The Beautiful Exchange...

So this week I purchased the newest Hillsong Live Album "A Beautiful Exchange".  I have been listening to the tracks over and over again as I have been cruising around town.  Let me first say that I am so glad that we were created to worship and that you do not have to wait for Sunday morning.  No joke, I have been having church in my car.

As I have been listening to the various songs, the title track from the album has captured me in a wonderful way.  As I listen to the song, I find myself in the words.  I notice phrases reach me and impact my being.  Reflecting on the lyrics to Beautiful Exchange (written by: Joel Houston), I am captured once again by the God who refused to be distant and silent.  I am reminded of the God who fought for me with His mercy and who gave His life in a beautiful exchange.

No matter who you are, God's love made a way for you.  He has orchestrated the beautiful exchange.  We must simply be willing to sing "Holy are you God! Holy is Your name! With everything I've got, my heart will sing how I love you Lord."  Be captured!  Be captivated by the love of God, there is nothing else like it.  Check out the lyrics below, maybe they'll hit you like they have me.

You were near
Though I was distant
Disillusioned I was
Lost and insecure

Still mercy fought
For my attention
You were waiting at the door
Then I let you in

Trading your life
For my offenses
For my redemption
You carried all the blame

Breaking the curse
Of our condition
Perfection took our place

Chorus:
When only love could make a way
You gave your life in a beautiful exchange

My burden erased
My life forgiven
There is nothing that could take this love away
And my only desire and sole ambition
Is to love you just the same

Bridge:
Holy are you God
Holy is your name
With everything I’ve got
My heart will sing how I love you

Live in Love.

Most days, if not all, I look in a mirror and see my reflection.  If I am completely honest, it is most often in the morning as I get ready for the day.  I spend time getting ready and give myself a final check before heading out into the world.  I like to think that this behavior is pretty normal.  Maybe you are like me.  What’s interesting about my obsession with the mirror is that I am regularly captured by the wrong image.  When I look at myself I most often stop at the surface and miss the opportunity to make sure my heart is ready for the day.

Each day that we get up and get ready, we have a choice: will I live today for myself or will I live a life of love that has its source in God.  Each day I have to make a choice in whose reflection will be on display.  Will I reflect KURT or will I reflect GOD.  In 1 John 4, we see that God is love.  This means that every time I make a choice to display love I display God and every time I choose to reflect God I reflect love.  These two things go hand in hand.  God is love.  God loves YOU!  God loves me.  God loves all of humanity.  This is how it works and this is who He is.  But the question is, will I allow who He is to transform who I am?

In a world driven by greed, self-glorification, fame and fortune, You and I have an interesting choice to make.  Will we be another individual living for self with something to prove or will we be an individual captured by the love of God displayed in Jesus who lives with a heart for more than self with something to give?  

For the past 20 years I have been engaged in a growing relationship with Jesus.  Over the past 20 years I have discovered something wonderful.  When I choose Jesus as my source, he fills me and supplies me with all I need.  In Jesus I am accepted and loved.  Because I am extravagantly loved by Jesus, it frees me to extravagantly love others.  When I look in the mirror and see that my heart is captured by the love of God, I know that I can go live that day with something to give instead of something to prove.

Live in Love!

The daily choice is this: will i love the way god loves?

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God...if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4)

Integrity's Gift

So, I must admit that I have felt uninspired lately when it comes to writing.  I have not posted recently due to a busyness in my daily routine and an emptiness in my ideas.  While I have observed wonderful things the past few weeks and enjoyed wonderful moments with friends, I have felt somewhat stagnant in my writing.  Tonight as I logged into my blog the thought hit me...

In life, there are times that we find ourselves stuck in a rut, lacking direction or feeling stagnant.  We know that something awaits us, but we cannot seem to discover that "thing" we are waiting for.  It is almost as though we are waiting for something to capture us, while that "thing" is waiting for us to capture it.  Take this blog post for example.  I have been waiting to write with hopes of discovering inspiration, but the inspiration has been waiting for me to write.  And that is when it hit me.  When I choose to live a life of integrity each day, I will always know where to take my next step in life.  I will always know that my next step is in the direction that I have already been walking.  Although I might not know where my immediate next step is leading, I know that steps of integrity lead to life giving pursuits.

Integrity's gift is experienced when we continue to take steps of righteousness regardless of our ability to see or feel inspiration.  Sometimes the inspiration we are looking for is simply discovered in our faithful next step.  Integrity's gift is pointing one's feet in a life giving direction so that when we are not sure what to do, we know we can keep walking in the direction our life has already been headed.  Embrace integrity and embrace a journey that unfolds one step at a time.

Embrace...

          As the evening began to wind down, we moved from the dining room into the living room to enjoy some dessert and coffee.  The night had been full of friendship, community, and sharing life over a meal.  It was simply a wonderful time with friends; one like so many others we had shared.  Our conversation moved seamlessly from work, to fun, to family and back to work.  Dialogue about music and YouTube came and went.  We were simply sharing our lives with one another over an evening meal.

            But then it happened.  Effortlessly.  Mysteriously.  Our ordinary conversation on an ordinary night, seemingly devoid of the divine, awakened as something completely opposite.  The loving presence of God illuminated my heart as we talked.  It was as though we took a breath in between words and realized that God was present with us.  Jesus and his loving presence had emerged from the conversation to capture the attention of the ones he so deeply loves.  Its not that a conscious decision to experience God had become the focus of that particular night, it is simply that God was already present.  But it was Tuesday night.  Sunday services were still days away.  It was not the time nor place that we had cut out of our week to enter His presence.  Exactly, and for that I am so grateful.  God made a choice long before we ever invited our friends for dinner that He was going to come for us; that His delight would be in His people.   God’s desire has always been to interact with humanity and it was no different during that simple evening with friends. 

            As I reflect on that night, it quickens in me other times I have had the opportunity to experience God: unassuming moments in the car, walking to a meeting, an evening with friends, sitting in Starbucks, reading a book, in worship, in a sunset.  Those experiences seem to be highlighted by tenderness and love. When the presence of God falls, I realize that in that moment the culmination of all my longing, searching and seeking for the fullness of life is met in the one who made me, knows me, and loves me beyond all understanding.  The one who my heart has desired moves ever close to embrace me first.  It is as though the prayer of Paul for the believers in Ephesus  “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.  Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:19)” meets me in the here and now.  And let me add, it will meet you too! 

            The reality of God revealing himself to his people is foundational for people experiencing the relational, Creator God.  As a movement, The Vineyard has embraced the dynamic nature of the loving Creator.  This embrace is displayed in the Vineyard’s core value Experiencing God.  The belief that God is searching for lost humanity in order to draw us into loving, intimate relationship with himself has revealed an ever-increasing opportunity in my life to experience the love of God that moves beyond my ability to understand.  As evinced in the delightful dinner with our friends, I am discovering that the opportunities to experience God are always greater than I often allow for.  In other words, the breadth of God’s love for me greatly exceeds my God box.

            For so long, my journey of discovery in Jesus was limited by my performance, my behavior, by me.  I had adopted a tally system faith that looked more like a Pharisee than a disciple.  When I was good there was potential to experience God; however, when I was living in the don’ts of scripture I had somehow come to think that God’s love and God’s presence would be removed from my life.  Reflecting on that time in my life, I see a self-centered approach to God that at its best could only be religion.  My interaction with God was always a measure of me, and therefore was always limited by me.  I was continuing to pursue God out of my best efforts instead of embracing the fullness of life and freedom that come from Jesus’ best efforts. 

            You see, I was failing to discover the breadth of God’s love that comes to us when we fall short.  Falling short and experiencing the brokenness of humanity does not disqualify us from the embrace of God’s love, it simply makes us greater candidates.  Out of his great love for us, God sent Jesus to bring freedom and life to the world.  The discovery that is made in Jesus is one of surrender and embrace.  Surrendering our best attempt to live our best life in order to embrace the best life that we can live in Jesus.  In The Message, Eugene Peterson offers us a helpful perspective on embracing all that God has for us: “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him…Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by who God is and by what he does for us, not by who we are and what we do for him (Romans 12:1-3).”

            The experience of God that I am discovering, and that God has for all humanity, is illuminated in Romans 12.  First, I do not have to live a compartmentalized life that leaves the triune God locked up until Sunday morning.  The breadth of his love is meant to be lived and embraced everyday in all we do.  His person and presence is available in the ordinary everyday moments.  If Paul is right and God’s love goes beyond my understanding, then I know his love is big enough to be encountered everyday of the week.  With each day I surrender my grip on life and my best effort to hold things together, I get to embrace God.  As I embrace God, I surrender myself.  As I surrender myself, I embrace God.  The pressure is off, the performance ceases and the intimate relationship with the Creator illuminates my heart.  And the realization that is made in my experience of God is that He has such a passionate love for me that He made a choice to be active in my life.  In spite of my best and my worst, God made a choice to embrace me.  Experiencing God is an illumination of love, approval and embrace!

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints,

to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.

Ephesians 3:17b-18

(An Article I wrote for the Southwest Connections Newsletter, a Regional Vineyard Publication)

What are you looking for?

What are you looking for? It is a simple enough question, but is it helping you see? In life we are constantly seeking, searching and looking for purpose, answers and stuff. But I wonder in your quest if you are discovering all that you were intended to find. One of the interesting facts about life is that we are shaped by what we experience. Not exactly like Pavlov's Dogs, but learning and discovery is shaped by the things we encounter. So, what are you looking for? Have you given looking for something up based on past experience? Are your eyes allowing you to see all that is out there?

Check out this video, follow the instructions given...

Watching this video has made me wonder how many times we miss God's love for us because we do not know what to look for and our past has taught us to look for the wrong things. God loves you! It is true! He is in the business of working for good in all circumstances (Romans 8:28). He came so that we might have abundant life (John 10:10). Every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17). If you have ever experienced love, grace, hope or something characterized as good (or a blessing), You have experienced God "moonwalk" right through your life. So my question is, what are you looking for?

Why is there so much love in the world?

Have you ever found yourself in the midst of life asking the question "Why is there so much pain in the world?"  My guess is that you, or someone you know, have asked this question or one very similar in nature.  This is a very human thing to do.  If God is, then why hurt, pain, disappointment, and brokenness.  Can I offer another thought?  I understand we are seeking answers.  I understand we are trying to make sense of our world.  I know what it is like to have walked through life circumstances that did not go the way I expected them to.  So, can I offer another thought?

Why is there so much good in the world?  Why is there so much love?

Why do we jump to the position of blaming God for the hurt, pain, destruction and evil in our world, yet we embrace the gifts, joys and love of life without attributing it to the one who is love and who is life?  I am simply wondering, why is there so much beauty in creation and why is there so much love?

You see, this has been a challenge for men and women since time began.  If you take a look back at creation and the earliest experiences of the human race, you might discover that humans have had to make a choice when it comes to life circumstance.  Will I choose to trust God, trust that he loves me and that he is always working for the absolute best in my life, or will I choose to not trust God?  In Genesis, scripture communicates that God had given Adam and Eve every tree in the Garden to enjoy, except one.  One.  (Imagine being given a gift of $1,000,000 and the gift giver puts one more dollar on the table and says you can have the $1,000,000 but you cannot have that $1.  I do not know about you, but I would be good with that.)  Instead of being content with the "ALL except one" offer, Adam and Eve chose to be selfish.  God has been giving generous gifts since time began, but if you keep reading the story, you discover that another player enters the game and begins to sow seeds of doubt and confusion.  The serpent (aka The Devil, Satan) enters the picture and questions God.  Better yet stands in total defiance and opposition of God's plan for Adam and Eve.

And thus it continues.  You and I are caught in the middle of a great struggle.  A struggle over your heart and mine.  God in all his love and mercy is regularly communicating his generous love for all people and is inviting us into life; while Satan is sowing seeds of doubt, confusion and lies that lead to death.  It is a battle of two kingdoms.  The Kingdom of Life versus the Kingdom of Death.  Within this struggle, we have a choice: a choice of who we will trust?

I know so much of the time it might seem difficult to believe in a God when people suffer and die, but those are not the qualities of the God I know.  The God I know is one who brings life, love and hope.  The God I know is working tirelessly to express His love for you and for me.  The God I know is displayed in the majesty and beauty of His creation.  The God I know sent His son Jesus as an expression of His love to conquer death so that we might live.  The God I know is worth following because He knows what it is like to be me and experience all that life throws at me.  The God I know loves you passionately!

The Faith Journey...

"...make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:5-8)


This morning I found myself thinking about the progression Peter sets before us in his second letter.  I was reflecting on the element of our faith that is meant to be a journey.  A journey that leads us to a better understanding of God's love, majesty and mystery.  As we read Peter's words we must not miss the phrase "in increasing measure".  When we respond to Jesus and take our step of faith, do not stop there.  The Faith Journey was never meant to cease with a declaration of "I believe." "I believe," is what propels us into the life we live in Jesus.  Faith is the expression of our heart that says, "I am in!" as opposed to "I am done".  The Faith Journey is one that says, "Keep going!"  The Faith Journey is one that leads us with each day to a fuller experience and understanding of who Jesus is; therefore, allowing us to embrace a fuller experience and understanding of who we were meant to be.  Have you said "Yes" again today?  Are you increasing in your measure so that those around you benefit from your overflow?


Say "Yes" to Jesus again and again and again that you might continue to grow and mature in the journey Jesus is calling you to.