"Let the Stable still Astonish;

Straw - dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,
And then, the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry
In a trough.
Who would have chosen this?"
 
"Who would have said 'Yes,
Let the God of all the heavens
and earth
Be born here in this place'?
Who but the same God

Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms of our
hearts and says,

'Yes, let the God of heaven and earth be born
here-
in this place.'"
 
Light From Heaven
by Jan Karon

Nothing Can Separate you from the Love of God

Fact One...God's Love

Here is something I imagined today. Imagine with me.  The love of God is often compared with the deepest oceans and the highest heights. 

 Imagine, if you could actually quantify God's love,  that the love of God was roughly the sum of all the water on earth.  Next imagine yourself lying underneath a giant funnel that could contain all this water.  Finally, you see a screen next to you with the statement "Do you want to accept? Yes or No?" and you reach your miniscule little hand out (with trembling!)  to hit the button that says "accept" and WOOOSH. That is only the beginning of the Love that God longs to pour out on us. 

Fact Two....NOTHING can separate you

Yesterday I read this verse... "Psa 106:46  He also made them objects of compassion in the presence of all their captors."...Imagine, just for a moment that Satan has you utterly and tightly in his sweaty grip; he is grinning ear to ear and he is drooling over you.  He has everything just the way he likes it: utter disarray.  He has your finances, he has your family, and he has you....trapped.  But right there in the midst of helpless captivity, you see God, and you see Him coming with haste.  Nothing is slowing him down.  The walls that seem to keep you imprisoned don't seem to phase Him at all.  And right there while in the grip of the enemy, God busts out the giant funnel and drenches you in His love.   Satan and his crew get up and try to stop the wonderful outpouring , but it is sooo massive that they can't even make a thimble's worth of damage. 

Let's look at this verse...

'For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'  Romans 8:38-39 

Now imagine with me that you get what the Word is saying.  It is saying that His un-measurable love WILL break through in your situations...in your life no matter how great! It is saying that storms won't stop it, noise and distractions won't hinder it, earthquakes and natural disasters don't match its power, and demonic and angelic forces whimper and worship before it.  The Word of God says that you are not alone in your battle or struggle, you might feel the grip of captivity for a moment, but watch out, because the Love of God is coming with dramatic force and with an incredible fury.

Let us be people today that proclaim the greatness of the Lord that submits to no man, power or principality.  Let us be people today that reach out in faith and signal to God that we wholeheartedly accept all that He has in store for those who love Him.  Let us be people this season that see the massive love of God, not contained in a giant funnel, but in a manger.

Isaiah 32:2  Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. (ESV) 

I was a bit convicted today.  At times, life and its circumstances send me to my knees.  You know, when you have a tough situation (good or bad) that's difficult to escape.  It dwells in your thoughts. It hovers over you as you try to get the day's work done.

It is consuming and it demands resolution.  I faced a bit of that today.  More than any other season in my life with Jesus, this season has been about facing those battles.  My battle plan... go to Jesus.  Some people think I may be over-spiritual, I may be, but listen up, I have tried all sorts of other things in the world, and nothing deals with life's problems better than the Giver of Life. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.  He is the author and perfecter of my faith, He is the one that conquered  hell and the grave, and His resurrected life is in me. 

More than any season of my life I have seen victory...real victory.  I get a super-dose of faith when I take my problem and whatever storm I am in and go to the feet of Jesus and He shows up and gives me victory.  Sometimes the situation or circumstances remain, but He has taken me above them and enabled me to be in the midst of them without being consumed by them. 

Psalm 23:5  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. (ESV) 

So why was I convicted today?  The Holy Spirit made me aware of how quickly I fall to my knees for my life, for my needs, for God to break through in and for me.  Don't get me wrong, God always wants us to cast our cares on Him because He cares for us, but how little we offer ourselves up again to carry the prayers and burdens of the people around us.  I think he was saying that we have constant access to that place of victory, and not just for ourselves.  I was reminded of a story...

I was at a conference for International students in Illinois in June where a student from China requested prayer for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  She began speaking in an unknown language  as soon as the man who had been teaching prayed for her!  As we continued praying for other students, it was hard not to see that she was crying.  She was a bit scared, because the Spirit was moving through her so strongly that she could not stop.  After about 45 minutes, she was not scared, but she still could not stop.  The teacher went up to her and said, "the Holy Spirit is a gentleman, maybe He will stop if you ask him."  She asked the Holy Spirit, and wrote down her answer that pretty much said "No, the Holy Spirit has a lot to pray for, and I will let him pray as long as he needs to".  We were all so convicted because we knew that it was true.  All God is looking for is willing vessels; willing to not only give their time to seek him for our needs, but to let Him pray through us for the people around us. 

So let us continue to bring our request before God with thanksgiving, but let us also ask and believe for the grace to offer ourselves up to pray for others the way we do for ourselves and the people we love.   God will give us prayers if will we give ourselves to God. 

Eze 22:30  And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. (ESV)

"Give me your heart my son,
and let your eyes delight in my ways"

Proverbs 23:26 (NASB).  Take a  moment and go back over that verse.  I pray that right now you wouldn't read this verse...I pray that you hear that voice from the very depths of our Father is heaven.

When I read this verse not long ago, it seemed to get louder and louder and clearer and clearer.  Do you know (I pray that you know!) how good it is to hear the voice of our Father speak over you.  He does you know...he SPEAKS and he speaks and he SpEaKs, and through these few words I could feel God speaking to me.  "What do you mean Lord?," I asked, "don't you have my heart?"

·       You have heard of the protestant work ethic, well these folks invented it, in fact they gave new meaning to the concept of toil for Christ. 

·       Have you ever worked out? There are times on that bench, elliptical, or treadmill that your body says NO!, but you have to press through it, well these folks had that sort of spiritual perseverance down.

Howdy! I reckon it is time to kick things off with a new inspirations post.  I was training at Southern Illinois University with Chi Alpha Campus Ministries to be a missionary to secular college campuses.  My year is up and I just moved back to the DC area over the weekend.  What a great experience. And how great it is to be back. 

On my last Sunday in Calvary Campus Church in Carbondale, IL, I sat looking around at the most amazing church I have ever attended.  The message was incredible, the love of the Body of Christ was thick, the worship was anointed, and souls were getting saved, filled and healed.  There were over twenty different nations represented in one place on one Sunday and all of them were worshiping One King with one heart, one spirit and one voice (Isa. 43:5).  It took my breath away.  I shook my head as I asked myself why I was leaving during the greatest move of God they had seen in 18 years.  I sat back with tears in my eyes and a deep burden on my heart and smiled.  The smile reflected the joy that was in my heart and the exciting adventure I now faced.  I was going with Jesus…by his power and by his leading, and there wasn’t any other place I wanted to be.  There is nothing like walking with Jesus…NOTHING! It is against the grain, but it is the only place of absolute fulfillment, absolute power, and absolute joy (Gal. 2:20, Phil 3:8). 

My pastor at church sternly told me that what I was seeing there was NOT an anomaly…it is replicable.  What a daunting task it seemed like going somewhere like DC or University of Maryland to do the same thing.  It is going to take serious spiritual warfare to see God purposes and plans accomplished (Eph 6:10-18).  I am learning that there is more to spiritual warfare than radical prayers.  I am learning that the war is fought every minute of every day. 

What if we let Jesus live through us in actions and power and not just words (1 Cor. 4:20)?  What if we let go of the concept that spiritual warfare is what the praying women, the “spiritual people” and leaders of our churches do behind closed doors once a week.  What if we fought greed with giving?  What if we fought laziness with vigilance?  What if we fought the stronghold of self with self-sacrifice of time and money? What if we didn’t just say “be gone” to the spirit of the world, but we took a stand against it with an opposing spirit…. a spirit of forgiveness, a spirit of love, a spirit that shows its power through radical decisions and strategic actions?  What if we embraced the reality that the war is going on all around us ALL THE TIME? What if we battled Satan with our lives?

2 Questions…

1) Is Jesus in you?  If not get right with Him: http://www.needgod.com/

2) Can Jesus in You be stopped?  Or do you have some sort of BETA version Jesus in you that doesn’t have all the features Jesus had when he paid for your sin, defeated Satan and rose again so that you may have ALL of Him??? 

I am weak, I mess up, but I am coming back to Maryland with the dream and the confidence that Jesus is in me and able to do anything, anywhere. God’s going forth is as certain as the dawn and I plan to go with Him (Hosea 6:3).  Let us rise up together in faith with radical lifestyles of warfare and see Jesus receive the glory he deserves let us see and the spirit of the world come down by the power Christ in us.

I must tell you that God has brought me to an awesome place.  It is a ministry that relies on prayer, feeds off the Word of God (I am talking about some serious devouring and feasting), believes in power of God like a little child, and sees the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  I have seen a girl get healed of a lump in her breast (by simply and quietly asking God to heal her). I have a friend here who got saved in March and has already led about 40 people to the Lord. And I saw a girl who cursed like a sailor, came to church with hangovers, and listened to satanic music (literally) receive the resurrection life of Jesus Christ and be completely changed in less than 2 weeks. 

As much as this has been a season of encouragement, it has been a season of challenging.  On the one hand I am seeing how great God is; on the other hand, I am seeing the true condition of my heart. I have been exposed to the same gospel, the same words, and the same truth.  Essentially…God has planted the same seeds in me as He did in them.  Why do we bear different fruit? Why don’t we see this fruit on the East Coast? Why don’t we see this in all churches and in all Christians? Why not in me? 

A hard heart is a horrible place for a seed to grow…a seed needs moisture to grow. 

Here is the problem.  Many of us go to great churches that have great teaching and great Love for God.  We don’t have many outward, obvious or visible sins. But many of us are frustrated, not at peace, and aware of the fact that we need to grow.  Here is an illustration…the same son that melts butter, also hardens clay.  When you are exposed to large amounts of the Word (which is far more powerful that the son because God spoke and the son existed) and don’t act on it, you get hard (read James 1:23-24).  People raised in church often have this problem because they know so much and do so little (this point is also illustrated by the amount of Pastor’s Kid’s and Missionary’s Kids slide far away from God…lots of truth and little doing).  The very truth that saves you…can harden you when you don’t act on it…  

God has been using this article called “Breaking the Fallow Ground” by Charles Finney and rewritten by Keith and Melody Green (which means that it gets right to the heart of the matter…praise God the Greens!) to break me. This article takes you through 26 areas of sin that make you hard. Here are a few excerpts: 

a) Lack of Love for God: Think of how grieved and alarmed you’d be, if you suddenly realized a great lack of affection for you in your wife, husband or children – if you saw someone else had captured their hearts, thoughts, and time. Perhaps in such a case you’d almost die with a just and holy jealousy. Now, God calls himself a jealous God.  Have you not given your heart to other loves and infinitely offended him?

b) Unbelief: Recall the instances in which you have virtually charged the God of Truth with lying, by your unbelief of His express promises and declarations.  If you have not believed or expected to receive the blessings which God has clearly promised, you have called him a liar. 

c) Vanity: How many times have you spent more time decorating your body to go to church, than you have preparing your heart and mind for worship of God (this one really sounds like Keith Green!)? You have cared more about how you appeared outwardly to men than how your soul appeared in the sight of God.  

When we don’t act on the entirety of God’s Word with childlike faith…we get hard.  I have seen it in my own life. Have you?  

Lord, help us today.  Let us be doers of your word.  Let us not take in all the riches of heaven only to forget about them moments later.  Let us not get comfortable.  Let us not be deceived into thinking we have arrived or that we are without sin. We are sinners Lord! Let us press into you, so that you may break up our hard hearts, so that you may be more alive and more glorified in us. 

“Rid yourself of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit.” Ezekiel 18:31

Yesterday, I was walking down the mall at Maryland and there was a runner coming my direction.  He had a soccer ball with him and he was very simply kicking it enough to keep it in front of him as he ran.  But when we got right next to each other, he looked up at me and booted the ball at a brick wall.  The ball was kicked with precision and it returned to him, he flipped it up in the air and began to juggle the ball in the air….WHILE RUNNING.  I must admit it was impressive. 

But who in the heck were these two guys trying to impress?  I certainly don't think it had anything to do with me. It is in our nature to show off.  The skateboard guy only rode down the hill like that because someone was watching.  Super Soccer guy didn't do anything with that ball for like 300 feet…until he knew a person was watching. 

We all do this! Christians do this. I do this. Especially when people are watching. Its not real and it can be dangerous. We see it all too much in America.  We put our best sides forward. We are well groomed, well dressed, we smell good, we act right, and we have very few problems.  Yea right.  That only lasts so long in God's kingdom.  The people God uses the most are the ones who know they don't have anything good in themselves. They are the ones that know they are sinners.  Their best side is their weakness.  Today lets not take it into our own hands to show our best side.  If its truly our best side, it is God- given.  If it is God-given he will want to show it off…but lets let God take care of putting our best side forward…lest we take a nasty spill.

Proverbs 16:18  Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 11:2  When Pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

You may ask “what in the world is Greg doing there?” or “what does that have to do with your inspirations piece?”  Both good questions…please hang in there as I try to figure that out myself…

As a campus missionary, I am now affiliated with the Assemblies of God, the second largest employer in Springfield.  I am here for Reach the University Institute; a 2-week intense training session for those God is calling to reach students on Campus.

What a blessing it is to be here!  I am in my element.  I am surrounded by people who have a very similar burden and passion, yet we all have different stories of how God got us to this point. 

It was hard to get here…