"I Need You Now" - Story of My Life!

"I Need You Now [How Many Times]" is a single recently put out by Plumb. I had to share its truth with you!

Read the chorus:
How many times have you heard me cry out, God please take this?
How many times have you given me strength to just keep breathing?
Oh I need you, God, I need you now!

Notice how the idea goes from "take this away" to "I need YOU." That's the point! He will do what He has to do to get me where He wants me to be; AND YET, He will also provide the means of getting there and the grace to sustain me along the way.

This is my life-long lesson. Sometimes, whatever "this" is, IS God's best for me. This is His will, He set it up to be this way. Sometimes, all He grants is the strength to just keep breathing. I choke on this reality more often than I'd care to admit.

Listen to the whole song here!

** UPDATE: Plumb re-titled her new album with this song in light of the Newtown shooting last week.
What an opportunity for the truth of this song!

Giving God Center Stage

     Kelly Needham is the wife of recording artist, Jimmy Needham. Together, they have taken up a challenge in anticipation of his next album release,  Clear the Stage. ....Jimmy and I will be doing some “stage-clearing” in our own lives and will be blogging about it for the next five days until the record releases. We invite you to join us in this with hopes that we can give God the rightful place in our lives: center stage.
     Her second post in this challenge came out this morning and oy, how I can relate! It's titled: Clear the Stage: Accomplishments. See for yourself...

I am a hopeless “Martha.” If you are familiar with the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10, you will remember that Martha was the sister who was constantly serving and all the while forsaking the most important thing: simply sitting at the feet of Jesus. This is the story of my life. I love to accomplish things. I love to do. It makes me feel good about myself and gives me a way to quantify the successfulness of my day. Consequently, it is extremely hard for me to just sit. In fact, this is the main reason that I hate napping. What a wasted few hours! When I end the day without having accomplished anything on my to-do list, I feel like I wasted my day.
Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with getting things done and having a strong work ethic. It is when I can’t stop doing those things or thinking about them that they become a problem. Since our daughter Lively still takes a morning nap, that has become my “Jesus time.” I spend that time enjoying who God is through the Bible and prayer for as long as her nap lasts. But heaven forbid that she sleep longer than her normal hour and a half. I can’t lose that precious time to get to the important things I want to accomplish!
How unfortunate that I am often so anxious to get to the “more important” things on my to do list. As if a day spent in communion with my Savior would be a wasted day. It’s in these moments that I relate to Martha as she watched her sister simply sitting and listening to Jesus wondering why she isn’t doing more. Life isn’t all about the doing, at least in a physical sense. Because in all reality, there is a lot happening when I choose to sit at the feet of Jesus: my Spirit is strengthened, I grow in my love for God (the greatest commandment by the way) and for others, and I am freed from sin. But none of these things have results that I can see with my eyes. But a freshly painted bathroom… I can see that progress and it makes me feel good.
Oh that God would give me spiritual eyes to see not what is seen, but what is unseen! For what is seen is only temporary but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corin 4:18). Jesus’ words to Martha always speak right to my heart: 
'Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, 
which shall not be taken away from her.'
(Luke 10:41-42)"

How often do I fit THIS bill? So often that it detracts from my ability and availability to worship?   How will it effect my ministry, will I have time for people or be too busy with "the stuff?" Am I too task oriented that sitting at the feet of Jesus is somehow a lesser accomplishment? May it never be! 

Kelly closes with this apt prayer:

"Lord God, I beg you to do a deep work in my heart. Uproot the idol of my to-do list and my accomplishments as they so often hinder me from a deeper relationship with You. Please help me redefine what a successful day looks like. Teach me that a whole day spent with you, without doing anything, is more successful and fruitful in eternity that a 1,000 days where I got everything checked off. Show me how to balance serving my family and working hard with a heart that ultimately longs to do nothing else but sit in Your presence. Free me from thinking that my time with you is something to check off a list rather than the greatest privilege and most fruitful time in my day. I am hopeless to bring about these changes, so Lord work in me. In the powerful name of Jesus, amen."

By the way, here is the video for Jimmy Needham's new song: Clear the Stage

Radical Tidbit Part 2

Still turning the pages of Radical by David Platt!
Here's the next bit of straight up truth I just came across:

"If you were to ask the average Christian sitting in a worship service on a Sunday morning to summarize the message of Christianity, you would most likely hear something along the lines of  'The message of Christianity is that God loves me.' Or someone might say 'The message of Christianity is that God loves me enough to send His son, Jesus Christ, to die for me.'
As wonderful as this sentiment sounds, is it biblical?  Isn't it incomplete, based on what we have seen in the Bible? 'God loves me' is not the essence of biblical Christianity. Because if 'God loves me' is the essence of biblical Christianity, then who is the object of Christianity?
God loves me.
Me.
Christianity's object is me.
Therefore, when I look for a church, I look for the music that best fits me  and the programs that best cater to me and my family. When I make plans for my life and career, it is about what works best for me and my family. When I consider the house I will live in, the car I will drive, the clothes I will wear, the way I will live, I will choose according to what I'd best for me. This is the version of Christianity that largely prevails in our culture.
But it is not biblical Christianity.
The message of biblical Christianity is not 'God loves me, period,' as if we were the object of our own faith. The message of biblical Christianity is 'God loves me so that I might make him - his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness - known among all nations.' Now God is the object of our faith, and Christianity centers around him. We are not the end of the gospel; God is." (pp. 70-71)

Can I get an AMEN?  This idea is so prevalent in churches today. It changes the very focus of the gospel and  the purpose of the church from God centered to man centered.
A few scriptures come to mind:

"But even if we or  an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed." Galatians 1:8

"For from him and through him and to him are all things. y To him be glory forever. Amen." Romans 11:36

Radical

Radical

Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream

 by David Platt

"... a dream in which each man and each woman shall be able to  attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized for what they are."

- James Truslow Adams, 1931

    Author David Platt has a different dream. More like a nightmare. 

In this dream, God's people are more concerned with financial and political success and recognition than they are with taking up a cross and following Christ. 

    Oh, wait. That's not a dream, that's modern day "Christian" America. Oops, my bad.

    In Platt's book, Radical, he shares multiple experiences with an underground church in Asia and how they influenced his lifestyle as "the youngest mega church pastor in history" living the "American Dream."

The people he met were completely sold out for God, willing and ready to lay down their lives for the Gospel...literally. Wearing hooded sweatshirts, they met secretly. Each time at a different location by a different route. They hungered for the truths of Scripture with a physical hunger that denied other needs. These farmers neglected all their responsibilities and asked him to teach them the Old Testament... all of it. So, a ten day stretch of twelve hour days is what they committed to hear the teachings of the Word of God. But wait, "We have a problem." they said, "You have not taught us the New Testament yet." Its slightly comical to envision any man pulling off such a feat in eleven hours. By God's grace, the words came and they flew right through from Matthew to Revelation.

     This would have a major impact on any person's life and ministry. Platt wondered what it would do to his church if they stripped away the band, the comfy chairs, the presentation, etc. What if people came JUST to hear the Bible preached? So began the Secret Church ministry; just people and Scripture. No frills, no fluff.  (Though he did admit to keeping the chairs and indoor bathrooms!) This led to a deeper worship and appreciation for God and his Word and who God really is.

     Who God really is is an idea Platt expounds on in the second chapter. Love is probably the most popular adjective used in relation to the character of God. Platt writes "He is holy above all....He is not just a loving father, He is also a wrathful judge." Somehow, that idea does not fit into the American dream. Having a proper understanding of who God is requires a proper understanding of who we are: sinners in need of a Savior.

    The idea that a Savior would call us to be slaves to Himself is not palatable to our culture. 

We like the idea of compromise over surrender and comfort over sacrifice. We take that a step further these days. We pick and choose the traits of God that we like (as if we could do that with anyone else) and come up with a god who does not save. 

"Jesus didn't really tell us not to bury our father or say goodbye to our family. Jesus didn't literally mean to sell all we have and give it to the poor, what Jesus really meant was....And this is where we need to pause. Because we are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist Him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with. 

A nice, middle class American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn't mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have. A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that He receives all our affection. A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion and does not infringe on our comforts, because after all, He loves us for who we are. A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to avoid danger all together. 

A Jesus who brings comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American Dream." (pg 13) 

With a mastery of the pen, Platt brings it all home: 

"So, is there anything wrong with this picture? Certainly hard word and high aspirations are not bad, and the freedom to pursue our goals is something we should celebrate. Scripture explicitly commends all these things. But underlying this American dream are an assumption that, if we are not cautious, we will unknowingly accept and a deadly goal that, if we are not careful, we will ultimately achieve. The dangerous assumption we unknowingly accept  in the American dream is that our greatest asset is our own ability. The american dream prizes what people can accomplish when they believe in themselves and trust in themselves and we are drawn toward such thinking. But the gospel has different priorities. The gospel beckons us to die to ourselves and to believe in God and to trust in His power. In the gospel, God confronts us with our utter inability to accomplish anything of value  apart from Him. This is what Jesus meant when He said, 'I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.'" (pg 46)

That's just the first three chapters! Where will he go next? I'll let you know...