I say to God, “Be my Lord!” Without you, nothing makes sense. (Psalm 16:2 MSG) Life hardly makes any sense on good days, but what about making sense of our lives when there’s nothing that gives us any indication of whether we’re going north or south or even west and east? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just watch the 11 o’clock news. You’ll hear first about the senseless murders in your neighborhood, then about the robberies, followed soon after by the fires. Then, if there is time, you’ll get to hear about the senselessness abroad, otherwise you’ll encounter a weather report that includes snow and subtropical temperatures in consecutive days. What do you make of that? I know it doesn’t make any sense to you. Especially since you’re life could be the news, one traumatic and life altering event after another. However, have we ever tried giving those senseless life events over to God? Have you tried to take refuge (that is trust) in Him? I know what really happens: we try to make sense of it ourselves and then relegate our circumstances and situations as “bad luck.” That is the wrong solution and a bad idea– its a complete waste of time. If things in your life don’t make any sense, then you must ask God to be your Lord. I bet that if you start asking God to be your Lord (that is care taker of your livelihood) then there would be more sense in your life to go around even when things don’t make any sense. Give it a try and make sense of your life by making God your Lord.

…. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance. (Exodus 28:12b) When you think about the conceptual significance of wearing engraved gemstones on one’s shoulder’s while serving in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle, you have to starting asking why? You ask “why” because if you read it, you are tempted to believe that this act of wearing engraved gemstones on one’s shoulders is some type of ancient religious ritual. Then you read it again, and you notice that the priest is not wearing gemstones that are simply engraved, but gemstones with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel engraved. For better or worse, these 12 tribes are the people who he is stuck with. Whom he traveled with. Whom he will share his life with. He wears those names on his shoulders in an act of carrying them before God as he serves his duties before God. It is before God’s that these people are remembered. They had to be carried there on the priest’s shoulders because otherwise he may forget the people he comes from and lives with while performing his duties. But when he looks left or right, he sees his people, on his shoulders, who need to be carried before God. Here is the implication of all that: we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of God who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9 emphasis mine). We are priests that need to carry the names of our people (our social circles) before God in everything we do. We have to carry them even if they are not the people we wanted. Our priestly duty is to lift them up before our God through our service to Him and remember that these are God’s people and that they are also our own. Let’s pray to do that today. Write on the prayer wall about who you would like to lift up on your shoulders before our amazing God.

They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” (Genesis 40:8 ESV) Dreams are not fairy tales. They are wishful goals and milestones that need to be achieved. (Obviously I’m not talking about the subconscious processing going on in your neural cortex while you’re sleeping). I’m talking about the aspirations, the longings, the desires, wants and duties you have for your life. Those things that we call dreams, for some of us, are impossible alternate realities that can never come to fruition because the circumstances in our lives keep us infinitely far from them. Those are the dreams that keep us up at night, troubled, moaning, crying, longing and whimpering. It is those dreams that need to be taken to God. To have Him sort out and explain. He gave you those dreams, placed them in your heart. He also divinely intervenes on your circumstances, although it sometimes doesn’t feel like He does. God needs to give us directions or at least understanding to carry us through our circumstances. But we’d rather closet those dreams, hoping instead that one day, when our circumstances change we can take them out and be seen with them. Those dreams will die there, like miter saw you purchased to do some home renovations. The baker and cupbearer in this passage are troubled by their figurative dreams. Joseph invites them to share those with God. Likewise, our aspirations are mostly figurative until we have the opportunity set them into motion and live into its fruition. So why not allow God to interpret them for you and give you direction? Use our prayer wall to give you a head start today.

I want to share with you a fantastic story. This story is not about Jesus, but about two people. Thirteen years ago, if I told them that they would be happily married, you’d laugh at me. Not because they are not the marrying type, but because they were best friends, who happened to be in long term relationships with close friends of each other. They set each other up with their own close friends from circles they did not share until they were heavily entrenched into dating those other people. Since then they broke up with their respective boyfriends and girlfriends, multiple times over and both of them never single at the same time. Finally single at the same time, and their respective parents feeling a sense of urgency set them up on a blind date… With each other! Unbeknownst to them, their parents have plotted this situation for years, patiently waiting for the right opportunity. Not too long after their “blind date” with each other, they married. Their true love was underneath their noses this whole time and it took meddling parents for love to take hold in their lives. Unbelievable, right? It’s too fantastic! I can’t say that the story I just told you was true. But I can say that there’s another love story that I know is true, and perhaps even more fantastic, but most of us think it as an empty tall-tale. We all know that story as the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. However, if we were to just believe this story, there’d be something so radically fantastic about it because we would be woven into the fabric of that story through our belief in it. Jesus lived because we, as imperfect as we are, are His true love. He died so that His true love can live. He was raised from the dead so that He could be with us forever. As a result, we get a chance to live into a fantastic love story that is so true, every Korean Drama writer wants to mimic it. Yet, that’s exactly the problem– nobody gives it any chance anymore. Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them told the disciples that Jesus, who was dead, is no longer dead. … but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. (Luke 24:11 ESV) Peter was curious. Peter believed what he heard and decided to follow up. The Bible says that he went to the tomb and then “marveled.” His belief in the story he heard did something to him on the inside. It did something to his faith. It did something about his place in history. He was woven into the story of Jesus because of his belief. If we would believe this fantastic story with all our heart, our lives would change. We would begin to do things that radically change everything around us and our own lives would be a fantastic story. Decide today if you want this fantastic story to be your own. Go on the prayer wall and write down how.

Ever been in a position where you had no real words to say? Like at the death bed of a close friend’s loved one, or in an egregious heartbreak? I mean, just flat out, you couldn’t even form the words in your head to even utter them? I have weeks where I’m just speechless with nothing to say and all I do is speak for a living. Honestly, I’ve had Sundays where I got up to preach, but nothing wants to come out of mouth. Its not because of a lack of preparation either, its just a lack of words to be said. But I want to ask you: have you ever thought or prayed to God to give you the Holy Spirit to speak in situations like that? Perhaps the prayers and thoughts to God is what leaves you speechless and so you can’t even ask. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:11, 12 ESV) Jesus is speaking here to his disciples (all of us) about being brave to acknowledge God in front of people. While the scenario I drew earlier may not exactly be an apologetic defense for God against some type of threatening opposition; it actually is a statement about the hope and faith you have in God in light of what seems to be a void in the power of God at that moment. When we are caught speechless because our situations and circumstances loudly scream against the existence of a loving and all-powerful God, we need to stand up and unapologetically dictate the reason for our faith. There is no reason for us to be left speechless. Jesus promises us that the Holy Spirit himself will teach us the words that we didn’t even know we had within us. Let’s pray for the words to put up a defense of our faith today.

I have this mysteriously recurring $60 charge on my cell phone bill. I tried canceling it, but it just won’t cancel. So I keep paying for it like an idiot, month after month. Interestingly enough, I haven’t ever called the company to get it resolved. Should I feel undignified for having to pay the bill I never get adjusted? Absolutely not! I’m just getting what I deserve. I’m too lazy or it’s too convenient to simply pay than it is to call customer service. You won’t hear any complaints from me about it… until that time of the month rolls around and I have to pay that money. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Luke 11:9 ESV) Jesus teaches us something simple: If you need something, go through the motions to get it. Who would have thought? We’re so used to going to mommy and daddy for stuff, that we don’t know how to get it on our own. Okay, only some of us have that problem and it’s only half the time that we have that problem. The other half of the time we don’t get what we need is because we’re to ashamed to be asking or seeking. You need your finances to become better– ask. You need a better job to serve the world better– seek. You need to know who your neighbor is so that you can invite them to church– knock. For such a shameless society, we’re too individually ashamed. Jesus wants us to ask, seek and knock so that he can answer, give and open. This is not only in regards to things of this world and our physiological needs, but our spiritual ones as well. Ask impudently, seek unabashed, knock blatantly and see what Jesus offers you.

I’ve been finding myself uneasy with anxiety lately. It may be the ever increasing standard of living or the ever decreasing net pay on my paycheck; or maybe, it may just be the pressures of other people being projected against me that are causing it. Whatever it is, you feel it too– the anxiety mounting upon your lives like a mountain of garbage on the street corner on pickup day after the holiday. Anxiety is normal in life and there is nothing we can do about it. It comes and goes through cycles or seasons and all we can really do is ride out the cause of anxiety and keep moving on with our lives. But we can’t and we don’t. Then these anxieties which, when we’re not harping on them, are merely secondary become the primary objective of our lives. The real problem with that is that we don’t actually solve or tackle those anxieties, we just we boil, stew and simmer over situations, fears and worries while losing precious time in our lives. Jesus says about anxiety: “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?” (Luke 12:25-26 ESV) Makes sense doesn’t it? He continues to say that if we stop being so filed with anxiety and started acting on what’s really important in life– that is the will of God in your life, then all these peripheral anxieties will take care of themselves through the grace of God. Let’s not forget that today.

“If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky.” (Luke 11:34-35 MSG) What are you looking at? Rather, what are you thinking when you’re looking? Jesus wanted the people following him to know that if they keep witnessing his miracles and still disbelieve, it’s not because there are no miracles, but that they just don’t want to perceive the miracles for what they are. Likewise, we can’t claim to be followers of Christ or “enlightened” if all we want to prove is the skepticism with our sight. What you perceive directly affects your present disposition. Live with wide eyed wonder and be overwhelmed with the goodness of life.

Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring your son here.” (Luke 9:41 MSG) At a rare family dinner on Sunday night, my mother complained about her boys’ lack of focus. Between double fisting a spoonful of soup and cellphones, she wasn’t sure of how to deal with pending nervous breakdown from the lack of a singular focus at the dinner table. Our constantly changing conversation topics, half finished sentences, and beeping of electronics was driving her crazy. Evidently, she was having the nervous breakdown that people should experience when focus jumps between an impossible number of things all at the same time. I’m sure you and your folks know what i’m talking about. The worst thing about being told you have no focus comes from being told that from somebody who knows little of your disciplines and lacks incredible focus themselves. Am I right? Yeah, I’m sure you had people like that give you an earful about focus as well. What is supposed to be a critique of your lack of supposed discipline most often turns out to be a subjective disagreement between the prerogatives of two individuals. As a result, we blow off our supposed “lack of focus” as the rantings of somebody uneducated or flat out crazy. But what if your “lack of focus” was a feeling ruminating from your deepest innards, like the conscience beyond your subconscious? You know that suggestive yearning that is surely not your own and therefore a supernatural tug coming from the Holy Spirit. Here’s an example: on any given day, you find yourself coming back harping on a thought or experience you once had, but the activity you’re engaged in has no correlation between that thought you are having and what you’re supposed to be doing. Most students call it, “daydreaming.” However, what I’m talking about goes beyond that. It is not being bored so etching some sketches on a piece of paper while looking at the diesel fumes rising above your window. What I’m talking about is, you are balancing an unbalanced check book and all of a sudden, you’re thinking about beer or the stage in the video game you were playing. That is the lack of focus I’m talking about. If that is whats happening then we’re in trouble. And that the “lack of focus” you were feeling on the insides was actually a lack of God’s presence in your life– because God created you for something more than that interrupting thought that possesses you while you do what you were doing! Most of us are experiencing a lack of focus because we’re focusing on girls/boys, drugs, partying, electronics, etc. For a lot of us, this lack of focus comes and goes like that ugly pair of skinny jeans we’ll never ever fit back into. Let’s look at what Jesus says to his disciples again. He says, “what a faithless and twisted generation! No sense of God. No focus to your lives!” When we can’t keep it together in our head to focus on the work at hand, then be assured the sense of God is not within you and we need to get it together. The disciples should have been able to heal this boy. More than that, this father should have been able to muster more than enough faith to deal with his son’s illness. The context Jesus is speaking in is of how we are afforded opportunities and given things and experiences; but because our focus is divided, we can’t do what we should be able to do. I want you to start thinking about how your lack of focus led to experiences where you just failed miserably or didn’t meet the standard you knew you could hit. Then I want you to outline those things that took focus away from you. Finally, I want you to pray and ask God to help you through those distractions. It’s time to live with focus, with a sense of God in our daily lives. I bet your life outcomes will drastically benefit from the renewed focus.

And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. (Luke 9:3 ESV) Traveling with a lot of baggage sucks. It especially stinks when you’re traveling during rush hour and you got more oversized bags than arms. But add those to having less personal space between you and the smelly person next to you than an ant to the earth and traveling not only stinks (literally) its also very miserable. I need to define two ideas for us, “baggage” and “life journey.” Let me define “life journey” for us: it is any new relationship, career choice, and life altering decision we make. Simply put, it is every single act and step in life that puts us on a certain trajectory. Now “baggage”: a kind of bondage to the past that can contaminate new and potentially more positive interactions. Now imagine going on a lifelong journey. Would you ever travel on a lifelong journey as hap-hazardously as you did the last time you went home for Christmas with more baggage than you need for a weekend with the folks? Obviously none of us would intentionally do that. But then again, isn’t that what we do almost every single time we embark on a new life journey? We are all carrying years and years of accumulated baggage through all our life journeys and it is stinking up our experiences, if not making us entirely miserable. Jesus quiet literally said to his disciples, “don’t carry ANY baggage!” You see, he was sending his disciples out to do something with their lives and he didn’t want anything hampering their progress or ruining their experiences. In fact, he basically told his disciples to just go and do what they knew God had prepared them to do and forget what they were carrying or losing track of. The sad thing is that we’re Jesus’ disciples too. We’re being sent out to do what we were created to do in God, here in our spheres of the world; but we keep dragging along our baggage and because of it, we keep losing out on our mission– our purpose in life, that thing God has us to do. We need to stop bringing along our oversized carry-on baggage into our new life journeys. There’s so much we need to do, keep both arms available to do something with them.