Psalm 63:1-8;  1O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. 3Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 4So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. 5My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, 6when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 7for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. 8My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

Do you have that kind of Love for Christ? Do you have the kind of love that would drive you to travel hours just for a glimpse of Him? Do you have the kind of love or sense of awe and worship that the teeny-boppers had for the Beatles back in the '60's? Remember how crazed the youth were every time they would step off a bus or a plane? So enamored with them that there would have to be a full medical staff constantly in wait for all those who fainted when they just saw a glimpse of them through a fence?

This kind of love is so over the top that nothing else matters, not food, not drink not any one thing, because our heart is speaking to us. There is no rationale here. Only a driving purpose to see the object of our desire.

So what happens to the church when we as Christians take that approach towards our Jesus? What happens to worship on Sunday mornings when we put Him on the top of our list of priorities? An outpouring of the Holy Spirit like none of us has ever seen, that's what will happen!

People will no longer be making plans for lunch during the worship service. If we come to church prepared to encounter the Holy God, setting our alarm early so that we can be PRAYED-UP before we ever enter the doors of the sanctuary! If our desire to encounter Him is true, then we will be willing to make the sacrifice of the extra sleep. I know in my family, the evil one tries to use Sunday mornings before church as an opportunity to disengage us from the Lord through petty arguments about clothing or coffee or_________, and we struggle with it weekly.

Even though we have read the 'ending to the story' and 'know the victory is ours' why do we allow him to come in and get us off track? And now for the even tougher question, If we allow him to do that on Sunday when we choose to worship corporately as a family, how much more disruptive have we allowed him to be in our daily personal worship?

That is a tough questions that many of us, like me, have a quicker answer to than we want to admit. So I urge us all, this New Year, this new day, this new minute to seek Him.

Over the last week we did a VBS with the children of a small church in Piedras Negras, Mexico. They played a song that had the words, (English) Christ is my Super Hero, about 900 times. I heard it so many times that the words became bland to me, but this morning God woke me up with those words in my head, and it dawned on my, is Jesus my super-hero? Is He the object of my desire? Do I put Him in front of everything else or do I just tune Him out like the song?

So let's make it our mantra that Jesus is our Super-Hero, that He truly is the one that we seek out and search for in all circumstances and in all things, going out of our way to find Him and hear Him!

Romans 15:1-5, 1We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me." 4For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Example, that's what Jesus was to us. A shining example of who we should be. Let's look at a few things he did:

Luke 2:6-7, And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Philippians 2:8, And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Matthew 26:39, And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."

John 6:38, For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Luke 5:13, And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately the leprosy left him.

Going through the Bible we find a multitude of examples. I've listed a few above that stood out: He left heaven to be born to a lowly family in a barn using a food trough as a bed. He always put God's will in front of His own. He touched the untouchable. He ate with the despised. He was obedient to the point of death.

We all know that we could go on for hours, but the point is easily made, He was the ultimate example. Most days it is impossible for me to fathom just what He gave up to do this for me, because He was more concerned about me and you than Himself. His only desire, do the will of the Father and save me and you from God's wrath.

So the question is, what do we do with His example? Do we take His teachings to heart? Are we the shining example to our children? Our friends? Our co-workers? The world? Do we? Or, are we so self-absorbed that we miss out?

Are we the parents that we dreamed we'd be? Do we put ourselves aside to see our children grow? Are we willing to give up the life we THINK we deserve to see others grow in Jesus?

This is the time of year when we celebrate the greatest gift ever given, and doesn't it seem like some attempt to compete with that gift? Bigger, better, stronger, faster, more technical, louder, softer, MORE, MORE, MORE…..

It is not in vain. Even Paul, Romans 7:13-24, dealt with it. He goes into a rant talking about not understanding his own actions, doing the very things he doesn't want to do, the very things that he hates! He blames his actions on the sin that is within him. Paul continued to battle sin, as did all the other disciples, James 4:1, 'What quarrels and what causes fight among you? Is is not this, that your passions are at war within you?'

So how do we defeat it? How do we set a genuine example, not just play church in front of the world and do the things that we hate in private? The answer is Jesus. When our main passion, our main focus, our main goal is to do the will of the Father, regardless of where He sends us or how much we sacrifice or do without, the sin that once owned us, though always lying in wait, will be replaced with a desire for Him.

John 3:30, He must increase while I must decrease.

What a simple verse. As a Christian, this simple verse, that was spoken by the most religious man of his time, John the Baptist, sums up what it means to follow Jesus. Yet, as simple as the verse is, could there be a more difficult thing to do?

To use a military analogy, we have been 'parachuted' behind enemy lines, and we are expected to be relevant to the culture we've dropped into, however, our relevance as Christians to the culture should never mean compromise of our values or beliefs.

He must increase. When we read about John the Baptist, we see that his entire life was one that was meant to point out Jesus. He made such statements as, 'I baptize with water, but there is one coming that will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'

So how is John the Baptist relevant to our lives today? A man who lived as the most religious man of his day, following the law to the letter. Here is a man who by anyone's standards, then or now, was weird. He walked around constantly yelling at the religious because there was no Heart in their actions. He wore weird clothes, a garment made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and ate only natural foods, locusts and wild honey. Yet even though he was weird to all who saw him, people came to him in droves to be baptized in the Jordan River.

Why? Why would so many people want to be around someone who was so weird? Could it be because of his anointing? Sure, undoubtedly, but could it also be that all he ever thought about was pointing the people who came to him towards Jesus? He saw himself as a pass through. All the time he's preaching to them, 'move along, nothing to see here, the thing you're looking for is over there!'

We must decrease. You see, his sole purpose in life was to point others towards Jesus. He didn't get caught up in the trappings of this world. He wasn't concerned with wearing the designer robe, or eating at the newest restaurant. He didn't care so much about what people thought of him, only WHO he could point them towards.

Do we do that? Do our actions point others towards Jesus? Or, do we get caught up in the latest and greatest?

Are we so concerned about increasing our own kingdoms, that we forget what is important, seeing His kingdom increased? For years I've been tagging this simple verse at the end of letters and email. I've adopted it as my 'life' verse, one that I aspire to daily, yet fail miserably. I don't see myself donning a camel hair suit any time soon, but it's kind of sobering when you think about it.

How great is it that we have a savior that sees us right where we are, and where we're going to be. A Savior whose love for us does not have any preconditions.

Can we do anything but point people towards him?

1 Peter 1:18-21; 18knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

Ransomed. Peter takes great steps to make sure that the reader understands what the ransom was for our freedom. He went through great pains to lay it out and keep the focus where belonged. Most of us think we were Ransomed or Saved from Hell, Sin, the devil, _______, but have you ever taken the time to realize that the biggest thing that God saved us from was Himself? Cursed is the person that falls in the hand of an angry God.

Romans 5:9, 9Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

God used Jesus to ransom us from the fate that we deserve, His wrath, and put us in the realm of His grace. So He paid for us to be Ransomed from Him. God is the owner of souls, and we don't need to fear the one who can destroy the body but the one who can destroy the body and the soul! Only God can do that!

So we were ransomed. Ephesians 2:1-11 tells us that while under his wrath we were under satan's influence, but the ransom brought us out of that and into the present state of grace. We don't need to look back to our lives before Christ with a 'good old day's' mentality, because the place we are in now is the good old days.

Peter is motivating us to remember why we were ransomed in the first place. Why were we chosen to be a utensil of the King? Not because of our looks, our golf swing, our hair style, our ______, but because of His ransoming work on the cross.

'18Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,' He ransomed us from our culture, a way of thinking that was systemically put together by sinful people for generations that we were nurtured and raised in that was making us what the world calls 'normal'. In Christ, our life is never going to be 'normal' again. We are not called to be normal; we're called to be a consistent 'exile,' we're called to be abnormal.

We were ransomed from normality. It's normal to be prideful, to be hedonistic, to be greedy, to be unwilling to submit to authority, to be controlling, to be _______. We are no longer normal, because in Christ our lives change. Our old friends and neighbors will look at us like we've gone of the deep end. We're no longer attracted to futility, we don't laugh at the same jokes anymore.

As missionaries to our town, our state, our country or our world we have to recognize that in order to bring change it takes something abnormal to infiltrate the normal. It's important that we take in this philosophy that God has redeemed us from the futile ways of what everyone else is doing. Just because everyone is doing it doesn't mean that it's the Christian thing to do!

He's called us to bring REDEMPTION because we've been Ransomed!

'18…Not with perishable things such as silver or gold', As Christians don't we miss that? Our culture sees $$$ cash not Christ. Listen to the radio, any, any Rap song, nurturing the idea of silver and gold, but what God wants us to do is to realize that those things are what the common people see as worth. Peter is telling us that not only did God redeem us from that, but He didn't even redeem us for that, because when we go from commonality to consecration it is beneath us.

So the question is, knowing that we've been ransomed, not by silver or gold, but by Jesus Christ himself, and we're called to be abnormal by the world's standards, are we? Do our old friends see us or the things we're doing and call us abnormal? Do we fall into the standards that the world has set for us, or are we proud of our abnormality?

1 Peter 1:

ESV; 13-16 13Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as He who called you is Holy, you also be Holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, "You shall be Holy, for I am Holy."

Message; 13-16So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, "I am holy; you be holy."

As we prepare to lead a team back to Mexico on the 26^th, I look into the faces of the little ones who are going to experience God in a way that they never have before. They are going to see their parents, and siblings and college students and retirees taking time out of their lives to engage the living God in a new and exciting way. The look in the little girl's eye when she watches her daddy tell someone about Jesus or pour concrete for a school in the middle of a desert that has its bathroom outside is priceless. The memory of serving that a 40 year old man has that transforms the rest of his life. Hearing someone say, 'you really did come back,' when someone realizes that people can be trusted.

These random thoughts led me to the verses above. I tend to be a lot like Peter, so his words really speak to me.

Let's dissect the Message: Roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that's coming when Jesus arrives. When we first recognize the revelation of Jesus and how lost we truly are without Him in our lives, everything changes. For most of us, it doesn't change immediately, at least not in our 'right now' culture, but our eternity will changed nevertheless. No longer do we have the ignorance that we once had. We now know what it is that's always bugged us and because we chose the red pill rather than the blue, now we're informed, and we can't just go back to bed, expecting to wake up tomorrow oblivious to it all. (Sorry for the Matrix reference).

As stated before, with the knowledge of the One True God and His Son now taking root in our heart, we must safeguard ourselves from falling back into our old ways, not for some legalistic reason. Not just to follow a scripted set of rules, but now we do so because of the Love we have for our Savior. That word 'Love' is so misused in our society. How can the same word be used to describe how we feel about ice-cream and in the next sentence describe what it took for Christ to die on a cross or us? The Greeks had (17), seventeen, different words to describe the different types of love, while the Israelites had 11.

But Love is what it's all about, the kind of Love that you'd live and die for. The kind of Love that wakes you up at night thinking about that guy you saw at the end of the off ramp, the kind of Love that makes a family choose a mission trip over traditional holiday festivities, the kind of Love that makes a family live in a hotel for months waiting for an adoption to go through, the kind of Love that makes a two women wake up from surgery and immediately ask if they will still be able to go on a mission trip in a week (that last one happened this afternoon).

I'm talking about the kind of Love that God has for us that would make him choose to leave His throne in heaven to come and be mocked and ridiculed and spit upon and deserted and nailed to a wooden post, all the while asking His heavenly father to forgive insert your name because insert your name doesn't understand what that kind of love is.

But because of Him we now have a chance at understanding that kind of Love. Verse 15-16 reads, 'but as He who called you is Holy, you also be Holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, "You shall be Holy, for I am Holy."

Holy: 1.Set apart to the service or worship of God; hallowed; sacred; reserved from profane or common use; holy vessels; a holy priesthood. 2. Spiritually whole or sound; of unimpaired innocence and virtue; free from sinful affections; pure in heart; godly; pious; irreproachable; guiltless; acceptable to God.

In the Old Testament, when God called something Holy, then no longer is it to be used for common uses, it is consecrated, set aside, no longer to be used as everyone else uses it.

If we are in Jesus Christ, we are not common anymore! We are not common anymore!

Peter wrote in vs. 15, 'but as He who called you is Holy, you also be Holy, because Christ calls us based on who HE is. You see, our use is now defined by Him, and He is Holy, therefore we are to be Holy. He defines who we are. Nothing else matters, not your job, not your degrees, not your ________, we are defined by Him.

But He called us to BE Holy, not DO holiness. He didn't just say Do stuff, He said BE. Every area of our life should be marked by God taking it from commonality to consecration, everything! From the way you date, do your finances, your marriage, your job, your friends, your life. Is it common or is it consecrated? Is it Holy.

God has made us Holy therefore everything that we DO is to be based on that. There is a difference because, if we just DO holiness, then it's religion, but if we ARE Holy that's relationship. We all know how to 'Play-Church' but what happens when we live out what we are?

Is everything in our lives marked by Holiness? Is your _________ common or consecrated?

Ask yourself the question, list it out in your life, is it common or is it consecrated? God did not call us out to be common; He didn't call me to be regular, He didn't call us to be just like everyone else, but what He did was call us to show the fact that HE IS UNRIVALED IN HIS ATTRIBUTES IN EVERY AREA IN OUR LIVES. Can people look at our lives and say, there is nothing rivaled to God in our lives? Why are we always fighting for Jesus to be center of our lives?

You shall be Holy, for I am Holy. Tough stuff for most of us, but regardless, He called us and he will make a way. For me, it's like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.

Reference: Eric Mason, Epiphany Church, Philadelphia, Live His Life sermon.

12/17/08; Are you Thirsty?

Luke 6: 20And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied."Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. "Blessed are you who people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.  24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25"Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. "Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26"Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Those words are direct from Jesus’ mouth.  He calls you out saying blessed are the poor.  Blessed are the Hungry. Blessed.  Do you feel blessed?  I wrote this before going to the Homeless Shelter just in case I would be called to preach.  I would have asked them, when you go to bed at night on this HARD/COLD floor, do you feel blessed?

But understand something, when you hear something like that it is easy to take it to heart depending on your circumstances.  You see, it’s not about how much money you have, because SALVATION has nothing to do with our financial situation.  It’s not about how much we make or don’t make or how much we have or don’t have!

Because there is nothing we have / can do / give to or trade to God that will justify us towards him.  

Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The present power of the King of the Universe on hand for the poor in spirit! But woe to those of us who think that by our discipline or our self serving good deeds we can find justification or salvation. Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of God! Theirs is the kingdom of heaven; theirs is the power of God to transform.

Matthew 5:66"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Let me let you in on a little secret, Jesus is not talking about FOOD!  He’s talking about a Hunger for HIM, a Hunger that can’t merely be quenched with a sandwich, or whatever it is that you’re going to be fed tonight. The food you’ll get tonight will satisfy you for a moment, but the food that He’s talking about will feed you forever!

Let’s look at the story of the woman at the well, John 4:7-15,  7A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

This woman was a samaritan, and Jews wouldn’t even talk with Samaritans, much less ask them for a drink.

10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." 13Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."

  Jesus offers her SALVATION, and tells her that what He can offer her something that will last forever! And she can’t wait to get it. 

Please, please, please give me this water, so that I will never be thirsty again is what this broken, cast out, rejected, untouchable woman is begging for!

DO YOU HAVE THAT DESIRE?  DO YOU THIRST?

Let me tell you one thing before we go any further, it’s not easy. If you make this decision today, TRULY make this decision, God is going to draw out of you all the stuff you’re hiding. Look what happens with the lady at the well, as soon as she asks for the water, He starts busting her in her sin.

16Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." 17The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."

He tells her to go and get her husband and what does she say, I have none. Jesus immediately BUSTS her and says you’re right you have (5) and the one you’re living with now, you’re basically trading your female wiles for rent. 

You see, He is real. He wants you to know that He is real. He wants to get you out of the sin that owns you and make you into the man/woman that He designed you to be!

So the question is, are you poor in spirit? Are you hungry?

Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness?

What do you say? You can start down that path right now, but it will have to be a decision that you make, not me.  It will have to be a decision that you make and let me tell you from personal experience, you’ll mess up, but Jesus is right there with you ready to forgive and help you fix whatever it is that you did or have done!

SO ARE YOU THIRSTY?

John 1: 14-16, 14And^(Z) the Word^(AA) became flesh and^(AB) dwelt among us,^(AC) and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of^(AD) grace and^(AE) truth. 15(^(AF) John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said,^(AG) 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") 16And from^(AH) his fullness we have all received,^(AI) grace upon grace.

John 17:20-21, 20"I do not^(BG) ask for these only, but also for those^(BH) who will believe in me through their word, 21^(BI) that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that^(BJ) they also may be in^(BK) us, so that the world^(BL) may believe that you have sent me.

John Piper stated about these verses, "Will what I say and do help people to realize what verse 16 says? Do people walk away from an experience with us Graced by Glory? Glory as from the only Son of the Father? This is what should happen with every encounter, he must be seen as glorious. People should walk away, graced by Glory, seeing something that they have never seen before!"

The aim of John the Baptists entire ministry was to point people towards Jesus Christ. That's it. Look with me for a minute at verses 35-37 in John 1: '35The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, "Behold,^(BI) the Lamb of God!" 37The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.' They left John and followed Jesus! That's what it's all about, directing the focus of those who we have an audience with toward JESUS!

We cannot allow ourselves to become so ingrained in tradition or the world to ever believe it's all about anything but Him, or we'll wind up with air conditioned dog houses! They followed Him because of who He is, not for their own heroic venture, they (we) realize that they are sinners in need of a Savior and follow Him. Like sheep to a shepherd we are to be reliant on Him for EVERYTHING! It's when we think we can bring anything to Him, that we should realize we are not yet ready to follow Him.

But to continue, look at the next few verses: '38Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, ^(BJ) "What are you seeking?" And they said to him,^(BK) "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" 39He said to them, "Come and you will see." ...' Jesus asks them "What are you seeking?" Life? Stuff? Stay out of Hell? OR ME? And what are we seeking? Are we following Him for what we can get? Are we expecting something in return?

Or…

Are we so in love with Him that all we can do, all we can think about, all that we have IS POINTED TOWARDS HIM?

With the knowledge that HE is the messiah… What are WE seeking? The men asked Him where He was staying, but if we are willing to follow Him with reckless abandon, we will realize that doesn't matter, only that we are willing to follow Him to wherever that might be!

So, the tough question is, like Andrew and Peter, are we willing to drop everything and follow Him?

And the even tougher one for those of us who think we can answer yes to that is, 'Does our life (ministry) really point others towards Jesus?

James 1:22-25; 22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

To many of us sit by idly watching what is happening to our faith. We see things going down a path that we don't agree with but refuse to do anything about it. We are just content being the 'Monday-morning-quarterback' hurling accusations at church leaders, accusing churches of having 'country-club' or 'self-indulgent' mentalities.

When we read the verses above we come to a conclusion that Jesus didn't come to teach us this, but rather the opposite. Look at Matthew 16:24-26 where He tells us, "If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it. What will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yes loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"

Let's get back to being a DOER.

What happens if we change the way we engage our faith? What happens when we STOP WAITING ON OTHERS TO IMPLEMENT CHANGE? Todd Phillips wrote in his book, 'Get Uncomfortable', 'the only option we have for profound change is to re-engage in the Word of God and the DO what it says. We must take ownership of our faith. We must read, understand and put into practice what our God truly wants from His children in relation to those who are in need.'

Along with the verses above, look at a few of Jesus' sayings:

John 10: 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

John 10: 17If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Jeremiah 22:16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. 'Is not this to know me?' declares the LORD.

Titus 1:16, They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

We, who profess to follow Christ, have Him in us and through Him we have every available opportunity to change the world. We have the ability to engage the injustices that we see around us and to truly see CHANGE. Yet when we read a statement like that, many of us simply say, no way. There is no way we can end child hunger. There is no way we can stop the world from preying on children and the less fortunate. Fortunately for us all we have to do is look back in history to see Christ-follower who did this very thing. They went up against the world and abolished slavery. How did they do it? We all know the answer, through the power of a living God.

Is God calling those of us who claim to be Christ-followers, to come forth and change the world? Are we the generation that is called to return justice to the world? The question is, are we going to be DOERS or will we remain in our safe little bubbles missing out on what Jesus commanded us, trying to figure out what we will exchange for our souls?

Amos 5:21-24; 21 "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 23Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. 24But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

James 1:26-27; 26If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep one-self unstained from the world.

When we read the books of Amos and the other prophets, we tend to not want to. Seriously, we tend to want to shy away from them and go to something that doesn't necessarily 'hit us in the mouth' like these verses do.

God, speaking through Amos, tells us that anything we do in our WALK, that is done out of obligation, or habit, disgusts God. Think about it. Let's go through the easiest example. When we go into worship in Sunday mornings, do we take God our best or are we standing there singing the words all the while thinking about the argument we had in the car on the way or where we're going for lunch or what's going on with our finances or….

You see, it is so apparent through scripture that He wants all we have, not part of it. He tells us in verse 23, 'take away from me the noise of our songs', I don't think He is talking about those of us who can't sing.

Look back at another difficult verse in Amos 4:1 1"Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, 'Bring, that we may drink!' It is obvious that Amos was talking to the 'well to do' women of his time. He was telling them, look, you are beautiful, you have been blessed, you are everything that the other women want to be, so, why are you choosing to use this to advance yourself, all the while crushing the poor?

As Americans, we should ponder on that one for a minute……

Then the Bible leads us to Matthew 25, where Jesus explains to us the Final Judgment. Verse 31 is a picture that is hard to get our minds around. Jesus, sitting on His great white throne with all the angels gathered around Him. All the people who live or have ever lived on earth are also gathered and Jesus separates them, one from another as a shepherd would the sheep from the goats in his flock.

We go on to read in verses 34-40 where Christ tells the sheep that they would inherit the Kingdom of God because of their faith in Him alone?

NO.

He says, 35For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' 37Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' 40And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'

We all know that this does not end so will for the goats, 45Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

When we go back to James 1:27 for a second and reflect on Christ's words here, don't we see an inseparable link between ministry and the least of these? Don't we see that when we come to know JESUS our passion for Him should overshadow that of this world? Don't we see recognize Isaiah's words in chapter 64, ALL OUR RIGHTEOUS DEEDS ARE LIKE FILTHY RAGS IN FRONT OF GOD? And they are!

God woke me up with these words on my mind this morning, reminding me that nothing we do is good enough; nothing we do will earn us a place on the right hand side of Jesus, except giving Him all of us.

Neither one on its own will be enough, so it really is All or Nothing.

One final question, when God looks down and sees us, does He see you and me or does He see the Jesus living inside of you or me?

Pray today that we will recognize who we are in this. Are we bringing our worship to God? Are we going to worship with a 'Cows of Bashan' or a 'least of these' mentality?

Pray that we will recognize our Religiosity, our Traditions, the things we do that turn people away from Jesus, ourselves before we find ourselves standing in front of Jesus on that day and he sends us to the right or to the left.

Isaiah 65:1-4, 1^(A) I was ready to be sought by^(B) those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, "Here am I, here am I," to a nation that was not called by^[a] my name. 2^(C) I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; 3a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks; 4who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places;

Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, a teenage boy who many believe is the reincarnation of Buddha has re-emerged from the jungle in southern Nepal about a 100 miles south of Katmandu, after retreating there more than a year ago. Upon hearing the news, thousands of Bamjan's followers, some from as far away as India, traveled to the site Tuesday to see him. Bamjan plans to talk to his followers for a few hours every day for a week before returning to the jungle to meditate.

Can't you just hear Jesus telling the followers of this young false prophet, 'I'm right here! I'm right here!' Now this kid has been told so by so many people that he is the re-incarnate Budda, that all he can do is believe.

So where are we? Where do we fit in this situation? I mean God tells us that he spreads out His hands all day to a rebellious people who go their own way. We provoke Him in His face. By biting off more than we can chew, buying homes or cars or clothes or electronics that we can't afford. Whatever it is that we make offerings to in our secret quiet places, they in no way resemble the Jesus that we claim to follow.

Seven Hundred +/- years before Jesus, Isaiah called us out. Sure we may not be travelling thousands of miles to hear a kid, but let's not fool ourselves to think that we haven't chosen to follow something other than Jesus.

Constantly we hear people complaining about the next generation, but aren't they just following us? Because we do such a sorry job of following Jesus ourselves, aren't they, like us, just looking for the next thing to pop out of the jungle?

Think about it for a minute, are many of us who follow Obama any differently than those followers the supposed reincarnated Budda? Disregard the religious overtones for a moment and look at it purely academically. One Million plus people are expected to be at the inauguration. People are naming their babies after him. People are buying tickets to the inauguration, counterfeit tickets, for thousands of dollars, in the hopes of seeing him.

Jesus stands, arms wide open, ready to be seen. Ready to be heard. Ready. We are His mouthpiece. We are His hands. We are His feet. Each of us has a different part, but all have the same goal. To show the world that we already have a Savior and that there is no need for another one.

Are we prepared to do it? Or are we going to be a part of the 'rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices'?

Today, pray that we will remember our role and, to quote Cating Crowns, pray that we 'will not lose our follow through, between the alter and the door.'

Luke 1: 41-45, 41And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

So the first time you read this it just comes across like, ok, a six month old baby moves in its mother's womb, but then you realize that it's John the Baptist and Jesus. God is getting ready to change the world over the next 3 decades; he's doing it with these two women who are obscure in the eyes of the world, one who is so far past the age of bearing children that she's as good as dead and the other too young to have kids! So when Mary calls to Elizabeth, the baby gets his calling to ministry and Elizabeth is overwhelmed with what's about to happen!

Earlier in the story we find that Zechariah ran his mouth and offended Gabriel, who in turn made him a deaf/mute for the next nine months, so Elizabeth had no idea what was happening. No clue about Gabriel. No clue about the prophetic child that she was carrying. No clue what was coming, but when the Holy Spirit came over her, all she could do was praise Jesus.

Praise Jesus. A baby, that our culture would call an embryo. Can't you just picture this old pregnant woman dancing around and praising God for what He was about to do. Again with the Faith thing, she was praising Him for what was coming, not what He'd already done, but what He was going to do. The scripture doesn't say that Mary sat down with her and told her everything. It simply says, my paraphrase, when Mary said hi, Elizabeth went all 'Praise God' and started shouting! She even got prophetic on her and talked about Mary's faith in what the Lord had told her.

Again, nothing there tells us that she sat down and laid it out for her, Elizabeth just knew, because the Holy Spirit had revealed it to her. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is praising and worshiping Jesus, in the womb no doubt, in the middle of her own divine pregnancy which she was finally receiving the blessing of a child even though she's almost too old to even raise it.

So what does this mean for us?

To me it means that God will be seen in the least likely of places. He will show up and make it so unmistakably Him that all we can do is just stand in awe. These two ladies knew that they were blessed to be a part of what God was doing.

Are we? Do we recognize the Miracle that is Jesus? Truly, as the holiday season is upon us and the commercials will soon change from political adds to sales adds about the latest toy, do we get what a miracle He is? Matthew 23:19 records Jesus' statement, 'You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?'

Well what are we going to do? Are we going to worship the gift or the Altar? Jesus or the holiday season?

Pray today that we will have the wisdom to react like Elizabeth did, praising Him for what He has done and for how little we deserve it.

If you're sick of the whole Christmas thing, look at this website: http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

Alan

Hebrews 11:1-3; 1Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Faith, as defined by the author of Hebrews is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. The Message translation is: 'The fundamental fact of existence. Also translating, the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living.

How can we be convicted of things we have not seen? By trusting Him and by being part of the plans that He has for us in Jesus Christ!

This book, aka the Hall of Fame of Faith, goes through the who's who of who's who in the Bible. It takes us all the way from Abel to Enoch, from Enoch to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Sarah to Jacob to Joseph to Moses to Joshua to Rahab to David, and to so many others leading ultimately all the way to you and me.

Yes, to you and me.

You see, I believe that these people that we all look up to, that we all strive to be like, never knew that they were making history while they were doing it. They never realized that their day to day trust in God would be the things that our generation would aspire to. They had their day to day difficulties and their ministries were not perfect, but their faith in God was so 'big picture' that they just kept on plugging along in good times and bad.

Hebrews 11:39-40, Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.

1 Peter 1:12, It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

We have the blessed opportunity to look upon things that the Angels long to look upon. Angels, those who stand in God's presence and what are we going to do with this opportunity?

We are going to go forward with faith in God, trusting always that He has the means and methods for us so that we can complete whatever it is that He has called us to be and to do! We may or may not ever know this side of heaven what it is that we accomplished, but either way, we'll do as He commands until He commands us to do something else.

So as we pray today as a brothers and sisters in Christ, let us recognize our faith and that we are a part of something so much bigger than any one of us, that us as a collective whole are a part of the completed whole. Recognizing that our faith makes that of the Hall of Famer's complete and continues to the next generation to complete ours.

John 3:30, Alan