"Oh, that You would rend the heavens."

Lately, God and I have done some wrestling.. in a good way. He's just really been teaching me to go deeper, go beyond (bahaaaa, MERGE plug). There have been multiple "concepts" lately, but the latest is purity, but not so much purity.. just power. but there's more to it. basically, i just tweeted this:

Love = Purity          Purity = Glory          Glory = Power 

Jesus said in John 14:15, "if you love Me, you will keep My commandments." The normal interpretation of this for me was a self righteous Pharisaic disposition of proving one's love for Christ by upholding the law. Jesus, though, fulfilled the law for you, so we no longer have to keep these commandments. He beckons us to love Him. From this intimacy flows endless rivers of integrity. When you love Jesus, you naturally long to uphold His standards. 

but why?

What in the world is the point of this rule following? Not rules, roads, and narrow ones at that (Matt. 7:13-14). This is a pursuit of the presence and nearness of God in our lives. When you love God, you want to be NEAR Him. in His lap. These "roads" (rules, laws, commandments, decrees, statutes, whatever) are for our protection from harm; moreover, they are beacons of hope guiding us to a heightened "state of purity" in our lives. We could get caught up in the hair splitting of terminology, or you could just bear with me as i try to put into words what the Spirit has put in my head. 

When you love someone, a spouse or a significant other, you want to be pure for them, right? It's a sense of faithfulness or loyalty to that person. It gives you nearness to them. Ladies, the last thing you want is a husband who runs to the computer screen for sexual gratification instead of you. why? He'd rather have something fake, it makes you feel terrible (something i can't fully understand, so i won't even try to put it into words). Vanity. It's empty and leaves them feeling the same; ladies, it would do the same for you. If this rings true, why do we as followers of Jesus run to everything the world has to offer for "love" and fulfillment? Why not truly lay hold of the Spirit of God? What else do we have?

Purity. Is. Essential.

Matthew 5:8 says, "blessed are the PURE in heart, for they shall see God." David said in Psalm 119:9, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your word." Purity = Intimacy. Love leads to purity and purity leads to love. Would we rather be caught in a downward spiral of emptiness, or a vicious cycle of intimacy and fulfillment? David understood the importance of keeping God's laws, striving for them. They kept him out of danger, but, more importantly, in the presence of the Almighty.

Proverbs 4:23 says, "keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life." Too often, I've heard this associated with dating. Yes, guarding your heart is important. What's so much more important is our pursuit of Christ. If we would set our focus on the King of Glory, we wouldn't have to worry so much about the next guy or girl shattering our heart. Seriously. David's Bridal University needs to CHILLL OUTTT. ring by spring? boof. In other news, our purity is a direct reflection of our vision of heaven and the Father. If we aren't remaining unstained by cultural influence and worldly pleasures, our perception of Jesus is muddied and our purpose remains unfulfilled. We become devoid and bereft. 

The Law is insane. Have you read Leviticus? yikes. Well, when Moses followed every SINGLE command God gave in the establishment of the tent of meeting (a representation of purity), something major followed. "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the Glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle" (Exodus 40:34-34). Purity of the "temple" led to a filling of the temple. Hold that thought.

1 Corinthians 6:19 says, "or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, Whom you have from God?" This passage is definitely talking about running from sexual immorality, but more so running towards purity, the glorification of God in our bodies. What in the WORLD are we filling our temples with? The world or the Spirit? Seriously, think about that. Housing the Spirit, the full Glory of God, cannot happen if we constantly grieve Him into a janitor's closet. We are refusing the fullness of God in our lives by choosing worldly lusts over true fulfillment. When God's Spirit is present and prevalent, the power of God works in crazy ways. 

The power of God needs to be let loose in our hearts and lives which will explode into the world around us. That's what we need, that's what God wants. Back to David but in Psalm 24 this time, "Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? and who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a PURE heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in. Who is this King of Glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in. Who is this King of Glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of Glory."

We all speak of a generation. There's even a song about it: "i see a generation rising up to take their place with selfless faith. I see a near revival stirring as we pray and seek, we're on our knees." So what are we gonna do about it? we can either tap into the dream of God and become this generation or prolong the inevitable and waste our lives on worthless pursuits and dreams ending in dead ends. We must seek God's face with clean hands and a pure heart. We must lift up our heads and fulfill our purpose as the ancient doors for the King of Glory to enter through. Cry out for His Kingdom and His return. Cry out for Jesus. 

Psalm 132:3-5. Isaiah 62:2-7. Matthew 6:10. Revelation 22:17. 

When we fulfill these as a person and a people, we will see the power of God break out unlike anything this world has ever seen. First, we must get back to purity. "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you" (James 4:8-10). The beatitudes promise the kingdom of heaven, comfort, and satisfaction in righteousness will be given to these. When we bear fruit in repentance, we will see the face of revival in us and in the world around us.

God's heart BURNS for His people to BURN for Him. The dream of God is a global outbreak of revival and restoration. YOU, as a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, are a minister of reconciliation. You are restoring a creation back to its Creator by the Spirit of God. We MUST let go of this world and our lives.We MUST.

I'm praying that theological disagreements are shattered by an overwhelming presence of the Spirit of God. I'm praying that apathetic hearts are gripped by the limitless love and jealousy of the Father for you. I'm praying for revival to break out in your heart and the world around you. I'm praying for revival. 

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.”

Revelation 22:17

home.

well, i'm home and i couldn't be happier. Words just can't express how refreshing it is to be back. I had dinner with my parents. I went to a show friday night and chilled with mason for his birthday and my homies in Mouth of the South. It was just super cool. I had dinner with the youth pastors (hs&jh) and their wives saturday night and started at Pantego Bible Church on Sunday morning. life's good. I have the coolest job ever. seriously. first day on the job (kinda, it was yesterday/monday), we had pancake discipleship. pancakes. merge students. james 4:1-12. freaking rad. did i mention pancakes? so cool. the kids in the group are incredible and really have a desire to love Jesus. in two weeks we're going to lake texoma for the upperclassmen retreat and the following weekend is welcome weekend and move up sunday for the incoming 7th graders. just some pretty cool stuff. God's a cool dude. today i helped the ResLife staff at DBU move mattresses, bed frames, and desks into the off campus apartments and i was in my apartment for the first time. i love it. it's gonna be pretty home-y for sure. the sad part is how closed off everyone i was able to talk to or see was. breaks my heart, but God is bigger. He's pursuing them and has been long before i came along.

James 3:13-4, let's go back to that. SO HUGE. "Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom" (js. 3:13). From the very beginning, a distinctly profound and important point is clearly stated: wisdom and understanding are significant. Moreover, they are crucial. Maybe that's why james wrote this in the fourth sentence of the FIRST chapter, " If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him" (v. 5). this verse is a good reference to the remainder of the post so "keep it fresh" (merge kids get this).

1) if God gives wisdom, shouldn't we desire it? (here's a hint: yes). If He gives it, obviously it's something we DON'T have. That might explain this, "Never be wise in your own eyes," or this, "Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil" (Rom. 12:16; Prov. 3:7). How, though, can we know it's something we don't have? we ALWAYS want our way and think we have the, or all the, answer(s) to our questions, problems, and situations. and everyone elses' too. AND if they don't do what WE think is right, THEY are the dumbest human who ever existed. man, that sounds like an attitude of a GENIUS. ..psych. one way, and one way alone can we acknowledge and accept this fact.

humility.

When we think we're wise you have outcomes like those mentioned in James 3:14-16, "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth (don't put on a front of wisdom when you're full of poopy). This is not wisdom that comes down FROM ABOVE, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic (demons are spirits, so my guess would be the word is really 'unSpiritual'). For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice." in a nutshell: two kinds of wisdom, 1) from above and 2) earthly. heaven or earth, those are our choices of where we want to be fed from. we have the privilege of CHOOSING where we want our (some not so much) wisdom comes from. if the latter of the two leads to disorder and EVERY vile practice, what's left? if we want order and goodness, what should we seek?

"But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" (js. 3:17-18). so this is what james was talking about way back in that first verse, huh? makes sense.. when was the last time you just walked outside and had the purest motives, making peace with everybody, gently, listening to their INSANELY wrong points of view openly, mercifully handling everyone the same, showing sincere impartiality and bearing fruit in all of it? never. NEVER. none of us have, but we've had glimpses of it. why? it's God given, which is why we must ask for it.

chapter four is pretty easily summed up, you can read it. the selfishness and jealousy in chapter three carries down to war within us and cause fights and quarrels (v. 1). these lead to hatred and envy of others and we feel hatred toward them (if you aren't loving them and wish bad stuff would happen to em, be real, that's hate) which is, according to Jesus, the same as committing the act in our hearts (v. 2).

When we think we have it all figured out, we chase our desires, our passions, we fight for them! why would we ask God for this stuff? we can totally handle it on our own. heck, maybe we do ask, but do we reeeeally go to God as He is for who He is, or is He more like Santa Clause? Ho Ho Ho is right. which leads right into verse four! WHORES. James compares the Jewish Christians to prostitutes and adulterers, which they would have understood and HATED, in a good way. He tells them they've become their own God's enemies because they desire the things of this world over the kingdom of Heaven.

God is JEALOUS for us. His veins burn green with flames of jealousy. He cannot stand to see His people seeking their fulfillment and pleasure in things other than Himself. He loves us, but He's also selfless. He knows what is best for us, Himself, so He points us in the direction of Himself. Here's where it gets a bit lofty. God's jealousy is His provision for the fulfillment of our purpose: seeking and finding Him, praising Him. ultimately, His glorification is what He is seeking, but we get to play a part in that. cool, huh? moreover, Proverbs 26:11 says, "like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly." When we gain wisdom from God, we realize two things: 1) God is the ultimate fulfillment. 2) nothing else can fulfill us, it's foolish to try. take solomon for example. he was the wisest man to ever live (1 kings 4:29) and in his book ecclesiastes, the main point is the stuff of this world we so desperately seek after cant bring us satisfaction. BUT WE CONTINUE TRYING. so now what?

"But He gives more grace." God in His infinite holiness, FREAKING holy, beyond understanding or fathom, gives US grace. more grace. relentlessly. He pours out grace on us like air or sunlight, except without the setting. THAT'S A GREAT ANALOGY, thank you, Holy Spirit. Get this, texans. Sun = hot, yeah? especially when it was 108 today and i was sweating my butt off. when the sun is beating down on you, what do you wanna do? swim, drink water, GET OUT OF IT. The sun burrrrnnsss. God pours out His grace on us in the same way. We go outside, we can't handle it very long, so we don't wanna get burned. the more we realize that the sun's just gonna burn us, the less we wanna hang out in it. our desires change (little drastic, but bear with me). When we desire the things of this world, God pours out His grace to change our desires to Him.

 However, God only gives grace to the humble. We must humble ourselves before Him and accept the change. He gives us a glimpse of Himself, His wisdom, and our foolishness. We must humble ourselves by denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following Him.

wisdom follows grace so we understand how to flee from our old desires and run after these new ones.

This is the process of sanctification. Humility, Grace, Wisdom.

We must humble ourselves before God, accept His transforming power, and let His Spirit teach us all things (Jn. 14:26).

I admit, this may be off and we may disagree, but i love you and pray God's Spirit transforms you as we humble ourselves before Him.
I pray "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ; the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe" over you in the name of Jesus (see the remaining verses for the power that comes along with that ephesians 1:17-23). be wise.