Shelbasaur's Blog

I can feel the pressure. It’s getting harder now.

shelbasaur — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:36:50 +0000

I hate being pressed. I can’t stand being pressured until everything in me is squeezed out like an orange in a juicer. It’s easy to say that you want to change, that you want to deal with all the crap in your life and weed it out. It’s another thing completely to actually have those things worked out. Being perfected hurts. It comes at a high price. It isn’t easy to obtain, and it shouldn’t be. It was purchased at a price too high to comprehend. It’s only reasonable that it should cost me something as well.

It’s already ours.

shelbasaur — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:27:45 +0000

I hate Satan’s hold on my generation. I hate that the men in my generation don’t step up and take their place. I hate that the women in my generation don’t have a clue how beautiful and incredible they are. Too often we forget the promises and the authority that lay on our heads because of who has commissioned us. We are the answer that God is giving to the cries of our hurting world. We have been strategically placed in our places. We have been equipped to do the work that we have been called to do. All authority in heaven is backing our every move. What are we afraid of? Jesus bought our freedom, empowered us with His Spirit and gave us our objective. Our team has already won. We can walk in victory because Jesus won that for us.

Youth Invasion

shelbasaur — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:16:52 +0000

This past weekend, the Dibor went to Dryden, New York to give some assistance in running a y0uth conference. We were there to fill in for any position that they needed us to. They needed servants and we were there to serve. When we arrived they went over the schedule with us. I was asked to lead a young men’s discussion that would confront the issues that all men struggle with. I only had a day to prepare, but I accepted anyway. I got to pray over countless individuals and speak into their lives as God led me to. It was incredible to have God pour through me into these individuals that I didn’t even know. There was no way that I could have understood the relevance of what I was saying before they told me. Everything that God gave me for each individual was spot on and pinpointed what God had been speaking to them throughout the weekend. I feel honored to have been given the privilege to invest some of my time into the lives of these young people that God has commissioned to be conduits of His power on the earth.

Never take any opportunity for granted.

shelbasaur — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:37:54 +0000

I’ve learned to take the ministry opportunities that God gives me seriously. I went to Boston this week for a few days to do some street evangelism. I was walking to the coffee shop down the street to get out of the cold for a few minutes. On the way, I was stopped by an elderly guy that asked me if I was with the group that was doing the evangelism. I told him that he was and he proceeded to tell me that many people have told him that Jesus loves him, but he didn’t believe it. I talked to him for a few minutes and got to pray with him. By the end of the prayer we were both in tears. When he walked away, I could see a difference in the way that he carried himself. I like to think that what God did through me in those few minutes may have changed that man’s life for the better. I really think that the moments when God asks us to connect with individuals are critical moments in our lives. For a time, whether it be a few seconds or a few minutes, God places that person’s eternity in your hands. I think we overlook that, or maybe we just don’t see it that way. Whatever the case may be, we need to realize that we are being given an immense responsibility. The reality is that when we pass up these opportunities, we’re not only passing up a chance for God to work in that person, we’re passing up a chance for God to stretch us and build us up through the experience.

I don’t want to grow up.

shelbasaur — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:35:59 +0000

I’m sitting at home catching up on some laundry and my sister is here babysitting. I’m watching this little boy play and it made me think. I remember when I was young. I remember the way that I used to think. I didn’t care who was watching or what they would think about me. I didn’t even pay attention to them the majority of the time. So why do I get caught up in what people think now? At what point in my life did I change? When did I start basing my life on the opinion of my peers? I have an enormous amount of respect for the few people that I know that never lost that child-like quality in their lives. They show me that this life isn’t about pleasing everyone else, but being comfortable in your own skin. One of my close friends recently told me that one of the most important things to her is that she can lay her head down at night and know that she didn’t compromise who she was to please anyone. I think that if we don’t learn to somehow gain that state of mind back, we may miss out on a lot of our lives. And that would be a shame. I don’t want to grow up.

Jeremiah 29

shelbasaur — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:30:11 +0000

I’ve notice that Jeremiah 29:11 is a significantly popular verse in the church today. I’ve had it memorized for years, and I’ve heard it quoted countless times. I was reading Jeremiah 29 for devotions this past week because I wanted to understand the context of Jeremiah 29:11. Jeremiah 29 is a letter that the prophet Jeremiah wrote to the elders that were left among the exiles that had been taken from Jerusalem to Babylon. He was sending them a message that God had given to him. Verses 4-5 are God telling the people to marry, have children, build houses and work for the country’s welfare. He also tells them to pray for Babylon. They are captives in Babylon, taken from their own homes and Jeremiah is telling them to pray for Babylon. God tells the people, “Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.” Then Jeremiah tells gives them the verse that we all know so well. I really love the “Message” version. “I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out – plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” I kept reading after this, and I feel that the next few verses that follow this popular passage are just as powerful if not more than verse 11. ”When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed. ” Jeremiah 29:12-13 I was completely blown away by how powerful this chapter is. To date, it is my favorite chapter in the whole Bible.

What if?

shelbasaur — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:14:37 +0000

What if we’re actually the ones standing in the way of the miracles that God wants to do in our lives? What if the way we live our lives reflects on more than just us? What if God loves us so much that He keeps us from understanding the things in our lives that we ask Him to reveal to us, simply because He loves us too much to let those realities ultimately wreck us? What if His love is so great that He doesn’t let us understand it, only because we wouldn’t be able to fathom a love so strong and so pure? These are the questions that I’ve found myself asking lately. It’s hard to be in a place where you don’t understand why God does things, or even be able to see the upside to the situation. It’s difficult to deal with all the emotions the rise up in you when you don’t have an answer for life and the people that you trust don’t have one either. There are a lot of things in this life that don’t make sense to me. However, there are a few absolute truths in this life. God loves us. He desperately longs for relationship with us. He wants to show us just how crazy He is about us. A wise man once told me, “This I know for sure; When we cry out to Him, He will answer us.” So for now, I’m going to have to find comfort in the uncertainty of this life. I’m going to have to embrace the reality that I may not ever understand everything and probably won’t.

*Job 33:33 – “But if not, listen to me. Keep silent and I will teach you wisdom.”

Boom.