soulthirst cafe

Wednesday Night, I went to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to speak at The Well. The Well is a college worship gathering across the street from the University of Alabama. And let me tell you…they’ve got it going on over there. GREAT worship, a very communal vibe and literally hundreds of college students singing there lungs out. If you ever get out to Tuscaloosa on a Wednesday night, I would highly suggest you stop in and check it out. It’s pretty amazing.

I taught on Jeremiah 2 and the broken cisterns. If you’ve got the time, you can listen to the talk here. You may not be familiar with the story, so I’ll briefly recap the main ideas. Contrary to popular belief, Jeremiah was not a bullfrog, but rather a prophet of God. Now the job of the prophet was to declare what God was going to do in the midst of the people of Israel - both the blessings and the judgments. Jeremiah was somewhat unique in that his role wasn’t so much to tell about blessings, but rather just the judgment that is coming because of Israel’s disobedience. When they are in the midst of God’s judgment, and they find themselves banished to foreign lands, they will remember the words of Jeremiah and that it was their faithlessness to God that got them there. They will then call upon God and in His grace and mercy He will forgive them and restore them to their land. The focal verse I taught on was Jeremiah 2:13, which reads:

My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

The main reason for the relinquishment of the blessing of God was that the people of God chose to embrace the temporal rather than the eternal. They chose created things over the Creator. Basically, they sought satisfaction in things rather than God.

It’s easy to get caught up in this same mindset if you think about. Even as followers of Jesus, we can easily begin to place our hope for meaning and satisfaction in what we can see. Our job, our relationships, our dreams, our accomplishments. All great things. And all of these things can easily become our broken cisterns that hold no water. Each of these things can become that which possesses our affection and longing. Broken cisterns. God alone satisfies the deepest thirst needs of our soul. We must always be on guard against seeking our soul’s satisfaction in anything but Him. He is the fountain of living water that will never run dry.

So here are the questions of the day. What is your cistern? What is the thing that you you tend to run to in order to satisfy your soul’s cravings? What is it that you lean on to make you feel as though you matter and that you are valued and loved? And what would it take for you to discover that God is the fountain of living water that your soul is thirsty for? What would need to change in your life in order for Him to be preeminent in your life?

See you next time. And Roll Tide!

Thirsting for Him,

Chris

Tags: broken cisterns, Calvary Baptist Church, Jeremiah 2, The Well, thirsting soul, University of Alabama

For the next three Wednesday nights, the 20th, 27th and 3rd, I will have the great privilege of speaking at The Well, a gathering of college students in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (Roll Tide!). Meeting across the street from the University of Alabama, The Well is a communal worship expression of Calvary Baptist Church’s college ministry called Relate. On any given Wednesday night, hundreds of collegiates from Bama and the surrounding area will gather together to worship, engage in God’s Word and be challenged to participate in God’s plan to reach a world that has lost it’s way. The worship is great and the environment is warm, accepting and authentic.

If you think about it over the next 24 hours, please pray for me. Also, if you happen to be in the area, feel free to stop in and say, “Hi!” I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going along the way.

Thirsting for Him,

Chris

Tags: College Ministry, Relate College Ministry, The Well, Tuscaloosa Alabama, University of Alabama

Back to the story. If you remember, the Angel of the Lord gave very specific instructions to Joshua as to how he was to lead God’s people in their conquest of Jericho. It was a crazy plan, if you think about it. Load up the Ark, have the priests blow trumpets, and have everybody walk around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day, do that same thing seven times. Once you’re finished, have everyone face the walls of Jericho and – get this – yell. That’s it. Yell at the city and the walls will fall down and you will be victorious.

Now I’m sure if Joshua were alive today, and he was telling this plan to the boys up in the Pentagon as his victory strategy in Iraq, he would be escorted out to Bellevue in one of those pretty white jackets with the long sleeves strapped in the back.

But Joshua and the nation of Israel obeyed God to the most minute detail. And it worked! The walls of Jericho fell. The people were excited and they easily swept in and won the victory against the Jerichonians (or is it Jerichites). In their success, one of the Israelites, Achan, decided that it would be no big deal for him to take some of the wealth of Jericho for himself, specifically some of the things that were devoted to the Jericho gods. From Achan’s viewpoint, I’m sure this was not big deal. I mean after all, when you weigh it out, he obeyed a full 95% of what God told him to do. What’s a little reward for all your hard work and faithfulness? After all, that’s what grace is for, right?

The very next battle, the Israelites got creamed, partially because Joshua didn’t consult the Lord and primarily because Achan flat out disobeyed God’s command. He didn’t forget. He didn’t misunderstand. He knew what God wanted him to do and he simply chose not to do it.

And this is our next lesson from the story. We must become a people who take God’s Word seriously. We live in an age where access to God’s Word is easier than ever. From one website, I can look up the story of Joshua in 40 different world languages and 20 different English versions. I personally own 12 whole Bibles, 1 Hebrew Old Testament, 1 Greek New Testament, the 1 Year Bible, and a couple of Parallel Bibles. It’s not like we don’t have access to God’s Word.

The problem is not that we don’t know what God wants from us. The problem is that we don’t do what we know God wants us to do. We play around with pet sins; we ignore whole sections of the Bible; we refuse to get attitudes, language, activities and habits under control and pass it off as freedom in Christ. You know, because the Son of God died on a Cross so that I can smoke, drink and cuss.

And we wonder why the church is making such slow advances in America.

Perhaps the struggle is not that we have an enemy that is too great. Perhaps the struggle is because we’ve made God’s Word too small.

So here’s today’s question: What area in your life (habits, indiscretions, “free” areas, etc.) do you ignore God’s Word on – not just the overt areas, but maybe even the passive ones? What are the things you know God’s Word says for you to do/be, and you are simply choosing to pass on it?

You may want to start with David’s prayer in Psalm 139:23-24, which says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

And then when you know what God wants you to do, do it. You will be shocked at how God responds to those who choose to take His Word seriously.

2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”

Give it a shot. You will be pleasantly surprised. Be sure and let me know how it goes.

Chris

Tags: 2 Chronicles 16:9, Achan's sin, christian, freedom in Christ, Jericho, Joshua, leadership, obeying God's Word, Psalm 139:23-24, taking God's Word seriously

So I was checking out the Buckhead campus blog a few minutes ago and came across this interview with Louie Giglio about the new Church he is going to be starting soon. Louie and Shelley have been friends of Sunni and myself for years, going back to the Baylor days when Sunni worked in the Choice offices. We have been a part of Passion Ministries from the onset, so when we heard about Passion Church, we were pumped. This interview is a great reminder about all that is right in the body of Church. Unity. When two guys like Andy Stanley and Louie Giglio can have this kind of eternal perspective, the Church wins.

Keep up the good work boys!

Chris

Tags: Andy Stanley, Buckhead, Choice Ministries, Louie Giglio, North Point Community Church, Passion Church, Passion Ministries

In Joshua 7:1-5, we find the continuation of Achan’s story. Jericho was a great success and Joshua and the Israelites are pumped about who’s next. Josh sends out some spies, just like they did with Jericho, and the spies came back with great news. Ai, the next town to get their eviction notice, was a small town and the guys checking out the land figured that it would only take a few thousand men to do the job.

“Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there.”
Joshua 7:3

So, with the wall-crumbling success of Jericho still ringing fresh in his ears, Joshua sent three thousand men to take care of business.

And the Israelites got creamed.

What happened? We were coasting along, enjoying the spoils of victory against Canaan’s varsity team and then we get slammed by the JV squad? “Only a few men are there.” It should have been a cakewalk. Why didn’t we win?

Now before you jump to conclusions and pin this whole thing on Achan (we’ll get to his role tomorrow), let’s reexamine the facts. Before Joshua led the people into battle against seemingly impossible circumstances, what did he do?

He sought the Lord.

The Captain of the Army of the Lord told Joshua exactly what to do and he did it. And Joshua led the Israelites to victory. Joshua was desperate because the battle against Jericho seemed beyond his ability to win. Ai was nothing compared to Jericho. So Joshua figured that if he was able to win against the seemingly impossible battle of Jericho, then he should be able to easily win the battle of Ai.

This is where Joshua teaches us our next lesson. We must never presume upon God. We can never assume that just because God brought us through difficult times before and led us to success that He is obligated to do it again, just because we are His children.

Here’s the positive way to put it: We must always remain men and women of prayer. We must live every moment as though we desperately need God to come through for us, because if we do not, we will quickly discover that we can get a lot of man-sized things accomplished under our own power - we will just miss the God-sized things that God wanted to do through us if we would have only been desperate for Him. It doesn’t matter how many battles we’ve won, we can never presume upon God to do His thing just because He did it last time and we’re pros now. We discover time and time again in the Scriptures that God will let us fall flat on our faces when we substitute past successes for present submission.

So today’s question is: Where are you presuming upon God? Where are you leaning on past success to carry you through rather than moment by moment desperation for God? What project are you venturing forward with without consulting God first? His plan may not be your plan. It rarely is. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Proverbs 21:31 says, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD.” Go to Him now with whatever project you are currently working on and get His perspective. You’ll be glad you did.

Thirsting for Him,

Chris

Tags: Achan's sin, battle of Ai, Isaiah 55:8-9, Jericho, Joshua, Joshua 7:1-5, presuming upon God, Proverbs 21:31