Willing to shout it

It was a great evening last night as I had the opportunity to gather with several hundred young people at a Seven Project event. It excites me to see straight forward messages being given to the generation that we will soon hand the baton to. There is a move among them that is not afraid to take a stand for God with their hands held high and their hearts abandoned. Each generation has had those who are willing to shout it from the housetops, but this generation has lugged their PA systems, sub woofers and microphones to the housetop. They have hooked it all up to their laptop computers. They have connected to each other through facebook and myspace and they have become friends of God. With Ipod and Iphone they stay digitally connected.

It all reminds me of a great chorus we sang many years ago:

God’s Got an Army
Marching through this land
Salvation is their song
There’s healing in their hand

Everlasting joy and gladness in their heart
And in this army I’ve got a part.

An evening with the Blu Cru

It was one of those special evenings last night as several of us had the opportunity to be guests of “Blu Cru”, a wonderful chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ, on the campus of Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs. I am always blessed when I see a nucleus of energetic young people in a campus setting, desiring to see God move in their lives and in the lives of their school peers. I saw a hunger for God in their faces. I took a heart snapshot and now have new friends and mental pictures of these ambassadors as I pray for them. The exciting thing about a group like that is the potential and the range. Each of these young people will be launching out soon in the phase of life after college. They will each be making decisions about the calling on their life. They will be deciding how and where they will invest their time, money and energy. Within each of them is seed potential to rock this world for the Kingdom of God. Pray for Blu Cru.

Notes from yesterday's sermon

Psalm 119:103 “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

1 Corinthians 1:9, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

John 1:5, “…if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another…”

Matthew 4:4 , Deuteronomy 8:3 “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

1 Peter 2:2-3, “…like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”

Isaiah 55:10-11. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

Psalm 1:3 “He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does he prospers.”

Keys to the sermon:

A good Question: What new things am I allowing God to do in my life?
Enjoy the main course.
Don’t eat and run. Chew!!!! Crave!!!!
You are what you eat.
Grow by enjoying the main course.

Still growing

I read in my devotional time this morning that the Hubbell telescope has revealed that the universe is still expanding. On the outer edges, stars are still popping into existence. Everything that God created, except for man himself, was created by God simply speaking it into existence. Man was the only exception as God formed man from the dust of the earth. The writer of this devotional proposes that since the universe is still expanding, it must be because in order for it to stop, God would have to command it to stop. The universe has no power in itself to stop the “Let it be” process. There isn’t anything in creation besides man, that argues with God as to whether it should grow or not. Nor about the role they are to play in creation. Only man is given a choice. Romans chapter 1 indicates that it is only man who can be disobedient to his created nature as well as to his creator. I want more of Jesus because I want to follow God’s role for me in creation. I need to be reminded that there are higher levels to be reached today.

An old chorus:

I want more of Jesus
More and more and more
I want more of Jesus
Than I’ve ever had before
I want more of His great love
So rich and full and free
I want more of Jesus so I’ll give Him more of me.

I’m glad God said, “Let it be!”
I don’t see where He said, “Let it stop!”

Hunger to know God

One of the desires I carry with me is that the heart of God would be accurately presented when people look at my heart and passions in life. I want others to get a glimpse of the heart of God through me. I have been a proponent for many years of being a God seeker. The Bible tells us in Matthew that seekers will be finders. The high calling that we all have is to know God intimately. We are warned that we can cast out demons, work miracles and do other wonders in His name, and still not “Know” Him. It is not about what we do for Him, it is the pursuit of Him. Psalm 25:14 says, “Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear Him.”

This morning, I read from the Amplified Bible the following passage from Philippians:

“For my determined purpose is that I may know Him (that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly), and that I may in that same way come to know the power out-flowing from His resurrection ( which it exerts over believers), and that I may so share His suffering as to be continually transformed (in spirit into His likeness even) to His death, (in the hope)…”
I am ready to get more hungry for God today. I have figured out that I need to put more effort into the relationship for the hunger to increase.