Random Thoughts

They come in the middle of the night when I’m awakened by either God or my bladder. Hard to tell which it is sometimes. The thoughts trickle in while I drive, while I work, when I’m knee deep in the gospels, and while I’m cooking dinner (admittedly, a rare event). Thoughts, whole and unfinished they come. Like a dripping faucet of Holy Spirit whispers that I hold close, not quite sure what to do with them. Some are the questions of my own ever searching heart. All of it feels like the hands of the Potter, shaping and re-shaping, molding, and smoothing my rough edges.

make your life a sacrifice. the whole life, not just the parts you don’t mind giving up. in order for it to be a sacrifice, you have to give what you’d rather keep. the best, the most, the prized, the coveted. all belongs on the altar.

big picture – make disciples. the church, working as one to reach the lost. global purpose, global pursuit. but it’s the smaller picture that pushes me back and pulls me in close at the same time. the picture of letting Christ be formed in me, not through performance but through bending my knee again and again. and again. big picture, little picture. He is saving the world and He is saving me. glory.

This earth offers two things: light and momentery afflictions, and light and momentary pleasures. we chase the pleasures and hope to avoid the afflictions but the pleasures do us no good. no room for growth, no reason to change, no faith required. it’s the afflictions that matter the most, because they form Jesus in us. push us to seek Him out, lean into Him, fall at His feet.

we should rather have momentary afflictions and eternal pleasure, than momentary pleasure and eternal affliction.

if you understood the grace that is yours, you would live differently. you just would.

matthew 14:17. “we only have…”. the cry of us all. i only have a little. i only have this much, that much, not much. when will i understand that it doesn’t matter how much i have, it matters what God will make of what i have? who might He feed with my little lunch?

you can’t give someone what they are meant to get from Jesus.

Jesus is heaven’s response to sin. every time.

what the church has built for herself, will come down. I will find My remnant.

Jesus, You fascinate me.

how am I living as though God is not in control?

God does not have dreams. He has unchanging plans and purposes, and they are good.

we need to stop telling people to chase their dreams and start telling them to chase the heart of Jesus.

no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. our destination is a person, not a place.

discipleship isn’t making people look like us. it’s helping people look like Jesus.

Mark 1:23. demons knew who Jesus was, and what He could do. what do demons know and believe that i don’t?

the devil lied, but Eve engaged the lie. how have i been engaging the lies the enemy is telling?

Matthew 14:14. He had compassion on them and healed their sick. not because they asked the right way, or because they had enough faith, or because they did all the right things. they were healed because He had compassion. no other reason.

Jesus, offend the religious spirit in the church. and in me.

i am as in need of Jesus today as i was the first day i met Him.

what has following Jesus cost me?

every need i have is met in Jesus.

marriage is a good thing, but it is not the better thing (Luke 10:42). glory days are good, but they are not the better thing. success is a good thing, but it is not the better thing. i fear we are making idols out of good things because we forget there is a better thing. or is it that, honestly, we value the good thing more than the better thing?

Jesus never changed course or softened His message because people were being offended.

can we just talk more about what God is doing than what we’re doing? goodness, let’s talk about Jesus more, in and out of the church.

Random thoughts that push at the edges of my mind until i write them down. Thoughts that turn into conversations with the Holy Spirit and then into something in me moving out of His way, making room for more of Him and less of me.

Don’t ignore the random thoughts.