1. simple layout

    Tuesday, June 8, 2010
    By johnny
    found this simple and beautifully made template at bloggerbuster. took me a little while to get everything working, but i have to say i love it! i'm just going to keep it simple and clean. i just need to have simple faith, a faith that is only a size of a mustard seed, because it's then mountains can be moved and victories won.

    Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! Hebrews 12:1-3 

    everyone should have The Message version. it's totally awesome to read.
    still studying. still hanging on the cliff until wednesday afternoon!
    it's in my weakness that Your strength is made PERFECTO.

    johnny
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    Posted by johnny at 4:24 AM 0 comments
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  2. One or the Other

    Saturday, June 5, 2010
    By johnny




    It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.     
    Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
    -Eph 2:1~10- (The Message)
    For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

    -Romans 7:19~21- (NIV)
    What's mercy without judgement? Mercy would not have its power if there is no judgement. To God, they are two sides of the same coin. He created salvation because He desires to demonstrate who He is. As written in Ephesians 2: "Saving is all his idea, and all his work...God does both the making and saving." Not us. We cannot save ourselves by reading more Bible, singing more worship songs, going to more conferences, though they are essential to our walk with Christ.


    What's mercy without judgement? Mercy would have its power if there is no judgement. To God, they are two sides of the same coin. He created salvation because He desires to demonstrate who He is. As written in Ephesians 2: "Saving is all his idea, and all his work...God does both the making and saving." Not us. We cannot save ourselves by reading more Bible, singing more worship songs, going to more conferences, though they are essential to our walk with Christ.


    Maybe I'm not making it clear enough. We're all in the same boat of doing-the-things-we-hate in Ephesians 2. And when we want to do good, evil is right there (Rom 7). It's the Garden of Eden all over again. As we are in God's eyes "locked gardens and sealed fountains" (SoS 4:13), we ARE the embodiment of Garden of Eden. We have to make choices between the Tree of Life and the Tree of Death EVERY DAY, whether we like it or not. We either feed our spirit men with eternal substances or fulfilling carnal desires with a moment of satisfaction.


    Go big or go home!

    Following Jesus is not an easy task. We do not get to heaven simply because we accepted Jesus and were baptized in water when we were still babes, but through obeying what God commands: Love Him with all our heart, should, strength, and mind, and Love others as yourself (Luke 10:27).
    Christianity should never be about names or fame. It's not about lighting and glitter. It's not about numbers. It's about making decisions with the love for God and others. It's about doing good works and singing songs with a heart that loves God and others. It's about casting our crowns before the Almighty instead of casting stones at our brothers. Christianity is never meant to be an "easy religion." We either go big or go home. THERE IS NO IN-BETWEEN because God will simply spit us out of His mouth as written clearly in Rev. 3:16. It's a matter of LIFE and DEATH, and the choice is ours.


    This is the reality: We either stay as slaves of sin or become tramplers of the snake. We need to realize our identity in God as His sons and daughters and the authority we have in God's Kingdom over the kingdom of darkness. When we follow Jesus, battles are ensured to come, and our job is to win them with the assurance that the war has been won two thousand years ago on that Cross with Christ's sacrifice. We are prone to fall, but He picks us up and carries us because when He places challenges before us, He wants us to partner with Him to conquer them!

    Once our eyes are opened to this eternal truth, it's so easy to share this love and take it to the streets of suffering, pick up the cross and follow Jesus into the homes of the broken, and be of ambassadors of Light in the valley of the shadow of death. It's time to get our of the four walls of church and BE one!

    The clock's ticking.
    Johnny
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    Posted by johnny at 5:01 PM 0 comments
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  3. The In-Between

    Wednesday, June 2, 2010
    By johnny
    **I always enjoy my friend Sarah's notes. Thank God for people who write beautiful and eloquent entries and books!**


    So much of our lives are spent in the in between—in the place between the birth of a dream, or God’s initial calling, and the point of actual fulfillment. We want to step out in faith and follow His leading, but the stakes are so high. The possibility of supernatural success pulls us forward, but the potential for failure threatens our progress with menacing realities supported by human logic. It would be so simple for the Lord to just put a burning bush every ten feet, assuring us beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are on the right path, headed in the right direction. He could easily illuminate every dip and pebble on the road and give us an accurate road map of approaching terrain. But usually, He doesn’t. Sometimes, for reasons often unbeknownst to us, He gives us just enough confirmation to make us responsible to follow in obedience, but usually not enough to eliminate the risk. He may give us a glimpse of His plans, but not quite the whole package. And so we are left with unanswered questions that require us either to depend on Him in faith or succumb to unbelief. As difficult as it is, we must struggle to follow in obedience, fighting against our natural desire for stability and safety.

    But Jesus didn’t come to give us a safe kind of religion. In fact, He didn’t come to give us religion at all. He came to give us love. And what kind of love is this? Certainly not the kind we are most commonly presented with. Not the kind consisting of pungent cologne and over-priced chocolates. Not Hollywood. Not Nashville. Not Woodstock. It is a real kind of love. This love is dirt under the fingernails after a day pulling someone else’s weeds. It’s a sore back from doing your neighbor’s laundry. It’s a hunger in your belly after giving up your meal for somebody hungrier than you. It’s the scars on the hands of our Savior. It is messy. It is at times unsightly and unpleasant. It is unexpected. And it is beautiful.

    But what it is NOT is safe. Jesus wasn’t beaten and tortured for you and I to remain secure in our suburban housing districts with our nicely manicured lawns and convenient back-yard swimming pools. While there is nothing inherently wrong with these things (I myself have been blessed to live in such a place), I think our freedoms can all too easily become our prisons as we build up cages for ourselves, not so much to keep ourselves in, but rather to keep the mess of the world out. But Jesus didn’t die for us to live like this. He calls us out of ourselves into the life outside that will only be lived when we agree to live it. We are called to follow Him into a life of love, adventure, self-sacrifice, and service. But in the process of seeking out His path for us, we often come to this point of the in between. It is a frightening point where we must not only break down our cage, but also jump off the cliff, give away our money, pack up and leave, man up and stay, or whatever else God might call each of us individually to do.

    And why is it that it that God doesn’t just lay it all out for us and tell us the outcome of everything? Why does He often give us just enough confirmation to compel us to action, but not enough to eliminate all doubt? I think it is because it is in this in between place that faith is cultivated. It is here that we learn to trust and to persevere, and these are the qualities that produce the character in our hearts that God is after. The book of James says that the testing of our faith produces perseverance. And Paul writes in Romans that from this perseverance comes character, and from character, we learn to hope. “And this hope does not disappoint us,” he writes, “because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

    And so when we are afraid that we will hit bottom after jumping off the cliff, we can remember this: hope does not disappoint.

    And when we are afraid that after giving our money away we won’t be able to earn enough to pay next month’s bills, we can remember: hope does not disappoint.

    And when God tells us to pack up and leave, or man up and stay and we are afraid that the dreams He has placed within our hearts will come crashing down on us, we MUST remember: hope does not disappoint, for God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. He will never leave us or forsake us. David writes in the Psalms, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken, or their children begging bread.” Scripture is filled with divine promises of provision, both spiritual and material, for those who rely on Him and trust His goodness. And He will honor our desire to step out in faith.

    I think God is more interested in making us holy than making us happy. And the holiness will eventually result in happiness, but for the present, there is much pruning to be done. In the inbetween there is the joy of His presence, strengthening and encouraging us, filling our hearts with His hope that does not disappoint. The process is often painful, but will one day result in a harvest of righteousness. And so sometimes the Lord will keep us waiting, keep us trusting, keep us believing in faith while He intentionally leaves out the details. Because it is most important that we learn to trust our heavenly Father and rely on Him for everything.


    Our Father in heaven,
    Hallowed be your name,
    Your kingdom come,
    Your will be done
    On earth as it is in heaven.
    Give us today our daily bread.
    Forgive us our debts,
    As we also have forgiven our debtors.
    And lead us not into temptation,
    But deliver us from the evil one.

    Matthew 6:9-13


    by Sarah Northup
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    Posted by johnny at 2:04 AM 0 comments
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blind eyes open you only live once.
open your eyes. His love never fails. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
~Ephesians 2:10~

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