No Turning Back

Spirit fall, Holy Spirit fall on me

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 01:40:31 -0500

my heart is overflowing right now with Jesus. passion. urgency. joy. awe. reverence.

yet i want more. more Jesus. i want to be more like Him. i want to be filled with the Spirit and be anointed to do His work. more Jesus.

oh come magnify the Son

Savior of the world

the Hope for everyone

i don’t know if i’ll ever be able to forget P2011 and how it rocked my life. radical.

no greater love

God’s Only Son

Jesus

"Where You go, I’ll go Where You stay, I’ll stay When You move, I’ll move I will..."

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 02:22:09 -0500

“Where You go, I’ll go
Where You stay, I’ll stay
When You move, I’ll move
I will follow You
Who You love, I’ll love
How You serve I’ll serve
If this life I lose, I will follow You
I will follow You”

"Precious Cornerstone, Sure Foundation You are faithful to the end We are waiting, on You, Jesus..."

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:38:46 -0500

“

Precious Cornerstone, Sure Foundation
You are faithful to the end
We are waiting, on You, Jesus
We believe You’re all to us

Let the glory of Your name be the passion of the Church
Let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns
Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives
We believe You’re all to us

Only Son of God sent from Heaven
Hope and mercy at the cross
You are everything, You’re the Promise
Jesus, You are all to us

Precious Cornerstone, Sure Foundation
You are faithful to the end
We are waiting, on You, Jesus
We believe You’re all to us

Let the glory of Your name be the passion of the Church
Let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns
Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives
We believe You’re all to us

You’re all to us
You’re all to us
You’re all to us
Yes, You are

When this passing world is over
We will see You face to face
And forever we will worship
Jesus, You are all to us

”

- All to Us - Chris Tomlin

"and Heaven can’t contain the glory of the Son Jesus is the Christ the Saving One His Love has..."

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:31:04 -0500

“

and Heaven can’t contain
the glory of the Son
Jesus is the Christ
the Saving One
His Love has made a way
the grave is overcome
Jesus is the Christ
the Saving One

and anyone who calls upon His Name
they will be saved.

”

There is NOTHING good in me.

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:04:22 -0500

Today has been an interesting day. Spiritual momentum is an interesting thing. It’s exciting and it feels incredible. It’s building and filling. Until you fall…and then the lies and accusations from the enemy set in. “You didn’t really change.” “You’re not capable of living this life for God.” “You’re just going to keep messing up.” “You’ll always be this way.”

But you know what’s interesting? It’s true. There is nothing good in me. I have zero to offer. I am rotten.

But…

Christ.

You see, when I fell down earlier today, I realized that the spiritual momentum in my life since Passion was not because of me. It actually had nothing to do with me at all. It was all Christ. It was the Holy Spirit working in my life.

Here’s the thing: Christ is my RIGHTEOUSNESS.

When there is no good in me, Christ is good and He is in me. His goodness, His righteousness…that’s my salvation. When I have nothing to offer, Christ is my portion. It’s simple really, yet I forget every single day. I’m a sinner, and if I was left alone by Christ, I promise you that I would destroy my life. Sin causes me to be a stupid and illogical person. I’m tricked by the enemy and I fall. Yet, my sin, even though God hates it, is an opportunity for God to show His Mercy. I am so thankful that He lavishes His Mercy upon my life. I need it. I have nothing good in me…except Jesus Christ. He is my perfect righteousness, my perfect plea, and the Cornerstone I can rest my crippled, blind, deaf life upon. Thank God that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die to rescue me. I need it.

What happened at Passion 2011...

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 01:47:38 -0500

I have to be honest…I have been procrastinating and purposely delaying writing this post. I knew that very soon I needed to start to write some thoughts down about Passion 2011…but I just am finding it so difficult. There’s so much to say!

Passion 2011 was my third trip to a Passion conference in Atlanta, Georgia, and my 4th Passion event when you count the 2007 Boston regional event. Each trip to Passion certainly impacted me and affected the coming days, but none compared to what God did in my heart and life at Passion 2011. It’s my goal to share what I can, even if only a little, what Jesus did in those days and how those four days could impact history.

“My God’s not dead! He’s surely alive! He’s living on the inside roaring like a lion!”

For the past couple of years, I have struggled with a loss of emotion…I’ve had a heart that was hard and at times cold. It was super frustrating. I’ve spent many a night praying about this. And then 2010…gosh…it was the worst year of my life. All that together, and…as the days came close to Passion 2011, I was desperate and needing an encounter with the only One who could change everything. From the moment I walked into the Phillips Arena for the first main session, I was ready for God to break me open and fix anything and whatever He was willing to fix and change. I’ll never forget the opening video for P2011…some techno song came on as words came on the screen…I was ready to go. After about two minutes of that part of the video, with everyone pumped about what Jesus would soon do, the strings played the intro to the soundtrack of my life in 2010…I’ll never forget those next 10 minutes, where over 20,000 of us sang “Our God” with every fiber we had. It was beyond powerful. It was beyond emotion. It was TRUTH. It was 22,000 of us declaring that our God honestly is greater and stronger than any other, and that “if our God is for us, who can stand against?” The building literally shook with praise. Maybe it was just me, but I thought the very material the building was made of was crying out in praise. I was fully expecting God to bring something incredible…and He blew me out of everything I could have imagined. It was a resetting point for me. After the way 2010 went down, it was a moment for me to say “I’m here with my Savior, He’s stronger than every struggle I went through last year, and He is for me and nothing will stand against!” I kid you not when I say it was one of the top 3 moments of my entire life. Praise Jesus! Seriously.

Then there was the rest of the music…wow. Every one of you knows that I’m a music nerd. I’m pretty critical, I must say. God just blew me away with what was sang at P2011. On the Passion podcast that was released before the conference, Louie and Tomlin were talking about the writing process for Passion 2011, where Tomlin and band, Redman, Nockles, Matt Maher, Louie, etc. were all in a room praying for the Holy Spirit to give them the right words to worship the Lord with. The Spirit came and moved in a mountain-moving kind of way. While Passion 2010 was filled with incredible songs, Passion 2011 was filled with songs that all tied together thematically and the cry of our hearts. The words we sang glorified Jesus Christ and worshiped in Spirit and in Truth. The Word of God was lifted up in these songs and exalted as powerful. For the first time, Passion previewed some parts of the new songs before the conference on the podcast, and I’m glad they did, because I was ready to worship with these new words/tools that the Lord gave. A couple songs and lyrics that really moved me:

1) Set Free - This song talked about dancing in the glorious freedom that Christ gives…what a powerful word spoken over my life. I needed rescue and freedom, and I felt deliverance as I sang those words.

2) Symphony - Amazing to join in with all of the universe in the symphony of praise. Those words “we stand in awe” were especially a powerful moment of worshipful reverence.

3) We Are Here For You - Found out this will be the title track of the P2011 live album. This song was incredible. It told Jesus that the whole reason we were there was for HIM and HIS GLORY. We don’t do that enough in worship. Too often we’re all “for me” and “God, will you do this for me?”…well how about we sing more “Jesus, we are here for YOU and we’re going to exalt Your Name higher than every other name.” Love that line “let Your Word move in power / let what’s dead come to life / we are here for You”…He sure made what’s dead in me come to life.

4) Forever Reign - “my heart will sing no other name, Jesus”…I want this to be the motto of my ministry.

5) Spirit Fall - one of the top moments of my life was singing this song with the other believers there…Holy Spirit fall. We ignore the Holy Spirit all too often…He’s not third in line in the Trinity…the Spirit is not to be pushed aside. The Spirit is God. This song is too powerful to even talk about…can’t wait for you to hear it if you haven’t yet. “Oh come magnify the Son! Savior of the World, the Hope for everyone!”

I could talk about music forever, but Jesus was working in my life in many other ways at Passion 2011. The messages blew me away this year. There were literally life changing messages. Every message raised the bar higher and higher and higher. I didn’t think that was possible, but the Lord kept speaking louder and louder in each message. Beth Moore’s message about renewing your mind was so powerful. Blew me away that morning. Oh, and then Andy Stanley’s talk…never even saw that one coming. It was so practical. I might have to blog about each one of these messages sometime. And then there was the message the Lord brought through John Piper…I promise you that there was not much breathing happening in the two venues during his talk. God blew all of us away. He changed my life in that message. The message addressed who is on the bottom of your joys/ambitions/salvation/everything in life. The question was posed if we only love God because we want Him to make much of us…woah. If I’m at the bottom of my salvation, if it’s just about keeping me out of hell or going to heaven, then am I born again? I really had to examine if Jesus Christ was at the bottom of my life and salvation. He wasn’t. And I had to change it right then and there. My heart was overwhelmed with discomfort…and thank God it finally was. I knew things needed to move then and there. It’s going to be a daily struggle for me, but listen…making much of myself being at the bottom of my joy/salvation/everything is the worst kind of idolatry there is. Wow. His beauty, Jesus, must be my ONE desire that feeds every other desire. This is changing my life, folks. Also…salvation is all about Jesus. He loves me and saved me because it’s for His glory. Sweet! Finally, in the last sermon, Louie really challenged me to go and do whatever I can in Jesus’ name…I am a carrier of the name of Jesus. It doesn’t matter where I go, because what matters is what I carry.

Finally, God really blessed me with an amazing group of new friends. My family group was an incredible time of learning, refocusing and meditating on the Word of God. I am so grateful to meet people from all over the country who are part of the Kingdom. It was so sweet to hear how Jesus was moving in their lives. It was also amazing to see what He was delivering them from. They’re an amazing group of people, and I am so excited that God is going to use us to pray for each other and lift each other up in encouragement. We’re part of the Body of Christ, and we’re an unstoppable force for good in Jesus’ name, because we believe that our lives are best used by living for the glory of Christ!

Jesus did so much even more at Passion 2011 than I can fit on the entire internet. I am so excited though! 2011 is going to be the most amazing year, no matter the circumstances. Jesus changed my life, and I’m going to go change the world in Jesus’ name. Let’s do it.

Love you guys,

With Everything...

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 01:20:51 -0500

I left Passion 2010 with these words on my lips: “with everything, with everything we will shout for Your Glory.” Passion 2010 was an amazing experience…filled with some of the best songs I had ever heard in my life. God showed up in a powerful way. I left charged and excited for 2010.

Confession:
In no way did I live for Jesus in 2010. Sure…there were a few moments here and there…Workcamp 2010 as Staff Worship Leader…a few moments from The Awakening and Refuel. But as a whole? I did miserable in 2010. Satan attacked me and I fell hard and fast and often…and stayed there for a while. I also let Satan lie to me about circumstances I was dealt…he tried making me think I wasn’t valued by God. What a joke Satan is. Nonetheless, nothing went my way in 2010. What started out as a promising year turned out to be the worst year of my life. If it weren’t for a few of my friends, it would have been nearly impossible to make it through.

Fast forward a year…it’s 2011! Happy New Year!

My expectations are sky-high. This is going to be the best year of my life. Jesus Christ radically changed me at Passion 2011 this year…not just because some songs were good and it was an exciting moment…this year, the truth of the Word of God came hard at me. It hit me between the eyes. And I really needed it. I now realize that I have to put Jesus at the bottom of my everything…that is, He must be the cornerstone everything is built on. The Spirit of God has filled me, and I’m ready to go for this year. I am jealous for your prayers, however. Please pray for me. I need your prayers to follow The Way. I carry the Name of Jesus.

So much more to tell you soon. I pray that this year, I truly can mean those words “with everything.”