The Good Years

We went to Anthony's spring concert last night. I love school programs for kindergartners. They remind me of my youth. If anybody has ever wondered what I was like when I was a kid, this is a good comparison. Here is a video of my little man singing his school songs. Watch the clinching of his hands while he sings.

Praying

I have been praying differently lately. I have been asking God to help me with the things that need to fixed about me: my control, my pride, my judgment. I have even been getting on my knees at the side of my bed and saying the "Our Father" as an intro to my nightly prayer before I go to sleep. I have asked God to let me see the world with His eyes, and He has been answering that prayer for me, especially in the gym where I work out. I have just started to pray for the gift of healing. I still pray for selfish things, like the sale of our house, but my focus is on what He can do with the situation and not what I think that I can do with it.
I firmly believe that God does answer prayers. He answers them in His time and not ours. Some doors He will open and some He will close. He knows what is best for us. I receive a daily devotional from my counselor and as usual, the timing of some of them have been amazing! Divine appointments and answered prayers in themselves. Here is the one that I just received on Friday:

C.S. Lewis once said that we can bear to be refused but not ignored. In other words, our faith can survive many refusals if they really are refusals and not mere disregards. God always hears us. God always answers our prayers. His answers are yes, no, or wait. When we complain that God does not answer our prayers, we really mean that we cannot tolerate a negative answer. Most of our prayers are selfish requests or misguided petitions that need refusals. God hears us only too well.

As a father may hear his son plead for a dangerous firearm and refuse it, knowing the child is too young to be trusted with a gun, so too our Father in heaven in the same wisdom may not give what we ask for. God gives what we need, not what we want. He may give us the very no we need to accept in order to wait until we are ready. Often, an indication of our readiness for deeper connection with the Almighty is when we stop disregarding past harms we caused others and make things right as appropriate.

As we become more intimate with God, we discover that he is more open to "make me" prayers than "give me" prayers. Part and parcel of molding, shaping and making me into a person whose heart beats for God is removing past infirmities that taint the masterpiece he is creating. He is much more interested in making us vitally connected with him than in giving us what we want. We would do much better to ask to be made over than given unto. We need changing, not spoiling. After all, if we pray, the answer is really God's will, not ours. He really does know best, and he really does answer.

Father, thank You for prayers that are answered and unanswered. You are in control and I trust You. In Jesus, Amen!
Peace!

Do You Trust Me?

Our marriage, the sale of our home, our kids safety and well being, our health, even my work. These are all things that I am trusting God with, or at least saying that I trust Him with. Trusting Him isn't always easy. Especially in those moments of my own selfish needs and my human timing of things. I often find that my trust is conditional and if I don't get the results I want, when I want them, then I begin to question His love for me.

It has been almost a year now since my trip to Honduras. I had to let go of a lot of control in my life and just trust that God was going to show up during that trip. And He did,...BIG time! I remember the simplicity that I witnessed in Honduras. It seems the less stuff that the people had, the happier they were. It was almost as if it was easier for the Hondurans to trust God with their lives because they had less to complicate things. They didn't have to worry about making a car payment. They didn't even have an electric or water bill. They are trusting God to provide them with meals, clothing and shelter; and He is.

So I'm at church this past weekend and the words "DO YOU TRUST ME" pop up on the big screen behind the stage. Immediately I hear Him ask me, "Well, do you?" So I start praying (which is a pretty good thing to do when you hear God's voice), "I want to God". "I'm trying really hard to trust You". And then I got to thinking about all of this work I've been doing with my counselor to let go of my control. If I assume that I am in control of everything, my ability to trust is greatly reduced. Then I realize how out of control that I really am. I am not in control of my marriage. I am not in control of the sale of my home. I can only do so much to assure my kids safety and well being. I can only control my health by eating right and exercising, but that doesn't completely eliminate the risk of disease. I can only do the work that God provides for me to do (and only He can provide that for everybody). Bottom line is that He is in control of everything and I have a lot to trust Him with.

Think of all of the Biblical figures that had to trust God. Moses and the Israelites stood knee deep in the Red Sea and trusted God to deliver them out of Egypt and from the Pharaohs tyranny. David placed great trust in his God when he stood before Goliath in battle. Noah built an ark in the middle of a forest at the risk of his own humility, and God came through for him. Jesus faced the cross and changed how we are affected by sin forever by trusting in His Abba.

Father, I humbly come to you and ask for forgiveness of my stubborn pride. Lord, take control from me. Give me strength to believe in you and allow you to be in control. And God, I trust You! I trust you with every aspect of my life. If I start to doubt Lord, please send me a reminder. You can have Your way Father. Thank you! In Jesus' name, Amen.

At The Gym, Again . . .

He towers at about six feet, five inches tall and weighs close to two hundred and fifty pounds. He is an African-American man with a shaved head and ink all over his arms. One eye is permanently glassed over with no pupil or retina and is surrounded by scarred skin. He has a gold tooth. His clothes are usually a white tank-top, baggy blue work trousers and suede leather work boots. He constantly paces back and forth between exercise machines listening to what sounds like hard rap music coming through his ipod headphones. He goes by the name of "L" and he is a warrior.
I met "L" a few months ago during my arm workout at the gym. He and a buddy of his were doing machine preacher curls when I approached them and asked if I could do a few sets with them. They were using moderately heavy weight and they were doing the curls single armed. I have been in the gym long enough to know that if you man up and hang with somebody during their "lift", you can gain their respect. Before we knew it, we were doing single arm curls with 75 pounds. I fought through each painful rep dripping with sweat. We finished, and "L" looked at me and smiled. He stuck out his fist and I reached out with my fist to hit his. No words were needed, it is a guy's way of saying "good going or congrats". Later in the locker room I introduced myself and he did the same. His name is actually Elrod, but his street name is "L".
The first thing that you will notice about "L" is not his scarred eye or his scary size, it's that he always has a smile on his face. Whenever he sees me, he approaches to greet me as if he is excited to see me. Our conversations have been brief with the typical questions such as: "Where do you work?" and "How many kids do you have?" I have been waiting for just the right time to ask him to share his life story, and if he is a follower. Today, I took a small step and asked him if he is a church going man. He lit up! I didn't think that his smile get could any bigger, but it did. He told me that his dad is a Baptist Preacher and that they just started a church in northern Kentucky. I think that he said that they started two months ago and that they have about a hundred in attendance. I think that is awesome!
God continues to impress me with the stories that are coming out of the gym. My prayer "to see the world with His eyes" is being answered. The gym has been one of the most easiest places for me to pass judgment. For so many years, I have let my own pride get out of control and in the way at the gym. I have always seen the gym as a place full of self-centered, testosterone filled jerks; and I was one of them. Now I am just simply amazed at what I am discovering. Real people with real stories. I can't wait to talk to "L" some more. I want to know what happened to his eye. I want to know more about what God is doing in his life. And when I find out, I will share it.
Peace!

Tattoos: Good or Bad?

I was talking to my good friend and mentor about tattoos a few days ago. He was sharing with me his belief as to why we should not mark up our bodies with tattoos. Most of his beliefs come from the Old Testament.

“Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:28).

The Old Testament is filled with commands and laws that God provided us to live by. Technically, new believers today are not under the Old Testament law. That is why Jesus came, to save us from our past and future sinning. I really struggle with reading the Old Testament because of all of it's strictness and harshness. Another good friend gave me his input of the Old Testament; he said this, "The Old Testament is a series of testimonies of God delivering His people from their sins". In relation to tattoos, a good test is to determine whether we can honestly, in good conscience, ask God to bless and use that particular activity for His own good purposes.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

I designed my tattoo myself. It started one day while I was sitting on the sidelines of my son's soccer game. I was praying and writing in my journal and just started sketching a cross. The end result is this:


The cross stands for Jesus' death for us, the vine of thorns represent the pain that He went through for us, the tribal marks behind the cross stand for Jesus as a warrior, the tribal marks at the foot of the cross represent spirits (our souls) worshiping Him, and the Sun is God watching over.

An important scriptural principle on issues the Bible does not specifically address is if there is room for doubt whether it pleases God, then it is best not to engage in that activity. Romans 14:23 reminds us that anything that does not come from faith is sin. We need to remember that our bodies, as well as our souls, have been redeemed and belong to God. Although 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 does not directly apply to tattoos or body piercings, it does give us a principle: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” This great truth should have a real bearing on what we do and where we go with our bodies. If our bodies belong to God, we should make sure we have His clear “permission” before we “mark them up” with tattoos.

To me, getting a tattoo is no different than the obese person who continues to gourd on food, the addict who continues to take drugs, the alcoholic who continues to drink, the body builder who continues to take steroids or starve themselves, or the smoker who continues to inhale. Bottom line is, I believe God is more interested in our hearts and our intentions, not our appearances.

I HATE YOU...

I hate you satan! I hate everything that you stand for! I hate that I even have feelings of hate...even for you.

In the past week I have witnessed a good friends painful divorce, was informed that a good friend's fiance left him over the holidays, and yesterday came the news of another friends separation from his wife. All the work of the enemy. You (satan) have even been at work in my life. Trying to mess up my marriage. Trying to separate me from my God.

Well I've got news for you satan. YOU LOSE! You picked the wrong person to mess with. You want a piece of me...come get it. I am a fighter. I'm not afraid of you! I am a son of God and in my corner is Jesus. So screw you satan.

I think it's obvious that I am feeling quite angry today. I'm fired up and I'm pissed off at satan. I'm tired of his games and his lies. I'm tired of watching friends fall victim to his deeds.

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Paul wrote:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

In this letter, God is calling us to stand and fight. Challenging us to not run aimlessly (like those running from their fears). We are empowered by a God who is a Warrior. Jesus (God) is not just the Lamb Who is soft and caring. He is all powerful, a fighter who comes with fire in His eyes and a lightning bolt in His hands to strike down satan forever. HE IS! If we are created in His image, what does that make us? WARRIORS! We can't continue to sit in our self pity and hope for just a miracle. The miracle is at hand. He gives us a new day to fight. To allow Him to strengthen us. Do we as parents raise our children to stand for themselves, or do we want to always fight their battles for them? That is how God has raised us, and there comes a time when we all have to make a stand. So rise up brothers and sisters.
Rise up and fight!

A Sling & A Stone

1 Samuel 17
David and Goliath
A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.
Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other." On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul's time he was old and well advanced in years. Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.
Now Jesse said to his son David, "Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines."
Early in the morning David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.
Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes in Israel."
David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."
When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle."
"Now what have I done?" said David. "Can't I even speak?" He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.
David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."
Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."
Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
"I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. "Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"
David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."
As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.
So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.
When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron. When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put the Philistine's weapons in his own tent.
As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, "Abner, whose son is that young man?" Abner replied, "As surely as you live, O king, I don't know."
The king said, "Find out whose son this young man is."
As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine's head.
"Whose son are you, young man?" Saul asked him. David said, "I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem."


Everybody should know this story. It is David versus Goliath. A scrawny Sheppard boy against a warrior giant. It comes from the Old Testament of the Bible, but it has so much application to every human being on this earth still today. Your giant may not carry a sword and shield, instead, he might be unemployment, abandonment, divorce, sexual abuse, pornography, or depression. He is everywhere, and you have to face him everyday.
I've had to face a couple in the list that I just mentioned. There will always be new giants as well. As soon as we kill one, another stands up and mocks us. Calls us out for battle. Tests our courage and presumes that we will fall in defeat to him.
Right now, I have a couple of giants in my life. I am in the fight of my life to fix my brokenness (with God's Grace and Mercy), and hoping that He will restore my marriage. I am still in this house that we are trying to sell, stuck with a mortgage that we can't afford anymore, and with that comes a lot of stress. From the moment I wake until the moment I fall asleep, the giants are there waiting for me.
My God is bigger than the giants that exist in my life. My faith has to remain strong. I am up for the fight, but it is exhausting. And at times, I even have my weak moments. I feel like giving up. I am lucky to have a band of brothers who lift me up. They speak into my life. They encourage me and pray for me. I believe every man (or woman) should have a group of piers who will do the same for them. Truthfully, we can't fight the battle alone.


My men's group is starting this new book study called "Facing Your Giants", by Max Lucado. I love the books that we dive into. I am only into the second chapter of this book, and already I feel alive. I feel inspired to be David. What great timing of this study as well. We need this to regroup. We need this to be restored and to remind us who we are and of the God that we serve.
What are your giants? Do you have more than one? Do you know who God is and know that He wants you to stand up and defeat your giants? He wants you to lean on Him, count on Him, and believe that there is Victory in Him?
Buy the book and read it. Discuss it with a group of friends. Pray and ask for God's help. It will change your life!

My Sacrifice

Sacrifice is defined as the act of offering something to a deity in propitiation or homage, especially the ritual slaughter of an animal or a person. The key word here is "Offering". An offering is a contribution or a gift that is given by your own free will, not expecting anything in return.
Sometimes when we think of the word sacrifice, we think of the act of losing one's life to save another; the soldier on the battle field, the fireman in a towering inferno, Jesus on the cross. Or maybe you're an athlete and to sacrifice means to put yourself in harms way to help a fellow player advance, or accept a bunt to advance another runner. Sacrifice can be acted out in many ways, but it's meaning still remains the same.
I believe, that if we walk with God long enough, sooner or later He is going to ask us to sacrifice something for Him. Keep in mind that He still knows what is best for us. Our ways are not His. Our thoughts are not the same as His. God will ask us to do something for Him that seems near impossible. I recently read a passage from my daily devotional that said this: "Expect that one day (perhaps soon) He may ask of you what seems quite difficult. Then, He may ask of you what seems impossible. This is obedience in its purest form. This is obedience as sacrifice. To obey is better than sacrifice, unless, to obey is sacrifice".
As I continue to process how I control things and areas where I am too prideful, I am constantly hearing God calling me to sacrifice something. He is asking me to give into Him. To allow Him to control things. To let His will be done. This is a sacrifice to me, or better put, from me to Him.

Hebrews 9:26
Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Father, please continue to break down the arrogant walls that I have built up. Please continue to reduce my pride. Lord, Your will be done, not mine. Please accept all that I offer up to You and continue to challenge me to sacrifice something for You.