“Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed.”

This is an old hymn written by Isaac Watts entitled “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed.” God has used this hymn to remind me of something I needed to be reminded of…the cross.

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote his holy head
For sinners such as I?
Was it for sins that I had done
He groaned upon that tree?
Amazing mercy! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.
And might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

His body broken, beaten, torn
And bathed in His own blood
The wrath of God, laid on His back,
In my own place He stood.
My tears of grief could not repay
The debt of love I owe!
By faith, I claim this gift of love,
He claims me as His own.”

I was introduced to this hymn when I heard Sovereign Grace Ministries’ album Songs For The Cross-Centered Life. Most people I know have heard of this old hymn and even a few friends even know the lyrics by heart.  I was totally in the dark when it came to this hymn, so when I heard it for the first time, as I meditated on the lyrics, I began crying like a baby praying “Father, thank you so much for reminding me of what the Savior did on the Cross!!  Thank you for claiming me as your own!!  I don’t deserve it, but help me never to lose sight of the cross!!”

It is crucial to be Cross-Centered as you are walking with the Father.

…but everyone who drinks of this water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.–John 4:14

When a person drinks of this living water, God opens their eyes to the truth of the Gospel.  Without Jesus, there is no living water.  We must be Cross-Centered.

Take Me As I Am

Take Me As I Am is a song by a Christian rap artist, Lecrae.

The holy spirit wrecked me the first time I heart this song because this song pretty much sums up Ephesians ch. 2 (passage I read that lead to re-dedication).  Works-based Gospel is garbage.  We will never be good enough for God.  We can’t “earn” our salvation.

I AM NOT living for Jesus TO BE SAVED.  I am living for Jesus because I AM SAVED.

I am constantly reminded of how undeserving of anything less than God’s wrath and total separation from God.  Meditating on these truths point straight to the Gospel, where Jesus died the death I deserve.

These truths point to the grace that my father has shown me by revealing his love for me by saving me, grace that he continues to show me, and grace he will show me when I spend eternity in Heaven with him.

For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this IS NOT YOUR OWN DOING;  it is the Gift of God.–Ephesians 2:8

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were DEAD in our trespasses, made us ALIVE in Christ–by grace you have been saved.–Ephesians 2:4-5

—watch the video. have a great week.

Fight Club 09′

About 20 or so guys from Sojourn HSV left around 3:45 Saturday morning for an all day event in Austell, GA near Atlanta called Fight Club 09′.  The event consisted of 5 great speakers and 6 great sermons.  The day was devoted to figuring out how to fight for Gospel transformation in the every day life of a man.  I must say, I can’t remember the last time I felt any where near as convicted and challenged as I do right now after hearing those 6 sessions.  I was repeatedly kicked in the gut over and over again by the Holy Spirit through each speaker’s words, and I needed it.

Fight Club 09′ was the first Acts 29 event I had ever attended.  I love the hunger and passion for the Gospel to transform lives and churches the way the Acts 29 network has. I am thankful that I attend a church with the vision that Sojourn HSV has.

Now, time to hit the re-set button in every freakin’ area of my life and be serious about Gospel transformation.

Fight the good fight of the faith….–1 Timothy 6:12

Awesome Video—>(must-watch)

John Piper during his 2 part study on John 3:16.  This is so powerful and so true.

I love John Piper and his passion for the Gospel.  God has used Piper over and over again to speak to me and to  thousands of people to radically change lives through many sermons and his many books.

Go youtube him, read his blog, read one of his books, go to desiringgod.com.  It’s worth it.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you REST.–Matthew 11:28

You guys have a great rest of the week.

“The Shock of Gethsemane”

The Shock of Gethsemane is the 6th chapter in CJ Mahaney’s Living the Cross-Centered Life (Keeping the Gospel the Main Thing).

CJ Mahaney leads Sovereign Grace Ministries and is the head pastor at Covenant Life Church in Maryland.

I went out and bought his book,  Living the Cross-Centered Life.

I have been going through this book fairly slow simply because if I read lots of information in short periods of time, I do not comprehend the information very well. I comprehend it better when I go through books slow.

I get to the 6th chapter “The Shock of Gethsemane” and Mahaney started taking  me back and trying to picture Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The very first sentence of this chapter is….

“Gethsemane is a moment that floors us.”

It that’s exactly what happened when I started reading and meditating on all that went down that night in Gethsemane.  It floored me.  Mahaney starts off  by describing Jesus as the calm, collective, and unfailingly steady presence that He is.

Jesus was not calm and collective that night in Gethsemane.

And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and troubled.  Then He said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, EVEN TO DEATH.–Matthew 26:37-38

For me personally, even thinking about Jesus being sorrowful and troubled was really disturbing because I didn’t think that was even possible.  “Jesus being troubled? Are you serious?” were all previous thoughts that filled my mind when I would think about Jesus being anything other than calm and collective.

Jesus  was terrified that night.  He knew what was about to happen.  He knew His purpose.  This is some of Jesus’ prayer…

And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, LET THIS CUP PASS FROM ME. –Matthew 26:39

The savior is scared out of His mind, on His face begging God to “Let this cup pass from me”. The cup Jesus is referring to is the cup that every single human deserves to drink—-The cup of God’s wrath.  Even though Jesus was scared and frightened, he still was obedient and wanted God’s will…

My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, YOUR WILL be done.–Matthew 26:42

This particular part where Mahaney describes what Jesus is saying by drinking the cup.

“Father, I willingly drink this cup by Your command—I’LL DRINK IT ALL.”  Not only will He leave nothing in that cup of wrath for us to drink…but today you and I find ourselves with another cup in our hands.  It’s the cup of salvation.  From this precious new cup we find ourselves drinking and drinking—-drinking consistently, drinking endlessly, drinking eternally…for the cup of salvation is always full and overflowing.  We can drink this cup only because Jesus spoke those words about the cup we deserve.  I will it drink it all.

He has every right to turn His tearful eyes toard you and me and shout, “This is your cup.  You’re responsible for this.  It’s your sin! You drink it!“  We deserve this cup.

Instead, Jesus freely take it Himself…so that from the cross He can look down on you and me, whisper our names, and say……..”I drain this cup for you—for you who have lived in defiance of Me, who have hated Me, who have opposed Me.  I DRINK IT ALL…FOR YOU“

That wrecks me and has been on my mind for a while.  I pray that it will think about this daily.  I’m so thankful and relieved that I wont ever have to drink the cup that I deserve.  This particular chapter of this book has brought me closer to the Gospel and allowed me to have a better glimpse of what Jesus really did at Calvary….for me and every other jacked up person He has saved.

He is so gracious.

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself us for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice.–Ephesians 5:1-2

You guys have a great rest of the week. Pray for me, I need it.

This is truly awesome.

Brian “Head” Welch, the former member of the band Korn tells his story through I am Second.  This is truly awesome.

The first time I saw this video, it totally wrecked me.  I am reminded when through this video of how gracious God really is.

Visit   www.iamsecond.com to watch more touching testimonies.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has MADE ME HIS OWN.–Philippians 3:12

You guys have a great week!

Faithful and Gracious

I had a spiritual “speed bump” about a week ago.  It was exactly what I needed.  God spoke to me in a lot of different ways through this stretch of “dry” days.

—-Here are some notes that I wrote in my journal after pushing through this difficult “funk” I was going through about a week ago. (These were very important TRUTHS that I needed to meditate on)

• i am a SINNER

• -i am a rebel

• -i am stubborn

• -i am prideful

• -i am selfish

• —i am truly broken.

After being  humbled through realizing all of that stuff, this is what God was telling me.

• He loves me

• He cares about me and my wrecked life

• He saved me

• He will continue to save me

• ******even though you will NEVER be good enough, he is consistently FAITHFUL by giving His GRACE to me every single day, from now and for all of eternity.

I realized that I needed to chill out, quit trying to do so much my self, be PATIENT, and let God be God.  I realized that I needed to do exactly what I initially did when I was filled with joy in God and full of faith when Jesus Saved my life.  I needed to revisit some very essential truths.

**I needed to totally submit every area of my life to Jesus and let him drive my life.

Because I know exactly what happens every time I try to drive…

**I wreck.

Ultimately, God allowed me to realize that even though I fail every single day, He never does.  And I need to devote every aspect of my life because HE NEVER FAILS.  He is always faithful to his children.  What a relief!!!

—–Here are some various passages of scripture  and some quotes where God spoke to me in these ways.

So our eyes look to the Lord our God, UNTIL He has mercy upon us.–Psalm 123:2

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find true life.–Matthew 10:39

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—Psalm 124:1

Those who trusts in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.-Psalm 125:1

The revelation AWAITS an appointed time.  THROUGH IT, linger, WAIT for it; it WILL certainly come and will not delay.–Habakkuk 2:3

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.-Romans 5:8

I am currently reading Death by Love by Mark Driscoll.  This particular part,  Driscoll is writing back to a woman who had an extremely abusive and dysfunctional childhood and an all-around tough life.  Then, her life completely changed, when she was saved by Jesus.  Here is what Driscoll sais to her in response to her drastic life-change.  This completely wrecked me when I read this.

Jesus lifted your face, looked you in the eye, and told you that your sins were forgiven, your Enemy conquered, and your life liberated from captivity, and that God is now your Father, new life is your gift, and heavan is your home.  As tears streamed down your face, Jesus asked you always to rmember to see yourself as He does, not in light of what you have done or what has been done to you, but rather solely on what He has done for you as your victorious Warrior King. -Driscoll

I’m completely aware of how “all over the place” this post is. But whatever, my mind has been a lot like that lately.  Thanks for reading it anyway because I love getting all of this out,  letting you guys know what God is doing in an ordinary broken dude’s life.

y’all have a great week!

I want to be a Servant.

3.5 million people in the United States experience homelessness every year.

Not long after this conversion occurred in my life, I went and saw “The Soloist” in theaters with my Mom.  I had been very excited about this movie for a while.  Especially after I saw the trailer for it and read up on what it was all about.  Robert Downey Jr. plays Steve Lopez, a struggling LA Times journalist who is desperate for a story to basically save his career from going bye-bye.  Steve Lopez also was having issues with being extremely lonely (divorce) and at times during the movie seemed to be very depressed

Jamie Foxx plays Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, an extremely gifted man in the musical department.  Ayers was the first African-American to be accepted into Julliard (very prestigious music school).  He began having hallucinations and having beginning stages of schizophrenia.  He dropped out of Julliard and began playing the violin on the streets of LA.

To sum up the movie without giving away too much detail.  Steve Lopez discovers Mr. Ayers playing the violin on the streets under a bridge and starts writing about him.  They start developing a close relationship.  Lopez treats Ayers just like any other guy.  Not the disturbed and skitzofrenic homeless man that he is.  Lopez saw through all that stuff.  He noticed Ayers’ talent and compassion for music along with his kind heart. He accepted Ayers where he was, instead of trying to avoid eye-contact with the “jacked up homeless freak” on the side of the road just like all of us do or have done at some point during our lives. Myself included.

Oh, and this is based on a true story by the way.

Before the movie came out, 60 Minutes did a special on the real Steve Lopez and Anthony Ayers and to this day, Lopez and Ayers are still very close.  Lopez still writes about Ayers and still visits him regularly.

God planted a desire for homeless people inside me as I watched this film.

I wanted to humble myself like Jesus did. I wanted to be a servant.

Not long after that, I started volunteering at the local rescue mission serving lunch once a week, just hangin’ out with everybody there having a good time eating lunch and such.  I don’t really see any impact God has had on these people from me volunteering, but it’s deeply impacted mine.

It has truly beein a blessing to me, and it has humbled me. And, I need to be humbled.

Here as a cool picture from a scene where Lopez (downey jr) is listening to Ayers (foxx) play his instrument under a bridge in LA.  This picture sums up how the whole movie is.

That’s an awesome picture.

One passage of scripture really sticks out to me and it humbles me every time I read it.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”  Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”  “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”  Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”–John 13:6-8 NIV

I recently just finished up reading “The Radical Reformission” by Mark Driscoll.  And God impacted my life through that book in many ways.  Radical Reformission is basically about aiming to embrace culture and share the Gospel at the same time.

It brought me to the conclusion that God was telling me that I need to stop complaining about how messed up the world is and get freakin’ humble and quit being hypocritical.  I recommend that book to anyone serious about trying to figure out how to show people how awesome Jesus is and how great and powerful the Gospel is.

Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. –Acts 26:16 NIV

Just wanted to share this with you guys.  Y’all have a great week!

This is new to me…Bare with me.

Well, it’s around 1 AM.  I was checkin’ out my brother, Josh’s blog site and i figured I would give it a shot for a while.  All of the blogs that I have read have two things in common..1-they all make sense for the most part. 2- they are fairly organized.  If I had to guess how my blog site/posts or whatever will be like if I consistently blog, it will not be organized and it probably will be so random and all over the place that it will not make sense to anyone other than me.  (<—That sentence is a prime example of how it’s gonna be)

The last few months have been absolutely crazy for me.  One night, about 2 1/2 months ago or so, I was having some consistent issues with sleeping.  There would be times where I would go 2 and 3 nights in a row just laying in bed awake.  If you have ever experienced anything like that, or have had trouble sleeping at all, you understand how frustrating it can get.  So on this particular night, I had been just laying there for about 2 hours and couldn’t sleep to save my life.

I had an urge–

I had a weird and random urge to read the Bible.  I didn’t open it with a particular verse or book in mind.  I just opened it and was open to reading absolutely anything.  Keep in mind, this was the first time I had even thought about reading the God’s word in a few years.

The page I landed on when I opened it was in the middle of the book of Ephesians.  So I thought to myself, “I might as well just start from the beginning of Ephesians.”  So I began reading from the first chapter.  As I was so consumed by the first chapter, I could feel God moving into my life all over again as I was reading.

Then, chapter 2 happened.  Ephesians chapter 2 changed my life forever.  What held me back in the past from totally submitting to Jesus was issues such as: Pride, shame, mega-guilt. Basically I felt that I was too ugly of a person for God to love me.  That, His grace wasn’t big enought for me.  Then, I read Ephesians 2:1-10.  Paul–

¹As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵MADE US ALIVE IN CHRIST, EVEN WHEN WE WERE DEAD IN OUR TRANSGRESSIONS—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For it is BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the GIFT of God— ⁹NOT BY WORKS, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Reading that passage of Ephesians changed my life forever.  I totally submitted by life to Jesus that night. Ever since then, It’s 100 mph wide-open, non-stop life with Jesus.

I felt the need to share this with whoever reads this, because this is what I’m about.  Giving all of myself every day to glorify God in everything I do.