If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Or you can select your feed type by clicking on the "Subscribe" button on the right. Thanks for visiting!
If you just read the title of this and are still reading, you don’t have time for cute stories or complicated formulas, so I’ll just get to the point, if that’s OK.
If you are in a situation where you are at a complete loss as to what to do, it’s because you need to reset your glance and your gaze. You have allowed your gaze – your long-term focus – to become set on your circumstances, your prayer request, your frustration, your pain, your desperate desire for change, or something other than the Lord. You’re glancing at God, asking Him to fix whatever you’re gazing at.
Nice try. I understand why. But it doesn’t work that way. Reset your gaze on God, and your glance on the world around you.
That’s what it means to wait on the Lord.
That’s what it means to praise, or to worship
Yes, that’s in the Bible. [click to continue…]
As long as people have searched for direction, worshipped their Creator, and looked for language to express their passion and warmth, we have returned again and again to stand by the fire.
The fire was an agent of God’s guidance and an ongoing expression of worship in the days of the tabernacle. And we kept returning to stand by the fire.
A refiner and cleansing agent of the hearts of men, the fire was a symbol of God’s hatred for sin and an affirmation for the prophets who spoke His truth. And again and again, we kept returning to stand by the fire.
The fire was a weapon of God’s voice, a light in the darkness, and an expression of hospitality and welcome. And from the dark places and lonely spaces, still we kept coming to stand by the fire.
The fire revealed a passion for God’s word in our bones, the baptism of the believer, the instrument of God’s testing, and the piercing gaze of the risen Christ. And out of desperation or terror, love or longing, still we kept coming to stand by the fire.
And even today the Spirit and Bride invite you to come. To be warmed and convicted and cleansed and restored and pure as you stand by the fire. [click to continue…]
The other day I turned left out of a parking lot and started heading south on Avenue Q, between 19th and 34th Streets in Lubbock, where I live. If you’re not familiar with that stretch of road, it’s a seven-lane thoroughfare, with three lanes each heading south and north, and a turn lane. Big. Wide. Sprawling. Busy.
It was in the afternoon, around 3:00 or so. I was talking on the phone with Joel, my son. Traffic was busy enough, but not nuts. I was in the middle lane, with cars pretty much all around me – left and right, front and back. I was probably about a quarter mile from the 34th Street intersection when the strangest thing began to happen.
I went blind. [click to continue…]
Had coffee with a sweet friend last week. She was describing the amazing things the Lord has worked in her life over the summer as she has gone through a wonderfully painful, gloriously gut-wrenching season. Each day the Lord has brought new strength, insights, healing, and refreshing as she prepares for a future that is far less certain… but far more peaceful.
Did you get that?
Far less certain, but far more peaceful.
Like many people, she had defined peace and satisfaction in terms of being able to predict what the future held (among other things). Now as she returns to school, she heads off into an unknown destiny, with lots of uncertainties. But she has a phenomenal peace that she is being held right in the center of God’s heart and hand.
Here’s how she expressed it to me. I was so touched, I wanted to share it with you (my paraphrase): [click to continue…]
So many random thoughts or snippets of wisdom (or something)… so little time. Here are seven more ideas that are still in my “oven”. And if you’re a sucker for these kinds of things, and just can’t get enough from Facebook or Twitter, check this out. Or maybe this or this.
Not long ago I read about this great procrastination test on the Psychology Today website. The test helps you target patterns of procrastination, then do something to change them. I clicked on the link and left it on my browser for a couple of days until I could get to it. Yes… I procrastinated taking the procrastination test. Until the browser locked up and I had to restart it… and lost the test. Ugh. The good news is, I found it again (thanks, Google). The bad news is, I’m still procrastinating. If you’d like to load it up and procrastinate taking it with me, you can find it here. [click to continue…]
It was that time again. Time to plan the annual Men’s Rafting Trip in Colorado. I had taken a group of fifty men a year earlier and discovered how some guys get the nickname “Bob” when they go rafting.
That’s all I want to say about that.
Now as I pulled out the file, I came across the list of men who had gone with me. What a difference 12 months had made! I was amazed at the profound changes so many of them had witnessed.
- Three had been fired from their work.
- One had quit his job and was unemployed for four months.
- One man endured an extended season of severe depression.
- Another had faced a dangerous autoimmune disease and was out of work for several weeks.
- One man’s career was at a dead end.
- Three others lost their businesses.
- One left for another state with no job in sight.
Put in Biblical language, “their brooks had dried up.” That is, they looked to a means by which God had provided for them in the past – health, strength, job, career – only to discover that the resource was no longer available.
Little did I know as I scanned that list that I, too, would soon face a drought of my own. Up until that time my ministry was fairly evenly split between an itinerant ministry and a part-time pastoral staff position. Within a matter of weeks, my traveling ministry had dwindled to two continuous months of inactivity. Then the church where I had served for four years terminated me, along with a number of other staff members, because of budgetary restraints.
Downsized! [click to continue…]
A rewrite of an old (and probably true, since I heard a preacher tell it) story…
What do you do when you know God’s call on your life is vocational evangelism, and your wife dies, leaving you with two sons, ages 8 and 10? Will Martin decided to seek out a way jto be both Dad and faithful evangelist. He rearranged his schedule to make sure he was never gone more than four days at a time, and made arrangements for a highly-trusted caretaker. And he made himself a promise: whenever he’d been away overnight, he would always bring his sons a special gift.
Then came the day that Will was wheels-up on the plane and it dawned on him: he’d forgotten to pick up something for his boys. So Will conceived a plan.
The boys were so ready to see their dad, and so excited to get inside his suitcase.
“Don’t even bother, guys,” Dad said. “There’s nothing in there. This one’s special. [click to continue…]
“Then I told them about the desire God had put into my heart.”
-Nehemiah 2:18
Today it seems little. Important, yes, but H-O scale. But on that day, it was larger than life – even larger than health. And a lesson awaited that was life-changing.
From the time I was 15 years old, I knew that God was leading me to be a pastor. I also knew there would be a pathway to get there, and five years later, I was still on that pathway. I was about the graduate from college. For a year I’d had the privilege of serving at my very first church, full-time in the summer, and on the weekends during school. The people there were gracious and really patient. It had been a wonderful experience. Now, as I was about to graduate from college, both the church and I were preparing to move on.
Because I was a July graduate, and had blown through college in three years, I decided to lay out a year before going to graduate school. When the church caught wind of it, they were delighted to meet with me on a Sunday night and offer me a full-time position. They offered me more than twice what I had ever made in a year (if I told you how much it was, you’d laugh). I said it sounded good; just let me take the week and pray about it, and I’d let them know the next Sunday. I left town that night assuming that the next year of my life was set.
Just one slight problem. [click to continue…]
Tense Truth: Because every human has a great need for guidance and care, God promises to personally meet the need of every Christ follower, as a shepherd would his sheep. Yet as our Shepherd, He will lead us directly to hostile or dangerous places, into the very presence of our enemies and death. Nevertheless, my safety and peace are not found in where I lie down, but in Who stays awake when I’m resting.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Give your heart to Jesus, and it will be the end of all your trouble.
The front end.
Just remember as you’re bumping along the road to eternal bliss, you have a Shepherd, and He has committed Himself to meet all your needs. Of course, if He’s the Shepherd, what does that make you and me?
Sheep. The stupidest, most defenseless animal in the world.
But we’re sheep with a Shepherd, and we can rest in that. It never ceases to amaze me how those inspired words of David, so comforting for centuries, continue to work their magic today. I witnessed it again last week, as a grieving family said good-bye to their mother/grandmother.
I love how practical the Lord is when He meets our needs. When God finds you hungry, He gives you food. When God finds you with a broken heart, He’s not going to come and ask you if you’ve read the Four Spiritual Laws. He’s going to attend to your broken heart. Whether the need is for strength to keep going, direction for decision making, encouragement along the way, or something more tangible, our Shepherd delights in solutions to the real problems in your life.
[click to continue…]
A Picture and a Hundred Words
In a train station somewhere is a parable for our time. Just count the arrows.
Don’t you wish sometimes there was just one way out?
One way home?
Don’t you wish somebody – anybody – would make it plain?
Multiple choice is fine when you’re picking soup or paint colors.
But some decisions require a way – a truth.
When the “way out” only involves a map, any set of steps will do.
But when it’s real life you’re looking for, limit your choices to Someone who is willing to be the way – not just point.
“I AM,” said He.
He is.
(Photo by liamvictor)
If you just read the title of this and are still reading, you don’t have time for cute stories or complicated formulas, so I’ll just get to the point, if that’s OK.
