Splash Around!

Reading this month's Esquire Magazine there was a short article about the differences between boys and girls. It used the example of taking a bath. When a girl finishes taking a bath, there's no mess, no water, not a drip outside the tub. After a few minutes, a boy will have water dripping from the ceiling, the mat and curtains are soaked. The floor has huge puddles. Then, the article said this, "splash around!"

While driving, my mind wandered. "Splash Around!" Make a mess. Get dirty. Go wild. Don't live life so neat. Make a dent, an impact in your life and those around you.

And then my mind drifted to God. He doesn't operate cleanly. He doesn't operate within boundaries. He loves getting His hands dirty. He loves pushing up His sleeves and getting dirty. He loves a challenge. He loves a mess.

Are you living your life to "safe"? Do you not share your faith because of the fear of rejection? Do you make an impact in people's lives or are they unaffected by knowing you? When an opportunity to make a change presents itself, no matter how challenging it is, do you get excited or do you coward away?

I say "Splash Around!" I say get dirty. Get messy. Jump in head first. Don't allow fear to hold you back. Hostage. Free yourself. Be determined to spread your faith, who you believe in and why to the most people possible.

Matthew 28.20, the Message version reads : Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you.

This verse doesn't hold back. This verse splashes around. It says to go out and make an impact on everyone. Mark them! Everyone!
So I say to you: Don't get out of the bathtub without making a big splash.

HOSTAGE by FAKE

Fakeness stops us from being who God wants us to be. Fakeness grips us and we can't move forward. Fakeness holds us hostage. Break free from being fake. How?

In Isaiah 6 God shows up at church and Isaiah declares he is a sinner. After that declaration, an angle touches Isaiah's lips with a hot coal and takes away his sin. Then God asks, "Who can I send?" And Isaiah replies "Me!"

What happens here? First, Isaiah RECOGNIZES
that God is moving. It was pretty easy becuase of all the smoke, the angles and the Lord himself seated on a throne. We must recognize those moments in our life when God wants to speak to us. when God wants to grab our attention.

Secondly, Isaiah REVEALED himself to God. There is a difference between God knowing who we are (I mean, He created us, made us, formed us) and us deciding to reveal ourselves to God. Our real selves. Many times we prefer to smell like cheap fake perfume instead of letting God take a whiff of our real scent. "God I am a liar, a cheater, a doubter, an adulterer, a killer, a faker" Whatever you are, reveal yourself to God because then you can

RECEIVE God's forgiveness. The angles came down and passed the hot coal on his lips. Isaiah received his forgiveness only after he REVEALED himself to God.

And then the call went out and Isaiah RESPONDED. When ever you have an encounter with God, He will lay something in your heart. A desire. What will you do with it? Will you reject the calling He places n your heart? Or will you respond to it?

Reggie Dabbs Coming

TONIGHT: HOSTAGE

we all struggle with STUFF... sometimes that STUFF gets strong enough to hold us HOSTAGE... how do you get FREE when something controls your every breath?

Jesus tells us you cant take back your life from the STRONGMAN's control until you TIE him up.

Matthew 12:29
"How can anyone enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house."