DAY ONE: BASIC FAITH

Faith touches everything. It is the thread that stitches together life and God. It is the whisper that dares us to take the step. It is the wind that fans the embers of our souls. It is the fuel of belief. As followers of Jesus, we are not meant to live without it, but time and time again, that is exactly what we try to do. 

I know this to be true even in my own life. It is a joy for me to say that I’ve been walking with the Lord now for longer than I haven't been. Much longer, in fact. You could say we have some history together. And, it is certainly true that over all this time, my life of faith has deepened  in wisdom and spirit. But I have also noticed that there are a great many things that I have over complicated, and in doing so have ripped them out of God’s hands; thinking they are better off on my own. As we grow older, if we are not careful, we tend to grow out of some things we shouldn’t. Things like trust. And what is trust if not… faith?

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” Matthew 13:31-32

Jesus talked about faith all the time. But, like almost everything, Jesus sees faith differently than we tend to see it. On two occasions He likens faith to a mustard seed. Isn’t it curious that He doesn’t compare it to something more dazzling and spectacular? Or possibly something more persuasive or immediate. Nope; in the eyes of God, real faith is slow, steady, and stable. It grows deeper and wider before it grows taller. It is transforming day by day. A step at a time. You can’t force a tree to grow. You have to let it. Are there things your hands are clasping a little too tightly? I know I have some. Maybe it’s time to hand them back to God. Real faith is the journey of a lifetime. We can trust Him, even if it’s just one step at a time. As it turns out, that’s His specialty. Don’t over complicate it. God does the growing. We do the trusting. This is Basic Faith. 

“I’m getting back to the basics. Don’t need a clever way to say it. No more fancy ways of praying. A simple yes. An honest amen. Yes and amen.”

DAY TWO: ALWAYS ALWAYS YOURS

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. 
Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.” 
Job 1:20-21

“Always Always Yours” is a song that interrogates motives. I know, I know, it’s a bit of a tough topic for a morning devotional, but that’s the point! Take a sip of coffee and let’s dive in. In many ways, this song is a meditation on the book of Job. It asks the questions that keep me up at night. It says the things that haunt me. Questions like: 

- If everything was taken from me, would I still bless the Lord?

- Am I in love with God or am I simply in love with the blessings of God?

- Would I still trust God if my life does not go as I've planned?

“If the fires of this world steal all that I have
I wonder what I would do 
Would I still call you Lord from the ruins and ash 
Would my heart still burn for you?”

On our most honest days, we can all relate to these questions. Even Job asks them, but Job also helps us understand what to do with them. The book of Job is wild. For those of us who need to be reacquainted with this remarkable piece of scripture, it is a book about wisdom. God’s wisdom to be exact. You see, Job was a man blessed by God in every way imaginable, but then something happened. In an instant, he loses everything. He then goes on an emotional rollercoaster of grief and sorrow, fluctuating between two choices…to bless God or curse God. At the end of the story, a tortured and exhausted Job asks God to come explain himself in person, and that's exactly what happens. But God does something very different than give Job direct answers to all of his questions. Instead, God reminds Job of just how grand the universe is. He helps Job see all of the little details it takes to run such a universe, and Job is overwhelmed. The amount of precision, care, and wisdom needed for this task is beyond Job’s wildest imagination. This perspective brings him to a place of deep reverence and humility before God. Even though his questions are never answered, he learns to live in trust and peace. Eventually, the Lord restores to Job all that he had lost. And Job is now the kind of person that can trust and bless God, no matter what comes. 

“It is always always yours. It is always always yours 
This worship I bring, I lay at your feet. 
It is always always yours.”

DAY THREE: ANOTHER GLIMPSE

There are a few moments in scripture where the Lord cracks the door open a little wider for us. It’s as if He is saying, “Come a little closer and peer inside. Let me show you how I see. Come perceive what I perceive.” This invitation is there for us in Revelation 4. Here, He shows us the Throne Room. 

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. 4Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits a of God. 6Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

“ ‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’ b
who was, and is, and is to come.”
Revelation 4:1-8

There are so many things about this passage that are quite simply beyond our understanding. Which, by the way, is nothing to fret over. It is something to cherish. To serve a God who is incomprehensible is one of the best ways to know you haven’t made a God of yourself. But, we do know this: There is a throne in the center, The Lord is upon it, and His glory is radiating like that of 1000 suns. And, there are these majestic creatures with the wings of angels that seem capable of doing only one thing. They circle the throne and with every breath they have, they say “Holy, Holy, Holy”. You get the feeling that they couldn’t stop even if they tried. 

Perhaps repetition is not redundant in the throne room. Perhaps with every lap around the throne they catch another glimpse of His glory, another part of his heart, a new piece of His smile, another portion of His power, and majesty, and beauty. Again and again and again, they are given another reason to sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” After all, the holiness of God is not a fickle or fragile thing. It is an eternal thing, and there is always more of it to behold.

The beautiful mystery doesn’t stop there. Jesus, our High Priest, has given us access to the throne room even now. The invitation is there for US to join that endless song. I can’t help but think we might sing something like this….

“With every lap around the throne I catch another glimpse, You’re Holy, Holy, Holy. 

The longer I behold you I can’t help but say again, You’re Holy, Holy, Holy.”

DAY FOUR: SAME JESUS

“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”
So we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:5-8

The consistency of God is certainly one of the key characteristics we see throughout Scripture. Time and time again from the very first page, to the last, God makes a way. In the garden, through the sea, in the desert, on the cross, on the clouds: Every time darkness tries to derail the vision of God, darkness fails. That’s the thing about darkness; It can take on many forms and conjure up its best schemes, but in the end, it is still no match for the glorious light of God. No matter how hard it tries, darkness cannot overcome light. 

Truly, this theme should be very hard to miss. In the scriptures, it’s everywhere you look. But the truth is, we miss it all the time. We have a tendency to lose perspective. It’s like zooming in too far on an image. Things get so blurry and pixelated that there is simply no way of knowing what we are actually looking at. When we lack perspective, we lose confidence. Without a true north, fear will try to tell us a different story; one of hopelessness, isolation, and loss. But God invites us to zoom out. He wants us to remember the hope we are actually standing on. He has shown us where we come from and where we are going. There may be new waters, fires, and giants, but they still have to face the same Jesus. They will meet their match every single time. 

That's why this song exists, to help us gain perspective. When we sing the promises of God, we start to believe them. Darkness is disruptive. We have seen it before and we will see it again. But we are held by a deeper truth…nothing can stop the Lord. 

“Where there’s water, you can part it. Where there’s fire, you can walk right through. New giants, same Jesus. There’s no stopping you. Where there’s sickness, you can heal it. All those strongholds, you can break them too. New giants, same Jesus. There’s no stopping you.”

DAY FIVE: HE WHO IS TO COME

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Revelation 21:1-6

There are many headlines these days; but hope, hope is rarely found in them. We have had a bumpy ride the past few years, that shouldn’t be understated. As a result, our culture is riddled with anger, fear, contempt, and despair. What we need is a little hope. 

The good news is, because of Jesus, we have it! As followers of Jesus, we are to be the megaphone of hope to a hurting world. But, this is hard to do if we lose sight of His promises. So let’s take a moment today to remember where we come from and where we are going. First, God made us to be with Him. This alone is quite remarkable. But, it doesn’t stop there. God became like us to free us from ourselves and went down into the deepest pit of darkness to pull us up from it. If you can believe it, there is actually more good news. Jesus makes us a promise. Not just to us, but to the whole earth and all of creation. He tells us He’s coming back. And when He does, He will set everything right. Every fear will be overturned. Every evil will be vanquished. Every pain will be lifted. Everything will be made new. EVERYTHING. 

This is the story we are in. And our soul needs to be reminded of that story. Our truest reality. The kingdom of God is not under threat… God’s coming. 

“The story has been written. We all know how it ends. My future has an anchor. My eyes are on the Savior. He’s coming back again.” 

Ways

Home, as far as I can tell, is too powerful a thing to fit inside a feeling, and too large a thing to fit inside a location. Home is a presence. A unique and most Holy presence that holds together every moment, every breath, and every thing. This presence of God is what we are made for, and it’s what we are made from. Or, as stated by the poets of old, 

“In him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28

We all know the old proverb that goes something like this… “ we become what we behold.” Although it rolls off the tongue, applying this to our lives is a bit like a punch in the gut. It forces us to ask ourselves the often hard and embarrassing questions like, “How do I spend most of my time?” and “What do I give most of my attention to?” If the answers to those questions are in fact directly related to the person I am becoming, then I for one have a lot of work to do. (insert sweating face emoji). 

The song “Ways” is an attempt to behold the right thing. The one thing; the only thing. It is a pursuit of the presence. It’s a declaration and prayer sung from the deep place. The soul place. The thing about the soul is that it can’t be tricked or lured into the fleeting and counterfeit things our flesh can. The soul drinks from the living water. My prayer is that this song would help us all sing from the soul. When we do, we find what the psalmist speaks of…

 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of Joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Psalm 16:11

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Catch Me Singing

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 (ESV)

Have you ever heard of the Biosphere? It’s a research facility out in the Arizona desert originally designed to study plant life inside artificial ecosystems. Perfect conditions, perfectly secure, perfectly climate controlled… sounds great right? Here’s where things get interesting. At the start of the experiments, the trees planted in the Biosphere grew at a much faster rate than any of their siblings in the wild, BUT at a certain point, they literally just uprooted and fell over. Not just one or two, but every tree in the Biosphere would reach an age where it could not bear its own weight. Eventually, the scientist realized the cause of the problem… there was no wind. Translation: there was no tension, no resistance, no uncertainty, no inconsistency, no reason for the root systems to learn their purpose: to grow deep.

To put it gently, this has been quite the year (said with a desperate smile). Most of us are facing more uncertainty and tension than we have ever seen in our lifetimes. Living in the struggle is hard work. We hide from it, we ignore it, we despise it. Often times we act like it will be the death of us, but it might be the thing keeping us alive. Could it be that God is more concerned with our growing rightly than our growing quickly? Could it be that God is not scared of the process though often times we act like He is? It’s good for our souls to remember that the promises of God are eternal. They do not run away from the process; they carry us through it. Remember, God knows what it's like to walk through the desert. Moreover, if our hope is truly in the resurrection, then we must always remember this: God does some of His best work in the dark. Plant your trust by the river today, friends. Let your roots grow deep into the promise.

You’ve been God for a long time

You’re the final word

You’re the finish line

Everything is gonna be alright

You’ve been God for a long time

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The Great Migration

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.

2 Timothy 1:9

Of all the wonderful and mysterious things we’ve discovered in nature, migration has got to be my favorite. Have you ever heard of the Arctic Tern? This marvelous bird migrates from the arctic waters all the way to the antarctic waters. Just to make sure we are all on the same page here, that’s across the whole world! Who teaches them to do this? What compels them into the unknown? What pushes them forward? There are no great explanations for this phenomenon, but the most beautiful things can rarely be explained. Instinct? Call it what you want, but somehow, with the help of something bigger than themselves, they find their way home.

In some sense, I think the love of God works this way. It's as if the center of gravity that God’s love creates is so strong it just beckons us toward it. It is patient and persistent, but never passive. Always working, always calling.

Every moment of everyday we are given the opportunity to follow that call of the Father. A choice crackling with potential and endless possibility. Every time we say yes, it closes the gap between who we thought we were and who God has made us to be. That is the great migration.

Through the valley / Through the river / If You’re calling / Then I’m coming / Over mountains / Through the wasteland / If You’re calling / Then I’m coming

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