Posted on

Why I Serve by Leading I Am Done

Thought I had the fullness,
but something was missing.

My faith was strong. It carried me through struggles, failures, joys, births, growth, cancer, death, and becoming a widower. Even so . . .

  • Although I was told God no longer spoke, He’d talk to me.
  • Although I knew about the fruits of the spirit, it was a struggle to live them.
  • Although I knew the admonitions to be a good man, I frequently fell short.
  • Although I felt evil, I was taught not to worry.
  • Although I wanted to be a courageous for those I loved, at times I couldn’t.

This all pissed me off. Oh yes, I also had an anger issue.

God was everything to me: I loved His word, and I loved Him. But I still thought myself a failure, less than. To make matters worse, Jeremiah 17:9 was pounded into my head and heart, even as I was told to be good and moral and nice. Ugh, that dreaded word nice. How many valiant, honorable warriors are “nice?” How many women want complacent, passive, “nice” men?

Squirrel! . . . Sorry.

Then freedom dropped itself off at my door, changing all of that, and ridiculously more.

  • I hear from God, intimately, profoundly and sometimes often
  • By grace, I walk evermore into the fruits of the Spirit
  • God has made me and is evermore making me into a better man
  • I understand and successfully engage in warfare
  • My wife says I am not only more confident, but more courageous – oorah
  • I hear that someone turned my heart of stone into a heart of flesh, and He buried my old me on that old rugged cross
  • And that anger thing has dramatically lessoned, at least the unrighteous kind

How? Through freedom in and by Christ.

Even better, this message has changed these things and much more for many men, women and teens. Ultimately, in doing this, we’ve made a sizable dent in the gates of hell, and we’ve taken back ground the evil thing once considered its own.

Let’s go out and bring freedom to at least a couple million more. Why not? If He stands with us, who can stand against us?

Oh, and that missing thing? It’s been found.

Posted on

Squirrel

“Squirrel”

A brilliant line from the movie UP, but maybe more descriptive when considering our struggles to walk closely with God.

Are you squeezed for time?  Five minutes checking ESPN or Facebook or Pinterest, playing a quick game, or going down the Youtube America’s-Got-Talent-Golden-Buzzer-Winners rabbit hole may seem a needed distraction or quick form of entrainment. None of these are usually bad, and sometimes they are needed, as in, “Did the Tribe win its 50th in a row?”, or “How can I help the people who were impacted by Harvey and Irma?” But how many times are they simply, “Squirrel?”

I hear fellow believers who are “striving” to walk closely with God as if it is meant to be hard. Imagine — you are running a lathe, working at your desk, or playing with your child, and someone you love or admire walks in, a very dear friend, a spouse, LeBron James. What would you do?

You’d pick up your iPhone, open up Facebook, tell them to wait, and start scrolling, or you’d flip open Netflix and start watching Dr. Who. You think?

Stop for a second and reflect on a time that happened. How did you engage that person or people? Are you smiling just remembering?

If we actually believed that the maker of the universe was standing at our doors and knocking, and He actually is the vine apart from which we can do nothing, what could we do if we realized He is at our places of work, our offices, or at our homes, especially in the crazy-making moments? What I’ve observed? We go all “squirrel,” picking up our phones, getting lost in distractions, and then telling ourselves, “Well, I just wasted a few minutes, I’ll won’t do it again.”

What if instead you engaged God in that moment, spoke with Him, told him what was going on in your day, maybe even used your phone to check out a scripture or to play a favorite worship song?  What if you asked Him for counsel, for light for your path, for wisdom? What if you just took a few moments or minutes to let Him in? By that simple act, you may already be walking more closely with Him than before.

We invite you to take the:

“I’ll-Set-My-Phone-Aside-and-Talk-With-God-For-a-Few-Moments Challenge,”

Then see what happens. Oh wait, I have to go, Best Buy has another sale . . ..

What are your squirrels? Leave in comments below.