Category: Thoughts and Such


Free Gift Available, but Will You Accept it?

Filed Under: Thoughts and Such
Feb.20, 2010

I love reading Charles Spurgeon. He was an English preacher and author. I took it upon myself to revise one of his tracts to updated language. Read and respond.

It is by God’s grace alone that sinners are rescued for instant death. God’s justice, like an ax ready to chop down a barren tree, is stopped by Jesus’ interceding, saying “Spare the sinner for a little while.” Many sinners have admitted after converting to God that it was only His mercy that allowed them to go on living. In his book Grace Abounding, John Bunyan tells about three “escapes” from death before he was a believer. He says these were the result of God’s patience and mercy. Sometimes, these “escapes” are the very things that convict us about how we have offended God, and give us a sense of love for God. Shouldn’t it be that way? We should recognize God’s patience as part of God’s saving love for us. That what Saint Peter says in his second epistle, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation.” (2 Pet. 3:15)

Here’s a story to illustrate: During a battle, and officer was shot in the stomach. But the bullet struck him right on a pocket, and struck a silver coin. He pulled the coin and bullet from his pocket, and on the coin was written in Latin, DEI GRATIA, which means By the Grace of God. He was amazed. He immediately remembered a letter a Christian woman had given him before he left for war. He read the letter, and was immediately convicted of God’s grace and became a believer. God blessed him through saving his life, then through the reading of the letter. And he was saved.

Let me ask you this as direct as I can: Are you still not saved? Do you remember any of your “escapes”? If so, the time has come to adore and admire God’s free grace. It’s time for pray that you may be led to repentance! Remember DEI GRATIA, and never forget that it is by God’s grace alone that we are saved. Grace always means that the one who gets it hasn’t done anything to deserve it. In fact, grace starts where all our supposed good works stop. That’s incredible news – but only once we accept that before God we are completely unworthy of salvation, without enough good works to be acceptable, without any goodness compared to the goodness of God. God is offering forgiveness for all our crimes. He is saving us because He loves us and chooses to save us. It’s his love, it’s His choice. Grace means it’s free. John Wickliffe, the first guy to translate the Bible into English, used to pray “Lord, save me freely.” Save us with your grace. Nothing we can do will earn us salvation. It can’t be bought or deserved. So Father gives it to us for free, and doesn’t charge us with any wrongdoing.

Grace comes to us through faith in Jesus. Whoever believes in Him is no longer condemned. Listen, you are a sinner, I am too. But God can give us His grace to look to Jesus, and start to truly live. Don’t wait. Now. Now. Now is the time.

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Knowing What We Know Now, What Do We Know?

Filed Under: Thoughts and Such
Feb.11, 2010

Our attention spans are shrinking. We’re devolving mentally. We’re surrounded by an ever-growing attempt by media to maintain our attention by feeding us shorter, quicker, and more radical mental snacks. But it isn’t just Twitter, You Tube videos, and MTV shorts that are indicative of this demise of concentration. In fact, I see it most clearly in myself when I pick up a book, or attend a sermon. My ability to retain information is waning, and it’s not just cause I’m pushing 35. More directly, I find that I have trained my mind over the last 10 years to increasingly feed on short, small pieces of information. My training has paid off. My decreasing attention span has affected not only my desire to engage longer or more in-depth mental tasks, but has affected my ability to even recall what I learned.

What did we talk about two weeks ago at Uth? What was Pastor Mike’s sermon about last week? What scriptures did we pray over a few days ago. Where was that verse in the Bible. Where is my Bible?

We are trying to do something different at Uth. We are trying to go deeper, and engage in something that will have lasting impact. I am a firm believer in repetition, so that we can overcome the deficiency in memory through consistent reinforcement.

We’re not being called to eradicate all mode of learning that feeds on this growing condition of ours, but neither are we meant to accept it and move on as if we are not losing something important in the process. We need to challenge our ever shrinking retention of information. But am I just talking about information, here, or can I preacher-ize this…

Father wants to grow us, He wants to perfect us, and shape us in his image. The fact that we are ever-searching for the next hit of entertainment stands in the way of the building blocks we need to retain in order to become a fortress of God’s word.

What’s the application? Did you even read this far down?

It’s time to slow… and grow.

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Do This: Don’t Forget

Filed Under: Thoughts and Such
Jan.30, 2010

Some things are worth doing for the heck of it. They may be fun, entertaining, mind numbing, whatever. Other things we do are meaningless, but we do them religiously. You can fill in the blank here for your mind-wasters. One of mine is Solitaire. I swear, sometimes I think I paid $500 for an electronic automated dealer. (Get it…computer purchase… solitaire. hmmm)

Anyhow, the thing I wanted to bring up was, the Church has a few things done routinely for various reasons. We all know why we do Pledge Sunday (gotta pay that Uth Pastor) and we know why we light candles in the services.

But why do we do communion?

Two big reasons.
First, we celebrate communion, or what our Catholic friends call Eucharist, because Jesus told us to. Seems like a good enough reason. In fact, its the only real reason why we do it. He did it with his disciples, then told them to keep doing it.
Second, we do it because the disciples did it. Seems like a no-brainer right considering Jesus asked them to. But we are here, 2000 years later carrying on that tradition set my the Master himself, then respectfully carried forward by the Church ever since. It’s a beautiful thing to partake in communion, we are connecting ourselves with the spiritual mothers and fathers who came before us.

But have you figured out the why behind the why? It’s enough to say, The reason why we take communion is because Jesus said to and teh church has always… But, there’s a big follow-up question. Why did Jesus ask us to.

There’s volumes written on the Lord’s Supper, and anyone wanting to do research into this sacrament would find a literal library worth of commentary to read. But I want to get real non-technical in my response to that question.

Why did Jesus tell us to do this in remembrance of him? Because he knew we could forget. Yes, we’ve got the story, we’ve got the symbolism, we’ve got the tradition. But deep down in you and I, we have this inherited ability to forget. Jesus is saying very simply, Do this and keep doing it and when you do it you will be able to keep remembering that I did it.

We’ll talk more about what communion is as the days go by, but for now, I want to thank God for His simple fatherly advice. Do this, don’t forget.

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Who Is Jesus to Me? – Nick Cash, Executive Director of Teen Advisors

Filed Under: Thoughts and Such
Jan.27, 2010

Last week, the Wynnton Youth joined a few hundred area students for Souled Out O.N.E. The concert featured Jonathan and Lisa Moore Band (Cry for Revival!!!), No Compromises (Now Sway Widdit), and evangelist David Guinn (Heaven Yes!), as well as some local worship pastors and ministers. I have to admit that the highlight of the event for me was the first sharing time by Nick Cash and solo worship led by Jay Lesley (He was the guy behind the horseshoe mustache). Nick is a dear friend, and a beloved of Father, and on this night shared his response to the simple and deep question, Who is Jesus to Me? His honest and clear response ushered the Spirit into that place. It was beautiful. Jay came up next and led us in Mighty to Save. It was right. Alright, enough of me, Nick has graciously allowed me to post this on wearefocus.us, I hope you are blessed as you read this. G&P2U! -John

Hi, my name is Nick, and I work with the Teen Advisors & Velocity programs, and I want to tell you Who Jesus is to me.

He is my INVENTOR. He thought me up. He came up with the original idea for me.

And He knows everything – He knew what my life would cost Him. He knew that by making me, He would bring great sorrow and grief to other people and to even His own heart.

He knew I would betray Him. He knew I would respond to my fellow man with selfishness and apathy.

He knew there would be pain & sorrow & death if went created my life.

And even though He KNEW all of this – He knew it would cost Him His own Son to make me, He still wanted and delighted to create me!

He is the INVENTOR and ARCHITECT of my very existence! I exist because He thought me up, and despite the pain & difficulty He knew my life would cause both Him and others – in His infinite wisdom – He still decided it would be a good idea to carry out His plans.

And like a MASTER CRAFTSMAN, He wove me together – all of the intricate and detailed fabric of my body:

  • bones & skin & joints & muscle tissue & ligaments
  • tiny bones in my inner ear that would vibrate together in perfect synchronization to transmit audio waves to my brain
  • the meticulous inter-workings of the lens & cornea & retina in my eyes so that my brain could decipher and make sense of light & shapes & colors & depth & motion
  • a perfectly engineered nervous system that could carry hot cold, pain, pressure, softness – every type of sensation to my brain
  • lungs to breathe in His breathe of life
  • a heart to pump oxygen
  • nutrients throughout my body to keep it healthy & energized.

Like a SKILLED CARPENTER, He did ALL of that with His own hands inside my mother’s womb!

And not only did He weave together the intricate make-up of my physical body, but He also created my ETERNAL SOUL, which He would draw to His own heart – a little bit more – and little bit more – lovingly –
gracefully – with every passing moment of my life.

Jesus is my JUDGE. He sits in judgment over me. And as my Judge, He has delivered His verdict. And it is indelibly written – with His own blood as the ink. His judgment is immutable and can never be erased by anything!

He has judged me WORTHY TO BE LOVED. His verdict is pardon for sin and enduring, abundant life in His glorious & loving Presence, forever!

Furthermore, His judgment upon me is SONSHIP – ADOPTION!

Jesus is the DEFINER of my identity as a greatly beloved creation of God – as an adopted child in God’s household and family – chosen by God to receive His grace & favor.

He doesn’t just “have to love me” because I’m His natural or biological son. I was His enemy! My sin hung Him on the cross! But He CHOSE me. He adopted me. He doesn’t HAVE to love me – He chooses to love me.

Like the prodigal son, I would’ve been fortunate just to be a slave working on my heavenly Father’s property. But He welcomed me right into His very household – even into His own family!

He made me His child and as a child has promised me a share in the same inheritance as His only begotten Son: eternal life, in the wonder-filled house of Almighty God, forever!

Jesus is my Redemption.

He is my Security against Fear.

He is my Source of Joy & Peace.

He is my Deliverer from the bondage of Lust – in high school, He liberated me from the addiction of Pornography.

He is my Freedom from Anger.

Jesus is my EVERYTHING.

Jesus is not merely my “top priority” – He is the page on which all of my priorities are written. He is not just the most important part of my life – He IS my very life itself!

In Jesus, all things – including me – all things live & move & have their being in Him. Christ is my LIFE. Jesus is my EVERYTHING!

And because of all these things, I have trusted Jesus as my Lord.
He lights my path.
He directs my steps.
He moves my spirit.
He protects my heart.
He renews my mind.
He forgives my failures.
He matures my soul.

Jesus is my Lord. And because He is my Lord, He is my REWARD.
He is my PRIZE.
He is my goal.
HE is my inheritance.
He is the destiny of my life and my reward for eternity.

Jesus is my King! And even though I fail Him every day – even though I am unloyal to Him, unfaithful to His Lordship – even though I betray Him with my thoughts & words & actions & intentions – His kind love towards me is new every morning.

And because of all of this, I will adore Him!

I will ADORE Him! I will lavish upon Him praise! I will extol Him! I will exalt His Name! I will point to Him and say “Look at how beautiful He is!”

I will ADORE You, Jesus. I will spend the moments of my life – how ever many You give to me – drawing attention to Your beauty. Your graciousness. Your kind love. Your relentless loyalty to me.

Right now, all across this room, I want us to ADORE Jesus together.

During this time, I want to ask you to focus on His nature – on His character.

Not what He does, but Who He is.
Not His actions, but His being.
His personhood.

See, the truth is, if all Jesus had ever done for us was save us – if the one and only thing He ever did was give us physical life, then rescue us from our sin – if He never gave us help or encouragement or blessings or provision – if He never gave us comfort or His words, or prayer, or fellow believers, teachers, mentors. If all He did was just create us, save us, and then ignore us for the rest of our lives, He would still be worth 1000 eternities with of adoration and praise and service!

What He does is amazing. What He does for us should fill us to overflowing with gratitude and thankfulness.

But Who He is… Who He is – apart from any THING He does FOR us or gives TO us – it is Who He is that makes Him worthy of ADORATION.

Who is Jesus to you? What about Him fills you with ADORATION?

Softly, all over the room, I’d like for us to begin to ADORE Jesus together. Out loud. With our voices. Let’s lift up an audible chorus of ADORATION to Jesus right now. Who is Jesus to you? Why do you adore Him? Let’s take a couple minutes, and together, out loud, begin to tell Him what it is that we adore about Him, and after a couple minutes of adoring Jesus together, I’ll pray aloud for all of us. But right now, let’s all begin to speak prayers of adoration – out loud – to Jesus.

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