We Can Do This!

Yeah, it's been a while since I last posted due to a hurricane and a crazy life after the storm. We had a hurricane come through our area on September 14th and pretty much put Houston into a very chaotic state. For the first week of this chaos, my family left and went to stay with my brother who lives in Denton, TX (north of Dallas). On the Sunday that we left to come back to Houston, I went to the church that my brother and his wife go to called The Village. It is a very cool, hip, young church. But that isn't all. This church is so involved in its community and the pastor of the church has such a heart for people and it is contagious! Every time I go there I am refreshed and have a vigor to be more Christlike in my life in the things that I do and say. This last time that I was there though, God pretty much devastated me with the message that was brought by the campus pastor. The message was extremely convicting (in a good way) and the songs that were sung were very uplifting and pressed us to grow more in Christ. One of the songs that was played was a song by Chris Tomlin called "God of this City" (I have to insert here that the song was originally written by Bluetree, but I first heard it and have only heard it played by Chris Tomlin). God pretty much plagued me with this song while I was driving back to Houston that day. I was thinking about the church that I had just come from and the message of that song and how that church exemplified so well the lyrics of that song.

God plagued me with this thought the whole entire drive home from Denton to Houston (which is just short of 5 hours if you follow my dad): Why haven't you thought of Me as God of your city Brandon? OUCH!!!!! The reason I say this is because I completely understand the sovereignty of God and that He ultimately rules the whole entire universe. The thing that I have erred in so much is not taking that fact and zooming it in on a specific place. I think it is a comfort issue. You know, like, God is the God of this whole entire universe and He is huge!! That I can be comfortable with but it is when you say that because God is God of this entire universe, He is the God of this country, this state, this county, this city, this household, this (your) life, that it becomes uncomfortable to me in my life. My perspective is so messed up. It is as if I don't want God to be God of this city, making it more and more personal as we get from the universe to a specific place. I have never thought of it like that either. So God totally ruined me with that question, but then He completely uplifted me with the exact same lyrics that He ruined me with. It was such an amazing moment! In the same breath that He asked me the ruining question, He gave me this uplifting pep rally: because I am God of your city, you and all the others that are Mine can do this (You will understand the "this" when I put the lyrics up, so bear with me for a second)!

This brought on an onslaught of thoughts that propelled me to want to scream at the top of my lungs! We can do this! We can be the people God has called us to be. We can make an impact on the people in our city that Christ had on the people He was around. We can grow in Christ in our personal walk and lead others into that walk. We can live with all of the immorality that surrounds us with the knowledge that God is the God of this city! And we can do all of this because God is the God of THIS city! He is the God of THIS life. He has ulimate reign in THIS city! We as Christians perceive Satan to have an incredible power in the lives of the people around us, and he does, but God has much more power! I mean, He is God right? He has already overthrown Satan! He is way more powerful than Satan. He rules over Satan and this is not Satan's city, this is God's city! He rules over this city! May His will be done here in this place and may we (may I especially) be the people He has called us to be. People who love mercy, live justly, and walk humbly before our God (Micah 6:8).

Read the words of this song and may they soak into your soul and propell you:

You're the God of this city
You're the God of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

You're the light in this darkness
You're the hope to the hopeless
You're the peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this city
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

We believe, we believe in You, God



What some awesome lyrics! We can do this fellow Christians! There are greater things to be done in our cities, in our lives and God has the power to do this! As we think globally, lets not forget the local part of our lives and how God is able to work in the lives that are immediately around us! Father, help me to remember this. Forgive me for the times that I have not kept this perspective. Return to me the joy of Your salvation!