Tag: Christian

Encourage and Build Up

1 Thessalonians 5:11 – Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing.

Let’s take one minute and review two key words in this passage to bring this passage to life!

Encourage:

  • “to put courage into” – literally “in courage”, giving confidence to someone.
  • “To bring someone along side yourself” – this lets them know they are not alone.
  • “to call out what is inside” – letting the person know they are known, seen and noticed.

Build up:

  • “Establish” – Think of putting something on solid ground so it can be sturdy.
  • “Restore” or “Rebuild” – Consider an item that was once in good condition and has since decayed. This word can describe the (often tedious) process of restoration or “rebuilding”.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 – Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you also are doing.

Lord, help us find ways to encourage and build up others around us today and every day.

Love and Blessin’s,

Dave

God called me, but I don’t know what to do!

How do you feel when you hear that God has a calling for your life? Encouraged? Scared? Confused?

How do you feel when you hear that God has a calling for your life? Encouraged? Scared? Confused?

Maybe you think: What if I mess up? Why did God pick me? What if I don’t want to do whatever it is? The idea that God has a call on our life is mystical, encouraging, and scary. If you feel this way you are not alone.

Moses had the same feelings in Exodus chapter 4. During his conversation with God at the burning bush when God tells Moses to bring Israel out of slavery. Moses tries to talk God out of it. I am just going to focus on verses 10-12.

10 Then Moses said to the Lord, "Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in the past, nor since You have spoken to your servant; for I am slow to speech and slow of tongue."

Obviously, God chose the wrong person. God was calling Moses to speak, but Moses was not a good speaker. 

11-12 And the Lord said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes people unable to speak or hear, able to see or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.

Okay, maybe God did choose the right person.

I love the last part, I will…teach you what you are to say.

Teaching is different than telling.

Teaching is a process. Telling is a one time thing.

I believe this is true for you and I. God’s calling is a process of God teaching us what we are to do. God does not just drop a calling into our heart and sit back to see if we figure it out. God works in us and through us, teaching us the way in which we should go.

Sure it is scary. Of course it takes time. But God has designed us for this purpose, even if we don’t see it.

Let’s pray.

Jesus, thank you for calling us. Now make us students of your voice, so we can hear you teach us the way. Remind our excuses that You are the God who made us and called us. We know that if you began this work, then you will carry it on to completion. We love you! In your mighty name we pray. Amen.

Love and Blessin’s,

Dave

Turn Aside to Marvelous Distractions

Did you ever consider that Moses received his call from God through a marvelous distraction in his daily life?

Do you ever wonder how God calls people? Do you think there are too many distractions in the way of your calling? I love this scenario in Exodus:

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he fed the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to Him from the midst of the bush…

Exodus 3:1-4

Summary:

  • Moses is doing his normal job (tending the flock)
  • He saw something out of sorts (bush on fire but not consumed)
  • He turned to inspect (he was curious).
  • When God saw that Moses turned to look, THEN God called to him.

Ponderings:

Here are a few questions that resonate with me. Maybe they will with you also.

  • Am I overlooking any marvelous distractions?
  • Would I even notice something marvelous in my busy workday?
  • Even if I saw it, am I too busy to stop and look? Am I too busy to turn away from the “busyness” of my life to see if that thing happening just might be a marvelous distraction?
  • Is this the only time God set up a marvelous distraction to get Moses’ attention? Or were there other times where Moses didn’t take the time to turn and look?

I love that the call of God on Moses’ life came “when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look…”. God set up the distraction, but Moses still had to express some curiosity.

It is also important that Moses’ calling was not a career in flaming bushes. What God used to get Moses’ attention was not what God called Moses to.

While God calls people in many ways, I believe there is much to learn from this scenario.

May we take the time to notice the marvelous distractions around us, turn aside to look, and be open to the call God may have for us in that moment.

Love and Blessin’s,

Dave

The Kingdom of God is not a diet

As a Christian, I can’t tell you how many discussions I’ve had about whether Christians should dress up and go trick or treating on Halloween.  One side will bring up the pagan roots, and all the evil that this day represents. Another side will say, “Dude! Free candy!”

A friend once asked me if I was concerned that I would somehow be honoring or worshiping Satan if I were to celebrate Halloween.  Continue reading “The Kingdom of God is not a diet”

Give God the Pen

Give God permission to write your story. Give Him the pen. Then willingly step into the story God writes for you. 

First, I want to thank you for your patience while I went “blog silent” for a while. I also want to wish my beautiful daughter a Happy Birthday! I love you daddy time! I love you Big Time! (only she will understand ♥ ) Continue reading “Give God the Pen”

What do you do when the worship doesn’t lead you to worship?

Two techniques to enhance your worship experience.

I love intimate times of worshipping God. I love to feel lost in God’s love for me. I love when God speaks His honest words of life, hope and healing. Often, these times happen at church during the worship (song) time.

Sometimes I get distracted from focusing on God during worship. I have two “go to” techniques in these moments I want to share. I am interested in what you do to enhance your worship time?

What do you do when the music just isn’t doing it for you?

Jason Ellsworth, a great friend and incredible worship leader (click the link to learn more), once told me, “music is a tool to lead us to worship.” That comment has stuck with me for many years.

Music is a powerful tool. In the church there are old and new songs that really resonant with me (these are often “songs I like”). And, there are old and new songs that do not really resonate (ok…let’s be honest, these are usually “songs I don’t like”).

The sad part is, some people actually like those “songs I don’t like”! (gasp!) Even worse, some people do not like those “songs I like”! Travesty!

My heart goes out to all the worship leaders!

When it comes to the age old debate about “what songs should be sung on Sunday”, there seems to be a few options to choose:

  • List – Give the worship leader a list of “songs I like” and ask them to solemnly swear to only play those songs. OR,
  • Liberate – Let the worship leader do their thing, while I allow the music to be a tool to focus my heart towards God (whether I like the song or not).

“Music is a tool to lead us to worship” – Jason Ellsworth

Let’s be honest, the music is usually not the reason you or I cannot worship God. In my experience, I have left worship services where I loved every song, but did not have a close encounter with the Almighty. And, I have had very intimate and life changing times of worship when I didn’t like the songs being played. The change wasn’t the music, it was how prepared my heart was.

Even still, there are often times of distraction for me during church where I find my mind drifting. Here is what I do.

Two main activities that enhance my time of worship.

Whether I like the song or not, I find these two activities enhance my worship tremendously:

  • Pray – My family has told me that singing is not my gift or talent. But that isn’t the reason I don’t sing all of the songs. In some songs the words lead me to prayer for: me, my family, the church, my skatepark friends, work or whatever seems appropriate.
  • Read – Many times a song will make me think of a Scripture. So, I turn to the scripture and begin reading. In fact, that is how this blog came about.
    • Recently, a song at church led me to Psalm 22 and I came across this verse:
    • Psalm 22:27-28 – “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations will worship before Him. For the Kingdom belongs to Lord: and He rules over the nations.
    • This year I have been putting my focus on the Kingdom of God. So, this stood out to me and led me to another level of worship, intimacy, and awareness of God’s presence.

What about you? What do you do during worship that enhances your time of worship? Comment below.

Love and Blessin’s,

David

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Featured Image provided by Jeremy Ellsworth Photography – www.JeremyEllsworth.com – Check him out for your photography needs!

 

Why do signs exist anyway?

I was coming home from the skate park totally unaware of what was about to take place.

I chose a different route than normal, and on the way there was a sign that read, “Road Closed to Thru Traffic”. This sign was on the side of the road, so for some reason I decided that it must not apply to me. I thought to myself, “I can make it through.”

Continue reading “Why do signs exist anyway?”

How incremental change can transform your relationship with God and others!

Recently I have been putting a greater focus on small, incremental changes in my life rather than trying to overwhelm myself with the things that I am not doing. For example:

  • Working out –
    • I USED TO – Work out for at least 30 minutes a day. And when I say I used to, I mean I tried. It never lasted long.
    • NOW – I work out for no more than 10 minutes, and I focus on incremental changes. Example: Ten pushups goes to twenty, and twenty to thirty, etc.
  • Journeling –
    • I USED TO – find myself writing about all sorts of things when I journaled. I loved it, but the time wasn’t feasible on a daily basis.
    • NOW – I journal for no more than five minutes a day with targeted topics: What did I do yesterday? What did I learn? What is the weather? Things like that.

Continue reading “How incremental change can transform your relationship with God and others!”

Where does God put His Focus? You might be surprised.

Do you find yourself focusing on the bad things around you? Does your mind quickly go to all the things that are wrong? It’s not that you are a negative person, it’s just that there are things that must be fixed before everything can be perfect…right?

It is so easy to see the negative things in life and overlook the good…even in ourselves.

It’s easy to believe this lie:

If we just spent our time correcting the bad, everything will be good.

Let’s turn to Matthew 13. There are many simple truths in the parable of the “Wheat and Weeds” below.  And, since Jesus explains the parable after He tells it, it truly needs no further explaination. There is, however, one one statement I want us to look at.

Parable of Wheat & Weeds

24 Jesus told them another parable:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.  

27  “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’  

28  “ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

29  “ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30  Let both grow together until the harvest.

At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ”

Parable Explained

36b His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed are the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

40  “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41  The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42  They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43  Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

One thing that stands out to me is this:

The man who sowed the good seed (the Son of Man) did not focus on the weeds.

His primary focus was for the wheat to be kept safe until harvest. 

In our lives, there is evil. And clearly it would be incorrect to imply that Jesus is saying we should do nothing about the evil in our day. In this specific instance, the man was assessing the risk. He knew it would be worse to endanger the wheat until the right time.

 

Sometimes it is better to manage the growth of the good than to spend time tearing down evil.

This week, I encourage you to spend time each day looking at the good around you.

God will deal with the evil. For now, He is focusing on you. Take some time to do the same.

Love and blessin’s,

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We are moving to Bangalore!

A few years ago I had the pleasure to travel to Bangalore, India for work. While there, I took a day trip to Nandi Hills. It was an awesome experience. Looking back through pictures I found the picture above. I saw that mound of dirt. I made a few calls, and we are purchasing it tomorrow. We will build our house right on top of that mound.

Over the last week my wife and I have sold our new home. I will quit my job today. Our cars are for sale. We are selling everything we have. That mound of dirt is worth everything. It’s beautiful.

Continue reading “We are moving to Bangalore!”