". I believe that his life was meant to embrace God and His Truth. Read on to find out God's answer to Habakkuk's question. 

          "What's God going to say to my questions? I'm braced for the worst. I'll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon. I'll wait to see what God says, how he'll answer my complaint." And then God answered: "Write this, Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision, this message is a witness pointing to what's coming. It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! And it doesn't lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time."   This excerpt is from the Message, Habakkuk Two Verses One through Three.







          God tells the prophet to write, write what you see, what you hear, what you experience with God, to write it in big block letters so that others can see the truth as well. My purpose in writing this is simple: that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. And how bold and free we then become in His presence, freely asking according to His will, sure that He's listening. And if we're confident that He's listening, we know that what we've asked for is as good as ours. 
First John Five Verses Thirteen through Fifteen

Who am I? vs. Who I Am.

          As I was studying The Word, trying to answer the age old question, “Who Am I?”, I decided,  that really wasn’t the right question I should be asking myself after all. The better question, I have come to believe is, “Who Is He?”.

          I had all my papers and Bible scattered around my desk with tons of sticky notes and legal pads with scribbled phrases, but in the midst of looking for who I was, I discovered who He was. I began my quest for finding out who I was and what’s my purpose, but through God’s Word, I really didn’t find myself at all. I found Jesus. I found Him when I wasn’t looking for Him. It was then, that I realized that all this time, if I had just taken my focus off of myself, and put my focus on Him, then maybe I would have known who I was a long time ago.

          After finding such treasures in the scripture, such as, how He knew my inner most being, and how the hairs on my head was numbered, and how my incompleteness was made whole through his extravagant love, I began to see that it wasn’t about me after all. What I was searching for this whole time, was found in knowing Him and who He was.  If I would only emulate His Goodness, His Glory, His Holiness, then and only then, would I even start to see the potential of myself and who I could become.
         
          He told me, what ever I see in Him, is also found inside of me. I only have to tap into it. If I see that He is abundant in love, then I should see love abundantly flowing through myself. Like a mirror image, the more I know Him, the more I should look like Him. So, when I look into a mirror, the reflection I see should be Him, not me. He has put all of those things inside me, yes, me! The more I study His Word, the more I talk to him, the more I know Him, the more I start to look like Him, and reflect His image.

           I don’t want people to see me, I want them to see the Jesus in me. I want them to see His Completeness, His Wholeness, His Forgiveness, His Love. I need to be so aware of Jesus and His Character that I start to take on His characteristics. I want to talk like Jesus, I want to walk like Jesus, I want to Love like Jesus. When I look in the mirror, I no longer want to see myself staring back at me wondering who I am, I want to boldly look into that reflection and see the beauty of my Savior.