Welcome to the Victory Blog

This past weekend, I invited Fusion Pastor Johnson Bowie to begin our newest series, Emmanuel: God With Us with a message about Peace. And, he did a great job, bringing a word we all need to hear regularly. If you missed it (or even if you didn’t), you can get the audio/video recording here. For now, here’s a brief synopsis:

About 2,000 years ago, after about 400 years of seeming silence from God, an angel showed up in a little town in Israel and told a little Jewish girl named Mary that the Holy Spirit would miraculously place a child inside her and that this child would be the Son of God – His name would be Jesus; He would also be called Emmanuel: God With Us.

Because of that, we can know now that God isn’t just “up there” somewhere, billions of miles away, looking at us through some high-powered telescope. No, He’s right here with me and you in the middle of it all. And truthfully, with everything that is going on in the world right now, and everything that’s going on in our lives, we need to know that He is here – God With Us is present, because wherever Jesus is, He brings His peace.

Now, Jesus’ peace doesn’t guarantee the absence of trouble or trials.  In fact, Jesus actually promised us that WE WILL HAVE troubles and trials.  But, He says that despite it all, we can have peace in the midst of it – His peace – knowing God’s presence moment by moment forever.  It’s a deeper peace than the world can offer. No matter what gets thrown at us, through Emmanuel, we can now have:

• Peace with God – Through Jesus, we were reconciled to God.  Before Him, we were lost, filled with shame and either running from God or rebelling against Him. But Jesus came and sacrificed His life for ours.  And now, we’re not just ‘okay’ with God, we’re holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation!
• Peace with Others – “Our hostility toward each other was put to death.” (Eph. 2:16 NLT) Through Christ, we are one.  He came to break down the walls of hostility between you and other people – whether they’re based on race, ethnicity, politics, gender or anything else.  We can love our neighbors AND our enemies.
• Peace with Life – Through Emmanuel, we can know God as our Father. When we get scared, hurt or afraid, the last thing God wants us to do is run to someone else, or sit over in the corner crying.  No, He wants us to come to Him like small children, with tears in our eyes, hands in the air so He can pick us up, and we can tell Him everything that’s happened, and somehow, everything’s okay when we’re in our Daddy’s arms.

Today, God is saying, “Stop going to the world for peace!”  The peace the world offers is nothing more than mere pain-killers for our lack of peace.  Alcohol, drugs, pornography, sex, food, TV, internet, relationships, a bigger house, a nicer car… anything to distract us from the reality of our own lack of peace. It’s like hitting the morphine button in the hospital to “make it all go away.”  But those things only work for an hour or a day before reality is staring us in the face once again, and we still have no peace.

Emmanuel offers a peace that the world cannot offer. Are you going to receive it? I can’t tell you that your situation will ever make sense, or that it’s going to get better right away. But, I can tell you that when the storm is crashing all around you, there’s a way to keep the storm from entering your heart… it’s to know that Emmanuel is with you; that you aren’t forgotten; that He will never leave you or forsake you.

GOD IS WITH YOU!

This past weekend, I invited our Fusion Young Adults Pastor, Johnson Bowie, to speak. I always enjoy it when he brings the word. He’s so full of passion for the things of God. Here’s a synopsis of his message (if you want to hear the whole thing, click here):

When I truly heard the message of the gospel for the first time, that there was a God who would pardon my sins, making me acceptable and righteous in the sight of God; that I would be saved from hell and know God the Father; I was so excited to receive it! What a great deal! I was on cloud nine. But then, I sinned again. I was devastated. I thought I threw it all away. I felt like the biggest loser ever. I felt like I couldn’t even look to God or talk to Him because He must be so disappointed and disgusted with me.

For years, I believed one of Satan’s biggest lies: that when I do good, God loves me more, but when I do bad, God loves me less – a real emotional rollercoaster. That’s a tough ride to be on. I can’t tell you how many times I told God that if I sinned again, He should just kill me. I preferred to be in Heaven with Him than down here sinning over and over again.

In our current series, BRICKS, we’ve been talking about the foundation stones of the Christian life, such as loving, serving and giving. But today, I’m talking about something that we think we get, but we don’t really. If we really did get it, it would totally revolutionize our lives and change the world. I’m talking about Grace – “God’s unmerited, free love and blessing for sinful man revealed and made effective in Jesus Christ.” That means there’s nothing we can do to earn it or keep it. We can’t. There’s no way we could. It’s only possible because of what Jesus has done.

There’s something we need to know if we’re going to understand grace: We all deserve hell. We all fall short. The standard is pretty high – we have to be perfect…in every thought and motivation of our hearts, not to mention our actions, every moment of our whole lives. Impossible! We have nothing to offer God to make Him love us. Apart from Christ, we are worthless!

But here’s the good news: Through Jesus Christ – through His death and resurrection – those who believe have been made as though they never sinned. Now, God sees us as if we’re perfect – without sin – no matter what we’ve done! Can you believe that?! He’s taken all the guilt and shame and replaced it with holiness, loveliness and peace. He took the just judgment of our sins upon Himself in Christ. Because of this, we can now relate freely to God as sons and daughters!

Nothing we do can make Him love us more, nor can we make Him love us less! We have to stop trying to earn God’s approval. That’s a trap of the devil. It is ONLY by grace through faith in Jesus Christ…only…nothing else…period. All we have to do, is believe. It really is that easy, that simple.

So, let me ask, what do you do when you sin? How do you respond to your own weakness? Do you run to God or away from Him? Do you humbly accept His forgiveness and love? Or, do you try to work your own way out of it? Why pursue futility? Start running into the Father’s arms of grace!

I’m so proud of Johnson (our Fusion Pastor) for the great job he did preaching while we were away in Africa. It brings me great satisfaction to know we have people who can bring the word and not miss a beat on the weekends with God. Here’s some of the word Johnson said:

There’s a War of the Worlds going on all around us. There’s more than meets the eye. Something is going on behind the scenes. As Paul says in Ephesians 6, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood.” There’s a battle going on, but it’s not with people. Rather, it’s against powers, principalities and dark spiritual forces of evil in the world. Those things really do exist. Satan and the demons are real. They are not our friends. They only come to steal, kill and destroy our lives. Our enemy is prowling around like a lion looking for someone to devour. We need to be alert and aware.

BUT we have power! Jesus told us that we need not fear. Yes, He said, we will have many troubles in this world, but He has overcome the world! We have power in God! Even though the battle is raging all around us, God is already victorious. The end is already determined. Jesus’ death and resurrection decided it. And, when Christ returns, He will bring the final fulfillment of that victory. In the meantime, however, the devil continues to war against the kingdom of God. That’s why we have to put on our spiritual armor, stand firm and fight. Do you want to just let the enemy run roughshod over you, or are you going to get in the battle and wage war against him?

We need to be in a constant state of readiness. Satan doesn’t play fair. He will attack at any point in which we let our guard down. We have to keep our armor on and our weapons ready. Yet, way too many of us have been getting beat up by the attacks of the enemy because we haven’t put our armor on. In addition, we need to take up the weapons God has given us. Do you only want to defend yourself against attack after attack, or do you want to go after our enemy, take the battle to him and take back territory in our lives?!

Prayer is one of our two main offensive weapons. Prayer is not talking in King James English. It is not about using some kind of formula, or repetitious phrases, or religious terminology, or something you do once a day or week. Prayer is our connection point to God. It is exciting. It is how we take the battle to the devil. Paul says we need to pray, and not just pray, but pray in the Spirit…about all kinds of things…on all kinds of occasions…with all kinds of prayers. There’s no one-size-fits-all prayer.

We are called to be warriors in this life. No matter what our vocation is, we can be mighty warriors through prayer. We pray in Jesus’ name and authority and that is mighty power! It’s time we started using it. Why wait until things start getting bad to pray? Let’s get in the battle, out in the world, in our day-to-day lives. That’s what God is calling us to do boldly! It’s time to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might! Take a stand and when you’ve done everything else you know how to do, then stand. Then Satan has to flee. When we start getting hold of this, things are going to change; they have to. So, pray, pray, pray and pray some more!

Man, that’s a good word! And, there’s a lot more to this message than I have space to repeat here, and it’s definitely worth hearing. So, if you want to be a victorious warrior in this War of the Worlds, then I encourage you to listen to or watch the whole message here.  And, don’t miss next weekend as I close out this series with the Sword of the Spirit!

In case you haven’t heard, throughout the summer, Fusion, our 20-somethings ministry has left the building and is taking it to the streets, engaging the community as Jesus would! Just because they aren’t having formal services doesn’t mean they’re just kicking back for the summer. No, through Fusion small groups and social justice projects they’re sharing Jesus with our community in real and practical ways, reaching out to neighbors, helping people in need and shining the light of God’s love into dark places. Check out these video blog posts highlighting some of what God’s already been doing in and through them:

And that’s not all! Check out the Fusion Blog to see what else is has been going on.

Plus, the summer’s only half over! There’s a lot more to come!

This last weekend, I was grateful to take some time off and have Fusion Pastor Johnson Bowie give the message. He brought a simple yet powerful word in his lively and animated style. If you missed it, I encourage you to watch or listen to it here. For now, here’s a little bit of what he shared:

I know it’s not Easter and we’re not supposed to talk about Jesus being alive except on Easter, but this is something I just can’t hold inside! If you don’t get anything else out of this message, I want you to walk away from here knowing that Jesus is absolutely amazing!

Okay, here’s the story. Thousands of years ago, in a little place called the Garden of Eden, the first humans, Adam and Eve listened to Satan and disobeyed God, bringing sin into the earth. However, God gave a promise to them (and many others throughout history) that He would one day defeat sin and Satan. Finally, thousands of years later, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, lived a perfect life and died a humiliating death on the cross. But that wasn’t the end of the story!

A few days after His burial, some women came to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body. When they got there, they asked the soldiers to move the stone, and they put the spices on Jesus’ body. Then, they sealed Him back up and went home weeping because Jesus was dead…

NO!!! That’s not how it happened! The fact is that when the women got there, the stone was rolled away, there were no Roman guards and, when they looked inside the tomb, they saw that Jesus’ body was gone. Jesus had risen and conquered death! And this is an important fact for a number of reasons. Here are three:

1. Give Us A Victorious Life – If the story ended at the cross, then we’d just be forgiven corpses waiting for Heaven. We’d have no hope against sin and no power in life. We’d just be forgiven. Through Jesus’ resurrection and the power of the empty tomb, we have a new, eternal and victorious life. We have power over sin and our enemies, Satan and his demons.
2. Jesus is Powerful – Jesus didn’t escape death… He CONQUERED IT! And, He defeated death and sin and Satan. He isn’t weak; He is amazingly powerful! When we pray, we’re not just praying to a little baby in a manger. We’re praying to the One with consuming fire in His eyes!
3. He’s Coming Back – Finally, He had to rise in order to come back! Because He arose, Jesus is going to return and restore everything that’s wrong with the world. His kingdom will come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He will bring the church into unity under His Lordship. And, He will make us perfect. We will truly all become the bride of Christ and be with Him forever!

Doesn’t that stir something in your spirit? Over and over again, I am filled with awe at how wonderful and amazing Jesus is! And, I am moved to live my life in such a way that everyone around me sees that too!

On February 11, 2009, we were pleased to welcome author David Batstone and musician Brant Christopher. Together, they shared with us a message of freedom.

David Batstone is the founder of Not for Sale, a campaign to end slavery in our lifetime. Brant Christopher is a musician who has partnered with Not for Sale, helping to spread the word that human trafficking and slavery is a modern day reality.

During this special service, David Batsone delivered a powerful message of freedom for the captives. Eyes were opened as David shared with Victory the disturbing fact that 27 million people are currently enslaved. Yes, 27 MILLION! And this is not just in other countries, it’s happening in our own backyard – right here in the “land of the free.” Children and adults are being sold as slaves to a perverse world – a world full of evil, greed, lust, and spiritual deadness. David not only informed us, but empowered us with the wisdom, knowledge and truth necessary for us to do our part to end slavery. As Isaiah 61:1 says: “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor…to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” (NIV)

Brant shared his heart for the issue by putting music to his words – playing guitar and singing songs that portray the unsettling emotions associated with human trafficking and slavery. Brant’s music seized our hearts and caused them to be sensitive to the issue at hand. Brant unselfishly used his musical talents for the greater good of all. Brant is a great example of how we all can use our gifts to raise awareness of this issue.

We are truly grateful to David and Brant for bringing this relevant and urgent message to Victory. As a result, many were challenged to take responsibility, take action, and take the message of freedom to all who are oppressed.

Taina Brown had this to say about the event:

I had heard [Batstone] speak on the cause last year at a Fusion service and, since that time, had developed an interest in joining the anti-slavery movement. The Fusion band had led us into a time of worship and there was a sense of expectancy in the room. There were those of us who had already been involved as modern-day abolitionists on several different levels, and there were those who were new to the movement and unsure of what to expect from the night. Interweaved with the backstory of Not For Sale and what we as average citizens can do to combat the terror of human trafficking, was music by Brant Christopher and visual images presented on the screens. It was a very creative presentation that gave us information and also touched the human soul at its core through the different types of media that were present.

An abolitionists is defined as someone who favors the abolition of any law or practice deemed harmful to society. How many of us would actually say that sex trafficking and human slavery is something that we favor? At the end of the night, we were encouraged to take action. Not by signing up on rescue teams or traveling abroad to places where it’s right before our eyes, but by signing up to be informed, by writing letters to major companies which deem it un-profitable to buy things like chocolate and clothing not made from slave labor, and by getting the word out. We were challenged to live differently, work differently, shop differently. We are no longer ignorant to this issue, and to do nothing is to turn a blind eye.

Christ did not die in vain! The true reality of our times is that ALL are free! Not a select group, class, race, or gender, but ALL. Freedom! Shout it from the roof tops! Proclaim it to the captives! “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36, NIV). ~ Alex Hogan

For more information on “Not for Sale”, check out their website: www.notforsalecampaign.org

Ever feel like your life is like a game show? You wonder, “Should I chose door number one or door number two?” What about when one of the choices looks easy and one looks hard – like a door with a bunch of locks on it? How can we know we’re making the right choice?

In our day and age, we are surrounded by choices. Not too long ago, if you wanted coffee, you could choose between coffee or…..coffee. Now, you go into a place like Starbucks and you have literally hundreds of combinations to choose from: tall (which for some reason is small), grande, venti, single, double, triple, cappuccino, macchiato, Americano, mocha, etc. The choices are endless. The average supermarket has 36,000 individual items to choose from – which is why I walk out with so many things I don’t need. Revlon has 156 different shades of lipstick.

We are completely bombarded with choices every single day – some easy, some hard. Sometimes the difficult choice is the right one. “Do I go in early and work hard to make it to my son’s baseball game tomorrow or break one more promise?” “Do I take that second look at the girl at work or keep my eyes pure?”

The choices we make now have consequences – both big and small. Too often we go through the easy door. Making the wrong choices results in things like debt, messing up sexually, abortion, going to prison, HIV. Making the right choices, on the other hand, will both benefit us and positively impact many others. Also, God is honored in this world as we make good, right, honest choices. In order to make do this, we need wisdom.

So, how do we get wise? Start by looking at the life of Jesus. Throughout his life, He asked Himself four questions that enabled Him to make amazingly wise choices. For instance, after spending 40 days in the wilderness fasting and praying, Satan showed up and tested Jesus – sort of a multiple choice test. Jesus’ response to each of the devil’s temptations was, “It is written…” Satan tried to get Jesus to take the easy door, but Jesus knew the Word.

Whenever a choice is presented to us in life, the first question we should ask about it is, “Is it written?” We can’t make good choices if we don’t know the Word of God. The Word of God is the will of God. If you want to make Godly choices, you have to get the Word inside of you.

Now, there are a lot of things that just aren’t specifically addressed in scripture. When that’s the case, the next question we have to ask is, “Is it love?”  We need to evaluate every choice on the basis of love. Jesus said that the world will know that we are His disciples by the way we love each other. What does that look like? 1 Corinthians 13 is an excellent description. Among other things, it says that love is patient, not self-seeking and not easily angered. So, if one of the choices isn’t love, don’t go though that door.

If the issue is still kind of grey after asking the first two questions, then ask: “Is it on the agenda?” God has a plan, a purpose, a hope and a future for every person, family, relationship, city and nation. Jesus knew God’s agenda for His life was to seek and save that which was lost. If we’re going to follow Him, we need to know God’s agenda for our lives, just as Jesus knew His and evaluated His decisions by that.

So, what is God’s agenda for your life? If you’re not sure yet, or if you don’t have anything more specific, you can fall back on this one from Mark 16: “Go into all the world preach the good news…” The cool thing is that after that, it says that all these miraculous signs will accompany you. That means, when we are walking in this calling, the power of God goes with us.

Finally, if the choice still isn’t clear, ask “What does God have to say about it?” That means we have to pray about the choice, and listen. We have to keep our spirits open to hear His voice. Look at the example of Paul. Acts 16:6-10 describes him and his companions going from one place to another because they were prevented by the Holy Spirit from taking the gospel to Asia, and then Bythinia. Then, after heading to Troas, Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia begging him to come over there. That is where God wanted them to go.

This passage is so cool. It shows me that Paul had no idea what he was doing. It really seems like he had no clue where they were supposed to go. But, he was listening. In every choice we make, it is absolutely vital to keep our eyes and ears on God. The thing is, we just can’t see down the road, past the doors of decision. If we could only see clearly what lay on the other side of our choices, they would be so much easier to make. But we can’t. There is Someone, however, who can – His name is Jehovah.

So many people refuse God’s help. They don’t know or don’t believe that He can see what they can’t. They insist on doing things themselves. They’re just like my little boy insisting on pushing his stroller even though he can’t see over the handle and refusing to let me keep even one hand on it to help. No, just like him, they have to run into a few curbs and smash their faces a few times before realizing they need to ask for help. That’s the key: we need to ask God for help. We need His hand on our life. He can see what we can’t.

God has laid out a plan for our lives, but it isn’t usually through the easy door. Choosing the Door of Wisdom isn’t easy. But, when we stop and evaluate the choices life brings us by asking these four questions, the result is godly wisdom. And that makes for an amazing life!