I get a devotional delivered to one of my email accounts daily. The other day, it was a passage of Scripture from Psalms 37:23. That passage reads as follows: "The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives." NLT For some reason, that struck me as so profound. He cares about our sleep, our health, the food we eat, the exercise we get, our job, our prayers, our family, everything about us. That is so incredibly awesome.
My wife loves me and cares about me, but it is totally impossible for her to care about every single detail that is happening or going to happen in my life in the next minute, much less an entire day. God cares about all of it. Now multiply that by all the people here on Earth and you begin to see just how AWESOME our God is!
28 March, 2009
23 March, 2009
My Turn To Repent
Ok, I have a confession to make. My last post should have been tempered another day before I posted it. I do not make an apology for expecting excellence in The Church. Matter of fact, I was reading just a few moments ago from Ed Young's "The Creative Leader," and came across this:
The expectation of excellence goes back to the core values of your organization. We are by-products of our real values, not our idealistic values. For instance, if one of your stated ministry values is excellence, but there are no systems for evaluation and no expectations in place from your top leaders, excellence will not happen. From the very beginning, God has impressed upon me the need for ministry excellence. We're not talking about perfection, but we have a can-do attitude around Fellowship. Just like any company that expects to thrive in the global economy, the church must exude an atmosphere of excellence.
How many times have you covered your eyes (or ears) in shame or embarrassment during a church service because it was evident that the songs, transitions, prayer, and message were thrown together at the last moment? What kind of message does that send to your unsaved audience? How do you think Christ feels about a church that only provides the bare minimum - when He wants His bride to be magnetic, to draw all people to Him?
The church should lead the way in creativity and excellence. We are not performing for one another but attempting to honor our creative Creator. Excellence in our worship services will motivate our congregation to bring their friends. When a church is excellent in what it does, it will attract people to hear the message of Christ.
The church needs excellence as part of its core values. It is essential that your staff is committed to each one of your core ministry values and that they strive to implement those in their specific areas of ministry. It is also essential that your top leaders are reminded of these values in staff meetings and retreates. When you model excellence as a leader, you will set the tone for your entire staff.
I truly believe what Mr. Young wrote about this aspect of church leadership. My wife can attest to the number of times when I have cringed when the band wasn't together or one of the instrument players hit a wrong note. Sure, people aren't perfect and mistakes will happen, but when it is through an entire worship service, it is very evident to me that almost no preparation or practice has taken place.
Now to the confession/repentence. My last post borders on the seditious/treasonous against the church were my family and I currently attend. Today I was listening to Perry Noble talk about personal responsibility and how it is my job to feed myself. Now, don't get me wrong, if I was new in Christ, I would have no way of feeding myself. I would be just like a baby who has to be taken care of almost constantly. But I have been a Christian for over 20 years and I finally realized that I should not be going to church to be fed, I should be going to church to feed others!
Let me give you an illustration that will drive this point home. There is a video on youtube (do a search on extreme breastfeeding) about a woman who breastfed her daughter until she was almost 9 years old. I don't know about you, but that is just WRONG! By the time a child is 1 1/2-2 years old, they should be off the nipple! At least that is what my wife told me. Taking the analogy a bit further, by the time a Christian is 2 years old in the Lord, they should have been trained by other Christians how to get off the nipple and feed themselves. After my eyes were opened today, I saw why the church is in such a sad state today. Most people who are in church and call themselves a Christian haven't been weened yet.
Service is what all of us are called to. We are called to serve Christ. We are called to serve those around us in our local church. We can't serve if we continually come to church with a bib instead of a fork. I am going to make it a point to bring my fork from now on and get more involved and maybe make a difference in my local church for as long as I am called to be here. I want to grow stronger in the Lord and one of the best ways for that to happen is to get involved and reach out to those who are new to Christ and help them learn to bring their own fork.
Anyway, like I said in my last post, if you aren't part of the solution, you ARE the problem.
Pastor, please forgive me for being part of the problem.
The expectation of excellence goes back to the core values of your organization. We are by-products of our real values, not our idealistic values. For instance, if one of your stated ministry values is excellence, but there are no systems for evaluation and no expectations in place from your top leaders, excellence will not happen. From the very beginning, God has impressed upon me the need for ministry excellence. We're not talking about perfection, but we have a can-do attitude around Fellowship. Just like any company that expects to thrive in the global economy, the church must exude an atmosphere of excellence.
How many times have you covered your eyes (or ears) in shame or embarrassment during a church service because it was evident that the songs, transitions, prayer, and message were thrown together at the last moment? What kind of message does that send to your unsaved audience? How do you think Christ feels about a church that only provides the bare minimum - when He wants His bride to be magnetic, to draw all people to Him?
The church should lead the way in creativity and excellence. We are not performing for one another but attempting to honor our creative Creator. Excellence in our worship services will motivate our congregation to bring their friends. When a church is excellent in what it does, it will attract people to hear the message of Christ.
The church needs excellence as part of its core values. It is essential that your staff is committed to each one of your core ministry values and that they strive to implement those in their specific areas of ministry. It is also essential that your top leaders are reminded of these values in staff meetings and retreates. When you model excellence as a leader, you will set the tone for your entire staff.
I truly believe what Mr. Young wrote about this aspect of church leadership. My wife can attest to the number of times when I have cringed when the band wasn't together or one of the instrument players hit a wrong note. Sure, people aren't perfect and mistakes will happen, but when it is through an entire worship service, it is very evident to me that almost no preparation or practice has taken place.
Now to the confession/repentence. My last post borders on the seditious/treasonous against the church were my family and I currently attend. Today I was listening to Perry Noble talk about personal responsibility and how it is my job to feed myself. Now, don't get me wrong, if I was new in Christ, I would have no way of feeding myself. I would be just like a baby who has to be taken care of almost constantly. But I have been a Christian for over 20 years and I finally realized that I should not be going to church to be fed, I should be going to church to feed others!
Let me give you an illustration that will drive this point home. There is a video on youtube (do a search on extreme breastfeeding) about a woman who breastfed her daughter until she was almost 9 years old. I don't know about you, but that is just WRONG! By the time a child is 1 1/2-2 years old, they should be off the nipple! At least that is what my wife told me. Taking the analogy a bit further, by the time a Christian is 2 years old in the Lord, they should have been trained by other Christians how to get off the nipple and feed themselves. After my eyes were opened today, I saw why the church is in such a sad state today. Most people who are in church and call themselves a Christian haven't been weened yet.
Service is what all of us are called to. We are called to serve Christ. We are called to serve those around us in our local church. We can't serve if we continually come to church with a bib instead of a fork. I am going to make it a point to bring my fork from now on and get more involved and maybe make a difference in my local church for as long as I am called to be here. I want to grow stronger in the Lord and one of the best ways for that to happen is to get involved and reach out to those who are new to Christ and help them learn to bring their own fork.
Anyway, like I said in my last post, if you aren't part of the solution, you ARE the problem.
Pastor, please forgive me for being part of the problem.
22 March, 2009
Last night my wife and I were laying in bed talking about the Spiritual State of our Family. Considering the importance of eternity, I think all couples should do this from time to time to just evaluate what their thoughts and perspectives are concerning this issue.
I told her how I felt about where we are as a family and where I am as an individual. Her response was that she knew I had been going through a rough and dry time, but that she had no idea how bad it was for me. This morning when I got up, the Lord reminded me of something I wrote on January the 1st of 2008. What I'm about to share is how I have felt for the past year, 2 months and 21 days.
Church as a whole, bores me! I go, but I find that I am not interested and very critical. The worship seems to run in a 2-3 week cycle. It’s the same songs. Kind of like going through he motions. There is very little reason to try and push the boundaries of worship when the leaders and the people are content to do the same old thing again and again. It is my profound belief that God is a very dynamic Being who is constantly doing something new. I believe that our lives should be new and dynamic every day. I believe that there is so much creativity available to us in the Spirit that church/worship should be new and refreshing every time we enter into the sanctuary to come before our God.
I look back at a couple of churches I have been involved in and long for the days when God moved so mightily that the congregation either had to fall down before the throne and worship, or run out of the sanctuary to get away from the awesomeness of God. I know that God separates the chaff from the wheat and that is what the church needs in this day and age. I’m tired of being in a church that tries to cater to all people just to have numbers. I want to be involved in a church that is not concerned with building an empire, but a church that is more concerned with the quality of spiritual life than quantity of people.
I sit through service after service and hear the words, “I can feel Gods presence”, “Isn’t the presence of the Lord so wonderful right now”, etc. But I don’t feel anything but profound disappointment because I feel nothing. I’m tired of feeling like I went to a huge pep-rally and the leadership was just trying to get the crowd excited. I want to feel the excitement, the expectation when ever I gather together with like minded believers. The Word says that, “whenever two or three are gathered together in My Name, I am there.” I want to be partners with a group of people who truly believe that and gather together to be in the presence of God.
I read in the book of Acts where the church grew exponentially because of the power of the preached Word. Acts 4:4 notes that about 5000 men where added to the church after one service. 5000 Men! That doesn’t include the women and children. Just a modest estimate would be that due to Peter and John’s obedience to preach the gospel, 15000 people where added to the church that day. I would venture to say that the church grew by a lot more than that, but that is just a guess on my part. I’m thankful to see people getting saved, but when is the last time that the Word of God was so powerfully preached that thousands came to Christ. If God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, why don’t we see Him move like the book of Acts describes? Has God changed? I think not! If anything, we have changed. I think we have put God in a box and limited Him and what He can do.
There is a saying that says that if you aren’t part of the solution, you are a part of the problem. I have sat passively by and slowly drifted into the realm of being part of the problem. I’m tired of being there. I want to be a part of the solution, but I haven’t a clue where to begin.
I want to see God move in my life, in the lives of all those in the Church. I want to feel the excitement, I want to experience His presence. I want to see his miracles. I want to see His glory move in ways that can not be understood. I want to experience God in ways that are unexplainable. I want to worship Him without saying or singing a word. I want to fall on my face and let his Glory and Power flow over me like the waves of the ocean crashing to the shoreline. My prayer for this coming year is to experience God afresh and anew. To live in Him, to move in Him, and have my being in Him (Acts 17:28)
I have been reading "The Creative Leader" by Ed Young and the creativity that I talked about in the first paragraph that I wrote over a year ago is brought out so wonderfully in his book. Because of reading his book, I have found a couple of churches via the internet that practice that creativity and I have watched the sermons that they have made available for download. As much as I hate to say it, those sermons that I have downloaded have become my lifeline.
Know this! I don't think that there is a substitute for the local church. I believe in the fellowship of believers. I believe that we need others of like mindedness to encourage us in The Faith. I believe that we need to be accountable to someone. Hebrews 10:24-25 states: "Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near."
NLT You can't encourage others unless you are around them, so the local church is very important.
So, my wife and I are currently praying for a place were the Creativity of our Creator lives. Where people come to take a step closer to Jesus and not to just grow fat and sluggish, eating and never feeding others. We want to be a part of a vibrant, excited Church that seeks nothing more than showing Jesus to a hurting community. I know that God is faithful and will lead us where He wants us, it's just hard to be patient when I feel like I'm dying inside.
I told her how I felt about where we are as a family and where I am as an individual. Her response was that she knew I had been going through a rough and dry time, but that she had no idea how bad it was for me. This morning when I got up, the Lord reminded me of something I wrote on January the 1st of 2008. What I'm about to share is how I have felt for the past year, 2 months and 21 days.
Church as a whole, bores me! I go, but I find that I am not interested and very critical. The worship seems to run in a 2-3 week cycle. It’s the same songs. Kind of like going through he motions. There is very little reason to try and push the boundaries of worship when the leaders and the people are content to do the same old thing again and again. It is my profound belief that God is a very dynamic Being who is constantly doing something new. I believe that our lives should be new and dynamic every day. I believe that there is so much creativity available to us in the Spirit that church/worship should be new and refreshing every time we enter into the sanctuary to come before our God.
I look back at a couple of churches I have been involved in and long for the days when God moved so mightily that the congregation either had to fall down before the throne and worship, or run out of the sanctuary to get away from the awesomeness of God. I know that God separates the chaff from the wheat and that is what the church needs in this day and age. I’m tired of being in a church that tries to cater to all people just to have numbers. I want to be involved in a church that is not concerned with building an empire, but a church that is more concerned with the quality of spiritual life than quantity of people.
I sit through service after service and hear the words, “I can feel Gods presence”, “Isn’t the presence of the Lord so wonderful right now”, etc. But I don’t feel anything but profound disappointment because I feel nothing. I’m tired of feeling like I went to a huge pep-rally and the leadership was just trying to get the crowd excited. I want to feel the excitement, the expectation when ever I gather together with like minded believers. The Word says that, “whenever two or three are gathered together in My Name, I am there.” I want to be partners with a group of people who truly believe that and gather together to be in the presence of God.
I read in the book of Acts where the church grew exponentially because of the power of the preached Word. Acts 4:4 notes that about 5000 men where added to the church after one service. 5000 Men! That doesn’t include the women and children. Just a modest estimate would be that due to Peter and John’s obedience to preach the gospel, 15000 people where added to the church that day. I would venture to say that the church grew by a lot more than that, but that is just a guess on my part. I’m thankful to see people getting saved, but when is the last time that the Word of God was so powerfully preached that thousands came to Christ. If God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, why don’t we see Him move like the book of Acts describes? Has God changed? I think not! If anything, we have changed. I think we have put God in a box and limited Him and what He can do.
There is a saying that says that if you aren’t part of the solution, you are a part of the problem. I have sat passively by and slowly drifted into the realm of being part of the problem. I’m tired of being there. I want to be a part of the solution, but I haven’t a clue where to begin.
I want to see God move in my life, in the lives of all those in the Church. I want to feel the excitement, I want to experience His presence. I want to see his miracles. I want to see His glory move in ways that can not be understood. I want to experience God in ways that are unexplainable. I want to worship Him without saying or singing a word. I want to fall on my face and let his Glory and Power flow over me like the waves of the ocean crashing to the shoreline. My prayer for this coming year is to experience God afresh and anew. To live in Him, to move in Him, and have my being in Him (Acts 17:28)
I have been reading "The Creative Leader" by Ed Young and the creativity that I talked about in the first paragraph that I wrote over a year ago is brought out so wonderfully in his book. Because of reading his book, I have found a couple of churches via the internet that practice that creativity and I have watched the sermons that they have made available for download. As much as I hate to say it, those sermons that I have downloaded have become my lifeline.
Know this! I don't think that there is a substitute for the local church. I believe in the fellowship of believers. I believe that we need others of like mindedness to encourage us in The Faith. I believe that we need to be accountable to someone. Hebrews 10:24-25 states: "Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near."
NLT You can't encourage others unless you are around them, so the local church is very important.
So, my wife and I are currently praying for a place were the Creativity of our Creator lives. Where people come to take a step closer to Jesus and not to just grow fat and sluggish, eating and never feeding others. We want to be a part of a vibrant, excited Church that seeks nothing more than showing Jesus to a hurting community. I know that God is faithful and will lead us where He wants us, it's just hard to be patient when I feel like I'm dying inside.
10 March, 2009
Making The Complex Simple
Have I mentioned that I don’t particularly like the time changes that we go through twice a year? They always mess with my sleep in a very adverse way. Anyway, I woke up this morning at 3 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I was laying in bed thinking and I was looking back over my life from a technological point of view. My childhood was nothing like what children have available to them today. There was a corner store 2 lots down from my house that was run by the Pope family. The front of the store is where they sold candy, sodas and various food items. I guess you could say that it was the first convenience store in my home town. The family lived in the back of it and there was an addition to it where they had a sit down area for the kids from high school to come down on lunch break and buy lunch and eat it.
I used to go up there every so often, when I had a quarter, and buy a soda for 15 cents and a 3 Musketeers candy bar for 10. That was always a treat! And if I had an extra quarter, I would buy 3 plays on the pinball machine. 3 plays for a quarter, can you imagine? Now, you can’t even get a single play for dollar. Guess that is what they call inflation. One day I went up there and sitting beside the pinball machine was a couple of new machines. They were weird looking and one was called Space Invaders and the other was Asteroids. I ended up getting pretty good at Space Invaders and consistently had the high scores in my home town. Talk about a feeling a pride. There was nothing like going up and seeing the initials CAL at the top of the leader board! CAL you say, but that isn’t your initials. I know it isn’t, it was short for California which is where I intended to go after I graduated from High School.
My, how times have changed. I thought those games were so cool, but now they are so simplistic compared to the games available today. But looking back, I see where those games changed my life. Because of them, I got interested in technology, and now I work as a Network Admin keeping all the computers and servers for a company working and talking.
As I was lying awake in bed this morning, I was pondering the complexity of computers and the software that runs on them and how far we have come in the past 30 or so years. But, for all of a computers/softwares complexity, they are very simplistic. Take the most complex Real Time Strategy game, the most advanced Drafting program, the most realistic Animation software, and when you look deep under what makes them work, it’s nothing but 0’s and 1’s. I tell people all the time that if they can count to 1, they can use a computer.
All the 0’s and 1’s that make up a computer program are nothing more than statements telling a computer “Yes” or “No”, “True” or “False”. It’s all pretty simple, really. And thinking about this, for some reason, made me think of God. For all of Gods complexity, He is really very simple. You read His Word and you find that He is the “1” God. You find that all you have to do is say “Yes” to Him. And He is the One who is “True” to us. So, take heart and realize that God isn’t all that complex in what He asks of us. His Word is the software that instructs us. We are the computers that take that software and make a choice of following Him or rejecting His free gift of Eternal Life. Choose wisely.
I used to go up there every so often, when I had a quarter, and buy a soda for 15 cents and a 3 Musketeers candy bar for 10. That was always a treat! And if I had an extra quarter, I would buy 3 plays on the pinball machine. 3 plays for a quarter, can you imagine? Now, you can’t even get a single play for dollar. Guess that is what they call inflation. One day I went up there and sitting beside the pinball machine was a couple of new machines. They were weird looking and one was called Space Invaders and the other was Asteroids. I ended up getting pretty good at Space Invaders and consistently had the high scores in my home town. Talk about a feeling a pride. There was nothing like going up and seeing the initials CAL at the top of the leader board! CAL you say, but that isn’t your initials. I know it isn’t, it was short for California which is where I intended to go after I graduated from High School.
My, how times have changed. I thought those games were so cool, but now they are so simplistic compared to the games available today. But looking back, I see where those games changed my life. Because of them, I got interested in technology, and now I work as a Network Admin keeping all the computers and servers for a company working and talking.
As I was lying awake in bed this morning, I was pondering the complexity of computers and the software that runs on them and how far we have come in the past 30 or so years. But, for all of a computers/softwares complexity, they are very simplistic. Take the most complex Real Time Strategy game, the most advanced Drafting program, the most realistic Animation software, and when you look deep under what makes them work, it’s nothing but 0’s and 1’s. I tell people all the time that if they can count to 1, they can use a computer.
All the 0’s and 1’s that make up a computer program are nothing more than statements telling a computer “Yes” or “No”, “True” or “False”. It’s all pretty simple, really. And thinking about this, for some reason, made me think of God. For all of Gods complexity, He is really very simple. You read His Word and you find that He is the “1” God. You find that all you have to do is say “Yes” to Him. And He is the One who is “True” to us. So, take heart and realize that God isn’t all that complex in what He asks of us. His Word is the software that instructs us. We are the computers that take that software and make a choice of following Him or rejecting His free gift of Eternal Life. Choose wisely.
02 March, 2009
A Lesson in Grace and Compassion
I'm scheduled to go in for Gallbladder surgery on Wednesday afternoon. Can't say that I'm looking forward to the surgery, but I sure won't miss the discomfort I've been in for the past month and a half, which leads me to today's topic.
On Wednesday, the 14th of January, I was sitting at my desk when all of the sudden a wave of nausea swept over me. That was immediately followed by a crushing pain in my chest, numbness in my hands and fingers, dizziness and electrical shocks in my jaw. My immediate thought was that I am too young to be having an heart attack (I'm 44). But all the signs and symptoms pointed to that. I had a co-worker take me to the ER and was checked out and told that my heart was fine, but that my Gallbladder was a little suspicious from the ultrasounds that they ran. Turns out, a gallbladder attack can present some of the same symptoms as a heart attack. While I was relieved that it wasn't my heart, I have had to endure a very rough month and a half with all kinds of pains in my stomach and back. At times, it feels like someone is stabbing me, and at other times, it feels like my stomach is on fire.
I have had to live with this and it is wearing me thin. I have found that I am especially irritable and short tempered. I have had trouble concentrating due to the constant pain. And generally, I have been hard to get along with. So, this morning, on my way to work, I was asking God to give me His grace to make it through today. When I got done praying, I was just driving down the road in a meditative state and was struck by the thought that we go through things in this life to teach us and to allow us to reach out to others and this is what came to my mind:
So many time we have a tendency to see those around us who are struggling with cancer, multiple-sclerosis, or other debilitating issue and we have so little compassion for what they are going through. I know in my own case, my mother-in-law has gone through chemo and has had some lingering issues from it. At times I would catch myself thinking that she just needed to suck it up and get on with life. But now, going through what I am going through, I have a new insight to the suffering that goes on around me every day. It doesn't have to be a medical condition, it can be a mental issue, it can be the grief of everyday life, but all around us, those we work with, those we see at Wal-Mart, the people stuck in traffic beside us, are all grieving and suffering something. It's just our human condiditon. No one is immune, no matter how spriritual we are, we all are sufferning from the ailment of sin.
In light of this, we ought to take a look at those around us with the eyes of God and realize that we need more of His grace and compassion in dealing with those around us.
On Wednesday, the 14th of January, I was sitting at my desk when all of the sudden a wave of nausea swept over me. That was immediately followed by a crushing pain in my chest, numbness in my hands and fingers, dizziness and electrical shocks in my jaw. My immediate thought was that I am too young to be having an heart attack (I'm 44). But all the signs and symptoms pointed to that. I had a co-worker take me to the ER and was checked out and told that my heart was fine, but that my Gallbladder was a little suspicious from the ultrasounds that they ran. Turns out, a gallbladder attack can present some of the same symptoms as a heart attack. While I was relieved that it wasn't my heart, I have had to endure a very rough month and a half with all kinds of pains in my stomach and back. At times, it feels like someone is stabbing me, and at other times, it feels like my stomach is on fire.
I have had to live with this and it is wearing me thin. I have found that I am especially irritable and short tempered. I have had trouble concentrating due to the constant pain. And generally, I have been hard to get along with. So, this morning, on my way to work, I was asking God to give me His grace to make it through today. When I got done praying, I was just driving down the road in a meditative state and was struck by the thought that we go through things in this life to teach us and to allow us to reach out to others and this is what came to my mind:
So many time we have a tendency to see those around us who are struggling with cancer, multiple-sclerosis, or other debilitating issue and we have so little compassion for what they are going through. I know in my own case, my mother-in-law has gone through chemo and has had some lingering issues from it. At times I would catch myself thinking that she just needed to suck it up and get on with life. But now, going through what I am going through, I have a new insight to the suffering that goes on around me every day. It doesn't have to be a medical condition, it can be a mental issue, it can be the grief of everyday life, but all around us, those we work with, those we see at Wal-Mart, the people stuck in traffic beside us, are all grieving and suffering something. It's just our human condiditon. No one is immune, no matter how spriritual we are, we all are sufferning from the ailment of sin.
In light of this, we ought to take a look at those around us with the eyes of God and realize that we need more of His grace and compassion in dealing with those around us.
23 February, 2009
The Journey Begins
How does one even start a blog? I guess, in my mind, it should start with a bang, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that it is just a struggle to start.
Lets take the plunge and get this thing started.
I decided to start blogging because I wanted to keep a running journal of the journey and process I am going through as a Christian.
My mornings usually start around 4:30 AM and I am on the road to get to work an hour later. My usual commute takes me at least an hour so I get a lot of time to spend listening to the Word and praying. This morning was no different, but in a way it was unusual. As I was praying, God dropped a vision into my mind. I know that that sounds strange, but I believe that God has always communicated with His people, whether it be through His Word, and audible voice, visions, or a myriad of other ways. Anyway, He showed me something in my future that I know I can't fulfill in my own power, so I will have to totally trust Him to give me the wisdom and understanding, along with the opportunity.
Now, the opportunity is the hard part because I am in no way in a position to do what He showed me. So, I started praying and basically said this, "God, if this is what You want from me, You will have to open the door. You will have to open the heart and mind of someone who will then invite me to do what you showed me. To do what you showed me is something that I am physically able to do, but way out of my comfort level, so please give me Your strength and wisdom. Help me to be a living sacrifice to Your will and Your leading."
I know that this is rather vague of me to start a blog with, but I hope, in the near future to be able to write more that will lay this out more clearly.
God Bless and have a wonderful day.
Lets take the plunge and get this thing started.
I decided to start blogging because I wanted to keep a running journal of the journey and process I am going through as a Christian.
My mornings usually start around 4:30 AM and I am on the road to get to work an hour later. My usual commute takes me at least an hour so I get a lot of time to spend listening to the Word and praying. This morning was no different, but in a way it was unusual. As I was praying, God dropped a vision into my mind. I know that that sounds strange, but I believe that God has always communicated with His people, whether it be through His Word, and audible voice, visions, or a myriad of other ways. Anyway, He showed me something in my future that I know I can't fulfill in my own power, so I will have to totally trust Him to give me the wisdom and understanding, along with the opportunity.
Now, the opportunity is the hard part because I am in no way in a position to do what He showed me. So, I started praying and basically said this, "God, if this is what You want from me, You will have to open the door. You will have to open the heart and mind of someone who will then invite me to do what you showed me. To do what you showed me is something that I am physically able to do, but way out of my comfort level, so please give me Your strength and wisdom. Help me to be a living sacrifice to Your will and Your leading."
I know that this is rather vague of me to start a blog with, but I hope, in the near future to be able to write more that will lay this out more clearly.
God Bless and have a wonderful day.
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