Fast and Furious

So it’s been a bit, took a week break from writing here because I was waiting for the Lord to drop something big for you, and He never fails! The reason for the picture above is because there is a vision I think God has for His church, which we must become humble to. I’m talking tunnel vision for the Lord Jesus in this depraved and fallen world we live in.

Dictionary.com calls tunnel vision, “narrowness of viewpoint resulting from concentration on a single idea, opinion, etc, to the exclusion of others.” Think about it, we need to as the body of Christ concentrate so much on Jesus that everything else in our peripheral view is out of focus and not easy to look at or even see. I think about the movie series The Fast and Furious and am reminded of similar glimpses of what tunnel vision looks like. They would hit their NOS turbo, injecting highly flammable gas into their engines, causing them to run faster and harder than they were the whole race. In that time the driver would have a similar viewpoint as the above picture.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” MATTHEW 6:33

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” JEREMIAH 29:13

“ ⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” COLOSSIANS 1:9-14

It’s promises like these that are our NOS turbo. That accelerate us into full focus of what it is we are to be doing. It’s in this focus that we are to move. I believe that when have our eyes set on Jesus in this way, we will never miss any opportunity He has for us because those opportunities lead to finding Him. For example, Peter gets out of the boat when Jesus walks on water and Peter walks out to him. See he had his full focus on Christ. It wasn’t until he started looking at himself and the things around him that caused him to sink. 

Too many times we let this world and its pleasures cause us to sink. It’s time we refocus our aim! In William Gurnall’s book The Christian in the Complete Armour he states, “so many run and so few obtain; so many go into the field against Satan, and so few come out conquerors; because all have a desire to be happy, but few have courage and resolution to grapple with the difficulties that meet them in the way to their happiness.” Further he writes, “Blind zeal is soon put to a shameful retreat, while holy resolution, built on fast principles, lifts up its head like a rock in the midst of the waves.” It’s time we have some Holy resolution and seek after Christ. This resolution will come when we set our whole heart and focus on Jesus. This has to be done in private as much as in public!

 The time is now. We are living in the final hour, don’t miss this Beloved

Thank You Jesus

So I’ve been in Rockford, IL for the past few days and I have to say that God has been blowing me away! There was a sermon I heard this week, and I gotta tell you that something was said that I overlook all the time! Let’s take a dive into Colossians and see what God has for us.

“17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” COLOSSIANS 3:17

If you read this book, there is a theme that we that we tend to truly forget about! See before this verse Paul uses the word “thank” 4 times. See if God takes time to write something down once, it’s important. However if he says something more than once, we should really pay attention! Paul says that we should, without option, be thankful or in a mode of thankfulness as Christians. This is reflected in Colossians 3:1-2:

“ 1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

See the theme? When we are focused on being thankful, we have a clearer vision to what God is doing in our lives! When we are thankful, it helps us to keep our minds on things that are above. God thank you how you pulled me for the pits of hell and brought me to life. Thank you Lord that I live in a country where I have the freedom to seek a relationship with you! Thank you God that I Have a job, have a family, ect... We all have something to be thankful for, whether that be simply the breath in your lungs, we all have something. It’s in this mode that we are able to remember God is able to do things that we could never imagine. I can attest, if Jesus can change my life, He can do anything!

Thank you God for the internet that I can use it to encourage people in a real way! God you are amazing, and I thank you this revelation!

It’s time to be Thankful Beloved!

God You're Crazy

There is a topic that has been on my heart this week that I think all of us need a reminder of from time to time. If you look at my small testimony to the left there is a theme that will resonate throughout not just my story, but many of your stories as well. That theme is Grace. God is so graceful and merciful that He would allow someone like me, and someone like you, to work in His Kingdom. See the bible says something very important about sin and how it affects us.

“23 For the wages of sin is death…” ROMANS 6:23A

This is something that we tend to look right past. Let’s look at it a little closer. Wages are something that we work for. For example, if I work 25 hours this week at my job, I earn a net wage or payment for my work. Now when we apply it to this scripture, we see that when we sin or payment is death. “Whooa, hold up Bryan! You mean to tell me that when I sin my payment is death?” That’s right, that’s the bible verse right there. Now I only quoted this verse from the first half of it to make this point, we don’t deserve anything we have when it comes to Jesus. Christ doesn’t owe you anything! We’re not doing God a favor by living a certain way and calling ourselves Christian.

WE DESERVE DEATH!

Back to my theme here, by looking at my story and maybe even looking at yours, we know that there are so many times where we haven’t died because of our sin. That’s because of God’s Grace. That’s because God loved us so much that he sent His Son to die for you. To die for me.

“Bryan, I know this. Why are you telling me this elementary teaching about Jesus?” I’m telling you because God wants the focus on him. I went to a worship service last Friday and when I was there God gave me a vision of the first time I met Jesus. The mess that I was. The Grace he shared with me. I can promise you this, I worshiped harder than I ever have in my life! I went all out! It’s all because of Grace that we are able to do anything. It’s God’s Grace that shows us his Love. I sympathize with Paul when he said:

“10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” 1 CORINTHIANS 15:10

It’s by grace that we are where we are. It’s His Grace that moves us. See we deserve death, but

He gives grace!

Let me finish the earlier verse:

“23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

All he wants is for us to continually have faith, believe on him, walk by grace, and share his love. This is an EVERYDAY THING! It’s time we remember the Grace we walk in!


I love you Beloved.

Divine Natured

I know this blog isn’t a regular as it once was, but I think God is always still moving. I was thinking the other day how I wanted this blog to get done by Tuesday, but I’m always glad when this happens. I had an awesome talk with a fellow brother in the Lord and he had an awesome insight on a passage that I was simply going to write as a status update on facebook, but decided it’d be better to elaborate on here. I’m in a season of my walk where I have found that I try to “live” to much and I’m not dying to my flesh enough. I told my buddy this and he brought this scripture to mind.

“20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” GALATIONS 2:20

See I know this verse, but I overlooked something very important. See when we are born again, that means our nature is born again too. This verse is a prime example. Paul says that since has been crucified with Christ, that Paul no longer lives, but Jesus does in him. This means that “our” nature is deceased, dead. Think about it this way. Jesus lives in us, by the way of the Holy Spirit, and we walk by that Spirit. See at this point I totally got what he was saying, or so I thought.

He looked at me and said, “Bryan I’ve found that when I walk in the desires of my flesh, that I’m not walking according to my nature anymore. I’m born again, and by walking in those desires, I’m choosing to walk in something that’s not of me anymore as a born again believer!” Catch that. When we are born again, by walking in the flesh we are walking in something that is already dead in our lives! It’s truly no longer us.

The problem we have as modern Christians, is we haven’t taken the time yet to learn how to:

Take full authority

Over our flesh!

So come on family, it’s time to wake up and look in the mirror and tell ourselves you we truly are! It is a journey to get to the fullness, but it is already inside of us! YOU ARE NO LONGER DEFINED BY YOUR PAST. YOU’RE DEFINED BY WHO JESUS IS IN YOU!

I love you dearly Beloved

The Vivid Child

So can I just say how awesome it is again to be able to share with you a small glimpse into how God moves? I was at my usual Tuesday night church service, Ember, when I  witnessed something that just put me right in my place. 

It was the end of the service, and the worship band was playing their last song before the main servant of the service came forth and prayed over the assembly.  His little niece was there last night and she wanted to be by him as he led that night. Her parents were worried she was going to be a distraction to some, but nobody was prepared for what happened next. Our humble servant walked to the front of the stage, placed his foot on the stairs and raised his hands to worship just briefly before he prayed over everyone. This little 2-3 year old girl followed him up to the stage, without him knowing, and watched him for a moment. She then walked back to her parents and stood by them, however she managed to keep her humble uncle in focus. She then did something I never expected. She left the side of her parents, and walked right to her uncle’s side. She then vividly looked at him from his feet all the way to his head as if to study him. She then placed her foot on the stair next to her uncle, an without hesitation….

raised both hands!

I was blown away but what I just saw. This little girl, who can’t even speak very well, who can’t even sing the songs we were singing, did everything she knew to do when it came to following her uncle’s example. She trusted that what he was doing was exactly what she needed to be doing, without fear of what anyone else thought. Think about it! Jesus speaks about this to His disciples in Luke 18:15-17.

“15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Take a deep look at this passage. Jesus knows that a child is very trusting. Furthermore, most children don’t have any care or concern for what people think about what it is they are doing. They could be singing in gibberish, they could be playing with imaginary figures, or they could be doing summersaults. The story on this little girl I told you is a shining example of what Jesus means. See we need to trust our Father in Heaven, and we need to worship Him with our lives with everything we know how to or we could be missing the whole point of Jesus’ coming. We could be missing our entrance to the Kingdom. I know it’s not about what we do, but what He did. What I’m saying here is that as American Christians, living our wealthy and blessed lives compared to the rest of the world, we can’t even get a grip on what it means to vividly study Jesus, let alone mimic him in our worship.

I think it’s time, Church, we let this lesson sink in deep. It’s time we ask the Lord to bring us to the point of child-like faith. 

Love you Beloved