I have to be honest, I hate to use the Gethsemane prayer. I love to pray for healing like Jesus “Be healed” (haha – that’s fun)! I love to pray for provision like Jesus -“Give us today …” (Matt 6:11) – sounds pretty demanding, doesn’t it, but so fun. I love to pray for unity like Jesus in John 17. I love to pray for the kingdom like Jesus “kingdom come” – Boom, easy. But there’s one prayer that Jesus prayed that bothers me sometimes – the Gethsemane Prayer. I don’t like to pray it, and I don’t, until it’s time.

Thank God that there will come a day when the Gethsemane Prayer is completely useless, but until then, we have to learn to use it wisely. Here’s when NOT to use it – to pray for healing, provision, unity, the kingdom, etc. Actually, there’s only one season in which the Gethsemane prayer is truly helpful – the dark night of the soul. The season when everything has broke down, and it seems like hope is gone, and pain is inevitable. The Gethsemane prayer is simply built for this season. When (not if) you find yourself in that season go through the steps of this prayer . . .

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mk. 14:35-36 NIV)

The 4 Steps . . .

1. The Personal Name “Abba, Father” – There’s a time to be formal and reverential to God in prayer, the Gethsemane Prayer season is not it. Run to Him, crawl up in His arms and let Him be a good father to you.
2. The Statement of Faith “Everything is possible for you” – This is the key step of the entire prayer. Without this step you might as well be complaining and coming under the same wrath as Israel in the desert. Acknowledge God’s ability and His goodness toward you.
3. The Request “Take this cup from me.” Tell Him what you want and what you need. Unburden your soul and give it to the One Person who can handle it. Notice that in verse 35 Mark clarifies the tone of the prayer, that Jesus wanted the hour to pass. The hour, not the situation. So many times I’ve found myself in situations that I know God has called me to, but the hour is tough. The right attitude is not to try to wriggle out of God’s calling – but it’s ok to want Him to press the fast forward button. Sunday morning is still coming!
4. The Alignment “Not what I will, but what you will.” Align yourself again with God’s purposes and calling on your life. Recommit fully to His way. Walk confidently and with power toward the next challenge. Remember Jesus said “I am” and everybody fell back (John 18:6). He did not lose His authority as the Son of God in the middle of the dark night. We do not lose our authority as Children of God either. Our circumstances do not dictate our authority.

The Gethsemane prayer is going to break through some tough times for you. When your world is breaking – Run to your good father, with full faith, make the request and align yourself with His purpose and calling. Walk confidently, you’re a child of God!

“Would you rather have a mini-me, or have a theme song start playing spontaneously every time you enter a room?” Says my friend. My answer, “I’d rather have a mini-me, because I could give him a boom-box to play my theme song when we enter the room.” (Are there still boom-boxes?)

All silliness aside – What is the soundtrack of your life? What is the general kind of song that’s playing in the background of your world? Is it a sad song – “Lonely, I am so lonely”? Or a happy song, “Because I’m happy, clap along if you feel like a room without a roof”? Or a complaining song, like Eor? Or an angry song – I’ll let you imagine that one? Or an intense, suspenseful song – like a movie soundtrack? Or an intense, if I don’t keep up the pace I’m going to fail song – like “The Song that Never Ends” but keeps getting faster? (Please read “Soul Keeping” and get in for some prayer with us if that’s your song – joking – but actually, not joking).

So, what is the soundtrack of your life? But more importantly, What do you want the soundtrack of your life to be? I’m sure all of us have some variations in the general soundtrack that is playing in our head, but there’s an overarching theme to it for most of us. What is the theme? ______________ You’ve just identified your default rhythm of life – aaaaaahhhhh – crazy right? Yes, so here’s the good news (with Jesus there’s always Good News)!

Jesus can change the default soundtrack and rhythm of your life. Did you know that God is singing a song over you? It is probably not the same as your soundtrack, and that’s good news, because His soundtrack can replace yours when you let Him . . . “By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life.” (Ps. 42:8 NIV)

What you see from the above verse is . . .

• God’s song is an appendage of His heart. His song is an outshoot of His love.
• Next His song comes alongside us, being played in our ear. It nourishes and comforts us.
• Then His song becomes our prayer, oration, song. That’s where the transformation happens. We can’t help but change the frequency of our life to match His.

Here’s a hint about what God’s soundtrack is like – in Zeph 3:17 the Bibles shows God dancing and singing over us. If our soundtrack isn’t joyful enough to dance to – then we have an upgrade waiting in this area. It’s going to be outrageously good!

 

“633 – you have an 95% chance of significant health breakdown in the next 2 years,” not the most exciting news to hear on a Tuesday afternoon. That score was not from freecreditscore.com :-), nor was it my blood pressure or sugar level – it was my Holmes & Rahe Stress Score. Just looking at that score made me stressed – AAAAAGGHHHH! How did I get there? It was the fall of 2014 and life events had stacked up in a major way on me. When I looked at the opening line – 95% chance of significant health breakdown – I thought, “Well, I’m going to be the 5%.” And I was, here’s how . . .

Don’t get me wrong, my body was agreeing with the 95% – mouth soars, knot in my throat and chest chronically, heart palpitations, my skin would crawl, I wasn’t even at home in my own thought life – because it was chaotic. The test I took was a wake up call to recognize the symptoms that my body was having in regard to my life events.

• Step 1 – Wake up to realize you’re stressed – it’s how God wired our body to honor His rhythms of work, worship and rest. I didn’t even know myself well enough to realize what was messing with me.
• Step 2 – Rest in God – rest is the absence of striving and it’s born out of delight. God rested on the seventh day not because he was tired (as if He could be), but because “God saw everything He had made and it was very good”(Gen 1:31). God rested from a place of delight, and the only thing He did on the seventh day was bless (Gen 2:3). Truly Blessing others is born out of rest & delight.
• Step 3 – Breathe – “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Gen 2:7). Most of us have never breathed a truly deep/long breath how we’re designed to, where our stomach expands and our shoulders don’t rise. It’s an all-encompassing feeling, just like I’m sure the first miraculous breathe of life that was given to Adam. Your whole body should feel the force of the miracle of life that God has given you – stress melts in that place.
• Step 4 – See His image restored in you. God didn’t have to be reminded who He was, but we certainly do. When stress stacks up we quickly lose sight of the majesty we were created for, and the beauty of the Person we were created to look like (Gen 1:26). Picture yourself in the middle of your day, then ask God, “Show me where you’re going to be with me.” You’ll be surprised and comforted by what He does.

Repeat steps 2 thru 4 daily, and as often as possible. Even when you don’t feel stressed – rest, like God did, for the purpose of delight. Then adventures you and God will go on will begin to breathe life into your entire world. Be the 5%, walk in God’s plan for your rest.

I watched his hands as closely as possible. Sweat began to roll off my head (and everywhere else, I’m sure). The butterfly knife in his hand was being flipped in every direction in the middle of our conversation, and his eyes were on me. On the bustling street corner in downtown Montego Bay, Jamaica – he could have slit my throat and run away with no consequence. My 16 year old mind racing, adrenaline pumping, my mouth moving but my brain not connecting to what was coming out. All my focus was on that knife.

Have you ever felt safe in an instant and in complete danger the next? In one moment I was having a nice conversation with a young man, in the next my life was flashing in front of my eyes. Unfortunately, this can be the nature of our spiritual life as well. Listen, as David deals in the rhythms of refuge with eyes on God (I added the underlines) . . .

Psalm 63:1 A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah. You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. ² I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. ³ Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. ⁴ I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. ⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. ⁶ On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. ⁷ Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. ⁸ I cling to you; your right hand upholds me. ⁹ Those who want to kill me will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth. ¹⁰ They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals. ¹¹ But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God will glory in him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced. (Ps. 63:1 NIV)

Here’s the rhythm of staying in God’s refuge . . .

• Seeking God Himself (not direction, not distraction, not his benefits)
• Remembering God’s power & love
• Speaking & singing from that place of refuge (the shadow of your wings)
• THEN remember the danger, and place it securely in light of God’s wonder

Have you ever tried to figure out what’s going through the head of a squirrel? Try it – I dare you – haha! I moved to Oklahoma for college and witnessed squirrels there that were larger than normal. Not only that, but they were brazen – there were times that we didn’t have to wander what was going through their heads. They would run into the middle of a walkway, stand on their hind legs, raise their little hands up and squeak at you as loud, fast and angry as they could. I routinely saw them jump in the middle of the street to challenge a car the same way. I’m not quite sure what we had done to offend the little guys – but those squirrels were pretty mad at humans – probably. Or maybe they just thought we were a giant nut that got away – hmmmm – a mystery …

There are mysteries in the kingdom of God. We know this. God does some things, when He wants, because He wants to (Psalm 115:3, 135:6-11). At the same time God is the Revealer of Mysteries (Dan 2:47, Eph 1:9, Col 1:27). “It’s the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings to search them out.” (Prov 25:2). But what happens when the matter itself is mysterious enough that it gives God glory on its own? There are so many times that we as believers have tried to demystify something that was intended to give God glory. The glory is made known because of mystery. There’s a reason God gives signs & wonders. Sometimes the signs should make us wander (see what I did there). The cheesy play-on-words doesn’t make it any less true. There is a mystery to the work of God and the supernatural that should blow our minds and excite us.

This is how it works. I was praying for a stranger yesterday, and God gave me 2 pictures for her. One was a quill for writing, and God showed me that it meant that there was more to be written on the legacy of her story, in beauty and creativity. The 2^nd picture was a tree with multiple trunks, and God showed me that it represented her leadership. There were branches that looked ready to cut off, but they were being braced up and would thrive again. She was jumping by the end of my talking and this why – She had started writing a book on her life, but had quit years ago, and the name of the book was going to be (something like) “A Double Trunk Pear Tree” (It was from a story with her Grandpa). She had just commented at her work with some friends about cutting some initiatives – but she knew in her spirit there was more life in them! I just threw up my hands and said, “Wow, Holy Spirit is sooooo awesome!!!!!!!” I could have tried to explain, tried to tell her what was going through my mind, tried to get her to come to my church, but in that moment God was getting the most glory when the mystery was allowed to simmer in both of us!!!!

Here’s the point …

• God’s mysteries can produce glory
• God’s glory deserves to be celebrated (not explained) 

You are a mystery that deserves to be celebrated too!!!! God celebrates you! He loves you, and thinks you’re amazing! You’re so awesome even angels are trying to figure out God’s grace to you (1 Pet 1:12)!!!!

Have you ever had a door that just wouldn’t close? The door shifted, or the house shifted, and the latch simply wouldn’t line up! AGGGGHHHHHH! This is my bathroom door – not the best door for that :-). We’ve endured for a few months with lifting the entire door up to close it just barely, and I’m putting off the task of resetting the hinges somehow. Then, this morning I was accidentally gentle with the door knob and the entire knob shifted upward inside the door – hmmmmm. This was a new angle. All of a sudden the problem isn’t a shifting house, and the solution isn’t a resetting of the hinges. The problem is a shifting door knob and the solution is simply readjusting the door knob. That’s good news! 

Some of us are looking at the problems in our household, in our work, in our relationships, or in our head and we’re seeing the wrong solution! We see a solution like, trying harder (not bad in small doses – but overwhelming in life level problems), making more money, working with better people, or our relative not being a jerk – and we get demoralized. Deep inside, we know that’s not the way, yet our mind doesn’t see the new angle. So we’re stuck.

This is where Godly advice helps a little (get in community with other believers), and where Holy Spirit helps a lot. He always sees the other angle – and He’s about the business not just of showing us the new angle, but teaching us how to find them on our own. That’s good news! You’re not stuck, Holy Spirit sees the victory as clearly as He saw the path to making you a new creation . . .

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view … Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:16-17)

Holy Spirit’s new angles can become our default way of thinking. He is guiding us into all truth (John 16:13), the truth never changes, but our angle does, that’s why we NEED His guidance. You can hear His voice, see pictures from Him (John 10:27), and understand them. Don’t partner with the lie that you can’t hear God. Confess the truth that He is your God and He’s mentoring you today!

 

“So, where are my socks honey?” I yelled over the din of my children getting ready to go to a new school with strange sites and smells and all new people. The confusion of the moment was only overwhelmed by the excitement of the season. We didn’t have a house, or a steady schedule and life was a seemingly endless string of choices that we didn’t have to make a month earlier.

But we joyfully made all those choices – why? Because of one right choice, one Spirit inspired choice on a Tuesday in July. At that time, I was conflicted for 2 days about my job and career choice. The clarity came with a vision from God and the words, “You’re not going to a place, you’re going for [God listed by name every person I had met that weekend – 51 names. I’m not that good with names – God is though].” Because church is not a building and it’s not a name on an AG ledger, it’s a network of Spirit inspired relationships. That one Spirit-filled choices set in motion thousands of little choices for us and the church.

That’s what we experience at times in our lives – one choice producing a billion little choices – but you have the power to do it when that one choice is infused with Holy Spirit’s power.

That’s what God did too – God sending His Son to earth. “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. ⁶ Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” (Gal. 4:4 NIV) One Spirit-inspired decision that produced sooooo much for our world!

Now we’re ready to move into a building addition and Holy Spirit is active in us as a whole community of faith. That one choice will come with thousands of other choices – and we are totally dependent on the Spirit of God and His power in it! What an awesome place to be!

Question for you or for your Life Group – When have you seen the power of one choice in the past? How is the power of one choice affecting your choices now? How does the Spirit want to empower you to Journey Forward today?

Teetering on the edge of oblivion I was on one knee waiting for an answer. I still don’t know if she said, “YES!!!!” because she wanted to marry me, or because she was trying to keep me from slipping to my death. Either way, my wife chose to go “All In” with me in marriage on a cool October night in Grand Junction CO, on the edge of a cliff at the Colorado National Monument mountain range.

Going “All In” with Jessica required a lot from us over the next months as we prepared to be married. In fact, it’s never stopped, 11 years, 3 major moves and 4 awesome little people later, we know – that moment has literally changed EVERYTHING for us!!!! But what if we never told anyone? What if we never went public with this information, continued to live our lives separately, but simply had this one unforgettable moment together? Would we be married? Would we enjoy any benefits from doing life together? Would there be “results” from our commitment? The answer is obviously “no” to all.

What if our commitment to Jesus is the same? In fact, the Bible tells us that it is, exactly the same, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ³³ But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.” (Matt. 10:32) You want to be on the right side of this one! This is precisely where water baptism comes in. Water baptism is the public acknowledgement of our inward commitment to Jesus. It’s what we do, once we’re committed to Christ. If you were baptized as a baby, it’s God’s will for you to have a meaningful baptism after commitment to Christ.

The question of “Why should I be baptized?” is irrelevant. Here’s the question the Scripture asks, and when we truly get it, we will too, “They came to water, and the Eunuch said, “Look! Water! Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” (Acts 8:36) Why shouldn’t you be baptized? The answer is obvious – you’re “All In” with Jesus – get water baptized. It’s going to be awesome and EVERYTHING will change in such a good way!!!!

It’s a wonderful feeling for any Ebay seller who opens their account to see the words “Bids Received” under their item. That means that someone has committed to buy it – that means that one more piece of junk is leaving your house and going to someone else’s – woohoo! Sometimes you feel like high-fiving your computer screen – until you remember what happened the last time you did that (hypothetically speaking, of course – wink, wink).

In marriage counseling and training we also see that bids for affection are a huge and important act from between spouses. If a bid for affection is offered from one to another, like a simple, “I love you,” how that spouse responds will either add value or take it from the relationship that day. The key is to turn toward your spouse when you receive their bid for affection. God does this to us everyday too.

Every day – with the morning sunrise, the people He puts all around us, or the Bible calling to us from our nightstand, the still small voice in our spirit, or the combination of events that point to His goodness – we have a glaring “Bids Received” message from God. “The LORD your God is in your midst, a Mighty One who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by his love; He will dance over you with loud singing.” (Zeph 3:17)

God is making bids for your affection today – how are you going to turn toward Him?

Turn toward Him right now.

Sunday night most of us witnessed a clash of titans – giant heavy weights constantly trying to outdo each other. Highly trained, skilled, and motivated entities making plays to capture our nation’s attention – and that was just the commercials! Ha! In the football game, we saw the Falcons take a 28-3 lead into the middle of the 3^rd quarter. Their only job for the next 22 minutes (“football minutes” my wife would say) was to hold their ground. Stand pat and simply waste time on the clock and New England had no chance – but that’s not what happened (I won’t spoil it in case you’re waiting to watch on TIVO – haha!)

Why is it so hard to hold our ground spiritually sometimes? I counsel and pray for so many people who are trying to get back to some place spiritually. That’s a worthy goal and the path to retake ground that we’ve given up will often look and smell the similar to when we took it the first time.

Take Bible reading for example – many of us at one time were reading through large portions of Scripture almost daily. What if taking that ground this time means listening to the Bible? What if it means studying in depth and connecting with God intellectually? What if it means reading one verse per day and meditating and thinking about that one verse all day long? Bringing this back around, the Falcons can’t win the Super Bowl by just sitting back on a 28-3 lead – holding our ground is more nuanced than that. Here are some tips . . .

• Holding ground doesn’t mean being passive.
• Holding ground still involves creatively engaging with God in all different ways.
• Holding ground will look different in the future than it did in the past.
• If you’ve taken ground spiritually, you’re now charged with holding that ground. Occupy the space, explore and master it.

Where have you given up ground in your life? Where have you given up ground in your spiritual life? What’s the strategy to take it back?