to him

I love to listen to great communicators take Scripture and make it so tangible, practical and applicable. I've been listening to a series by Greg Boyd called "Undivided" and have been really impacted by it so I called and requested a booklet that they wrote to go along with the series and it's full of spiritual exercises to help drive the truth a bit deeper.

Honestly, I haven't gotten past the first exercise. The Scriptures speak of tending our hearts because that's where our life flows from. Greg says that he gets up every morning and just stays in bed, quiet, asking the Spirit of God to search his heart and show him where he's got hang ups and where he needs to be more intentional about tending to his heart. He talks about how he has to do it before he gets out of bed because after that it's really hard to quiet thoughts to hear God speak. So I've been trying to do the same over the last couple of weeks. The issues that God has been revealing in my heart over the last ten days or so have just been amazing. He's shown me things that have been extremely eye opening and have really brought me closer to Him and to others.

I had the opportunity to lead worship on Sunday at Oakbrook Church where we are in an awesome community of Christ-followers and I led "guitar-free" for the first time in a long time. I had so many people comment that I seemed to really be connected with the Spirit and that they had been drawn so much more deeply into the worship time than normal. Some commented that maybe it was because I didn't have my guitar and was more free to move about, but I believe that God was and is doing something inside of me that is hopefully even palpable to those around me. There's been some things that I haven't liked seeing in myself over the last several days as God does His work, but as I listen to His voice in the mornings, I know I'm being made new and slowly being made more like the one I claim to shadow.

satisfaction

Sometimes it’s amazing what we overlook, right? I mean, it took me several hours of walking around in the gorgeous sunlight and mild temperature this afternoon to acknowledge that God had made this beautiful day…really? Several hours? And that was after I had spent time in Psalm 65 that had a line that immediately impacted me. Verse 4 says,

we will be satisfied with the goodness of your house, of your holy temple

and when I read it this morning I was really focused on what I was thankful to God for and satisfied with in Him. Charles Spurgeon wrote

what can be wanting in the house of him who made everything, who is the master of everything, who will be all unto all, in whom is an inexhaustible treasure of good

I was meditating on what it meant to have a good God, to have His righteousness and how His mercy and Grace was overwhelming. I was even thinking about how God had made coffee and how much I was enjoying it in that moment and I was going on and on. And then, I just kind of lost that complete train of thought as the rest of my day got going. I just ran right past it.

I want to be the kind of Christ-follower that is always deeply satisfied with who God is, what He has done and what he is doing in the world. I want to marvel at how His goodness manifests itself everyday and be keenly aware of His presence in every moment. I love the reminders of the psalmist and how even someone else writing their worship song can impact the worship of someone thousands of years later. Thank you, David

Haiti Update

This post is so late coming. Tomorrow will be one week since the earthquake rocked Haiti and devastated so many lives on an island where people live a lot of their life in desperation. Friends have asked me what I know about what has happened and I've explained to them what I have heard from those in contact with the people I met while I was there just over a month ago. I just kept thinking that everyone kind of already knew since some of my friends were posting things, but I didn't think through the entire thing clearly to think about those of you who don't know those who are posting the updates.

I will make several posts here on this blog of the updates that I've received so that you will know better how to pray and where to give to touch the lives of people in Haiti who have had an impact on my life.

First, we received news that the mission on which we stayed, Double Harvest (you can donate and help them here: www.doubleharvest.org )sustained some damage, but that the medical clinic is still in tact and that they are able to treat people there. Also, the village that is right outside of double harvest sustained major damage, but that there were no fatalities. Thank you, Lord.

Second, we received news that the lady who interpreted for us, Rebecca Larkin for the week and lives on the other side of Port Au Prince, closer to the epicenter, is safe but that her orphanage that she assists with sustained major damage. They care for over 100 children there and they have had no shelter, their food was buried under one fallen building, and they have no clean water to speak of. You can donate to this mission and see a pictures of Rebecca at www.hearttohearthaiti.com I actually just got on her blog www.rebeccalarkin.blogspot.com and saw pictures of the children eating so that is a great update and truly calms my heart tonight. Be sure to pray with her amazing/heart-wrenching prayer that she posted on Sunday, January 17.

These are the things that have been truly heavy on my heart for the last week and have really cluttered my mind with thoughts about how much I really care for the rest of the world that our Jesus cares so much for that he gave his life. I mean, I've heard the stories of the tsunamis or the hurricanes or the mudslides that have wiped people out, but as much as I thought I cared, I have never been devastated in my soul about it like I am right now. These are people that I know, that I held hands and prayed with just a few weeks ago and then really left Haiti caring for. Now they are in very real trouble, fighting for their own lives and the lives of those around them. These are people who have given up their cozy life in North America to go to the poorest country on this side of the world and give their life there and now they are truly living day to day in the realization of God's grace and his power to take or save their life. These are people who have never known, even for a day, the comfort and ease that I have enjoyed everyday of my life...and now this.

It's heavy...I don't know where to put it in my brain...but I know that I am praying like I've never prayed before for these people, my friends, in Haiti. Please do the same.

Haitistock '09

So I haven't blogged since before the trip...yeah, I'm just not good at the blogging thing, I guess. But I wanted to post this highlight video that has been and is still a work in progress since the trip. First thing I've ever done in iMovie so it's been slow moving. The trip was amazing, eye opening and life altering and I will never forget the people I met there and will always cherish the relationships built with my team members there. Morgan Young dubbed the trip Haitistock '09 due to the massive amount of people standing in an open field right outside of a small village listening to music and the teaching and then dancing as if it would be the last time they would ever dance. The video doesn't capture it the way I hoped, but it definitely sparks the memories and makes me want to return.

Awake

Yep, I should be sleeping cause I leave for Haiti in five hours. Everyone who has been on this type of missions trip tells me that my eyes will be opened in a brand new way and that it will definitely help me see the world a bit more of the way that Jesus sees it....I really hope so. I want to be awakened more to the things that God would have me be awake to and to learn how to share those with the people He has called me to impact with his message. This is going to be amazing, I can just feel it. Now, if I could just get some sleep before I leave

Have You Heard

I have short-term memory loss...well, I've never been diagnosed and I remember the things I really want to remember. Like tonight, my wife asked me to look up some directions for her for work tomorrow and I heard her but I was doing something else. Twenty minutes later when she came back, no directions. I forgot. I got them for her then, but it was a bit late, you know.

Verse 6 of psalm 17 says, "I have called upon you for you will hear me, O God." Isn't it awesome to know, I mean to know that God will hear you? SPurgeon says, " Thou have hard me, O my Lord, and therefore I have the utmost confidence in again approaching thine altar. Experience is the best teacher." I have experienced God's amazing grace, mercy and faithfulness. Remembering that, and then living that on a moment by moment basis is my goal.

too much

Why is it that the obvious is so hard to see sometimes? I looked for my iPod one morning for about 10 minutes and then walked out the door, reached into my pocket and remembered I had put it there earlier in the morning...really? Yep. Couldn't have been closer to me for those 10 minutes I was searching for it.

Verse five of chapter 16 the psalmist just owns up to who is really the provider of life and breath and the only true reward worth living for. We, too, can make our boast in the Lord; he is the meat and the drink of our souls. He is our portion, supplying all our necessities, and our cup yielding royal luxuries; our cup in this life, and our inheritance in the life to come. - C.H. Spurgeon.

Why is it so hard for us to just chase Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength? It seems so obvious.