“Speak Lord…”

Can you hear when God speaks to you? Usually we are so inundated with our ‘noise’ that we drown out the voice of God. Many people wake up to the news, talk on their cell phones while commuting to work, listen to a radio while working, and then tune out to music or the sound of the television to help them fall asleep. How can we hear God speaking when He can’t find a silent moment?!

The 300 years of God’s silence between Malachi and John the Baptist must have been eerie. Imagine waiting that long to hear the voice of a friend or loved one! Imagine having to wait that long to receive revelation about your life! When God does speak, He chooses to speak in several unique ways:

Audibly. I’m not advocating any of us actually trying to listen to voices in our head! But in 1 Samuel 3, God calls out to Samuel in the middle of the night, and Samuel mistakes God’s voice for Eli’s. This happens three more times, until Eli realizes that God wants to speak to young Sammy. Samuel is instructed to wait for the voice, and then to respond with, “speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening”. In many ways, this is what Christians experience the least. Could there be a better way to hear from God?

Circumstances. In Judges 6, Gideon would prefer to trust in the circumstances then in God’s voice. If our faith depended on everything visibly working out or coming together, we would be spiritual infants! On this side of heaven, we cannot trust in our circumstances as the testing ground for hearing from God. Occasionally God will use our life situations to reveal Himself to us. Perhaps there is a more sure way to hear from God…

Other Believers. This is more than Christian ‘yes’ men. When we are living in true Christ-like community, we will be sharpening one another like iron sharpens iron. Proverbs 27:9 says that "the pleasantness of one's friend springs from his earnest counsel". Often God uses other strong believers in our lives, as multitudes of counselors, to give us biblical, godly advice that is directly from God’s mouth to our ears.

The Word. Hebrews 1:1 says that God used to speak at various times and in various ways, but in these last days the mode of communication He prefers is through His Son. John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh. Revelation 19:13 has a glimpse of Jesus and His name is “the Word of God”. God desires to speak through the Jesus, the Word. Often in our normal daily times in scripture, God will give us relevant revelation for wherever we are in our lives. Are you asking God to speak to you?

He who has ears…let Him hear!
-Pilgrim

Greater Things...

“You shall see greater things than that." -John 1:50

At camp this summer we sang what is quickly becoming a global anthem for believers who live in their various cities and towns and have a desire to see God do great things through their lives. The song is called, “God of the City”, written by an Irish band called ‘Bluetree’. As they were ministering in Southeast Asia in a town known for sex trafficking, a brothel owner discovered they were musicians and asked them to play live music in his wicked establishment (he and the patrons had no idea they were playing worship songs because of the language barrier!). The band prayerfully accepted and as they simply played worship songs, the Lord gave them the song literally on the spot. Chris Tomlin heard the song and the story of how it came to be, and now all over the world Christians are singing along.

The idea of the song is that God is the God of this city, and He has greater things coming than the sin and suffering we see around us so prevalently. In Sarasota we have the benefit of the beautiful beaches, the newly developed high-end malls and mansions, over ten Starbucks and maybe soon even the Boston Red Sox will train here! But in the midst of paradise, are we aware of the despair and hurt, the shame and emptiness, the sorrow that most of the city is caught in?

I’m not going to bore you with statistics or data. Just take a survey of a few of your neighbors and you’ll agree that people are chained in darkness! But is this God’s desire: for the believers to enjoy the safety of their Christian schools, the koinonia of their Christian cliques, the avoiding of everything secular and ‘unclean’ so our compound is untouched and unaffected by the world? It works both ways, unfortunately. The sad result is that Sarasota remains untouched and unaffected by the gospel.

Imagine Sarasota’s Christian body all moving towards need and away from comfort. What would that look like? What would that involve in your own life, in your family’s life? The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” Could you or I agree with this statement, or would we be lying to ourselves? Paul was willing to reach as many people as possible, though even he acknowledged that only some would be saved. He made every decision for the sake of the gospel, not the comfort of his soul.

God indeed desires to do greater things in Sarasota. He’s calling you and me to make disciples, even on our street. He’s drawing men and women to Himself from every race, economic status, and social background. He wants us to make the most of every opportunity we’ve been given, even if it involves suffering. He wants us to dream big ideas and set lofty goals and pray unthinkable prayers and weep and mourn for those who don’t yet know His Son. Do you want to see greater things done here in this city? It begins with you and me, and it begins today.

-Pilgrim

To Live is ?

Acts 4:13, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

The most important thing in Peter and John’s life was Jesus. That’s the one thing that jumped out at the Sanhedrin. They “TOOK NOTE” that Peter and John had been with Jesus. Jesus Himself was the essence of their lives.
I wonder what the ESSENCE of your life is.
How would you finish the following sentence:

“FOR TO ME, TO LIVE IS ____________”?

What would go in that blank? That’s what your life will be all about. How do we find out what the essence of our life is?
We could try testing to see what your life is all about maybe by how you spend your time.
In an average lifetime of 70 years, the average American spends:
Sleep: 23 years
Work: 16 years
TV: 8 years
Eating: 6 years
Travel: 6 years
Leisure: 4.5 years
Illness: 4 years
Dressing: 2 years
Religion: 0.5 years
TOTAL: 70 years

Paul said in Ephesians 5:15-16 (NIV) Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

But time isn’t always the best indicator, is it? Some things take longer than others.

Perhaps money would be a good indicator of what should go in that blank.
The average person will spend $89,281 on food in their life.
If you could spend $500 right now freely, what would you get?
Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 (NIV) No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

But money isn’t always the best indicator, because some things cost a lot more than others. If we just looked at what your family spends the most money on, it would probably be your house, but I doubt most of you would say your parents live just for their home (unless they live in Lakewood Ranch!!! :) j/k )

If time and money are not the best indicators of what your life is about, perhaps your legacy is. What’s your legacy? It is the impression you’ve made on others.

“For to me, to live is ___________”.

People have filled in that blank with everything you can possibly imagine. They have written the sentence like this: “to live is money, to live is pleasure, to live is guys, to live is computers, to live is theatre, to live is being happy, to live is sports, to live is football, to live is music, to live is education, to live is ME…”
Paul said in Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
It’s more than just words, more than just a statement, ‘Oh yeah, to live is Christ’. Let me see what you spend your time on, what you talk about, what you’re willing to get up early for, or stay up late for, what consumes your thoughts, your money, your energy, your effort, your passion, and your relationships.
Can you look at your life and say, “To me, to live is Christ”? If not, what is your life all about? What is the center of YOU?

If your life is about anything other than CHRIST, then you can’t honestly say, “to die is gain”.
“To live is money, and to die is to lose it all.”
“To live is power, and to die is to hand it to someone else”.
“To live is this relationship, and to die is losing them”.
“To live is pleasure, and to die to never experience pleasure again”.

I pray we as a group will truly have Christ as our life and live all out for Jesus in this dark world.

-Pilgrim

Times are Changing

Times have changed! Many have dubbed this generation as the “Dumbest Generation” not because of their intellect necessarily, but because in our “NOW” culture we only have room in our memories for short term information. We have short insignificant conversations by text message (and even found out how to abbreviate that language) and instead of interacting with one another, we send people bulletins and gifts on MySpace and Facebook. The internet isn’t used for research but for networking superficial relationships. But it wasn’t always like this. In fact, just one hundred years ago in the USA,
~ The average life expectancy in the United States was forty-seven.
~ Only 14 percent of the homes in the United States had a bathtub.
~ Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
~ There were only 8,000 cars in the US and only 144 miles of paved roads.
~ The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
~ The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
~ The average wage in the U.S. was twenty-two cents an hour.
~ More than 95 percent of all births in the United States took place at home.
~ Drive-by-shootings -- in which teenage boys galloped down the street
on horses and started randomly shooting at houses, carriages, or anything else that caught their fancy -- were an ongoing problem in Denver and other cities in the West.
~ The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was thirty. The remote desert community was inhabited by only a handful of ranchers and their families.
~ Plutonium, insulin, and antibiotics hadn't been discovered yet. Scotch tape, crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn't been invented.
~ There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Life back then seems a little outdated compared with today, doesn’t it? But then you start to realize what we do week after month after year, gathering together to study a piece of literature that is around 2000+ years old. Ultimately, that is STRANGE! Imagine doing that, with say, dental hygiene! You needed to go to the dentist, and when you got there, he said, “Hey, let’s try something different! Let’s use this dental device I found from the ninth century. Sure, it’s 1000 years old and from the Middle Ages, but I’m sure it’ll be kind of fun to use! We can operate and have you feeling better in no time!
Or what about school textbooks? The teachers at Calvary Chapel School decide that we’re going to use the geography books from the 2nd century, where the world is still flat, the earth is the center of the universe and we haven’t discovered other galaxies or even some of the basic laws of nature yet. Think that would work in science class?
Or what about transportation? You need to borrow the car but it’s in the shop so, “Hey Dad, can I borrow the chariot?”

But here we are, studying truths that were recorded 2000 years ago, and strangely, almost supernaturally, they still apply and have impact and reality and weight today. In a sense, the Bible has transcended time and space and culture and race.

Before I knew God and became intimate with His Word I had no vision for my life, no moral code of right and wrong, no standard of conduct, no wisdom for practical living, no grasp of spiritual truth, no idea why I was here or what I was supposed to be doing with my life.
If you were to tell me that a religious book from the middle East written thousands of years ago would fulfill all these voids in my life, I would have tried to sell you a timeshare in Myakka.

But here I am, and here we are, and God’s Word has stood the test of time, where technology, education, science, economics, and almost everything else seem to be changing.

Times have changed, but the Bible has not. Psalms 119:89-91 says: “Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. 90 Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. 91 Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you.

We can trust in God’s Word, though our times, culture, attitudes, philosophies, scientific discoveries, and history will always be changing, His Word will stand the test of time.

Are you trusting God at His Word?

-Pilgrim

Stale Water

John 2:6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim.
Now here is the essence of religion. These stone water jars represent religion, the ceremonies and traditions and practices and beliefs and standards and rules, and Jesus says, “Fill those up to the BRIM”. Picture what those stone water jars would have looked like, being used by each and every person who walked into the house as a place to wash your hands. Take the BEST out of every religion, and compare it to the person of Jesus, and it is what it is: a jar full of crusty water. Jesus tells them to fill the jars to the water, all the way to the top, and then Jesus said: 8 Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."

We don’t know when this happened, but between filling up the jars with water, and scooping out the water, and carrying the water to the master of the banquet, and him putting the cup to his lips, somewhere Jesus turned that stale water into wine.
The master of the banquet didn’t recognize the miracle, he just liked the taste of the wine!
The bride and groom didn’t notice the miracle, they were too busy enjoying their marriage!

Who recognized the miracle? The SERVANTS. People all around us are into the watered down religions of rules and regulations. Jesus wants to give us the CHOICE wine. Religion offers water, and Jesus offers us wine. I like that one person noticed that Moses turned water into BLOOD, a miracle of VENGEANCE, but Jesus turned water into WINE, a miracle of GENEROSITY. Jesus talked about NEW WINE. He wants to offer that to each and every one of us, to satisfy us with the choice wine, not with the watered down religions that leave us longing for intimacy with God.

Have you tasted the choice wine?

Is Jesus relevant?

Jesus was the most unique individual in all of human history. No other man has inspired more songs, more love and devotion, more worship and adoration, more obedience to his teachings and ideals, more respect for his authority, or more contempt or hatred or derision for who he claimed to be. We set our years and dates around his life, and celebrate his birth and death as national holidays unlike anyone else.
Songs by popular artists like Kanye West, Madonna, Carrie Underwood and more focus at least our attention on this man. He is the unequivocally the most beloved and hated man that ever existed! Yet in these last days it seems that when you and I communicate the love of God through the person of Jesus Christ, we are ridiculed and dismissed because in many people’s minds: “Jesus is just not relevant”.

When we use the term, ‘relevant’, many churches have taken major leaps to over-contemporize the gospel and really have provided another gospel, another Jesus. They want to be ‘relevant’ which to them really just means to dress Jesus up in a cool modern way and rewrite who He really is and what He said. In the dictionary, the word, ‘relevant’ means, “having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand”. It can also mean, “to make a connection”. In this light and definition, Jesus is absolutely relevant! He has significant and demonstrable bearing on ANY matter at hand! He makes the connection to each and every one of us and whatever we are going through.

Just in the book of John alone, we see Jesus dealing with: disappointment in religion (John 2), people’s religious questions (John 3), people who jump from one relationship to another looking for fulfillment in companionship and casual sex (John 4), people trapped in their physical handicaps (John 5), those who are hungry and poor and needy (John 6), people who have been disgraced and condemned by the religious establishment (John 8), people born with physical defects and deformities (John 9), people who are mourning the death of a loved one (John 11), people who turn their backs on God and seek selfish ambition (John 13), people who doubt (John 20), and people who have failed in horrible ways but need to be restored and forgiven (John 21).

Jesus IS relevant! He is Lord of the single mom and the widowed dad. He is Lord of the backsliding child and the lustful business owner. He is Lord of the weary missionary and the absentee dad. He can still minister to the tattooed barista or homeless veteran, still speak to the CEO or the unemployed grandfather. He wants to bring peace to the broken, the hurting, the abused, the neglected, the suicidal, the teen girl who cuts herself to escape the pain of life. Jesus is relevant, and we need to tell those around us, no matter who, that He wants to have a relationship with them and work in their hearts and lives. I encourage us to do that as a fellowship as we share the risen Christ this year with a world in desperate need of a connection with the living God.
-Pilgrim

Are You a Joshua?

"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:6-9).

Three times in as many verses, God tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous”. Why did God say this to him? First, I believe it was because Joshua was stepping up into a leadership role that he had not yet attained. The children of Israel were used to Moses being their intermediary between themselves and God. Joshua, though being on the scene from the beginning, was now charged to step up to a new position that he had little experience in. Perhaps this year God will raise you and I up to step into leadership positions that we have little experience in. As we take our steps of faith, we can trust God will give us strength and courage. One of the speakers at the Pastor’s Conference said that ‘faith is stepping into the dark, onto a Rock’. That Rock is Jesus, and if He is calling you to step up and step out, trust Him!

Secondly, God tells Joshua not to be terrified because he was about to lead the people into uncharted territory, into the land of Canaan. It can be exciting as a follower to watch those you lead navigate new waters and unmapped lands, but as a leader, it can be quite daunting! Joshua didn’t know what the next steps held, but he knew what God had commanded him, and God said, “do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth”. We are told in Psalms 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Whenever we set our feet into the Jordan, we can allow God’s word to light our path, as long as we are careful not to turn to the right or to the left. This year God might direct your family into a new ministry or new opportunity, new relationships and friendships, maybe a new job or witnessing moment. Allow His Word to direct your path and lead you safely into the land of promise.

Finally, God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous because he was probably prone to fear! How often do we struggle with fear and insecurity when it comes to our relationship to God? 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” His love and presence can dispel our fears. God tells Joshua not to be discouraged, because He would be with him wherever he went. We have been told the same words by Jesus, at the Great Commission: And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:20). If you are afraid, you find yourself in the company of Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, the disciples, and Joshua, and God did amazing things through those men, so trust He is with you and will strengthen and use you for His glory.

The fact that you saw the title, started reading (and are still reading!) this article shows you desire to be a ‘Joshua’. What does that mean? It implies that there may be a sense of fear and fright, of anxiety and apprehension as you walk where God has called you to walk. But God tells you to trust Him, lay down your worries, and be strong and courageous, no matter what lions you may face in a pit on a snowy day this year!

-Pilgrim

Chosen Before Time

"Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him..." John 17:1-2 (NIV)
In His great High Priestly prayer, Jesus says in verse 2 that He gives ‘eternal life to all those you have given Him'.
We read in Ephesians 1:4, “He chose us in Him before the creation of the world”. Now many of us have heard of the “Lamb’s Book of Life”. And if I were to ask you when was your name written there, most people would say, “When I became a Christian, when I was 5 years old, my name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life”. Others might say when you were baptized or when you were born, but most people would say, “The day I received Christ”.

But in Revelation 17:8 it says that those names were written from the creation of the world. Who wrote them? We know it is the Lamb’s Book of Life, so the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, most likely has written the names there. Now, concerning this Lamb, 1 Peter 1:20 and Revelation 13:8 respectively say Jesus was chosen and slain before the creation of the world.
Some of your antennae have already gone up and you are thinking, “Does that mean that I don’t have a role in my salvation?”…or…”Does that mean God chooses who gets saved and chooses who go to hell?”
I’d like us to change the station from these thoughts and just see a profound Biblical truth from Jesus’s prayer.

Jesus says that He gives eternal life to those the Father has given Him. When were those names given to Jesus? When did the Father call out the names and Jesus wrote them down in His Book of Life?
Paul told Titus in Titus 1:2 that eternal life was promised before the beginning of time. Who made that promise? It was the Father. He was promising to the Son that His inheritance would be a people that are His very own.
There before the creation of the world, Jesus had already been chosen, slain, and made an inheritor of a promised gift, His love gift from the Father.

The Father gave His Son an inheritance that would never spoil or fade and that inheritance is You, and I.
We are the promise, the inheritance, what the writer of Hebrews described in chapter 12 as ‘the joy set before Jesus as He endured the cross’, it wasn’t just to be with the Father again, but to receive His treasure, the treasure in the field that is worth selling all you own and even giving your life to purchase so that you can obtain the treasure therein.
You and I are those who have been given as an inheritance gift, a love gift, from the Father to the Son, chosen before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.
Let that truth permeate in your mind for just a moment and tell me you still struggle with your self-worth! The dowry our Bridegroom was willing to pay for our hand in marriage was His own life, His own blood, and now we truly are a people who have been given to Jesus. God gave Jesus the right to grant eternal life to all who would receive Him, to those who would believe on His name. We are not our own, we were bought at a price, we are His. This truth should radically impact us!