.go deeper

As we spent time in worship last night at the conclusion of our O-pods, God spoke clearly to my heart. Was I surprised? Not in the least. For we are never in a better position to hear from Him than in times of praise and worship. In Acts 13, some prophets and teachers were worshiping the Lord and fasting. In the midst of their time of intense focus on God, the Holy Spirit spoke to them. Thus, every moment I spend worshiping God, I expect Him to speak to me. And this is what happened last night.

He said that the more we (as individuals and groups) worship Him, the deeper He'll take us in our relationship. As I reflected on what He said, I couldn't help but think about all those whose relationship with God is nothing more than a once a week or twice a week experience at church, with little to no effort on their part to engage in worship and then halfheartedly listening to the sermon of the day. Those folks have a shallow relationship, if any, with Christ. It only makes sense that the more time we spend in His presence, the deeper our relationship with Him will be. So let's purpose to spend more time in His presence worshiping Him, not just on Sunday and Wednesday. And we'll see our relationships with Him go deeper before our very eyes.

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. - 2 Corinthians 2:14 NKJV

.spitting image

-Nate . 2 months old-

Today my daughter Karis is one month old.

[Happy 1 Month Birthday, Karis!]

After Karis was born, people said she looked a lot like both Kristen and me. More recently I've been hearing a lot more people say she looks like me. She definitely has the shape of my eyes and my fingers and toes, I can say that much for sure. But as for what she'll look like as she gets older, God only knows. This is one of the great mysteries. All I know is that the first time I looked in her eyes, I felt as if I had known her all of my life. There's such a freaky familiarity about it all. It's almost like looking in a mirror that lets you see your past self. Being a father has totally changed my life in one of the best ways possible. I never knew a love like this could even exist.

.the first

So I'm attempting a blog here to let you in on a secret. Everybody loves secrets, right? Especially if you're on the inside of a secret...i.e. you know it and others don't. But this isn't that type of secret. It's actually not meant to be a secret at all. It's meant to be the exact opposite - the anti-secret in fact. The message isn't meant to be decoded or decrypted in order to know what it's all about. It isn't supposed to be password protected and just for a select group of people. It's a message that should be shouted from the rooftops, displayed on billboards, linked to on websites, marqueed at the movies and told wherever we go. It's a message of hope. In fact, it is THE message of hope for this generation.

So, you wanna hear the secret?

God loves you so much that He sent His only Son to die on the cross to take your place so that you could go to heaven when you die and live an abundant life here on earth.

If you believe that Christ died on the cross and rose from the grave, all you have to do is confess Him as your Lord and Savior and you're in on the secret. It's now your number one mission to tell others about the hope you've found in Him!