Josh Meadows

The entrance

Josh Meadows — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:04:27 +0000

The other day, I got in a really weird mood, seriously, for a dude, it’s weird! It was a “Cleaning mood”! I started scrubbing stuff that I never thought to have scrubbed before, cleaning stuff that I had never cleaned before, and i actually enjoyed it. WEIRD! After everything was cleaned, I noticed that I had forgotten one MAJOR, KEY, area….the entry way at the front door. See EVERYONE that enters my house, has to come through the front door, there is no other way (I did have a friend named Tyler Medford that used to climb up my balcony, he did work for the power company) that people can enter. See the front door is the place where people expose my house to all kinds of dirt, mud, trash, etc. If I don’t clean the front entry way, then whatever comes in from outside, is going to be tracked into my house, on my carpet, into my room, and now what was on the outside, is on the inside.

Our eyes are similar to the front door of the house, if we don’t guard and keep clean what comes in, next thing you know, it will be ALL UP in us, in our hearts and in our minds, only to infect us with spiritual dirt, better known as sin. Jesus said in Matthew 6:22, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.”

We would be wise to pay attention to what we “gaze” at. Only one is worthy of our gaze, and that is Jesus Christ, that is why the bible repeatedly tells us to keep our eyes on Christ. When Christ becomes our eyes, and we see the world THROUGH him, then and only then can we be healthy. Having Christ as our eyes, will fix the way we view people, women, objects, etc.

Get your gaze on Jesus!

Lesson learned……

Josh Meadows — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:48:34 +0000

All people that loves to smoke, probably wouldn’t settle for second hand smoke…..A person who loves to run, probably wouldn’t enjoy a piggy back ride on a trail…..A race car driver that enjoys the thrill of racing, might not like riding in the passenger seat…..And someone who loves Jesus, won’t settle for someone telling them how to pursue Him, they’ll just do it for themselves.

#1 Don’t substitute good things, for the real thing. If you know every Driscoll, Piper, Chan, and Chandler sermon, but yet you are not actively pursuing Jesus for yourself, chill out dude, cut your freakin computer/podcast/ipad off, and go get alone with the scripture. That’s borderline idolatry, and also can be lazy.

#2 Get alone with God, and alone with His word! Ask the spirit to be your guide through scripture. The spirit is the one who searches and knows the mind of God, we MIGHT want to invite Him in on our scripture reading.

#3 Compare what you see in the bible, to what is going on in your life and in the life of the church, and whatever the scripture leads you to do, DO IT, even if you go against the flow. The bible says the path to life is narrow, but in the church in America, it seems awful wide…be careful…read the scriptures.

#4 Pray, invite God in on EVERYTHING you do. Remember that He sees what we cannot, he knows what we don’t, he guides when we can’t….Prov 3:5-6

#5 Quiet down the noise. Cut off facebook for a while, put your twitter down, cut your tv off, turn your music off….JUST YOU AND GOD…..and listen, and wait, and reflect, and think…and ACT!

Challenge

Josh Meadows — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:33:59 +0000

For Moses, it was encounter at a burning bush! For Abraham, God came to Him, told him to pick up his stuff and leave! David, was a shephard wandering around in the wilderness! Jacob, had his moment in a dream, and later wrestled God crossing over to new land! What’s my story?

Sometimes we must walk alone, we must get away and retreat, to encounter God. What if He was NOT in the place you expected Him….and what if He WAS in the place you least expected Him to be?

The moral of the story, is get alone and beg for God to whisper! Get away from the noise.

Josh

It’s NOT what you think it is

Josh Meadows — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:17:36 +0000

How many times have you heard people say they are thankful to be in America, because of the religious freedom? Probably a lot right? And people talk about how easy it is to worship here, right? And yes, it is easy to lift our hands or hold a religious gathering, true. BUT, it’s not easy to follow Jesus here. Matter of fact, this is the hardest place to follow Jesus, you know why? Because there probably aren’t a lot of people following him, why? COMPETING LOVES! See, overseas, Jesus is all people have, here, He is not priority. Kid yourself if you want, it’s hard to follow Christ in America. UNTIL HE IS ALL WE HAVE, WE WILL NEVER SEE HIM AS BEING ALL WE NEED! Is this a different persepctive, of course. But do we need to think about this, yes?

We are A fat and happy, comfortable and lethargic, self succcient and not dependent, Church. There is not denying it. Unless we forsake the love of things, and gain an eternal perspective…living with eternity stamped on our hearts and minds, We will keep saying, “THANK YOU” for letting me be an american, while not realizing, we are wicked. THINK ABOUT THIS

We killed Him…..

Josh Meadows — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:53:37 +0000

Yesterday as I was running, and was thinking about the verse in Colossians 2:13-14, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having FORGIVEN US ALL OUR TRESPASSES, BY CANCELING THE RECORD OF DEBT THAT STOOD AGAINST US WITH ITS LEGAL DEMANDS. THIS HE SET ASIDE, NAILING IT TO THE CROSS!

Okay, you’ve all heard the story, Jesus died for you, to forgive your sins, then he rose from the grave to give you life. But have you REALLY let that sink in? It’s a valid question, and maybe you need to take the glasses off, that you have been seeing that through….and ask the HOLY SPIRIT to interpret just what that means. To stop and think that the God of the universe, would rather murder his son and pour out ALL the wrath that you and I deserved, upon Jesus……Pause and think right now……….Instead of pouring his wrath upon you, instead of being distant from you, instead of punishing you, He decided to punish Jesus ON YOUR BEHALF.

Guys, it’s your sin and it’s my sin that nailed Jesus to that cross, its because of US that Jesus had to take the wrath of God. I remember the feeling of huring someone so very bad that I cared for, it tore me up inside, kept me up at night and ripped my heart to pieces, however, that compares nothing to how my sin, nailed Jesus to the cross.

Great news, he forgives, he voluntarily choose to go to the cross, he wanted you and me, to experience His father, and experience forgiveness. Now, meditate on that for a few days, NOTHING but the cross and the resurrection, how would your life change if you just stopped and meditated on that.

Love ya

The Great Tribulation

Josh Meadows — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 04:23:20 +0000

The Word of God…

Josh Meadows — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:36:26 +0000

Lastnight, a group of people gathered in my house for worship, fellowship, and reading of scripture. We decided to unpack the book of Colossians and go through it line by line, precept by precept….and just the beauty of scripture just erupted back into my life in a fresh way. We had believers from all walks of life, and in all journeys of there walks=BEAUTIFUL! One of the things that I often talk to young people about, is distractions, how often times the first thing that we miss out on when life gets busy, is the most imporatant thing, intimacy with Jesus! Oh how we miss out, and oh how foolish it is to get so busy….

The word of God is alive, it’s a spiritual sword that cuts to our hearts and minds, and it’s power leaps off the pages to ignite my heart, look at this scripture for example, Colossians 1:15-20 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or doninions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn fromthe dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in himall the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross”

To think that Jesus is the image of the invisible, immaculate, inconceivable, incomprehensible God?!?!?! I must stop and worship, because God didn’t have to send his son, he didn’t have to make sacrifice for our sins, YET HE DID! see scripture points me to Jesus, who point me to the Father, who point me to the cross to showcase His love for me! At the cross I must fall to my knees, all pride has to leave, all ego has to die, all senses of accomplishment must get crushed, and I must bow.

Put scripture up all over your house, put it in your bathroom, put it on your walls, write it in your journals, let the word of God fill up your mouths to the glory of our great God!

Random, crazy, kenya blog…….

Josh Meadows — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:10:08 +0000

I’ve been trying to post daily journal entries from Kenya, but I’m going to go ahead and summarize the trip up here. A lot of people come back from trips saying, “I just learned how blessed we are here in America!” And it kills me! Because I feel like, if that is all you take away, then you have missed the point. I come back from these trips broken. I heard a story of a man named Joseph, who lost everything, even saw His family members murdered, yet He NOW knows that there is a God that loves Him. He NOW loves HIs neighbors, where before, He didn’t. I hear stories about little Joshua, about seeing both his parents killed, and seeing Him running around smiling, brought Joy to my soul. To know that we serve a God that redeems us and draws us near, to know that we serve a God that is rescuing His children to himself breaks me. A lot of times we get “inspired” temporarily when we go on mission trips, but this has changed my perspective. I am going to do everything in my power to raise money for Naomi’s Village, me and some friends have already been selling t shirts and hoodies, to give proceeds to them. One person, that carries hope, can make a difference. I have to respond to these kids. I can’t lay my hear down at night, and act as if they don’t exist. I can’t just put them out of the back of my mind and go back to life as normal. See, when we expose ourselves to brokenness, then God can use the exposure to wound our hearts for the cause. I used to get mad, because I knew pastors who said they wouldn’t go on mission trips. And I realize now that they can’t see my perspective, and that IF they did go on the trip, they could experience my urgency and my brokenness to those kids. My point is that we as Christians, need to expose ourselves to the broken, if not, we will never develop compassion for them…and chances are, you don’t know Christ, if you don’t care for the broken(Matthew 25).

Challenge, crush the idol god of comfort in your life. Get outside of your comfort zone. Pray for God to bring broken people in your life. Do a mission trip, go serve in the community, go to soup kitchen, and GET OUTSIDE YOURSELF. Comfort is not the habitation of Christ, he hates it! Lets kill it in our lives and live in adventure, if your life is looking more like a lazy river, than a white water rapid ride, somethings wrong! MOVE!

Naomi’s Village

Josh Meadows — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:14:02 +0000

Kenya, Day 3

Josh Meadows — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:10:23 +0000

This morning was incredible, it was our last night staying with the Mitchell’s before we headed down to Naomi’s Village, the orphanage that we are staying at. Glen and Joan cooked us the best pancakes, so that was a nice treat before we headed down into the valley. It’s so crazy how the small things, like being together as a group, and some wonderful pancakes, can make me so incredibly thankful. I was getting so excited to see the kids at the orphanage though, seems as if that was the very reason I made the trek to Africa. This morning we got to meet Bob and Julie Mendonsa, and listen to there story about how they started the orphanage to care for the kids. It was awesome to see there hearts and even there protective nature over the kids. There stories are horrendous, but at the same times, beautiful stories of rescue and redemption. I couldn’t help but look at the kids and think, my God brought you here, hand picked, and rescued you.

The coolest thing happened during our orientation, there was a guy named Luke I met back in 2009, my first trip to AFrica, and while we were meeting with Julie, LUKE walked in the door! I thought I would never see this guy again! It was incredible, to re-unite with Him. God is good.

The first kid I met, was Joshua. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WobCx1SwQow So stop right now, and click on this youtube link, or copy and paste it in your browser. If you don’t watch this, you won’t understand any of what i’m saying. This was a blessing to be able to hold this kid, He was full of energy, running around us in circles and playing and going crazy! Love him. He would often look at me and say, “Uncle Joshua, I love you and you are my friend!” lol….love it!

Day 3 was incredible…loved being able to wake up around these kids and do life with them!