to him

I love to listen to great communicators take Scripture and make it so tangible, practical and applicable. I've been listening to a series by Greg Boyd called "Undivided" and have been really impacted by it so I called and requested a booklet that they wrote to go along with the series and it's full of spiritual exercises to help drive the truth a bit deeper.

Honestly, I haven't gotten past the first exercise. The Scriptures speak of tending our hearts because that's where our life flows from. Greg says that he gets up every morning and just stays in bed, quiet, asking the Spirit of God to search his heart and show him where he's got hang ups and where he needs to be more intentional about tending to his heart. He talks about how he has to do it before he gets out of bed because after that it's really hard to quiet thoughts to hear God speak. So I've been trying to do the same over the last couple of weeks. The issues that God has been revealing in my heart over the last ten days or so have just been amazing. He's shown me things that have been extremely eye opening and have really brought me closer to Him and to others.

I had the opportunity to lead worship on Sunday at Oakbrook Church where we are in an awesome community of Christ-followers and I led "guitar-free" for the first time in a long time. I had so many people comment that I seemed to really be connected with the Spirit and that they had been drawn so much more deeply into the worship time than normal. Some commented that maybe it was because I didn't have my guitar and was more free to move about, but I believe that God was and is doing something inside of me that is hopefully even palpable to those around me. There's been some things that I haven't liked seeing in myself over the last several days as God does His work, but as I listen to His voice in the mornings, I know I'm being made new and slowly being made more like the one I claim to shadow.

satisfaction

Sometimes it’s amazing what we overlook, right? I mean, it took me several hours of walking around in the gorgeous sunlight and mild temperature this afternoon to acknowledge that God had made this beautiful day…really? Several hours? And that was after I had spent time in Psalm 65 that had a line that immediately impacted me. Verse 4 says,

we will be satisfied with the goodness of your house, of your holy temple

and when I read it this morning I was really focused on what I was thankful to God for and satisfied with in Him. Charles Spurgeon wrote

what can be wanting in the house of him who made everything, who is the master of everything, who will be all unto all, in whom is an inexhaustible treasure of good

I was meditating on what it meant to have a good God, to have His righteousness and how His mercy and Grace was overwhelming. I was even thinking about how God had made coffee and how much I was enjoying it in that moment and I was going on and on. And then, I just kind of lost that complete train of thought as the rest of my day got going. I just ran right past it.

I want to be the kind of Christ-follower that is always deeply satisfied with who God is, what He has done and what he is doing in the world. I want to marvel at how His goodness manifests itself everyday and be keenly aware of His presence in every moment. I love the reminders of the psalmist and how even someone else writing their worship song can impact the worship of someone thousands of years later. Thank you, David