The Truth of God's Wonder

Ephesians 4:25 ESV

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 

The work that Christ does in our hearts is truly miraculous.  Christ gave himself up for me so that I may be made new, by putting away all falsehood, and instead, living in the light of truth; recognizing that truth only comes from God, the creator of all things.  Who am I, to challenge the truth of God's spoken word?  He is the sovereign God who gave me the ability to contemplate Him, confront my deceitful heart, and marvel at my souls eternal existence.  The wonder of God defines the truth that I pursue.  I also find beauty in knowing that I will never be able to fully comprehend this truth and the God that loves me, like only a father can.  This passage of scripture makes me think of love.  What a broad thing love can be, especially when I recognize that God is the author of it.  Fortunately for me, I was raised in an environment that expressed this to me.

In Ephesians 4, Paul takes us on a crucial and life changing journey.  It so crucial that we put away our old way of life, of thinking, of acting, of responding and take on a new mind and heart, that comes directly from Christ.  Sometimes I forget that Christ is far more than just words on a page, or truths once told to me by my family and friends.  When I surrendered my life to Christ, and admitted that I was a sinner, I received the Holy Spirit.  The same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead entered my life, so that, my soul would be realigned with God's heart, and God's desires.  That experience is crucial, and that experience is life changing. 

Paul says we are to "speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another."  Previously, I had said that the wonder of God defines the truth that I pursue.  If this is what I seek, according to Paul, this is also what I must share with the world around me.  One of the best ways to infect the world with wonder of God is to first, be in authentic awe of God. 

Psalm 8:1-4 ESV

O Lord, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

Out of the mouth of babies and infants,

you have established strength because of your foes,

to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

I pray that when I look at the moon and the stars, that I would stand in awe of God's hugeness and magnificence.  Once I am there, staring into the eyes of God's creation, I see his character and am filled with his love.  I realize how small I am and how sovereign He is, and yet, he chooses to work in my life everyday and every moment.  This experience is what will infect the world with the truth of God's wonder because your heart begins to overflow.  God is not just enough, He is abundantly more than you could ever ask for or imagine.  

I want to make sure I take the time to stand in awe of God's magnificence so that I can infect the world with the truth of God's wonder. I can only do this with a heart that is overflowing from the grace that God has so abundantly poured out upon me.

Renewed

~Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV~

to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Life has been interesting lately.   I use the word interesting because it seems to be the only word broad enough to encompass everything running through my mind.  I struggle with relationships, and sometimes a misunderstanding of what true friendship is.  I struggle with busyness and filling my life with things that are, in my eyes, important.  I struggle with wanting to be abundantly successful at everything I do.  With friends, I often find satisfaction in completion instead of quality. - "Well I did this, for this friend... that's good enough right? Yeah okay."  These patterns are, to me, signs of my former manner of life.  They are all thoughts and actions that scream out MY name, not Gods.  It is so easy to let selfishness creep into my life and forget that selfishness is the foundation of sin.  It brings forth what my hard heart desires, and chokes out the only source of light, being fed into my life.  I am ready to be renewed.

I think it is important for me to ask myself what it really looks like to be renewed in my life right now.  In the verse above it shows us that when we are renewed, we live in our new self which is created after God's righteousness and holiness.  Before stating that, it says we must be renewed in the spirit of your mind.  THAT is what I need right now.  Sometimes I let myself forget that I am a broken and messed up human being who's original nature is set on opposing God.  My life is set on opposing God because I strive to nurture my own desires, instead of His.  I am ready to be broken before God so that, my mind can be renewed, so that I may reflect the true nature of God's righteousness and holiness, and so that I can experience true freedom and purpose that only comes through the redeeming power of Jesus Christ.

When I see the world through Christ's sacrifice, I am humbled and optimistic about God's plan for my life. By seeing the importance of my circumstances, I discover the vital piece that they play in changing who I am, in hopes of changing the hurting world around me.  I may struggle with relationships, but I have a relationship with the living God who's love never stops being poured out upon me.  That realization gives me strength to love my friends in a NEW way.  It motivates me to give more to the people in my life, when I remember that God has given me everything.  I no longer find satisfaction in completion, but instead, by listening to the Holy Spirit when He says go there or, rest now.  I no longer find happiness in success, because I realize that the only reason I am able to know a perfect God is because of His perfect sacrifice for me.  I don't NEED to be successful when Christ has already given me overwhelming victory over circumstances and over my sin.

Thank you God for renewing my life today and everyday.

Receiving and Believing

Mathew 13:13-17

¹³ That is why I use these parables,

   For they look, but they don’t really see. 

      They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.

   ¹⁴ This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says,

   ‘When you hear what I say, 

      you will not understand. 

   When you see what I do, 

      you will not comprehend. 

   ¹⁵ For the hearts of these people are hardened, 

      and their ears cannot hear, 

   and they have closed their eyes— 

      so their eyes cannot see, 

   and their ears cannot hear, 

      and their hearts cannot understand, 

   and they cannot turn to me 

      and let me heal them.

   ¹⁶ “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. ¹⁷ I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.

When I found this verse I stopped to think about what I had just read.  I thought about all of the different messages that have been spoken to me through out the years and all of the substance that each one of those messages contained.  I believe that God appoints leaders and speakers to speak His truth into other peoples lives for a purpose.  God was speaking to ME in those moments.  What if I TRULY received everything that I heard? What if I took it a step further than "a belief" and REALLY started to believe what God told me? I know that if I really started to receive and believe what God tells me everyday that I would be and will be in the middle of a move of God.

This concept really hits home for me and I believe that there are many other people who can relate.  I didn't have a rough childhood or get into trouble all that often, but I can honestly tell you that I have experienced the difference between actively believing in something, and "a belief".  A belief is a phrase, but believing is a lifestyle.  A belief is a thought, but believing is when you do something with that idea.  I can also tell you that I have experienced the difference between hearing and receiving.  When you hear something you think about it for a time, but when you whole heartedly receive something it changes who you are and how you live out your life everyday.  I know for a fact that there are many people who have heard the Gospel and about the love of Jesus, but they have never let Him change their heart.  Our hearts start to change when we allow God to touch our lives in a real and personal way.

I was recently presented with the opportunity to speak truth into my classmates at Lake Nona Highschool.  In English we were to write a song, and it could be about whatever we wanted it to be about.  I saw this as an opportunity to share my faith with my peers and to challenge them to make the most of their life that has been given to them.  So I wrote this song about how God desires for all of His children to come to a knowledge of Him, but that can only happen when we choose to listen and receive what He has done for us. Below is that song.

We will only experience God's love when we personally take TIME to receive from Him and let Him change who we are.  If you have a relationship with the lord, ask for Him to show His love to you everyday so that you can INFECT the world around you with the love of Jesus Christ.  If you don't REALLY know God in your life, I pray that you will take the time to really receive from God and start living a lifestyle of believing; a lifestyle of radical faith.  God is standing in your direction with arms wide open waiting for you to turn around and fall into His embrace.  I pray that we can discern hearing from receiving and "a belief" from believing and as the church, we WILL change the world.

The Fuel

I just want to say that I'm really sorry for not blogging at all recently.  I'm not going to say that I am going to blog on a regular basis from here on out, because I've tried that and I didn't do what I said I would. I don't like to lie.  So again I'm sorry, but I have some things I want to share with you. 

First off I want to say how much I miss everything about Minnesota.  I grew up there and poured my life into my church there, my friends there, and my family there.  Naturally I am going to miss what I consider "Home".  I am going to feel like a part of me is missing, or has been taken away.  Through all of this, I've realized how blessed I was, and even how blessed I am right now.  I don't feel like I really left everything behind, but more like I left a certain platform in my life; a chapter you might say.  When I think about authors who write books, I can only imagine that they put all their time in effort into every chapter, and every adjective that gives character to every sentence.  But when they finish that chapter, they don't move on to the next and pretend like the previous chapter never happened. No, they take the details from before, to form and mold the next chapter into a beautiful story.  A story with intricate details, where the past affects the future, and the future affects the past.  Authors create stories with a purpose in mind.  By starting this next chapter in my life, I am really getting to see how God is writing my story.  How He is shaping me to live out a life long vision, that gives Him glory.  I know it won't be easy, in fact it's intimidating. But by giving up everything, I have found an authentic passion to complete what I was called to do.

I honestly believe that God's kingdom is built by people who have an authentic passion for their purpose in God's plan, and that passion can only be fueled by truly surrendering yourself to Him.  If someone offered you your dream job, and said to you, "The only thing I want you to do, is give me your house because I don't like mine anymore and I think yours is cooler.  If you do that, the job is yours. No strings attached." you wouldn't just be like, "DEAL! It's yours." No, you would think about all of your different options and probably put a lot of energy and thought into your decision.  Now lets just say that you decide to give up your house for your DREAM JOB after many hours of stressful days and sleepless nights, thinking about the decision that you need to make.  Would you go in to work your first day in some old smelly jeans, and with broccoli stuck in your teeth from your supper the night before? I doubt it.  You would take ownership for two reasons:

1.)  This job is a privilege, and the decisions that you make everyday will affect who comes after you forever.

2.)  You gave up everything that you have to step into this position.  By making one decision, you've instantly poured your heart and soul into this job.

God hired you a long time ago, by sending His only son to die on the cross for your and for me.  He is always there waiting... hoping that you accept his free gift of love.  By surrendering our hearts to God, a passion will ignite in our hearts that is fueled by our commitment and love for Him.  The decisions that we make everyday, whether that be big or small, affect our life and the lives of everyone around us, for eternity.  God has called us to look at even the SMALL situations in life with a HUGE passion and purpose.  Let's live out our passion for God everyday, by surrendering our hearts to Him. Together we will build God's Kingdom.

What fuels you?

Realize

So I wrote a song one day kind of on accident and decided to record it super fast.  So I recorded it all in my house in one night and I thought it would be fun to share it with you guys.  The song is extremely short but basically sums up the attitude I am trying to keep through this whole process. Feel free to share this video if you want! I hope you enjoy and I will put the lyrics beneath the video.

I’ve come to realize

Everything I have that I’m leaving behind

Came from you

And It’s still yours

I’ve come to realize

Why you’re asking me to leave my life behind

Because you

You have something new... For me. 

Action

Philippians 1 : 19-22

Yes, and I will rejoice, 19for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.

Paul was an amazing person.  He knew what it meant to love God with his whole heart.  Paul loved who God was so much that all he wanted to was go and be with him, to worship him constantly and that is why he said "to die is gain" but he was sold out for God's purposes and knew that there were still people who needed to know God's love in the same way he did. What if we had the mind set of "If I have to be on this earth, then every day, every minute is going to be spent furthering the Kingdom of God"? WHAT IF --- we were to stop asking questions about what could happen and instead; ask for the courage to change our world in a real and relevant way like Paul did?

Prayer---

God empower me with the courage to stand up for you.  Remind me to stop asking "What if?" and start asking "What's next?".  I want everyone to experience your love like I have. Don't let my life be about ME. I want life to count for you and you ALONE.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

So many of you may already know that my band Slaves to Righteousness just recorded our own version of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" (There is a link to the song at the bottom of this blog post).  I absolutely love the way that it turned out but it is also sad for me because I realize that this is the last song I will be releasing with this group of guys.  They have ALL been my best friends for the last few years, and we have gone through and done lots of crazy stuff over the last few years.  I will miss them more than they know; but do know that my life will never be the same because of what God has done in our lives.


Throughout the entire recording process I never really took the time to step back from the busyness,to just read and take to heart what the lyrics have to say in this song.  Finally after it was mixed, mastered and sent to me I decided to look up the lyrics online and read along while listening to the song.  I had a real experience with God in that moment because he gave me peace but most of all he gave me HOPE.  "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" is a song of hope.  

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel,

Shall come to thee, O Israel

Right now in my life I don't know exactly what God has in store for me, but I have confidence that He has a specific purpose and plan for my life.  I have confidence because Jesus the Son of God came from his throne to this mess of a world, to save someone like me, and by his sacrifice on the cross I know I am saved and I KNOW he loves me and has a purpose for my life. I have HOPE because of Christmas. Merry Christmas!!

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel --- Slaves to Righteousness

This Weird Selfish Feeling

Recently I just feel ready to go to Florida.  I've lived my whole life in Minnesota and have never really experienced this feeling of leaving everything or extreme change.  If you have ever moved or experienced a lot of change then you probably know what I'm talking about.  Everyday is full of "lasts" like "This is the last time I'm going to hang out with this person, or this is the last time I am going to go to this place I have been to a ton of times".  Not that big of a deal but really WEIRD!  Honestly, I am really ready to go there and, selfishly, it's hard to still be here.
I pray everyday for his peace in this time of transition.  I love everyone here and that is what makes it so hard.  Minnesota is my home and I will miss it a lot but I am SO excited to see what God has for me in Florida.

The Trip: Video Blog Day 3

Here is some video from the last full day that we were in Florida. Check it out!

The Trip: Video Blog

Hey here is a video from the first two days of our trip in Florida! Check it out.

The Trip: Day 1

So today my parents and I are going down to Florida together for the first time since the news about the big move. So far, it’s been a blast! I thank God for the family that He gave me because if it wasn’t for them, this transition time would be a million times harder. They are crazy fun, crazy weird (just like me), and crazy on fire for God. I Love you guys =)

So today is Sunday and we had an awesome church service this morning, in which Jerry Sheveland spoke and I was privileged with chance to lead His people into worship. After church I got to hang out with one of my bests friends for a while and then I went home to pack! By the time I was done packing, my mother was fairly close to being done too, except for that she started an hour or two before me! (I had to pick on here a little bit) Getting to the airport went great and we got through security with a few fun experiences... anyways. (I have been taking video most of the day so I will have to share that with you too!) I am on the plane RIGHT NOW and it is ten at night and we won’t be landing until like one in the morning or so. It is definitely going to be a late night, but tomorrow we are going to check out where I will going to school and I believe we are also going to see where we are going to be living as well!

It’s been a good day of traveling and I look forward to telling you about tomorrow and everything I will be seeing! Goodnight.

Faith: The Power of Prayer

God is so awesome, and He loves to reveal himself in interesting ways. Since knowing about the possibility of my parents (and me) moving to Florida, God has shown up in ways so obvious that I COULD NOT ignore Him. In the process of seeing all these signs I never once considered that maybe, maybe they were meant for me to see. They were only there to affirm my parents right? Yeah well... I guess not! haha The day I started to pray I got NERVOUS. I got nervous because I started getting excited about how God could use me there. I know it sounds weird to be nervous about that but, the conflict I faced was that I was feeling lead to go, but I wanted to stay here where I was comfortable, involved, appreciated.

Appreciated? See what I realized is that I could be way more than just appreciated but I could be used by the living God to further His kingdom! Don’t get me wrong, I know that I can and am called to be a light wherever I am, but there is something miraculous about being in the very center of where God wants you that is energizing, and electrifying. If I could challenge you with one thing it would be this:

Pray for God’s perfect plan in your life. Pray crazy prayers. Pray with a sincere heart. Try to dream as big as God does, because as soon as you give up “normal”, He will use you to do bigger and greater things than YOU could have ever dreamed.

Just REMEMBER: The Power of Prayer can, and probably will change your life in radical ways. But through Him; We can change the world.

Faith: Florida?

Let’s get right into this. I am moving to Florida with my parents sometime around the end of December. My dad took a job as The Executive Director of International Ministries for Converge Worldwide. Converge is a denomination made up of right around 1000 churches around the United States and is based out of Orlando, Florida. I never thought in a million years that I would end up in Florida!

One day after school my dad picked me and was driving me to work and when we got there we were a little early... So this is what my dad says to me, “How would you feel about living in Florida?”. Well that really caught me off guard!!! I made him explain and it went like this.

Converge called him and told him that he was a candidate for this new role. At this point they had been looking for someone for about nine months I believe. In the call they asked to him to just pray about applying for the job (now let’s understand that applying does not mean that he is taking the position. There were so many other things that had to happen before it was official.) After praying for a while (this is the short version) he turned in his resume to the board. Long story short, he ended up being the person God has chosen for this position. This is where I start to wrestle with the idea of moving there with them!

NO WAY!... That was my first reaction, and it was actually my reaction for probably 2 months or so. If there is anything to be learned here it’s; don’t shut off your mind to praying about something because it may be God’s perfect plan for you.

Not to long ago my dad challenged me, “Shane, I know you don’t want to move to Florida and I totally understand why but have you actually prayed about possibly going? I will support you no matter what decision you make because I know you will be in the center of God’s plan for you.” Well that put me in a pickle!! So i started to pray. I thought about the idea and eventually I started to feel lead there. But even then my most common prayer went something like this, “Florida? Now?...FLORIDA???”

Faith: The Beginning

About three months ago my family and I started on journey that has now exploded into something amazing, and God has definitely directed us to new and different things. I want to share this with you.

A while back I had tried blogging and I actually really enjoyed it but I had a hard time keeping up with writing for a few different reasons: I was busy, and I didn’t always know what I should write about. Lately my life has been changing majorly and I’m pretty sure there is no way that I will run out of things to write about! Here we go.

I am seventeen and I was born in Minnesota. For sixteen of those years I lived in the same house that I do now. I grew up with my dad as the lead pastor of my church which had it’s own experiences, but most importantly, I grew up in a home that loves and strives after God’s plan for our lives. I really respect my parents for helping me experience God on my own terms. God is not looking for us to follow a bunch of His rules and regulations, but instead to experience Him in a real and relevant way! When Jesus really got a hold of MY heart, I realized that he loves me and that he DOES have a plan for my life working for His purposes. God has blessed me so much with the friends that I have and opportunities He has given me, but recently I opened my heart to God’s plan for me and was forced to come to an extreme realization. My friends, my stuff, and the experiences I have had was not God’s future for my life. That was just The Beginning.