One week ago I was at Camden Yards in Baltimore watching an Orioles game when God told me to pray for one of the hostesses. I debated with God for a couple innings, then when the game went to extra innings I knew that God wouldn’t let me leave the ballpark until I prayed for her, so I did. Her name was Kelly, a person with a spirit who needed to know that God loved her. The entire game she had looked weary, but after I prayed for her, she smiled and said – “thank you, you made my night.” Totally worth it.

Fast forward a week.

So there I was sitting at the Nationals baseball stadium in Washington D.C. (I’m a baseball guy), when the game ended on a crucial double play. I was tired, my legs were hurting, I had to pee, I was thirsty, and I was only thinking of myself as we got up and left. Outside the stadium there  were late night vendors trying to sell water, hats, and crack… all at the same time. I got a pound of each. Just kidding. After I bought my water, I saw a beggar and handed him a dollar. Not wanting to really stop, I put my hand on his shoulder, said something nice and walked away. Moments later I was sitting on the subway and thinking through how I might have been more like Jesus in that situation. I thought to myself: Man, that guy and all of the other beggars would have let me pray for them, because their need made them open. I should really assert myself with needy people. I felt as though I had missed my chance, then I thought through all of the times when I had missed chances and God brought along another one. I was thinking how I was a good moral person by giving someone money, but a bad kingdom person by not sowing Jesus into their lives. (That was a pretty genius thought. People who have thousands of followers on twitter and don’t follow anybody tweet that stuff). Realizing the power of that thought, I quickly opened my phone to jot it down. Right as I had punched in my last period, a man came and sat next to me on the subway. I greeted him and started small talk. Then, two minutes into the conversation the Holy Spirit nudged me… “be a kingdom person, not a moral person.” I was trapped. Not only was this my second chance, but that was time to put my new principle into practice. If I didn’t sow kingdom seed then I might as well have thousands of followers on twitter and not follow anybody. What was I to do? Be obedient I guess. I wasn’t nervous, just obstinate. I wasn’t unprepared, just too analytical. I didn’t lack knowledge, just fervor. But, as cliff divers do, I took a breath and jumped. Not knowing what I would hit;  background, spiritual openness, or sensitivity of heart… I went for it. We connected and began to discuss what we were passionate about. We enjoyed sharing about our lives with one another. Sensing that our time was coming to a close, I asked if I could pray for him. He paused, and with hesitancy said yes. The next stop was his, so I kept it short. In it’s shortness, I think that a lifetime of hurt was touched, and a kingdom future was born. The man started to tear up. As I finished he said, “Peter, thank you.” Then got up and left.

What matters is that a person doing a good thing wasn’t the focus, Jesus was the focus. As for me, I got my second chance to say to the King, “you’re the King, have your way”.

What’s your second chance?

For the joysetbeforeme,

Peter

I love to ask the question; what was the joy set before him? I love to think of what that might look like and how it effected his heart. All I know is this, that because, and for the joy set before him, HE ENDURED THE CROSS! He was like a running back headed to the end-zone. There were big linemen (obstacles) in front of him. There were speedy safeties tracking his every move and plotting his downfall. But he had his eye on something through all of that.  We know that he was hit… and his heal was bruised, BUT we know that there was something set before him that brought him joy. It was something that caught his eye and filled his heart with love, which birthed stronger feelings than that of the pain around him. That joy made him walk through the fiercest things opposing him. Nothing could stop his joy.

I want that joy. That joy does not start with tribulation, but is tested and revealed in those hard times. He didn’t pull out his joy to distract him from the present hardship, but was so deeply rooted in joy that when hardship came, that joy came through.

Where have you set your eyes? Where have you set your heart? Are you clinging to a source of joy that fills you continuously regardless of circumstances? If circumstances were to arise, would your joy be tested and approved?

You know, it isn’t really the joy that makes you last, it’s the nature of the lasting object or person that you have your eyes set on that brings you joy, that brings you through. Get that?

Check this out. Matthew 6:20 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I like to put it this way… If your treasure is secure than so are you. If Jesus is your treasure, and he is anchored in his own glory, then when you set your heart on him you also will be secured. So watch this, if your treasure falls, and your heart was linked to it… then you also will fall. But if your treasure is secure and your heart was linked to it then your heart will be secure. Wanna know a person’s heart? Find out where their treasure is.

Jesus eyes and heart were anchored in the glory of his Father, and it brought his Father glory to win people that were identified as his. It was his plan all along to give you his Son and his righteousness, so that you could be free. It brought him joy, and now it brings me joy.

When I set my eyes on Jesus and his righteousness, knowing that I approach him in his righteousness (another post for another day… I can’t wait!!!) and I see that He delights in me and would consider his life as nothing so that I could benefit from his life, then it compels my heart to be filled with joy and set my eyes on the joy filler. Setting your eyes on the secure joy-filler will fill you with joy, this joy lasts through everything.

For the joysetbeforeme,

Peter

v. 10-12

10″Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

Pause.

I was in the Dr. Office today, just feeling like hibernation was the best alternative to life at the moment. The feeling was there because over the past few weeks my physical health and my spirit-man health have been anemic, to say the least. I have felt the sicknesses of  near sightedness and personhood overwhelmedness (just go with me here.) You know, the feeling where you don’t refresh your heart and your mind to believe in the call of God for your life, and so you end up settling for what’s in front of you? You start to just plow ahead, knowing that’s it’s best, but somewhere along the way you forgot why you were plowing ahead… and then you were just plowing to plow. Proverbs 29:18 says, “without vision the people perish.” Who enjoys school more: the people who know what they want to be when they enter the work force, or the people who have no idea? It’s the people who know where they are headed. Why? Because looking ahead brings hope to their heart, which brings joy, knowing that God doesn’t just have things for you, but he’s preparing you for those things.

This process seems to happen to me often.

(Back to the Dr. Office seen.)

So there I was, wishing the light were just a little bit more dim and that my life were a little bit more bright. Then the Holy Spirit told me to take captive of my thoughts. I did. Immediately, Psalm 51:10 came to mind. I kept saying it over and over.

Here are my insights…

Create in me a clean heart, O God

AND renew a right spirit within me.

1. God, you’re the only one who can define a clean heart and a right spirit. I ask that you would give me clear vision as to what those are.

2.  My heart feels impure, because I have let my vision be quenched, I ask that when you align my spirit to what YOU call right, that my heart would follow.

3. I ask that my heart would respond to seeing you for who you are, and be refreshed by the renewing of my spirit.

John Piper teaches on v. 12 the best. This is how he takes it -

“Restore unto me the joy of my salvation, and renew a right spirit within me.”

David was in the middle of shame, he had just committed adultery, which was the fruit of a heart decline towards loving God.

So instead of David giving credit and time to the remembrance of  his sin, he says – “restore unto the joy of my salvation.”

Because the point of my life is to find joy in who you are and who you are to me (relationship.)

Final Thoughts::::

Ask God, where is my heart? Why has my joy been diminished?

God, would you show me you? Because my number one purpose in life is to love you!

Tell God right where you’re at.

For me it was this… God, I know that you know that my heart is grown away from you. I hate it. I don’t just hate it because everything else feels rotten, but because not being satisfied in you feels rotten. I want to be satisfied in you. If I can delight in you, then I know that everything else will heal. You called me first and gave me life, I ask that you would give my heart a beat again, and move it’s beat towards you.

Tell God where you’re at, and seek to have a heart that knows him and loves him. He knows you and loves you!

For the joysetbeforeme,

Peter

He freely gave, have I freely given?

He called me out, have I spoken of him?

He gave me life, why do I play dead?

He came to me, seeking me in love, why do I deny his existence?

He bought me with a price, have I counted the cost?

He made me in his image, why do I look away?

He came to rescue, why do I not carry others out of the fire?

If my heart is his, may my light shine brighter.

He set me free; I will break your chains.

He spoke the Word; I will go to the nations.

His hands were pierced, my hands will give.

His life was surrendered; I will give my life also.

My heart is changed by perfect grace.

You gave me your life, and now in that life that I have, I will give it back to you.

Peter McCarthy 2011

I am going to start blogging twice a week or so and hopefully become more involved in blog posting and conversation.

The re-ignition is going to head in the direction of illustrating Biblical truths that will give our generation a foothold in our faith.

I look to post my next post on Tuesday, illustrating the power of the obedience of faith. If you have any thoughts regarding that theme in the Bible prior to my post, then feel free to share them with me . Funny, my last post, May 24, 2010, was in the ball park of the obedience of faith, it’s a good theme to discuss.

Peter

These past couple of days have been a time of God revealing himself to my heart regarding his role as Father. I have come to realize that I must know the Son in order to know the Father. This is a delightful insight. The way that Jesus has won my heart and continually brought a feast of renewal to my spirit, has caused me to know his love and his power and his will to reign in me, and his heart to demonstrate his love to me and for me. It has been a time of embracing my TRUE identity in Christ, seeking not the treasures of the world, but relying on him for my daily food and every day things. This is real to me, because Jesus has made himself known to my heart increasingly in the last 4 months or so at a new level, challenging me to rise up out of my current position (body, soul, mind and spirit.) . The fruit of this season is seen in how I see the rest of his body now, in regards to my approach towards other people. How deceived my heart continually is and how faithful is God to restore me to his heart. I am thankful for his restoration of my heart. Matthew 7, might cover that well! . When your soul is at stake, it might be worth it to surrender and just OBEY! Obey in love and let the rest of the world see that TRUE – DEMONSTRATED LOVE changes you and changes people around you and changes your view of things! When you receive undeservingly, it might cause you to give undeservingly… our hearts need to be checked there for purity and obedience. We need to realize what we have, because God is calling us to be givers!

This brings me to the peak of my thoughts and my summation.

The Lord spoke to me last night concerning his role as Father, and confirmed it to me in Matthew 5  tonight. He revealed to me that we know the Son in order to know the Father! I never understood good works and obedience before this, I still do not fully understand. But would it not be the Father and his love for us to reveal himself through the Son to us, in order to change our hearts and woo us unto his heart. Would it not be the Father to establish grace and faith in our lives, taking time to spoon feed us as children and make us feel secure, allowing us to know his love for us regardless of what we do. In this he enabled us to  know him and obey him. I used to hate the word “deeds”… but I loved the word faith. However, real faith requires faithfulness… which requires obedience. MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM. Reading Matthew 6:30-34 and Lamentations 3:22-23 and hearing some John Piper exposition on these passages, caused  my eyes to be opened to the fact that Christ died to make us right with God the Father, and that once we are reconciled to Christ and find ourselves in him, we find the Father and his will for us… and there is a desire to obey him as our Father. This is not natural and a daily wrestle with our old self, our sin nature. Remember however that he is the best at giving you what you can handle based on knowing exactly where you are!

Through Christ we are changed and renewed and reconciled to the father for the purpose of good works on the earth… but really, just because he’s our dad and we are his children. He loves us and calls us to know him based on who he is and to just obey. The best is when he calls you to do something and he tests your faith in your faithfulness, not showing you the fruit ahead of time so that you can trust him and obey him as he rewards you with eternal life. There’s a beauty in obeying even when you don’t understand.

Today, lets ask God to reveal himself to us through the Son and turn our hearts towards  obedience to him!

Peter

I’ve been letting this text resound in my heart for a while. I’ll be preaching on it May 5th in Homiletics class… can’t wait.

This is what I’ve discovered.

1. My position as a sinner does not scare away Gods love. If anything, it is what makes his love true love. Knowing that while I was undeserving of this love, and against this love; he showed his love to me. In fact, he DEMONSTRATED it to me. In fact, he excused my position and established a new one for me. That is love.

- There have been instances in my life… where I have loved people even when they treat me like I’m little… and then in the same day, God would give me the same test, and I could not look past someones position of being wrong. I failed the true love test.

The point is, Christ looked past our position of being wrong. He was not moved by our lack of love for him… but rather without expecting anything in return from our end… showed love.

Why? Because his love is the point, it is the General walking in the room, it is the full focus, his love for us!

2. There’s a difference between being changed by his love, and being changed by his love to the extent of having the capacity to love others. Did you catch that?

Some people, are always asking God for his love, and seeking his love… and when they find it they are changed. Boom… they feel better.

Then there are others… who so desperately need the love of God and receive it… that it changes them and propels them into true love towards another. Love demonstrated to another. God loves people… that means you, yes… but the person next to you too.

The Point: Let God’s love change you in such a way that your focus would not be to just feel his love, but to show his love having the feeling of his love fully backing you up. Love demonstrated!

2B – Christ demonstrated stuff for a point… so that it could be practiced in the same manner by those whom have seen and experienced his demonstration.

Love this. Can’t wait to preach it verbally.

p.s. tomorrow I fly to BWI from RDU… I wonder what kind of opportunities I might have.

Pete

Ownership has been a key area of observance for me of late. As a leader one of your main goals should be to pass ownership on to leaders below you. It should be a goal to maximize what they do, and relinquish your power. Relinquishing your power, empowers them.

Having said that, I now lead RUSH campus ministries at Jack Britt with a team of people. This semester we have recieved a VERY clear vision from God. We new that communicating this vision by this means of operation was going to take some time for students to adjust to. We are currently shifting the focus from inward to outward, which in turn will sustain the inward growth… trust me, it will. However, it is very hard to develop in students the same passion for the vision that you have, unless THEY can OWN IT! If you make it theirs, then they will take it and run!

How do we do that? We empower them by relinquishing our power.

KEY INSIGHT: In strength of vision…

If the top is strong and the bottom is weak, then the top is in fact weak. But if the top becomes weak and the bottom is strong, then the top is in fact strong.

This is in the sense of ownership. When the top seems weak, and is not DOING everything, but the students who are being reached by students are flourishing in responsibility and boldness with their faith… then we have done our job.

… A good part 2 would be Communicating the Vision. Eh?

Pete

If I had to choose; Redemption would be my favorite “r” word.

I find certain things amazing, but what really makes me tick is when other people go from 0-60 really fast! Last Monday, I had it on my heart to challenge a leader with ownership and “leader voice activation.” Monday night I had the chance  to encourage her to step up to the plate. After ten minutes of generating discussion, she had a plan for Friday! I looked at her and knew that God had birthed something in her eternally, and now he was about to unleash it to us. What a blessing! I walked away confidently that night, knowing that our time Friday was in the hands of a leader that had jurisdiction on that campus, but also a vision, and a voice. That combination cannot be stopped!!! I was so excited, that I almost forgot to inform the other leaders that I had made a descision, without them, to give this girl the ball in her hand. Fortunately we have grace, and when God makes a plan, he gets everyone on board… and so, everyone was on board. As Friday rolled around, we all knew that, we as a team, were gonna hit a homerun, because our teammate had the potential and influence to do so. She did! People were impacted.

Here’s what a lot of people miss out on, but what we were blessed with.

1. Redemption…

This girl came to our rush club months earlier, and walked out never expecting to come back. But she did, and months later was leading the group. That is a turnaround that most people never expect, and fewer people ever see.

2. Jurisdiction…

Many “youth ministers” see them selves as the ministers and the youth as the ministry. This is an incorrect view of Christ’s body. The “youth ministers” are coaches, there to equip the students for ministry! Wait? Students minister? HEAVEN YES!!!   We have it all wrong. How dare we, from outside, from “CHURCH”, come to a campus and try to give people a message that WE THINK is worth hearing. Who are we? We are people… the best way is to enable and equip students to do the ministry, not be the ministry. This is how you raise leaders, and effectively target your harvest. Also, you have to reach your harvest with the right harvesters… preferably someone already within the school. Me, as a college student, I do not have jurisdiction at a highschool… but highschool students do! Enable them to be the carriers… because when they carry the message, they have the power and authority to exercise it. This will break walls in your ministry…. and in your thinking! It did to me… embrace it!!!

For the joy set before me,

Pete

In full honesty: … and I only share it, because I know that you will relate and so it should spur you on!

I have had opportunities to let my gifts shine recently. There have been multiple times in recent past where I have either preached, prophesied, led, taught, and just been used as a temple of the Holy Ghost! I love it! But then in my spirit I feel as though that my sustenance does not come from these things that God anoints me to do… it’s the character that he builds in me that makes me last. I’ve had a deep sense in my spirit that in order for the anointing to be used effectively and increase in impartation and capacity, the well must be dug deeper. I like this! because I know that so many men around me are full of character. DISCLAIMER: I am not boasting about anointing, because anointing comes from the one who has the oil… he builds the alter, anoints, then sets the anointed alter ablaze.

This is where it all gets practical;

I was so convicted last night – realizing that I had only let my light shine around believers. Knowing that my roots are evangelism and my heart sold on being used as a vessel to win the lost, I had to bring phrophecy to the market place. So I did… I turned off the worship music in my car and said Lord show me… he did, I prophesied in Wal Mart… and then a fountain of blessing came forth. ( I’m not going into details about this… because of how deep into details I could go and want to go… it would take forever. )  I realized how I had tried to shift the alter that God had built… which was me, and as a result the oil went a different way than it was supposed to… which means that the fire was burning and sending different signals than it was supposed to. I immediately felt a release speaking God’s word in Wal Mart!

A few things that happen when you obey:

1: You realize that you can do what you’re called to do.

2: You shake off the burdens that don’t belong to you.

3: You gain faith! Faith that can’t be with-held… with that takes action is dangerous to the kingdom of darkness and reveals the kingdom of light!

I am one the loves to press passed the crowd to touch Jesus’ garment… and in the last few months I have had opportunities to be a witness in Wal Mart… but have declined… feeling like a loser and knowing that I was being disobedient, however I did speak to my future – asking God to make me brave for the next time that I was called too share his name in Wal Mart… knowing that it was his will. Sure enough those blessings and seeds of faith that were planted even in the midst of losing took blossom and exploded with one step of action.

THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PUT THE PRACTICAL PRESENT AND FUTURE EXPECTATION TOGETHER!

VISION + OBEDIENCE = SCORE!

Pete ( joysetbeforeme )