First of all I want to offer special thank you’s to a couple of people. I mention them in this blog post and if you’re reading this then I thought it’d be fair to give you a heads up on what’s happening. So here they are, in no particular order. Angie, Kevin and Christie, Chris, Aaron and Laura, David and Ellen, Christa, Jon and Melly, and Dustin and Lori. I’m sure there are others and I’m sorry if you should be in the list and I forgot you. God’s still working on me on this one.
On Tuesday I threw out a #JesusRevolution challenge to love. Jesus’ love was rampant and as his followers we are required to love as he did and follow him in that. Today I’m realizing how difficult that is for me. I suppose calling it a revelation would be a little inaccurate since I’ve known about this for a while but I’ve been hoping that by ignoring it God would radically take care of it and I could move on. Well maybe not so much. Read more…
1 Corinthians 13:11 is a beautiful verse and has been one of the more challenging verses for me to think about. “When I was a child / I spoke as a child / I thought like a child / I reasoned like a child. / When I became a man, / I put aside childish things.”
Obviously, part of the reason I’m obsessing here is in the expectation of the baby boy coming along in July.
(We found out yesterday that it was boy and I shall call him MINI ME! … well maybe not. We’ll come back to that one)
See I’ve never really worried about what it meant to be a man. I’ve thought about it in an abstract, “isn’t that an interesting thought” kind of way. The only time that I have really thought about it was during the ICSEX blogging marathon and even then I answered the question of “what it means to be a man” (which was answered eventually by 1 cor 16:13-14). The question I’m asking myself now is, “what are the childish things I must put aside?” Read more…
Yesterday I talked about the things that Prayer isn’t so now I want to share some thoughts on what prayer IS from Matthew 6.
Prayer is…
Intimate and personal. “Go into your private room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret.” I shut out the world and create space for God to come and meet with me one on one. NO distractions, no mess, just him and me. Better than date night.
Direct. “Don’t babble like the idolaters, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words…your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” No need to beat around the bush, there’s no need to play games or hit the formula just right or just so, God is there and already knows our needs and desires so anything extra comes out of our love for Him not out of a need to placate Him. Read more…
Last Friday I decided that I was going to stop DOING for the weekend and just open myself up to time with the Lord. Now this is not something that comes easy to me especially since I’m such a performance driven kind of guy. I mean I hear people talk about basking in the glow of God’s love and presence and my first thought is “God’s here?! QuickstartprayingforhealingandgreatmovesofGodandsalvationsinthecity!!!!”
So yeah, not a small thing to not DO something. Whenever God shows up I want to start doing stuff with Him rather than just enjoying the presence. I discovered rather quickly on Friday night, that I was not going to be able to just sit around and wait on God. I’m too ADD for that one. Instead I decided to be domestic; to do those simple everyday chores around the house that I love to ignore, and to invite God to be with me while I do them. Not because I wanted His power or blessing while I did it, but because I wanted to love Him in the everyday things. Read more…
This is a comment that my buddy Ramone left on my post about my relationship problems with the Father. As you can see it’s a pretty long and well thought out comment, and I really wanted to put it out there to share with everyone else. Love and blessings!
Feeling outside by Ramone Romero
Now Seiji, I’m going to comment about works and grace, haha! You said,
In James 2:14 it says “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can his faith save him?” Now I don’t want to get into an argument of Works versus Grace (as interesting as that may be) because the fact is that works has a role to play in the development and maturation of our faith.
I’m going to pick on this because not many of us think about the two evidences (examples) of “works” that James talks about in the same breath of air: Abraham and Rahab. Abraham’s “work” was trying to kill his son Isaac as a human sacrifice for God. Rahab (whose occupation was adultery) disobeyed her government authorites by hiding spies, and then lied to the authorities to cover it up. Read more…
First of all I want to offer special thank you’s to a couple of people. I mention them in this blog post and if you’re reading this then I thought it’d be fair to give you a heads up on what’s happening. So here they are, in no particular order. Angie, Kevin and Christie, Chris, Aaron and Laura, David and Ellen, Christa, Jon and Melly, and Dustin and Lori. I’m sure there are others and I’m sorry if you should be in the list and I forgot you. God’s still working on me on this one.
