Be a Reflector

Here's a picture from Corey's wedding for kicks...


And here's my devo's for today...

Ready, Set, Go - Daily Bible Reading
Date: 10/20/06
Topic: Worship
Title: Be a Reflector

Scripture
Acts 12
22The people gave him a great ovation, shouting, “It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!”

23Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died.

24Meanwhile, the word of God continued to spread, and there were many new believers.

Observation
God takes worship very seriously. As described in this passage, when the people's praise is taken to heart, like Herod, God can and will take drastic measures. The people were worshipping Herod saying “It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!” They were way off base in their worship. Worshipping anything other than the one true God is sin. What God seems to be highlighting in this chapter is that when worship is accepted by people (like Herod), that is a very serious issue to Him. God killed Herod for his robbery of worship.

Application
We all have a great responsiility to give glory over to God. To be a refector of worship up to God. I remember being in San Francisco's science/discovery building when I was young. They had this light disply and we could take these mirror blocks and shoot beams of light all over the place. When you set a block at an angle it would shoot straight up. That's what being a reflector of worship is like - shooting the glory and praise given by men back up to God. He's the one who gives the gift or talent in the first place. We must understand the importance of giving God all the glory for everything good that happens to us.

I want to be like David where he says, “Let God's praise continually be in my mouth.” When somone says “good job”, or “well done” my response should be “God is good” or “God has done well.” If I am a reflector of His glory, this is what pleases him.

Prayer
Lord, today I reflect the glory up to you! You get all of it! No matter what songs I write, what books I write, what great events I put on, what I design, no matter how many people are in a ministry that I am involved in, no matter how great something is that I do, I will always be a reflector of Your glory. Bouncing the glory back up to You! You are good and you have done well!

OH the INJURIES!

Recently a certain type of phenomenon has taken place in my life. I call it "injurious behaviourus." Or simply, beating the snot out of myself. Let me explain with the following examples:

1) The Water Incident

Picture the sun shining warm on Prineville resevoir. The lake is empty as most people are working. We are not:) It's Friday and wakeboarding is our aim. "Go big, or Go Home" is the theme. Testosterone is flowing. The airwaves are filled with sounds of hard hitting drums and squeeling guitar licks. It's perfect. Clif was just starting out and he surprised us all with his ability to ride. Dennis was driving and giving us pointers. A perfect day, for an incident.

It's goes like this...I was twenty feet in the air doing a whirly bird double sowcow with a half twist, a feat no other human being has attempted before. I crashed, and crashed hard. Now those of you who are not as educated as I am in the area of wakeboarding know how difficult this trick really is. I swing out wide, because I'm hitting the wake hard so I can go BIG! Now, I'm convinced that the Bigness was there. Clif and Dennis might not have seen it, but it was there. So I go big, and I crash hard, and I bend sideways in a spectacular spray of water. The ribs hurt, oh they hurt. I don't go to the doctor. I've told my friends time and again "not unless I've got a severed limb!" (last time I went to the ER it cost a fortune) So I crashed BIG and hurt BIG, and I went BIG and then went HOME.

2) The Golf Incident

My brother's bachelor party was a great one. We went to Portland and golfed at one of Portland's finest "Glendoveer West." Please keep in mind there was a sign outside of the Pro Shop that stated, "Please wear shirts inside pro shop." So you can imagine what the rest of the playing was like. My buddy Mike and I tee off on hole 7, not a difficult hole for most people, but let me remind you that this is an incident and in incident's nothing goes like you want it to. That would make it and incident inside of the greater "incident" know as this golf game. Let me get to the incident wrapped in the incident. So Mike and I tee off, we hit towards the right by the trees. My ball lands in front of his about 20 feet. The flag is way left of us so I'm thinking he's aiming there. I go stand by my ball and wait for his shot. I start putting on my sweatshirt in the middle of his swing, the sweatshirt is half on and I hear the whisk of a ball. Mike takes a full swing from 20 feet away and the ball hits right in my leg. This is sharp concentrated pain. I yell, "what happened to FOUR!" BIG pain, BIG bruise, all my friends are laughing. The main thing you must remember while golfing is, that "yes" it can actually hit you. You think it can't, but the golf ball has no regard for your feelings. When we play, it goes where it wants.

3) The Water Incident (part two)
Yeah, there are two of these. They both involve Wakeboarding and Dennis Sgetti's boat. So I try this new board called a "ROAM." It has no fins on the bottom so it's pretty squirly. You can bust out some sweet 360's outside the wake and do some butter slides and all that. They looked awesome when watching Tony. I thought I'd just give it a whirl. No more faking you out though with a huge description, instead I will use one word with a period and you will understand what happen. Start. Up. Slide. Turn. Cool. Again. Edge. Fall. Water. Face. Board. Face. Bleed. Nose. Cut. Ouch. Manly. Scar.

So I've been trying to keep the scar from being severe, but my modeling days are over:)


You may have felt one of the following while reading this:

a)Compassion - if you fall in this category, tears were shed at my pain. The agony I endured made you hurt right along with me. You are person who feels, who enjoys painting, poetry, and butterscotch ripple. You enjoy hot soup on a cold frosty night. You enjoy dancing in the rain. You feel alive.

b)Mockery - you have no heart. I will pray for you that you will get one. Just kidding, thanks for reading this. I got hurt a couple times but I'm healing up quick!

Devos to Share - 9/22

I thought today I would share what I got from my Bible reading. Remember to keep getting into the Word, it will add life to your day. It's better that Wheaties!

Ready, Set, Go - Daily Bible Reading
Date: 9/22/06
Topic: Spiritual Growth
Title: “Deep and Wide”

Scripture
Daniel 9:13b “But we have refused to seek mercy from the Lord our God by turning from our sins and recognizing his truth.” (New Living Translation)

Daniel 10:19a “’Don’t be afraid,’ he said, ‘for you are deeply loved by God. be at peace; take heart and be strong.’” (New Living Translation)

Luke 5:4-6
“4 Now go out where it is deeper and let down your nets, and you will catch many fish. 5 ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, we’ll try again.’ 6 And this time their nets were so full they began to tear!” (NLT)

Observation
A couple verses stuck out to me today. First off, Daniel is incredibly burdened for his people. Chapter 9 starts by saying that he was studying and learning from the word of the Lord, then something hits him and he starts pleading for the people of Israel (as they were in exile in Babylon at the time). Then I thought about what Daniel thought about in the verse above...”they refused to seek mercy from the Lord.“ How? By turning from sin and recognizing the truth. It’s really what Oneighty is all about - the BIG TURN AROUND. Turning from our sin and our junk and turning to Christ. I’m challenged today to see the mercy of God in my life.

Second, I felt encouraged by Daniel 10:9, God reminded me of the Scripture he gave me out of Joshua a while back saying “be strong and courageous.” This was confirmation of that. We are deeply loved by the Lord. So often we can get caught up in the “don’t” of walking with Christ. Let us not forget that we are deeply, truly, passionately loved by the living God! Take heart and be strong. Be strong in the knowledge that Christ died for us when we were very unlovely. That’s why we know we are deeply loved.

Last, I saw in Luke 5 a couple things...

Luke 5:4-6
“Now go out where it is deeper and let down your nets, and you will catch many fish. 5 ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, we’ll try again.’ 6 And this time their nets were so full they began to tear!” (NLT)

A deeper relationship with God will equal wider arms to reach people. I think what God is saying to me today is that the deeper I go in relationship with Him, the more it is meant to be share with others. Deep and Wide go together.

Just like Jesus said fish where it is deeper (or go to the depths of who I am), he also allow a supernatural catch of fish (or people). We go deeper, more people come to Christ and he brings the increase!

Application
Daniel - Turn from sin, accept his mercy, and walk in the truth of the word

Luke - Don’t forget that a deep relationship with God isn’t supposed to be ingrown. The love of Christ needs to be shared with the world, it’s too good to keep to myself.

Prayer
Lord, take me deeper in you. That you that you deeply love me, I love you back! As I go deeper, bring people into my path that I can impact for you. I’m excited about what you are going to do! Right on!

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The Power of One

I'm actually sitting here at Wildhorse Canyon where we have our Wintercamps/Summercamps (except for last year). Tonight I was part of the ministry team at Cascade Life Commission's Encounter Retreat. Many of the folks we prayed for had their lives impacted in a truly amazing way.

Every time I come here I feel that God wants to speak to me specifically about the Youth in Bend. Last night Pastor Ken delivered one of the most amazing messages I have heard to date. Mostly what caught my attention was the challenge. He laid the vision out, 100 students stronger by the end of the year, 1000 by the end of 10. What do I think about it? You bet, God can do that easy!!

The thing about it is that it's not going to be the pastors or leaders that "convince" enough people to come to Christ. It's going to be the whole crew together going after God and then reaching the folks around them. If every person reached and discipled ONE person this year, in a few years, millions would be reached for Christ! We need to be intentional about this, reaching people.

For those of you reading this who don't know God, I hope that today you understand how much God cares for You. I do too, I know how impersonal it is through electronic words, but but I really do. I care enough to tell you today that God is only a step away from where you are at. All you've got to do is step His way! Try it, I dare you. You'll come to find the real life that you've been searching for.

This is just a quick update from where I'm at. Remember, ONE person this year! You can reach more if you want, but let's start there. You will be amazed and what you see in your life when you step out!