I was in Subway a half an hour ago. It was a pretty normal dinner. I was in there alone for about 5 minutes and as I am getting my sandwich, two young men walk in. As I was sitting down I started to pray for these two young men. I prayed that the Lord would reveal Himself to these men in a crazy awesome way. One of them was ordering and the other sat down a couple tables down from me. I felt like God said to me," talk to him". I waited about 5 minutes and then I sparked a conversation. I asked where he was from and what brought him to Pocatello. I had a strong feeling, deep within me, that this man was struggling. Not just over a situation, but over life. That he had no purpose and that he was just existing. As we were in the middle of the convo, his buddy brought the sandwiches over sandwiches and they were ready to leave. he said goodbye and I said the same and as he was walking out the door, God spoke again saying "ask him if he has a church home to go to". I had about 3 seconds to listen to God or else the opportunity would pass. Well, I would love to say that I stayed in obedience but i did not. I said nothing. Absolutely nothing! I am not fully sure why, maybe fear, maybe timidity, maybe doubt, but I simply sat there, alone in subway aside from two employees. I began to cry! Not just tear up but i am talking about cry. In the middle of freakin subway,lol. There was many different emotions I was feeling at that time: I felt like I disobeyed God. I knew that would be my only chance to minister to that young man and I missed it. In one way, he reminded me of my brother and I hurt for my brother right now. And most importantly, I asked the question, where is that man going to spend eternity? I prayed that the Lord would place someone else in his life to minister to the man and bring him to Jesus. Some may say that I have thought way to much into this tiny situation but I say that God spoke and I didnt listen.
God taught me that sometimes, we only have a couple of seconds,if that, to listen or that time will pass, forever. The thing about it is, my christian friends, is that this is NO JOKE! We are dealing with souls here and eternity! This is no time to just sit back and enjoy our own lives. God says that we must take on eachother`s burdens, even if it is uncomfortable or a little weird. Who knows what would have happened if I would have asked that man that question....but I will never know. I pray that you and I both can learn from this. That we can take advantage of this moment that Jesus has given us, and that we will stay in obedience in all things in our lives. I believe that everything is spiritual. If God is Lord of your life, let Him be. Lets release our agendas and allow God`s agenda take over. Thanks for listening. God bless you
Lord, I am sorry that I did not listen to your voice tonight. I repent for that and accept the amazing grace that you have given me with Jesus on the cross. I pray that you put someone in that man`s life that will be obedient to your voice and speak into his life. Give him the opportunity to have new life. Thank you for your promise of new life. You are good because you are good. In Jesus` name, amen
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Real World Worship
Ok my people, I am back. I am here to state another tesimony about the amazing grace of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you dont like what I am sayin, dont read it, but if you do, I hope the Lord can speak His truth, through me.
So I am presently in Boise, Idaho visiting my cousins Liz and Tim and their family. They have such an awesome story!! man oh man....They moved to Boise in July of last year from Portland, Or because the Lord told them too. So they packed up their 3 kids and came over after some intense prayer to make sure that Jesus was speaking. They came over with two other families and another girl by the name of Becca (she is awesome and she is the worship leader). Today was the first time I was able to attend their church service and it rocked. Becca rocked the worship and Pastor Jason came through with a serious word from the Lord about how we are supposed to know when God is speaking to the desires of our hearts. Spoke to me fo sho. I had a pretty intimate time with the Lord during worship today and He was speaking to me about how amazing He was and how He has crazy awesome plans to use me! pretty cool stuff to hear.
But today, I really wanted to tell you about a worship experience that I had with the Lord outside of church. Last weekend, I drove down to Las Vegas for a professional kicking qualifier. That means if I kick good enough, I would be able to perform at a kicking combine in march in front of over half of the NFL. Well, I was concerned with the kicking, but it was pretty apparent that the Lord was concerned with something else, growth in Him!
My father told me that the great Raymond Berry (Johnny Unite`s go to wide receiver) would go out before every game and go through the entire game in his head. This man was on point. So I decided to do this before the qualifier. I went a couple hours early and went through every kick in my head that i was going to perform that day. I went out there thinking mental preparation and God was thinking spiritual. As I was visualizing, a Chris Tomlin song came on called "Indescribable". Not sure if you have heard of it but let me just tell you, amazing I tell ya. After about a third of the song, I was yelling that song out to God and worshipping Him in the middle of that football field. It was a very special moment for me! The reason why this was so special is because I normally go out on the football field to do one thing, get better at kicking a football. And it was truly liberating to me to be out in the middle of that field worshipping my king. I felt what Troy Polomalu feels all the time out there, that true peace of the Lord.
I came back, later that morning, and on my walk up the lord spoke to me saying "Danny, I want you to pray for all of these other kickers. I want you to pray that they have a peak performance and that my will be done in their lives". I was pretty taken aback by this statement because normally, I am looking at these guys as if they are my competition and this truly transformed the way I looked at them. God really showed me that I am free to cheer these guys on because no matter how good or how bad they do, that has absolutely nothing to do with what I do and the plans that Lord has for my life. It really set me free to do my best. This leads us to the scripture
Galatians 6:4-5 "Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct."
God clearly says in this scripture that we need to be focusing on what we do, not what others do. I think that we get so concerned about what others are doing, that we forget to focus on the simple tasks that the Lord has given us now. Remember my friends, we do have forever to look forward to but the now is the only thing that we can seize! I hope that you gain strength from the lord today and that He will speak to you in everyday things as you worship Him in everyday things.
God came to us in the flesh so we could learn to understand that relationships are the number one priority here on earth and our relationship with Jesus will directly impact every single other relationship that we have!
So please pray for my cousins ministry, its called River`s Edge Church. God is working on using them in a huge way! Gods timing is perfect and we gotta trust in that.
You take care and be blessed. Love you
So I am presently in Boise, Idaho visiting my cousins Liz and Tim and their family. They have such an awesome story!! man oh man....They moved to Boise in July of last year from Portland, Or because the Lord told them too. So they packed up their 3 kids and came over after some intense prayer to make sure that Jesus was speaking. They came over with two other families and another girl by the name of Becca (she is awesome and she is the worship leader). Today was the first time I was able to attend their church service and it rocked. Becca rocked the worship and Pastor Jason came through with a serious word from the Lord about how we are supposed to know when God is speaking to the desires of our hearts. Spoke to me fo sho. I had a pretty intimate time with the Lord during worship today and He was speaking to me about how amazing He was and how He has crazy awesome plans to use me! pretty cool stuff to hear.
But today, I really wanted to tell you about a worship experience that I had with the Lord outside of church. Last weekend, I drove down to Las Vegas for a professional kicking qualifier. That means if I kick good enough, I would be able to perform at a kicking combine in march in front of over half of the NFL. Well, I was concerned with the kicking, but it was pretty apparent that the Lord was concerned with something else, growth in Him!
My father told me that the great Raymond Berry (Johnny Unite`s go to wide receiver) would go out before every game and go through the entire game in his head. This man was on point. So I decided to do this before the qualifier. I went a couple hours early and went through every kick in my head that i was going to perform that day. I went out there thinking mental preparation and God was thinking spiritual. As I was visualizing, a Chris Tomlin song came on called "Indescribable". Not sure if you have heard of it but let me just tell you, amazing I tell ya. After about a third of the song, I was yelling that song out to God and worshipping Him in the middle of that football field. It was a very special moment for me! The reason why this was so special is because I normally go out on the football field to do one thing, get better at kicking a football. And it was truly liberating to me to be out in the middle of that field worshipping my king. I felt what Troy Polomalu feels all the time out there, that true peace of the Lord.
I came back, later that morning, and on my walk up the lord spoke to me saying "Danny, I want you to pray for all of these other kickers. I want you to pray that they have a peak performance and that my will be done in their lives". I was pretty taken aback by this statement because normally, I am looking at these guys as if they are my competition and this truly transformed the way I looked at them. God really showed me that I am free to cheer these guys on because no matter how good or how bad they do, that has absolutely nothing to do with what I do and the plans that Lord has for my life. It really set me free to do my best. This leads us to the scripture
Galatians 6:4-5 "Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct."
God clearly says in this scripture that we need to be focusing on what we do, not what others do. I think that we get so concerned about what others are doing, that we forget to focus on the simple tasks that the Lord has given us now. Remember my friends, we do have forever to look forward to but the now is the only thing that we can seize! I hope that you gain strength from the lord today and that He will speak to you in everyday things as you worship Him in everyday things.
God came to us in the flesh so we could learn to understand that relationships are the number one priority here on earth and our relationship with Jesus will directly impact every single other relationship that we have!
So please pray for my cousins ministry, its called River`s Edge Church. God is working on using them in a huge way! Gods timing is perfect and we gotta trust in that.
You take care and be blessed. Love you
Saturday, February 5, 2011
calling men to be men....servants
OK, so I was thinkin last week that I should start a blog.... so here I am. I have been ready a couple of my friend`s blogs and was very encouraged by what they were communicating to the world, as to what the Lord was doing in and through their lives. What a blessing technology can be:) So the title Jesus Juice stemed from a comment I made about 4 years ago. I was up in front of my campus ministry (Chi Alpha) giving to my peeps what the Lord had done at a recent retreat. I mentioned that "Jesus Juice" was something that we needed to sip on daily in order to live out the will of God daily. So I guess if I could define Jesus Juice it would be the Juice of life that Jesus wants to give us through the cross. And if we ernestly and honestly seek after who He is and what He has to offer daily, then our life`s purpose will be lived. This life is weird, crazy, exciting, confusing, energizing, tragic, and beautiful all at the same time. But the one thing that i have come to learn to trust in is Jesus. He is "the way, the truth and the life" and He is the reason for every season.
Just this morning, I was reading in acts when Saul was headed to Demascus and the Lord came down and took his eye sight away. He asked Saul why he was persecuting God and God`s people. God knew how gun-hoe Saul was and He desired to use Saul`s ernest desire to live out what he believed in. You see, I believe that our culture is missing one very important thing.... and that is Men of God. I am not talking about "Christian men" here. We have plenty of men who will say that they are Christian but when someone says that they are Christian, that means that God is Lord of their lives. And deductive reasoning would tell me that if God is not Lord of a life, then that person is only kidding themselves. Listen, I am not judging any specific man here, I simply see a lack of leaders. A lack of Christian leaders. God is not calling perfect men, but very imperfect men! Men that are willing to sacrific and humble themselves before the Lord.
I struggle with many things in this life and God knows those those struggles. My prayer is that God will bring men into my life that share those struggles, that we may sharpen eachother through the Power of the Holy Spirit, that lives and moves and breaths.
The thing that we must start off with is a couple of questions: What is masculine? What does being a man look like, daily? What duties and responsibilities is a man called to? What does God have to say about being a man? How does God effect my manhood? These questions are not easy questions to answer but i do believe that we can come to correct answers if we ask the Lord with a willing and open heart.
You see, I have seen in my life how many fallacies I have listened to regarding this topic. Look at our society and lets define what a man is considered there? Does this man take pride in responsibility, in leadership of their home, and service to their partner and loved ones? I do not believe so. This man is consumed with instant gradification, little to zero desire of responsibility and the will to be served!
Now, Jesus speaks pretty clearly on this topic. He says (paraphrased) "That I did not come to be served but to serve". I believe that the art of service is a lost art in our culture. I have seen this in myself and the people around me for years. I battle daily with the desire to be served and God challenges me to reach out in service. For a servant who does not serve is hardly a servant at all!
In the book Wild at Heart, John Eldridge calls men step up and be men. Not men that are concerned with the things that they see but men that are concerned with things that they cannot see... eternal things. Jesus says "for the things that we see are temporary, but the things that we do not see are eternal". God is calling men to walk with Him so he can teach is how to be real, authentic men. I have two choices here. I can pretend to be a man or I can step into what being a man really means.
Ive been thinking about what it is that I want in a spouse. There are a couple of key virtues that i desire. But a couple of months ago God tells me this..."Danny boy, I will not put a woman in your life so she can serve you the rest of your days here, but I will place a woman in your life so you may serve her the rest of your days". So now I ask a different question, what kind of woman do I want to serve the rest of my life? I believe this is the most important question us men can ask when chosing a spouse. It sets our marriage up or success.
Practically, if you desire nothing but to serve her and she desires nothing but to serve you, then your marriage will be that of a healthy one. I will be going through some biblical principles on what God says about being men and I challenge you to walk on a journey with me in pursuit of what God says about being a man.
So pray with me that the Lord will place people in your life and mine, that we can seek to serve. remember, we will "sow what we reap". God will take care of us as we take care of His people. That`s a promise from the Lord. He will provide.
Thank you for listening and please comment if you have any thing to say in agreeance or rebuttal of my points.
I pray that the peace of the Lord be with you today, tomorrow and forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2J9Ia0X6WE
Just this morning, I was reading in acts when Saul was headed to Demascus and the Lord came down and took his eye sight away. He asked Saul why he was persecuting God and God`s people. God knew how gun-hoe Saul was and He desired to use Saul`s ernest desire to live out what he believed in. You see, I believe that our culture is missing one very important thing.... and that is Men of God. I am not talking about "Christian men" here. We have plenty of men who will say that they are Christian but when someone says that they are Christian, that means that God is Lord of their lives. And deductive reasoning would tell me that if God is not Lord of a life, then that person is only kidding themselves. Listen, I am not judging any specific man here, I simply see a lack of leaders. A lack of Christian leaders. God is not calling perfect men, but very imperfect men! Men that are willing to sacrific and humble themselves before the Lord.
I struggle with many things in this life and God knows those those struggles. My prayer is that God will bring men into my life that share those struggles, that we may sharpen eachother through the Power of the Holy Spirit, that lives and moves and breaths.
The thing that we must start off with is a couple of questions: What is masculine? What does being a man look like, daily? What duties and responsibilities is a man called to? What does God have to say about being a man? How does God effect my manhood? These questions are not easy questions to answer but i do believe that we can come to correct answers if we ask the Lord with a willing and open heart.
You see, I have seen in my life how many fallacies I have listened to regarding this topic. Look at our society and lets define what a man is considered there? Does this man take pride in responsibility, in leadership of their home, and service to their partner and loved ones? I do not believe so. This man is consumed with instant gradification, little to zero desire of responsibility and the will to be served!
Now, Jesus speaks pretty clearly on this topic. He says (paraphrased) "That I did not come to be served but to serve". I believe that the art of service is a lost art in our culture. I have seen this in myself and the people around me for years. I battle daily with the desire to be served and God challenges me to reach out in service. For a servant who does not serve is hardly a servant at all!
In the book Wild at Heart, John Eldridge calls men step up and be men. Not men that are concerned with the things that they see but men that are concerned with things that they cannot see... eternal things. Jesus says "for the things that we see are temporary, but the things that we do not see are eternal". God is calling men to walk with Him so he can teach is how to be real, authentic men. I have two choices here. I can pretend to be a man or I can step into what being a man really means.
Ive been thinking about what it is that I want in a spouse. There are a couple of key virtues that i desire. But a couple of months ago God tells me this..."Danny boy, I will not put a woman in your life so she can serve you the rest of your days here, but I will place a woman in your life so you may serve her the rest of your days". So now I ask a different question, what kind of woman do I want to serve the rest of my life? I believe this is the most important question us men can ask when chosing a spouse. It sets our marriage up or success.
Practically, if you desire nothing but to serve her and she desires nothing but to serve you, then your marriage will be that of a healthy one. I will be going through some biblical principles on what God says about being men and I challenge you to walk on a journey with me in pursuit of what God says about being a man.
So pray with me that the Lord will place people in your life and mine, that we can seek to serve. remember, we will "sow what we reap". God will take care of us as we take care of His people. That`s a promise from the Lord. He will provide.
Thank you for listening and please comment if you have any thing to say in agreeance or rebuttal of my points.
I pray that the peace of the Lord be with you today, tomorrow and forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2J9Ia0X6WE
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