I don’t consider myself the most trendy person when it comes to keeping up with music and technology, but I heard a song by this guy a few weeks ago and found the lyrics and music grabbing me. I bought the album “The Sounds of Daniel Bashta” after previewing it, and I find the songs very refreshing and moving. I’ve used “Like A Lion” in worship, and I think many of his other songs on the album would be great to use as well. Lyrics proclaim “My God’s not dead, He’s surely alive, He’s living on the inside roaring like a lion!” and “Hell has no hold on me;  chains undone so suddenly! Hell has no hold on me; with this boldness demons flee!”

You can click on the image to the left to find this album on iTunes or check him out on Vimeo. Blessings.

I went for a run this morning on the bike trails in Sioux Falls, listening to a playlist on my iPod. It was so peaceful and beautiful out this morning, and as I started to run I also started to talk to the Lord. I noticed after awhile, even though I was praying silently, it became louder and noisier in my head as if I was yelling to the Lord so he could hear me over the music in my headphones. It was at that point that I felt prompted to take my headphones off for a while. I noticed after a few seconds that the song I was listening to was stuck in my head; the same melody, but the words changed to “Can you hear Me now?” It caught me off guard. I laughed, and my spirit quickly became in tune and listening to what the Lord may be trying to speak.

I feel like there were a few things that God was putting on my heart and mind when I finally began listening. The first thing that came to mind was John 15, abiding in the Lord. He will put scripture on our hearts and minds to communicate with us, and the more we spend time reading and studying it the more He will use it to speak to us!

As I was praying, I started to think about how far I was going to run. In that moment, I felt the Lord tell me that it doesn’t matter how far I go, it just matters that I’m with Him. It was so good. Thinking back to the passage in John 15, the Lord’s main concern is that we abide in Him. I often struggle with wanting to accomplish things; wanted to get a book read, run so many miles at such-and-such a pace… But the Lord isn’t as concerned as how much we do or how far we go as long as we are WITH HIM!

I was feeling very convicted and humbled, and I proclaimed the truth that I am nothing without Him. He said, “And you are amazing IN ME!” Whether we’re feeling worthless, ugly, like our life has no value, or whether we are sincerely humbled by God’s greatness, he wants us to know how valueable and beautiful we are in Him.

After some quiet and walking for a bit, I told the Lord I was still listening if there was something else he wanted to tell me. The same song from earlier popped into my head again, this time the lyrics were “I can hear you now”!!! It was such a cool moment. The Lord wants us to sit at his feet, to listen to his voice and let him speak to us. Then after awhile of being in that secret place with him, he wanted me to tell him what was on my heart. Even though I was shouting over the all the noise as loud as I could to him, asking him for things I wanted or wanted him to do, it’s important to just rest in his presence for awhile so our hearts are in the right place to make our petitions.

“If only you would listen to his voice today!”

The thing I love about being in the yard, especially in the garden, is getting outside in the fresh air and (hopefully) sunshine, away from the computers and other distractions inside, and getting my hands and knees dirty in the soil of God’s beautiful creation. Sometimes my mind is very busy thinking while I’m outside, and other times I am in the zone doing what needs to be done. Sometimes it is the most precious time I get to spend with the Lord. About a week ago, I was out doing yard work, and spent about two-and-a-half hours in the garden getting rid of all the weeds that have accumulated. I hadn’t done a very good job of keeping up with it, plus a good chunk of the garden was freshly tilled, and I think it was suspect to extra weed and crabgrass that started to take over! While I was in the garden, the Lord kept impressing upon my heart how what I was doing connected to my spiritual life. In the gospels, it’s incredible to think about how much of what Jesus taught was parables that connected to the peoples’ daily grind. I believe that the Lord wants to reveal to us how involved he is in the intricate details of every moment and breath of our lives.

Here are a few parallels from the garden…

WEEDS: They just plain aren’t good for the garden! A weed in the garden, as far as I’m concerned, is anything growing that I don’t want to grow there. In my case, it includes grass too. I mentioned a good chunk of my garden was freshly tilled this season, and it was mostly grass and some overgrown landscaping. I could have done a better job of getting the grass and other overgrown stuff out and dead before I had it tilled and ready to plant, but I didn’t because I didn’t want to take the time and was in a little bit of a rush. Weeds steal energy and nutrients from what I planted in the garden that I want to grow and flourish. In the same way, God wants us to flourish, have life and life abundantly. There may be things or people at times in our life that are stealing our energy and nutrients that the Lord wants to bless us with, and we may need to weed them out! The thing about weeds is that, if you don’t take the time to get each one of the weeds with the root, they will easily come back and sometimes worst than before. I spent extra time in my garden making sure I got each stupid little weed and tried hard to get each root with it so they wouldn’t come back. Sometimes it requires a lot of work up front, but in the long run our garden will have fewer and fewer weeds and we will be able to receive the blessings from the Father!

SUPPORT: There aren’t a lot of plants in my garden that can stand alone. My cucumbers are in the corner with a couple of trellises along the fence so they have room to grow and climb and be free. I gave them extra room this season, because last year I put them right in the middle of my garden with out hardly any room to grow, and they smothered half of my garden! My peppers and tomatoes are the other main plants that really need support. If you let it grow on its own, without any sort of support, it will fall over, grow sideways, and will never produce the fruit that it would if it had the proper support. As my plants are growing, I put some bamboo support sticks next to them and tie them with some string to give them support so they can keep growing up. So far this season I have put a couple cages on two tomato plants that have really taken off and need more support so they can grow. The more support you give a plant, the bigger and better it will grow and the more fruit it will produce. Isn’t the same true in our spiritual lives? Our primary support should be the Lord, and along with that we should be in community supporting one another.

SIZE: One last thing that I thought was interesting in my garden… I have a few pepper plants that haven’t taken off very well, and I keep wondering if they’re going to flourish this season. The other day, I noticed that one of those small plants has a pepper on it that looks way too big for the plant. It’s probably about 1/4 the size of the plant itself, yet it is producing fruit! That was encouraging to me. Many times we may think we’re not adequate, not big or cool enough, not gifted in the right way, or not able to do what we think the Lord may be calling us to do. Looks can be deceiving, especially using our own eyes!

Galatians 5:16-26: “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”

"We can do no great things; only small things with great love."

Something I’ve been wrestling with lately is loving the unloveable. I’ve been thinking about how concerned I can be about looking a certain way, and wanting to be accepted by others that look that certain way. Sure, we might “do things for” people in lower, or other, social classes, but there is a pretty clear disassociation with them in our attempts at loving and serving them. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9 about living like those he was in community with to bring them to Christ. I tend to gravitate towards a specific look and style of things and follow what’s popular or trendy, or what people I look up to think is popular or trendy, rather than being who I am in Christ and living like those I’m in community with to allow Christ to be revealed. If we were intentional about how we lived in our local communities, we might have a deeper connection with brothers and sisters in Christ which would better enable us to reach people for Christ.

So what would that look like? As I have been struggling and wrestling with this, God used a neighbor of mine to to teach me a glimpse of what this might look like. As I continue to wrestle with this, I pray that this personal experience might encourage or challenge you where you’re at.

I have a neighbor that, to me, is very hard to love. He’s just one of those neighbors. he’s middle-aged single guy, has two beater cars that he always parks on the street in front of our house, and just looks different than my friends and family. I’ve tried talking to him, mainly to ask him to move his vehicle when it was partially blocking our driveway, and he blatantly ignored me. After he got a ticket for not moving his vehicle, I felt bad and tried saying “hi” in passing, but he looked the other way and kept walking. It became easier and easier to be bitter and hateful towards him. I found myself rushing to the window when I thought I heard his car so I could move our car on the street where he was parking (he had a driveway, but I swear he parks there just to bug me). He always won; I was consumed and annoyed, and his vehicle(s) always made it right back there.

There have been a couple very clear times that God has burdened my heart for this neighbor guy. The first was when I was outside shoveling snow. I felt like God was telling me to go shovel his driveway. I had a ways to go on mine, so I put it off. By the time I was done, having wrestled with it the entire time, it was driving me crazy. I had to do it. And I did. It was hard, awkward, and completely unrewarding. He never knew.

A couple weeks later, I was at Hy-Vee grocery store picking up some gift cards for some friends. There were some Subway gift cards that stuck out, and I felt like I had to get them. I didn’t know why, but I did. I thought of some people I could maybe give them to, perhaps even random strangers. So I carried them in my pocket to be ready for the right moment. A week later, God burdened me with my neighbor again. Something in my spirit knew that those cards were for him. Within the next few days, I built up the courage to bring them to him. I knew he was home, so I went and knocked on his door. It was really cold outside. I stood there for ten minutes, awkwardly knocking and waiting… he didn’t answer. I finally gave up and went home frustrated. As I walked in my door, I heard his loud car start. Sure enough, like he was waiting for me to leave, he took off as soon as I got home.

I went back and forth with bitterness, frustration, and praying for him. I held onto the cards in anticipation for “the right moment.” Then, it happened. I was backing up out of our driveway, and he pulled up to park in front of our house. I hesitated. He saw me and awkwardly looked down like he was waiting for me to drive off. It had to be “the right moment.” Maybe not, but it was “A” moment, an opportunity, and I knew I had to seize it. I stopped in the street next to his vehicle, rolled down my window, nearly shaking in nervousness, and waited for him to notice me. I held out the cards and yelled “I’ve got something for you.” He was clearly annoyed, not wanting to talk, and asked “WHAT?!” I told him I was thinking of him and got some gift cards to Subway for him. He responded, and my heart sank, “that was nice. you didn’t have to do that, no one ever does nice things for me!” I was speechless, and don’t remember what I stuttered before I drove off.

If giving makes us feel good, maybe there’s something wrong. I’ve helped people out, given to people in need, but I’m not sure it ever really cost me that much. I didn’t feel rewarded when I loved my neighbor. I don’t believe we’re suppose to feel good or get a reward from loving our neighbors. It was really hard, awkward, and I don’t look forward to doing it again. But I will, because I believe that’s the Good News of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Today when I was running, God put some things on my heart. Along the sidewalks and streets of Sioux Falls, the snow is melting rapidly with ground breaking through in a lot of areas. With the ground is revealed a lot of trash that was hidden quaintly beneath the layers of white snow. What God was revealing to me is that He wants to bring us into a new season. By we, I don’t necessarily mean the whole world, Christians, or any people group in particular. I just mean that, wherever you’re at, God wants to bring you into a deeper level of understanding and intimacy with Him. The problem is that we sometimes forget to take out the trash, but we can only hide it under the snow for a time. It is so easy to let the pretty white snow that we call forgiveness cover up the trash in our life. The problem is that we can not truly leave our trash in “the past.” We need to take it out, repent, deal with, and allow Christ to renew our hearts and minds.

As the snow melts, and we enter into a new season, the trash WILL be exposed. So may you “work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God  who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12b-13, NASB).

Blessings in Christ.

This morning in my prayer time, God impressed me with all the ways He has formed me for “such a time as this.” In my insecurity and lack of confidence in my ability, God reminded me who He is. Over the last three years, God has brought us through some terrific as well as traumatic experiences. Two years ago this month was the first time we traveled to Liberia for a missions trip and to see the 3-year old boy we were adopting. It has been just over a year now that we knew the adoption was not going to work out due to Liberia’s corrupt government and a ban placed on international adoptions there. Also, reflecting especially on the last three years, I made a list of the people in my life that were hard to be around and challenged me and taught me how to handle conflict, the people who were easier to be with who encouraged me and poured into me, and the diverse opportunities and experiences that have deepened my knowledge and experience in life.

If there is a common theme in the last three years of my life, it is one of pressing into God, abiding and trusting in Him. Through the good, the bad, and the ugly, I can say today that I want to trust in Him. The lyrics above are from a song God gave me just over a year ago based on Psalm 31. Sometimes God puts something on our hearts that isn’t yet ready to be birthed, but today those lyrics ring true in my life.

I pray that, no matter what you have gone through or are in the midst of today, you will be able to find the strength in Christ to put your trust in Him, to wait on Him, and to be strong and courageous, because only His ways are just. Blessings on the journey.

I’ve been thinking and writing more the past several months about transformation personally and unity in Sioux Falls among believers. Below are some lyrics that have been on my heart. I’ve resisted putting them into my narrow structure and have been singing them in pieces and sometimes flowing together through the various sections. Hopefully you find them meaningful in some way as a song or prayer for you and this city (whatever your city may be).

It’s not about us. It’s all about you.
You are joy, we want more of it.

Fill us with your glory, overflow us.
We humble ourselves, we lift you up.

We love you Jesus, we want more of you.
We are yours, we are yours.

We love you, we love you, we love you, Lord.

Father, Son, and Spirit,
We long to abide in you

Break through the walls of our hearts.
Break out of the walls of our churches.

Don’t let us stand in the way, God.
We give ourselves back to you.

We want reformation.
We want you, we want you.

We love you, we love you, we love you, Lord.

Break these chains that I have locked myself in.
Heal me, heal me, Lord, heal me.

Move in me, move through me.
And I will move in this city.

I will move where I am, I will move where I stand.
I will move where you have me planted.

I believe, I believe you are our Father.
I believe, I believe you are the Lord of all.
I believe, I believe you are the King of Kings.
I believe, I believe you are our Savior.
I believe, I believe you are…

“Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done” (Philippians 4:6). “Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts” (Col. 3:16). “Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart” (Col. 4:2). Let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe” (Hebrews 12:28). “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18). “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!” (Psalm 136:1). “I burst out in songs of thanksgiving” (Psalm 28:7). “Enter his gates with thanksgiving” (Psalm 100:4). “Songs of thanksgiving will fill the air” (Isaiah 51:3).