worship is life or life is worship

“God allow my worship to be pleasing to you and let it bring glory and honor to you and be a reflection of who you are…”

By praying this I am asking God that my life outside of the worship services i am a part of twice a week would be pleasing to my creator. I am in a constant battle with my flesh day in and out to live according to his will for me and although i will fall short on a daily basis he is there to correct and forgive me. If you have been a Christ Follower for any length of time you will be so thankful for the things that do not bother us anymore that we used to struggle with daily but there is always something there to take it’s place. God is not looking for perfection by any means but he is definetely looking to my inmost being and can see my heart cry and struggle. If I can live this life as a servant to Christ by raising my children, loving my wife, serving my job to the best of my abilities and showing the love of Christ to those with and without need, then this race i have run will be an amazing success. If i can take the talents and abilities he has given me and Make a difference in one person or hundreds of thousands of people then it will be a success.

Can I make a difference in hundreds of thousands of people? No… Can God through me… Of course… Am i willing for it to be 1 or 1,000,000… Yes…

worship is life and life is worship

ELEVEN

A few days ago my wife and I celebrated eleven years of marriage. When I think back through those years I see some good times, some bad times, some ok times, some very ok times, and some very,very ok times. Marriage for us has been a journey. A journey through learning about each other, how do deal with separate personalities, how to put someone else’s needs before your own, how to encourage, build up and edify, how to not say anything but just listen, how to express myself in a way that she understands and how to never understand what she is thinking or why she thinks that way. I am by all means no expert at this but after Eleven years I think I do know this one thing. I Love my wife and I am grateful for everyday I get to spend with her, has it been easy…. no, has it been stressful…. yes, has it been eleven years of wedded bliss, no… It has been hard work and alot of putting the other person first. I am not just talking about myself here. She puts up with alot of stuff but so do I. We are two different people living together, sleeping together, going through life together, raising children together, we are in full time ministry together. The stresses of this life will eat you up in a heartbeat and crush you. With my wife by my side we can go through anything. We are strong together, we are weak together, we are blessed together, and we are in this together forever…. I choose to love my wife everyday weather I feel it or not. Love is not a feeling it is a choice. I will choose you everyday babe…. I love you Elaine Nichole Mills.

How He Loves ( BIG PRAYER )

Yesterday I read a blog form pastor Seven Furtick from elevation church concerning prayer and it really spoke to a deep part of my heart, the kind that only comes once in a while, the kind that when you hear it you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that it s God revealing a small part of himself to you. Thank God that he knows what we can and cannot handle, Just ask Moses

Exodus 33:18-23 (New Living Translation)

¹⁸ Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.”

¹⁹ The Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh,^[a] before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. ²⁰ But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.” ²¹ The Lord continued, “Look, stand near me on this rock. ²² As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. ²³ Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen.”

To be completely honest I sometimes forget that God is God and he is more than I can ever imagine or even comprehend.That is where the prayer part comes in. Pastor Steven Furtick was talking about how most of us are more worried about our length or frequency of prayer instead of what we actually pray for. We pray prayers that are good and meaningful but we are having “face time” with the creator of the universe. THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!! Why then do I limit my prayers to things that could just as well happen as a fluke or just a run of good luck. Why not pray for the impossible. Again i refer to the all caps statement above.

It’s not enough when you consider Ephesians 3:20:

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

That’s an astonishing promise. It describes a big God.But most forget the context of the promise and don’t see that it coincides with a big prayer:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,                                                                           19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge (17b-19b).

umm surpasses all knowledge… Can I get a little understanding with that… Guess not… We cannot understand that but what we do understand from this is that The wildest dreams I can ever conceive do not compare to the endless power of God. Yes we can Pray more, pray longer, but let’s pray BIGGER.

Here is How He Loves from the first Saenger event we did two years ago. I Know, I know, two years later this is just coming out.  sorry

seeing is believing… but is singing…

To be completely honest here, (which would imply that I am not always) I think I sing and believe during the song I am singing but I have trouble carrying out my thoughts into actions.

When I spend time with God, whether it be in the word or prayer or singing, I feel God speaks to me at those times, when during that holy moment the world is shoved to the side just enough that I catch a glimpse or picture or idea that God has for me and then that moment passes… What now… Most of the time these are things God wants for me to do or change or even dream about and make happen, but most of the time I see the struggle, or discipline, or work that would be involved and just think there is no way that could happen. This reminds me of a conversation I had a couple of years ago with Amick Cutler about a man that had this huge amazing ministry and lives were being changed through God and this man’s ministry. Apparently a reporter asked this man what it was like being “Gods’ number one man” and to this the minister replied, “I’m not his number one, I was his eighth choice for this, the first seven guys were not willing.”

I have always equated myself with Moses and how he didn’t like to talk or didn’t want to lead but while reading through my one year study Bible these past few weeks about Moses it really has started to dawn on me that God used Moses but there were a few times God was pretty aggravated for not obeying him and trusting in him, pretty much to the point God was just going to kill him…  Hmmmmm  Pretty much don’t want to get to that point, I say all this to myself really but, what am I willing to do… sing… if that is all then I am sadly using the gifts or talents God has given me… I can sing no problem… but do I believe what I sing…

Here is a pretty rough audio and video edit of us at the Saenger this past year… This song has the line… “I don’t need to see it to believe it….”

Beautiful Things

We are in the the middle of our series at church called “Dreamer”, and we are talking about Joseph in and how he was always a dreamer to the point that his brother hated him and sold him into slavery. That would seem to be bad thing but God seems to have his own “style” if you will, about how to accomplish his plans. Joseph’s story is an amazing one and if you have the time I would suggest you read it. The thing that stays with me during this story is when Joseph is in jail or in a very bad situation it keeps saying that “God was with him” and he had the Lords favor.

I played this song a couple of weeks ago at church. It is by Michael Gungor (find him here) and is a story of how out of chaos or even nothing God makes beautiful things.

enjoy all you “beautiful things”

What’s up January 20th?

Today will be another day in the life of me/you. Is this day going to be the start of something new… the continuation of something new… the death of something old… the same thing as yesterday… and yesteryear… I think that we are all called to be faithful and have responsibilities with jobs and families and errands and bills and… and… and… but what about the little thing you have always wanted to do??? What about that little thing that excites you  or sparks your imagination. One little change. It doesn’t have to be huge. It can be tiny. Not that this inspires me, but for me it was a change in my typical get up and go day. Most of you probably already do this but for the past few weeks I have been making all the beds in our house every morning. Sounds stupid I know but it makes me feel good. We have a pretty busy house in the morning with Elaine getting ready for work, me getting ready for work, getting both kids ready for school and taking them both to separate schools making sure they have everything they need, It is a beautifully orchestrated mass of controlled Chaos that starts around 5:00am… Not for me I don’t get up until 6:00… but it is a routine. A routine that happens day in and day out. (although I heard on the radio that someone  wanted to vote for elementary schools to start earlier than the already do seriously!!!!!! nevermind) All this rambling to say… mess up your routine a little… different perspectives or actions will cause something new to develop, or maybe it is just so the beds are made…. and push for a new day…

Poetry without motion

 

What would it take

to move me

to lose me

to force me into submission

 

 

 

 

what would it take

to inspire me

to rewire me

to move past the mundane

 

 

 

what would it take

to seize me

not to appease me

to make it a non charade

 

 

 

 

 

only every little breath that only I can take…

————————Genesis 2:7————————

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