“I’ve got to see Jesus, to see Jesus, I’ve got to . . .” he sings in his heart as he climbs a tree (Luke 19:4). Before he can even see Jesus, he hears his name called out, “Zaccheus!” It was Jesus … talking … to … him!!! A million questions wandering through his mind, “How did Jesus know my name? How am I going to please Him? I hear He doesn’t just ‘love’ people, He also likes them.” Then, “Stay at my house!?! Of course!” he says, as he climbs down the tree (v. 6). His song changes to, “I’ve got to please Jesus, please Jesus, I’ve got to . . .”

Then another song chimes in, muttering. Zaccheus hears this song every time he goes in public, everyone assumes that because he’s a successful tax collector he must be ripping people off. So they mutter, “Jesus hangs with sinners, with sinners, Jesus hangs with . . .” (v. 7). Zach thinks quickly, the “Please Jesus” song on repeat in his spirit, he decides to clear his name and Jesus’ name too with outrageous generosity (v. 8).

So Jesus sings a new song, “Zaccheus has salvation, salvation, Zaccheus has . . .” (v. 9). Everyone shuts up, because the whole time Jesus had a song in His spirit too, “I’m seeking sinners, saving the lost, I’m seeking . . .” (v. 10). I don’t know about you, but I want to choose His song. It’s a tale of three songs, which song will you choose?

“This might be the most confusing time with God ever” – I was thinking last night, as I sat in awkward silence listening for God’s voice. It wasn’t awkward because it was silence, and the people I was with were great. It was awkward because of the ping-pong match in my head about whether or not I was hearing from God – aaahhhh! I was unsure.

Have you ever thought – God is that you? How many times this week? Have you ever given up for a season because you were unsure? I have. You’re in good company (Adam, Moses, Samuel, Hannah, Gideon, Mary, Ananias (the prophet) – just to name a few) were all unsure of God’s speaking at some time in their story.

As a dad my most treasured times with my kids aren’t where I’m downloading information to them, but where they’re sitting and being with me. What if God wants to be with you? What if partial information is a call deeper into His heart? That’s rhetorical – of course partial info is a call deeper into His heart. Let me rephrase – when you’re unsure of God’s voice, it’s always a call deeper into His heart! When you’re unsure what He saying, that’s time to get excited, THE KING WANTS TO SPEND TIME WITH YOU!!!

Here are some tips to enjoying being unsure . . .

• Sit with Jesus – don’t talk. Just be with Him, there is nourishing strength in His presence. You will feel anxiety melt, and God’s presence arrive – wait for it. Don’t rush this.
• Ask specific questions (say out loud), “God, I don’t know what this means, what is the next piece? Help.” God’s not scared of your questions. He’s funnier than you think – He might give you a sarcastic answer first. He loves to laugh with you, and He speaks your language.

I tripped over an old groty patch of snow/ice/congealed dirt weirdness today, which slapped me with the “distant memory” of the barrage of white stuff we received this winter. I got cold thinking about it, and although we might not be totally done, watching my kids play in the park the last few days confirms the truth – the weather’s changing.

This is true in the spiritual realm also. This Sunday night our worship team had 3 songs planned and the worship time went 55 minutes, not because we were bored, but because WE HAD TO stay in that place of God’s glory! His presence was so thick it was an imperative that we not leave. 2.5 hours later everyone’s still there, the worship team is back up again, and people are getting rocked all over the room by God’s presence!

It reminds me of the changing weather that Elijah recognized in 1 Kings 18. After 7 years of famine, he checked 7 times before seeing a cloud the size of a man’s hand. Elijah declared that the drought was over and a torrential downpour was on the way, based on that one cloud. What happened on Sunday night may have only been a tiny cloud compared to what the Lansing area needs, but I believe it signals that the weather is changing.

That good thing happening in your family may only be a drop in the bucket of what needs to happen for health – but declare that the weather is changing, contending for it in your spirit.

• Learn to recognize spiritual season changes in yourself and your family.
• Declare the season change and run with God in it (Elijah outran a chariot – haha, 1 Kings 18:46)!

Like peas and carrots, those two guys Paul and Barnabas – haha. They had traveled together for 2 years, healing people, casting out demons, preaching Jesus and successfully starting many churches. They had paid their own way, working hard to be a benefit and not a burden to everyone the met. They had fought together against the Judaizers who wanted to force Christian Greeks to be circumcised and won.

Then it happened – Acts 15 recalls a “sharp disagreement” about JonMark. You see JonMark was Barnabas’ young cousin, who traveled with them on this journey because he was smart and could write very well (he wrote the Gospel of Mark). After about 7 months on the road JonMark “deserted” them. Barnabas wanted to take JonMark on their second journey, but Paul refused, so they split ways.

Fast forward about 15 years, Paul tells Timothy . . . “Get Mark [JonMark] and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” (2 Tim. 4:11 NIV) But Paul didn’t like Mark! Right!?! Wait, what happened? 2 things that are distinctly Christian happened . . .

1. Forgiveness – Paul and JonMark chose to forgive each other. JonMark could have held it against Paul just the same. Instead, both chose to forgive. God offers forgiveness to our world and this distinctly Christian ethic has revolutionized the world in every sphere.
2. Reconciliation – it’s recorded in Colossians and Philemon that JonMark traveled with Paul again and helped him while he was in prison. They got the band back together! There was peace and strength in their relationship and even in their work together. It’s like our world to divide; it’s like God to reconcile.

True forgiveness and reconciliation does not happen without Christ. Every other relationship is conditional, just waiting for the next foot to drop. But you don’t deserve that kind of reconciliation. You deserve to be fully accepted, fully forgiven, fully at peace, and fully loved by God. Be reconciled to God and people today. Paul and JonMark both deserved to be fully reconciled, and Jesus makes that possible.

Ohhh – the “pee pee dance.” Why is it always so urgent? Just seeing that phrase makes my blood pressure go up a little (haha). “What do you mean you have to go right now? … What do you mean you didn’t go earlier when I told you to!? … Is your bladder the size of a peanut!?!” Urgency arises out of tragedy sometimes, poor planning sometimes, and sometimes … out of opportunity (that’s the fun one).

Here’s the opportunity . . .

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people– for kings and all those in authority … This is good, and pleases God our Savior.”(1 Tim. 2:1-3 NIV)

God is not doing the “pee pee dance” on the throne trying to urge us to pray. No, no, no, no, no (as if). Sometimes, with the anxiety in our hearts, we live as if God must be worried, wringing his hands and bounces around. But He’s not.

It’s as if God is saying, “Here’s an opportunity – this is good, and it’s pleasing, you’re going to like it. PRAY WITH URGENCY. It’s going to be fun. You’re going to see breakthrough. And you’re not going to have to do the pee pee dance to get there.”

If the right opportunity comes your way, you will urgently and joyful RUN after it!!! Well it has, it’s the opportunity to pray – run with it and see the supernatural become normal in your life!

In my family growing up we used to call a dish that consisted of strawberries, jello, ice cream, whipped cream and a pretzel/butter crust, “Strawberry Pretzel SALAD,” just so we could eat it with the meal and bring out more desserts later. Salads are anything with layers, right? Pretty sound logic I think . . .

So, there’s always room for dessert. Ok so, that’s not entirely true … Sometimes there’s room for 2 desserts – haha. I know, the worst article to write in the middle of a 21 Day Fast (the Lord works in mysterious ways – hehe). But here’s the point – sometimes the best things about God actually taste good too. Obviously, the Scripture says we need solid food to mature, but that’s not how we got hooked. Our God offers, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Ps 34:8) He wouldn’t offer if He knew it didn’t taste good.

The fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23), go down easy! Who doesn’t like fruit? Our life is recognized and marked by whether or not there’s good fruit (Luke 6:44). So go ahead – enjoy another dessert on me, then become that dessert for someone else!

Click here to check out my new segment – “There’s Always Room For Dessert” where I’m going to eat desert and go through some of the amazing extra points and truths that I didn’t get to on Sunday!

“I was in the dark valley, but then a huge hand came up and squashed all the darkness!!!!” Jaren (my 8 yr old) says. “What does that mean to you?” “I feel like it means God is going to crush Satan, and we’re gonna win!” Nice. My son almost always goes back to the battle. My girls listen for God’s voice and see totally different things, but Jaren … sees … battle … a lot. And he’s right, we are in a battle, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6:12 NLT)

If you don’t feel the battle right now, maybe you should, and if you do, here’s some encouragement.

Your battle is …

1. Fierce. There is a reality to the spiritual world that as a believer, you either recognize and see God work in or it can sink you. Don’t sleep walk through your own life, but acknowledge God’s training for war, and His grace on your life to face it.
2. Winnable. If you’re in a battle, it’s so that you can win it. God is not interested in His kids getting beat down by life and defeated. No, you’re in it to win it. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:57 NIV)
3. What will propel you to the next level. In order to be a giant killer, you have to face a giant. This battle that you face right now becomes your rally cry to see victory in the next area. See from God’s perspective – this battle is already won! When God takes you thru a process to victory, you’ll learn how to give that victory away to others. Don’t seek the quick fix, when you’re poised to provide a training ground for others’ victory!

Every time Satan messes with me, I remind him, “You can do that, but just know, when God brings me to victory, I’m going to set everyone else in my life free that has ever dealt with this!” Your battle will propel you to the next level – it’s time to fight – “To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” (Col. 1:29 NIV)

Not genes (the DNA stuff that determines your eye color), but jeans (the thick, often blue, material you use to cover the bottom half of your body). I looked at my legs today realized I was wearing jeans and that … is … HUGE!!!

Let me ‘splain … no, let me sum up … I NEVER wore jeans, refused to wear jeans for the first 25 years of my life. My wife met that neurotic guy and still fell in love with him (I must have been irresistible otherwise – haha). I had my reasons – too stiff, didn’t move with me, couldn’t play sports in them, at least in dress pants I could drop in on a pick up game (and I did – hehe).

Then, everything changed. The love of my life (Jessica, of course, you sillies) wanted me to try jeans again. She cheated – she got me the best, softest, most wonderful pair ever. NOW I wear jeans at least 5 days a week – they’re my go-to, my pant of choice. I know what you’re thinking – HOW COULD THIS HAPPENNNN!!??!! (You didn’t know you cared so much about my jeans did you? Haha). It happened because at the right time, the right person used the right cheat code and got my attention.

Did you know that Jesus holds the cheat code for your life change? He does. At the right time, He (the right person), applied the right cheat code (His blood and grace) to take off your old self and put on (like a fresh pair of jeans) YOUR NEW SELF.

Even today, Jesus still holds the cheat code for your new self. It’s the right time, allow Him (the right person), to apply his blood to cleanse and his grace to transform you into someone more amazing. Change, toward good and God, is possible – and if you’re a believer it’s inevitable – and that’s good news!

Why did I just buy another $4.57 coffee??? You’ve been there, maybe you are there – the same thought process, same desires, same regrets afterward (same jittery feeling in your stomach before an energy crash later – haha). Maybe it’s another brownie, turning on the same mind-numbing TV show, hitting the snooze again, or yelling instead of responding more sanely to a problem. At any rate, you’ve been stuck before, and you’re likely to get stuck again. How do you break free?

Here are 3 steps to getting unstuck (praying your way free) …

1. Renounce the lie that you have to keep doing this, “Father, I renounce the lie that I have to keep buying things like this. I renounce the lie that I need them.”
2. Replace it with the truth. “Father, I have the Holy Spirit inside me, and one of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Therefore, self-control has to continually grow in me. I will be excellent with my finances in Jesus name from now on.”
3. Restore the image of God. Take a moment and picture yourself in the room where you’d be making that decision. Ask God, “God where are you with me in that room?” Then allow Him to show up in the room with you. Recognize that He’s always with you to help you, and HE WILL strengthen you to make better choices the next time. Then He gets restored as the rightful ruler in that area of your life!

Rinse, repeat. You don’t have to stay stuck in any area of your life. Don’t underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit to win in you!

For real, I’m asking did you have the Christmas you need? . . . Feel free to comment and dialogue on this. As always for me (as I’m sure is true for most) – the answer is yes and no. Yes, I loved so much about the people in my life this Christmas!!! I loved everything about the Christmas Eve Gatherings with all of you! We had 419 people on our campus that day, and we had so much fun – more importantly God was present and actively changing lives!!! That was a JLC family Gathering to be celebrated! That was the Christmas we needed! I loved time with extended family and other friends who got to catch up, reminisce and dream together a bit.

I did NOT need 3 hours of driving in heavy snow and 30 minutes of driving in white out on the way to see family, but se la vie – we got a white Christmas out of it – haha. I did not need mind melting free time watching movies and playing games, except for the active ones I played with my kids & nieces & nephews. I didn’t need the lost sleep of being in a different bed and the lost rhythm of running on other schedules that produced us missing family devos 3 nights in row.

So, it’s time to pray, ask God what the good and bad of this Christmas season was, then cast vision and make decisions to change the things that you can control for next year. It’s not too early to make those decisions, in fact, it’s precisely the right time to make them clearly while it’s fresh and write them down for next year. The Christmas you need is a few intentional decisions away. For instance, the first decisions we made was last night to get back on the horse and do family prayer and Bible reading (devos) again!

So pray, ask God, evaluate, then cast vision and make decisions now for next year, so that the Christmas you need becomes more and more your reality!