echoes of redemption

Four years ago I would have given my left arm to speak on the stage at Fellowship Church in Grapevine. I was on staff, I knew I could do it (whatever that means) and I felt I was ready.

But the opportunity seemed to pass by endlessly.

As time passed, I loosened my grip on this as a driving goal in my life. Slowly it was replaced with a passion just to follow God and do what I felt he asked me to do.

A few month ago while I was praying, God reminded me that this had been a goal in my life – because just two weeks earlier I was teaching a group of children’s pastors at a conference held at Fellowship in Grapevine.

The moment had come and gone without me even realizing how big it was in my journey. Because I was simply following God, and that’s where he took me.

I have noticed God gives me things in my life when I no longer care about them more than him.

And I’m keeping that lesson in mind today. Right now we’re planning a church in New York City – but our passion for the city, our passion for measurable change globally – none of that can replace a simple passion for God.

And so we hold our dreams with open hands.

We believe God has called us to do something, but when, how and with whom that gets accomplished we are completely open to. It’s possible to dedicate yourself to your dreams above all other things and force them into existence.

But that’s the hard way to do anything.

The problem with taking what you’re passionate about and using it as your primary goal/motivator/reason to get out of bed in the morning, is that it’s idolatry.

We want to wait on God. To move forward passionately and aggressively when the opportunity is right, but be willing to sit and be shaped, molded and prepared when the opportunity is right for that. We want to stay sensitive to what he is doing in our souls.

We want to be a church that is more passionate about God than anything else – and that starts with guarding our hearts today.

It begins by realizing we have a soul and allowing God to shape it on this journey.

It means holding everything with open hands, allowing it to be shaped and molded as we travel.

And one day I fully expect to look back and be amazed by what God has done.

Learning to study the Bible for myself was probably one of the greatest skills I’ve ever learned. You can read commentaries, you can graze on websites and you can pull loads out of good sermons – but there is nothing like discovering something in Scripture yourself.

It’s also one of the harder skills to learn.

A few years ago I came across a book called, Living by the Book. It is a manifesto for interacting with Scripture.

At first what I found in the book could only be used as a rigid method. (And I almost gave up on it here… because I’m not a big methods kind of guy.)

Skills take practice.

It wasn’t long before I could read Scripture and, without even thinking about it, utilize the tools I had learned to interact with the text. I discovered that as I got comfortable with the method it became second nature.

What have you come across that helps you interact personally with Scripture?

Last week was all about prayer, so this is a good segue post into a new topic. There have been a few books that have significantly impacted my faith and how I live it out daily – the first of which was a book that taught me how to pray.

For most of my life, I knew how to pray what I heard everyone else praying. Ultimately these prayers never became personal for me.

I used them as formulas.

Methods.

Scripts for interacting with God.

Until I found a workbook called Experiencing God. This book was so basic in its method, and I actually never left a single pen stroke in it. But I dove into what it was saying. Deep.

Experiencing God taught me to pray.

It challenged me to leave the safety of my routines and find a personal experience with God unlike I had before.

I learned to give things up to him. I learned to surrender where I needed to.

Most importantly, I learned to listen.

Where do you find yourself? Has your prayer life fallen into routine? Have you been challenged through a personal experience with God? How do you discipline yourself to listen?