It is 11:00 on Saturday night. This is the first time I’ve blogged in a long, long time. My computer crashed at work weeks ago! I have been literally gone constantly, and when I am at home it seems I’m trying to clean, trying to get something ready (for Unbound, or Vision or homeless). I couldn’t even process thoughts clearly enough to blog.
I really crashed last Sunday. You see last weekend Unbound spoke at Ridgecrest and it was truly wonderful. But not because of us, because of HIM. Because God is constantly pursuing and wooing us to Him in every circumstance. Good. Difficult. Desert. Blessed. In every moment He’s saying “Come to me. I’m right here.” I read this verse and shared it with several people after we got there.
The Unforced Rhythms of Grace
Matthew 11:20Next Jesus let fly on the cities where he had worked the hardest but whose people had responded the least, shrugging their shoulders and going their own way.
21-24“Doom to you, Chorazin! Doom, Bethsaida! If Tyre and Sidon had seen half of the powerful miracles you have seen, they would have been on their knees in a minute. At Judgment Day they’ll get off easy compared to you. And Capernaum! With all your peacock strutting, you are going to end up in the abyss. If the people of Sodom had had your chances, the city would still be around. At Judgment Day they’ll get off easy compared to you.”
25-26Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: “Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that’s the way you like to work.”
27Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. “The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.
28-30“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Isn’t that beautiful? It’s God saying “You won’t find rest without me, and I want to give it to you.”
I can’t speak for everyone, but at least for me, I was physically drained, and literally felt spiritual warfare. I didn’t feel stress, I just felt an intense awareness that if God wasn’t God, I was in trouble! Shauna had relatively major health issue, but went because God had given her a word earlier in the week and she felt God wanted her there.
Kate Carlson and her mom Melissa were at the event. Kate is an amazing worship leader and artist, who also has cute hair and clothes!! Melissa has a testimony somewhat similar story to mine. So that was sort of neat, since I didn’t know prior to the event.
http://www.katecarlsonmusic.blogspot.com/
Kathryn Foy spoke along with UNBOUND and said something quite profound. She talked about the Potter and the clay, but she talked about how it is to be the clay. People usually focus on the Potter. She talked about how scary it is to be the clay. Being molded and not knowing exactly what was happening to you. How a dried piece of pottery that has been “messed up” has to be broken and begin that molding process again.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%2018:%201-5&version=NIV
I want brokenness in my life. See, I think lots of people are broken for lots of reasons. But it’s what we decide to do in our brokenness, with our brokenness that makes the difference.
I am so thankful for the trials and struggles in my life. These are the things that give me the advantage of truly giving compassion and being able to say “I understand.”
The event had a lot of brokenness and raw truth, and I think that’s what God wants. I was listening to Chip Ingram today and he talked about Adam and Eve being naked and feeling no shame. He said that the deeper meaning of what this meant was not hiding and covering up who they were. Not hiding, or being ashamed, or avoiding.
Are you hiding and covering up yourself from your Creator? I try to sometimes, and yet the reality is that is impossible.
I am EEEXXXCCCIIITTTEEEDDD about a study Vision is starting.
What if God wants something more than a safe and predictable life for those who love Him? In his second Bible study from Threads, author Mark Batterson furthers the themes of his book Wild Goose Chase by exploring the idea of reclaiming the adventurous spiritual life God intended for His followers. Maybe life with Christ should be a little more like a wild goose chase … mysterious, unpredictable, and even dangerous.
Ideal for small groups, Chase the Goose is a six-session study that encourages young adults to take hold of the passions God has put in all of our hearts, while learning about the very nature of God Himself in the process. True goose-chasers will glean wisdom from studying the lives of Nehemiah, Moses, Abraham, Peter, Paul, and Jonathan as they are challenged to leave behind the cages of responsibility, routine, guilt, failure, assumptions, and fear that have held us back in the past. Join the journey of never knowing where you’ll end up, who you’ll meet, or what you can do as you follow the Holy Spirit into the spiritual adventure God has planned for all Christ-followers.
Chapter Topics Include:
- The Cage of Responsibility—Practicing responsible irresponsibility with Nehemiah
- The Cage of Routine—Learning the danger of empty ritual with Moses
- The Cage of Assumptions—Breaking out of the eight-foot ceiling with Abraham
- The Cage of Guilt—Reconditioning our conditioned responses with Peter
- The Cage of Failure—Experiencing shipwrecks and snakebites with Paul
- The Cage of Fear—Climbing the cliff with Jonathan
Study Length: 6 Sessions
CAN NOT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
