Faith

I experienced a miracle Saturday. There have been 3 moments in my life other than today, 4/30/11 that have been this powerful and instrumental to my faith. The other three are: 7/26/04 (when I crossed over the line of faith); 7/23/06 (when I was baptized); 8/15/10 (when I reached a valley in my faith – only to have two close friends, through God, build me up).

I cannot run far due to leg injuries incurred years ago in high school that have haunted me since. Whenever I run pain flairs up, a reoccurring theme that seems to never go away. This day was no different. I started toward Lake Michigan to attempt to run 5 miles, the longest I’ve run since ’06. Sure enough about ¾ mile into the run I started developing the pain. I was so frustrated because this was the earliest this pain has ever developed; it usually manifests itself later in the run. That’s when the miracle happened. Out of nowhere I started to pray as I ran:

“Lord, I have faith that You can take this pain away this instant, but only if You are willing”.

I kept repeating it over and over until I started to feel myself purely believing it in my heart – no doubts – and God met me there. I don’t know how many times I repeated this, twenty at least, and when I stopped praying I realized the pain was completely gone! Praise God! This has never happened before. I usually have to stop during a run and walk home or jog slowly the rest of the way through the pain.

I was so elated about this I started to think during my run “why do I not pray like this more often”. Then I started to pray other things:

“Lord, I have faith that You are in control of my career, that you will guide me, and give me the faith to follow where You lead regardless of what that is.”
“Lord, I have faith that You are sovereign and in control of my finances, that what is mine, is not truly mine but Yours, given to steward.”
“Lord, I have faith that each breath, each moment that I have is a gift and blessing from You.”
“Lord, I have faith that You can remove, and lead me through, the areas of my life that keep me from You.”
“Lord, I have faith that You can give me the boldness yet humble confidence to speak about You to others, regardless of circumstance.”
“Lord, I have faith that You will provide what I need exactly when I need it.”

At one point in the run I noticed, then that my prayers changed focus, taking the center off of me and onto Him. But I kept repeating each phrase over and over until I felt it in my soul:

“Lord, I have faith that You will one day return, according to Your promise, and restore all of creation to how You intended.”
“Lord, I have faith that You are the triune God, Creator of heaven and earth.”
“Lord, I have faith that You desire to have a personal relationship with me.”
“Lord, I have faith that You have stepped into this world as man, born of a virgin, and lived among us, experiencing all that we experience, yet knowing no sin.”
“Lord, I have faith that You are omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent”.
“Lord, I have faith that I am justified by faith, apart from works of the law, and I receive grace through that faith.”
“Lord, I have faith that through Your divine providence I came to know You and the assurance of my salvation is not on me and what I can earn throughout the course of my life but that You came down as a man, and for our sake and your Glory, you climbed a tree of death (the cross) and turned it into a tree of life for me”.

When finished I realized I was back home, accomplished the run, and noticed the pain did not return! I was so overjoyed – and still am – to experience the Lord’s presence and work in such a powerful and personal way.

As everything in my life, I started analyzing this experience. I had two thoughts that came out of this: (1) It’s no surprise that we live in a fallen world, full of evil and temptations, that creep into and rob us of our belief of what is true of God and true of ourselves. We need to constantly remind and re-train ourselves of these biblical truths because we can become stale, stagnant in our walks and, if we are not joyfully reflecting on these Truths to constantly renew our souls, we will become hard, numb, callous to what God is doing in and around us, and miss out on the joy of recognizing and rejoicing in this work. (2) Some Christians, myself included, at times don’t believe enough in the mystery of God; the active, personal, power of the Holy Spirit, that He is currently and actively working right this very moment. We forget that He can and will come to our rescue, heal us, comfort us, strengthen us, give us exactly what we need, even when we may not know ourselves (Matt 6:8b). I also find it no coincidence that I have been reflecting a lot on the passage found in Matt 21:21-22: “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

I believe this day was one where I experienced unbridled faith, faith without limits, an indescribable feeling. I pray this kind of faith would extend into all aspects of my life, always. I hope I pray like this more frequently, more boldly, fully, with confidence and overwhelming joy; because I now long to have more experiences like this. I thank God for this day, this experience, renewing these truths within, and leading me to a new depth of my faith. Because, as I kept praying, that’s what the common theme was… Faith. – DM

Everyday Hypocrites

As this is the first real post on this blog, it seems appropriate to start by explaining the purpose and intention and what we aim to accomplish. First and foremost we are followers of Christ, walking the gap between this world and the next. Our aim is to, in written form, communicate what we are observing, processing through, wrestling with, and rejoicing in under Christ. It is our aim that these writings will point to Jesus, our Lord and savior, author and perfector of our faith.

It seems reasonable to start explaining the name – Everyday Hypocrites. This name stems from Romans 7:15-20 .

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the verything I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.(Romans 7:15-20 ESV)

As followers of Christ, we walk a fine line through this life. We believe that we have been saved by grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus (Romans 3) and have been justified by faith. We believe that we have received the Holy Spirit and are being continually sanctified by Him. We also believe that we are sinners, delivered into sin through the fall described in Genesis – thus we understand that the idea of a perfect or sinless life is not possible. Our desire as Christians is to grow into the likeness of Jesus – to strive for holiness and to walk in righteousness. We strive to sin no more. We strive, but we fail. We know that our fallen nature as humans makes sin innate within us. Thus, we sin everyday. Although it is no longer our desire to sin, we still do it – as such we are everyday hypocrites. We are not proud of the title, but we are not ashamed of our reality. We desire to proclaim the glory, beauty, majesty, grace, and mercy of God through the cross, but we consciously and subconsciously make choices that rail against this proclamation.

Understanding this reality leads us to God. For the more we understand this reality the more we let go of the self life and give way to God’s provision of His Holy Spirit. Praise God for his infinite grace, for without Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross, our hope would be lost.

DJ, DM, JS

The Life Of David

On July 4th, I had the privilege to give the sermon at my home church, Park Community Church (www.parkcommunitychurch.org).  This was a great opportunity to learn and continue to practice on how to deliver a message and get critiqued based on structure, presentation, content, and delivery.  Below is the audio file from the message.  The message was on 1 Samuel 27 & 29 – the life of David, the promised king of Israel in the OT.  To listen, right click -> save target as -> and then open with any media player. Hope you enjoy!  Would appreciate constructive feedback!

1 Samuel 27 & 29

Retreat Messages

Over the past two years I’ve had the privilege to give a message at the church I attend, Park Community Church (www.parkcommunitychurch.org), annual Memorial Day retreat.  As I am not a pastor these were great opportunities to begin to learn how to prepare a message from a passage of scripture and then teach on it.  It also helped me work on my presentation skills and speaking in front of people.  Hopefully there were improvements from 2009 to 2010.  Below are audio files from both retreat messages.  The audio is unfortunately not of the highest quality.  To listen, right click -> save target as -> and then open with any media player. Hope you enjoy!  

BASIC 5.30.10 – Follow Christ – John 21

BASIC 5.24.09 – Obedience of Faith – Romans 16