Devotional Thoughts...

I just started Daniel today in my morning devotions. LOVE the Old Testament and I'm excited about preaching some KILLER OT stuff through our Heroes series. One of my favorite stories in the OT is Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. When I read the story today a line jumped out at me that never really had before. It should really be the theme to our lives. It's not flashy or anything, just stood out.

In Daniel 3:12 King Nebuchadnezzar had ordered everyone to bow down to this towering image he had made when they heard the instruments sound. The instruments sounded and all bowed, except some of the Kings men came running to the King and in this verse said "But there are some Jews..." I want that said of me that if the WHOLE WORLD goes against God "But there was one man..." "But there was this church..." "But there was this family..." Jesus kind of spoke of this in Matthew 15 when he said "What good is it if you gain the whole world yet forfeit your soul". The young men from Judah could have bowed down with everyone else "But there were some Jews..."

THEN one of the GREATEST verses in all of Scripture I got to read today. Inspires me every time I read it. The King is thrown into a fit of rage because they wouldn't bow down. He told them they had one more chance or he'd throw them in the fire and said "then what god will be able to save you?" My boys answer in Daniel 3:16-18 with some of the greatest words of trust, courage and POWER in the Scripture. "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. (HERE IT COMES) But even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to you, Your majesty, that we will NEVER serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up." In Pastor Jeff words they said BRING IT KING! HA. I love it.

I want a "but even if..." faith. That REGARDLESS of what happens in my life, in our church or in this world, I will not bow down to ANYTHING but Jesus Christ and HIM alone! Do you want a "but even if..." faith?

Following Christ,

Jeff

What's next?

Hey Element Church! I came across a blog of mine from July as I was organizing parts of my blog page. I thought it fit exactly where we are at in our life of Element Church. I understanding we are not facing a life or death situation but the principle of waiting still applies. Check it out here. Also, we are excited to be announcing "what's next" for Element Church this Sunday. We are taking on a HUGE task in order to reach more people with Jesus Christ. Make sure you're there to catch the vision of what are going to be doing. If you are currently not volunteering at Element Church, I encourage you to get connected somewhere. There is nothing like serving God through your local church and helping people experience Life.

Following Christ,

Jeff

A prayer to live for (or perhaps die for)

Hey Element Church! My wife said something to me a few days ago that I've been ruminating (chewing on) for a while now. Sometimes Sabrina says or does things that blow me away (in a good way), and this was one of those times. We were talking about the space issue we are dealing with right now at Element Church. The frustrations I am going through as the leader of trying to figure out what in the world to do.

FIRST let me say this (rabbit trail thought)...If you are an Elementer KEEP INVITING PEOPLE TO EXPERIENCE LIFE! We, as the local church (all Believers), hold the greatest message our world has known. That there is no other name but Jesus by which men must be saved. We can't let "lack of seats" keep us from helping people come to know Jesus. I/we FULLY understand that we are quickly running out of room, BUT SO DOES GOD! We are going to keep presenting, at FULL FORCE, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen? (rabbit trail done, back on track)

Anyway, Sabrina said "God's asking me to pray a big prayer..." I was thinking, cool, she's praying for a building or land or something. She said "I know it sounds crazy but I feel like God wants me to pray for the entire city of Cheyenne to get saved. To be Christian. I don't even know if it's possible" she said "But I am being led to pray that the mormon churches, jehovas witnesses and any other non-christian churches would shut down because they all got saved."

WHAT? Holy cow! Now that is a prayer. Folks I said a few weeks ago at Element Church. "My dream is for God to takeover our city" (and spare me the God already has taken over He's sovereign. You know what I mean). "I know it's a lofty dream, but it's the only one worth pursuing." I'm going to join my wife in that prayer.

Anyone with me?

Daughtry and Dandelion Christianity

How in the world did Daughtry not win American Idol. Daughtry was AWESOME! I am already a HUGE Daughtry fan and going to his concert only furthered that. What a show. Very cool. My wife did an awesome job of surprising me with floor seats for my birthday. We left for Pueblo as soon as Jonah got home from school that day and came back this morning. Definitely want to go to another show when he comes back in our area.

A "Christian" band opened for Daughtry that night. Daughtry's music definitely has some spiritual overtones/undertones. His band before American Idol was a Christian alternative band. When they announced who was opening I was excited. Not only as a chance to hear this band but how cool it was that Daughtry would invite them to come along. No need to tell you who the band was. First of all, their sound was horrible. Very disappointed in their quality. EVEN MORE disappointing was their display of dandelion Christianity.

What is dandelion Christianity? Glad you asked. At a break in the music the lead singer after yelling "ARE YOU READY TO ROCK AND ROOOOLLLLLLL?" 20 times, went on a spiel about what could change the world. He said (as word for word as I can remember): "Machine guns can't change the world. Money can't change the world. Power can't change the world. We firmly believe that there is only ONE THING that can change the world. Put your arm around your neighbor and love them no matter what they believe." I about came out of my seat. That is dandelion Christianity. The "can't we all just get along" theology. What about Jesus? Maybe HE is the only thing that can change the world. I agree we need to love people who are not like us, BUT THAT WON'T CHANGE THE WORLD. Only Jesus can, and Jesus in THEIR lives. Anyway, I was very disappointed. I would have rather him said nothing, than say that.

Anyway, we had a GREAT time. My wife is awesome and thank you Terri for staying behind with the Maness mayhem.

Following Christ,

Jeff

Are We That Dumb?

In my Bible journey right now I'm in Deuteronomy. Love the Old Testament. I need to know it better. I neglected the OT early in my walk with Christ and I'm suffering for it now. I hope my kids develop habits sooner than I did. Anyway, totally not where I'm going with this. Well...I guess it kind of is. In Deuteronomy Moses was recounting the story of the flight from Egypt through the wilderness to where they were...camped on the East side of the Jordan river waiting to cross in to the Promise Land. Check this out:

The Israelites (the first time they came to the Jordan on the East side of the Promise Land) had a decision to make. Moses restating what had happened said this. Deut. 1:21-22 "Look! He (God) has placed the land in front of you. Go and occupy it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Don't be afraid! Don't be discouraged! But you all came to me and said, "First, let's send out scouts to explore the land for us. They will advise us on the best route to take and which towns we should enter."

Know why so many Christians aren't experiencing ALL that God has intended for them? Know why so many Christians are still wandering in the wilderness? Know why so many Christians just DON'T GET IT...are satisfied living complacent lives...content in mediocrity...still not filled with the Spirit of the Almighty God? They are looking for the "best route" and wondering "which towns" they should enter. They are trying to find the promise land the way THEY WANT and God is saying "Just go. The land is in front of you. I'll lead you.!"

Are we that dumb? I'm afraid many times we are. We are just like the Israelites. And we wonder why we wander in the wilderness.

Following Christ,

Jeff

Cravings Part 3 (Jesus Stalkers)

...Here is the problem. God says "You've got these cravings in your soul. They were given to you by Me, to drive you to Me, for only IN Me can they be fully met." So what do we do? We go everywhere else BUT God to have our cravings met. What does that create? Jesus Stalkers.

Our churches are full of people who are always around Jesus' house. They've read all His material. They can tell you all about Him and even tell others that they know Him but if Jesus were to be asked "Do you know this person?" His response would be "I've never seen them." They're Jesus stalkers.

Jesus stalkers are AROUND Jesus but they're not found IN Him. They like the benefits of being around Jesus but they're not willing to surrender to Him. They enjoy the pleasures of the world and in turn aren't producing any fruit.

Mark 4:18-19 in the parable of the sower describes the Jesus Stalker this way: "...all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced."

Notice this plant doesn't whither or die like the first two in the parable. It just ceases to produce fruit. They love being "associated" with Jesus but they don't produce a thing cause they don't really know Him. There is still a "form" of godliness but their hearts are far from Him, and the danger is it will produce a DEAD plant if not taken care of.

Anyway, cravings...We all have them and they can only be met IN Him. I don't know about you but I DON'T want to be a Jesus Stalker. I want to be found IN Him for then my soul is COMPLETELY satisfied.

Following Christ,

Jeff

Cravings Part 2

...So we developed our Core Values. Later that Fall I picked up a book by Erwin McManus called Soul Cravings. It only confirmed the values we had stated. Erwin widdled it down to three areas that all humans crave but in those three areas he talked about all of our values.

Through that book and through my quiet time with God over the past year and a half I've come to understand one VERY crucial part of these cravings. These cravings of the soul. They can ONLY be met IN God. "In" NOT by Him. Rain is sent BY God. Money can be given BY God. Health can be given BY God. The cravings of our soul are only met IN Him.

We don't like that. We want to have God but find our Life in worldly pleasures.
We want to have God but keep some of the "little" sins we enjoy so we don't REALLY change. (Which doesn't really make sense cause deep down we really long to be better. To not hold on to those things)
We want to have God but not commit to HIS family. We want to have God but worship other things in our lives. We want to have God and find our significance in our job, our title, our possessions, our accomplishments.

We want to have the "good" parts of God and hope he just GIVES what our souls craves. THAT CAN'T HAPPEN! We HAVE to give ourselves COMPLETELY to God. To find what our soul craves we MUST find ourselves IN Him. We use words like "SURRENDER" "DEDICATE" "DEVOTE" to describe this, but however you describe it it MUST be done to satisfy the soul.

The problem the church has is it's full of Jesus Stalkers. What's a Jesus stalker? Tune into Part 3 tomorrow.

Following Christ,

Jeff

Cravings Part 1

We are finishing up today our look at the Core Values of Element Church. Hard to believe we only have one more week of Unplugged after today. I still feel so TOTALLY unprepared for what is about to happen. Almost seems surreal.

In March (06) Grant, Terri, Sabrina and myself sat down and started talking about this church plant thing. We had just "accepted" the call of God to come to Cheyenne. We didn't know anything about church planting, didn't know anything about Cheyenne and didn't know anything about the people we would be reaching but we knew something. People CRAVE things.

Not like I crave White Castle hamburgers or how my wife craves Mexican food. Not how I CRAVE coffee in the mornings or how we crave our favorite of moms home cooked meals. Cravings of the soul. We knew that deep down within every one of us were things, the SAME things, that we all crave. Why not start there with core values. Why not make the cravings of our soul the core values of our church?

We didn't even have a name for the church at that point. I still have the notebook from that March night when we started brainstorming core values and church names. We've wrestled over these values. We've tweaked them, changed the "names" of them and studied them. We came to the point of six core values.

Life - We all long to be ALIVE. We want to live. Not just physically, but we want to have REAL life. A life that matters. An abundant life.

Family - We all long to belong. We want to be a part of something bigger than us. From the earliest of ages we want to fit in, to be a part, to be accepted. There is a reason for peer pressure. We long to belong. There is a reason that young men/women call gangs their "family". It's a craving.

Change - We all long to be better than what we are. We want to be "good" people. No matter how bad or good a person is, deep down we want to be better than what we are. We want to change.

Worship - We all long to know something is out there that is bigger than me. Something or someone has this all figured out. Someone cares for me and knows me. I believe we all LONG to give ourselves to something/someone else.

Significance - We all long to be worth something. We desperately want a life with meaning, purpose and a sense of destiny. We all want our lives to mean something beyond the moment, beyond the day, in light of eternity.

Allegiance - We all long to be devoted to something. When we find a healthy sense of life, family, change, worship and significance, we find a proper placement of our allegiance.

Part 2 later today...

Jeff

Sunday Morning Expectation

I'm excited about today! I love Sundays. Today was a little weird cause it felt like we should be going back to the theater. I had dreams all night about setting up at Carmike so when we awoke to my alarm at 6 am I felt like I was running late. Last week was a 4:30 am rise and we met at the office at 6:30 am to get our stage pieces loaded up. Anyway, I'm excited about this morning.

Adam is gone (which I am NOT excited about) so I am helping to lead worship this morning with another gal (Katie) who is playing keyboard and our djembe player (Curtis). It's been MONTHS since I've needed to lead worship and let me tell you...The difference a dependable, passionate, real, talented worship leader gives is HUGE! Quality worship makes ALL the difference, at least for me. It just sets the stage for everything in the service.

We are talking about the core value of Significance today. We all long to be worth something. To live lives that have meaning, destiny, and purpose. To accomplish God sized things. The problem is if we open the doors of churches across our country we would find countless "Christians" who are settling to survive when we are made to THRIVE.

I truly believe that as we were being formed in the womb God was also forming for us, in advance, things that ONLY we could accomplished. GOOD WORKS for us to do. (See Ephesians 2:10) The amazing part is that God DOES NOT need to use us, BUT, I believe He chooses to use us because it enables us to become people of significance IN HIM. He knows we CRAVE it so He let's us live it. Significance is NOT something God gives me, it is something that He has ENABLED me to be IF I'll follow Him completely.

Anyway, we see significance often as the world does. The world gives meaning, typically, only to the large monumental achievements. The cool thing about REAL significance is that we have it if we just live out what God intended for me, REGARDLESS of what it is!

I think this can REVOLUTIONIZE peoples lives if we can grasp it!

Following Christ,

Jeff

Through The Wilderness

MAN, the wilderness was a horrible place to take the Israelites when they left Egypt wasn't it? I mean, there had to be a better way, shorter way, easier path than that? What was God thinking? Actually, God WAS thinking. (He's smart that way) He took the Israelites through the wilderness for a reason. BEYOND "So they would learn a lesson...". Exodus 13:17 "God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promise Land." Why? They weren't ready for the battle with those GIANTS yet. God said "They might turn around and go back to Egypt." The wilderness wasn't the fastest, easiest, shortest, or most convenient way, but it was THE WAY. It was the best way God could have taken them. They didn't see that. We don't sometimes either do we? We're just like the Israelites. "Why did you bring me into this wilderness to die of thirst?" Maybe, JUST MAYBE the other way(s) weren't the best BUT this one is! Another place the Israelites came to some water at Marah but it was bitter, so they complained against God. "Why bring us here to die. We were better off in Egypt." A few verses later, you know what they found? "After leaving Marah, the Israelites traveled on to the oasis of Elim, where they found twelve springs and seventy palm trees. They camped there beside the water." God ALWAYS takes us the best way. If we'll wait, and walk with Him we'll eventually find the oasis. I am still learning this!

Following Christ,

Jeff

Why wait?

God waits sometimes, you ever notice that? I mean, it seems sometimes that He waits until the LAST POSSIBLE SECOND to come through. Why does He do that? I'm working my way back through Genesis again (LOVE GENESIS)! I just read the story of Abraham and the faith He had in God. The story of being willing to sacrifice his own son. As I was reading I was again drawn to the verses in the story (v. 10 - 11). Abraham raised the knife to kill his son and "At that moment..." God spoke to him to stop. Why wait? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego...When did God move? AFTER they were in the fire. Daniel? After he was in the Den. Paul and Silas? After they were in prison. Why wait? The waiting isn't for God, who is it for? FOR US! I think so often we don't step out and take risks for God cause we can't see him working yet. What if, WHAT IF, God wants us to step into the fire first, brave the lions den, or be willing to sacrifice something of GREAT value before He steps in? And what if he doesn't step in? Shadrach and the boys had it figured out. "Our God is able to save us from the fiery furnace. BUT EVEN IF HE DOESN'T WE WILL NOT BOW DOWN TO YOU OR YOUR IDOL." They had a "Even if" faith not a "What if" faith. Why wait? For us! He waits for our benefit, so we can see our God come through!