Matthew TwoSix:ThreeNine

This morning I found myself searching for songs to add to my playlist. I have decided I want a list of songs to play while I run. As I've shared before, I don't particularly enjoy running, but we have committed to this 5K at the end of October. Running becomes tolerable when I can blast worship music and simply be with God. I was in search of particular version of a hymn from the 1800's titled "Jesus Paid it All." The Passion conference worship team did a rendition of it 5-6 years ago and I quite enjoy it. Anyway, in the search for the song, I got to reading about the lyrics.  I have always been drawn to the refrain because of it is a reminder of Jesus' incredible gift to us.  It goes: "Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow." The images portrayed by the comparison between a crimson stain and white snow are vivid. Dark red stains are the type of stains that just don't come out. Th...

Are you struggling? Does the world have you down?  Does it seem like it's just not going your way?  Serve your way out of it. Have you found yourself in a place where you feel far from God? Does it seem like your prayers aren’t being heard? Does it feel like you are alone? Serve your way out of it. Let's face it, life isn't easy. There are times when it seems nothing goes right.  There are times when we just don’t feel good. There are times when it seems like we receive blow after blow and just can’t catch our breath.  Serve your way out of it. In times like these it is super easy to hyperfocus on ourselves.  Our problems and our challenges take center stage. We lose the ability to see the big picture. All we can see is our situation and our feelings.  When we get to these places I suggest we need a perspective shift. We need to shift the focus from us to others. We need to get back to basics.  Jesus tells us to Love God and Love others (Ma...

Often when I pray I close my eyes and begin to share my heart with God. I seek to find quiet and peace. I seek to calm the raging seas around me and focus on speaking with and hearing from God.  As I speak to God another voice sneaks in and fills my head with the thoughts of the many items on my to do list or of the mistakes I've made in the past or the many ways I fall short as a father, son, husband, and follower of Christ.  Sometimes I lose focus and open my eyes to attend to the to do list item or consider my past mistake or to dwell on how I fall short in my many roles. Other times I respond by opening my eyes for a brief moment, then I push the reset button on my prayer, close my eyes, and enter in to prayer again. Finally sometimes, I keep my eyes closed and call the name of Jesus. I ask God to clear my head of the distractions. I ask for Him to be present and fight for me. My mind is certainly a battleground between good and evil. The enemy's weapons are ...

Louisiana is a special place to me. While I am not from there, I feel like it is home. I lived there for my college years and met some of the finest people I have ever met. The southeast Louisiana culture is one that is refreshing. The sense of family and community run deep in the small towns that litter the bayou.  Seeing pictures of the wreckage after Hurricane Ida was difficult. I was hearing from friends when they returned home from evacuation. They stated it looked like a warzone. Their places of work were destroyed and their livelihood is at risk. Schools remain closed and superintendents commit to reopening instead of being closed for the year. Thousands remain without power. September heat in Southeast Louisiana can be stifling to endure without air conditioning. Not being there, it's easy to get on with our routines and to ignore the tragedy God's people are enduring. The news cycle moves on to other affairs and the people left in Ida's wake are ...

It is amazing how much writing helps me to understand. My brain is like a classroom of hyperactive kids after having pixie sticks and mountain dew. There is a lot of activity going on and before you realize what's happened, something else bounces in to take over your thoughts as the next best thing.  Pslam 46:10 says,"Be still and know that I am God..." When I am writing I am certainly active, but hyper-focused. To everything outside of the message, my heart becomes silent. All of the energetic, hyperactive kids in my brain settle down and focus on the same thing. My brain becomes still and focused on God. Many times I have equated stillness to silence. When I write I become silent. What I am writing becomes the focus and the only sound is that of my fingers tapping the keyboard. As we seek stillness, silence falls over us. Being still focuses on God and what He has called us to do. Being still silences the busyness of the world we live in. When we are st...