Dream a "LITTLE" Dream

I spoke this morning at church about dreaming and I thought it was worth blogging about.

2 Chronicles 7:11 NIV

11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace.

What would it be like to be at the end of our lives, look back and have accomplished every dream we have ever had?

If you read all through Proverbs you will find the comparison between evil and righteousness.

Evil desires lead to destruction…period. Righteous desires lead to life.

Proverbs gives us a list of the people that God will grant their desires:

Those who fear Him, Those who love Him

Those who are diligent, the good man, the blameless, the kind

Those who sow righteousness, The house that is right with God

Those who seek God

Proverbs 10:24 NIV

...what the righteous desire will be granted.

Psalm 37:4 NIV

Delight yourself in the Lord

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

(Delight in Hebrew means soft & pliable)

The will of God in our life is to have righteous desires.

Prov 11:23 NIV

The desire of the righteous ends only in good

Acts 2:17 NIV

In the last days, God says,

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

your young men will see visions,

your old men will dream dreams.

(Old men in both the Hebrew and the Greek means mature…elders…fathers)

Sons and daughters first learn to speak!

Young men see visions (God ideas) that teach them to dream or have righteous desires.

There is a difference between fulfilling a vision and living a dream! Vision is good because it is God showing us His dreams. We live out His dreams through the visions he gives us...young men/women. However this is not the end. He is showing us His dreams so we may learn to dream like Him. This is maturity...this is what "old men"/elders/fathers do.

You see, God spoke everything into existence and when He had made Adam He included him in the creation process. He told Adam to name all the animals! God didn't tell Adam what to name them...He gave him the responsibility. God is leading each and every one of his children to maturity. In maturity we learn to dream dreams. Our dreams are the creativity of God in us to bring His Kingdom to earth.

Many Christians think every thing they do must be out of obedience to the directions God gives them for life. This is not necessarily bad but God wants us to step out and dream our own dreams. He wants us to dream like He does. We are safe to dream when we accept the truth that Jesus became sin so we may be the righteousness of God. "What the righteous desire will be granted." -Prov. 10:24. What would happen if we began to dream? What would happen if we knew our dreams (righteous desires that only end in good) were backed by Heaven?

"People determine the size of your God by the size of your dreams"

Dream a "LITTLE" dream!

First Times

"The first time that I saw your face
The first time that you spoke my name
The first time that I heard you say
There's a first time with me everyday
The first time that I felt your touch
The first time I couldn't get enough"

This is the chorus from the song "First Time" by Family Force 5

The song messes me up every time I hear or think about the words. I know there are songs out there like this that raise the question "Is he talking about a girl or God?" but when I hear it my heart leaps in me at the thought of a first time with God every day!

When I think about it I remember many "first times" in my life. I remember the first time my Mom rented a movie. It was "Pete's Dragon" when we didn't own a VCR and she rented one from Albertson's...hilarious when you think about it now! I remember when Jessica and I went on our first date, our first kiss, our first day of marriage, and so on. I remember when I was first saved. I remember when I was first filled with the Holy Spirit. That day my life was flipped up-side-down and backwards. It was absolutely amazing and the thought that there are first times like that with God every day is overwhelming to me.

Isaiah 6:1-4

'1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.'

When the writers in the Bible wanted to emphasise something they didn't have exclamation points to show it, they would simply repeat the word. There are only a few times a word is found to be repeated three times. Here in Isaiah, he is describing what he sees at the throne of God. There are angels there flying around the throne. They are not simply repeating "holy, holy, holy" but they are SCREAMING "HHOOLLYYY"! They are in fact screaming it so loud that the doorposts of the temple are shaking!

If you have ever been educated about earthquakes you know that a doorway is the safest place to be because it is the strongest place in the framing of a wall. Here in the temple of God...in HEAVEN...the most perfect doorpost in existence is shaking because the angels are screaming so loud.

The point here is that every time the angels see a different attribute of the glory of God they are so amazed that they cannot help but be overcome with His holiness and respond the only way they can. That is what it means to have a first time with God every day.
If that doesn't move something in you then it is obvious it has been too long since you had a first time with the Lover of your soul. Pursue the next first time with God, it is impossible to
be disappointed with Him...He's AWESOME!

Bless you,
Justin

First Times

"The first time that I saw your face

The first time that you spoke my name

The first time that I heard you say

There's a first time with me everyday

The first time that I felt your touch

The first time I couldn't get enough"

This is the chorus from the song "First Time" by Family Force 5

The song messes me up every time I hear or think about the words. I know there are songs out there like this that raise the question "Is he talking about a girl or God?" but when I hear it my heart leaps in me at the thought of a first time with God every day!

When I think about it I remember many "first times" in my life. I remember the first time my Mom rented a movie. It was "Pete's Dragon" when we didn't own a VCR and she rented one from Albertson's...hilarious when you think about it now! I remember when Jessica and I went on our first date, our first kiss, our first day of marriage, and so on. I remember when I was first saved. I remember when I was first filled with the Holy Spirit. That day my life was flipped up-side-down and backwards. It was absolutely amazing and the thought that there are first times like that with God every day is overwhelming to me.

Isaiah 6:1-4

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;the whole earth is full of his glory."

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

When the writers in the Bible wanted to emphasise something they didn't have exclamation points to show it, they would simply repeat the word. There are only a few times a word is found to be repeated three times. Here in Isaiah, he is describing what he sees at the throne of God. There are angels there flying around the throne. They are not simply repeating "holy, holy, holy" but they are SCREAMING "HHOOLLYYY"! They are in fact screaming it so loud that the doorposts of the temple are shaking!

If you have ever been educated about earthquakes you know that a doorway is the safest place to be because it is the strongest place in the framing of a wall. Here in the temple of God...in HEAVEN...the most perfect doorpost in existence is shaking because the angels are screaming so loud.

The point here is that every time the angels see a different attribute of the glory of God they are so amazed that they cannot help but be overcome with His holiness and respond the only way they can. That is what it means to have a first time with God every day.

If that doesn't move something in you then it is obvious it has been too long since you had a first time with the Lover of your soul. Pursue the next first time with God, it is impossible to be disappointed with Him...He's AWESOME!

Bless you,

Justin

Divine Appointments

On one occasion I was driving to Lubbock.  It was early in the morning and I turned off the radio and spent some time communing with God.  In the course of the conversation the Holy Spirit speaks to me and says "You have learned to look for Divine appointments" and I said "yes Lord." Then He says "You have learned that everyone is a Divine appointment" and again I said "yes Lord."  Then He asks me "do realize I made you to create Divine appointments?"  I had to think about that one for a second.  He began to show me how each and every relationship and encounter with people we have to be aware of the importance of our influence in their lives.

I thought about this and a few Scriptures come to mind.

Ps 24:7

Lift up your heads, O you gates;

be lifted up, you ancient doors,

that the King of glory may come in. 

NIV

Matt 16:19

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

NIV

Acts 3:6-7

Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." 

NIV

I pictured myself sitting on the throne as a prince in the Kingdom and the King sitting next to me on His throne.  I understood it was for me to distribute the Kingdom to others as they came to me.  Then I asked Him "What if I make a discision that isn't what you want?" and He responded "I'll let you know."

Bill Johnson often has said that the Holy Spirit is imprisoned inside unbelieving believers.  Sounds like an oximoron but what he is saying is that many who call Jesus "Lord" are living powerless lives because they don't believe they are the righteousness of God and they don't believe they have what it takes to live a supernatural lifestyle.  The Holy Spirit inside each believer is more than enough to see all impossible situations bow to the name of Jesus.

We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are walking Divine appointments.  We are to imitate our older Brother Jesus.  He is the perfect picture of the normal Christian.  We are the gates and He wants out!

I challenge you to take risks.  You may not have all the answers to all their questions and that is o.k. you don't have to.  However, you know and have inside you the One who has all the answers and for that matter He IS all the answers.  You have to trust God in you to speak to and through you into the lives of the world around you.  We have to start answering the questions they are asking and stop answering the ones they are not.

Take risks. Pray for the sick. Love the unloveable. Speak the Word of God with boldness.  Above all remember that the only thing that counts, according to Paul, is faith expressing it'self through love.

Justin

Relationships: part 2

Recently, I have been hooking up with old friends on Facebook. I am not calling any of you old, I am simply stating that we haven't seen each other in a long time. I have to say that I have had some amazing relationships over the course of my life. I am thankful for every person in my life, past or present.


I would like to start by saying that we cannot dwell on or in the past, but we can and MUST learn from it. The question is: what can I learn from my past? What can I glean from those decisions that I have made that can be helpful today?

The fact that I have a son who is about to turn 12 years old in a month or so is contributing the most to this time of reflection. I want him to know the truth about the changes a middle school boy goes through...the physical, mental, and emotional changes. Boy, oh boy!

Girls, girls, girls! I think that is all that was on my mind at that age...yeah, relationships, that is a big subject. It is a big SCARY subject seeing how I don't know much more about girls now than I did back then. Seriously, I made some poor decisions as a teenager when it came to girls. In fact, I would like to apologize to those women I may have hurt or disrespected...whew!

I am by no means a perfect husband but I AM trying. One of my greatest desires is to see my son make better decisions than I did and become a better man than I have become. It is my responsibility as his father to reflect the character and nature of our Father in Heaven. I have made it my conviction to be the greatest influence in his adolescent years second only to God.

My dad NEVER talked to me about girls. I remember on one occasion when we were visiting relatives in Tennessee. We were driving somewhere with my Great-Aunt Thelma and we passed a house where a girl was out mowing the grass. Dad looks over and tells me "there you go." I honestly had no idea what he was talking about! My aunt said he was talking about the girl but he never did that before and never did it again. I hope I can be a little less awkward about it than that...no offense to my dad.

I want Tyson to know how God and I expect him to pray for, find, and treat his future wife. I am thankful for the relationships I have had. They have made me who I am today but I am not proud of some of the things I did in those relationships. I pray Tyson will look back on this time and be proud of the fact that God was in his life and he made good decisions. I want to make that kind of impact on him...pray for me.

Justin
P.S. I also have a daughter...please pray for me a lot!

Where do I draw the line?

John 12:47-50

47 "As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. 48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. 49 For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." -NIV

I was reading over this Passage the other day and just had to stop to let it soak in. Jesus says here that the person who hears my words but doesn't keep them are free from His judgement...WHAT?! You're trying to tell me when someone hears and doesn't obey that the King of kings and the Lord of lords doesn't zap them? He doesn't JUDGE them? Isn't God supposed to be punishing us when we do wrong?

I am kidding of course. I just want to point out something here. If we are followers of Jesus, then we should be in the process of becoming more like Him. If He doesn't judge then neither should we. I understand the motives behind so many in the church coming down hard on people who live in sin but the problem is it isn't Scriptural.

I have found recently that I get in more trouble for talking about the Love of God and this portion of Scripture that we are looking at here. The issue is people use guilt, shame, and fear to manipulate others to act the way they think they should. Oh, don't get me wrong, they are doing so with the best intentions. The only problem is...God doesn't do things that way.

God is sooo much better than we think most of the time. It is time the church truly repents. True repentance is simply changing the way we think. We need to start with changing the way we think about how we think God thinks about us. Wow, what a mouth full. This is the place we need to start...and I will stop here for now ending with this thought. If I am to moderate the actions of the people in my church then where do I draw the line of grace? How long do we put up with people's mistakes and bad decisions? When do I put my foot down? When did Jesus put His foot down? Spend some time on this thought. If you have something on your mind please share.

Justin

Whatcha lookin' at?

Often in our lives we are affected by people and circumstances that surround us. This happens to the best of us even though we are warned about the dangers of it by Scripture.

Isaiah 60:1-2

1. "Arise, shine, for your light has come,and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. 2. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples,but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.

Darkness covers the earth...that tells me that the earth is not the place I want to fix my gaze!

The point is that if we are looking at the world that is covered in darkness (disasters, famines, economic collapse...) then we are promised to be discouraged, depressed, and disheartened by it.  

When we live in that state we tend to only be hopeful for the next God encounter.  We come to church and other meetings to get a "boost" so to speak.  We have to have these encounters to lift us up.  Sounds good and sounds like we are "fighting the good fight" and "enduring till the end."  This is "survival" christianity.  Jesus didn't come and die for mankind so we could get by.  He made us more than overcomers!

This is why we are commanded by our God in Isaiah 60 to ARISE AND SHINE!!!  You see, our Light has come, the Glory of God is upon us.  Jesus is the Light of the world.  He tells us to let OUR light shine before men.  We need to come to each gathering with our heads already lifted because the Bible says He IS the lifter of our heads!  We need to come to each meeting not as though we need a "pick me up" but to get to the next level.  We are supposed to go on from Glory to Glory.  Not Glory to empty back to Glory.  Each encounter is designed by God to take us to a new height and a new level in Him.  We won't get to a new level if we keep going down after each encounter.

Don't allow the darkness around you to bring you down.  You may be saying: "that is easy for you to say..."  I would like to point out that the Bible says that we are to live by faith and not by sight.  We are never given permission to live by what we can see.  More times than not we are living by what we cannot explain much less see!  We have only one choice...look up!

Justin

time gone by....

Well, it has been a heck a long time since I have blogged.  Same ole excuse, been soooo busy, but it is true none the less.

I have been reflecting today on my life experiences, mostly the hard ones.  I was thinking about the really difficult times when, you know, it feels like the end of the world at the time.

I remember when my dad committed suicide.  It was out of nowhere.  He wasn't the kind to do something like that so it took us completely by suprise.  Thank God that I had an encounter with Him about 6 months before that and all my weight fell on Him.

Weight...an interesting word.  You might not think so unless you are thinking about your's, weight I mean.  Consider this:

Proverbs 3:5 - KJV

   Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Trust is a simple word that we often take for granted the meaning.  Dictionaries define trust as confidence in, dependance upon, faith in, or belief in.  Well that sounds simple enough but let me illustrate trust in a way that might help.  Perhaps you are sitting in a chair as you read this.  You are placing your "trust" in that chair.  You have placed your full weight in the chair and you are fully confident and believe it will support your weight.  That is trust.  More for some than others.

Now apply that concept to what the writer of Proverbs is saying. Trust - put all your weight - in the Lord and lean not - put no weight - in your own understanding.  When we trust God we are literally placing all of our weight in Him.  We are completely confident that He is able to hold us up.  We are completely dependant on Him.  We have faith in Him.  We believe Him!

That is what it means to Trust Him!

Just a simple thought but powerful and I hope it encourages someone.

Justin