Saturday, July 21, 2007

Take the World, but Give me Jesus!

Good is the enemy of best. I find this more and more true as each day goes by. How many times I take the presence of God for granted. Success can be a great deception. You begin to mistake the blessings of God for God Himself. You trade your intimacy with God, your raw passion, your honest desire to seek and know Him for the lesser pleasures. God blesses us with material, relational, financial, physical blessings and there is no shame in it. It is for our enjoyment. Yet, how many times do we mistake the the second blessings given by God in this life as the primary blessing. We get so pre-occupied with "good things" that we forget the "best thing." These good things are not necessarily bad, but in comparison to His presence can they even be deemed good?

This is the beauty, at the same time this is the struggle in Christianity. It is about a relationship with God. You can choose to know Him more or know Him less. You can be as close to God as you want to be, as a well known prophet once said. How bad do I want Him? He's not asking us to give up entertainment, technology, and leisure, these are not wrong things, but when we begin to want these things more than His presence then could it be that our hearts have grown dull, have grown dry, have become spiritually bored? I am beginning to get disgusted with this LA lifestyle. Everyday, there is another movie to watch, event to go to, email to check and I'm realize I am more fascinated with this "stuff" that I have forgotten what it means to be fascinated by an almighty, all powerful, all knowing magnificent God.

More people talk about the i-phone, wait in line for this piece of advanced technology when I wonder if there will ever be a day where an entire city waits in line, waits upon their knees, waits upon the Lord to encounter the very God who invented all, is all and created all that exists, breathes and lives. It is sad, but our society today, our Christian culture, strategizes more over the next movie to watch, restaurant to eat at, video on MTV, clip on Youtube than we do about winning the lost, loving our Savior or sharing about what the Lord spoke to me a moment ago.

We need to be fascinated by God again. I need to be fascinated by God again. How did I become so distracted? Why do I think about all these lesser things more than Him? Don't I get it, that if I would only seek Him and Him alone, get down on my face and seek His presence that I would be transformed from glory to glory? I don't want to look at my watch and check the timer anymore when I spend my time alone with the Lord, busyness can wait, the day can wait, I need my God and nothing can take that except for my own self will to choose to say "no" to the "stuff" of this world, to pray and fast in order to get this flesh under submission and to tell this Devil to shut up with His lies, cause my God is better, He is more desirable than any one person, no person on earth can compare to the beauty of my Savior, this must be so, Lord show me Your glory once again, fascinate me with Your beauty, pull me out of this miry pit and set my feet on a rock in this barren and materialistic land. I desire you more than gold or silver, I need you more than life itself, You are my life, where is your glory? Fascinate me once again, fill me, wreck me, take me up and send me back down to shine this light brighter and brighter each day, don't let my light grow dim, I need you more, I need You right now, I need you God, without you this life is a waste, even these blessings are no blessings at all if I have forgotten You, take this world but give me Jesus. Raise up LOVESICK WORSHIPERS in this land of Los Angeles, it can be done, I REFUSE TO BELIEVE that it cant', in the midst of so many options Lord let us CHOOSE YOU! One day in your courts is better than a thousand else where. Let this be my reality again, let this be my joy, the one thing I look forward to more than anything else, take this world, take these blessings, and like Job, give me Jesus.

"To know Christ and the power of His resurrection that I may fellowship in His sufferings." Phil 3:10 why not? It must be so....



.

9 Comments:

At 7/21/2007 07:42:00 AM , Blogger Leroy said...

That's right on. Your chapter in The Blueprint on waiting before the Lord is definitely encouragement for me during this season of my life to keep my focus on Jesus rather than the business of life. No doubt this generation is faced with many choices, options, voices--yet God's clarion is stirring in the near distance. The sound that will cut through the distractions to the heart of a consumer culture is at hand. Be encouraged! You're even hearing this sound now. It's the Holy Spirit calling us to deeper depths, higher heights.

The consumer culture is contending against us because our generation will inherit an apostolic and prophetic mantle that will send shockwaves throughout the earth. But like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, we will emerge as a generation trained in the ways of Babylon, but wholly devoted to the Lord of Hosts.

 
At 7/21/2007 09:33:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love ur sharing. Right! "take the world, give me Jesus" In thses few days, I am learning how to be a real daught of my God.Although I've believed in Jesus for almost ten years, I'm just like a servant of Him, also like a orphan. However, because of my Heavenly Father's, I'm totally different now. At the same time, ur sermon "developing a passion for Jesus" and "Joshua Army" help me a lot. Actually, it is ur passion for Jesus influence me so much.

Choose Jesus and discard the world!!! Don't ask for His hands and Blessing, but ask for HIM.

God bless you!

 
At 7/22/2007 06:39:00 PM , Blogger Allen Brubaker said...

Hey. Thanks for your incredible blog and, likewise, your incredible insights. I was just wondering. I'm not sure if it is possible to maybe implement a forum or something, but it would be so awesome if you had a forum and people could post different questions like my one question is: I've been waiting on the lord for 2 hours everyday about maybe 5 days ago as a response to your message in Bluepritn on waiting on the lord and also Todd Bentley's exhortations on the matter. How exactly do we focus on God? And what do we focus on? Do I "practice the presence of God" as brother Lawrence puts it, or what do I just sit there and think about nothing? AHHH.... Thanks! verythaiguy at gmail dot com.

 
At 7/23/2007 08:42:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

我不太懂英文~
也看不大懂你的文章~
但我知道祂會拯救世界~也會愛你~
正如祂愛我一樣~

 
At 7/23/2007 08:54:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

ARC - Southern Taiwan (Kaoshung)
這活動是在高雄的哪裡呢?

 
At 7/23/2007 11:59:00 AM , Blogger Mike Morabito said...

very cool post Jaeson. i love your honesty here.

-mike

 
At 7/25/2007 06:49:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

the conference is at
高雄師範大學大禮堂
時間:8/30, 8/31

 
At 7/26/2007 08:14:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Date: August 9-11, 2007
Location: Southern Taiwan (Kaoshung)
那這個日期是不是打錯了呢~
還是這是另一個活動呢~~

 
At 8/08/2007 07:37:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

那日起不是打錯. 如果沒錯的話,他在臺灣有3個活動:
1.august 9-11 是給高中生(我忘記那活
動的名字:)---高雄
2.august 30-31= Taiwan For Jesus
--- (高雄)
3.august 27-28=校園宣教士訓練會
--- (臺北靈糧堂宣教大樓)
上一次,我又參加。。真棒!
來參加吧...

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home