Library of Thoughts

"My soul waits for the Lord. Because He is my help and shield. For my heart delights in him!…" There is one key lesson in young adulthood. And it is not determining what college, or which career. It is about embarking on the journey of trusting the Lord. Trusting Him in your happiness and joy. Trusting Him with your dreams. Learning the process of trusting Him in the areas of your life. How do we start? Delight your heart in Him… There is no other starting place. And getting those other decisions right, when your not delighting in Him? I have no clue how to do that. There is no "God sense" in that kind of common sense.

A blind man walking in a path hears a voice say, “The path is about to bend left.” Unsure wether to trust the voice, he continues straight, trusting his perception of the surface of the path. After a few more steps, he has not encountered a rough place and decides that he must still be on the right path. In reality, a fork in the path existed at the bend and he is now on a smaller branch of the roadway. Soon the path becomes rough and hilly. The blind man thinks to himself, “I was told this path would be smooth and lead to a place of security and joy!” He is angry at the map he was given, and the map maker. Never realizing that he left the path long ago. Trusting God and His guidance is much like the blind man’s path. God gives us a basic map, but asks us to trust Him. As we journey along the path, He will give guidance and He expects us to listen to that guidance. Does He explain His directions with, “I am asking you to do this because…”. Not usually; in fact rarely. What He says...

Scripture says that in the last days, there will be some who lead you astray with "ear tickling" words. Words that sound good, and appeal to you at some base level. You might call these "Catch Phrase" teachers. Sort a few motivational concepts into an appealing order, and add some scripture to make a point… Some of it may be true, but it leads men astray. How do we train "True Men"? Well, teach them to trust the Bible, and filter everything through it, of course! So here is a starting point for understanding biblical manhood from scripture … You go back and look at the verses below in 2 or 3 versions and see if I have it right! This is what real men do! To understand Manhood, you must understand man’s purpose. Both in the OT, and the NT.  To wrestle with these is the beginning of understanding manhood. Because you will learn about the things to which it’s worthwhile to give your life. I am going to give it to you paraphrased and imperfectly…...

“But I’m not afraid!”, was the response of a friend ministering on a difficult team… The problem was, that his actions were telling a different story. Low level frustration and anger were evident, as well as pride. He wasn’t trusting God with some areas of his ministry. Fear can have different faces. Fear often doesn’t feel like the fear we experience when surprised by a friend, or the adrenaline response when watching an intense movie. “What actions reveal that I am operating out of fear?” This may be the most revealing question you ask yourself this week. Am I trying to control?  Am I acting one way with my team, but grumbling about them later with someone else? Am I struggling to follow the team leader? Am I having a hard time seeing God’s hand in my team relationships? Am I analyzing their unbiblical thinking, and wanting to show them where they are wrong? Am I critical of their experience, and they way they serve the Lord? These, and other questions ma...

DA Carson "We need never ask what kind or how much humility is normal, natural, or necessary. It comes naturally when we are close to Christ. It is a natural response to sitting at the foot of the cross. It is necessary if we are to shed self, and count Him as worth the loss of all else. ” Sitting at the foot of the cross… The purity and simplicity of devotion to Christ means we shove other things out of our view so that we have the scope and focus to look, listen, linger at the person and work of Christ.  The longer we linger, the greater our realizationt of the glory of Christ! When I sit at the foot of the cross, I am sitting where the cataclysmic events began. Where wrath was invited, and guilt gathered. Where corruption was brought to the surface and the holiness of Christ was unleashed like a purifying ocean as His blood was shed by whips, by thorns, by nails, by sword. And I recognize experientially that I am small, and remarkably that I am loved!

The short answer is, nothing. But if that's true why have some of the Heart of a Warrior and Wild at Heart Groups developed wacky theology and selfish practices?  The answer to that is found in spiritual development and spiritual formation. If I were to take a 5 year old and teach him how to build a fire and then expect him to be responsible, when he burns down the house it's not his fault. It's my fault. When you don't teach a spiritual five-year-old the main things first and you try to usher him into an understanding of a man's heart it's not his fault when he comes up with kookie theology. Why are you trying to teach someone how to be a mature man when you haven't taught him how to be an obedient boy? Now here's the developmental principle. We learn more mature truths in the context of the elementary truths. We build the school house before we build the furniture. Don't talk about the color of the walls until you've laid a good foundation....

"Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life… The hardworking farmer ought to be first to receive his share of the crops." 2 Tim. 2 Paul invites Timothy deeply into the work of the kingdom. He demonstrates how the work should be done. He challenges Timothy to be diligent in the work. He reminds Timothy that the calling and gifting he has should shape how we advances the kingdom. But there is one thing Paul does not do. Once he has released the work to Timothy, you don't find Paul back in that field. He encourages, and he supports, and he even ensures some teammates join Timothy. But he knows that he is the equipper in the relationship. He expects Timothy to do the same. He challenges him to find faithful men and equip them to reach others. We get into trouble when the equippers (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, Teachers) go back to the field too often. They nee...

Here is the problem with pleasing God. It’s too base a goal, in that it requires no relationship. How do I know this? The outcome when I fail is not congruent with God’s posture toward you and me. He is looking at us right now in light of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Joy! Pleasure! Connectedness… When I fail to please God, guilt and shame are what I learn. When I fail to trust Jesus’ work on the cross, I learn that nothing has changed… “Guilt and shame are good motivators, but terrible transformers. Grace and love are also good motivators, and they are great transformers.” Dr. Eric Sandras The Gospel preached to myself today motivates and empowers! It's scandalous, and makes me laugh at the audacity of God! When you walk into the room, I can remind you and laugh with you at His shattering of shame in your life! It is freedom… Paul does this! His prefered mode of ministering to the saints is to rehearse the gospel! It's in the majority of his le...

Friends, There is nothing I can add to the following quote… Shame and Guilt are great motivators!  For some of us, they cause us to anesthetize.  For some of us, they cause us to excel. But they are terrible transformers. Love and Grace are also great motivators,  but unlike shame and guilt,  they are powerful transformers. Dr. Eric Sandras

It took a long time, but we have finally squeezed the cross into a box. Rather than the explosion that is sending a tidal wave of reality changing impact forward and backwards in time, we are binding up the cross effectively into the 4 days from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday. It now requires only a head nod of honor, via pastel dress shirts, and baskets with green plastic grass.  We all, walking with God daily, sense that it isn’t right.  Our buttoned up Easter celebrations, doesn’t jive with the soul shaking reality of the cross. Still, we will write blogs, and put snippets on Facebook, pointing out pieces of the gospel. They will say things like,"This Easter, reflect on the impact of these scriptures in your life.” Implying that all we need is a little tune up in relation to the cross. The Christian cultural implication being that we are pretty healthy. That we are living well in light of the cross. When in reality what is intended to be...

“ Simplicity and Purity of devotion to Christ ”… A call for faith to make it’s home in Christ alone. A challenge to replace  a self elevating life with a God elevating life. It’s simple, because it focuses on a person, and it’s pure because it leaves no room for any other obsession!  Stop and look at yesterday. Cast your minds eye to time spent, thoughts gathered, and passions directed in that 24hr period. As a follower, was some of your time spent being absorbed in the “blueprint” of the finished work of Christ? If it was, then you likely set your heart right to filter the place of everything else. Rejected other blueprints, turned away from other devotions. Pride has found a ready home in the discipleship movement. Decades of happy activity helping others mature in Christ has led to a murky devotion, a lack of simplicity, and way to many blueprints.  I am guilty of it, as are you. Overlays on the gospel, and complexities of plan stealing a heart of de...

The false dichotomy of grace vs truth is prevalent in the western church. It’s frequently seen in my church. We pit grace as the undeserved work of God in our lives against truth, which is confrontational and requires action. But it is not an either/or choice in terms of how we view our lives as disciples. It is just easier to choose one over the other. “I’m striving for obedience”, or “I choose grace”. So we get woo’d into choosing pleasing God over trusting God, or the opposite. They are not in opposition, but in partnership. There is tension in our understanding of them, but not in the reality of them. For they are two facets of the person of Jesus Christ. As John tells us Jesus was, “Full of grace and truth.” Not only descriptors of Christ, but of His glory. The emanation of His greatness. So vast and immeasurable that we had to create a word that did not define it, but described the eternal experience of it. Blasted backwards like the guitar scene in Back To The Future. O...