So take a new grip with your tired hands...

So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal. You know that afterward, when he wanted his father’s blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.

You have not come to a physical mountain, to a place of flaming fire, darkness, gloom, and whirlwind, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai. For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking. They staggered back under God’s command: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” Moses himself was so frightened at the sight that he said, “I am terrified and trembling.”

No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel.

Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.

Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.

- A Portion of the book of Hebrews

A Tale From A Flight From Bakersfield to Pheonix

I took a trip to Arizona this last week and meet a woman named Margarette, she was a woman that had been through the ringer of life and was still standing. I was reading a magazine from a christian environmental group and ready for the quick trip when i felt this woman staring over me to peek at what i was reading. "what is that?", she said with hope in her eyes. I told her "It's was an environmental magazine..."
the hope began to fade from her eyes...

"...a christian based environmental magazine." I added. And the hope quickly flooded not just her eyes, but her entire body. Everything in her changed and she shifted towards me ready for share time. "i knew you were a believer, well i thought...well i was hoping!"

We went on to discuss her amazing life journey of being married to a man who did not believe but she was fervently praying for him through his battle with addiction. She was in her 60's and had been running a web design company. She told me about html code while rummaging through her apps on her new iphone.

I was impressed.

but what was most impressive of this woman was that she LOVED to talk about the Lord. What He had done, what He was doing and what He is going to do. She had battled through some of life's toughest situations and still had her eyes fixed upon Jesus. She spoke of the beauty of God in her tomato garden and the hope of Jesus she has found in the bruised and broken people she has encountered. No matter how many times the world has told her its not worth it she has stood up and shouted with the fire of love in her lungs and said "My hope is built on nothing less. Than Jesus' blood and righteousness"

When we were getting ready to leave the plane she grabbed my arm and said, "This is the greatest gift, to share in Gods goodness with those who have seen it and those who desperately need to"

These are the stories worth sharing.

Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is an interesting season of life. The kind that makes you wonder what the Lord is doing and if He is even aware of what is going on (blasphemy, I know). So I asked Him. And my mind immediately went to Chocolate Chip Cookies. Why? Great question! I didn't know at first. I started to think about the ingredients for the cookies and there filled with amazingly delicious things. Butter. Sugar. Flour. Simi-sweet chocolate chips. But then I thought about Salt and baking powder. These are key ingredients in chocolate chip cookies. Now I love cookies, with a passion that burns deep in my soul, and could eat them everyday, but I never have a hankering for a spoon full of salt or baking powder. But if those ingredients were missing form the recipe the cookies would not taste as good. The Lord is cooking something in my life and I do not know what it is. I do know it is good, because He is a good god who gifts us good things and moves with infinite love and compassion towards me. He is the master baker and I have to trust he knows the recipe and not just a recipe but the perfect recipe for this season. Although there are ingredients that taste real salty and I wonder if He has added too much, I must believe He knows what He's baking and that it will be wonderful and leave me full of wonder. The fact is that without these few things that hurt and leave me dazed and confused this new season would not be as good, these are not just flipped ingredients, but necessary ingredients and some of the most valuable. In fact in Roman times, the emperor would pay the roman soldiers in salt because it was so valuable. So instead of running or winching at these salty ingredients as a burden I should embrace them as invaluable and a gift in and of themselves.

here's to the master baker, who I trust to have the best recipes, know the right measurements of ingredients and has the perfect timing for all things.

.....looking forward to sharing the cookies with you when there done.

The Gym (aka A House of Worship)

I've been training for a Triathlon that's coming up next Saturday in the bay area. Because of this training I bought something that I never thought about buying before...a gym membership.
The gym is an interesting place, filled with interesting people...

You have the Muscle Heads, these are the guys wearing Tap Out drinking no-explode who spend more time looking in the mirror holding the weights then actually lifting them.
You have the Business man with a impressively large stomach that is solid like a cannon ball, watching CNN on screen 7. Sweating profusely on the treadmill.
You have the young determined post college girl going 90 miles an hour on the elliptical machine her ipod screaming Kelly Clarkson into her ear drums.

I find myself watching these people more then actually training for the triathlon that is lingering just around the corner. And it hit me the other day...The gym is a house of worship.

I began to hear it all around me, people are worshiping. Loud. Whether it is there own body or self image, or whether it is there husband or wife that there breaking there back to try and keep a figure that will in turn keep there spouses affection alive and well. Worshipers. Filling the house of worship called Evolutions in Tulare.

It then hit me, what am I worshiping? I sat in the back yard last night looking at the stars and asking myself, What is the object I am glorying in most? What has the most wait in my life? What am I sacrificing for? The answers that came were scary and exciting. The truth is we were all made to worship. We will worship something. Food, Self Satisfaction, Money, Power, Husbands, Wives, Kids, Sports...we will give glory to something in this life.

I’m unsatisfied with giving glory to myself, I fear rejection so I pour everything I have into making you like me, making people around me like me, Ill go to any length to make this happen. And I am unsatisfied with it.

Tozer once wrote that it all starts with a "hunger", I hear my stomach growling for more than food, affection and satisfaction in popularity. The pains of needing a true savior are kicking in. And I'm loving were it's leading.

Isaiah 40:3-5

'Listen it's the voice of someone shouting.
Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!
Fill in the valleys and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves and smooth out the rough places.
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people will see it together.
The Lord has spoken.'

Myself and I

I made the comment today... "I need to be better at blogging."

I made the comment to myself, so myself answered. "Why?"

"Good question myself."

"What if you just got better at loving people?", said I.

"That's a ridiculous question!" Myself snapped.

"IS IT?"

Myself shuffled in the seat and replied, "Don't over spiritualize this."

"What does that even mean?" I quickly rebutted.

Silence filled the car. The tension began to melt between Myself and I. Finally Myself swallowed enough pride to say, "What if I just got better at loving people..."

I Smiled.

the end. (or is it?)

Meet the Guatemala Team...