We like clothes. We like to cover up.
We like to make sure that there is a barrier between us and others.
Between us and God.
There’s something scary about being naked.
About being exposed.
It’s not safe.
We’re not able to hide anything.
Our faults, struggles, and weaknesses are now visible.
And you know what?
Naked is a good thing.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were “both naked, and they felt no shame.”
There were no walls built up.
There was nothing hidden.
They were truly united.
We can’t be united with each other or united with Christ until we’re willing to take down our walls.
Until we’re willing to get naked.
What walls do you have up right now that need to come down?
What’s keeping you from being completely naked?
I always feel like I just got hit by a truck the day after a retreat. I’m absolutely exhausted and don’t really want to do anything that involves exerting energy. The retreat itself was awesome. God did some big and cool things in the lives of students who were there, and I was blessed to see that and be used by God in that.
I think that my favorite part of retreats is the willingness we have to take the next step. When we’re out of our everyday lives and able to take a deep breath and refocus ourselves on what matters. When we get away from the 13,542 voices telling us to go this way, do that, look like this, act like that, we’re able to hear the one voice that matters: Christ’s. It’s my prayer that in learning to hear and discern Christ’s voice in times like this, that we will be able to listen for it when the other voices start chiming in again.
“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” ~ John 10:1-5
I’m leading worship all weekend for our senior high retreat. It’ll be a great time with students and I’m really looking forward to what God is going to do this weekend.
I know this video has been making the rounds, and maybe you’ve seen it already. But for those of you who haven’t, take the time to watch this. It’s a long video, but trust me, it’s worth it. This was a moment at Catalyst last week where a Compassion child, now grown up, shared his story about how he was so impacted by the fact that someone chose to sponsor him. Then he meets his sponsor for the first time. Grab a tissue, you’ll need it.
I sponsor a child in Uganda through Compassion. Sometimes I think, “Is this really worth it? Is this really making a difference?”
Then I see something like this, and I’m reminded that yes, sponsoring a child is worth it. And it does make a difference.
I saw a video about a church that’s planning a book burning event on Halloween. The list of books to be burned include all bible translations that aren’t King James Version because that church believes that the King James Version (KJV) should be the only Bible that English speaking Christians should use and all other Bibles are heretical. Now, I don’t agree with that. I prefer some translations over others, but I’m not about to claim that certain translations are heretical and that readers of that translation are heretics.
I mostly use the New International Version (NIV). So does my church.
My question is this: Which translation do you personally use/prefer? Your church?
Yesterday, Chris Tomlin tweeted about a video he saw and linked to it on his blog. It’s three kids singing Jesus Messiah and it’ll knock your socks off.
I love it when they go into the bridge. That harmony is insane.
A week and a half ago, my friend and mentor, Autumn and I made a music video for the Chris Tomlin song, You Lifted Me Out. It was well received by friends, and friends of friends on facebook, so I figured I should share it on here.
It’s amusing what you can accomplish in a couple hours on a Wednesday afternoon when you have nothing better to do .
This post is only really aimed at those who subscribe to this blog via rss or email updates. Long story short, I had some issues migrating my feedburner feed to a new email address so I decided to create a new feed url. All of the links on here have been updated with the new url, so click on the subscribe links again, or just grab the url and put it in your feed reader to keep the posts coming to you. The new feed url is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/shaggyworshiper/dustin.
There are times when I get hit with revelation of the way God made us as humans. There are characteristics, traits, and tendencies that come out even in the midst of a world that is in rebellion towards God.
At the end of the movie, in the aerial battle above the military base, the character Russell Casse gives his life to crash his plane into the center of the alien ship to blow it up and save everyone. The moment when he decides that that’s what he’s going to do is a powerful moment and one that I cry at.
But, when you take out the action, the dramatic music, and the awesome mid nineties special effects, you’re left with a man laying down his life that others might live.
Do you see Jesus in that? I do.
I think that’s because there’s something deep within us that recognizes the value of someone laying down their life for someone else. It’s something that can’t be taken away. And it’s something that those who don’t know Jesus still recognize. Hollywood even recognizes it.
I love it when God is revealed in secular settings.
Proverbs 4:23 is most likely a verse that we’ve all heard a time or two.
Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.
It’s a simple verse.
Easy to remember.
Difficult to apply.
Because most of the time, we don’t even know we’ve left our heart unguarded.
Our pride and arrogance gets the better of us and we think, “I’ve got this under control.”
Then we slip up.
We get drunk. We slander our friend. We look at porn. We judge and look down on the people around us. We have an affair.
We do any number of sins that show, obviously, that we left our heart unguarded.
I really like the way Casting Crowns said it in their song Slow Fade, “People never crumble in a day.” It’s a slow process that leads to us failing in ways like this.
In Genesis 4, God says to Cain, “…if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you…”
Sin waits for us.
Satan is patient, he puts little things in our path to begin the process of opening ourselves up to fail in these ways.
Guard your heart. Always.
Ask God where you are leaving yourself unguarded. Then deal with those reasons.
Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.
.
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