He Hears Us in Our Pit

"Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O Lord, in morning you hear my voice; in the morning I direct my prayer to you and watch." -Psalm 5:1-3, ESV

Ever have days when this rings psalm is the cry of your heart? I know I do. On the days when I am sad or lonely or feel betrayed or am dealing with temptation, this is the cry of my heart.

Oh Lord, hear my cry! Oh Lord, hear the call of your servant as I groan and plead with you! May our prayers of praise lift You higher and our prayers of thanksgiving give You the credit and glory. May our cries for help reach Your holy ears and may You show us mercy in our times of need!

The beauty of it all is... He hears us.

"...He regards the prayes of the destitute and does not despise their prayers." -Psalm 102:17, ESV

When we are in need, He hears us. When we feel that we are at the bottom of a pit and cannot possibly climb out, He hears us. When we are on our knees each morning, begging our Lord to give us the strength to face the day, He hears us.

This is great news, Christian! Rejoice in His hearing of our prayers in time of need!

The Defeat of the Impossible

"For nothing is impossible with God." -Luke 1:37, HCSB

How many times have you heard that verse, right? It is a favorite verse of the underdog and athlete, the troubled and addicted.

 "There's nothing God can't help us achieve, and there is nothing that can stop us with Him at our side."

This is very true, but there is a definite asterisk next to this truth: nothing is impossible with God when He decides to do so. The passage that this verse comes from is the same passage in which the angel Gabriel is telling Mary that she will give birth to the Son of God. She is obviously flabbergasted and confused by this news, and so she asks (very humbly) how this could happen, considering that she was a virgin.

The angel proceeds to tell her of how her relative Elizabeth was currently preggo at an old age, and that "nothing is impossible with God." God is all powerful, but this verse is not meant purely to inspire us on fourth-and-goal with time expiring. It is showing that nothing will stop God on His mission. Nothing will prevent God from ruling the world, and nothing can stand in His way.

Old age? Nope.

Virgin? Not an issue.

Your past addictions? Nothing He can't overcome.

Your physical condition? Not a handicap in the working of God.

God can use whomever and whatever He so chooses to accomplish His plans. He's running the ship, and nothing can slow Him down.

You may wonder in this moment: "what role do I play in this? If God is in charge, and He is looking to accomplish His goals and plans, what do I do?" You do exactly what Mary did.

"'I am the Lord's slave,' said Mary. 'May it be done according to your word.'" -Luke 1:38, HCSB

We humbly accept God's power and lordship, and do as He says. We are His slaves, and He is our Good Master. He will accomplish great things through us, so long as we are humbly looking to accomplish His great things.

Perhaps God's purpose in your defeat of the impossible is to win a football game and give Him glory for it. Perhaps His purpose in your defeat of the impossible is to overcome your physical limitations to show the love of Christ to others. Perhaps His purpose in your defeat of the impossible is to share your story of addiction and redemption in order to help someone else see the love and freedom of life with Christ.

You never know what impossible task God may want to overcome through you, but He already did one. Your salvation through the blood and resurrection is a miracle in and of itself; who's to say He doesn't have something else for you? Humble yourself, and look to accomplish His plans with His power and might.

A Word to Young Ladies...From the Christ-Following Guys Out Here

This post is written to all of those young Christian ladies out there, from the point of view of a young Christian man. Hopefully, some of the young ladies that are following God out there will see this and be helped to see where the heart of many Christian dudes my age (college-aged) is. I don't tend to write more personal posts like this one, but it's really on my heart today, so enjoy. It's about to get real up in here.

Dear Ladies,

There is a massive problem on our college campuses (and in the world as a whole): the idea of a biblical man is becoming a rarer and rarer goal for guys our age (I'm sure I just got an "amen" from some of you). Dudes are simply not willing to man up and be the spiritual leader anymore. In fact, being a spiritual man isn't all that popular, in general.

However, there isn't only bad news. The God-fearing man is not extinct, and in many ways, is making a comeback. Many college-aged guys are striving to follow God in a more real and serious manner these days. While the total number of us may be few, there is a population of young men that are trying to follow after God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength.

Yes, we stumble. We fail. We don't always have it together. We may even fall in front of you. Yet, we exist. While many of us are growing in Christ, we are also not meant to be alone. This is where you come in.

This same group of men is looking for you. Ok, not you specifically. That would be creepy. We are looking, however, for a woman that is truly running after her Lord and Savior. We are searching for a girl who has sold out and given all that her heart can give to Christ and her walk with Him. We are in pursuit of a woman that sounds like the words of Solomon in Proverbs:

"Charm is deceptive and beauty

is fleeting,

but a woman who fears the Lord

will be praised."

-Proverbs 31:30, HCSB

You see, a nice appearance is great. This is not a letter suggesting that you swap the gym for the couch. No, I'm instead encouraging you to go deeper and deeper in your walk with God. Fear the Lord. Love Him. Be passionate about His mission, reflect His heart and walk in His grace.

All of this is to say: ladies, your Christian walk is important to us, as well. Not every guy is into yoga pants and low-cut shirts; some guys are into a woman with a bible in her hand and prayers on her lips. If you want to truly attract a God-fearing man, reflect the words of Proverbs 31 instead of Cosmo.

Don't be afraid to be that kind of woman. Encourage us to be the men of God that we should be. If both men and women in the Church would encourage the other sex to follow the Lord with all their heart, and help each other do so, there could be a lot of happy young men and women, all serving the Lord with all they have.

My prayer is that my generation would grab hold of this. I pray that young men would step up and take their walk seriously, becoming the spiritual leaders they are made to be. I pray that young women would put aside the opinions of the world and run headlong after their Savior, becoming the God-fearing woman of Proverbs 31. I pray that men and women of the Church would come together and serve our King in His mission, and I pray that y'all are praying for this, as well.

Ladies, stay steadfast. The biblically-based man is out there. I promise.

Sincerely,
A young man in search of the Proverbs 31 woman

An Eternal Kingdom

"...and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.” -Luke 1:33, NIV

Kings and queens, once upon a time, were all over the earth. They had empires and knights and such. Yet, eventually, every king and queen's reign comes to an end. Perhaps they are overthrown by challengers to the throne, killed in battle, or maybe they just get old and die. Regardless, no earthly king has ever reigned forever.

Nowadays, kings aren't so common. Instead, others have "kingdoms:" Apple, Starbucks, money, sex, relationships, McDonald's, politics, alcohol, etc. The list could go on for days, seriously. Almost anything or anyone on this earth has the capability to reign in a kingdom of sorts. But, just like the actual kings of the past, all of this will end someday.

There will come a day when there are no more Salted Caramel Mochas (which I hope happens once I'm gone), no more iPhones, no more Twitter or Facebook (remember Myspace? Me either.). There will even come a day when money will not matter, and politics will be irrelevant and relationships and sex and everything else under the sun will be pointless.

 

"'Meaningless! Meaningless!'
    says the Teacher.
'Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.'"

-Ecclesiastes 1:2, NIV

Yet, there will never come a day when Jesus Christ isn't reigning. He was there in the beginning when the earth was formed, He's ruling right now, and will be King forever and ever and ever. No one will ever overthrow Him. No one will kill Him in battle. He will never grow too old to reign.

The question is this: how do you respond to His eternal kingship? Which kingdom will you fight and live and breathe for? Will you bow before the kingdoms of earth: the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure in unimportant, shallow things, or will you lift up the Kingdom of God: the pursuit of pleasure in our eternal Lord and King of everything?

The Largest Genocide in World History...And You Are Doing Nothing About It

This coming Sunday is known as "The Sanctity of Human Life Sunday" in churches across the United States. This year marks 40 years since Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court case that gave women "the right" to have an abortion. Since then, 55,871,353 fetuses have been aborted.

Or, if this will make it more real to you, 55,871,353 children have been aborted. 55,871,353 future living, breathing people have been exterminated, and the number is climbing day-by-day.

Let these numbers soak in:

Amount killed in genocides

Nazi Holocaust: 6 million Jews, 11 million total
Killing Fields of Cambodia: between 1 and 3 million, believed to be closest to 2.2 million
Rwandan genocide (1994): at least 800,000, as many as 1 million
Darfur genocide: 178,258–461,520
Trail of Tears/American genocide of Native Americans: approx. 4,000

Perhaps using genocides (mass killings of a people) doesn't allow the magnitude of this to register. Let me show you some other numbers.

Amount killed in wars

World War II: 50-73 million
World War I: 15-60 million (high estimate includes deaths due to Spanish Flu, which killed between 20-50 million people; thus, World War I alone probably killed much closer to the lower end)
Vietnam War: 1-3 million
American Civil War: 400,000-800,000 thousand

According to these numbers, only World War II (the deadliest war in history) and the combination of World War I/Spanish Flu can top the deaths in the United States due to abortions since 1973. No genocide, not even that of Nazi design, comes close. Bear in mind, WWII and WWI were worldwide wars, and I only include numbers for abortions in the United States since Roe v Wade. I have no idea how much higher the total number of abortions worldwide (even since 1973, not even before) could possibly be.

And yet, this mass killing of humans is happening in the United States under the guise of women's rights. Just as Hitler believed that it was his right to rid the world of the unwanted Jews and homosexuals (among others), millions of Americans believe that it is a woman's right to rid the world of her unwanted child.

You can try to spin this however you want. Go ahead, tell me how a fetus isn't a human being. Go ahead, tell me I don't understand. Go ahead, tell me that no one should tell a woman what to do with her body. You will not convince me, and I will only be more convinced of the depravity and evil in this world.

You cannot tell me that I do not understand. My brother was supposed to die at birth, or even before, due to a defect in his placenta. Even if he survived, he would have severe problems for life. The doctors advised that my parents abort him; they didn't. He is now my best friend and is perfectly normal. He attends college and plans to be a police officer. Yet, medical officials believed the best option was to abort this person.

You cannot tell me that a woman has the right to do with her body, and that no one else can say anything. Tell that to the person on the other end of a suicide hotline, talking a woman down from taking those pills. Tell that to the counselor, who desperately wants the teen to quit cutting herself. People only get mad about telling a woman (or man, honestly) what to do with her body when it is inconvenient. People are only upset when the part of a woman's body that is being damaged can be killed and thrown away, having never been heard or seen outside of a protruding belly.

You cannot tell me that a fetus is not a baby. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, knit together in our mother's womb (Psalm 139:13-14). The Spirit filled John the Baptist within Elizabeth's womb in Luke 1; as my friend Austin Little pointed out, God fills people with his Spirit. Why fill nothing more than a pre-human, non-spiritual creature/piece of flesh/thing with His glorious Self? It would be ridiculous and clearly points to God's belief that a fetus is a human being.

This has gone on long enough, and will continue as long as Christians sit quietly. We are watching one of the biggest, if not the biggest, killing of human beings unfold right before our eyes. The American genocide of unborn children has been happening for 40 years; will we allow it to continue for another 40?

*Only select genocides and wars were included; I used the largest I could find, as well as some well-known others. I, to the best of my knowledge, have included the highest killing genocide and war. Comment if you know of a worse example, and I'll be glad to add it.
-Stats taken from http://www.numberofabortions.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_anthropogenic_disasters_by_death_toll. Feel free to stat-check me. I doubt that you'll find numbers large enough to dwarf the American genocide of the unborn to an insignificant number, but you're welcome to try-

Let's Just Worship

A worship guide for the new year (and the rest of our lives):

"Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary."

- Psalm 96:1-6, NIV

 

Isn't this a great passage? It has a lot to it, and I really just wanted to share this with you all today. Let's break it down, and I hope you follow each section, worshipping Him:

 

"Sing to the LORD a new song, sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise His name...": Oh, sing to the Lord! Sing with all your heart. May the whole planet, nay, the entire universe sing to Him who is seated above all! He is worth of all praise and glory and honor, forever and ever and ever! Praise His great name, the Name that is above all names!

 

"Proclaim his salvation day after day, declare His glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples...": The natural result of, or perhaps better called the continuation of, worshipping our Lord is the declaration of His splendor and majesty and power to the nations for all to hear. If we truly worship Him, it will spill over onto into a flowing river of praise from our lips, taking His name to the ends of the earth.

 

"For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens...": There is nothing on this planet or beyond this planet that is worthy of the praise that our God is due. Why? Because He made it all. He made light and dark and land and water and stars and moons and planets. He made birds and fish and plants and mammals and invertebrates and reptiles and amphibians. He made wood and metal and oil and combustion and paper and jewels. He made relationships and power and love and sex and passion and happiness. Everything you could ever make into an idol, anything that you could put over Him (idols don't have to be objects; they are ANYTHING we put over God) was made by Him or forbidden by Him. In fact, the very act of idolatry is sin.

 

Instead we should fear Him. A writer called the fear of God, "the convergence of awe, reverence, adoration, honor, worship, confidence, thankfulness, love, and yes, fear." All of that is what our reaction toward God should be. Anything less isn't up to par.

 

"Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary...": This is why we fear Him. Splendor and majesty and strength and glory surround Him; I don't think I have to expand. I don't even know if I can. Our Lord is so majestic and wonderful and powerful and glorious and beautiful and amazing that words simply do not do Him justice.

 

Just sing a song and worship. Just bow and lift up His name. That is the only fitting response.

Welcome to the New America

^"Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached. For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength." -1 Corinthians 1:20-25, HCSB

This verse speaks of how Christians will be deemed foolish by the world, and in the United States, we've escaped much of this. Our nation has long been a stronghold of Christian belief and religious freedom, regardless of what the rest of the world might think.

But it is all changing.

Yesterday, Louie Giglio withdrew from participating in President Obama's inauguration. The popular pastor of Atlanta's Passion City Church, as well as the founder of the Passion Movement, felt that it was for the betterment of everyone involved if he backed out from the great honor of praying before a presidential election. Why would he feel this way?

Approximately 15-20 years ago, Louie preached a sermon in which he clearly stated the sinful nature of homosexuality. Bear in mind, he didn't rake homosexuals over without stating that everyone sins and that we are all in need of a Savior; from the view of a Christian, this shouldn't be any different that stating the clearly sinful nature of murder or lying. All three actions are sins, and all three will equally deem one worthy of Hell.

Apparently some liberal watchdog group found out about this sermon, and started causing an uproar about how no one should be praying at the inauguration that maintains that homosexuality is a sin. Later, the Obama administration put out a notice that they were sorry for any offense taken to their choice (Louie was chosen to pray due to his work with the President on the abolition of slavery all over the world, and not on any other grounds), and that they would never want to go against the "strength and diversity" of this nation.

Yet, having a scenario where Louie felt the need to step down from this honor is also going against diversity. Now, due to this precedent, no evangelical pastor who holds to Scripture (1 Timothy 1:10) and believes that homosexuality is a sin is eligible to pray over the president's inauguration. As the president of the Southern Baptist Seminary, Albert Mohler, stated:

 

"The Presidential Inaugural Committee and the White House have now declared historic, biblical Christianity to be out of bounds, casting it off the inaugural program as an embarrassment. By its newly articulated standard, any preacher who holds to the faith of the church for the last 2,000 years is persona non grata. By this standard, no Roman Catholic prelate or priest can participate in the ceremony. No Evangelical who holds to biblical orthodoxy is welcome. The vast majority of Christians around the world have been disinvited. Mormons, and the rabbis of Orthodox Judaism are out. Any Muslim imam who could walk freely in Cairo would be denied a place on the inaugural program. Billy Graham, who participated in at least ten presidential inaugurations is welcome no more. Rick Warren, who incited a similar controversy when he prayed at President Obama’s first inauguration, is way out of bounds. In the span of just four years, the rules are fully changed."

 

There are many times when I am not a huge fan of President Mohler, but his post on this issue was spot on. Religion, particular evangelical Christianity, is being pushed out of the way in this nation. No longer is a biblical worldview the norm, or even acceptable to many.

 

Now is the time, Church in America. Now is the time to figure out where you stand. I believe that the next 20 or 30 years will change the religious structure in this nation completely, as the "wise" continue to ostracize and mock the people holding to truth of Christ. If you look at Europe, and the fall of religion there, it isn't unlikely that we will follow suit.

 

During the time that Paul wrote the words of 1 Corinthians, the Greeks were considered the wisest people around. Their use of logic and knowledge of the world made them a brilliant empire, and one that we still follow after today. Interestingly (and sadly), the United States is becoming much like the Greeks: arrogant in their knowledge and prideful in their logic. Much of this country, particularly young people (my generation) believe that the ways of religious orthodoxy are obsolete, ignorant of the world, and even hateful towards the rights of others.

 

To all of this, I simply say: "Yet, to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God's power and wisdom, because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength."

 

You may mock us, disregard us, and call us whatever you like. My Savior died for me and I will reign with Him forever, regardless of what the world calls wise.

 

You And Your Slavery

"For I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries, and will bring you into your own land." -Ezekiel 36:24, HCSB

In this verse, God is speaking to the Israelites, telling them that He will bring them back to their homeland. But why aren't they there already?

Israel, for the uninitiated, was a hot mess during biblical times. They were a constant roller coaster of spirituality: some years they were on fire for God, and other years they were worshipping idols and hosting child sacrifices.

Due to their foolishness of turning away from worshipping God, they got taken captive by the Babylonian empire and were enslaved in a foreign land. Idiots, right? Don't speak too soon.

We're very much the same. We are often foolish. Just think with me: how often do you have a reason that you don't worship and chase after God?

"I'd read my Bible more, but I'm really busy..."

"I'd pray more, but I don't really know how..."

"I'd go to church on Sunday mornings, but I had this thing on Saturday night..."

You may not have had one of those exact excuses, but I promise you've had at least something similar at some point in your walk with God. Probably in the past few days, honestly. We all have.

These foolish excuses do two things: they pretend that our relationship with God doesn't need priority over everything else (and He is worth infinitely more than anything else in our lives, I promise), and it lowers our defense against evil.

You see, God is our Shield. He says that all over the book of Psalms. When we stop pursing Him and put other things over that pursuit, then we lower our Shield in the middle of battle. Lowering a shield in battle is NOT a good idea.

The forces of darkness are always looking for one of His followers to lower their shield and become vulnerable for an attack. They will strike, and without a tried and true relationship with God, we will fall. We'll become enslaved to a sin, incapable of freeing ourselves.

Israel couldn't save themselves from captivity, and neither can we. Both groups of people need God. Fortunately, Ezekiel 36 continues.

"I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all of your impurities and all of your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances." -Ezekiel 36:25-27, HCSB

Beautiful. Not even beautiful; this is beyond words. We foolishly turn from God, which leads to our enslavement to darkness. And yet, God is a God of freedom. Not just literal freedom of the flesh, but freedom of the heart. He wants His people to be saved and to have new hearts. He wants His people to be clean. He wants to give us His Spirit to free us to follow Him, and to kick sin to the curb.

Is this the year that you allow God to give you a new heart? Maybe you still have a heart of stone, and are turned away from Him. Maybe you're already a Christian, and just need to be reminded that our God has saved you from sin, so quit re-enslaving yourself. Regardless of your situation, run to Him. Run to our God and turn from foolish ways of ignoring Him. Make 2013 a year where you are dedicated to following Him.

We were dead, and now we are alive. We were enslaved and foolish, but now we are free. Remember that. Embrace that. Live your life based off of that.

-Inspired by Louie Giglio's talk "Main Session 1-Passion 2013"