Intimacy with God

This weekend I had the privilege to share God's Truth. We had a stand alone weekend in between two series and Jamin Stinziano who lays out our preaching schedule gave me the opportunity to just share what God was laying on my heart. Over the last several weeks now over 1200 churches across the country participated in the "One Prayer" series. Some of today's most respected and recognizable pastors in North America were asked to record one sermon that would explain what their one prayer for the church would be. I began to think about that challenge and I began to discuss that with some of the guys on our Leadership Team, and we were all in full agreement that our one prayer would be that those who have trusted Christ as their personal Savior would pursue intimacy with God as their greatest treasure and hold it as their highest value. You see everything in the Christian life flows out of that. I believe that the greatest benefit of the Gospel is not that we don't go to hell, although I am truly grateful for that, the greatest benefit is that we get to enjoy God forever! God is the gift of the Gospel and we don;t have to wait until we die to enjoy Him. Jesus in His prayer in John 17 said "this is eternal life that they KNOW the one true living God and Jesus Christ whom you sent."

The key passage that I felt God led me to was Isaiah 26:8 "Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for You, your glory and renown are the desires of our heart." It was a great time of study for me, because this is where I want to live everyday. A life that is surrendered to the will and purposes of God and a life that longs to bring honor and glory to King of Kings. I have been faithfully praying that God would give me a passion for His name and His presence and the discipline needed to pursue Him. David said in Psalm 27:4 "One thing I ask of the Lord and one thing I will seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord and behold His beauty and meditate in His temple." Not sure where your walk with the Lord is today or how your heart burns for God's glory, but as I said my prayer for myself and for the church that we pursue intimacy with God as though it truly was our greatest need, our greatest treasure and our greatest delight. I'd write more but the Yankees are on...hey baby steps, baby steps...the Lord bless you.