Wonder

Been wondering...

Do you ever wonder why things happen, good or bad?

Do you wonder about why people do things

that don't make sense to you?

Do you wonder how much of a catalyst you are for

certain events that have taken place?

Do you wonder if it will ever work out?

Do you wonder if we will ever get answers to our wonderings?

Wow, my mind is filled with wonder!

It just wonders... Why?

Does your mind wander that way sometimes?

I wonder if it's me?

Psalm 69:16 (NLT) - O Lord, for your unfailing love is wonderful. Take care of me, for your mercy is so plentiful.

If this has got you wondering, check out John Ward's (John's Blog) upcoming message series "WHY?" on Wednesday night in March at the Vineyard... come find out WHY?

Renewing Passion

Passion is an odd thing, for example, it's looked on as something bad as in crime of passion or an act of passion. Passion though is what sets our hearts in motion. Passion is what enables us to have compassion, which is the same thing that Jesus had when He healed people, fed the multitudes, and raised the dead. The Passion is the term most use for the events of Jesus going to the cross. So, why is it that we live without passion? Why as Christians do we become numb to the things that break God's heart? More important than that, how do we get passion back?

I think it's safe to say that for most of us earthlings a normal routine of life opens us up to live a life of indifference. Think with me because I want to explain this as thoroughly as I can. Say you eat something and have an allergic reaction, first you suffer the pain, then you live with the irritation of having to watch what you eat, and it’s not long until you grow indifferent to the problem. Really, the problem becomes another hill that we barely notice in the landscape of our lives. A hill that you were once so passionate about too that's just faded into existence. Maybe it's an injury. Maybe it's not a physical problem, but a past wound your heart suffered and never healed. It's that wound, which causes the indifference to such and such problem. You know that right. Essentially, without the passion to change the way things are, life becomes an ever-growing pain tolerance and we grow indifferent to the problems that Jesus came to free us of. I believe this is what Jesus was getting at in John 10 when he said, "the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.” What he says next is his response the life of indifference, “ I came that you may have life to the fullest.” Jesus understood that we would grow weary and eventually succumb to the plan of the enemy by growing tolerant to a life that we were not intended to live. A full life, in my opinion, is a life filled with the very passions God has given us, which is to walk in His presence in all endeavors and bring us into the fullness of His kingdom. That kingdom described by Paul in Romans 14:17, is one of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Notice that Paul didn’t describe the kingdom of God to be of long-suffering, sickness, or indifference.

God never created for us to be indifferent to the problems of life. His first command to us was "be fruitful and multiply.” In a literal interpretation, we see that what He is saying for us to do is to engage in an act of passion, right. Looking beyond that though, into the negative space of the words, what is really being said is this, "Do what it is that I have uniquely created each of you to do and do it in a way that brings forth change to your world.” See, it's God's desire for us to live a life filled with passion for Him. Smith Wigglesworth, I think said it best in one of his sermons, "God never intended His people to be ordinary or common. His intentions were that they should be on fire for Him, conscious of His divine power, realizing the glory of the Cross that foreshadows the crown." That life of hurt, pain, illness, and indifference to the problems of this world is not why we created. Yes, we live in a fallen world and bad things do happen, but that doesn’t negate the fact that God commissioned us to go change the face of the earth, it just makes it harder. Thankfully, He’s given us His Spirit to go with us to make the impossible possible.

So, when we lose it, how do we get it again? How do we lay down the indifference and pursue passion, to be fruitful and multiply? I penned these words last week in a journal entry... Renewing passion starts with the One who showed us compassion and ends in the pursuit of His kingdom. Yes, it starts with God, and in the pursuit of His kingdom, it is renewed. Matt. 13:44 says, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” Catch that? In other words, "The Kingdom of heaven is something that people will act in passion to obtain." See, in an act of passion for his newly discovered treasure, the man hid it, and then sold all he owned to obtain it. Passion is ignited by God when we find him and can only grow the more we pursue His kingdom. Well I think the indifference is exactly what the man went and sold. Think this way, he sold everything that didn't matter to him or that he was indifferent to. That's exactly what we must do, daily, that's renewing passion. Now, just a disclaimer, please don't go and sell everything you own, that's not at all what I'm saying. What I am saying is that there are things in all of our lives that need to be surrendered to God because He did pay the price for them on the cross. Laying those things down, is in the constant pursuit of His kingdom.

Here’s three practical ways to ignite passion in your life. One, this pursuit starts with the Father and knowing where He’s at in your life. By focusing on God’s presence in my life, my perspective changes from my earthly one to a heavenly one. Two, by focusing on the people that God wants me to serve. Serving and loving people, even when you don't feel like it, is a sure-fire way to heat up your life with passion. Three, by focusing on God's plan for you life. To do the very thing that God created you to do, to be fruitful in all of your gifts and talents and by way of fruitfulness, you change the landscape of your life.

How to Save a Life...

Between yesterday and today, a new restaurant in the area has donated about 300 meals to us to give to those in need. Two times a day they practice making their meals and box them up for us to go do good. Good we go and do sharing the good news of the Kingdom to the poor and hungry at bus stops, parks, homeless shelters, and in the allies. This was day two of three and the stories have become more evident of God's mercy, power, and guidance.

Here is an encounter I had yesterday. Twenty feet from where a man had been stabbed the night before, I met Dennis. "If Jesus was standing here what would you ask Him for?" ... Pause... "I'd be too ashamed to ask for anything." After a minute of sharing with him about the kindness of God, "true happiness" he said, with tears running down his face, is what he wanted in his life. Dennis received God and his happiness.

I find it incredible how you can miss the perfect time to do the very thing you set out to do but end up being at the right place at the right time. Psalm 23:3 (NLT) says, "He guides me along the right paths, to bring honor to His name". This verse was on my mind as we went tonight, when we set off I didn't have a clue I was going to really see it in action on the streets of downtown Dayton.

Tonight, Steve Bowen, Doug Roe, Randy Stout, and I set off to find those in need with 120 meals. After visiting the bus station and the Third and Main bus stop we still had about 60 meals left to give away. If we made it there two minutes earlier we would have been completely out of food. Discouraged that we could not give it away in one shot we all felt that there was still people to bless. Therefore, on we went. Driving from park to park and up one street and down the other, we found no signs of life. Finally, the idea came to check around a local homeless shelter and that is where we found God's plan for the evening.

As we pulled up with a carload of food, we met Wendell and realized that our food relief mission suddenly turned into a life rescue mission. Wendell was sitting on the street corner with a knife in his hand getting ready to commit suicide. Instinctively we got out of the truck and pleaded with Wendell that there was more for him in this life than what he thought. After a few minutes in conversation we learned Wendell was a well paid district manager for a local restaurant chain and had suffered brain damage after a serious car accident which ultimately turned his life upside and placed him into the destitute street life that led him to wanting to end his life. We shared the gospel with him, prayed with him, and was able to give him the help and hope he needed to live to see another day.

I thank God we were guided there tonight, being able to give hope to the hopeless and showing love to the outcast. I know it was God who made sure we were not completely successful as we would have liked in our first two locations, which would cause us to be right where He and Wendell needed us - to save Wendell's life.

Do you know how to save a life? Be right where God wants you to be, when there be seeking out who it is the He has guided you to, and bring honor to His name by being the person He has made you to be.