Broken and Contrite

Isaiah 57:15 
       For this is what the high and lofty One says—
       he who lives forever, whose name is holy: 
       "I live in a high and holy place, 
       but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, 
       to revive the spirit of the lowly 
       and to revive the heart of the contrite."


Contrite: (Adjective) Feeling or expressing remorse or penitence; affected by guilt.


I am constantly amazed at the God I love and serve.  How in the world can He be the high and lofty one, who lives in a high and holy place, and yet also WANT to be with us, especially when we are contrite and lowly?  


I am in awe of the heart of our God, that He loves us so much that when we are broken and sorrowful we find His power and His presence so available.  How can this be?  I could question it, but there is the cross, the horrible payment for my sins standing before me. Concrete proof through all of time that God loves us with a love beyond measure and understanding.  A love that we must decide how to answer.  Shall we respond and love back?  Or shall we turn away callously and reject such a great gesture of compassion and mercy?  Is life lived our own way, on our own terms really so great?  I don't think so...


So I shall seek the place of grace, the place of power, the place of rest...  Contrite and lowly!!!

The American Dream Nightmare?

Lauren Henley is an amazing young lady at our church who recently wrote the following.  Her feelings echo what many in our church are realizing, specifically from David Platt's book, "Radical."  However, we see God's spirit at work because Lauren has not read the book, which warns us that the American Dream is not all it's cracked up to be...


From Lauren:

I thought that I would share some of my thoughts/ revelations of what the Lord has been doing in my life.

From the day I was born (and probably most of us), I was raised by my family, my school, and by culture to get a college degree, use my brains to earn a living, get married, have children (in which I instill the same future), and make money so that I can afford way too many things.

-Isn't this the American Dream? Aren't we all supposed to work a 9-5 job with good insurance, TRY to own a house that we don't need/can't afford, send our kids in 500 different directions to 500 different extra activities, and have a good retirement package; because if you don't have those things you won't survive, won't be able to live.

I feel like we have taken some of the blessings and "lifeboats" that the Lord has given us and turned them into necessities. There is nothing evil about having 4 family cars, because God can use them to send us on his missions, but the absolute NEED for it can be evil. There is nothing wrong with working a conventional job with good insurance and retirement package, because God our Provider- Jehovah Jireh uses that job, but it is terribly wrong to box God in by saying that you can only be successful and "happy" if you live this American Dream life.

What if God has a different plan for our generation? What if we are called to break a generational curse of greed and self-reliance?

We have all used anti-bacterial hand soap. It is in every elementary school, hospital, and grocery store. This soap is so powerful that is cleans all the bad bacteria’s and germs that we encounter on a daily basis. Thanks to this soap we may have prevented a week in bed with the flu.
- There is a downside, not only have we gotten rid of our harmful bacteria’s, but we have also erased our immunity to them. Our natural ability to fight off these invaders is gone. This soap has become our sickness "savior".

This makes me think. Have we taken the safeguards and the protections God has given us: our homes, our nice clothes and cars, our insurance and retirement packages, and have turned them into our "saviors"? Do we no longer need Jehovah Jireh when we can provide for ourselves, when our jobs and our things take place of our Savior?

We all know that our economy is in the absolute pits. Why is this? Could it be because we are a greedy nation? Is it because we are so fixated on our American Dream that we forget to tithe, take care of the poor, and live a humble life?

I think that we have taken our American Dream and washed our hands in it so many times that we have lost our immunity to adversity, and boy is it here! No wonder America is freaking out over the economy! We don't know how to rely on anything but a retirement plan, let alone a Savior.

What if God is calling us to be a generation who lives within our means, not only that, but lives within the means of the job God has called us to, and not the one society tells us we need to have. It may be a conventional 9-5 job, it may not. Are we willing to say "yes Lord!" if he calls us to travel in a band that makes no money, or if he calls us to forsake our desires and trust that the plan he has for us is better, or if he calls us to give everything we have to the poor?

I don't know about y'all but I feel convicted. All my life I have set my goals to match the American Dream, when this very dream is the nightmare our nation has fallen into.

My hope is that we will be in hard and faithful prayer for each other and for our generation. If we don't wake up from the American Dream nightmare, we are going to miss out on the incredible, out of the box, plans the Lord has for our lives.

I hope that my words were not my own.

Why I work at Rock Bridge...

I have no seminary degree... I have no formal church or ministry experience... I have an engineering degree and yet I work at an amazing church called Rock Bridge. In many ways it makes no sense at all, but for me it has been a wild journey that I wouldn't trade for anything. As for why they hired me, that's up to Matt and the elders and the people of Rock Bridge to explain, but I sure can tell you why I stay...

One of my favorite verses is in Isaiah 42:16. This passage got me through one of the toughest periods of my life. It says:

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,

along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;

I will turn the darkness into light before them

and make the rough places smooth.

These are the things I will do;

I will not forsake them."

I began to see in this verse an amazing picture of God taking us down paths we don't know, into areas foreign to us, and that this should be an EXPECTATION of life, not an exception. If I am not running into situations and circumstances beyond me, something is wrong. I'm not following God.

But my favorite part in this is that God clearly leads THE BLIND! In my dark days when I realized how blind I was, I then began to be comforted and know that the blindness is OK! God doesn't particularly care to let me see what all is going on around me. He's not concerned with my lack of vision. His concern is whether or not I am following His voice and allowing Him to lead me.

I work for Rock Bridge because Matt Evans (our Sr. Pastor) never pretends to know it all. He never pretends to have all the answers or to see the future or even have a grasp on the challenges we will face. But that's OK. He is a blind man being led by God! He goes in his office and lays on the floor and prays, and asks God to lead him. And he comes out with a new thought, a new idea revealed from the bible, a new heart urging, and he says, "let's follow God on this." I have seen it happen countless times where even in my own prayers God will be laying things on my heart, and I will walk into Matt's office, and he will say the exact same things before I even bring them up. And then our elders will confirm it and we will so clearly know that our big and awesome God has this ragged band of blind people by the hand!

People say a lot of things about our church, mostly good, but sometimes not. But I will clearly say one thing, Rock Bridge is a church of blind people pursuing the voice of their Savior. There has never, ever been a day here when I felt the leadership of this church was not listening for God, for His voice, and for His heart. It's a great thing to be a part of a body that I know has Jesus at the wheel! I can't wait to go where God is leading us next!!!

Holy Work...

Often times I run into people that I used to work with at Shaw. Since I spent almost 14 years there, working in seven different plants/locations I racked up a lot of good friends, and had an amazing time. In all honesty the most frequent statement is, "I bet you're glad you got out of there." I don't think people really hate it, I think they are just assuming that my work in ministry now is just so much more fulfilling and exciting.

My response to them is always the same: I absolutely LOVED working for Shaw. Don't get me wrong, working at Rock Bridge is the fulfillment of my heart's dream. Every time I interviewed for a new position within Shaw the question would come out, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" Every time I responded that I hoped to be in full time ministry. So working at Rock Bridge is my little boy God-put-it-in-my-heart dream come true.

But I also loved being in the secular work place. I realized over time how much an impact God could have on people's lives there. I saw Christians in the work place coming in every day, giving everything they had to work hard, make good product, love their co-workers, and go home and love their families and their communities. I saw "creelers" and lift truck drivers with simple but profound faith that would pray and seek God. I met mechanics that ended up being like second fathers to me, encouraging my faith. I worked with supervisors who became my closest friends! One took me to the craziest pentecostal healing service I've ever been to in my life! The "healer" ended up being on 60 Minutes as a fraud! I still laugh about that night!

I've worked with Customer Service agents, Sales VP's, from top to bottom who tried to act fairly, but mercifully, to treat their customers right and treat their fellow employees well. Many, many days I saw Jesus in the work place. I was profoundly pastored and affected by the Quality Manager of one plant where I worked.

I came to realize as a manager, with people I was responsible for leading, that God cared very deeply about my responsibility and he cared very deeply about how I treated people. Many times He rebuked me when my own ego or selfishness hurt others. The weight of the responsibility of leadership is huge and heavy when I carry it outside of the Holy Spirit. But when I carry it with Him, walking in absolute obedience to Him, I saw improved morale, better results, miracles in our midst, and Jesus honored gloriously. I saw many people come to know Jesus because of the faithful and steady encouragement of a co-worker.

I believe the workplace can be hallowed ground, full of the power of God. God's first command to Adam in Genesis was to "be fruitful... and fill the earth and subdue it." Basically, get out there and make the world a better place because of your presence. Most people will never work in a church, but every Christian on the face of the earth is called to full-time ministry. The question is will they see that call and pursue it, or waste it and let God moments pass them by....

I've had enough...

Recently I’ve been reading the book of Acts. I am always amazed that the no matter how many times I have read something, God always brings new truth out for me to see. Lately He has been wrecking me, and convicting me, but…. stirring my heart and my imagination for what CAN BE.

Acts 4:13 says, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” All my life I spend so much time equipping myself, trying to learn and grow and be a better follower of Christ. I spend so much time on the equipping, not realizing that I spend so little time on courage.

Matt brought out this last weekend a powerful point in Hebrews 5:12, “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers…” Of all people I should be “teaching” those around me all I can about Jesus! I should be giving what I have away! I am so self-centered and fearful of failure and rejection! How can this be? From my own reading of what happens in the house churches in China and India and in many foreign countries, there are pastors and church leaders equipping and raising up others with passionate faith, and they have less bible knowledge and equipping than our children who have grown up in Sunday Schools and children’s church! I realize from the book of Acts that the missing ingredient for me and for us as Christians in the American church is COURAGE!

I fear the rejection and the repercussions of living courageously for Jesus. I fear the cost. Well I have had enough of fear. I have had enough of self-centered “feed me” American Christianity. I have had enough of staring enviously at those disciples who were uneducated ordinary men, and the incredible impact they had on our world. The disciples spent three years with Jesus and then changed everything because they lived radically dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit, and they knew that if they would GO out courageously, God would meet them there powerfully.

I’m going! And I know God will meet me there, too!