D-E-V-O-T-E-D

2 Corinthians 5:7 "Walk by faith, not by sight."
 As I read this verse I find motivation to live my faith everyday, no matter how I feel. Let me put it this way: I am training for a marathon right now. Thi past week is week four in my training and fatigue is starting to set in. Yeterday when I woke up to run, I found it incredibly hard to get up and run because I lacked the desire I had in the first few weeks of training. In other words the fatigue that had set in on my legs had started to wear on my drive inside my head. Despite the fatigue I know my final goal and continue to get up and train. I think a lot of the time in our walk with Christ we find ourselves in a rut because we start to make our relationship with God more about us than Him. We become selfish and instead of focusing on God we focus on how we feel. Paul encourages us to not walk by feelings but by faith. I took this as encouragment that even though things may not be going great around me I stay devoted to my God at ALL times to bring Him glory.

Caught with your hand in the cookie jar?

James 4:7-8


I remember growing up going to my grandma' house and how I always looked forward to getting into the cookie jar. The rule was at grandma's house was that you had to wait untill after dinner to grab cookies out of the cookie jar. My goal was to always see how many cookies I could get out of the jar before getting ran out of the kitchen by grandma for breaking the rules. I think a lot of the time we live our lives the same way in our relationship with God.
Ask yourself this question. Do I tend to try and push the limits on boundaries I know I shouldn’t cross in my life? Do I try to get away with as much as I can and still be looked at as a Christian person. In other words do I try and push the limit with sin and see how far I can get in to it before I actually fall face down into it. God’s grace is endless for us, but for us to live trying to get away with as much as we can is not what God calls for us to do. God tells us to resist the devil. In other words run from him and turn to God and satin will flee from you. So what do you think…. Are you resisting the sin in your life or are you trying to see how much you can actually get away with….. Cause God calls us to come near to Him.

Happy Martin Luther King Day

"Admitting the weighty problems and staggering disappointments in life, Christianity affirms that God is able to give us the power to meet them. He is able to give us the inner equilibrium to stand tall amid the trials and burdens of life. He is able to provide inner peace amind outer storm" - MLK, from his sermon "Our God is able"
What can we learn from a man with so much passion? Jesus called us to live a life full of passion. A lot of us have different things we are passionate about, but are they things that truly matter? Take a look at this passage in Phillipians and spend sometime reading it for your quiet time today and think about if you are truly passionate about your relationship with Jesus Christ........
Philippians 3:7-14 (The Message)

"The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness. I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it. I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back."

Paul was the author of this passage. He realized their was nothing more important in his life than his relationship with Jesus! How about you? Today as you spend sometime reading this compare it to your life. Do you match this type of passion in your life about your walk with Jesus? Or do other things in your life overpower it.

Pray for those in Haiti

Please continue to keep those impacted by the devestation in Haiti in your prayers.

The Life of Jesus

This month I am challenging myself to revisit the thoughts, actions, days, months, years, that Jesus showed us while he was on this Earth. I think a lot of the times the thought of Jesus becomes so numb to us in our culture and we don't look to him in the "wonder" and "awe" like we should. I want to find myself in that place. I want to see the life Jesus demonstrated for us and to be inspired by it to put those same ideals into play in my own life. I challenge you this month to do the same. Revisit the life story of Jesus while he walked on the dirt of this place we call Earth. See the lives he changed and the purity he demonstarted in how he lived a sinless life. Be encouraged to know that Jesus is looking upon each of us today cheering us on saying, "That is who I died for! That is my creation. He or she is my son or daughter. Yes they may not have it all together but just watch. Great things are to come!" Be encouraged today!
Take a look at Chapter 8 and 9 in Luke and see the "wonder" of what Jesus was doing throughout the lives of those living at that time!

Be an Imitator

Ephesians 5: 1-2
"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
Have you ever heard someone say to you or to someone you know to imitate someone? Now this could come in a variety of settings for you. Maybe your coach told you to imitate a certain player or your teacher told you to develop study habits like your older brother or sister or your parents have told you that they wish you were just more like your sister or brother. Whichever the case when we are told to imitate someone we know that that simply means to take on some of the same characteristics or attributes that the individual possesses. As we read Ephesians 5:1-2 today we see a different call of imitation. We see a call to imitate someone much greater than a fellow player or student or family member. We are called to be imitator's of God! The same God that created the entire universe and sent his son to this slum we call Earth. To live a life of serving others and loving all (no matter what their background) and most importantly loving his father (God) through all of that. Whose life are you imitating? Maybe your thinking "imitate God?" Are you kidding? There is no way I could even think about starting to do that. In the book of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 it tells us a little bit about imitating God and how we can do so in our own lives. Listen to what it says, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perserves. Love never fails." Sound like the creator of the universe to you? Sound like a love that would send his own son to a cross to be cruicified and be raised three days later so you could experience eternal life with him? I think so.

Take Me Instead

2 Corinthians 5:21 says this, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God.
I read a story today that really just grabbed my attention. It was a story about a mom and her boy Stephen. This story really portrayed to me a great spiritual truth. In the 1990's Stephen and his mom took a horseback-riding trip in the mountains of Canada. As they were riding along, a cougar came out of nowhere and attacked Stephen. Stephens's mom did what any mom would have done. She got off of her horse and started jumping up and down, screaming and waving her arms, trying to draw the cat's attention off her son onto her. It worked. The cougar left Stephen and attacked his mom. Stephen managed to crawl for help. By the time he returned, it was too late. Stephen's mother was killed by the vicious cat. She gave her life so that Stephen might live.
Like a deadly predator, sin was viciously attacking, biting, clawing, and destroying our lives and souls. Jesus spread out his arms on the cross and cried out, "Take me instead!" What does that mean? It means Jesus took on sin and death that was meant for you and me, with all its destruction and hell, so that through faith in him, you and I might live the life we're meant for--abudant life--now and forevermore.

One of my favorite blogs I read is ragamuffinsoul.com. Carlos is one of the most authentic and honest Christians I have read and follow. He is in the middle of putting out an album and was shooting some video for it and had an unbelievable moment with a man who joins him. What could happen in our lives if we really understood who the creator really is! Enjoy

The Backward Life

The New Years Eve celebration at the church with Hilltop Youth was a complete success! Thanks to all youth who attended. A big special thanks to all parents and adults in our church that helped with snacks and drinks. As I was spending some time reading Monday night I was reminded of the challenge we gave ourselves New Years Eve. The challenge to live a life where we put God first in our lives above all things. I don't know about you, but there have been several times in my life since that night that I have lost that focus (all ready!) and focused on "My" needs instead of focusing on my relationship with God.
 Revelations 2:2-4 says this, " I know your deeds, your hard work and your perserverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have perserved and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love." I like to insert my name into the places of this verse where it says the word "you". Doing this makes it more personal to me. Instead of reading "You" have forsaken your first love, I read "Lucas has forsaken his first love".
      Man!
That hits me like a ton of bricks. Let me encourage you today to take sometime and get by yourself and talk with God. I know for me sometimes I just get caught up in the daily "to-do's" and neglect to spend that time alone with Him. As we look into 2010, let us be encouraged to know that God desires to have that quiet time with Him. All we have to do is commit to Him that small amount of time each day. Find your first love!