Let Go

How far will we go to see victory in our lives? Are we willing to pay the price of obedience? Are we desiring the things of God, or the applause of men? What is occupying the throne of our lives? Let go. Surrender is never easy, but the Christian life is impossible without it. Abide as a branch in the vine, and you will abide in the will of God. God rewards those who diligently seek Him. He also rewards obedience.

Honesty with oneself is essential to discovering God, and who you are in Christ. It's not pretty sometimes when we discover our intents and motives. Is seeking God an end in itself, or are we after something else? Meaning perhaps to enrich ourselves in the physical realm (praying to win while your brother dies in his sins). As Keith Green sang, "bless me Lord, bless me Lord, you know that's all I ever hear". Do we seek God with an eye to personal gain, or do we really just want more of Him? Tough questions demand honest prayer, thought, and study.

Ponder the honest truth. Strive for transparency in prayer and meditation. Love with everything you have. Live like you mean it and on purpose; God's purpose for you is rich with meaning and beyond your wildest dreams. Dream God's dreams and you will always be in wonder. Real life will shine with meaning because He means everything and His name is Wonderful!

Quiet Sunday

It's quiet and early Sunday morning. I enjoy the silence and this cup of coffee. I'm sitting at my laptop and thinking about life. It's good to think, but I have a tendency to overthink. I tend to focus on what is not happening in my life, rather than the good things that are. I need to be conscious of the fact that I am blessed, and to remember to be grateful. I am learning to grow, but I am frequently beset by the things which only impede that progress. This is a process. I need to learn how to enjoy the ride into unfamiliar desert terrain, and to thrive while not clinging too tightly to the tenuous. I am a pilgrim, just passing through.

Travel light along this road, and you will not be weary and bogged down when you reach your destination.

New Morning

It's a new morning, and the possibilities are endless. What will we make of it? What can we do today to bring us closer to where we want to be tomorrow? Hold the vision in your heart, and do what you must to realize that vision. Dream God's dream for your life, and move ahead with purpose and joy.

Lamentations 3
²²Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
²³They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
²⁴"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,
"Therefore I hope in Him!"

Fallow Ground

I still feel destined for something that I must reach out for and grab. Something just over the horizon. I think the directive is get ready. Be strong and be not afraid. Work what is given you to work and the outcome is certainly sure. Hold up your end of the bargain. Plow up the fallow ground. The same God that brought Israel out of Egypt is able to bring you out of your spiritual Egypt and into your personal Canaan. The Canaan that God has personally designed for you. I have never been good at obeying. I feel I have mostly given God lip service for over twenty-five years. I am a good liar, especially when it comes to lying to myself.

Perhaps there is a deeper meaning to the musical aspirations God put in my heart. Perhaps there is a purpose I am overlooking; I can only hope to do what is put in my hand to do, and leave the rest to Him. I’m determined to live what I believe and to seek His face with all my being. I will judge no man again, but love and value and cherish each human life as Jesus would.

I seek a higher path. The way of love. I know cool things are on the horizon but they don’t just drop out of the sky complete. Work the field that you have been entrusted with. Be a good steward for once and be consistent. I want the rest of my life to have deeper meaning. Simple yet profound meaning. Under the shadow of the Cross. Living under the shadow of the cross my blessed Savior hung from and died on. I seek balance and completion. A new creation pressing forward and not looking back.

HAPPY EASTER!

He is risen! If you as a Christian do not believe that, your faith is in vain, and you of all people are most to be pitied.

LIVE

Our greatest asset is time. Sounds simple but it's true. Time is pregnant with potential; The potential for change. The potential to reach for our goals and live our God-given dreams. Each day we wake up we are given a new beginning and a new chance to go for life with all that is within us. Do it! Live it. Quit talking and begin now to do what you know you were born to do.

Baffling Love

It may be hard sometimes depending on circumstance to actually praise and thank God for everything he allows, but praise definitely has a way to take the focus off of ourselves and on to Him. If we can only raise our eyes to Him. Shift the focus and, hard as it may seem, the scene will change. It will be bathed in a different light. I imagine things are very different from God's perspective, but yet He Himself is fully acquanted with grief. Amazing that God condescended to take on human flesh. The human experiment indeed. To see through human eyes and feel with a human heart. To have that very heart broken. And yet that was not the main motivation. He knew it had to be that way for the sake of His beloved humanity. The cross beckoned, and its shadow reached back to the manger, and forward, to the resurrection and the redemption of creation.

He remains to me as compelling as He is baffling. Help my unbelief.

HEART

Oh, to get to the heart of it all, to the place where artifice is stripped away, and it all falls into place as a whole. Where there is no longer any fragmentation, and we see everything with a clarity of insight only previously hinted at. A place where integration takes hold. A place where we can truly be free to be ourselves. A place where we can be kids at heart, and not take everything so morbidly seriously. That is what I long for. That is where we belong.

Nineteen

Yesterday Betsy and I celebrated our nineteenth anniversary. Wow! The concept of time is a mystery to me. Chronology. This place is crawling with mortals! God help us one and all.