Wednesday, September 30, 2009

prioritizing our lives

I was at a conference called 'Unrelenting' this weekend. Nicole got up and talked a bit about the war room and what it was all about...and 24-7 prayer and stuff. And a guy got up and talked about how...we think about doing 3 hour prayer shifts, and think "we need an extra day in the week". And it totally resonated with me. Not just for prayer shifts...but for our daily walk with the Lord. We're Christians...but what are we offering to God? Yeah...we do the church activities...we serve in the church in various ways...but are we allowing the Lord to speak to us?

I got to thinking...if we "don't have time" to do half an hour or 45 minutes of devotions a day...where are we really at with the Lord? It's not necisarily the easiest thing...but maybe we need to cut down time with our boyfriends/girlfriends, our time on the internet, playing video games, spending crazy amounts of time on our hair/make-up everyday. You SAY you want to get closer to the Lord, but what are you DOING to make it happen?

I'm not saying this in a condeming way at all, because I struggle with it as well. But...I am saying this in a...we really need to focus on the Lord. Really spend time with the Lord. If you give something up...maybe video games, internet, or tv...for a week...and you spend that extra time reading your bible, praying, worshiping, listening to the Lord...I can almost guarantee that those things will become less important...and it will help change your priorities.

Walking with the Lord is to walk WITH...he's not gonna carry you through your life...you have to make an effort at this.

Glory to God,
Courtney

Saturday, September 26, 2009

The vision

So....I was in the car with Nicole yesterday...and she played this. And I was blown away. Speechless. The only thing I could do was like...cry out...and like...just sit there with my jaw dropped. Amazing.

The vision THE VISION So this guy comes up to me and says "what's the vision? What's the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this… The vision? The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus. The vision is an army of young people. You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism. They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.They wouldn't even notice.They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.What is the vision ?The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure. Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.A million times a day its soldiers choose to loosethat they might one day winthe great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters. Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!" And this is the sound of the undergroundThe whisper of history in the makingFoundations shakingRevolutionaries dreaming once againMystery is scheming in whispersConspiracy is breathing…This is the sound of the underground. And the army is discipl(in)ed. Young people who beat their bodies into submission. Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain". Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ? Can hormones hold them back?Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them ? And the generation prays like a dying manwith groans beyond talking,with warrior cries, sulphuric tears andwith great barrow loads of laughter!Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365. Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries. They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside. On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair. With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them. Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.Don't you hear them coming? Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden. And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner. Guaranteed.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Dead and Gone

Nicole and I were listening to this song the other day and talking about how its a song of such redemption! The chorus is just so great. "The old me is dead and gone" is so awesome! It totally goes along with the "life and death" theme we had at RAW in march. Die to yourself, and live for Christ...and this song seriously resembles that. Death to what you were and becoming transformed into "a new person"

Take a listen!