Peace

I'd like to share a little bit about peace.

I want to start with probably one of the best verses on the subject, Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Ok, first off, probably the most obvious thing is: 

Not being anxious is a command. 

So, if we're Bible-believing Christ-followers, we have to recognize that anxiety, fear, and worry are sins that separate us from God. Jesus went to the cross to remove not only the punishment for committing those sins, but also to remove them from our life entirely! We need to repent when we worry. To come to God, ask for forgiveness and then start living without anxiety in our lives!

And right off the bat, just to cut off thoughts of "I can't," Philippians 4 is the SAME CHAPTER that has the verse, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." You have NO EXCUSE. (Sorry for the caps, it's just really important that we let those thoughts go.)

Isaiah 26:3, "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you."

Perfect peace! This means no anxiety in your life! It's possible! Don't believe this lie that says you have to worry.

Also notice that:

Peace is linked to trust in God.

Peace is an absence of fear, anxiety and worry.  

2 Thessalonians 3:16, "Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all."

One of the names of God is the "Lord of Peace." In our search to know God better, do we know Him as the Lord of peace? How many times do we call Him by that name? 

And notice that the peace isn't temporary, not a band-aid. "Peace at all times in every way." That's pretty intense!

And to go back to the first verse, the Lord of Peace gives us peace that "transcends understanding." His peace will get you scratching your head thinking, "You know, this is a situation when any self-respecting person would be frightened and intimidated, but I'm not! That's crazy! That doesn't make and sense!"

1 Peter 5:6-7, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you."

Many times fear keeps us from exercising the fruits of the spirit. This is especially true with peace. Out of fear we want to hold on to our anxieties, trying to control what happens to us so that we don't get hurt. When we inevitably do get hurt we hold on even tighter believing it will save us next time. It's insanity.

Notice that this verse connects peace with humility. Being anxious is prideful. It's saying that you have the power to affect things by being independent from God.


John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Obviously "You will have tribulation" isn't one of the most joyous promises of the Bible, but notice that it's surrounded on both sides with the assurance that God is in control, and we're not supposed to worry. Peace isn't the absence of hardship or heartbreak. It's the God-given ability to cast those cares on the only one that can actually do something about them.

So you're thinking, "Ok, I'm ready for the peace, where do I start?"

1) Peace is a fruit of the spirit. You CANNOT have real fruit without being connected to the vine. If you're talking with God on occasional weekends and holidays, you're stuck with the anxiety you've got.

Get into the Word, build your faith and trust in Him. Start writing down your interactions with God. Sometimes we pray for something to happen, and when God steps in miraculously, we don't even notice, much less give Him the credit.

2) Isaiah 26:3, "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you." Start working on your thinking. If you're always thinking, "I'm all alone on this, there's no one to help me out." You're going to have a hard time not being afraid. Begin to think, "The God that created the universe is literally on all 4 sides of me right now. He's got my back. He goes before me. He's at my right and left hand."

3) Ask for it! Begin to ask God for His peace just as fervently as you ask for the difficult situations in your life to change. Exercise peace by relying on God in more tough circumstances. Most people don't need situations to change as much as they need the peace of God to get through them. 

Great And Precious Promises

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. 

What are you in faith about? What are you hoping for? What evidence do you have in your heart that your eyes haven't quite seen yet?

God has promised us so many things if we just put our faith behind them.

"And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires." 2 Peter 1:4

From the verse above, it looks like we can't share His divine nature without His promises. You want to know how complex His nature is? Well, there are over 3000 promises in the Bible. I'd say that's a lot to share in!

What promises are you leaning on today? 

Are you believing to overcome obstacles?
"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?"

Are you believing to encounter God?
"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."

Are you believing for righteousness?

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." 

Are you believing for rest?

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Are you believing for wisdom?

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

This is just 5 promises. There are thousands more.

This is why it's so important to memorize scripture. We can't just lean on what we glean from a 35 minute message each sunday. We've got to be deep into the Word each month, each week, each day. Can we honestly say, Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path? Or are we trying to walk by another light?

The Character of God: Holy

Last week we took a look inside what it means that God is love. I believe this is important to what we are meditating on this week, which is the holiness of God.

There are more references in the Bible to God being holy or righteous than there is of God being love. God's holiness does not diminish His love, and His love does not diminish His holiness.

Just as His love demanded a response from us, His righteousness demands a response.

"He who has been forgiven much loves much."
"Be ye holy as I am Holy." 

Read with me this passage from 1st Peter, which is titled "Living Before God Our Father."

"Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear."

There are a lot of truths in this passage, let's dig a little deeper.

1) - "Be sober." When we interact with God our Father we're not meant to be flippant of light. His holiness is meant to be sobering. His holiness demands a response filled with respect and awe. Later on in the chapter it talks about the sacrifice of the precious blood of Jesus that has been spilled for our redemption. We're walking in sin when we enter His presence without the context of His sufferings.

 2) - "As obedient children." A loving father and His obedient children is the relationship we're meant to have with God. His love manifests itself in grace: an unmerited or undeserved favor. It also manifests itself in disciplining. This next passage will blow your mind if you let it get inside you:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness."

Love, Sonship, Fatherhood, Chastening, Respect, and Holiness are all linked together!! You cannot have a loving father without his disciplining. And you cannot truly love God without respecting Him, obeying Him, and fearing Him.

3) - "Not conforming yourselves to your former lusts." You don't get to be adopted into the Kingdom and keep your sin. The whole Bible is full of rebuke for those that claim to want to follow God but continue in sin. The Bible is described as a two-edged sword, capable of dividing our soulful nature (our feelings and thoughts) with our spiritual nature (the part of us that wants what God wants).

4) - "He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct." Yes, God's standard is high. Yes, the law is impossible for anyone but Jesus to walk out blamelessly. But God doesn't just wink at our sin. He calls us to be holy just like Him! Bear in mind these are all New Testament verses. Even in this new covenant we're still supposed to be holy!

5) - "Judges according to each one’s work" Anyone who tells you that God will not judge you is not telling you the truth. Take a look at 2nd Corinthians 5:

"Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord"

When Jesus comes back it won't be an option to arrogantly say, "Because of Jesus' sacrifice it doesn't matter what I did." This verse says that we're going to receive something in return for all of our good deeds, as well as all of our bad. And I find it appropriate that the writer of 1st Peter goes into the "terror of the Lord" just in case you missed the mood in which you should be taking these things.

6) - "In fear." Take a look at what the Bible has to say about Godly fear:

Psalm 111:10: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.


Proverbs 1:7: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.


Proverbs 10:27: The fear of the Lord prolongs days, But the years of the wicked will be shortened. (The fear of the Lord will make you live a long time!)

Psalms 112 takes a good look at what the fear of the Lord looks like.

His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Don't let your ideas of what you think holiness is put God in your little box. When He asks you to remove sin from your life don't call it unloving. When He forgives and gives you mercy for the sins you've committed don't use it as an excuse to sin more. God's holiness will never fit into your idea of what holy is, just as God's love will never fit into your idea of what love should look like.

So how do we walk this out?

Tip #1 - Ask God to make you holy as He is holy. Once you became a Christian God cleaned you of all unrighteousness. Now it's your turn to be devoted to the kind of lifestyle that will keep you in that state of holiness! The Psalmist did it like this in Psalms 139: "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."


Tip #2 - Worship God in the beauty of holiness. (Psalms 96:9) Holiness is beauty to God. It was the spotless lamb that had everyone's attention in the book of revelation. Ask God to reveal to you the beauty of His holiness, and worship Him for being Holy. God is worthy of worship just because He's holy, regardless of the things that He does, so this is something that you can worship Him for even if it seems like your circumstances aren't the way they should be.

Tip #3 - Stay rooted. Stay locked into the Word of God, which is sharper than any two edged sword. If you are living in sin, the Word of God will root it out quicker than anything. And it's a strategy of the enemy to keep you as far from the Bible as he can keep you.

5 Ways To Tell If You Are A Burden To Be Lifted Or A Burden Lifter.

Are you lifting people up or are they lifting you up?

I realize that this is a more complex issue than the question implies, but as a trend, are you the influencer or the influencee?

There are a few of my friends that seem like every second thing they say is a complaint about the way things are. Their opportunities, the weather, their parents, their clothes, their health. Everything that's not "amazing" ends up ruining their day.

There are a few of my friends that encourage me immensely by their constant good attitude. Everything that's going well they are thankful for, and the things that don't go well don't matter at all because they're standing on a rock so firm they'll never be shaken.

Ephesians 5:20 says that we are to give thanks "always for all things" which means we're supposed to somehow give thanks for things we don't like.

I don't see any thing in the Bible that gives us a license to complain no matter how bad our situation is. In Job when God heard complaining He gave Job chapters and chapters of rebuke. Jesus said in His sermon on the mount, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven."

If you're constantly down in the dumps over something wether it be small or large, you're not living according to how the Bible says we ought to live. And what will happen is you'll be the weight that your friends have to lift off of the ground every day, instead of being a lifter for someone else.

How do you know what category you're in? How do you know if you're a pro or a con? Here are a few tips:

 - Can you point to 5 people in your life that you encourage on a regular basis? Or 5 people that you can't wait to complain to?

 - Check out your last 10-20 facebook statuses. Were they "Valentines Day Sucks" or "I hate all this snow"?

 - When you talk with someone, what's the first subject you discuss? Is it how busy or tired you are from this, that and the other thing? Or is it filled with thankfulness and joy?

 - Do you use scripture in an encouraging way or just to prove your point?

 - Is your conversation me-centered or you-centered?

As a parting thought, James 1 says "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials." So the point that you are the most joyous, should be the point that you feel the most tried. That's a tall order.

5 Tips For A Better Prayer Life

TIP #1 The Secret Place

Jesus' very first teaching on prayer was the power and the primacy of the secret place. "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Matthew 6:6

If you're feeling disconnected with God, feeling that God is distant, let me share a secret with you: God is already in the secret place! Jesus says this again in verse 18.

And He gives us the key to being with the Father: Close the door. Once the door is closed, you can know with confidence that you are in the presence of God, regardless of how you feel.

TIP #2 Listen

Matthew 13:9 says, "He who has an ear to hear, let him hear!"

Know that you can have ears to hear, but choose not to hear God speaking! God has spoken to His people in a lot of ways in the Bible. Psalms 81:7 says that he answers us in "the secret place of thunder." Other times he answers us almost silently with a still, small voice.

God's words are the words that change things. When he speaks things happen. He created the universe with His words. Know that things don't change when we talk to Him, they change when He speaks to us.

Bob Sorge says in his book on prayer, "I strongly advocate a prayer life that is comprised mostly of silence." Don't feel like you are failing at praying when you don't have anything to say! Listen to God and wait for Him to speak to you!

TIP #3 Be Violent 

Matthew 11:12 says "the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." 

Your prayer life isn't always going to be "now I lay me down to sleep." You're called to do spiritual warfare with your prayers!

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12

I see four separate enemies that we are supposed to wrestle with. I've heard people say before that we aren't supposed to pay attention to the devil and we're just supposed to let God take care of us, and that's partly true. But we have been given spiritual armor for a reason! Stuff is going to hit us! God didn't give us the armor just so that we're in cool shiny clothes! Without this armor, we're going to take some damage.

Also, we've been given a sword of our own. The Psalms are full of descriptions of God raining down his arrows on the enemy, and striking them down with lightning and thunder, but we're called to strike down the works of the enemy in our prayer life as well! We're supposed to use the word of God to come against the things that the devil is doing in our lives and in the lives of the people we know.

Violently pursue your secret time with God, cutting through distractions and all else that keeps you from spending time in the presence of God. Don't let anything stop you from giving all you have to God! When you become a threat to the plans of the enemy, he will come after you. Use that as a sign that what you're doing is working!

TIP #4 Intercession  

Hebrews 13:18-19 says "Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably. But I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner."

Prayer can speed up the work of God's kingdom in the earth. At the beginning or end of nearly all of Pauls letters He either asks for prayer or lets the church know that he is praying for them. He knew there was power in the prayer for others.

Jesus said "Ask and you shall receive." This isn't meant to be a black check for whatever we want, it's supposed to be about making God's will happen.

"Prayer is not getting man's will done in heaven, but getting God's will done on earth. It is not overcoming God's reluctance but laying hold of God's willingness." - Richard C. Trench

God is ready and willing to answer our prayers, He's just waiting for us to come to Him and invite His will and reign into our lives and into the lives of others.

TIP #5 Time 

Realize that being faithful with prayer will take a lot of your time.

2nd Corinthians 9:6, "He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will reap bountifully."  

If you give your minute of two of "spare time" to God, you will reap a spare time's worth of benefit. Now, this benefit is much greater than if you weren't spending any time in prayer, but it's still sowing sparingly.

If you give lots of your valuable time to God, time that you are thinking clearly, large uninterrupted chunks, than you will reap a blessing that you haven't even dreamed of.

Make spending time with God an important appointment, worth canceling other things for. Are you willing to give God your goofing-off-online hour or your veg-on-the-couch hour? If you build a vital relationship with God, He will uphold you. Trust that no amount of work that you do can compare to the amount of work God will do as a result of seeking Him.

The Word of God

Christianity can sometimes be distorted and compressed into a list of habits and beliefs that make someone a "better person."

Tori and I were just watching a television show where the arch nemesis comes back a season later with his act cleaned up, and the only noticeable change is he quotes a catchy scripture and has a cross on his wall.

The word Christian means "Little-Christ" or "Christ-Like." Christianity is the life-long pursuit of the character of the Son of God. It's the unending search for a deeper relationship with the Father. And it's the living out of the kingdom of heaven with the Holy Spirit's power.

And just as God is real, there is a real devil. No matter what popular opinion is, there's a hungry lion that is seeking people to devour. But, he has been defeated by the power of Christ's death and resurrection and we're called to live that out by waging spiritual warfare against his schemes. We've been given a myriad of defensive equipment to ward off his attacks:

• Belt of Truth 
• Breastplate of Righteousness 
• Shoes of Readiness given by the Gospel of Peace 
• Shield of Faith 
• Helmet of Salvation

But we've only been given one weapon to go on the offensive with. 

• The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God

We can't even do battle with out own words. It's only the Word of God that makes any difference or takes any ground.

And if description in Ephesians isn't enough for you, Hebrews 4:12 says "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."


The Word of God was what created the world. God spoke, and it happened. And in the beginning of John, Jesus is described as the Word. Him who was with God and was God.

God's word is the cornerstone on which everything we know rests. If we fail to build our lives on this rock, everything will crumble.

So it's vital (that means necessary for life) (meaning you're going to be spiritually dead without it) that you not only read your Bible, but live off of it. Ingest it. Eat it. Metabolize it. Chew it.

Jesus said that man does not live on bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.  God's Word is be-all and end-all in Christianity. If you're trying to seek God without looking in the pages of the Bible every single day, you're looking in the wrong places, and you'll find the wrong gods.

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How do you get to know someone better? You find out about a different part of their life! If you only know them as a work friend, and you don't ask them about their life at home, your relationship will never take the next step.

Start reading about who God is as He relates to different people. Take a look as this list. It shows how Jesus is revealed in every book of the Bible.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but that doesn't mean that we can know all there is to know about him in one sitting, or one year, or one lifetime.

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And so how do you seek God in His Word? Where do you start?

TIP #1: Begin to cultivate a love of God's Word. Read Psalms 119 and hear what he had to say about the word of God. Spend every day reading God's word. Put it up on your doorframe and facebook page. But more importantly put it deep inside you heart. That means memorize it.

TIP #2: Simultaneous reading. I used to start the "Read-the-Bible-in-one-year" plans and I would get to about half the old testament and quit because it wore me down. I was laboriously reading all of the long stories without finding how it applied to my life or seeing how Christ fulfilled that covenant.

Then I picked up a book that suggested this strategy: read a little bit out of each major section each day. So now I split my Bible into 4 sections. Psalms/Proverbs, the rest of the Old Testament, Matthew/Mark/Luke/John, the rest of the New Testament. What this allows me to do is still read the same amount each day, but not get stressed out in the laws of Leviticus for three weeks.

TIP #3: Talk about what you read. Make it less of a hobby and more of a source of life. Every time I find out something cool in a new video game or I get told a funny story by a friend, I pass it on to others. We should be doing that all the time with the Word of God! Otherwise, we aren't putting enough weight on the things the Bible says.

TIP #4: Resolve. Decide in your heart that you're going to spend time in God's Word. The true test of whether or not you're been set on fire for God is this: Can you do it when it gets boring? Can you do it when it's "hard to find anything that means anything to you?" Can you seek God when it means He'll ask for all of your luxury, all your leisure, and all your recreation?

TIP #5: Obey. This is more of a tip for after you've spent time reading, but it really shouldn't be left out. Don't just be a hearer of the Word, but be a doer. If you read in Proverbs that a trustworthy man keeps a secret, then you had better not go around gossipping to all of your friends. If you find out that Jesus wasn't ok with living a pious, prideful life then you had better not serve on your worship team with one ounce of self-righteousness or pride.

Comment below on any other tips you have. Also, what do you do in your personal scripture reading? And how are you doing with memorization and with talking about God's Word with your friends?

Thy Will Be Done

Psalms 37:4 says that if we delight in the Lord, He will give us the desires of our heart.

Tori and I went a long time thinking that this meant that God would give us everything we really really want if we would just focus on Him. 

What this actually means is that if we will engage more in a personal relationship with God, He will put His desires inside of us.

No more will we have to add to our prayers "if it's Your will God..." We'll know that our desires line up with God's will, because not only are we aware of what His will is (personal devotion) but we have been given our desires by Him!

This week I encourage you to pray this prayer. 

Dear God, Your thoughts are higher than my thoughts, Your ways are higher than my ways. Thank you for revealing Yourself through Your Son. Help me to delight in you. Help me to rejoice in Your word and to be in prayer constantly. Teach me to rest in You. Give me the desires of Your heart, and make them the desires of my heart. Make me want the things You want. You are a good God with good desires. I entrust my wants and needs to You. 

Sometimes When You Serve, It's You Who Gets Blessed.

Luke 1:5-17 "There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 


And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 


But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. 


So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 


And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. 


Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. 


But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 




Zachariah was a priest in the temple, and the lot falls on him to go into the temple and burn incense to God on behalf of all of the people. So as he's doing this, this terrifying angel shows up, in the holy-of-holies, the place where no one else is supposed to be. The angel then goes on to prophesy to Zachariah about the son He's going to have.

What I liked about this is that Zachariah's main focus at the time wasn't on his personal walk with the Lord. He had already established a life of purity and righteousness, and this was his time to serve.

In serving the nation, the angel delivers a personal message that relates only to Zachariah's life.

Why didn't the angel deliver the message in a dream, or in his private devotion time?

I think the reason is to teach us that we can be individually blessed when we're participating in corporate service.

This is important for worship leaders to realize, because sometimes it's easy to fall into the extreem of "I only to get poured into during my personal devotional time and I'm only to pour out while serving the congregation."

This is only half the truth, as God likes to bless leaders when they are serving the body of Christ.

This happened recently with one of our worship teams. We were leading worship at a local youth group and a huge move of God came. The team started hearing angels, getting filled with joy, and experiencing revelations of God that hadn't happened in our practices leading up to this point.

With most kingdom truths, there's two extreems to avoid. You don't want to just seek God in public, and you don't want to just seek Him in private. I think the point of this story is that God will deliver a personal, practical, timely message to His followers in any situation.

Be looking for the boxes that we put God into. Make sure you're leaving room for the possibility that He will invade your life in unexpected places.

Are you ready to hear from God everywhere you go?

Please comment and share your thoughts!

The Presence of God

I'm my study, I've discovered that there are two different "presences" of God. There is the omnipresence of God, and the manifest presence of God.

We know three things about the nature of God. We know He is omnipotent, which means He's all-powerful. We know He is omniscient which means He's all-knowing. And we know He's omnipresent, which means He's everywhere at every time.

The Psalmist was extremely familiar with this presence.

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there; if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you." Ps. 139:7-12.

Also, Jeremiah heard God say it like this:


Jer. 23:23-24 "Am I a God at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off? 
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? says the Lord. 
Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord."

God is everywhere at every time. He sees everything we do in the public and in the secret places. We never have to worry about being alone because of this.

On the other hand, in Exodus 33:14-15 Moses followed the manifest presence of the Lord. He said that He didn't want to go somewhere where the presence of God was not.

Isaiah 55:6 says "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near."

In Hosea 5:15, God says that His presence will leave His people. "I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their offense."

A. W. Tozer puts it like this, "The Presence and the manifestation of the Presence are not the same. There can be the one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it. He is manifest only when, and as we are aware of His presence. On our part there must be surrender to the Spirit of God, for His work is to show us the Father and the Son"

So as seekers of God, a prayer of "show me Your glory" or "come meet us here" would be appropriate, if we understand it in the context of God's presence never leaving us, but simply making itself known to us.

I've also heard people talk about the "abiding" presence of God that lives within the believer. I haven't studied this as much as I would like to yet, so it didn't make it into my list, but that's on my list of things to study next!

If you read this post, please give me a comment! What do you think about this understanding of the presence of God? How do you pray in regards to God's location?

Make Disciples of All Nations

This coming season we're changing up our message team a lot. Last year we were blessed with seven brilliantly talented students who all had awesome calls of God on their lives and were eager to get out and do great things for God. Because of our team's work and God's grace, we were able to minister to youth by preaching almost two dozen messages collectively!

Last season was the first season, and we tried to make our message team very broad and well-rounded by providing not only sermon training, but songwriting and poetry, as well as a few other genres.

This year we're honing in on just preaching the Word, and I think that it will increase our effectiveness in our students. Last year there was tremendous growth in every team member and this year we're expecting exponentially more growth.

Tori and I will be teaching this team together. Tori brings an astounding level writing skill to the table, and I give tips on public speaking.

Also, God has blessed us with a new location to hold our practices! We're now able to use an actual platform in our meetings! We also increased our meeting time as well, which will allow us to get even more instruction in, including bringing in more pastors from the community to speak to our team!

As a side note, there are still a few days left to sign up! We meet on Saturday mornings in kalamazoo from 10:00 until 11:30. Send me a quick email if you're interested! peter@worshipartscentral.com

If you read this post please leave a comment below or on my facebook page!

Winter Ramp: Day 3

The first service started at 10am. We didn’t reserve a very large floor section and so our group was really cramped. But hey, the manifest presence of God is worth it.

The second set started with another worship set lead by Catherine Mullins (Who is now my second or third favorite female worship leader). She lasted a whole song before taking her boots off and dancing in her sock feet. She’s really expressive and leads her team very well. The setlist for this morning was:

When You Speak No One Else Everything (Lifehouse)

Also during the worship set Catherine Mullins and Karen Wheaton lead people through a prayer for deliverance from the fear of man. Karen’s daughter came up and had a testimony about how God has set her free from fear.

After worship, Dutch Sheets talked about dreams. His focus was that God is a dreamer, and He has breathed His nature into us, and called us to dream with Him. Our calling is simply to live our his dreams, plans and visions for our lives. The service ended with Jeremy, the electric guitarist from yesterday, leading a song that perfectly echoed the word that went out. Calling the body of Christ into the dreams that God has given them. Rick Peno joined in after a few minutes and they ended up dismissing half the crowd and continued worship for whoever wanted to stay.

The second worship service was lead by Rick Peno, who demonstrated the huge span of musical and spiritual backgrounds that were represented. They started with a song that sounded like an old Petra track, talking about how Johnny and Suzie Q got their lives transformed by being filled with Holy Ghost fire.

Their second song was a song that I remember from my elementary school days. They played “When I think of His goodness” with such freedom and jubilee that I knew that they had to be in touch with the party that’s going on in heaven. And the musical proficiency in the group was absolutely top-notch. Rick brought out his bluesy harmonica to crank things up a little bit towards the end.

After that he went into his popular “We’ve got the best dad in the whole world” song, as well as bringing back “Abba” from the first night. The last song was titled (I believe) “Pioneer.” It called church leaders and revivalists to not give up even though its hard getting the trail blazed and the ball rolling. One of the members of chosen was asked by Karen Wheaton to lead a prayer for those feeling discouraged by being the ones having to do all of the hard work to bring fire and passion to their church or school.

A large chunk of the afternoon service was dedicated to the ministry team “Chosen.” They performed four drama/dances, and gave short words of encouragement and prayers in between. I was really inspired by their format. They made sure that everything they did had a specific purpose. I cannot over-emphasize the impact the dramas had on the crowd and myself individually. The team is so unified and on fire that their ministry radiates God’s own word and heart.

Casey Doss finished out the service with a call to not slide back once you get home. He laid out multiple strategies for what to do when you come up against opposition when trying to bring back the revival. These included starting a weekly, purposeful, prayer group, and submitting to spiritual leadership.

Damon Thompson ended with a charge to pray as a youth group that the focused intensity would not go out. He had the youth groups circle up and pray with each other, about what they were going to do when they returned to their city.

The final worship service was like all the others in that everyone was giving their best, but it seemed like God was increasing what their best could be. For four hours they stayed in joy, passion and fervor. The setlist was:

You are Holy Heaven on Earth Light of Your Face (I think this is the title) Shekinah Glory

Damon Thompson brought the word of God to us tonight. He prophesied that we are stuck between two gates. We’re stuck between the encounter with God and the fulfilling of our destiny. He preaches from Acts 12, where Peter is miraculously released from prison, and the iron gate to the jail opens automatically. But when he reaches the gate to the house with the intercessors, he has to knock repeatedly in order to get in.

He said 2012 was a year that gates will be opened. That destinies would be fulfilled and encounters would become lifestyles. He called the church to step into it's proper role, as the ecclesia, the governing body of the spiritual realm.

The worship team came up and we interceded for the new year. We prayed that God would open up gates granting authority and dominion. Once the worship team came up they played a lot of short stanzas from a bunch of different songs, most of which I didn’t recognize, but I could tell others in the room did. (I appreciate that about the ramp. Their music and teaching styles vary, but they’re very true to the Word of God and to living out the truth inside.)

They put a countdown on the screen, worshipped until zero, and blew the shofar. They played songs of rejoicing, someone sprayed silly string on our bags, and 2012 began! They continued the service for about 15 minutes afterwards and then Karen Wheaton blessed everyone, and sent them out. I’ve never seen the majority of people this excited to leave a conference before. Usually its Bwah!! It’s ovvvvver!!! But these people are genuinely excited about going back to their cities and starting their prayer groups, secret devotional lives and subsequent revivals!!

WINTER RAMP DAY 1
WINTER RAMP DAY 2

Winter Ramp: Day 2

It’s day two of Winter Ramp and it’s gotten better and better!!

In the 10 am service Catherine Mullins lead an explosive worship set. We got a front row position! They played:

Made for Love

24 elders (WOW)

People get ready

How I Love You

How He Loves

Hero

Freedom

The push for this morning was deliverance. During worship there were four or five testimonies and prophesies about freedom from sin, addictions, and other bondage.

Tori and I got prayer and are feeling the affects of God’s delivering power!

The entire worship service was taken up by worship, testimonies and the alter call. The musicians played the whole time, which was neat to see their communication and leadership structure.

The song leader communicates to the bass player who has a microphone that is only piped through the band’s headphones. There’s no line of sight problems and it cuts down on miscommunication. Once WorshipArts gets an in-ear system I think we’ll set this system up.

The service ended with a joyful song that everyone jumped wildly to. One of the “Chosen” team members added a stanza to get everybody to get excited about what God had done. “I’m going to dance my crazy dance!”

We ate some sandwiches and checked out the bookstore. They have some really creative ideas for selling things. Big canvas-covered boxes used as signs, as well as creative cracker-barrel-like antiques scattered around the pristine event center. 

At 2pm the second service started. Rick Peno lead the worship. There was a bluesy electric guitarist that Rick asked to prophesy with his guitar. Very neat. 

You Are Holy

To Him That Sits On The Throne

"Singing, Making Melody In Our Hearts"

During that last song there was a moment where the lyrics stopped and the screen said "Make Your Own Song!"

To end the set, Karen Wheaton lead a 6-8 minute long shout of praise.

Chosen performed 2 of their dances, War Cry and My Beloved. Absolutely amazing group of Christians. My Beloved was done with all males, in a rotating/spotlight type of style. Very sweet. We ended up picking up their third dvd that's got 9 of their skits on it. Pretty excited to pull that out once we're back in Kalamazoo. 

There were two 15-minute short sermons given by two of the chosen team members. Very similar to what I want the WorshipArts message team to do at youth events. The first was a guy's story about using the spotlights God gave him in his high school to preach to his entire school about Christ. It ended with an encouragement to change schools for Christ. 

The second was a call to prayer, as well as practical instructions for how to pray. Prayer and getting into the Word of God were portrayed as vehicles to connect us with the Spirit of God. It was very encouraging, and ended with a time of prayer. The crowd gathered in youth groups to pray for their churches and cities. Our RooTs group prayed in a circle for an hour before breaking for dinner. 

After dinner Bryn Waddell was back. (yes!) They played: 

You Are Good (Bethel Church)

Happy Day

Freedom

Great I Am

The whole set was powerful, and didn't relent once. Damon Thompson came up and lead a prayer for healings during the last song.

Afterwards Chosen came up and performed "Behold the Lamb" which Karen Wheaton said they had been performing for over ten years! I first saw it when the Break the Grey interns did it at the Gathering Place Church at a RooTs gathering.

Perry Stone was the final speaker tonight and he blew everyone's socks off! He talked about offenses and how they are the devil's strategy for making christians give up. He said there are three strategies the devil uses to make the body of Christ quit:

1) Isolation - Elijah performed a dozen miracles and the very next thing that happens is he gets scared of Jezabel and goes off into the wilderness alone. This causes depression and eventually thoughts of his own death being desirable. Had God granted his fatal requests he would have never riden the chariot of fire up into heaven and fulfilled his destiny to be one of the two witnesses to the remnant of Israel in the final days. 

2) Shame - Perry Stone listed off dozens of instances in the Bible where great men were put to shame. But in every circumstance, God raised them up above their shame and saw to the finishing of the good work he began in each of their lives. 

3) Disappointment - When our idea of God's will doesn't turn out the way we thought it would go. We end up taking things back into our own hands and remove ourselves from God's perfect plan. We can get offended when we aren't given the big picture all at once, though if we got it all it would probably scare the pants off us. 

The service ended with a call to baptism in the Holy Ghost. The entire room was putting out more energy than any rock show I've ever seen. The people of God are so much better equipped to give exuberant praise than the world is. Even though the world tries its hardest to praise it's idols. 

Anyways, stay tuned for the final chapter tomorrow night! The service goes past midnight, so the update will probably be posted on the first of January. Have a great New Year! Be intentional about where your life is going! Don't let another year slip into mediocrity!

Please leave a comment!!

WINTER RAMP DAY 1
WINTER RAMP DAY 3

Winter Ramp: Day 1

We're with 37 people from RooTs for The Ramp's big youth conference in Delton, Georgia at the Northwest Georgia Convention Center! So many people enjoyed my Jesus Culture Awakening recaps that I'm writing a recap for this event too.

This event was completely free for anyone that wanted to come! They had 5000 free tickets that they gave away. Registration had a deadline, and after that deadline, if you backed out, they charged you 50 dollars for every ticket you didn't use. They also collected a love offering to cover the cost of the ministry, and they have partners that give monthly as well. (We found out they get the good parking, and quick day-of registration as well)

There were about 500 seats available, and a football field's worth of standing room for the other 4500 people. (My brother won a bet with my grandpa who thought there would have to be seats for everybody.) Duct tape on the floor marked where the aisles were supposed to be, but the crowd was told to ignore them during the worship parts of the service.

Before the service, my brother recognized Bear, the drummer from World Harvest Church, and we got to meet him. (By charging up to him and asking, "Hey! Are you Bear? Can we take your picture?" Classy.)

Worship started with Bryn Waddell, one of the Ramp's primary worship leaders, singing these songs:

You Are Holy
You Could Never Be Praised Enough
Heaven On Earth

The solid hour of worship was intense, let me tell you! They have their entire "Chosen" ministry team of 25-30 college-age interns on stage with them, lifting up exuberant and expressive worship. They had about ten people come up to the microphone and speak out impassioned, Biblical, faith-filled prayers.

After worship Chosen performed a drama/dance, similar to the human videos that WorshipArts has done. They had much more dance involved though, but it was the same idea: telling a story with drama to a recorded track.

Afterwards Rick Peno came up and sang "Abba, I belong to You" and prayed against the orphan spirit by asking God to show Himself to individuals as the Father.

Damon Thompson brought a word calling for repentance on the first night. "You'll never go a day in dominion without going through the process of repentance." He portrayed repentance as the key to everything else they were going to do this weekend.

He told to story in John 8 of the adulterous woman that was caught by the Pharisees. He said that the point of the story wasn't what Jesus was writing in the sand, but that he kneeled down, ignored the religious leaders, and caught the woman's eye. He stooped down into the sin and the situation that the woman was in to give her forgiveness. "He who knew no sin became sin."

He says that all the stories centering around women in the Bible represent the church as the bride of Christ. This story represents the church giving it's affections to lesser lovers, and that God plans on forgiving and redeeming her. He says that God will continue to put His finger in your dirt, no matter how deep you've gone in your sin, no matter how low your eyes are due to your shame.

Apparently this story was taken out of many early church manuscripts because it was thought that it would encourage people to continue to sin. Damon said that it's the church's recurring mistake to think that the threat of eternal torment in hell is the biggest motivator for holiness. The kindness of God draws men to repentance. Extravagant undeserved mercy will always trump the fear of eternal torment.

The service ended with an alter call facilitated by Bryn Waddell, who played Seventh Day Slumber's version of "Nothing but the Blood" and "Hallelujah" by Planetshakers.

Super excited for tomorrow's three services! Stay tuned and I'll give you a recap tomorrow night! My brother took some video as well: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150464144589563

WINTER RAMP DAY 2
WINTER RAMP DAY 3

Your Name

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

If you're looking at any of these "impossible-for-man" situations, I dare you to give God some faith.

Unsaved Family
Death or Divorce
Debt, Bankruptcy, Foreclosure
Disability, Illness, Cancer
Hatred, Disrespect, Broken Relationships
Addictions, Sinful Habits

John 11:1 starts the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. "Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha."

"Lazarus" means "He whom God helps."

"Bethany" means "House of Measuring" or "House of Affliction"

Lazarus's name was one whom God helps, but his location was the house of affliction. In the end it wasn't the address that mattered, but His identity in God.

Remember your identity. 

John 1:12 says that your name is "Child of God"
Philippians 4:19 says that your name is "Provided for by God"
Exodus 15:26 says that your name is "Healed by God"
Romans 8:37 says that you name is "More than a conqueror through Christ"
John 15:15 says that your name is "Friend of God"
Romans 8:1 says that your name is "Free from Condemnation in Christ"
2 Peter 1:4 says that your name is "Free from the powers of Lust"
Ephesians 2:10 says your name is "Workmanship of God"

Connection: 5 Tips To Engage People While Leading Worship

If you're a worship leader, chances are you've been in this situation at some point. You start off your worship set right at the beginning of service, and you can tell, not very many people are connecting. You try that second song that everyone knows, which gets more people moving their lips, but you're still not feeling that connection. The third, maybe fourth song flies by and then you pray and the worship time is over, leaving you with a feeling that the people you were supposed to lead into worship just listened to your music the whole time instead of connecting with God.

Here are a few tips that can keep people engaged in rough circumstances like early morning, daylight savings time, everybody's-coming-in-late worship sets.

1) Comunicate Expectancy. Communicate to your teach team, worship team and to the congregation that you expect that God is going to do awesome things during the worship time. Chances are, if people are expecting three songs nicely played, that's all they're going to get. But if they expect to chase after God and all that He has for them, they'll dive into worship and meet the creator of the universe who is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

2) Avoid distractions. If they're not connecting right from the start, little distractions can be even more potent than normal. Make sure your sound, lights, and graphics team is on the ball, and have everything that you can planned out ahead of time.

3) Check your face. Make sure you're joyful, not glum. Make sure you're smiling at people, and making a connection with your eyes. Don't just close your eyes for half an hour and expect people to follow you. Good leaders make connections with the people they're leading. Also, making sure you look like you came prepared to worship can encourage others to enter in with you. People want to follow someone who knows where they're going!

4) Be Spontaneous. If people aren't connecting to the songs the way that you planned them, change your plan! Make sure that your worship team and graphics team can handle this first though! Maybe a new song isn't the best second song in your setlist if people are on the verge of falling asleep. Or, maybe what the congregation needs is a song that is made up on the spot that identifies with the church at that moment.

5) Worship. Regardless of where the congregation is at spiritually, just worship. Jesus said that if He will be lifted up, He'll draw all men unto Himself. Trust that God will inhabit Your praises and begin to work on other people's hearts as you worship Him. Paul and Silas weren't trying to lead the prison into worship when they were locked up. They were just worshipping God by themselves and then all of the other prisoner's chains were broken. Make sure you and Your team are lifting up Jesus, and God will take care of the rest.

Can you think of any other tips? What do you do in awkward situations or services that feel dry?

Connection - How To Pray Without Ceasing

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing.

Does this mean that Paul never got invited to dinner because his friends knew His pre-dinner prayer would never stop? When would be an appropriate time to say "amen" if your prayer never stops?

The point of this verse isn't to encourage us to hold a filibuster with God like in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

The real meaning is to have a connection with God that never is severed.

Jesus said that He only did was His Father told Him to do. He only spoke what His Father told Him to speak. In order to stay in line with the will of God for His life, Jesus maintained a connection to God. He wasn't verbally praying non-stop. He was aware all the time of what the Father wanted.

This isn't some new-age "I feel a higher power" type of connection. It isn't a feeling that we maintain with incense and music. It's a choice to put God in the front of our minds and to involve Him in every decision.

Most of us don't keep up this connection every second of every day. We lash out in an ungodly way. We get distracted by the things of the world. We forget momentarily that we are ambassadors and messengers of the greatest news mankind has ever heard.

How do you keep a connection with God?

Just like any relationship. Work. I'm not saying with "works." I'm saying that it's a conscious decision to focus on God more. The more you focus on seeking God by reading your Bible, worshipping, praying verbally and otherwise, the more God will speak to You.

One of the most powerful promises in the Bible is that if you seek God, you'll find Him. Knock and the door will be opened. And my favorite: when you draw near to God, He will draw near to You. If you take a step towards Him, He'll respond with steps toward you. You feel like God is distant? Start running towards Him. He'll be next to you faster than you can say "New King James."

Another way to seek God is to remove things that may be distracting. This doesn't mean that you have to give up all food except bread and water and never look at a screen again. This means that the more you consciously, purposefully give to God, the more He'll reward you for it. This is why fasting is so powerful. It's a decision to take one step away from the regular pleasures of life and to direct that step towards God.

So keep up your connection to God! Seek God, hear from Him, and respond with worship, obedience and sacrifice! Promise it'll be worth it.

Expectancy: A Worship Essential

Jesus said if He would be lifted up, he would draw all men unto Himself. God said that if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. He said that if we will seek him, we will find Him.

Why is it that we don't expect radical things to happen every single time we worship?

We believe what Romans 10:9 says: "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." If we can believe that God will fulfill his promise to save those who call upon His name, why is it so hard to stand firm on the hundreds of promises God gives in the Bible about those who seek Him?

2 Chronicles 7:14 says: If my people, (that's you) who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways (that's worship), then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (that's the promise)

God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6) In face the rest of that verse says that without this faith, it is impossible to please God. Without an expectation for things you can't see, you can't make God happy.

This doesn't mean that we just worship to receive. What it means is that when we worship, He'll come. And in His presence is fullness of joy. (Psalms 16:11) In His presence there are times of refreshing (Acts 3:19) In His presence mountains move. (Psalms 68:8) When God steps into a room, things change.

Every time Jesus went to a town he started revivals and riots. He did things that attracted huge crowds. He said things that confused people and turned people off. He had a certain effect on people.

One of my favorite bands, "Lifehouse" says in their song Everything:

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?


Darkness cannot stand in His light. We can believe that when God arises, His enemies will scatter. So when we begin to worship, let's come into it with excited hearts. Let's start worshipping with faith that God will tell us great and mighty things! (Jeremiah 33:3) Let's prepare ourselves for God's life-changing presence that inhabits the praises of His people!