Why Thanksgiving's A Bit More Special

As we prepare to sit at the Thanksgiving table, we can’t help but be slowed, quieted, awed at just how meaningful and special this table is.  His character of goodness, provision, and caretaking are already overwhelming us and flooding us with gratitude.  This table is special not just because of who He is and what He’s provided.  This table is significant because of the symbol it is of the grandest feast of all.

This feast, the one told in Luke 14.  It says a man (he must have been a very wealthy man) prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations.  When everything was perfectly prepared he sent his servants to tell his guests the banquet was ready.  But not one received the invitation.  Each one made excuses.  More work, more business, too many family pressures.  Whatever the reasons, they were too busy, too important, too worried about life circumstances to say yes.  They were stuck making sure their worlds kept spinning, and they missed the feast, denied the invitation.

When the host heard his guests’ response he was furious.  He immediately sent his messengers to call for anyone and everyone who would receive the invitation.  The crippled, the poor, the blind, the lame… anyone who would say “Yes.” 

Here’s the thing that’s getting me, that second invitation?  Those ratty tatty, bruised, unlovely, and utterly broken people he invited?  That’s us.  It’s you and it’s me, and He’s calling us all in to enjoy the finest, richest of feasts.  It’s a feast of His goodness and blessings and provision.  A feast of His rich, gentle presence.  A feast where we get to sit and commune with and enjoy Him for all of eternity.  Now that’s a feast I don’t want to miss.

So as you take your place at the table tomorrow, will you sit slow and utter in your heart with me, “Yes, Jesus.”  Just respond to His invitation.  Receive with confidence, gratitude, and joy, your invitation to the grandest feast of all time.

Good Beyond Our Need

This is one of those things that’s just settling deeper into my heart and it’s changing how I interact with and view God.  When I think on it, it makes me smile all over.  It’s flooding my heart and washing over my perceptions of our Father.  His heart of goodness is absolutely wrecking me.

Do you wanna know just how good He is?  The first thing He opened my eyes to is the first miracle Jesus performed.  You know the one.  The one where he turned water to wine.  It wasn’t a miracle done out of dire need.  It wasn’t a “God has to show up or we’ll die” kind of a situation.  It was late in the festivities of a wedding.  The wine flow had run dry and guests were still hanging around.  Surely they didn’t need more wine.  But Jesus, because He’s so good, miraculously provided more wine.  Better wine than the first time around.  He turned that plain ol’ water into the most excellent of wines.  Not a need, just pure abundance.  He provided more than enough, far beyond what anyone needed.

Doesn’t that say something profound about His nature?  His GOODNESS?  He wants to fulfill our needs and go above and beyond with only the best of the best.  If you’re not believing it yet, it keeps gets better. 

What about the time Jesus took 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed the 5,000?  Not only did every person eat all they wanted, but the disciples gathered 12 baskets of leftovers.  Leftovers!  From 5 loaves and 2 fish.  God didn’t just provide enough.  He didn’t just provide until each one was satisfied.  He provided above and beyond their need.

And when we were still sinners, full of junk and rebellion, still rejecting God, still a nasty mess full of all kinds of evil, He died for us.  He saw our potential.  He saw who we could be, and He died for us.  You can’t tell me that’s not a God overflowing with love and goodness.

Then you realize, He adopted us into His family.  He chose us and clothed us in royal garments.  He not just allows us, but invites us to feast at the table with Him.  He calls us Sons and Daughters of the Most High God.  Little, meek us now called holy, royalty, heirs.  And He gave us His power, and placed the entire Kingdom at our fingertips.  We are the children of God.  The Kingdom is ours. He is so full of love for us.  He is so for us.

He’s just waiting for us.  Waiting for you and for me.  Waiting for us to come sit and feast with Him.  Waiting for us to come drink of His incredible goodness and experience His heart that chose you and chose me, and cheers each of us on!  He is waiting with a barrel of abundant, overflowing goodness.  Will you just sit with Him and believe His heart?  He is so for you. And He so wants to blow your mind with just how good He is.

My "God Box" Crushed

I think I always thought not putting God in a box meant dreaming bigger and believing for the "impossible" (which really just meant dreaming huge). I've finally realized I think it means not putting God in a box at all. It means dreaming supernatural and believing for the truly "impossible."  "Impossible" like physical healing, diseases gone, prophecy, crazy provision. That's not putting God in a box.  It's not putting limits on what we allow, believe, or think God can do.  He has no limits. 

My "God box" got some major dents these past two years and in the last couple months started crumbling completely down. It started with glimpses outside that safety box. Things here and there like infertility being healed in friends, a friend receiving a prophetic word which was beyond what they imagined and 100% what ended up happening.  But the walls were still very much there and standing firm. 

My heart was eager for more, but the box was safe, and it was all I had ever known. 

Then last October we started at 5 Rock. One vehicle would break down, we'd pray for another one and almost instantly have our need met by someone who just happened to get a new car and wanted to donate their old one. Or we'd have a major financial need and bills due. The mail would come and checks would be written for the exact needed amount. I'm telling you, I don't think a God who works this crazy big fits in a box. 

Then one single weekend this past August. Prophecy spoken over us like a direct call from Jesus himself.  How could these strangers have ever known the depths of our hearts, the giftings we held, or the situations we were in?  Only God. (Isn't He so good like that?!) And that same weekend, a woman healed in Jesus'name, physically, right before our very eyes. Then we hear a woman speak. Once paralyzed, now walking, jumping, moving.  She stood right up out of her wheelchair in Jesus' name.  I'm telling you, my box was obliterated. Jesus still works in very real ways. 

I think of the arm that literally couldn't be lifted because the shoulder was stuck frozen. It moves and rotates freely and painless.

I'm learning very clearly, God doesn't fit in a box. We might try to keep Him in a box. I did. It was safe. It was comfortable. It was common, and "normal." It was all I knew. 

But God, he doesn't belong in a box.  He doesn't fit in a box. 

When we see God in His fullness is when that box gets smashed.  That box gives way when we dig in the gospels and see Jesus literally heal hundreds from physical sickness, disease and pain.  The walls crumble when we see Him work miraculous right before our very eyes.  Believing in a God who does the impossible means our actions show it.  Truly believing and acting for the "impossible" is not normal or comfortable, but it is absolutely amazing and completely worth it to see God work in His fullness! 

When you see with fresh eyes who He says He is, and you believe it (even if it seems crazy and uncomfortable) God will crack that box and He will wreck your life in the most amazing way possible!  He will crumble those walls and do things we could have never dreamed of or believed possible.