I want Jesus!

Can you make this your prayer today?

I want Jesus! I want all of my Savior! Jesus Christ is worth it! I want Him for my family! I want Him for my church. I want Him for my classmates. I want Him for my teachers and for my friends. I want Jesus for those who don't like me and for those I have trouble getting along with. I want Him for those I minister to. I want Him for the people of Peru. I want Jesus for the people of Nashville. I want Him for the people of Fusion and for the whole youth ministry! I want Him for the hungry and for the thirsty; the prisoners, the sick, the naked, and the stranger. I want all of my Savior Jesus Christ!

I want His humility. I want His obedience. I want His vision from the Cross. I want His courage. I want His integrity...His heart for His Father and His Spirit...His intense and extravagant love for His creation...for His people...for the lost...for His disciples...for His nations. I want His prayers and His actions! I want His anger and His joys!

I want His foot-washing towel and His cheek that He turned. I want His sermons that He preached and the lessons that He taught. I want His creativity and His humor. I want His eternal life giving words. I want His forgiveness and His grace! I want His church. I want His mission! I want His servant attitude! I want His love!

I want my Friend who laid down His life for you and me. I want His mind. I want His compassion, His mercy, His peace, His attack mindset, His eyes, His mouth, His boldness. I want my Lord who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness...obeying His Father unto death on a cross. I want to know Christ and the power of His Resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

I want to "live" like Jesus "died"...strong...faithful...trusting...forgiving...loving...obeying...understanding...persevering...
non-comprimising...recklessing committed to His Father and our Father...even while He was suffering on that piece of wood!

I want to give myself, not save myself. I want Christ face-to-face, hand-to-hand. I want to deny myself, pick up my cross, and follow my shepherd so closely that I get covered in all of His dust. I want to touch His cloak, hear the leather of His sandals as He walks me to people who need Him. I want to smell His breath and feel His grip.

I want Jesus! Not some of Jesus, but all of Him! I want His smile. I want His whisper. I want His rest. I want to be crucified with Him. I want to be resurrected with Him. I want to be glorified with Him! I want to eat with Him! I want to talk to the Father with Him! I want to laugh with Him! I want the day with Him. I want forever with Him! I want Jesus! I want JESUS for YOU!

Where are you hiding?

This devo is based off my talk from last weeks Pusion (Power Surge/Fusion combo on Wednesday night)!

In Genesis 3:-10, God asked Adam: "Where are you?" In other words, "Where are you hiding dude?" We are all hiding behind, in, or with something. So I want to ask us: where are we hiding? Where are we in our relationship with Jesus Christ?

Here are a couple things NOT good to hide in or behind:

1. A Tree: the tree symbolizes the tree Adam and Eve hid behind in Genesis 3:8-10 once they disobeyed God's command. Are you hiding behind a sin?

2. A Mask: the greek word for hypocrite means "an actor"...being someone we are NOT. Are any of us "acting" like a Christian but "re-acting" like a non-Christian. How do you "re-act" when someone is mean to you? With love and prayer for them, or gossip and hatred? It is "easy" to "act" like a Christian...harder to "re-act" like a Christian!

3. Your "to-do" list: Are you hiding behind your "to-do" list. Some of us are so "busy" getting things done that we are NOT "getting things done!" You know what I mean? We are busy doing "our" things. What about God's things?

4. OUR "buts"...Excuses: what excuses are we hiding behind? I would pray, but I got homework and practice. I would go to church, my American Idol is on. I would clean my room, "BUT...BUT...BUT!!!"

HERE IS WHERE WE WANT TO "HIDE"!-->

With Jesus in God: any of us hiding with Jesus Christ in God? Colossians 3:3 says, "For you died, and your life is hiden with Christ in God." This is where we WANT TO HIDE! "WITH CHRIST IN GOD!" TO "HIDE" in this verse means to be "WRAPPED UP" in Jesus! Are you so "WRAPPED UP" in Jesus that you are praying "gut wrenching" prayers like He did in the Garden of Gethsemene (Luke 22:39-46)? Are you "feeling" the burden of the cross you are carrying? Are you loving God the Father and your neighbor with passion?

May you find yourself "HIDDEN" in Jesus...SO "WRAPPED UP" in His LIFE that you WRAP yourself around His Cross and find the heartbeat of Jesus to be your own! AMEN in Christ our Life (Colossians 3:4)!

Corny Joke of the Day

My dad has two pairs of golf pants.

I'll bet he got a hole in one