dustinhorstmann.com

Getting married Saturday

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:01:09 -0600

I think it’s starting to happen…not being able to think.

And me, awakened to love
Not deserving it
But swimming in it
Just as with God
Who will receive me forever.

"I have no hope at all, then, but in Your pity for me. Granting what You require, require whatever..."

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 09:41:08 -0600

““I have no hope at all, then, but in Your pity for me. Granting what You require, require whatever You will. You impose on us self-discipline. Well, as the writer has it, ‘Since I realized that no one can be self-disciplined unless God grants it, knowing who grants it is a mark of wisdom.’ Self-discipline is a gathering inward, toward oneness, from our disperasal out into severalness. For no one loves You well who loves anything else except because of You. You, my love, who burn forever without consuming, set me on fire, for the charity of God. You impose self-discipline? Require anything, granting what You require.””

- - Augustine, Book Ten, IV 40

(How at home do I feel in these words: highest goal, total emptiness, and the filling of God)

"You are the happiness that everyone desires, the only happiness."

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 06:43:35 -0600

““You are the happiness that everyone desires, the only happiness.””

- Augustine, “Confessions”. Book Ten, III 33

spiritualinspiration: Therefore, whoever humbles himself like...

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:44:45 -0600

spiritualinspiration:

Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. -Jesus

Vote for the Orphan Justice Center

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:54:30 -0600

Vote for the Orphan Justice Center:

Orphan Justice Center makes adoption affordable to good families. They are based here at IHOP-KC. Vote for their ministry and make it possible for them to win up to 50k in grant funds.

wingstofly: our save the date :) Beautiful video ;)

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 12:04:18 -0600

wingstofly:

our save the date :)

Beautiful video ;)

"Run, John, run, the law commands But gives us neither feet nor hands, Far better news the gospel..."

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 12:03:34 -0600

“Run, John, run, the law commands
But gives us neither feet nor hands,
Far better news the gospel brings:
It bids us fly and gives us wings.”

- John Bunyan (via wingstofly)
Great find.

3 Weights that Dampen Your Faith

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:36:00 -0600

In Luke 21:34-36 Jesus speaks of three enemy’s of the heart.

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34-36 ESV)

The 3 Killers

Dissipation
This basically means squandering money, energy and resources on a life of pleasure.
Drunkeness
Be careful when you think you stand, lest you fall. Any one of us could give into drunkeness.
The Cares of This Life
Perhaps this is the most common.

Our Response

What is Jesus remedy in this verse? Read it again. It’s watchfulness and prayer. He calls us simply to pray with a sober attentiveness that we would have strength to escape these things, and strength to stand.

Do you continually ask for strength from the Lord on these things? If not, this passage might explain why you feel like you are under a wet, heavy blanket.

I’ll never forget the day when the Lord spoke to me concerning this verse saying, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord’ and not do what I say?” By His grace, I’ve prayed this almost every day since.

A photo from our engagement shoot from Mr....

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:35:00 -0600

A photo from our engagement shoot from Mr. Hanly.

adamhanly:

from today’s shoot. :)

A flower among flowers (Taken with Instagram at Kauffman...

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 21:49:08 -0600

A flower among flowers (Taken with Instagram at Kauffman Memorial Garden)

Engaged!! (Taken with Instagram at The Princess Palace)

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 21:49:00 -0600

Engaged!! (Taken with Instagram at The Princess Palace)

Beautiful view ;) (Taken with Instagram at Sprint Nextel Corp.)

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:54:00 -0600

Beautiful view ;) (Taken with Instagram at Sprint Nextel Corp.)

Columns (Taken with Instagram at Ewing Marion Kauffman...

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:48:27 -0600

Columns (Taken with Instagram at Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation)

Date Day: my beauty (Taken with Instagram at Jen Jen’s...

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 17:19:24 -0600

Date Day: my beauty (Taken with Instagram at Jen Jen’s Chinese Restaurant)

Why Salvation Must Be Free

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:40:43 -0600

as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.”

“Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

in their paths are ruin and misery,

and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

- Romans 3:10-18 ESV

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

- Romans 8:7-8 ESV

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

- Romans 7:24-25 ESV

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

- Romans 6:6 ESV

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

- 1 Corinthians 1:28-31 ESV

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

- Romans 3:27-28 ESV

The Story?

In ourselves, we are wicked. We could not deliver ourselves. Christ came to deliver us from ourselves. Since we cannot do it, we must rely on Christ. This is faith. And because of our inability, it must be free.

If you will not freely receive, your sins will not be covered.

If you will not freely receive, you will not be delivered from your sin nature.

Freedom from the penalty and power of sin is a gift. This is the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

We cannot receive only forgiveness but not freedom from sin’s power. Christ is not divided. We either receive all of Him or none of Him. But the gift does not cease to be free. Yes, the blood of Christ not only washes away the stain of our sins, but our desire for them. And shouldn’t it be so, that we are dependent on the only Righteous Person in the entire Universe to be righteous—to be righteous, inside? Yet we are surprised that we need God to even desire good and be free from desiring evil. We make our crucifying ourselves some sort of currency, but God will not receive it.

Abba, in Your mercy, may the church be purged of trying to overcome her evil desires without total reliance on You, through Jesus Christ. Unveil His glory. Relieve us of our relentless fascination with our broken light bulb.

“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”

- Romans 5:17 ESV

Do the Horrors of the World Cause You to be Secretly Offended with God?

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:43:00 -0600

Perhaps I will not forget the night that my insides were twisting at the thought of women going through human trafficking. More than what they were experiencing, I was troubled by the thought that God made a world in which this was even possible.

I felt like I was in a garbage compressor, like my soul was about to be flattened under the weight of this struggle. “If God would allow this, what can I trust Him for? Is He trustworthy at all? Am I stuck in some nightmare world?”

I cried out to God for help. Then something happened. I began to see a subtle accusation of another kind that had slipped in. This accusation was against me:

“How dare you accuse God? Now you’ve offended Him. Watch as your life falls apart from here on out.”

Then the Holy Spirit began to inspire my understanding:

“You feel like you need answers to hard questions right now, but more than that, you need to draw near to God. The blood poured out by Christ heals your heart of this offense against God, and you must draw near to be healed of it.”

I began to realize something: my accusation against God was being compounded by the accusation I was receiving against myself. I felt shame that made me want to run from God. A scheme of the enemy was at work. But God was saying, “Even with your offense, come to Me, and I will heal you.”

I opened my heart to Him and the garbage compresser began to open up. Almost immediately my heart came to rest. More than answers, I needed to know I could draw near to God to help me. The healing my heart needed did not come by an argument that proved God’s goodness despite all. It came by the knoweldge that the Son of God came to heal mankind of all that keeps humanity from being reconciled to His Father, which includes our deep offense against Him.

Yes, the grace of God does come to teach us, but before we are teachable, the stony places of our hearts must become flesh. This is the work of the blood of Christ: making a new, moldable man.

The Reason Why Many Don't Keep Their Resolutions to God

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:25:00 -0600

Remember Peter?

Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.” - Luke 22:33-34 ESV

Why was Peter’s confession so flimsy in the ears of our Lord? Because He knew that Peter was relying on his own abandonment to followthrough. Later the Lord restores Peter and appoints him to be the main preacher at Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit comes.

The message in this becomes clear: apart from the Spirit, we can do nothing, even express our love.

Two Fundamental Ways We Don’t Rely on God

Wanting something that goes against God’s law. We rely on “broken cisters” to satisfy us.
Wanting to keep God’s law without His help. It’s those times when we resolve to forsake those cisterns, to be wholehearted after God, to give everything.

The second is deeper and more problematic. The second appeals to our fallen nature like nothing else: the ability to be good without God. This sin is especially dangerous for those who want to be abandonned to God.

The story of Peter is found in Romans 7:5-6:

For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death (Peter’s bad fruit: denying Christ). But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code (Peter’s good fruit: standing up at Pentecost and boldly proclaiming Christ).

The above passage is all about whom we trust in. How so? Well, how were we “released from the law”? Through Christ. What does that mean? Simply put, it means becoming righteous without first having to keep the law. It means righteousness as a gift, through the work of Christ. Either you do it (trust yourself), or He does it for you (trust Him).

How does this affect abandonment? If you think God wants you to prove something, or if you want to prove something, that means you are under the law, and according to the above passage, your evil desires for self-preservation will be stirred up by the law.

Let’s just be honest. You are not good. Your pastor is not good. Your favorite writer is not good. Your favorite worship leader is not good. I am not good. “None is rightoeus, no not one.” But we all are good in Christ. Yet as Christians, we don’t become increasingly good apart from Christ.

Rather, the Christian life is one continuous discovery that there is nothing in us to lean on, and all that there is to lean on is found in Christ. Thus our eyes are set on Him more and more–and on ourselves, less and less. The more our eyes are set on Him, the more He transforms us into His image. The more we gaze on ourselves, the more our corrupted desires reign over us, taking dominion.

Trusting in Christ for righteousness means…
1. freedom from evil desires
2. the presence of the Spirit to enable

Problem

I submit that most our the lack of followthrough in the church is not due to men taking grace as a license to sin, but because men are not actually receiving grace, and are therefore under the power of the law, dominated by their evil desires. Today, right now, men don’t trust in Christ’s righteousness. They see their evil desires and gasp, not imagining the fire of shameful passions could be put out in a moment with a free glass of water.

Solution

Read Galatians 3. Then read Galatians 1-6. Ask for help to live by faith in the Son of God.

The Christian life is to be by the Spirit’s power. The door into that realm is trust in the right Person.

"Prayer" by Brandon Hammonds (Music by Truman Falkner)

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:59:00 -0600

"Prayer" by Brandon Hammonds (Music by Truman Falkner):

Preaching and music from the house of prayer. Check it out at iTunes.

Having trouble breaking the power of shame?

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:54:00 -0600

While in the prayer room today, the Lord reminded me of something. It’s almost as though He said,

“How has the power of shame been broken in your life? Has it not been by coming to Me and talking to Me about it?”

I ended up tweeting something to that effect:

“I have seen the power of shame broken more by talking to Jesus about it than by commanding it to go in His name. ‘Jesus I feel bad about…’”

Trying to command shame away can be a lonely performance by which we try to earn our way into God’s approval. “Look at my faith, God! I’m Your little hero.”

Probably God smiles on us. But I believe it is much healthier for our souls to just talk to Him about it:

“Abba, I feel bad because I keep wanting to eat food that isn’t good for me.”

“Abba, I feel bad because I want to think upon immoral things. Would you please help me?”

“Abba, I struggle with trying to be noticed by important people. I feel ashamed of myself because I know it is wrong. Would you please help me?”

I was blessed by this reminder today. Little-by-little God removes the shame and performance mentality from our hearts.

Abba, reveal Your love. Cause us to rest. You give Your beloved sleep. Thank You for Your love.

wings to fly: why God loves...

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:01:00 -0600

wings to fly: why God loves...:

wingstofly:

Why does the Lord love me? This morning while in the prayer room, I felt the Lord speak a seemingly strange phrase to me. Yet this phrase brought such comfort and joy to my heart. God said,

I don’t love you because you do IHOP(-KC)

A tiny party of me wanted to respond with a quick, “no duh!”…