My Favorite Bible Verse

“Yahweh your God is there with you, the warrior-Saviour. He will rejoice over you with happy song, he will renew you by his love, he will dance with shouts of joy for you” (Zephaniah 3:17).

That is my favorite verse ever. If I had a top 50 list of Bible verses, this one would be #1 with a bullet.

I still remember where I was when I first heard it and it really sank in. I was on a Union University Baptist Student Union retreat back in ’92 and Chris Rice was teaching that weekend.

I still remember being in awe of a God who was actually crazy about me. It was too good to be true. It is still too good to be true, but it is still true nonetheless.

God delights in me? God rejoices over me? God does a happy dance with loud singing over me? How can that be? It doesn’t always feel true, but it is true, and this verse is proof positive of that fact.

Read that verse in every translation you can get your hands on. It says the same thing. Meditate on it and let the fact sink in that your God delights in you. Your God doesn’t just love you out of an obligatory “I love people because I’m God and I have to love people” kind of way. No. He is crazy in love with you.

Not because you’re good enough or pretty enough or smart enough or talented enough or clever enough. He loves you because you’re you, exactly the way he made you to be.

I know this isn’t an original thought. It’s been said before (and said better) by many others. I’m just faithfully passing along to you the wisdom passed along to me by so many others through so many years.

I hope you wake up tomorrow morning and the very first thought in your head is “My Abba is very fond of me.” I hope that in your head you throw a day-long celebration over the fact that your God wants you and likes you and chose you and loves you very much.

It may not be new information, but all of us need to be reminded from time to time of these things. I know I do.

 

One of Those Days

Some days, you have a spiritual breakthrough. You take major steps toward realizing a dream of yours and step out in faith. You can hear God speaking to you and you have a heart to obey. The Word of God comes alive to you.

Then you have one of those days.

You go to check your bank account and the balance has one of those ominous negative signs next to the number.

You break yet another diet after so much hope that this one would be different.

You give in to a moment of weakness and have a drink or a cigarette after doing so well for so long.

You open your mouth and the absolute wrong thing comes out and someone leaves your life for good.

You get called into your boss’ office and the news is not good.

You find yourself putting your happiness into someone else’s pocket and your dreams of a new relationship bringing you that longed-for fulfillment come crashing down when that someone chooses someone other than you.

You feel like you are so far away from where you want to be, you might as well not even try. It feels hopeless.

Take heart. You still have an Advocate who fights for you in Jesus. You still have a Father who is crazy about you and longs to gather you under His everlasting Wings.

You are no accident. You have a purpose. No matter how long it takes, Jesus will see you through to that purpose and see you become who you were meant to become.

It will happen.

The setback of circumstances don’t change the fact that the final outcome is a victorious one for those whose hope is in the Risen Savior.

Keep believing. Keep praying. Keep connected with fellow believers. Keep dreaming. Keep hoping.

As bad as this day seems, it is just one day and it will end. They always do.

May the peace of Christ guard you from the lie that nothing will ever change or get better. May that peace remind you that God has and does and will always continue to work all things together for your good.

May this peace be yours tonight and in the days to come.

Choose This Day

Every single day that I am blessed to wake up is a day that I must choose whom I will serve.

Every day I can choose to serve myself and chase after fame and success and pleasure and money, or I can choose to serve the Lord and find blessings upon blessings, too many to contain.

I can never coast on what I chose yesterday. If I chose the Lord yesterday, that was yesterday. I can stll choose to serve myself today. I have learned that lesson the hard way many times.

Who will you choose to serve today? Who will you choose to glorify?

When people look at the words you speak and post on facebook, who will they be drawn to, you or Jesus?

When people look at the way you live, will they think how cool and great you are or how great and marvelous is this God who saved you?

Most days, I choose to serve me. Most days, I seek after what I want when I want it. God gets my leftovers, if there is anything left.

The beauty of it is that even after those selfish, self-serving days, I can still choose the next day to serve the Lord. I still get new mercies and fresh grace for that new day.

There are a lot of options to choose from these days. You will wake up to a thousand voices telling you to serve them or their cause or their belief system. You will never lack for choices of who to serve.

But for me, if I’m honest, there’s only ever been one choice as to who to serve. Only one voice who has always backed up His claims and made good on His promises.

As for me and my house, today I will serve the Lord. I pray that tomorrow that by the grace of God I can say the same, but for today, my choice is final: I WILL SERVE THE LORD!

Singleness of Purpose and Action: A Confession

It’s time for another one of my soul-cleansing confession blogs where I ‘fess up to messing up. Better that than me eventually winding up on Jerry Springer right after the gay, cross-dressing nympho Quakers. That would be awkward.

Lord, I confess that I’ve spent way too much time and energy striving to be noticed and liked and appreciated. I haven’t spent nearly as much time trying to be faithful and righteous and God-honoring.

I confess that I’ve attempted to impress others with my Bible knowledge, yet I’ve hardly picked up my Bible except to parade it around so that others think of me as oh-so-very-super-spiritual.

I confess that I’ve been trying to knock down the doors that You closed on me for a very good reason. I’ve been fighting You for something I don’t really want rather than taking what You give that I need (to borrow from the great theologian Rich Mullins).

I confess that You’ve become a means to my own ends instead of my Ultimate End and Joy.

I confess that I’ve trusted in what I think and what I feel instead of trusting in what I know to be true of You and Who You have proved Yourself to be to me over and over. I’ve listened to my fears way too many times instead of waiting for the Still Small Voice that says good things about me and speaks peace into my chaos.

I confess that I have put myself in the spotlight that only You deserve and my goal has been for others to make much of me instead of making much of You.

I confess that I am weary from chasing rabbit-holes and dead end paths and roads that go nowhere but lead back to themselves. I confess that I have lost my first Love.

Help me to hunger and thirst for Your Word more than any meal and to seek You with all my heart and soul and strength and mind.

Help me to have a singleness of purpose and of action so that people see in me what it looks like to truly honor God and they find out the greatness of this God and are drawn not to me, but to Him.

Chances are, this is your prayer, too. Chances are you’ve fallen into the same trap of self-worship that I have. I hope you know that you’re not the only one who struggles with this from time to time.

My hope is that we can encourage each other to follow hard after Jesus and to seek purity of heart in everything we say and do.

Amen.

For When You Can’t Sleep

Right now, it’s 12:49 am and I’m not even close to being sleepy. Maybe it’s the chicken sandwich I had from Sam’s today (which was great) or maybe the caffeine.

I think it’s just thoughts that won’t lie down and rest until I get them written down.

I think I have to let a dream die.

It was a longshot to begin with and I thought I had already let it go, but now I really am saying goodbye.

I think I always knew that the person I was interested in wasn’t interested in me the same way. At least 99% of me did.

But that 1% kept hanging aroud, hoping against hope, looking for some kind of sign where there were none to be found.

So now I’m officially 100% sure. And I am glad we’re friends. Honestly, that’s enough.

Still, letting that dream die, knowing the finality of it all, is still hard.

God, help me always to guard my heart and to know that all my times are in Your hands.

I trust that You still work all things together for good for those who love You.

Now I think I’ll go and try that whole sleep thing again.

 

My First Letter to My Future Wife in 2012

It’s been a while since I wrote one of these, but I thought it was time. I’ve learned a lot about myself and God and the whole waiting process since then.

I almost gave up on you. In fact, every day it’s a struggle not to quit believing in the possibility of you being out there. It’s hard to believe that I can ever be the man of God who will be able to be your husband and take care of you. In fact, it will probably take a miracle.

Then again, all the best things in life are miracles. Every time a child is conceived and carried to term and born, it’s a miracle. Every time a child grows into a man or woman whose faith is intact despite a thousand voices that tell him or her to deny that faith, it’s a miracle.

I am learning that in order to find you, I must seek Him. I must seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything that encompasses. I must follow hard after Jesus so I can look beside me and see you running just as hard and fast in the same direction. Then I’ll know.

I pray your faith is stronger than mine and that your doubts win out less. I pray you can rest more in your Abba’s sovereign grace and live out of the peace of being in the center of His will, even if that will doesn’t look anything like you thought it would.

I pray you see your beauty radiating from the inside out, coming from Jesus shining through every part of your being. I pray you love who God made you as He made you and can look at yourself in the mirror and see what God saw when He said, “It is very good.”

Tomorrow will be another struggle to hold on to hope for you, but whatever the cost in sweat, blood, tears, and pain, it will have been worth it when I finally meet you. So I wait.

New Year’s Days

Today I was reminded once again of a great truth. It’s not just once a year that we get a new start with a clean slate; each day is a fresh start and a new chance. As it says in Lamentations, every morning, God’s mercies are new and His faithfulness is still just as great as it was the morning before.

In Christ, every day can be a New Year’s Day. Every day is a chance to put failures behind us, take the lessons they taught us, and move into a future free from the weight of the past. Every day is a chance to choose to walk in the path of wisdom and righteousness.

So even if you have already messed up and blown all those resolutions, don’t sweat it. January 2 can be your New Year’s Day. Even if you screw up the week or even the entire  month, you can still proclaim the next day as your spiritual January 1 and start over.

You can choose to renew friendships you have let fall by the wayside. You can choose to get out of your comfort zone and serve those who have less than you. You can choose to start developing those disciplines of prayer and Bible reading. You can choose to trust God more radically and more completely than you ever have in the past.

You can choose to let go of old hurts and forgive the ones who hurt you. You can choose to learn to say no to the good to make room in your schedule and your life for God’s best. The point is that you can choose.

The Bible says, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” That means every day you choose. Even every moment of every day.

I love the saying that success is never final and failure is never fatal, that courage is what counts in the end. No matter the mess you’ve made of your life up to this point, it’s never too late for a new beginning. And just because you won today doesn’t guarantee a victory tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a new day to choose whom you will serve.

A friend taught me this morning prayer: Lord, I come to You with empty hands. If all I get from You is You and my next breath, that will be enough.

So let tommorrow be your January 1 and choose Jesus.

An Advent Plea Day 2

“Oh, come, our Wisdom from on high,
Who ordered all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!”

For us who have lost our way again and again and need once more to be taught the way in which we should walk, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who feel crowded and bombarded by all the voices telling us a myriad of different things, telling us who they think we are and who they think we should be, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who lack wisdom and understanding, who often feel more like victims than victors, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who just need to hear once more the Voice that says good things about us and calls us Beloved and can drown out all the other voices with a whisper, come to us, Emmanuel.

Come be our Wisdom. Come be our Strength. Come be our Confidence and Security. Come show us the way to go and guide us in it, for You Yourself are the way. Come reveal truth to us, for You Yourself are the truth. Come and make our lives full and abundant and overflowing, for You Yourself are the life. Our life.

Come, Jesus, Come.