Spiritual Gifts

Goooood morning fambam!

We all love to get presents from people right?  I love surprise gifts from Ben, they make me so happy because I feel pretty special.  Or when Tyler's mom surprises me with a food gift or laveen gets me coffee, all these gifts...I love them!
Spiritual gifts are freaking way more awesome!  Cuz they remind me that God loves me!  When I hear someone say that they got blessed by my message or my blog or my singing or even just a text from me...I feel my heart is full because God's delight is on me for magnifying His glory!  It is a gift, not a given, to be used by God!  If you think about it, what could we possibly ever give God that is not already His?  Absolutely nothing.  Yet, God knows we were made to enjoy His love, so He gives us the gift of blessing others!  And He does this through spiritual gifts He gives us.

Everyone has a spiritual gift.  But not everyone enjoys the pleasure of having them, because these gifts are not like ordinary gifts.  These gifts are connected to  eternal purpose and epic love.  Are you starting to feel the desire to enjoy your spiritual gift?

"So also you — since you are zealous for spiritual gifts,
seek to excel in building up the church."

To find your gift God gives us the first step in having a heart to be on His mission.  The gift will certainly connect to His mission.  So before you grab your gift you must be on a mission to do something good for the Church.  (i.e.: encourage by counseling, clean rooms and bathrooms, organize education departments, media, etc.)  God wants to see your heart that is simply set on doing SOMETHING ANYTHING to build the church...before your gift is made known.  You may want to counsel, but when you do so you find out it's not your gift, so you go to cleaning and more than wanting what you want, your heart is wanting what the church needs.  Then your gift will become more clear.

"For you may very well be giving thanks, but the other person is not being built up."

A litmus test for whether your gift is truly from God will be in how it builds another up.  You may be thankful that God uses someone like you, but the real proof is that God uses you to build another up.  That's a spiritual gift.

Paul writes:
"I thank God that I speak in other languages more than all of you;
yet in the church I would rather speak 5 words with my understanding,
in order to teach others also,
than 10,000 words in another language."

Paul was a smart guy gifted in languages, and he used this to remind believers that the gift is useless without the purpose.  He said he'd rather say 5 words if it would teach people than 10,000 impressive words to show off how smart he was.  It was all about the people being built up.  His gift was for teaching, despite how much he knew or could do, he only did what was needed for the mission.  Paul enjoyed his gifts like no other!  He was content in all his life.   Cuz every gift God gave him was put to God's purpose....which is wise of God to give Paul ALOT OF GIFTS.  Happy is the one who is blessed by God!

"What then is the conclusion, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, another language, or an interpretation.
All things must be done for edification.
But everything must be done decently and in order.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭14:12, 17-19, 26, 40‬ ‭

When we come together for youth or fellowship at home with our biological families or in doing second service...we are on mission with spiritual gifts.  The flesh naturally is about yourself.  How you look, what others think about you, how you compare, etc...and the biggest hindrance to enjoying our spiritual gifts from God is self-centeredness.  God's awesome gifts are all on a purpose:  edification.
But if all you think about is yourself, then you won't have the time to enjoy God's gifts.

To the one with many gifts, God gives more, but to the one who has little, even what he has is take away, because every gift is meant to give glory to God.

"For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough.
But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him." (Matt. 13:12)

The sole purpose of man's life is to glorify God.

Seek the gift that gives you purpose today.
Love you guys.

Jmegrey

Follow is fishing

Good morning family forever,

Every relationship will reflect your relationship with Jesus.

Clarity:
The way you are with you boyfriend or girlfriend will reflect your relationship with Jesus. The way you are with you mom or dad will reflect your relationship with Jesus.  The way you are with the homeless person on the street corner will reflect your relationship with Jesus.  The way you are with your teacher will reflect your relationship with Jesus.  You get the point?  Your attitude towards others (anyone) will reflect your relationship with Jesus.

The best way to truly see our relationship with Jesus is by looking at the person we treat the worst in our lives.  If you want more intimacy with God then look at the areas of your life with others that lacks the most love.  It is there that you will find what you're looking for, because every person we have difficulty loving is Jesus with skin on.  Want to go deeper?  Then love harder.

Why?

Because when we follow Jesus we not only gain the awesome relationship of love with Him, but we gain His mission.

We become one with Jesus.

Jesus teaches us how to follow Him and live life on earth as His disciple.  He died for the sins of all, so everyone essentially has the gift of being Jesus with skin on no more or less than you do!  If you received forgiveness from all your sins (past, present and future) then your enemy gets the same free pass!  Otherwise you mock the love of Jesus by trying to nail Jesus again with more sins that you hold on to, whether your own or someone else's!  This is trying to kill Jesus all over, and many people live as an enemy of the cross!

Being Jesus with skin on is an honor that means you are now beloved and perfect.
Forgiven and free.
Every sinner saved by grace is now Jesus with skin on, and that's why the way we treat one another helps reveal how we truly relate to Jesus.  You want Jesus?  He's walking around with skin on all around you!

So, what do I do to be doing the will of God?

"Follow Me," He told them,
"and I will make you fish for people!"
Matthew 4:19

Jesus doesn't say, I will make you make sure other people treat you well!
(In fact it's the opposite)

If you decide you want to follow Jesus it means you will inevitably become a fisher of people!  Laying down your life because people will not love you, they will hate you...but fish for those sinners!

"I will make you fish for people!"

Jesus didn't say, follow Me and we will see what happens from there.
Or follow Me and I will make your life easier!
Or follow Me and you won't have to deal with the bull crap of all these other imperfect imbeciles!

He said, "follow Me, and I WILL MAKE YOU FISH FOR PEOPLE!"

You become about His mission.
Think about your own conversion testimony.  He found you in the dark, in the pit of your own hell, and He carried you into the light by revealing His humiliation on the cross for you.  In the same way, He sends us out to one another to do the same...to bear our humiliation for one another.  In this way we fish for people by the weapon given to us by Jesus...which is Himself!  Be Jesus to others, because Jesus is in others!  When we love those who don't love us in return then love more!   Jesus is found in the forgiveness of sins, in our humility, and in grace given.  Everything you give is everything you've got!
What you got from Jesus is ....freaking unsurpassable in awesomeness!
It's better than anything you could think of in your tiny human brain because it includes everything that God could think of!

“But everything that WAS a gain to me: money, temporary comfort, cool points, reputation, beauty, temporary gratification, family, etc...
I have considered to be a loss because of Christ, the eternal treasure!
More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in VIEW OF the SURPASSING value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ!"
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭3:7-8

The process of growth and intimacy in a relationship with Jesus involves both what you know and do as well as what you don't know and don't do.  What you know and do reflects also what you yet don't know and don't do.  So...you want more love of Jesus?  You won't find it in what you know and do, you'll find it in what you don't know and don't do...

When what you want becomes what you cannot gain on your own (the areas of what you don't know and don't do) then you're ready to be lead.

Jesus leads us in making us fish for people!

Follow is fishing and fishing is following.

Love you guys.
Jmegrey

heaven on earth

“But beyond these, my son, 

be warned: 

there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body. 

When all has been heard, 

the conclusion of the matter is: 

fear God and keep His commands, 

because this is for all humanity. 

For God will bring every act to judgment, 

including every hidden thing, 

whether good or evil.”

Ecclesiastes 12:12-14 

Good morning family forever,

It sure doesn't feel like you guys are family, especially when many of you don't live under the same roof as me, don't go out of your way for me when I'm hurting like my mom does, don't pay for my gas and phone bills like my dad does and don't buy me expensive gifts like my brother does.  Nope, I feel like most of you guys take rather than give haha. Take my pride, take my comfort, and take my last shred of dignity.  Yet, you guys are my more real family.  

The very ones God has called me to lay my life down for.  My pride, my time, my money, my very last breath if that's what is needed!  Yet my idea of family is more about getting love than giving it, until I'm reminded that I won't enjoy Heaven if I hold on to that lie.  In fact, Heaven will feel more like hell if I live thinking my own way is right.  (Read the book of Judges to see what community is like when everyone just does what is right in their own eyes!) 

 If I perceive something as good I will walk in that direction, away from what I perceive as bad or threatening. 

But what if my perception of good and bad is wrong?  (Which it naturally is when I'm not communing with the Holy Spirit.)

Loving the body of Christ is focused and in the body feels more like death.  Haha.  You give, give, and give and in the end get little to nothing in return from the ones you give to.  No recognition for all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes--this is a spiritual litmus test for our hearts.  Seeing what you really wanted from all your work, compared to what Christ got for all of His:

A life of constant obedience leading to death. 

Can you be satisfied with that?  

Probably not entirely! 

Haha but maybe a little.  

Maybe a part of you knows that there are some things inside of you that need to die.  

Things that control or enslave you to do things you don't want to do that take you further from God. 

Things inside of you that threaten you if you don't obey them.  But in order for those lies in your mind to die it takes feeling death inside of you.  Which is scary.  

We all know only God could control something as out-of-our-hands as death.  No human has the power to control whether or not they will die or what will happen after they do...that's all for sure God.  So when we enter into things like feeling death we enter into feeling our utter and complete helplessness and GIANT NEED for God.  Which is our true reality after all the security blankets have been stripped away.  

What if we stopped looking for how to get love and instead began looking for opportunities to give it away?  This is hard work resulting in feeling death inside (which is never pleasant) but it is a needed death of what is in me that is against God...and being against God is the real bad!  The real death! 

Imagine the kind of community and youth group we would be if that's the mentality we all had!  A competition for who could outdo the other in laying down their life!  

That is what Heaven will be like.  

And Heaven can begin now. 

Haha.  Love you guys.

Jmegrey

Day 1 with Jesus before He goes to the cross

Good morning family, 

Today marks the beginning of passion week.  That means today is the start of Jesus's last days before he went to die a tortuous death in order to save us from eternal death!  

Last night i had another brief vision of dying and waking up in a desert with barren beams that looked like an attempt to build something, but abandoned.  As far as I knew and could see all there was was dry, hot, and sandy desert before me.  There was no real direction to go, no purpose, no hope of something more than the desert, no Savior, and no one that loved me.  It was an eternity of vast nothingness and unquenchable fear-stricken loneliness.  It was forever desert and forever alone...and all the mental discomfort that went hand in hand with that.  It was death and Hell for me.   I felt it so real, and fear filled me with stark realization that this could totally happen to me because I have no control over what happens when I die.  Death is a looming mystery that we must acknowledge is completely out of our ability.

All power and control belongs to God and to God alone.  None of us can guarantee that we can safely procure our eternity after death.  That is why we must see Jesus for what He did.  He secured our eternity from eternal Hell to eternal Heaven.  Now we can walk with God's sent Son in these last days to hopefully better understand what God did to give us assurance of salvation.  

Let's walk with Him together in our hearts.  

Observe our Savior and His words, His actions, and the plan of God in His obedience.  

I invite you to the city of Bethany, come sit at the table to eat with Jesus and Lazarus (a man raised from the dead!), and Martha will serve us a home-cooked meal.  

“Six days before the Passover, 

Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, 

the one Jesus had raised from the dead. 

So they gave a dinner for Him there; 

Martha was serving them, 

and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 

Then Mary took a pound of fragrant oil — pure and expensive nard — anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped His feet with her hair. 

So the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. 

(Do you smell it?  Imagine watching Mary come in and pour out $6,000 worth of the most expensive perfume from Neiman Marcus all over Jesus dirty feet!  300 denarii is about $6k in US dollars.  And then to kneel down and wipe it with her hair...a mixture of dirt and expensive oil on feet. 

The actual perfume was called “spikenard” and in Hebrew is called Nard meaning “light.” 

A fitting perfume for the One who is Light.  (1 John 1:5)

$6k!  For feet!  And we are watching this happen and it probably shocks us as the expensive aroma hits our nostrils with a powerful presence, but then directs our hearts to really see that this man with us is truly worth every bit of what Mary has just poured out....everyone but one guy.) 

Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was about to betray Him), said, “Why wasn’t this fragrant oil sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? ” 

He didn’t say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of the money-bag and would steal part of what was put in it. 

(The contrast of Mary and Judas is like light and dark for us as we watch his speech against her actions.  His speech turns our hearts from the worthiness of Christ to the money.  Mary made us look at Christ by her money, but Judas made us look away by it.)

Jesus answered, “Leave her alone; 

she has kept it for the day of My burial. 

For you always have the poor with you, 

but you do not always have Me.”

John 12:1-8 

This last bit is spoken for us to hear.  

The food that Martha has made for us is maybe getting cold.  Martha is standing by the doorway of the kitchen peering into the dining room.  Lazarus on our left at the head of the table is silent, Judas is indifferent on our right and Mary knelt next to Jesus across from us.  The Son of God has just been anointed for burial.  In a few more days we will see Jesus killed, and Mary has prepared us for this as a reminder that it is He whom we serve and not our money.  Judas and Mary make one thing clear by their attitudes: their view of Jesus. 

Let's carefully look at Jesus today from our spot at the table. 

Jmegrey

Task and Ability

Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, 

and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.

(1 John 1:5) 

This morning I had a vision of God going to the core of my being and finding the scared little girl covered in soot and darkness and the instant He hugged me I transformed into light.  

So I prayed...

Search me O God, and try my thoughts, know me!  See if there are any offensive ways in me and lead me in Your way everlasting! 

I heard the words:  Passions and desires

Are my passions and my desires aimed in having You? 

This morning I just wanted to jump straight into my reading for my quiz today.  I didn't want to spend an hour with You, because my prize was getting what I needed to get done, done. 

My prize is my to do list. 

My idols are Task and Ability. 

Father, I need Your help! 

I don't want to be enslaved to Task and Ability!  

I want to be Your slave because You are the only Good and True Master who not only I am called to serve but am called into adoption as Your child!  

Task and Ability only seek to destroy, steal, and kill me!  Yet why do I follow their orders?

There is disorder in me God. 

Task and Ability say that in order to be worth any standing value I have to prove myself to myself and to You and to others. 

But You say in order to be worth all standing value I must put off my flesh and put on Christ. 

So then I stand looking at Task and Ability versus Christ.  

Christ looks weak and incapable, while Task and Ability look strong and shiny! 

But my eyes see only what my mind has been taught to know, so I need a knowledge that is higher than mine to give me new eyes to see and a new understanding of what things mean.

I need a renewed perspective. 

The law shows that this and this will mean this, yet Your new law says that Christ has finished fulfilling the requirements of the Law--which I myself could never do!  Therefore to live and move and breathe and have my being in Christ is the only way to expose Task and Ability for the frauds they are!  

They tempt me to believe that I could fulfill something to be someone!  But in the end I find by experience after experience that I cannot be anything but broken apart from the grace You give me in Christ.  

“I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 

For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. 

But if you are led by the Spirit, 

you are not under the law.  (Task and Ability do not teach you how to live anymore)

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. 

I tell you about these things in advance — as I told you before — that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. 

Against such things there is no law. (Not even Task and Ability could offer something better than these or deny their exceeding value!)

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Galatians 5:16-24 

Our bodies have passions and desires that direct our attention to what the body aims for. 

Our daily lives will either result in sexual immorality, fits of rage, disunity, and the like

Or in love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faith, gentleness and self control. 

This is the truth whether your perspective believes it or not, the Word of God is explicit about revealing where our passions and desires must be put off in order for His to be put on. 

What are your passions and desires aimed at today?  Prayerfully bring them to God and you will be humbled (by your emotions against God) that you cannot change on your own.  You need help because you are not enough to change you.  Those who ask, seek, and knock will be answered.  

Bring your need. 

Love you guys. 

When what you don't see is actually Jesus

Good morning family of faith,

This morning I woke up so angry which lead me to prayer to find out I was actually afraid.  And God gave me this passage:

"When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified.
“It’s a ghost! ” they said, and cried out in fear.
Immediately Jesus spoke to them. “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s You,” Peter answered Him, “command me to come to You on the water.”
“Come! ” He said.
And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came toward Jesus.

But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid.
And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me! ”
Immediately Jesus reached out His hand, caught hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt? ”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭14:26-31‬ ‭

If you saw a figure in your room late at night, would you be scared?  I would.  What if that figure was Jesus?  Dang.  I thought about this some more and realized that there are some fears I have that could be Jesus.

But first, before I know it's Jesus I fear it to be something that isn't Jesus.  Something bad.  Something scary.  Something like death or pain.  Something I don't want!  Like a ghost in my room!
But what if it was Jesus?
When Jesus walks by on the water the disciples don't know that it's Jesus at first.  They just see something with their eyes and they think it's a ghost!  They're going by what they see,
until they hear Jesus say
"Have courage!  It is I!"

Courage.

It's what we need when we are scared. Without courage we can't change the course of our thoughts/action to think or do any differently.
Fear cripples us into running away or avoiding something.  But courage will keep us from running or hiding.

And like Peter I find myself in his shoes quite often asking God for something to help me believe it's really Him!
That I can go towards the thing I feared because it's really Jesus in front of me!  But it don't look like Jesus!
All I feel from what I see is fear.

Courage is what i need to not run away from what looks threatening, but this courage comes from faith in Jesus.

When Peter stepped out and walked on the water he started off with His eyes on Jesus but he shifted his eyes and saw the wind and now it wasn't just the ghost-like figure that scared him but the situation was maddening!  The wind looked threatening!
Peter was defying the natural laws of gravity!  Peter was doing something that he had no mental control over.  The capacity to make sense of his situation was gone and now he looked at that- the wind- instead of Jesus and he began to sink!
He cried out to Jesus to save him, and Jesus immediately reached for Peter and said:
"I got you"? No.
Did He say "what's wrong with you?"  No.
Did He say "you suck at life". No.

Jesus said
"you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Jesus is doing something with Peter.  He's teaching Peter how to live without fear.

Fear of what he sees or fear of the inability to make sense of things.  He's teaching Peter how to live by faith which results in less doubt and more belief in Jesus.  He diagnosed Peter's issue: "little faith"
And questions Peter to think about the "why."  The why for Peter was the winds.

This was a reminder for me that I needed to read because I woke up angry, finding out that I was afraid.  Afraid of what I saw and what I thought because of it.  The winds of doubt looked overwhelming.  And i cried out to Jesus.

If you start to drown He will catch you, but remember it's not about survival.  It's about faith in Jesus.  We are being given opportunities to take courage today.
The thing you tried to run from or avoid out of fear (fear of rejection, fear of death, fear of being treated like trash) is all the wind you see in a threatening situation.
But keep your eyes on Jesus not on the winds, because only Jesus has the power to give you everything you need.

Love you all,
Jmegrey

For me it somehow always boils back down to this basic truth

Hello family,

Here was my heart this morning as I prayed:
I confess that I am barely hanging on to Jesus with a shred of hope.  I'm beaten down.

I feel like giving up but I know that's not what I want.  I need a fresh start.
Lord, I need a fresh start.
I confess I'm arrogant about school.  I feel like I know it all now.  That my opinions are gold and my perspective is most unflawed.
I confess I'm just trying to look good on paper now- losing the substance of my learning.  Help.
--
Then God reminded me of the most basic truth to live by every single day:

Repay others according to what Christ has given you.

“In this, love is perfected with us ...for we are as He is in this world.”
1 John 4:17

Walking with God, knowing Him more, being with Him happens most in the way we love and repay others, especially those who we feel don't deserve to be treated with our love.

The other day I felt injustice rise inside of me because of a schoolmate who was rude to me that God wanted me to serve!  I was like why would I serve someone who doesn't deserve it?  I was like "No God, I can't do that, it's not fair and it's not right...I can't lay down my time, my money, and my effort for someone who treats me like nothing."  That's when God gently reminded me of keeping my eyes on Jesus not on what I see in the world.

“Love consists in this:
not that we loved God,
but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Dear friends,
if God loved us in this way,
we also must love one another.”
1 John 4:10-11

It was hard at first because what I see and what I feel so strongly screams "this ain't right!"  But when I focus my heart and mind on Jesus I see a different scale of justice.  I'm suddenly the servant in the parable who has just been set free from 10,000 years worth of debt...looking at someone who owes me 1 month's worth.
If I only look at this person then justice demands I don't give them anything  and that they owe me instead! But when I remember where I just came from, having been canceled a much larger debt...and being told by the King to do the same for others...I see why Jesus says that His one command is for us to love others the way He loved us.
To repay others according to what Christ gave us.
Because we will forget who we are because of Christ if we fail to practice living and loving as He did everyday.

Keep your eyes on Jesus.

 “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world."
(Jesus died for everyone's sins so that not only are you free but the person who hurts you is free by that same freedom!  So to demand justice from them is to remove Jesus.)
"This is how we are sure that we have come to know Him: by keeping His commands.

Do not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.
(The more we love the world the less we experience the love of the Father in our hearts)
For everything that belongs to the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s lifestyle — is not from the Father, but is from the world.
And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does God’s will remains forever.

So now, little children,
remain in Him,
so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.”
1 John 2:2-3, 15-17, 28

Repay others not according to what they deserve, but according to what Christ deserves.  Please be humbled that He is always with us to lead us into this truth.

“For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another,”
1 John 3:11

“This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers.”
1 John 3:16

God Almighty wants to spend quality time with you!  And He does it through you loving others that don't deserve it because that's how He loved you.  We don't see God, but we experience His love most when we love others.

“No one has ever seen God.
If we love one another,
God remains in us and His love is perfected in us.”
1 John 4:12

So all this time my heart was focused on me, my grades, my time, my future, ....but I needed the reminder that God is in control man.
All He asks of us in the process of living is to love whoever comes across our day today.
Everything else is a distraction to steal, kill, and destroy you.  This is basic gospel truth 101.  Let's pray for each other to live in the light of truth.

We are going to make a ton of mistakes, and Jesus took care of that.  Our lives are not in fear of messing up anymore, because we have Jesus.  Our lives are now about sharing the good news of Jesus.  I once heard a quote that said something like people won't remember what you did, and they won't remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel.

When you experience the love of the Father how does it make you feel?  That is our calling in life.  To give others what God has given us....the saving presence and love of Jesus.


Love you guys.