WWOOOOWWWW!!!

Ok....from the title I bet you can assume how amazing it is going. I haven't been able to land an internet connection for several days now, and I've been wanting to send daily updates...oh well. This trip has been in one word...transformational! Soooo much information has been downloaded into my brain that it is going to take a while to process and move forward. I just want to say that Tim Hughes is probably one of the coolest, most humble guys I have ever met! He has been cracking me up the entire time...and I do know what he eats on basically every kind of food though. That in and of itself was the object of some comments in jest for the first couple days. Brad, I have a lot to bring to the team! I have learned some incredible truths and practical worship ideas that I know will take the worship at Riverstone into deeper waters. I have been asked several times by people here what is one thing I have learned that I will take back to the U.S.? Well, there's not really one thing, but many things. This has been definitely a confirmation on my calling in worship! My heart is enthralled and my chest tingles when all 20 or so of us gather together and learn with each other and worship together. It is very encouraging to meet people from all over the world (most are from the London area, but there are some others from Singapore, Scotland, Wales and 3 others from the U.S.) that have the same struggles, the same questions and the same desires. We have had some of the most intense times of worship where we go into a room and leave it up to the Holy Spirit to lead the worship. I have a stronger passion for the prophetic aspect of worship, which we so desperately need at Riverstone! I can't wait to share more, but that's it for now. I plan on typing out all of my notes and making them available either by email or posting some lessons on this blog thing. I'm off to Ireland this weekend and then back to Tim's church in London. So until next time...

Grace and peace.

On my way...

So, here I am, sitting at the E32 Gate at the Atlanta airport. What am I feeling? Extreme excitement and awe at the greatness of my God. He has such good plans for me...for you...for all of us who call Him Abba. Words cannot even describe what is going through my heart and mind right now. One is that this is where I'm supposed to be. No, not the airport! But on my way to be encouraged and skilled in the calling God has for me. I'm about to embark on the journey that God had planned for me since the beginning. He has had this day in mind while I was in my mother's womb. I can imagine that he has had this gitty, "boy do I have a surprise for you" look on His face up until this day because He has been waiting for this day, for this journey, for this life-changing event for 28 years! So, I'm ready. I'm ready for the knowledge and wisdom that will be poured into me. I'm ready for the new friends I will make...including Tim Hughes!! How freagin crazy is that?! I'm ready to come back to the states (we'll see about that I guess...) and take what I learned and be faithful with the talents the Lord has given me. Well, we are about to board. Please stay tuned for more. I would love for all my friends and family to be sharing...at least in the blog world...in this momentous time in my life.

Grace and peace.

So timely!!

I must say that God is a timely God. If you have been keeping up with me via this blog thing, you have read about some struggles of mine. One, being rejected for the 3rd year in a row for a neurology residency and then the last blog about my struggles with getting alone with God. Then on Friday the Lord encouraged me in such a way that I was immensely overwhelmed. This past February I applied for a worship leading seminar in London with Tim Hughes. There were only 20 spots available to the entire world! Yes, the entire world!! Well...I am one of those 20!!! Encouragement, confirmation, affirmation and spirit/soul uplifter all in one. More and more God is opening doors for me when it comes to leading worship. I'm getting all shaky even typing this blog. Being specialized in veterinary neurology would have been good, but God had/has something so much bigger and better in store for me. The seminar is the last week in May and it will consist of Biblical training, practical worship training, learning about the roles of each worship band member, and there will be song-writing sessions. Plus, I get to spend a week with Tim Hughes! After this week, I will be able to say that Tim Hughes and I are friends...maybe I'll call him Timmy (probably not but you never know?). I can't wait. I want to leave tomorrow. It's amazing to see prophetic words (some that were spoken over 8 years ago), dreams, etc starting to come to fruition. God is so good and faithful! He has BIG plans for me. I'm not being prideful at all, but I'm believing God for an international worship ministry. I believe I am going to be partnered with such people as David Crowder, Tim Hughes and Chris Tomlin, leading others in unity in praise and adoration of our Creator and King! My spirit is welling up inside me just by me typing this truth. I am so thankful for the many of you who have given me encouraging words about this gift and calling of mine to lead worship. By doing so, you spoke this opportunity into being. Thank you for your hearts and your friendship. Not to us God, not to us, but it is Your Name that deserves all of the glory!! Hallelujah...

Welp, gotta book a flight.

Grace and peace.

Zeal where are you?

I am in a dry land right now... a desert if you will. Today it hit me, I haven't spent quality time with the Lord in...man, about a month! What I mean by quality time is actually sitting down in my secret place, worshipping, reading and digesting His Word, and listening. To be real and transparent with you guys, I haven't had the desire to do it. I can try to pin it on me being busy this month, working overnight shifts, etc. But it just stems from a lack of zeal right now. It's been over a month since I studied the book of Colossians, which if you don't know, God placed it on my heart to in-depthly study this book after the Passion 07 Conference. Is this an attack from the enemy? Maybe. Is it just a period I'm going through? Maybe. Whatever the cause, the result is the same...run to Him. Lately I've settled and become content on the emptiness and blah-ness. I've become comfortable going through the motions. I lack good Christian guy fellowship. I need encouragement and accountability.

BUT, our God is faithful. His heart is moved at the site of one of His children pressing in during times of drought to seek Him and worship Him. He rejoices over our responding to the "yes" inside of us. I need a fresh wind to blow in and through me. I need a fresh water to refresh my soul. I need the breath of God to blow on my coals. I want to feel His gaze, and feel the warmth and strength of His embrace. He is beckoning me to come to His table. So that's where I'll go. I'm reminded of the amazing song by Leeland called Carried to the Table. Here are the lyrics:

Wounded and forsaken

I was shattered by the fall

Broken and forgotten

Feeling lost and all alone

Summoned by the King

Into the Master’s courts

Lifted by the Savior

And cradled in His arms

I was carried to the table

Seated where I don’t belong

Carried to the table

Swept away by His love

And I don’t see my brokenness anymore

When I’m seated at the table of the Lord

I’m carried to the table

The table of the Lord

Fighting thoughts of fear
And wondering why He called my name
Am I good enough to share this cup
This world has left me lame
Even in my weakness
The Savior called my name
In His Holy presence
I’m healed and unashamed

You carried me, my God You
carried me

Deuteronomy 33:12

Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him,

for He shields him all day long,

and the one the Lord loves rests between His
shoulders.

Can you visualize that last line? Here is what I see after I read that verse: I see God sitting down on the floor leaning against the wall or sofa with his legs straight out. Then I see me sitting between his legs with my back to His chest. His arms then wrap around me...I'm resting between His shoulders. There's no where else I'd rather be.

He is summoning me to His table and He is waiting to be able to cradle me in His arms. Oh sweet love. The cry in my heart is to be swept away by His love. At His table we don't see our brokenness anymore, we don't see our fears anymore, we don't see our insecurities anymore, or our weaknesses anymore. Here at His table, our healing and wholeness are found. Here the Lord places a banner of love over us.

Grace and peace.

El Doctor

I don't really know why I'm blogging right now. I guess because it's 2:15am and I'm at work! Yes, yes, I know I promised all of you that the next blog would be about the Fourth Man playing up at Camp Glisson, which I know you have been waiting on pins and needles for! But instead, you are left with this random blog about some of the patients that are under my care right now. Let's see, I have a 7 month old Lab mix with a fractured right femur. It's kind of sad because it appears to be involving his growth plate, which may mean his right rear leg will be shorter than his left. There's a young Bichon that got hit by a car today that has pulmonary contusions (bruises in her lungs) and possibly has a broken jaw. She's resting a little more comfortably in one of our oxygen cages. Godfrey (which I think is an awesome name for a dog), is a 1.5 year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel with fungal pneumonia...not good. Oh and there is this 215 pound Mastiff, named Oki, with septic arthritis (infection in his knee joint). Yes, I said 215 pounds! It takes the whole staff to get him up and outside to use the bathroom...pretty funny site to see. These are just a few of the patients I have the priviledge of monitoring tonight. Some critical, some not so critical. But being here and trying my best to help these little creatures (or big creatures...Oki is freagin big! I could probably ride him. But I'm not gonna because his knee hurts) makes me happy that I do what I do. There's nothing like taking in a critically ill animal or one that had a serious traumatic episode, and seeing them get better day by day, by day, by day... . Yes, there is the other side of the story where animals come in and they are bad off, and their condition worsens to the point where they die on their own, or we help them out. But you know, we tried our best, and most of the time, euthanasia is for the better...I find peace in that (see previous blog "Good-bye").

Well, I guess I should get back to my doctor-ly duties. Oki says hi!

Grace and peace.

Un-Match Day

Is that even a word?! Well, for those of you who read this (again I'm sticking by 1-2 people) and are wondering what the "h" the title means, today was the day where those who applied for a residency position to become specialized in a particular genre of veterinary medicine found out if they matched or not. And I'm sure y'all are smart enough to pull from the title that I did not match...for the 3rd year in a row. I'll admit I wasn't too hopeful this year, but it's still disappointing to get rejected. I don't do well with rejection...I'm sure you can ask those who used to be close to me and they'll agree (key word being "used" - that's where the word rejection fits in). Even though I wasn't hopeful that this hail-marry residency pass would be completed, I had a feeling that this might be my year. I only applied to 3 places (out of 7 in the country) - UGA, Univ of Florida and NC State. I thought I had a good chance at UGA since I went there...wrong. My mentor at Georgia Veterinary Specialists where I did my internship went to Florida for his residency, so I thought I had an "in" there...wrong again. NC State was kind of a long shot, but I had a fairly good interview with them 2 years ago...and so there was "no" number 3. So I'm done. No more emotional roller-coasters for me. It'll take me a few days to get over this rejection, but then I'll start to look at the brighter side of it. Being rejected for 3 years in a row simply means that God has something better in-store for me. It probably has to do with worship...not probably, it does. I will say that if I had gotten a position somewhere, then I would have had to drop out of the mission trip to Scotland (even though I'm not too keen on going right now anyway - hey I'm just being honest; I don't want to be fake blogger...or a flogger. God just needs to add a few more guys to the trip, that's all). Also, the skies the limit for The Fourth Man, and I would have little to no extra free time to play music or lead worship if I was a resident. And by the way, my next blog will have some new pictures from our latest "gig" up at Camp Glisson.

"All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (Proverbs). So His purpose is prevailing in my life. Everything I try to do for the most part fails. The plans He has for me are such deep waters and are so good. What's that phrase? I can't see the forest from the trees? Is that right? Well that's how I feel. Sometimes I lose sight of the greater because of the lesser that is being burned away or pruned away in my life. The "lesser" is what I thought was good in my life. He promises to shake everything that can be shaken. God is so grand and big and majestic! Stars come out of his mouth and He knows them by name, each and every one of them. In the beginning light came out of His mouth! Ponder those 2 sentences a minute and try to wrap your mind around how BIG God is! The billions and billions of stars that are in the universe; stars that are 100-1000x the size of our little planet earth, came out of His mouth! I mean, come on, we serve a BIG God! Yet, He's a God that wants to be intimate. He's infinite and intimate. He cares for me, He cares for you, He cares for us! He gathers His sheep and pulls them close to His heart...how beautiful is this picture?! So whom am I to question? Whom am I to say, "are you sure God?" I just need to trust Him, which I do, wholeheartedly. I've heard it said, "Wherever you are, be all there!" So that's what I'm going to do. For now (and I do stress for now), where I'm at is Marietta, GA. I honestly don't see myself living here for too much longer. When I say that, I mean in the 1-2 year time frame. Until I get called elsewhere, I pledge to be all here! My God is faithful and sovereign. People will let you down...I know this full well, but God will never leave or forsake you. People will change right in front of your eyes...but God never changes; He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Plans will fail and what you thought was going to be, won't be. I just need to set my heart and eyes on the eternal, on things heavenly (because everything else is temporary and will be shaken). I need a little more of the intimate God right now. I need to be led by the still waters so He can restore my soul. I am moved and quieted by this, "I am my Beloved's and His desire is for me."

Hey trees, get out of my way!

Grace and peace.

Thomasville Disciple Now

This past weekend I had the priviledge to help lead worship at Thomasville, Ga's Disciple Now. Our 5-person band consisted of Elliott DeJarnett leading, his college roommate Bryan Fox playing lead guitar, Anthony McPhail on the base guitar and Caroline Darnell singing with Elliott. I can speak for all of us when I say we had an incredible weekend. D-Now was put on by 2 local youth pastors, Bobby and Floyd - sorry don't think I ever got their last names. Floyd is Cory Hallett's brother-in-law by marriage (Anne Marie's sister married Floyd). Do you even call him a brother-in-law? I don't know. I've never understood the nomenclature of family bonds by marriage. Maybe somebody can help me out? Anyway, we led worship for a group of students from all over the Thomasville area. About 7-8 different youth groups were represented, from all kinds of different denominations. I think in years' past only the Baptist churches were involved with the D-Nows. It was amazing to witness the unity that's present amongst all the different churches down there...which is something we are praying for here in Marietta.

We arrived in Thomasville about 4:30p Friday afternoon and began setting up at Thomasville First Baptist Church. The production came close to what we typically use at our summer camps; full of lights, smoke machines and a kick-butt sound system. That night we led worship for around 400 or so students and about 100-150 adult volunteers. I'm not going to brag...wait, yeah I am...the worship was pretty dang good. I could tell that they weren't quite used to the intensity of worship God brought through us. Don't get me wrong, there were more than a few people that had their hands raised, but a majority stood and just sang the songs. I will say that I couldn't see everybody from all the smoke that was around me! : ) After worship, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Barberitos (so good) and headed to our hotel. Elliott and I shared a room, as did Anthony and Bryan. Poor Caroline had a room to herself. Saturday we woke up and went and ate lunch at the First United Methodist Church with their youth. Floyd is the youth pastor at this church. He kind of reminds me of Cory, except he's funnier...sorry Cory! After lunch we all (we being the band) took a leisurely stroll down Broad St in downtown Thomasville. We stopped in a few shops, including the very sketchy Wig and Accessory store. There is a music store in downtown Thomasville that is the oldest music store in America. It's been open since 1904! (You could tell by the limited amount of inventory they had...). Also, if you've ever been to Athens you have noticed the different styles of Bulldogs (excuse me...Bulldawgs) that decorate many of the street corners. Well, here in Thomasville they have random small animal statues, including dogs and beavers...yes, beavers! Elliott thought it would be funny if I took a picture with all of the dog statues (see below).

Doing an examination... Playing peek-a-boo w/ this one

Such a good dog... I see what your pointin at there fella...

After goofing off downtown, we went back to the hotel for a little nap time. We headed back to the church that evening to get ready for the night's service. Saturday night was such a good time of worship. There were about 800 or so people there that night! We led worship for about 45 minutes. The students (and adults) were much more engaged than the night before. There was a dramatic difference in the response of the body. The students were right on top of the stage. They had never heard of Marvelous Light before and it became one of their favorites! The Lord definitely reigned on the praises of His people that night! The intensity of worship reminded me a lot of the worship that goes on at summer camp. I do have a random, but stinkin' funny story that happened while we were practicing for the Saturday night service. We were running through Jesus Paid it All and you know the part where it says, "Sin had left a crimson stain..."? Well, Elliott thought the song would sound better if it went, "Jen had left a clemson stain...!" We all stopped playing and were like, "did you just say, 'Jen had left a clemson stain?'" We were laughing... (sorry, Anchorman quote there). You may not think it is that funny, so I guess the right thing to say now would be, "I guess you had to be there." Anyway, the speaker was a college pastor from Prince Avenue Baptist Church in Athens, GA. He spoke from the passage in Matthew 16 (vs 24-26) where Jesus talks about what it means to be a disciple and truly follow Him. I was definitely challenged when it comes to the things I have in my life as a priority over God. Can I truly say that I am able to deny myself of everything in this world for His sake? It's tough...

That night after worship we went to the fabulous Waffle House then went back to the hotel for bed. The next morning we were to lead worship at the morning services of 2 different churches (8:45am service at First United Methodist and the 11am service at Dawson St - not to be confused with Dawson Creek - Baptist Church). At the first service we played with the whole band and at the second service we did a little acoustic set with a djembe. This second service was rough. The students stood and the adults (where the average age was about 60 years young) stayed seated, blank stares and all. We plowed through that service and then headed back to our respective destinations (Marietta via Macon, and Athens).

All-in-all, the weekend was great. We got to meet a lot of great youth, youth pastors, pastors and adult volunteers. God showed up in worship, as He always does, and lives were changed. What more could you ask for?

I've included some more photos from the two nights of worship. Feel free to take a gander...

Grace and peace.

Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord All the Earth

How gorgeous was today?! It was like a spring day and oh how I love spring days. My birthday is in the spring, I can hear the tinging of baseball bats as the baseball season starts up, March madness, fly-fishing is starting to peak, it's great weather for hiking and/or camping. Those are just some of the few reasons why I love the spring. But as I went through my day today (which consisted of planning for this Monday's Inside Out, going by the Daily Grind to scope out the corner where we will have live music on Monday, talking Ghana with a new friend - Ryan, and packing for my trip to Thomasville this weekend), I was challenged. I listened as the trees whistled as the wind blew, I listened to the birds chirping and singing in my backyard and the dogs barking throughout my neighborhood. The thing that came to mind was, everything is praising God; creation is praising its Creator. Scripture is riddled with examples of creation worshipping God for who He is (Psalm 104, Isaiah 55, Romans 1:20). God made everything to worship Him - the trees, animals, even the rocks! Yes the rocks sing out in praise (Luke 19:40)! Can you imagine that?! I can't...I don’t think rocks would ever sing for me or you, for that matter. But they’ll sing for God, cause He made them. I found something written by Matt Maher, a Catholic worship leader who wrote Your Grace is Enough, that says it better than I could:

So I'm sitting at the piano one February morning, staring out the window, and I notice the trees. Bare and naked before God. The leaves have fallen. It’s just these empty branches, aimed at the ground. It resonates within me a desire to do the same before God. To be bare and stripped of all I am before Him...And I look at this tree, and I think of the tree of life. The cross. Back to the tree outside my window. I’m looking at this tree, and seeing the golden leaves on the ground. An offering of gold. It’s their tithe. It’s all it has to offer, so it does. Now I live in Arizona, and we generally don’t have winter. But we have a brief Autumn. Now in my head I’m imagining the autumn I grew up in (I grew up in Canada with 4 seasons). It’s getting colder. The sun is setting and the sky is on fire. Then I imagine winter, in its stillness and bleakness. The days are shorter. It gets really cold and gray. The cold dark places within the human heart. My moments of personal despair. My dark night. My moment of needing rescue; I look back on those moments and see God’s hand there, in the midst of it. Pulling me out of it.

Pulling me to Him. And the snow melts, and the flowers are stretching to heaven; their whole bodies trying to get in on the party that’s happening in heaven; and the birds are singing for no apparent reason, other than that’s what they do. Somewhere in space, there’s a star exploding to the glory of God. Everything is coming back to life, and I am seeing that everything must die to rise again. That God ordained it that way from before time. God the Father willed that everything would point to His Son’s passion, death and resurrection. And on that third day, we are glorified in Christ Jesus. (2 Cor 5:17), and united as one body. His bride and church, made Holy by Him.

So I was challenged. Back to the passage in Luke 19 about the rocks crying out. As Jesus was walking down the road, the crowd of His disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices and the Pharisees asked Jesus to rebuke His disciples. Jesus' response was, "I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." If we don't praise God, the rocks will pick up our slack. Oh how I wish my life would be so full of praise for my Creator and King that when I was around, the rocks were silent! His praise should always be on our lips!! In our own personal springs, and even more so in our own personal winters, we need to praise God...loudly! I love the heart attitude of the prophet Habakkuk, who decided he would choose to respond to God’s worth, no matter how bleak a season he found himself in: Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior (Habakkuk 3:17,18).

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas also resolve to overcome less than favorable conditions and worship God. Sitting in their jail cell, they could be forgiven for not being in the mood for singing. They had been unjustly arrested, beaten, severely flogged and thrown into the deepest part of the prison, with their feet in stocks. Yet, somehow, Paul and Silas found it in themselves to sing out praise to God. Refusing to let their souls be dampened, they worshipped with everything they had left. Most of us don’t own fig trees and haven’t been imprisoned for being Christians, but the principle is the same for us as it was for Habakkuk, Paul and Silas: We can always find a reason to praise. Situations change for better and for worse, but God’s worth never changes. We may be hard-pressed on every side, weary and not able to sense God. But then a choice faces us—to fix our eyes on the circumstances or to cling to God and choose to worship Him, even when it hurts. The heart of God loves the offerings of a persevering worshipper. Though overwhelmed by many troubles, they are even more overwhelmed by the beauty of God.

So my brothers and sisters, don't let the rocks out-sing you!!

Grace and peace.

Deep waters

I realized after a day of reading and re-reading my last blog (cause that's what I do) that I left off another point about wisdom, revelation and knowing God. If you want, you can read back over the Colossians 1:9, Wisdom and Colossians 1:10 blogs. But a brief recap is that we need to consistently pray to have wisdom and understanding. Paul thought it was important enough to include it in most if not all of his epistles. And from what I learned a month or so ago, Wisdom = Jesus, and the Wisdom we seek and ask for was present before the creation of the world (a mystery I'm still baffled by). Eternal life is knowing God/Jesus. He commands us to continue to grow in the knowledge of God because that is what pleases Him. If you look at Isaiah 11:2, it says, "The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him (Jesus)--the Spirit of wisdom and understanding...". I have to believe Paul had this passage in mind when he wrote to the churches in Colosse, Ephesus and Philippi. He continually prayed that we would be filled with wisdom and understanding because he knew that by doing so, we would be filled with Jesus. I hope this all makes sense and I'm not losing any of you who are reading this.

Paul also prayed for wisdom and understanding when it came to knowing God's will for your life. Everybody knows Jeremiah 29:11, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'" But, how many of you actually read the next verse? It's just as important! It says, "'Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.'" So if you think about this a minute, then you can deduct that once we realize that God has great plans for us, we need to go to Him. We need to call upon Him for Him to disclose what these plans are. Now read Proverbs 20:5, "The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out." God's plans and purposes for our lives are so good and deep. But we have a requirement that we need to fulfill as well. We have to go to Him to draw them out. If you don't know what your kingdom purpose or what kingdom passions you have, I want to encourage you to seek God, call out to Him, draw them out! He will listen to you! That's a promise!

Grace and peace.

Colossians 1:10

And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.

Man, this verse is LOADED! I mean, c'mon...how smart and good and challenging is Paul?! My mind is baffled at the Lord's revelation to Paul and my spirit groans, both in an ambitious "Yes, Lord! That's my heart; help me!" kind of way, but also in an "I'm so not there" way as well. First of all, Paul challenges us by telling us (imperatively), "live a life worthy of the Lord." I can go on for hours on how I'm not doing this, but the desire is there in my heart...that's ok, right? To answer myself, yes...the Lord looks at your heart and your motives. He knows our flesh is weak. Anyway, how do we live a life that is worthy of the Lord? Well, Paul answers that question in the fourth word of this verse, "this." What is "this"? You have to look at the previous verse: being filled with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. So, to live a life worthy of the Lord you must "know" Him! Paul thought it was important enough to include basically the same prayer in most if not all of his epistles (see also Ephesians 1:17, Philippians 3:8, 10). One can say that one of the main purposes (or the main purpose) of Christianity is to know God, to have a relationship with Him, to know Him as He really is. Paul understood this. His heart's cry was that he considered everything else on this earth in his life "rubbish compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus."

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Everybody knows that verse and can recite it in about 2.7 seconds. Now look at John 17:3. "This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." So eternal life is not just living forever, but it is knowing God! What is the chief end of man? To know God and enjoy Him forever!

Now on to pleasing the Lord. Every believers' heart is to do this. We all want to please God. Again, how? By having a quiet time everyday? By reading Scripture everyday? By sharing your faith? I could go on and on. Paul thankfully gives us the answer: bear fruit and grow in the knowledge of Him. I have already touched on the importance of "knowing" God. I will add that in this part of the verse he uses the verb "growing". I wish I paid more attention in English class when they went over all the different tenses and conjugations of words. What I take from this is that growing in the knowledge of God is a constant process; it's not supposed to become stagnant. We will never know everything about God in our lifetime. I know that was pretty dumb and obvious statement, but it's so true. There is always more!!

Jesus commands us to bear fruit. John 15:8, "This is to My Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples" and John 15:16, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last...". If we do bear fruit, not only will we please God, but we also have this wonderful promise, "the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." Healings...done, a family member to come to know Christ...done, miracles...done, etc etc!! However, if you do not go out and bear fruit the Lord will cut you off from the one true vine! Two words...not good. Bearing fruit is not always easy. The Lord also promises that He will prune those who bear fruit. Pruning is not always a non-painful process. He will shake things that can be shaken; He will remove relationships from your life; you may become a martyr, you may leave the comforts of your home and family and live in a 3rd world country... who knows, you fill in the blank for your own life. Maybe you've been pruned already? There is one instruction though to continuing to bear fruit: remain in Him. You will not bear fruit unless you remain in Him (John 15:4). How do you remain in Him? Two words that go hand in hand: Intimacy and prayer. We must protect the place of intimacy and prayer if we are to remain in God because this is where you get to know God. Whatever your quiet times look like (ie. at night or in the morning, 2 hours or 15 minutes, etc), guard that and give yourself to it. We (and I say we because I am speaking directly to myself) must make time for it above everything else! For real write it down on your planner! Mike Bickle says we must make the time in our prayer closet/secret place and schedule for it during your day. He goes on to say that most people follow through about 80% of the time. But hey, 80% is better than not scheduling it and not getting around to it. Amen?

So what happens when we bear fruit? Well, just take a step back and think about the fruit of a tree. One, the tree is recognized by its fruit. Others will know that we are disciples by our fruit (by serving, by loving others, by obeying your parents, etc). Two, we are nourished by the fruit. Others will be encouraged and "nourished" by the fruit we bear. As you remain in Him, continually growing in the knowledge of Him, pleasing Him and bearing fruit, other people you come in contact with will be affected and encouraged. When you see this happen, you will be inspired to be in the secret place even more, and the cycle will continue, opening the highway for more of His heavenly blessings!!

Grace and peace.