Jesus. Is. Everything.

What an exciting season here locally as our church has moved into it's new building. In fact, I am writing this very blog from our new offices. It has been a long time coming, and the wait has been more than worth it. THIS Sunday, we finally get to meet together as a body of believers, at the new location and worship Christ the King. I couldn't be more excited. Doubly, as Tanja and I haven't seen so many we love in over SIX WEEKS! Between our trip to Europe and having our trip extended out east here in the states, and then as soon as we got home we ended up with a nasty flu bug that wiped our entire family out for a week. So we are even more excited to see everyone! It's going to be a great time of worship and fellowship.

All this excitement has had me doing a lot of thinking. See most of the last year, our eyes have been looking to this event in the future. The day we finally get to move into the new building. The day we finally get to hold services here. The day we get to utilize different spaces. The day New Life Christian Academy gets to have a permanent home. All these things we have been looking ahead to have created this almost consant mindset of looking to the future. For me, that tended to carry over to other areas of my life. I found myself planning my future. Trying to make moves and position myself for the future in the best way possible. What's that saying? If you want to make God laugh, make plans! Anyway, I found my focus at times slipping from the only thing that matters, to a focus on the future.

Well the last couple weeks I have found myself so excited to get together in this new building, but that excitement has been centered in one thing. That excitement has been based on the fact hat we literally get to worship Jesus this coming Sunday together in a space designed to create an atmosphere that asists in just that in the best way possible. My excitement over flows from a place of thankfulness that we are able to worship the King so freely and openly. The excitement begins to over flow even more when I think about everyone I care about coming together and worshiping that same King that has set them free as well.

So often we try to "carve out time" for Jesus. We try to set apart time in the morning for a "Quiet Time". Or time just before bed for prayer. We try to "Fit" God into our lives. When we do this, we are starting off with the wrong mindset. See Jessus is Everything! We aren't fitting Jesus into our lives. We are fitting everything else into the life he has given us. When we find ourselves fully grasping that, how we look at everything begins to change. Trust me, I'd love to say I'm preaching this idea from a place of success, but if you know me well at alll, you know full well that I have had times where this has not been achieved. In fact there have been times this year where I have fallen grossly short. Times where being stuck in future thinking has found me in a state of negativity. Focusing too much on what is to come and not just focusing on him.

I'm extremely thankful that over the course of the last few weeks I have been able to maintain a groundedness that is birthed in thankfulness because it has opened the door to this season of excitment. I can count on one hand the times in my life I have been more excited than I am right now. In just 5 short days I am going to be able to look around a room at hundreds of people I care intently about, and I will get to see them enjoy a new surrounding, professionally designed to create an atmosphere of worshipping their creator.

Jesus. Is. Everything. He is all that matters. And this season, for me, has been evidence that when we truly just focus on Him and Him alone, everything else falls into place. Attitudes are corrected. Relationships are healed. Bridges are crossed. I challange you, just for a ten minute period. Then maybe an hour. Then maybe even a day. Wherevery you are in your journey, just take a specific amount of time, and remain Jesus focused. I promise that everything else will get better. He is designed to be the center of everything in our lives, and just like anything else, when something is used as it is designed it tends to work and interact with everything else, much much better.

I can't wait to see each one of you Sunday morning. I can't wait to hug people a little differnetly. To smile a little bigger. And not just because we are in a new building, but because, truly, Jesus Is Everything!!!!

"Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever." (Psalm 73:25-26 NLT)

"Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8-9 NLT)