What is your totem?

Spinning top Inception

thanks to nolanfans.com for image
Last night I watched Inception with Cord, Dave, Mike, and Jeff. I joined them last minute.  I loved the movie. It was like the Matrix; but challenging to follow from the start.

In the movie, the only way to discern reality from dream is to craft a totem (link spoiler warning: please stop, if you have not seen the movie; then follow link after you see the movie) that will clarify you are dreaming or you are in reality.  As I reviewed the movie in my mind as I drove home, it occurred to me that the Bible is my totem.

The Bible not only clarifies reality, "In the beginning God create the heavens and the earth;" but it also defines reality.  The first ten chapters of the Bible sets the parameters for life here on earth. The last chapters of the Bible sketches the outcome of life on earth and into eternity.  I praise God for the Bible which defines reality.  The Bible is meant for the real practical-world of life; not just the factual, cerebral knowledge in your head.

As Ellie points out from her comments linked below that totems serve as "wake-up calls" from the dream state.  Likewise, the Bible is also a "wake-up call" for those who are not facing reality from a biblical worldview. 

For other thought-provoking  reviews, include, but are not limited to:

• Visit the official website: you'll have to dig into the site to find the movie synopsis.
• Ellie has an interesting perspective about the movie 
• You can also view the trailer and a clip easist from the imdb website.
• Mali Elfman of Screen Cave posted an interview with director Christopher Nolan

I wonder what you think about my connection that the Bible could be considered as a totem as portrayed in the movie, Inception.

Who is Jesus and what difference does it make

photos from epsos.de & stefano mezzone
I enjoyed sharing at Four14 last night. I shared three things about who you are in Christ based on who Jesus is in the first two Gospels.

I presented them with "I am" statements.  I chose three from the many features of who you are in Christ.  Let me list them.

• I am a seeker (Matthew 6:33-34)--I can seek God.
• I am a follower (Matthew 28:16-20)--I can follow God.
• I am a servant (Mark 10:43-45)--I can serve sacrificially.

Because Jesus is King (book of Matthew), I can seek God's kingdom first.  Matthew 6:33 challenges me to consider making Christ the one I seek.  If Jesus is King, then I must seek Him.

Because Jesus is King, I can follow Him.  But I must follow Him with full devotion. I follow by obeying all that He commands (Matthew 28:20).  If Jesus is King, then I must follow Him.

Because Jesus is Servant (book of Mark), I can serve sacrificially.  I must serve like Jesus did.  I must strive to serve rather than be served (Mark 10:45).  If Jesus is Servant, then I must serve sacrificially.

A distorted view of Jesus will mess your life up.  One distortion of Jesus is seeing Him as a bossy temperamental supervisor.  Jesus is the benevolent monarch wanting you to seek Him and to follow Him.  Another distortion of Jesus is viewing Him as an all-powerful genie.  Jesus is the sacrificial servant who suffered to help everyone.  He wants you to serve like Him.

To clarify who Jesus claims to be, impacts who you are in Christ. Once you better understand who Jesus is and who you are in Christ, you remove the obstacle in discovering who God wants you to be and where you fit in this world.

I am still learning how to living out of my being rather than work out of my doing.  I praise God for the Bible to instruct and to correct me.  May I move toward seeking God daily, following Him completely, and serving Him sacrificially everyday.

Preparing a talk for Young Adults, Singles, Et.al.

I get to share at Four14 tomorrow night. I chose for my topic, "Who is Jesus and what difference does it make?" Lately, I have had trouble focusing the topic. I taught the lesson for Internationals as "Portraits of Jesus: Seeing Jesus in Four Pictures from the Gospels." 

But now I need to fashion a talk so that everyone who hears the talk will know that knowing who Jesus is doesn't clarify what you do or don't do, but crystallizes who you are.  I want all who hear my talk to have a different orientation.  I need them to hear, "Orient yourself NOT to what you do or don't do for Christ; but in who you are in Christ!"

In my own journey in the Lord, I need to continually rehearse who I am. As a pastor it's so easy to forget who I am and obsess over what I do or don't get done. It's more difficult to be.

Thus, knowing who you are in Christ makes all the difference in your faith journey.  I know that it makes a great difference in mine.  So, as I work on the talk I need insight from you.

I wonder if you find it just as challenging to live in light of who you are in Christ rather than fixate on what you do for Christ.  Share your thoughts tonight. I may use representative comments in my talk tomorrow night.

Be in the Arena--homage to Teddy

One hundred years ago today, President Theodore Roosevelt made his famous "Man in the Arena" speech in Paris. His words ring true with me.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

 I want to be a man in the arena.  I want to stand in the center of the arena like Spartacus or like Spaniard . I read that Nelson Mandela gave a copy of this speech to Francois Pienaar, South Africa's National Rugby captain. Although they use Invictus as the poem for the movie , Mr. Mandela copied it for Francois to read. I believe it is inspiring as a follower of Christ.  Many will oppose or critique my devotion to God.  Nevertheless, I will choose to follow Christ! 

Likewise, Joshua challenged the people of Israel in his day. "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15)." I wonder what inspires you to follow God with greater devotion everyday. 

Giving my kids what I did not have

As I said previously , this stems from my family history.  

My family grew up on the Navajo reservation. My grandfather knew poverty.  He lived it on the reservation in Northern AZ.  One story he often told; especially when I was ungrateful for something I got or when I was disappointed in something I received, is the time he chose to fast for two days so that the rest of his small family could have something to eat.  On the third day, he was able to find a cow from his little herd to sell at the trading post for food.  My grandfather was poor. But he taught us to sacrifice to get things for your family that you do not have. 

My father worked hard as an upholsterer.  He learned his trade at a career center in Brigham City, UT where he earned his GED.We lived in the inner city of Ogden, UT.  We had a tiny little house from an FHA loan.  But it was eventually ours.  My dad worked hard to move from poverty to middle class.  So we moved to the suburbs to follow dad's work--the company left the inner city for a new development where there was a better promise of more work.  My dad was working poor, but sought to give us the things we did not have.

Then God called him to be a pastor among my Navajo people.  We left the suburbs of Ogden, UT for the Navajo reservation.  I lived in poverty with my family.  Our family did not have running water, only an outhouse, and no electricity.  We heated our house with wood chopped daily.  So I have experienced the challenges of poverty after living in the shadows of luxury in the suburbs.  

But by God’s grace and hard work, I am experiencing the blessings of the United States. I got scholarship money to complete college, get two masters, and now serve God almighty as his minister.  

So now I struggle with the feelings that I want to give my kids what I did not have.  It began with my grandfather who sacrificed many things to start my family on the journey to where I am today.  But God speaks into every heart if we will only listen and obey. I wonder what you hear God telling you to do for Him this Christmas. 

Give a Gift to Others not your family

As I lead my family in choosing from the Christmas Gift catalogs from GBIM and Worldvision (previous post).  I find myself challenged.  I want to give my family good gifts.  Maybe more gifts than they need.

So we selected gifts to give to someone else who needs it more than we do.  I know this is right.  God prompted me to lead my family to give gifts to others rather than to them.  I am so grateful that God still speaks to individual people.  

He can speak to you, too.  Take time today or tomorrow and listen for His prompting.  What is he telling you to do for Him this Christmas?  Write it down.  Then go do it.  Obey!  

Yes, you will have second thoughts.  I think most people do.  But doing the hard things; may be the best thing you'll ever do.  I am discovering it out now. 

"I don't want to be a good samaritan"

Our church is currently in the sermon series, "A Passion for Compassion."  And one of the challenges is to make the sermon come alive in your life. 

So on my way to work this morning, I passed a young mom stalled in the intersection of a busy interchange in our town during "the morning rush." 

As you read above, I passed her. I made a left hand turned, drove around her, looked into her frigtened and panicked eyes, and kept on trucking to work.

Then,...God spoke.

"Turn around and help her...At least find out if she wants your help...Go help her." 

So I turned around at the nearest driveway.  Asked what was wrong and if she needed help.  She politely declined.  But by God's prompting, I insisted to help her out of the intersection.

I am not a mechanic by any means.  But I can push.  So I started pushing the little station wagon, back up the incline towards the parking lot. 

Fortunately, Pastor Ivanildo stopped to help push.  Then two more guys--huge guys--stopped to help us little guys out.  Together we shoved her car into the parking lot, out of possible danger, and into a spot where she can call AAA and get it towed.  I was so thankful for help.

It's so easy to just drive on by people and have no compassion.  I could hear my head say, "I don't want to be a good samaritan."  But I praise God for His prompting in the Holy Spirit to do the right thing, to do the hard thing--to stop and help out.  I don't just want to KNOW the right thing to do, I want to DO the right thing.  May God help you make real the teachings of the Bible in your life, even as I struggle to be more fully devoted to Christ everyday. 

Something I didn't see before about handling stress at work

photo by Uhlman
I have memorized verses in the Bible most of my life.  As a pastor, you'd think that some verses are in rote memory and you won't discover new things.  But I discovered a phrase in a passage of Scripture that I was reviewing. 

I found my day ahead of me, frot with so many things to do.  I reviewed the verses that I memorized on stress from the Topical Memory System (NavPress).  If you do not have this resource for memorizing Bible verses with practical application, then you need to find it online and order it.  I believe that it has changed titles from Topical Memory Systems: LIfe Issues to TMS. 

Anyways, Matthew 11:28-30 is the passage i reviewed.  The phrase, "Take My yoke upon you," caught my attention this morning.  It dawned on me that I must stop.  Take off the yoke that i am burdened with and set it aside to take up the yoke that Jesus has for me.  I need to exchange yokes.

You may find it obvious, but I was oblivious.  I capture the picture as I described above.  I typically saw JEsus coming to help me with my load of burdens.  Yet I noted the progression here.  Come to Jesus with my baggage.  Leave them at His feet.  Ahhh! Unloaded.  Unburdened.  Free!  Then take His yoke. Reload my life with the onous that Jesus wants me to carry with Him. The next thing is to learn from Jesus as we work together on what He wants done. 

His character is gentle and humble.  I often am prideful and hard on myself.  I can be a gruesome taskmaster.  Yet Jesus is gentle.  He has a humble heart.  He wants me to learn how to handle the work that He has for me.  And wonders of wonders, I will find rest for my soul.  Magnificent!

In the end, Jesus' yoke is easy and His load is light.  Why?  Because He is pulling, working, sweating, praying, groaning, leaning with all His might with me.  Wow!  What a wonderful Savior.

So if you feel burdened, overwhelmed, loaded beyond capacity, then reflect on the process above that helped me. 

1. Go to Jesus with your burdens or workload.
2. Unload them.
3. Take up Jesus' yoke.
4. Learn from Him
5. Get rest for your soul.

This does not mean that your work will miraculously get done.  You'll have to work hard.  But with Jesus pulling His weight with you, you can do it.  You can make it!  You will find rest for your soul. 

I praise God for this truth that I didn't see before.  I trust this encourages you.  Please leave a comment.

Convicted!

photo by MoBikeFed

This morning God brought to my attention an idol in my life--sports.

I love sports, always have. I can be obsessed with it. Last night, I signed off Facebook by updating "what are you doing now" with a farewell, "Daron is going to bed." But I wanted to check the USC-OSU score. Then four other baseball games were tied going into the late innings with playoff implications.

As a sports-junkie, I waited for the games to finish.

Then this morning I awoke. The first thing I mentioned was for my son to get up and to watch Sportscenter with me. Then later in my morning routine, God pricked my conscience. "Do I get as excited about the things of God, as I do when an upset occurs or when games are decided in walk-off drama?"

I stood convicted.

So, as I drove my son to school I confessed that I need to match, even surpass the excitement of witnessing sports [excitement]. I need to be more excited about the things of God than things of earth.

You may resonant with me struggle. Or you may not share the same idol that I worship. But you do have something or someone that stands before God.

In Colossians 1:17-18 the Apostle Paul is writing to Christ-followers in the church at Colossae who are struggline with idols in their culture and community. He challenges them to focus on Christ. "He (Christ) is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning , the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to haev first place in everything."

I like how the King James says it, "in all things he might have the preeminence." another way to state it is, "in everything He might have the supremacy (NIV)."

No matter how you [state] it, the main point is that Jesus must be the number one priority in your life. You may have an idol that needs removed. Confess it. Ask God for strength and resolve to put Him before all things. He deserves first place in your life.

I am going to work on this in my walk with God. I trust you will join me. I want to be a fully-devoted follower of Christ. Yes, I want to take baby steps, the next step. I praise God that I can engage God and grow. He doesn't belittle me. I may belittle myself. But God provides forgiveness, comfort, encouragement, and discipline when patterns of sin remain. You can trust God to help you. Put Christ on the top of your podium in your life each day.

photo by Brent Nelson

My journey of listening to God everyday this year continues...



I am now reading at the end of the book of Joshua. He is giving his final words to the people of Israel (Joshua 23). The people have experienced God's favor. He challenges them to remain faithful to God. He outlines the basic consequences: obey God, get God's favor; disobey God, receive God's discipline.



You and I have a choice each day we wake up. Follow God or not.

You can experience awesome things in your life. You can walk close with God. You can gain deeper insight into your relationship with God. You can grow in your understanding of God.



I am everyday. I sense that God is asking me to gain a fresh encounter with Him. I believe that God is prompting me to fast. Yes, that's right, fast.



I discovered Bill Bright's helpful tips online as well as reading a book by Jentezen Franklin entitled, Fasting. Both resources have lead me to start incorporating fasting into my spiritual discipline. I will post more about what I believe God wants me to do.



So, I choose to follow God today. You can choose to follow God today. Read the Bible. Reflect on the words you read. Ask God to prompt you to obey what He reveals. Act upon it. Simple? Yeah. But oh! so empowering that the God of all the universe would choose to visit me. Whoa!



You can walk with God. You can walk in the light of His countenance (Psalm 89:15). You can. Share with me how your walk with God is going.

Almighty God is IN me!

photo by angela7dreams

My journey of listening to God everyday this year--

I read the passages for today as soon as I woke up. It is early in the afternoon and I am seeking to meditate on those words again now.

As I take a l-o-n-g pause to recall what I read. Consecration, sacrifices, blood, and making things holy--separated for a designated purpose for God, all come to mind. I am reading in the book of Exodus where God outlines for Moses and the people of God how to consecrate the priests who will offer sacrifices to God. In Exodus 29:45-46 the reason for all the requirements, "I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will be their God. they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them; I am the Lord their God."

God wanted to dwell with His people in the Old Testament (Exodus 29:45-46). Now, God can indwell His people in the New Testament (John 14:16-17).

I am so thankful that God wants to be with me. He has been with me all day. Whether its talking on the phone with missionary partners or encouraging fully-devoted followers who are serving children in Sowing Hope at Schellin Park, God was with me. In fact, He was in me. He goes wherever I go. As I obey Him, He is excited. As I disobey Him, He is discouraged. God wants to be with me. What an incredibe thought!

God can be with you, too. It begins with understanding that He made you in His image (Genesis 1:26). He intended everyone to be with Him. Yet human beings choose to not obey Him (Isaiah 53:6) However, God made a way for us to be with Him (Romans 6:23). Everyone who trusts in Jesus alone gets eternal life (John 6:47). Life, that's eternal, means that you can be with Jesus forever (John 10:28). God wants to be with you--in fact, Hebrews 13:5 says, "I will never leave you, never will I forsake you."

If you are having a tough time today, then take a moment to consider how my life unfolded today. God is with me. In fact, He indwells me--it's like having a huge ocean wave inside of me; raw, wild, powerful. Stop and think about that!

I love that God wants to be with me. I pray that God becomes as real to you as He is to me.

Til' later, Pastor daron

I want to see the blueprints

photo by todd ehlers

My year listening to God

I wish sometimes that God would give me a peek at the plans to my life so I could know what's going on. God said these words to the Israelites in Exodus 26:30, "Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain."

I would positively enjoy knowing the plans. My friend, Dave used to tell me tounge-in-cheek, "I asked the Lord to just let me see the blueprints for my life...but He hasn't done it yet." With a laugh and a snort, we chuckle about our situations in life. But always confident that God would lead us each day.

photo by joe thorn

I reflected on my reading this morning as I waited for a friend at Caribou Coffee (great decaf daybreak morning blend). Jared enlightened me to consider that I may not want to know what lies ahead. That's true, too. If I could foresee tragic circumstances ahead, then I may react differently and interact with others inauthentically. So, I must deal with life as it comes and engage life abundantly.

I wonder if you feel the same ambivalence in life. I wonder if you'd like to see the plans for your life or would you rather experience life and discover the plans as you go. I prefer to know the plans to avoid the pains of life, yet if I am privy to the pains that I am going to experience, then I'd feel more miserable. Thus, my ambivalence stands.

Nevertheless, you can experience God in a real, passionate way like me. I can ask questions and have no direct or apparent answers. Yet God reveals His ways to me as I pursue Him through reading the Bible and praying to Him. I see it as a two-way dialogue; God speaks to me from the Bible and I speak to Him in prayer (sometimes if I am quiet, God even impresses things in my mind as I live my life--another way God speaks to me). So, you can engage God everyday. I find it so adventuresome. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The Best Waiter

My journey of listening to God for a whole year
photo by russeljsmith

I want to be a faithful and wise servant. In Matthew 24:45-51, Jesus declares what a faithful and wise servant does.

I find it encouraging when things are a little more delineated for me. Jesus says that the steward's job or work is to give the fellow servants their food at the proper time (verse 45). I see the steward as those who choose to follow God--each one has a duty, a task--to give food at the proper time; to give physical and spiritual nourishment to one another. Thus I must work hard at meeting the physical and spiritual needs of those in our church.

Likewise, the reward for wise and faithful stewardship is greater responsibility (verse 47). As each steward exercises wisdom and faithfulness, the Lord provides greater responsibility; "put him in charge of all his possessions."

Therefore, I get to work diligently to meet the physical needs of God's people as well as to meet the spiritual needs of God's people as well. This is what a wise and faithful servant does. I want to be a wise and faithful servant.

I choose to follow God today and always

photo by tigerzeye

The biggest decision of your life is your next decision. Or at least, I think that way. I am thankful for the teaching ministry of Wooster Grace. Pastor Steve Kern shared how I can take courage when facing what seems like an impossible situation with faith in God's promises and with stedfast obedience to God's directives.

Pastor Steve challenged me to consider my fears. My biggest fear is not having my house sell so that I can move my family up here to Wooster.

It looks impossible--the housing market is slow, there is little traffic lately on our house. I feel afraid. Yet with Pastor Steve's message, I can overcome this and any insurmountable obstacle by relying on God's promises.

From the life of Joshua, Pastor Steve said that I need to make a decision. I can decide to stop trusting God and His promises or I can decide to continue trusting God in spite of the obstacles (read Joshua 1:7-8). Even though I feel less assured at times that God is in control, I can reaffirm my commitment to God. So, by faith in the Lord, I choose to rely on God's promises to give me confidence when I feel like the house will not sell. I choose this day to keep trusting in God.

Thanks, Pastor Steve for challenging me to remain stedfast in my commitment to God for this coming week. May God continue to change me for His glory in light of putting into practice God's Word.

I thank God for our church and its values--the teaching from the Bible is relevant, it is bathed in prayer, it helps me grow in my spiritual journey of following God as a fully-devoted follower of Christ.

No more idols

photo by AlpenaMi

My year listening to God--





I want to post what I read yesterday. I read the ten commandments again (Exodus 20:1-17). The one that caught my attention this time is the first--you shall have no other gods before me. The pre-immence of God over my life is a high priority. In fact, I saw later that God repeated this command and "tweeked" it.





Read verse 23, "Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold." God shared the proximity of false gods that need to be removed from my life.





There are gods or idols that are before God--in place of God. Then there are gods or idols that are alongside God--sharing the prominent place with God. Both are wrong. God wants the top priority in my life. He wants no idols in place of Him or next to Him. He wants my complete devotion--my full devotion.





May God receive my full-devotion. May the Lord find a fully-devoted follower in me.

You can't do it alone

photo by Mike McCaffrey

My journey listening to God for a whole year--continues

Yesterday i read one day ahead. I am using The One Year Bible as my resource. I chose the New International Version because it reads well for me. But also I chose this resource due because it arranges the portions to read each day. I don't have to figure it out. I can just read what portion fits for the day.

Well, I need to adjust the reading schedule from The One Year Bible because it is arranged with January first as the start date. I chose to use my birthday, June first, as my start date. So I staggered the schedule to fit my needs.

So, yesterday I miscalculated and read today's reading--yesterday. I know that may sound confusing, but I made a mistake. Therefore, I am reading yesterday's reading--today.

Anyways, I appreciate the insights that I am gaining as I read through the Bible listening to God as I re-read God's Book to everyone. I am reading the story of Moses.

Moses has delivered the Israelite people from Egypt (Exodus 1-15). He is having difficulty judging the people so Moses' father-in-law, Jethro asks why (Exodus 18).

Jethro points out that Moses could do more work serving the people if he just appointed under-judges to help give rulings for the people. Then Moses and the people would not get so worn out.

I love that we need to constantly improve. Jethro says it best, "The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone (Exodus 18:18)." Likewise, to minister to others alone is too heavy for any one person to do it alone. Thus, all Christ-followers must empower, equip, and train others to help with the work of service.

I praise God for His insight into my work-life. I must find and discover capable, trustworthy people who revere God and appoint them to help serve others. May God assist me in the quest to equip faithful people to serve God.

Questions to ask before you open your mouth

photo by patrick dentler

I am teaching at Four14 this Thursday so I am providing some bonus material here on my blog addressing how to cultivate great relationships by implementing six principles of biblical communication into your life.

The first principle is speak the truth in love. In Ephesians 4:15, the phrase, "speak the truth in love," stands as a command. It is in the imperative tense. Speak! So silence and clamming up are not options for the Christ-follower. It is unbiblical to keep things locked up inside you. No one can read your mind (read I Corinthians 2:11). So, your responsibility as a Christ-follower is to speak truth lovingly. But first, it is to speak--don't clam up.

Since the Christ-followere is to speak. Here are the questions to ask before you speak:

• Is what I would like to say true? (Ephesians 4:25)



• Is what I would like to say profitable? (Ephesians 4:29)



• Is this the proper time to say it, or should I wait? (Proverbs 15:23, 28)



• Is my attitude right? (Ephesians 4:31-32)



• Am I saying this in the right way? (Proverbs 15:1)



• Is what I would like to say necessary for the good of the other? (Ephesians 4:29)



• Is what I would like to say pleasing to God? (Psalm 19:14)

Please check out the Bible verses after each question to read how the question emerges from the Biblical data. Before you speak, ask yourself these questions. Your communication will be greatly improved if you implement these into your relationship skill set.

You will discover great relationships as you work these into your life. You will have to work hard at it. Great relationships are not formulaic, but dynamic. So work hard at implemting these biblical principles into your life. Share what you are trying to do with your life-group or a trusted friend so that you can leverage accountability and glean from the support of others.

Please let me know of an incident or incidents in which you had an opportunity to use one of the rules. Share what happened, what you did, and how you applied (or should have applied) one or more of the rules. Be sure to state which rule or rules were applicable.

Good communication equals great relationships

photo by lorri37

In my short time on earth (forty-three years) I am still learning to communicate better. I feel that I am a novice at communication sometimes. Then I feel like I am an expert at other times. I do know that I am on the journey to developing better communication skills to develop great relationships.

The bible provides great insight into how I can have great relationships. I don't want to merely cope or to only survive in relationships. I want to experience and to enhance relationships from good to great ones.

This week I get to teach at Four14. I sat in on a session a few weeks ago to check things out. I was impressed by the numbers of people who attended. I praise God for a growing community of believers in Christ who want to follow hard after Jesus and who desire deep, loving relationships.

So on Thursday, July 3, I get to share about how to develop great relationships by applying six principles of biblical communication. I hope the young adults who attend will capture and implement these principles and grow into great relationships for the rest of their lives. It'll take hard work, persistence, forgiveness, etc. But great relationships can grow from good relationships. I can't wait to share and to follow up on what God is going to do in their lives.

One of the things I'll share about is the truth that you can only pursue great relationships from your side of the equation alone. It is not wrong to desire a great relationship. This is a good and biblical desire, but you can only pursue it as a goal on your side of the relationship. Otherwise, your gola would include changing the other person. Changing people is only the perogative of God alone. Romans 12:18 says, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with all people." You can try to manipulate others or coerce them but you will only become frustrated. You can only control your side of the relationship--as far as it depends on you.

I intend to post a couple of items regarding biblical communication in the month of July on my blog as a follow-up and may include them on the Four14 website or resource them for use at Four14.

I need more faith in God

I need more faith. I read how Jesus challenged His followers who did not have the faith to heal a demon-possessed boy. In Matthew 17:14-21, you can read how Jesus scolds the disciples who did not have the faith to do great things for God. In my own life, I need to exercise greater faith.

I prayed today that we would not get rained out for Acres of Fun with the Sowing Hope children. The rain held off. God answered.

I am praying for the sale of our house in Hilliard. I need more faith to trust that God would do the seemingly impossible--sell our house today. But I trust God to do His great work so that I can testify to His greatness.

I am tired, but fulfilled. God is great! He can do anything. As my faith increases I can experience what Jesus said, "nothing will be impossible to you (verse 20)." My faith begins as a mustard seed and grows into a strong, fruitful tree. Amen!

Into the Wild

photo by gauravonomics

My year listening to God

I watched the movie with my wife at the dollar theatre a few months ago. I liked the journey that the character took. He sought solitude to find himself. Then found himself in solitude. But hunters eventually found him alone in the end. My spouse commented how depressing the movie was to her. But in my opinion, I view the ending of the movie as a challenge to engage others now during the process of trying to find yourself rather than hope to engage others after I find myself.

Jesus sought God in solitude. He tried to center himself with His own relationship with God the Father. As God the Son, Jesus wanted communion, but people got in the way.

photo by david locke

In my readings this morning, Jesus tried to get alone with God but people were along the way. In fact, the text reads, "[Jesus] left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns. Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick (Matthew 14:13-14)."

Later on, "Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone (Matthew 14:22-23)."

photo by ingorrr

If Jesus had to make time to get alone with God, then I must follow His example. It is hard to carve out time to read the Bible and to hear from God. I learned that I must set the time and the place in order to benefit from getting the time to work. When I have set the time and the place, I have been more regular with my time reading the Bible. So, I challenge you to set the time and the place to read the Bible today for tomorrow's schedule. Then watch God come to you and speak to you from His word.

Jesus went into the wild and made time with God. So too, you and I need to go into the wild and discover our true identity in God by spending time with Him. May you experience the growing insights and direction from God by reading the Bible.