I just don't have a desire for strong liquor, wild women or gay show tunes...*

7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”   1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)









I love each of the post this week from my fellow Kingdom Bloggers. The desire of the heart is as unique and characteristic to an individual as a fingerprint, and comes to fruition from a number of variables that we each develop and experience as we grow.


David Johndrow started the week with a wonderful promise from God found in a psalm of King David. In Acts 13:22, Paul is laying the Good News out to the Jews (and even the Gentiles who worshipped God) by preaching to them about the chosen history of Israel that had been directed by God's hand. How God had found David to be a man after His own heart, and from his lineage had come the Savior of all mankind, Jesus Christ.

I personally find great hope in David's story because his journey for God is one that strays from the path on occasion. There is great solace in the fact God can use us for His glory even though we start broken and are prone to disrepair along the way.

My heart's desire was once focused on the dream of becoming an astronaut. I planned and plotted the path my life would follow: after high school, college, commissioning in the USMC, flight school, fighter pilot, couple of tours, test-pilot school, and on to NASA. For once, my height played to my advantage because astronauts are preferred to be under 6 feet tall. While my desire to play college football was smashed by my stature, the bigger price was still in hand. I had my course charted.

Problem was...God wasn't in it. I had moved away from Him and seeking His will for my life. That's why when  the wheels came off the cart, I found myself completely lost in the darkness. I couldn't pass a flight school eye exam. From the word go...my dream was over. I plotted and schemed to find a way around the one limitation that had become the closed door in my path. The thing I didn't do...I couldn't do...was pray for God's help. I was swimming in unconfessed sins and the desire of my heart revolved around a path I had never stopped to check with my Father about. So endeth the lesson for this grasshopper...

Today, my heart's desire is completely focused on God's will for my life. I long to be closer to Him, for my family to be closer to Him. I pray to be a man likened to God's own heart...like David. Rarely do I dwell on my shortcomings but rather examine the root causes to avoid them in the future. I start each day mentally reciting the words of Jesus concerning the greatest commandments. I yearn for His return and to be in His presence. I seek after the face of God...

My true heart's desire.


The reality that God will do what and when He wants keeps me grounded. The verifiable truth that I fail Him each and every day and to live up to a standard worthy of His love also drives me...motivates me...to never accept spiritual defeat...ever! I must humbly accept without my Father eternal death is my sentence. To be separated from true love forever...

The very antithesis of my heart's desire.



* The title of this post comes from a conversation I had just today with one of my Italian customers. At the end of every conversation we've ever had, this gentleman will ask me, in his heavily accented voice, if I'm going home to enjoy 'the Jack Daniels' this evening. I guess people in Italy have people from Tennessee stereotyped just as we stereotype them (he hates spaghetti I've learned). At the end of our telephone conversation this morning, he posed the question once again, and I gave him the above title answer. He laughed about the gay show tunes...

Why do you blog?

This week here at Kingdom Bloggers we're sharing why we blog.

For me there's just something special about the written word. I adore reading. From the time I first learned to write in elementary school, I've always written.

The most frequent forms my writing has taken are notes of thanks or encouragment to people, or personal journals. I've also written some poetry, some fiction, some work related curriculum, and some Bible study curriculum.

I'm not sure exactly why I started the whole blog thing, but I was just drawn to it. I know that I enjoy reading what others have to say on their blogs. I can not say that I'm on some "mission from God" (BTW - ever watch The Blues Brothers?) but I do know that I have a strong inner desire to just be who I am. I do not see myself as any kind of expert who is trying to teach others, or an apologist who is trying to persuade others. My desire is to be exactly who I am, to share my thoughts and experiences on my day to day life. My hope is that others who read what I write will be able to relate in some aspect to my thoughts and experiences and either be encouraged in their faith, or find faith in Christ to become more attractive. I also hope to stimulate people's thinking and generate useful discussion and interaction.

What about you, why do you blog?

So Father...let's do this Your way.

I posted on Kingdom Bloggers last December about taking over the college-aged Sunday School class at church. Although there was both excitement and anxiety about the new venture, I must report a little over 8 months later that the experience has been one of the greatest blessing God has ever given to me.

Each Sunday, our church's bulletin has a call for help to fill several open positions in different ministries. I can't begin to tell you how this breaks my heart. The church I attend has well over 300 members, but in typical fashion, it seems that there are a handful of people that do the work required by the church's called ministries. Even more heartbreaking is the fact I know we are in the norm and not the exception when it comes to this problem.

How can this be?

A little over a month ago, I requested to speak before worship services to the Sunday morning crowd. I shared my angst over the open teaching positions, but I also shared what a tremendous blessing it had been to work in the Sunday School ministry. I was honest about my anxieties and reluctance to take the class because of the time commitment then joked about my epiphany and realizing the awesome teacher I was replacing was also the Vice-President of a Fortune 500 company...how could I be any busier than him? I poured it out and poured it on strong. When finished, a sense of accomplishment came over me as I headed back to my drummer's throne tucked away behind the piano.

Those same positions are still open today...

We are truly creatures of habit, and attitude is as much habit as anything else about us. While it still bothers me to open the bulletin and continue to see the request for help going unanswered, God has helped me focused on what He has me doing. Each Sunday, I come to class prepared and ready to challenge a group of young adults who need to question and understand why it is they believe what they say they believe. I stay involved in their lives throughout the week. When they hurt or struggle, I pray for them and hurt with them. When the celebrate yet another milestone or accomplishment, I praise God for them and celebrate with them. I can't even type this paragraph without tearing up thinking about the awesome blessing each and every one in the class is to me personally.

Maybe that is a much more effect way to motivate others to get involved. I know not every person has a talent or aptitude to teach. I don't have the talent to sing or work in children's church either. Jesus teaches extensively about the Church being a body made up of different parts...each with a role to fill.

So, I will continue to keep on keeping on with what I have been called to do. I will do so with my very best effort and attitude. I will stay involved and interact with my students with love and compassion. I will share with others what a tremendous blessing and privilege it is to be a small part of the Body working for the Kingdom. I will reflect all credit and glory to the One who allows me said privilege.

And if by some chance that rubs off on somebody else and motivates them to pick up the slack...praise be to God!

A few of the gang with a picture message for an absent fellow classmate. The small red head in the back is a special guest...

Jordan

I have known Jordan since he was about 12.  He is now 24 and recently discharged from the Army.  Jordan was one of the kids in the church youth group I volunteered for. I was disappointed when Jordan told me he was gonna enlist in the Army.  He was a brilliant kid, very mature and had so many other options before him. I didn't just blurt out my opinion to Jordan.  I truly asked Holy Spirit for permission to speak my mind before I opened my mouth.  Jordan and I talked about it and that was the extent of it.  He felt lead by God to join and who was I to argue with him and Jesus.                                                                                                                Jordan eventually entered Ranger school.  He has told me that the prayers of others is what helped him get through the grueling training. Jordan would also asked for prayer when he went through Jump School.  I was often led to pray for Jordan's Spiritual training.  In fact, during this time of his service I was most concerned about his Spiritual growth.

When Jordan was about to be deployed, he would give a call and we would chat and pray.  During these times, I was sometimes conflicted as how I should pray.  After all, if I was praying for Jordan's safety, it meant that I was essentially praying for someone else to die. It seemed kinda odd to pray for Jordan to excel at his job because it meant I was praying for someone else to die. 

In no way did I want Jordan or any of his fellow soldiers to get hurt or killed.  But at the same time, there were people that would cross Jordan's path that would get hurt or killed.  And more than likely these people did not know the Saving Grace of Jesus.

I am proud of the man Jordan is and the accomplishments of his young life.  I am excited to see how Jesus uses this man to advance the Kingdom.  I love the Brother and I am thankful that he took on a duty that I know I could not have and would not have done.  I am thankful for the sacrifices all the soldiers and their families have made for the United States.  But I still have no answers for certain questions:

• How do some people feel led by Jesus to kill in the name of their country and others do not? 
• Is it responsible of me to pray for some one's safety and their ability as a soldier, knowing that someone is going to die at the hands of the person I am asking God to bless?  
• What is the difference between two people defending their warring countries?

I have no real conclusion to this entry, because I can't wrap my mind around this topic. I also am not really seeking answers to these questions. Jordan and no one else for that matter, owes me an explanation for their sense of duty towards their country.  And Jordan nor anyone else, will answer to me on Judgment Day. I put my trust and my understanding in God and His Word when it comes to the questions I have no definite answers for.

Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it.  They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life.

Romans 2.14-16

He is here, you can touch Him...You will never be the same.

God spends a lot of time just on me...good thing He's omnipotent.

Often with the best of intentions in mind, I get pulled into a path of behavior that isn't...well...very Christ-like. Just a few weeks back, I wrote about ongoing dialogue with a number of different people about God, most of whom didn't actually believe He even exist. God was convicting me about my mannerism with a passage from Timothy. Well it seems that correcting took a little longer to sink in than it should have...that's a shame on me.

My exchanges didn't take a kinder, gentler turn after that post. Instead, another exchange on
Abundant Living (sorry Tracy) actually became pointed and sarcastic, and that's completely my fault too. I often pray for God to guide and direct my life in His will...but praying and listening are obviously two different things.

A hymn came to my heart during the several days that covered the exchange, and I couldn't shake it for the life of me...

He is here, Hallelujah, He is here, Amen
He is here, Holy Holy, I will bless His name again
He is here, listen closely
Hear Him calling out your name
He is here, you can touch Him
You will never be the same

Now, we haven't sang that hymn where I go to church in probably two years or more, but I requested we do it the next Sunday to our Praise Team leader, and he immediately responded with an emphatic yes. I was left to wonder where this was going...

While playing the song this past Sunday (which was the last song we did), I finally got it. Worshipping in complete humility is something I should do each and every Sunday, but I should also live my life each day in that same humility...because He is here...with me...always.

Paul, in one of his greatest speeches, tells the Greeks of Athens in Acts 17:24-28

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

I finally got it Sunday. Not that it had to happen during worship and praise...it could happen anywhere at anytime. I finally realized that God is here. Always. I should conduct my life in all aspects in complete submission and humility...because I am a light for Him. Jesus doesn't need me to win His battles. We know the ending to the story of this world. Jesus wants me to show love for my neighbor, because in doing so, I show His love.

Please Father, forgive me for not listening...and thank you for always being here with me. Amen.

There is a God, How Much Proof Do You Need?

The first couple of times that I was confronted with the "god" question, I stood my ground pretty well. I was educated, logical, rational and as a teenager, I was at the pinnacle of my intelligence. Isn't it wonderful how much more God knows than I do?

This week the faithful are going to write about a simple story the includes at least two characters, them and Jesus.

I really wasn't much of a challenge for God, I just had never experienced Him. Once I did, however; I have never doubted. I have learned more about God, and what He does, about His character, and about His ways, but I have never been able to answer the question, does God exist?" and not answer it with a yes.

I have witnessed God doing some of the "big stuff" miracles, healing, cars running without gas, cancer falling off and so many supernatural events that I can't even remember them all. Living in, and by the Spirit, is a way of life. If we can learn to release the new man, it is much easier to walk in godliness, purity and and do what we see the Father doing. When we try to use religious formulas, we can easily end up on dry ground.

In 1989 I took a cross country trip. I had lots of trouble before I got to a place where I could take the time to travel. I had been far from God. I didn't pray, I didn't go to church, but I did know that He was there.I just wasn't connecting - nor was I trying to. In spite of the miracles, and power that I had been a witness to, I left most of it behind.

You might ask yourself why, and the truth is simply this: I wanted to do things my way, and the pursuit of Kingdom goals was just too costly.


I often think of Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-13.After all the wonder and power on Mt Carmel (1 Kings 18), he ends up running for his life. It is here that he is in the cave and the Lord is not found in the wind, the fire or the earthquake - and that it how it was for me. I saw the Lord, but I came to know Him in the simple things.

I know him from the love that I receive from my wife and kids. I knew Him as I visited 32 National Parks, as I looked into the eyes of the poor in Brazil, and in the quiet times as I looked out over the ocean, or a valley in the Rockies. I saw him in the reef fish in the Caribbean - yes, that is where I saw the very personality of God. He was the sunset, he was the blowing snow - He was the fragrance of fresh picked flowers, and warmth of sunshine on my face.

One day I stood atop a granite spire in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and I looked up and there I heard His voice. He spoke a very personal promise to me that I have never shared - but those few words have keep me going for many years.

How about you, how much proof do you need? What does God need to do for you to be joyful and prosperous?