Josh Turner

Lastnight, after Becca and I put Riley to bed I slipped into Ayden’s room to pray for him as he slept.  As I knelt by his bed I was overcome with this sense of love for him that brought me to tears…..As I laid my hand on his chest and prayed for him I had a thought cross my mind…WILL HE EVER KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE HIM?…..I wonder if at night God does the same thing to us?.  I wonder if at night He looks at us in awe like I look at my children and is overcome with a love that moves Him to tears.  I wonder if He looks at us and asks the same question that I asked last night…..Will he ever know how much I love him?

Judges 7:2

The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her

God has a way of revealing things to me in just the right time, I guess that’s one of the things that makes Him God.  Well, a couple of days ago I was driving to work thinking about how much I need another staff member and how I could do so much more in FUSE and Sub30 if I just had another staff member to help with stuff.  I then let my mind start wandering on all that I didn’t have instead of all that I did have and found myself getting in a bad mood.  So, I asked God why He had not given me another staff member yet, I was informing Him on all the other awesome stuff I could do with someone else’s help.  Then it happened, God reminded me of the scripture that is listed above…..He was telling me that if He were to give me another person right now that any growth, any additional health, or any improvements in the ministry would quickly be claimed by me and my ego…..It was God telling me that before He can trust me with more He needs to be able to trust that I depended on Him more than the talents He has given me.

Not for one second do I not think that God gets pleasure from seeing me or any of us operate in our strengths, but I think it does concern Him when we trust in those strengths instead of Him.  I felt that at this time He was just telling me to trust more in Him and not my strengths…..Most of the time I am educated beyond my own obedience.

Last night was one of those night where God completely moved and did what only He could do.  I love it when God comes in and changes our plans to do what He wants because what I have learned is that Gods plans are so much better than mine. 

The thing that I have learned is that as a pastor and a preacher I have got to be sensitive to the tuggings and direction of the Holy Spirit during the message.  There have been more times than I can count where my planned message has changed and morphed in to something else as it is being preached and that is all God and never me.  The cool thing about these changes is that almost everytime it has happened it has been for someone that is there in the room. 

Last night that happened and the results were salvations and freedom in Christ.  It was awesome

Recently I have had a lot of people asking me how do they know when they hear the voice of God and to be honest I have trouble explaining it to them.  However, I have been reading a book called Mentor Like Jesus and the author Regi Campbell gave 5 different statements on hearing from God and I just thought they were awesome so here they are:

1. Is the answer/instruction consistent with Scripture?  God will never direct us to do something that conflicts with His Word.
2. Will the answer challenge your faith?  If the direction is the easy way out and doesn’t require faith in God to execute, put a check on it.
3. Does the answer conflict with human wisdom?  Often God’s ways are not our ways, and whatHe directs us to do seems really weird to our twenty-first-century culture.
4. Does the direction clash with my fleshly nature?  Sometimes God will lead me into things that require extraordinary effort…or self-discipline.  I’ll have to go against what comes naturally.
5. Will obeying God require courage?  He’s often giving assignments where we’ll have to take risks..to trust Him.  He’s doing that to build our faith.

Hope this helps

There are times in my life when I have no idea what to say to God.  I go to my quite place and the words just escape me, my mind goes on to the other activities of the day.  All the tasks that are so “important” some how cloud my mind and I have trouble focusing on God who is the only one that can truly give me the answers that I need for all of these “important” tasks….If I am honest I hate this about myself…I hate that I have trouble just being still in God’s presence and being able to clearly always focus my thoughts on Him and not everything else that I have to do.

However, there has always been one constant in my life when it comes to this problem and that is that the words of David Crowder in worship can always help me focus, I am not quite sure why.  Today, I experienced this constant once again as I struggled focusing in my quite time…..Then this words came through my headphones:

I need words
As wide as sky

I need language wide as
This longing inside

And I need a voice
Bigger than mine

And I need a song to sing you
That I’ve yet to find

I need you, oh
I need you

I need you, oh
I need you

To be here now
To be here now

To here me now
To here me now

God, I thank you that you do not judge our prayers based off of how eloquently they are spoken, but on how hard we search for you and the heart behind it….God thank you for giving me the word.

This is a post from our daughters blog that my wife wrote….She is awesome

Ok, so this might sound kinda crazy but I had the most amazing dream last night where I was sitting and talking with God about Riley & her future. I only remember bits and pieces of it now that I am awake but what I do remember is that it was a casual, relaxed conversation like talking with a friend and I was asking Him a bunch of questions (and I know this sounds silly) but the only question I can remember asking now was “Well, what about her being prom queen?” and He said “Those crowns are plastic, have you seen mine?” I so wish I could remember more of the dream! When I woke up this seemed like such an insignificant detail of such a powerful dream I was sad it was the only part I held on to but then I opened my Bible this morning to Isaiah 35 and this is what it says …

Isaiah 35

Joy of the Redeemed

³ Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;

⁴ say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.”

⁵ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

⁶ Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.

⁷ The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

⁸ And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
it will be for those who walk in that Way;
wicked fools will not go about on it.

⁹ No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,

¹⁰ and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing; 
everlasting joy will crown their heads. 
Gladness and joy will overtake them, 
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

James 4:14 tells us…”Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”  Today, I got a text message telling me that one of the sub30 students dads had been electrocuted and had a 1% chance of survival.  He went to work today like any other day, but something happened that no one saw coming….It got me thinking

  I mean everyday I drive a car for 45 minutes at about 80 mph, it wouldn’t take but a second for my life to be changed forever.  I watch the news and see freak accidents, I have been at funerals for friends my age that had undetected heart problems, I have read newspapers where crazy people have hurt others….It got me thinking

We never know when our time will be up.  We have one life that has been given to us by God and He is the only one that knows when we will take our last breath.  So, my question is what does your life stand for…..if someone were to look at the way you lead your life what would they say about you….would they comment on how much you loved your children…would they talk about the way you treated your wife….would they comment on your love for the Saviour and His house…..would they talk about your compassion, love, heart, giving, and friendship.

What would people say about me?