As we breathe and blood circulates we say thank you and I love you.
Hi, I’ve missed you.
I haven’t written in a while and yet it’s not because I haven’t felt the need to it’s just been that life has been so incredibly busy and God has had so much for Tina and I in the past few months. Our lives have been so busy and yet so blessed- to be quite honest it’s these sort of blogs that I both cherish and also find to be frustrating. I’ve gone so many months without a word (or at the least an in depth word) that now I’m sitting here on a Monday night at 10:30 and I have three months of “stuff” to go over and I’m just overwhelmed at even trying to break ground. I could sit here and write a book about all the stuff that I’m feeling, going through, enjoying and preparing for with knowing that I’m going to be a Daddy and that this baby in Tina is such a blessing, such an incredible act of God that my own words can not describe accurately how I feel. I could fill out the better half of a book while writing to you about this youth group, about our experiences so far (and we’ve only come together ONE time!) about what it means to be thought of as a teacher, as a friend to these kids- just to be in their lives and to have an affect on who they are today and who they will become. It’s so incredible, every bit of my life right now is incredible. (have I used the word “incredible” enough yet?)
I sit here nursing a perforated ear drum (otherwise known as a ruptured ear drum) while blood mixed with ear canal fluid drips from my ear to my shoulder and I just spent the last 30 minutes pacing the drive way listening for God and conversing with Him about what needs to happen this Wednesday at our second youth gathering. I’m in pain and overjoyed. Clearly this is the beauty and the craziness of Faith.
How do you witness to the youth today about Jesus?
Where do I start- what will have direct impact? What will draw them into conversation? Can I be ready with an outline and yet be ready to allow God to drastically alter all of it at a moments notice?
It’s in this spontaneous understanding of how God works that I find the most enjoyment. I’m sad for those that have seemingly “pigeon holed” God and have come up with “this is how God works” and have treated Him as someone or something that can be caged and trained to speak, sit and roll over. I love being able to allow God to be God, and that everyday is just another opportunity to seek His face and His presence. I’m not caught up in religion or some sort of tradition that attempts to abort the seed that is the truth which is Jesus Christ. I don’t have to be on the offense all the time and attempt to coarse somebody into believing what I believe by using methods that are totally, and completely not like the way of Jesus. I don’t have to corner someone and watch them squirm as I throw my four spiritual laws in their face and listen to them beg for mercy.
Sometimes all I need to do is just show that I love them. Just love.
That I care. That I’m here. That I believe in a higher power and that higher power died and rose from the grave. I just have to suggest that I believe dead men walk and that we come from a fallen race that has since been lifted back up into glory. I just have to tell them that Jesus is coming back and that we’re part of His rescue mission. Adam is gone and the Last Adam has arrived.
I’m so caught up in what God’s doing right here, right now… that I have trouble concentrating in other areas of my life. Every day I just move closer to his presence… every day I ask for more of what He has to offer- I ask for His love, His power to completely and totally take charge of my life. You see there is this great delusion in Christian circles, that because you go to a Christian college, or a Bible college that you actually spend hours and hours in the scriptures. You do to some degree, but you also spend quite a bit of time in two hundred other books and these books can never fill you in the way that the Bible does. These other books are like condensation on the outside of the glass- but the real stuff, the real good stuff, the stuff that quenches your thirst and can bring you from desolate and dead to alive and breathing is found in the Word itself. Now this isn’t to say that I’ve been a heathen for the past couple years, it’s just that I always came to the scriptures with a magnifying glass in hand and an operation table propped up under it. So I have been praying in recent weeks that I would spend a great deal of time in the scriptures and that I would feel as if I’m drying up like a desert without being in the Word… and since that prayer I have been like a mad man after the Word. So this is why I haven’t blogged, why I haven’t continued on with either book, or why I haven’t been around very much at all. Through reading the Word as a devotional text and not always as a scholarly text- I have found that my Faith has increased, my prayer life has begun to drive skyward, I have become more vocal and sure of who I am in Christ and my knowledge of things have been increased 10-fold as the Word has become apparent through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Most of what was self condemnation and being overly aware of my choices and second guessing myself all the time has been removed through the Life of Freedom courses. My issues with confidence have started to break down and my love for others has begun to open up aggressively. It’s great to be alive right now, and every day is an opportunity to reflect Christ to another.
From this pregnancy to this youth group to my relationship with Soul Quest Church and Pastor Dave- I’ve been so blessed, and how could I ever forget my loving family and the roof that they have put over mine and Tina’s heads. I’m caught up in the truth of the Gospel, and when you get a taste of the reality of the Kingdom- you simply can’t stop talking about it, you can’t stop talking about Him. You want restoration everywhere, and in everything. You want every relationship to count, you want God to purify and restore your work place, you want Him to alter and correct all the stuff that has plagued your family for years, you want Him to reach into the lives of those that you have known your entire life and you know for a fact that they do not know Him at all.
It’s why I get frustrated with work- because I know what it could be like but because of the present systems in place that drive a goal of profit over everything and every one else you can only cry out… “God if they only knew what could be!” I look at the history of my family and those around me I love so deeply and I wonder why we have allowed sickness, and illness, and secrets to manifest themselves into trauma and separation and we have called these things “normal.” I cry more often than ever now for the man on the street who lives out of an old wobbly shopping cart, or the child going to bed tonight who has never known love but only abandonment and abuse or the marriages that just came to an end or the schooled and the religious who have missed Jesus while petitioning for Jesus.
I sometimes wonder just why it is that a lot of people really want Jesus but they don’t always want to know his followers.
I often wonder why people seek the face of Jesus alone and in despair and do everything possible to stay away from the Church. They want Jesus but they don’t very well like the Church.
The answers are both simple and complex, far reaching and ever so close. I wonder if we have taken lightly what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ. I grasp at the very possibility that we as Christian’s could be the only time a person ever experiences Jesus- and we may mess it all up.
I wonder sometimes if we truly take in account that our first encounter with someone could be our last.
I think, and ponder, and pray that we can be a better representation of Him. That we can be the legs, the feet, the arms and the heart of Jesus- that we can love one another, and help show His face to those that are lost. I seek, I question, I sit and wait for Jesus to continue showing his beautiful face and I ask Him if I could do anything else to even come close to an ounce of giving back to Him what he has given me. In waiting I hear that I’m to tell His story, that I’m to live a life that displays his love, affection, joy and truth and that I’m to do all of this humbly and in submission to His will. Amen.
Could we become more aware of what is a definite, and what is in question? That definitely God loves us. That it’s questionable that we totally and truly understand that level of love. That definitely we’re here for a reason. That questionably we often miss the point of it all. That definitely God is in control of anything and everything- that he has created all and he sustains all. That we questionably question His sovereignty and His power and His prestige. That we definitely need to stop fighting over all the stuff that truly DOES NOT matter. That questionably one day we will get there. That we’re definitely beautifully, intricately and immaculately designed. That we can question all that we want but His truth goes deeper, and further and is more vast than any truth we could ever conger up or any question we could ever muster. That we’re definitely in the presence of a God who is full of love for a fallen creation and yet He has made right what we made wrong. That we should question how often we take for granted all the miracles that are everyday circumstances. That it’s not automatic that we’ll breathe another breath or that our blood will continue to circulate through our veins- that getting out of bed in the morning is a complete and total miracle. That we should definitely open our eyes and that we should question just how much we’ll love Him back.
Thank you Jesus for being You. Thank you for loving me when I didn’t know how to love myself. Thank you for the baby that lives, and grows and makes my wife even more beautiful than she already is. Thank you for your Grace, Forgiveness, and Love. Thank you for your Holy Spirit which empowers me, strengthens me, makes the words of the wise, clear and recognizable and heals all of us. I praise you for tonight, and I’ll definitely praise you when I open my eyes tomorrow morning and I’ll question just how much more I can love you back. Thank you for definitely loving me when I questionably didn’t love myself.
- Peace be With You.
Lance
I haven’t written in a while and yet it’s not because I haven’t felt the need to it’s just been that life has been so incredibly busy and God has had so much for Tina and I in the past few months. Our lives have been so busy and yet so blessed- to be quite honest it’s these sort of blogs that I both cherish and also find to be frustrating. I’ve gone so many months without a word (or at the least an in depth word) that now I’m sitting here on a Monday night at 10:30 and I have three months of “stuff” to go over and I’m just overwhelmed at even trying to break ground. I could sit here and write a book about all the stuff that I’m feeling, going through, enjoying and preparing for with knowing that I’m going to be a Daddy and that this baby in Tina is such a blessing, such an incredible act of God that my own words can not describe accurately how I feel. I could fill out the better half of a book while writing to you about this youth group, about our experiences so far (and we’ve only come together ONE time!) about what it means to be thought of as a teacher, as a friend to these kids- just to be in their lives and to have an affect on who they are today and who they will become. It’s so incredible, every bit of my life right now is incredible. (have I used the word “incredible” enough yet?)
I sit here nursing a perforated ear drum (otherwise known as a ruptured ear drum) while blood mixed with ear canal fluid drips from my ear to my shoulder and I just spent the last 30 minutes pacing the drive way listening for God and conversing with Him about what needs to happen this Wednesday at our second youth gathering. I’m in pain and overjoyed. Clearly this is the beauty and the craziness of Faith.
How do you witness to the youth today about Jesus?
Where do I start- what will have direct impact? What will draw them into conversation? Can I be ready with an outline and yet be ready to allow God to drastically alter all of it at a moments notice?
It’s in this spontaneous understanding of how God works that I find the most enjoyment. I’m sad for those that have seemingly “pigeon holed” God and have come up with “this is how God works” and have treated Him as someone or something that can be caged and trained to speak, sit and roll over. I love being able to allow God to be God, and that everyday is just another opportunity to seek His face and His presence. I’m not caught up in religion or some sort of tradition that attempts to abort the seed that is the truth which is Jesus Christ. I don’t have to be on the offense all the time and attempt to coarse somebody into believing what I believe by using methods that are totally, and completely not like the way of Jesus. I don’t have to corner someone and watch them squirm as I throw my four spiritual laws in their face and listen to them beg for mercy.
Sometimes all I need to do is just show that I love them. Just love.
That I care. That I’m here. That I believe in a higher power and that higher power died and rose from the grave. I just have to suggest that I believe dead men walk and that we come from a fallen race that has since been lifted back up into glory. I just have to tell them that Jesus is coming back and that we’re part of His rescue mission. Adam is gone and the Last Adam has arrived.
I’m so caught up in what God’s doing right here, right now… that I have trouble concentrating in other areas of my life. Every day I just move closer to his presence… every day I ask for more of what He has to offer- I ask for His love, His power to completely and totally take charge of my life. You see there is this great delusion in Christian circles, that because you go to a Christian college, or a Bible college that you actually spend hours and hours in the scriptures. You do to some degree, but you also spend quite a bit of time in two hundred other books and these books can never fill you in the way that the Bible does. These other books are like condensation on the outside of the glass- but the real stuff, the real good stuff, the stuff that quenches your thirst and can bring you from desolate and dead to alive and breathing is found in the Word itself. Now this isn’t to say that I’ve been a heathen for the past couple years, it’s just that I always came to the scriptures with a magnifying glass in hand and an operation table propped up under it. So I have been praying in recent weeks that I would spend a great deal of time in the scriptures and that I would feel as if I’m drying up like a desert without being in the Word… and since that prayer I have been like a mad man after the Word. So this is why I haven’t blogged, why I haven’t continued on with either book, or why I haven’t been around very much at all. Through reading the Word as a devotional text and not always as a scholarly text- I have found that my Faith has increased, my prayer life has begun to drive skyward, I have become more vocal and sure of who I am in Christ and my knowledge of things have been increased 10-fold as the Word has become apparent through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Most of what was self condemnation and being overly aware of my choices and second guessing myself all the time has been removed through the Life of Freedom courses. My issues with confidence have started to break down and my love for others has begun to open up aggressively. It’s great to be alive right now, and every day is an opportunity to reflect Christ to another.
From this pregnancy to this youth group to my relationship with Soul Quest Church and Pastor Dave- I’ve been so blessed, and how could I ever forget my loving family and the roof that they have put over mine and Tina’s heads. I’m caught up in the truth of the Gospel, and when you get a taste of the reality of the Kingdom- you simply can’t stop talking about it, you can’t stop talking about Him. You want restoration everywhere, and in everything. You want every relationship to count, you want God to purify and restore your work place, you want Him to alter and correct all the stuff that has plagued your family for years, you want Him to reach into the lives of those that you have known your entire life and you know for a fact that they do not know Him at all.
It’s why I get frustrated with work- because I know what it could be like but because of the present systems in place that drive a goal of profit over everything and every one else you can only cry out… “God if they only knew what could be!” I look at the history of my family and those around me I love so deeply and I wonder why we have allowed sickness, and illness, and secrets to manifest themselves into trauma and separation and we have called these things “normal.” I cry more often than ever now for the man on the street who lives out of an old wobbly shopping cart, or the child going to bed tonight who has never known love but only abandonment and abuse or the marriages that just came to an end or the schooled and the religious who have missed Jesus while petitioning for Jesus.
I sometimes wonder just why it is that a lot of people really want Jesus but they don’t always want to know his followers.
I often wonder why people seek the face of Jesus alone and in despair and do everything possible to stay away from the Church. They want Jesus but they don’t very well like the Church.
The answers are both simple and complex, far reaching and ever so close. I wonder if we have taken lightly what it means to be a part of the Body of Christ. I grasp at the very possibility that we as Christian’s could be the only time a person ever experiences Jesus- and we may mess it all up.
I wonder sometimes if we truly take in account that our first encounter with someone could be our last.
I think, and ponder, and pray that we can be a better representation of Him. That we can be the legs, the feet, the arms and the heart of Jesus- that we can love one another, and help show His face to those that are lost. I seek, I question, I sit and wait for Jesus to continue showing his beautiful face and I ask Him if I could do anything else to even come close to an ounce of giving back to Him what he has given me. In waiting I hear that I’m to tell His story, that I’m to live a life that displays his love, affection, joy and truth and that I’m to do all of this humbly and in submission to His will. Amen.
Could we become more aware of what is a definite, and what is in question? That definitely God loves us. That it’s questionable that we totally and truly understand that level of love. That definitely we’re here for a reason. That questionably we often miss the point of it all. That definitely God is in control of anything and everything- that he has created all and he sustains all. That we questionably question His sovereignty and His power and His prestige. That we definitely need to stop fighting over all the stuff that truly DOES NOT matter. That questionably one day we will get there. That we’re definitely beautifully, intricately and immaculately designed. That we can question all that we want but His truth goes deeper, and further and is more vast than any truth we could ever conger up or any question we could ever muster. That we’re definitely in the presence of a God who is full of love for a fallen creation and yet He has made right what we made wrong. That we should question how often we take for granted all the miracles that are everyday circumstances. That it’s not automatic that we’ll breathe another breath or that our blood will continue to circulate through our veins- that getting out of bed in the morning is a complete and total miracle. That we should definitely open our eyes and that we should question just how much we’ll love Him back.
Thank you Jesus for being You. Thank you for loving me when I didn’t know how to love myself. Thank you for the baby that lives, and grows and makes my wife even more beautiful than she already is. Thank you for your Grace, Forgiveness, and Love. Thank you for your Holy Spirit which empowers me, strengthens me, makes the words of the wise, clear and recognizable and heals all of us. I praise you for tonight, and I’ll definitely praise you when I open my eyes tomorrow morning and I’ll question just how much more I can love you back. Thank you for definitely loving me when I questionably didn’t love myself.
- Peace be With You.
Lance
posted by Lance Pearce | 3:38 PM
1 Comments:
I love you so much.
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