I read two amazing sermons from great preachers of the past last night for some homework. One was from Billy Sunday, the other from A.W. Tozer. Both blew my mind and increased my understanding of God. Ironically, they are both about authenticity and I picked them not knowing they were in sync with one another.

"What does converted mean? It means completely changed. Converted is not synonymous with reformed. Reforms are from without - conversion from within. Conversion is a complete surrender to Jesus. It's a willingness to do what he wants you to do. Unless you have made a complete surrender and are doing his will it will avail you nothing if you've reformed a thousand times and have your name on fifty church records... Maybe you're a drunkard, an adulterer, a prostitute, a liar; won't admit you are lost; are proud. Maybe you're even proud you're not proud, and Jesus has a time of it. Jesus said ‘come to me,’ not to the Church; to me, not to a creed; to me, not to a preacher; to me, not to an Evangelist; to me, not to a priest; to me, not to a pope; ‘Come to me and I will give you rest Faith in Jesus Christ saves you, not faith in the Church.’… God says: ‘Let the wicked man forsake his way.’ The instant that is done, no matter if the man has been a life-long sinner, he is safe. There is no need of struggling for hours – or for days – do it now. Who are you struggling with? Not God. God’s mind was made up long before the foundations of the earth were laid. The plan of salvation was made long before there was any sin in the world. Electricity existed long before there was any car wheel for it to drive. ‘Let the wicked man forsake his way.’ When? Within a month, within a week, within a day, within an hour? No! Now! The instant you yield, God’s plan of salvation is thrown into gear. You will be saved before you know it, like a child being born." –Billy Sunday

So ironic wouldn’t exactly be the word to use because God is never ironic. He has this theme intertwined within my day, whether it has to do with morning prayer, homework, or class, and it’s in these moments that things are strung along together through my day that I know He is there and working in my life. No detail is too small for Him. I know I don’t need some big church service or even the church to know Him. It’s in my every day life that I find Him when I’m looking for Him.

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. – 1 Thess 1:5

“The man who has received the Word without power has trimmed his hedge, but it is a thorn hedge still and can never bring forth the fruits of the new life. Men do not gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles. Yet such a man may be a leader in church, and his influence and his vote may go far to determine what religion shall be in his generation.” – A.W. Tozer

2 Corinthians 5:27 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” I know that I don’t just want to be reformed. Anyone can reform their habits and ways. It is only the power of God who can make me new. There should be no remnants of my past self hanging around. I want to have a genuine, authentic relationship and knowledge of God. The proof [fruit] of that is an inside conversion.

So I encourage anyone who reads this… let God be the center of your life. Let Him be your focus. He knows all and is all-powerful. And if you don’t have the faith [trust] that you can be converted into a new creation just look at the little things He does through your day. Look for Him! He is there waiting to create you! Let Him form you into the masterpiece He can only paint.

-Amanda Wilgus XI

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." -Marianne Williamson


What a powerful thought. One of my favorite parts of our MCS Creed states that "we are set free to set others free." And that sums up this great insight. That as you live and become the best version of yourself and you allow your light & the glory of God shine through you, it will liberate others to do the same! So stop hiding! What is it that you KNOW God has made you for? He purposed YOU for something GRAND. It may not seem grand when you compare it to another's dreams. Which reminds me of a passage in Corinthians:


"Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present. We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the field God has assigned to us, a field that reaches even to you." 2 Corinthians 10:11-13


So GO and let your own light shine and watch as it domino effects others into giving them permission to do the same!

Loving Life! Nicholas Whitestone

My Second Year at Masters Commission Sacramento has set sail. It has been an interesting journey thus far. A wise man ounce told me, that leadership is the only thing scarier than hell. Leadership actually can put people in hell if done the wrong way. I have come to the conclusion that he was correct. Being at this place and position in my life,it brings lots of challenges on my plate. God reworking my habits and qualities, so I can be the most effective in this program. My main goal of this year is to get closer to God, trying to find His heartbeat, and hoping I can bring others across the finish line with me. I am privileged to be apart of seeing God move in young adults lives. Class 12 has their work cut out for them, but I know they will succeed.
MCDQ XI

“We never know what’s wrong without the pain”
Maybe you’ve heard the song these lyrics are from. Today I was listening to it, and thinking about some conversations I have been having lately. So many people have been saying they just want to be happy, they don’t want to deal with the pain. And I started to wonder... Why do we try to medicate ourselves so much from reality? If there is something wrong with our reality, shouldn’t we face it and try to fix it instead of running and hiding from it? Yet we are so afraid of the process it takes to be made whole. Why is it our natural response to run from anything that causes us pain? Why is it our natural response to find every excuse in the world not to be in uncomfortable situations? Doesn’t it say in James to "consider it pure joy when you face trials"? And in Hebrews it talks about how "no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful"? In both of those scriptures, what does it follow up with right afterward? The pain is going to develop something in you that is priceless. The struggle is what makes us who we are meant to be. Sometimes, facing the uncomfortable situations is the only way we are ever going to grow. Personally, I want to be known as a woman who is willing to fight through anything to become who God created me to become and really live out His purpose for me.
So, God help us not to run from the pain, help us not to be afraid of it. Let us choose to face it so we can fix it instead of numbing it. And make us who YOU created us to be - whole, free, powerful men and women of God that have the potential to CHANGE this world!

A captured heart

"Apart from Christ let nothing dazzle you." - A.W. Tozer

Many of the problems with the Christian church today come from the root of being so enamored with pop culture. Many of our professed Christians have their attention captured quicker by a catchy magazine headline then they do by a move of God. We have been more than dazzled by the culture around us we have become a part of it. Our hearts and minds have become so fascinated with the movie stars, musicians, and athletes that God is very often lucky to be an after thought in our lives. We say He is first but our time calls us a liar. We use the excuse that there is just no good Christian music but years ago people were very committed to God without even the possibility of recorded music. The media and not God has truly captured the heart of the Christian. We are Christian only in the cultural definition of the word not the devotion sense. We must identify that there is a problem, when, the events of a cultural icons life is our conversation topic while very few of our conversations are centered around Christ. We wear pictures of men and women on our shirts proving that Jesus is barely in our hearts or on our minds. We will seek Him and find Him when we seek Him with all of our hearts, the problem is that the desires of our hearts are pointed in so many directions i fear many of us will never find Him. I am not questioning salvation, simply providing an answer for dry Christian living.

Cole Zick

Reconditioning

Something nailed me in the face today. I felt God gave it to me for our MC group and He did but it was just as much for me. That is the need for our minds to be reconditioned. I fully believe that we diagnose way to many kids with ADD and ADHD that don’t really have it. The problem is that media has conditioned their minds to only pay attention for 7-10 minutes at a time. Commercial breaks are every 7-10 minutes and cartoons and TV shows are what raise America. All of our communication is visual. We watch movies, browse the web, and text message. Everything coming in is media driven and visual. Then we come and sit in a place to connect with God and wait for Him to show up. Without our movement and action nothing will happen. God is not like a good movie, meaning his purpose is not to entertain us. If we truly want to connect with God we need to understand a couple things. First, our minds have been conditioned to have a completely different type of communication then the type that we will have with God. satan has done a very good job at conditioning the minds of America and our world through the media. He doesn’t even have to get us to watch or listen to bad things he just needed to get us dependent on movies, music, and the TV so that we want to spend all of our time in these arenas. I mean look at where we are at, as soon as our prayer time gets boring we pop in a Hillsong CD and all of sudden God’s presence is there? I wonder if its just that our mind is conditioned to be entertained with loud noise and good music. It begs me to ask the question if it is really even God’s presence at all in that moment or our emotions. All of that to say this, we must understand that to authentically connect with God we will have to recondition our minds and what they are dependent on. God is not here for our entertainment. He is hear for our soul. This also means that we need to drastically restrict our media intake levels. Again I am not just speaking of the bad stuff I am talking about everything that has conditioned our mind to be so dependent on visual stimulation to feel enjoyment. Without restricting this area of our lives we will continue to allow it to condition our minds without us every realizing it and thus making it virtually impossible to ever truly connect with God. satan knew how to counteract the ability to connect with God, just make us dependent on an opposing type of communication. So now much of our Christian church today is filled with empty, yet entertained people wondering why it doesn't really seem real. Second, do something. Now that you see what is preventing you either act or remain the same.

Cole

The Bible

The Bible is not forcing us to do something, it’s inviting us to be a part of something. God says, “obedience” not to force us to say yes sir, but rather so we can be healed of the pain that life, as an imperfect human, creates. The Bible is not full of men and women that lived, unattainable, perfect lives, as a model for the perfection that we must strive for. It is rather a testimony of what life can be when lived for God. God is not telling us that we must, seek him first, refrain from sin, pray continually, or any other bit of advice in order to gain salvation. Rather God tells us to do these things so that we can live and operate in the beauty of His presence. It’s not that He won’t speak when we are choosing to sin, listen to secular music, watch an unedifying movies, or doing anything else in our media driven culture, but its just that with all of these voices his is drowned out. The beauty of the Bible is that its amazingly up front. God very clearly communicates what life with Him will look like. It’s not meant to be a book of rules but rather an exciting vision casting for what your life could look be. God is clear, He says in order to experience him in a powerful way there are things that must be present in our lives. It’s not because He is so insecure that He doesn’t want us to see the other options. God just knows that we are so easily distracted by things and our flesh is so weak that many times we would not choose the right option. The Bible is a beautiful dream of what your life could be. It will be destroyed for you when you allow it to become a religious manual. We read verses like, “Jesus prayed early in the morning” and say we need to be disciplined to pray like Jesus did. But Jesus met with God early in the morning because there was nothing in his day more important to Him. It was not out of obligation but rather a deep passionate desire to be with the father. The life of Jesus is not a picture of perfection that we must work to obtain, but all the time knowing that we never can. The life of Jesus is a wonderful example of what a life can be. David’s intimacy with God is not meant to create a mandate to seek God but rather to show what close relationship with the father looks like. King Asa’s destruction of the idols is not an insecure god’s need to be worshiped but rather an example of a heart that is fully committed to Him. We take what I believe God meant to be exciting, motivating, and fascinating and turn it in to a burdensome yoke that creates rules and regulations. For 10,000 years God has been trying to motivate us to live fully in the capabilities that we are able, to not obligate us to pick him. Consider me motivated.