God, I'm in awe of you.

I kidnapped my wife Saturday. I came back from surfing and held her up at flowerpoint while she was still in her pjs. She tried to fight back but I jammed the bouquet of flowers in her face and forced her to get ready for an adventure. I guess it was one of those things that you had to witness first hand to really appreciate.

Once she was finally ready to go I drove her to an unknown location. It was a place of extreme beauty know as The Huntington. It was founded in the early 1900s and now has a bunch of gardens representing many different countries and regions of the world. Among them is the Japanese and Chinese gardens, a jungle, Australian garden, desert garden and a Lily pond.

Our goal for the day was to spend the afternoon enjoying God's creation. Armed with only a #2 pencil and a sketch pad we strategically set out to tackle the various gardens. While visiting each garden we picked one plant or animal to draw in our sketch pads. While doing this exercise I came to one very humbling and convicting conclusion.

I don't spend enough time being in awe of God. He is detailed and creative enough to make each one of these plants unique not only to their specific location on the globe, but also within their own species. As I was looking at all this beauty around me I realized that God is so magnificent and powerful that He was never created, instead He has always been there. I was humbled by the mere thought of God creating each color, texture and detail. The color pink didn't exist until God decided that He needed it. Neither did the color green or blue or red.

When I stopped to be in awe of God I realized that He is worthy of my complete and utmost devotion and if what I read about Him in the Bible is true then how I spend my time and energy should also reflect Him. My faith should be stronger than it is, my understanding of His purposes should be deeper and my love for others should be greater. In short, I shouldn't read stories about the early apostles and think that nobody lives like that anymore. I should be looking for ways to live as radical as they did.

As I left The Huntington I felt so small and insignificant. I didn't want to do anything unless it brought glory to the One who created it all. If God is who he says he is then I can't help but point the masses to Him. Others need to know who created the beauty that surrounds them.

24

Have you seen the tv show 24? I have to confess that I haven't seen more than one or two episodes but I get the gist of the show. Each episode is one hour in the life of the main character as he tries to save the world. That guy has some crazy time management skills! It is hard not to look at Jack Bauer and feel a little inferior. If he can save the world in 24 hours season after season how can I possibly compete with that?

I guess I am glad my life isn't captured on film. I admit that I would probably be the first to switch the channel, but I wonder if God would tune in. Every day I have 24 hours given to me by God to ultimately use how I wish. I spend about 6 1/2 of those hours sleeping, another 11 working, 1-2 eating and the rest seem to slip by while I am spending quality time with my wife. Not every day looks like that but on the average I would say that's pretty close and therefore I have to ask myself where God fits into my schedule.

One of my biggest fears in life is that I will lay in bed and look back on all of the events of the day and find nothing that brought glory to my Father. In Deuteronomy 6:4-9 God instructs Moses to tell the Israelites to bury the commandments in their hearts, teach them to their children, talk about them with their family and friends, tie them as symbols on their hands, bind them on their foreheads and write them on their doorframes and their gates. God gave the Israelites this command to they would remember Him always, to include Him in everything they did and so they would never forget Him.

When I look at the 24 hours that I am given, do I remember to include God as much as I should? If I stop what I am doing to read my Bible and pray for an hour a day does that bring glory to God? I'm sure it does but when I read that Deuteronomy passage I can't help but feel convicted because I don't feel like I give God enough space in my day. I understand that I need to sleep, eat, work, spend time with my wife and brush my cat, but I should include God in everything and be conciously aware of how He might want to use me to point people towards Him, but how?

Wednesday I invited my friend Chase to paddle out for a sunset surf with me and a guy paddles over to me and asked for some advice because he is just learning. In between waves I started a conversation with this guy hoping God would open a door for me to share the Gospel with him. When him and his friend were leaving I ran out of the water to formally introduce myself and get their names. The guy that asked for advice is Alex and his friend is Justin. Those guys continued to be on my heart for the next couple days and I was wondering if I was ever going to seem them again. Was that it or did God have a bigger plan?

This morning I woke up to go for a surf and for some reason I didn't really feel like it which is very strange for me. About noon I suddenly decided that I wanted to go surf and for some reason I didn't go to my usual spot and as I was walking down the beach I recognized Justin. I said hello and we talked for a few minutes and after I paddled out I saw Alex. I said hello and talked to him for a few minutes and then the current separated us but when I got out I saw Alex again on the beach looking at the waves and he asked me if the waves were good for learning. I looked at the horrible, inconsistent, unforgiving waves and just shook my head. I knew God cares about this person and was using me in some way so I told Alex to meet me at the donut shop on the corner of 6th and PCH in the morning and I would take him with me to some good waves. Maybe he will show up and maybe he won't but God knows and has a plan.

I guess what I am trying to say is that giving God my life means that I remember him and His purposes and ask Him to use me in every minute of those 24 hours. If I take Jesus' statement about loving God and loving people (Luke 10:27) seriously then I need to look for ways that I can be used to glorify God and to make a kingdom impact. My 24 hours may not be caught on film but I can still change the world.

"Surprise me please, God. I'm waiting"

I have been doing this pastor thing for a few years now and I have to admit that I get discouraged when I see the moral decay that is happening around me. I know the decay will get worse before Jesus can come back and it is all in God's timing, but it's still discouraging. As a pastor, how do I lead people through this minefield? I get so burdened by my calling sometimes and just wish that God would take it all away. Mind you that isn't very often, actually it has only happened a couple of times, but when it does God always puts someone in my path that lets me know He is still in control.

As you know I have been doing a series titled God's Extreme Makeover. We have spent the last few weeks talking about how God cares more about the hearts and intentions of humanity more than He cares about fashion and keeping up with the latest trends. As a way to wrap up the series I wanted to interview Katie Brewster who is the reining Miss Huntington Beach. She also placed in the top 12 in the Miss California pageant and in the process won the evening gown part of the competition.

I have know Katie for a few years now and was really curious about how a humble girl that loves Jesus views fashion, beauty and the role a Christian plays in a world of image. Due to unforeseen circumstances the night she was to come our conversation ended up being pretty loose and unscripted and I think that is exactly how God wanted.

There are two things that I will take away from my conversation with her. The first is that she got criticized by people in the pageant scene because she feels the most confident in herself when she isn't wearing any makeup and doesn't have her hair molded to perfection. Crazy huh?An 18 year old Orange County beauty pageant winner that feels the most beautiful when she doesn't paint over the beautiful canvas that God designed her to be. I think that is something all girls should take notice of.

The second thing I will take away from her is something she said that made everyone in the room laugh, but was said with such raw honest sincerity that it encouraged me in such a way that I know it had too have been orchestrated by God. She said that she is so addicted to God right now that he is like crack and it immediately made me think about all the drug addicts that I have met and how they can't see beyond their next hit and how they prioritize their life just so they can get another fix.

I connected with that statement because that is a place that I find myself in right now. About 3 weeks before this interview I found myself in a spiritual desert. I was just going through the motions of being a Christian but here lately I have been craving God again and it feels so good to be addicted to something that's more powerful than any created thing. So powerful in fact that it created all living things.

So thank-you Katie for sharing a part of your life with us. God used you to show me that He is still alive and working in a generation that seems to have forgotten who He is and for giving me a big dose of encouragement along the way.

God's Extreme Makeover: Timeline of Greatness

I have been doing this series called God's Extreme Makeover. In my last post I made the claim that if God is genuinely working through us and we have truly experienced His extreme makeover then the result should be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control a.k.a. the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). I didn't say that we needed to be master's of all these things but overall I would say we should continually strive to get better at them. For example, I am still an impatient person, but I pray that I am better than I was a week ago and I pray that I will be better next week.

That is all well and good but I need an example of someone who has done it, that has genuinely spent time with Jesus and had an extreme makeover. Have you ever taken a good look at the life of Simon Peter, one of the original 12 disciples? He is often the subject of endless ridicule and often used as an example of what not to do when in the presence of Jesus but I think he is more like you and me than any one of us wants to admit. Last week during my message I did a timeline of Peter's life. It is quite remarkable that he went from being a Jewish fishermen to one of the foundational characters in the early Christian movement. (If you have never read it I would suggest you crack open one of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke or John) and take a look. The last chapter of John is the most powerful to me).

Peter had an extreme makeover for sure. Spending time with Jesus is the only way his transformation could have been possible. Peter started out being impatient, brash and proud but his life didn't end that way and that is encouraging for me but it also sets a challenge before me as well. Spending time with Jesus just as Peter did is what it takes for this extreme makeover to happen in my life. It goes beyond a daily "quiet time" and requires a true commitment to follow Christ with everything in my being. I don't think it was wrong for Peter to tell Jesus that he would never abandon him (Matthew 26:33), I think it was just premature because God hadn't finished the makeover yet. If you follow Peter's life to the end you see that he eventually died for the Messiah that he loved.

That is a challenge that I hope all of us can rise to. Life gets hard and busy but we can never abandon the one relationship that truly matters and that is our relationship with Jesus Christ. Giving our lives over to him is the only way an extreme makeover will ever happen.