Sunday, August 29, 2010

A Sabbatical


I sat down today to write something and after about half an hour I highlighted the whole thing and hit the delete button.  So there I sat staring at a blank screen asking God for a word and what came to me wasn't a word for you but for me.  Ivor (my ministry partner) called and we worked though that and now I feel OK about the fact that I am not going to write anything else today but instead pursue my relationship with the God who mad me, loved me, saved me, and is growing me.  I have written faithfully for over eighty weeks and last week was the first time I didn't post to this Blog.  Today I hope that you to will ask God what he wants for YOU and wants from YOU.  Ultimately our salvation and our growth in Christ comes not from what we read or hear but from our own desire for and  pursuit of God.  God willing, I'll catch you back here next week. This may not sound very manly but I love you all (even if I've never met you).


Peace,

David

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Preparation - It's often painful but well worth it!


Do you remember the spoiled girl in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory who wanted the goose that laid the golden eggs?  Veruca Salt was her name and I can still hear her yelling, "I want it NOW!"  Then there is this obnoxious commercial for a company that pays people a lump sum (much smaller of course than what they are entitled) for a settlement they would have received over time.  Person after person yells, "It's my money and I want it NOW!"  Cell phones, text messaging, satellite radio, Ipods, and WIFI have bred a generation of Americans who have the desire for immediate gratification.  We want it now.  The problem is that we don't necessarily want to do the hard work necessary to achieve much of what God really wants for our lives.  

I was at breakfast this morning with my ministry partner (doing church) when a really powerful analogy come to us. As many of you know, I am heading to SW Colorado to hunt Elk in September.  I am 46, live near sea level, and up until November of 2009 was a wee bit overweight.  I hadn't shot my bow in a few years and couldn't  keep a group of three arrows within 2 feet of each other at 40 yards to save my life.  I got winded when I gave my 50lb eight year old son a piggy back ride up the steps to his room and I wasn't at all prepared to carry a 50 lb. backpack up hill and hunt Elk with a bow at an elevation of 11,000 feet.  Sure it would be really great if I could fly out there, strap on the backpack, run up the mountain, chase a big bull elk, shoot with the accuracy of Robin Hood, an all the while feel like I was lying at the poolside in a fine resort.  But guess what?  This boy was unprepared. So what to do?

I needed to loose about 20 lbs., get in shape cardiovascularly, tune my bow, practice my shooting from different distances and different angles.  I needed some new equipment. I filled my pack with 55 lbs. of weights, strapped it on, and walked for miles and trotted up and down the nearby ski hill.  It was miserable.  I was hot, tired, sore, and stiff.  I had to spend time on the treadmill, in the gym, and in the backyard with the bow.  I had to break in a new pair of boots walking for miles on humid 90+ degree days while my family swam at the neighbor's pool.  You can't just go from ground level to the top of the mountain without preparation.  I think you get the idea.  

In the same way, I think, we as Christians want to have all the benefits, be fed spiritually, be lifted up emotionally, and find forgiveness but aren't willing to do the hard work, endure the suffering, or sacrifice the time we set aside for fun and pleasure in order to be all and do all the Lord has called us to do.  I know this for a fact because I do the same!  I want to be spiritually mature, strong in my faith, morally solid, and bold in my proclamation of Christ but I am not always ready to do what it it takes for that to happen.  Prayer, time in the Word, gathering with brothers and sisters to worship, enduring ridicule or loss of "friends" because of a boldness to speak the Name of Jesus.  Many of us are willing to invest an hour or to a week and maybe a few minutes each day to talk to God but there is no way we will see the summit of what God wants for our lives if we live this kind of Christian life.

We often think that immediately after Paul encountered the risen Christ he was all ready to do the work God set him apart to do.  We often see his powerful ministry in a condensed, Reader's Digest way.  Sure he was excited and filled with the Spirit and proclaimed Christ from the outset but his ministry did not happen overnight and without pain.  Galatians chapters 1 and 2 tell us that he went to Arabia for three years before he met Peter and James then another fourteen years passed before he returned to Jerusalem. Paul was stoned, beaten, flogged, and endured much suffering as I have pointed out in other posts but he also just plain spent time with the Father.  He knew the Word.  My son reminded me this week of a verse that is SO important and reminds us of our need for preparation, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." (Psalm 119:11)  How do I keep myself from sinning?  Hiding God's word in my heart.  How do I do that without being in God's Word.

The last component of this isn't what we do but what God has to do in us.  Sometimes it's just time, plain and simple.  We just aren't ready yet.  We can't run until we walk.  We can't chew meat until we have teeth.  We can't write a novel if we haven't learned to read.  God sometimes just has to bring us through some stuff, strengthen us, build our faith through suffering, teach us some things about him and about ourselves, and prune of some dead useless things from us before we can climb higher up the mountain.


Peace in Christ,

David

Monday, August 9, 2010

Is Anybody Out There?

In 1970 Pink Floyd released a song with only four words. They repeated the four words four times.   It's hard to believe you can write a song that has only four words but I think these words, in the form of a question, resonate with me and the only thing that might make the song more complete is an answer to the question:




Is anybody out there?


Is anybody out there?


Is anybody out there?


Is anybody out there?


I originally had a different path for this blog in relation to these four words, which I'll share at the end, but I think God is leading be down a different road.  


You may remember that a week ago I had a faith testing experience with a Monarch butterfly but that experience (which you can read at your leisure) revealed something else to me.  I have a number of people close to me, people I care about, who deny the existence of a creator God.  They have answered the question "Is anybody out there?" with a resounding "No!"  No God is out there.  I have written a couple blogs posts pondering the evolution-creation debate but as I thought about the butterfly I remembered its AMAZING life cycle.  


Please read this carefully and let it sink in.


In March and April  Monarchs lay an egg the size of a pinhead.  The egg sits on the leaf of a milkweed plant and four days later it hatches into a tiny caterpillar which eats and grows for two weeks.  It attaches itself to the leaf with silk and it's skin peels off as it is transformed into a chrysalis (like the cocoon of a moth).  Over the course of 10 days a mysterious process we call metamorphosis (change of form) takes place and out comes a beautiful and graceful adult monarch butterfly.  That in itself is amazing but read on!


This butterfly will lay similar eggs just before it dies only 2-6 weeks after being born.  The first butterfly is generation number one and the eggs just laid will be generation two. The second generation of monarch butterflies is born in May and June, and then the third generation will be born in July and August. These monarch butterflies will go through exactly the same four stage life cycle as the first and second generations did, dying two to six weeks after it becomes a beautiful monarch butterfly, laying eggs for the fourth generation butterflies.  Still with me?


Here is where it gets really crazy.  This fourth generation Monarch, born around September doesn't die in a few weeks but instead takes flight, heading to the warm weather of the south.  It flies 2500 miles to Mexico or California and will live 6-8 months before migrating 2500 miles back up north where it will lay eggs in March and April for the first generation of new Monarchs.  


"Is anybody out there?"  Hmmm?  I think that as I have shed my Godless view of evolution from the primordial soup of the cooling earth, the Monarch stands as a monument to the creativity of God.  If you doubt that God exists or that there is a designer of life please think hard about the Monarch and how it could have come to pass by slow steady changes over time.  I think you will have to cling to your atheism only with the strength of your pride.  I had the gift of having my pride stripped from me so that my eyes could see clearly the hand of God.  It is easier to lay it down rather than having it stripped but whatever works!


Lastly, I was going to use the words, "Is anybody out there?" as a reaction to the lack of response to my last post asking for questions or comments but God let me know today that it is His business who reads this blog, not mine.  Whether 0 or 1,000,000 it matters not.... I just need to keep writing.  God will take it from there.  My pride got in the way.  So that's why this is out on Monday and not Saturday.  I was pouting.......  :)




John 1:2-4 

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.


Here is a link to a time lapse video of a Monarch life cycle.. facts above where from monarch-butterfly.com


Monarch Butterfly


Peace in Christ,


David

Monday, August 2, 2010

I'm looking for your questions and comments.

I wanted this week to just share a little information about the I-61 Project Blog and then give you the opportunity to participate both for your benefit and mine.  The blog has gone out into Internet world for eighty-three weeks and has reached forty-seven countries and forty-nine states.  My hope is that in this someone has drawn closer to God through faith in Jesus Christ and that questions have been answered, hope renewed, doubts relieved, and comfort zones stretched.

The Blog is an off-shoot of our main ministry website THE I-61 PROJECT which contains audio podcasts, videos, and soon christian music videos.  The content on the main site will increase as our resources increase but, in the meantime the blog will go out as long as God allows.

I want to give you the opportunity to participate in the content of the blog.  I would like you to share any questions you have about life, faith, God, the Bible, or any other questions or thoughts that might be unsettled in your heart.  I certainly don't have all the answers but God does.  Sometimes he give us the answers but other times we have to settle for the fact that we will never be God so we will never have all the answers.  But God in his grace does share much with us through his Word and through revelation by the power of the Holy Spirit.

If you receive this blog through an email subscription there should be a link at the bottom that says, "Email the Author" and if you are reaching us directly via the website then you will see, to the right of this week's post title, a small box with a number circled in red.  That is the comment box.  Click on the number and it will open up a comment box for you to drop us a note.  If you don't have one of the profiles listed you can use "anonymous".  If you haven't subscribed to email delivery and you want to get the blog sent directly to your email click the "email subscription" highlighted above and click on the "Get the I-61 Project Blog Delivered by Email" link on the right side of the page.

Please feel free to share or ask anything.  No topic is off limits.  I may not be able to post all of them but I will answer all of them.  If you want to be sure you receive an answer make sure I have your email address.  I will not ever publish or share the address but will only use it to respond to your question or comment.

One last thing:  If you haven't used the "Search Previous Post" tool on the right side of the page you might want to give it a try.  Type in any word or phrase such as "I need more faith" and the search engine will look through all eighty-three posts and list ones that contain that content.  It is a good way to see if your question has already been addressed.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Peace in Christ,

David