Conform or Reform?

"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."

I have an enemy in me. I am my own enemy. I hate the things that my hands do! I claim discipleship by Jesus Christ and yet by my actions I contradict the very things that He taught His disciples not to do!

"For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out."

In me there is not a single bit of righteousness, Paul would say and I would agree with. But wait a minute, didn't the prophet Jeremiah say that in the new covenant there would be a renewing--a regenerated heart? Yes! Where is this heart in me! How is it that this heart seems to be absent in me? I mean, I want to do good. I have the desire to do good! I have passion to pursue my God and yet the battle inside of me seems to be intensifying! I war against the flesh and often times I am defeated. But wait, I am more than a conqueror I thought! How is it that I am feeling more and more defeated? --Stop! I hear the still small, yet powerful and heavy voice of my Savior cry out to me saying, "This is the normal Christian Life. Now pursue me with all of your heart."

I want more than apathy. I want victory. I want more than the mundane. I want the abundance promised. I want more than average. I want a prophets heart. Enough is enough with the talking about the reformation of the church. Reform begins in the heart of the reformer. There must be reform in my heart, our hearts, before there can be a movement of the Holy Spirit in Portland, on Maui, in the Country.

In one of my favorite books that I've read this year, A.W. Tozer wrote this concerning personal and practical revival in the church today,

"I believe that the imperative need of the day is not simply revival, but a radical reformation that will go to the root of our moral and spiritual maladies and deal with causes rather than with consequences, with the disease rather than with symptoms...for this reason it is useless for large companies of believers to spend long hours begging God to send revival. Unless we intend to reform we may as well not pray."

The sin, the sins of commission as well as the sins of omission, must go Christians. It must stop. We are called to be disciples of Christ and yet we (of whom I am worst of all) live as if we are disciples of the world. Tozer would continue, saying this.

"...It is no longer either dangerous or costly to be a Christian. Grace has become not free, but cheap. We are busy these days proving to the world that they can have all the benefits of the gospel without any inconvenience to their customary way of life."

Immorality, drunkenness, gossip, liars, hypocrites, we are living a lie if we live in these things and claim the name of Christ. Let us reform our hearts and see the Spirit of Jesus Christ take over our lives here watch the change happen in our country, in our world!

What does it mean to reform your heart? It means that we conform our hearts to the heart of God. We put our bottles down, we pull our pants up, we go out and we worship and pray in faith to the Holy One; faith that comes with the intent to walk in obedience to all that God has ahead of us. If we do not have the insight or faith to radically have our lives turned upside down--or should I say right side up--to the way of the church of the New Testament then there can be no true revival. Again, there can be no true revival.

There will be trials. We will fail. How will we fail? Will we fail forward, picking ourselves up and moving forward? Or will we quit at the first sign of defeat?

I don't know about you guys but I want change. I'm sick and tired of feeling as if I have 3 good weeks followed by a week of disaster. I'm beat. I'm over it. I need Jesus. I want Jesus. I want Jesus the way that Peter wanted Jesus after His rise from death. The Bible tells us that when Messiah rose and told the fishermen to lower their nets into the water after a day of unsuccessful fishing, they caught so many fish that they could not haul the nets into the boat. John said, "it is the Lord!" and Peter, without hesitation, jumped out of the boat and to the Lord. He was hungry for the Lord. He didn't care what was ahead of Him, he was hungry for Jesus.

The beautiful part of the story is not that he jumps out of the boat but that he did not live in condemnation. That he knew Jesus would accept him back. Remember, Peter had just denied the Lord 3 days before while He was being accused. We need to remind ourselves of this, that Jesus is waiting for us on dry land. It's a matter of throwing ourselves into the sea by faith and going to Him. Revival is waiting. Are you willing?

Some Days Are Dark

Patience is like finger nails on the chalkboard to the heart of man. That is, however, what the Lord requires of us. With obedience, with honoring the will of the Lord, come patience. Always. We expect to see a great and marvelous work done at the very moment that our hearts obey the will of God. We treat it like its a means to an end when in reality, obedience is truly and end to the means. When you obey the Lord, you are in His hands. No longer are you striving with your Creator! Obedience brings forth suffering often times but in that suffering the glory of Jesus Christ is made reality as you begin to see your will fade and His manifest. Its the end of your heart trying to get your idea of life and you find yourself in His plan. No strife. Just have patience...endure the hardship of your flesh dying...

"But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." (James 1: 4)

The Story

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Read this this morning on C.H. Spurgeons Morning and Evening Devotional:

"The voice of weeping shall be no more heard." — Isaiah 65:19

The glorified weep no more, for all outward a causes of grief are gone.There are no broken friendships, nor blighted prospects in heaven. Poverty, famine, peril, persecution, and slander, are unknown there. No pain distresses, no thought of death or bereavement saddens. They weep no more, for they are perfectly sanctified. No "evil heart of unbelief" prompts them to depart from the living God; they are without fault before His throne, and are fully conformed to His image. Well may they cease to mourn who have ceased to sin. They weep no more, because all fear of change is past. They know that they are eternally secure. Sin is shut out, and they are shut in. They dwell within a city which shall never be stormed; they bask in a sun which shall never set; they drink of a river which shall never dry; they pluck fruit from a tree which shall never wither. Countless cycles may revolve, but eternity shall not be exhausted, and while eternity endures, their immortality and blessedness shall co-exist with it. They are for ever with the Lord. They weep no more, because every desire is fulfilled. They cannot wish for anything which they have not in possession. Eye and ear, heart and hand, judgment, imagination, hope, desire, will, all the faculties, are completely satisfied; and imperfect as our present ideas are of the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, yet we know enough, by the revelation of the Spirit, that the saints above are supremely blessed. The joy of Christ, which is an infinite fulness of delight, is in them. They bathe themselves in the bottomless, shoreless sea of infinite beatitude. That same joyful rest remains for us. It may not be far distant. Ere long the weeping willow shall be exchanged for the palm-branch of victory, and sorrow's dewdrops will be transformed into the pearls of everlasting bliss. "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

What a blessing. We that have the Hope that is set before us know that there is something much greater in store for us than the pleasures here on this earth that are sure to fade. I never want to forget the Joy of Heaven. I never want to forget that Jesus Christ could return to pluck us from earth at any moment. I don't care if they've been saying He's returning for 2,000 years! I would much rather be caught seeking His return never to find it than to find it not seeking.

Awaken the Dawn

I am in a car. I feel dazed and confused. I look in front of me and I see my house. My Mom and Brother and in there. Thats weird. Dan just got married. Why is he at home? I see another car next to mine. It's full of what seems to be gang bangers. The driver takes a hit from a bong and follows it with a hit from a 40. What is going on? I overhear one of them mumble a reminder to get in and get out. I feel heaviness on my lap. I look down to find a fully loaded .9 mm semi-automatic handgun. Where did I get a gun? Why do I have it? I hold it in my hand. It feels like it weighs two hundred pounds. I look at the guys in the other car. They are still taking hits. I look at my house and see my mom go into her room. My brother throws himself on the couch. His day was done. It was time to relax for him. I am still dazed. I am still confused as to why there is a gun in my lap. I look over and see the gang bangers loading clips into hand guns and cocking them. They are going into my house to kill my family. Why am I sitting here doing nothing? I am armed. I can help them if I needed to. I sit in my car. I watch as the four men walk into my house and unload their clips on the brother I love. The men leave. They peel off and I am sitting there with a gun in my lap and my heart beating a mile a minute. I just witnessed my brother getting killed and I sat here doing nothing. I run into my house and find my brother on the floor of the living room. He is bleeding everywhere. My Mom runs out of her room. She was not shot, praise God. My brother stands up holding his head. Blood pours out from his skull. I keeping thinking: "why did I not stop them? i had everything I needed in order to stop them? i could have at least warned them!"

I wake up to the Lord prompting my heart to remember this: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."

There are many in our lives whom we love. There are friends. There are family. There are church family members. We have so many people in our lives who we care for and they care for us. Would we use all the weapons that God has given to us to fight in order to see them safe? He has given us His Word. He has given us His salvation. Most importantly He has given us His Spirit. The Bible says that we were not given a sprit of fear but of power and strength and a sound mind. Jesus says concerning the church (of whom you and I are a part of) that the gates of hell shall not prevail over it. David declares in Psalm 27 that The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell." The overarching theme of security in God is that we have victory over the enemy of the world.

This is not to say that we are not in this together. I believe in dreams and visions and I am confident that the dream that I was given was a stern wake up call. "Michael! Wake up! There are people hurting around you! People you love! You are armed with Truth. You are armed with Hope. You are armed with salvation. Would you awaken those who are broken? Would you awaken those who need healing? Would you awaken those who are hungry?"

Jesus is a man of much grace. We all know that. Afterall, the Bible says that it is by grace we have been saved and not by works lest any man should boast. Jesus was the perfect picture of grace. But He is also a man of much Truth. Read through the story in John 12 with the woman caught in adultery. We see the priests about to kill her and Jesus intercedes for her and says "he who is without sin may cast the first stone". Brilliant. They drop their stones and her accusers are gone. Jesus drops down to her level and says "where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She, most indefinitely shaken up, replies saying "Lord, no man" Jesus says "neither do I condemn you". A perfect picture of Grace. Romans says "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus..." After He says that, Jesus speaks Truth to her and says "go, and sin no more". Truth. Truth.

I believe that God is calling us to do just that. To lay aside the things that are putting us to sleep, in a sense. To cast away our distractions and lay ahold of Jesus Christ.

God spoke to me and I believe He has spoken to us all: Wake up. Remember my goodness. Wake up.

"O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory. Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise You, O LORD, among the peoples, And I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your mercy is great above the heavens, And Your truth reaches to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, And Your glory above all the earth.." (Psalm 108)