The Low Down

A Little More Like Jesus

Last night, I sat down in the comfort of my own home. Not the home that I live in now in Oklahoma, but rather the house that I grew up in – in Marion. It’s Christmas time and as I have been blessed with the opportunity to return home to spend time with my family, I can’t help but write a bit about the feelings that are overwhelming me right now. As I sit in the family room, the sky is dark and the silence is so quiet that in a way it is piercing. It’s late. I can’t help but be at peace, and yet at the same time my mind is racing so fast that it’s a little difficult to focus on what to say here.

 

The feeling that I have is simply amazing. My heart is slightly sickened because I know that in the morning I am going to be warming up our family vehicle to make the journey back to our lives in the west, but for a few more moments I want to just bathe in the memory of the home of my youth because needless to say I have incredible memories here. 

 

Part of my bewilderment is the fact that this was the birth place and the origin of who I am today. As I think about it, this truly was the starting line for the person that I have now become. AND even though I am not where I would like to be, I must admit that I have never been in this home any happier than I am now with who I am in Christ. The Lord has blessed my life immensely. My relationship with Him this year has grown to new heights. Just from the last time I was here until now, I can measure the growth. (I don’t say this boastfully, but I write it because I am simply in awe of who HE is!)

    

My love for my wife and daughter have reached an entirely new level. The ministry that we are blessed to lead is amazing and moving forward. In the midst of a financial crisis in our nation, we have only seen the Lord’s hand of provision to be more and more prevailing in our lives as He has sustained us and upheld us with his mighty hand in health, and finances.

    

God is so amazing!

 

AND to think, that as I look out the frosty windows this winter night, and look upon familiar sights that I have once pondered before that I am still the same person as before – only this time, a little more like Jesus.

Manuscript Work

Here's another update on the process of my book. Last night I received an email giving a list of items to look at concerning my manuscript and it's tweaking for the editors and page layout teams. It also encouraged me to begin finding people to write the foreword and others to endorse the book and today was a great day for finding some key people to commit to doing just that. Once the manuscript is complete and submitted, the process will seem to grow wings. We have a ways to go, but we anticipate a late summer/early fall release. I'll keep you posted! Back to work for me.

Dreams: The Opinion

I have always said that when it comes to your God-given dream, that everyone else will have their opinion about it. Everyone wants and believes that their dreams will come true, but when it comes to the dreams of others, we tend to see with a "clearer perspective" (or so we think). All of our dreams are possible, but others dreams are a bit far fetched.

Until recently, many never knew that I was writting a book. I purposely kept quiet about writing because I wanted to guard my dream. I wanted to remain hopeful about my project.

I think Joseph in the book of Genesis knew this all too well. He was sold into slavery and paid an incredible price for his dream. Yet he never gave up. Years later, as Joseph was holding down his new job in Egypt, scripture says that Joseph was now in his 30's. Nearly 20 years had passed since Joseph had delivered his "I had some dreams" speech, and now famine was hitting the land. Not just Egypt, but the entire region - including Canaan. And eleven hungry brothers set off for Egypt in search for some food for their families to survive.

At this time, Joseph was second in command in Egypt. He had an Egyptian name, married an Egyptian babe (probably twice as hot as Potiphar's wife), was a father to Egyptian children, wore the Egyptian garb, and spoke the language. If anyone had learned how to blend in, it was Joe. But we can only imagine what it was like when his brothers came through the city gates and bowed at his feet. Of course they didn't recognize him through his new look and new life, but I'm convinced that they also didn't recognize him because they didn't expect his dream to come true either.

So remember that when someone tries to crush your God-dream, that God gave that dream to you because He knew He could trust you with it. Don't let someone steal your God given dream, guard it. If you have allowed someone to steal it, fight to get it back. Remember that God's dream for your life is the best possible you.

Dreams: The Opposition

Another important thing to remember about your God given dream is that, Not Everyone Will Understand it. So don't expect everyone that you share it with to buy into it heart and soul like you have. In fact, understand that your dream from God is precious. As the gospels say, be careful, "casting your pearls before swine." In other words, keep those things that are precious to you close. There will be scoffers and nay sayers (count on that). In fact, I think that's one area of wisdom that a young Mary had when she was given word by the angel of the Lord that she would be carrying the Christ child. Scripture says that she, "kept the word dear to her heart." I don't think she went about blabbing her dream. Who would have believed her anyway? The Son of God, born to a virgin? No way.

Now for Joseph, I think that we can learn some lessons from his story by the reaction and the opposition that he faced with his God dream. In Genesis 37, Joseph begins to spill out his two dreams and their interpretation in front of his ten big brothers. He begins to talk about sheaves of grain and I can just envision Levi shooting a blank stare at Simeon. Over on the opposite side of the family circle, Gad nudges Ruben with his elbow as Joseph begins to talk about the sun, moon, and the stars bowing down to him. The young, exhuberent and naive Joseph was pouring out his most precious ambitions with people whom he thought he could trust. Which points out to us that sometimes even the people closest to us, people who we would deem as "safe," will often disappoint us when it comes to the affirmation of our God dream for our lives.

I can remember as a young boy how difficult it was to learn to play the guitar. With only Alfred's guitar chord chart to learn from, I can remember grabbing a small acoustic guitar that I had received as a Christmas gift and I can remember plucking and strumming that little guitar until my families' ears were soar. Needless to say, if my hopes of playing the guitar were defined by the feedback that I received, I would have never learned how to play. But today I have the honor each Sunday of leading worship and playing with an incredible worship team. Every Wednesday night, I have the opportunity to lead students in some pretty incredible praise and worship.

The bottom line: You have to have a passion for God's dream that will drive you past the opposition. And you will face opposition. Scripture says that, "In this life you wil have trials, but take heart for I have overcome the world." Friend, God has given you a dream for a reason - it's simply because that dream fulfilled in you is the best possible you! So whatever the larger than life size dream that God has given you, learn to guard it with all of your heart!

Dreams: The Origin

As promised, I wanted to bring you a five part set of posts that God has spoken to me recently about "Dreams".

One of the most important parts of a dream is how it is concieved. Whether a dream is worth dying for or not depends upon the origin of that dream. What is the dream, and where did it come from? And probably even more importantly, who gave you the dream?

What we have to understand is that all dreams are birthed somewhere. The dream of a young boy to grow up and carry on the family business was one that was nurtured and passed on by family. The dream of a woman to find that fairy tale romance, marry, and have children was a dream that, though it is a good one, was probably developed in her as a little girl by the constant whispering of her culture.

The dream of a teenage boy Joseph, in Genesis 37, that his entire family would one day bow down before him, sounds like a wacked out dream. It sounds like a crazy, self-centered dream, but when we understand the origin of the dream and who the creator of the dream is...then it all begins to make a little more sense.

Sure, sometimes the dreams we have are just that - dreams WE have. And those dreams usually always fizzle out over time or they crash and burn. But when it comes to a God originated dream - though it may be larger than life, it will consume us.

As a young boy I wanted to play in the NBA. I grew up in Indiana and I loved to play basketball. Then I found out that a 5'2'' Sophomore doesn't typically make the team at a large high school. My dream was crushed when I was asked not to play, but instead fill the water bottles. On the flip side though - two years ago, I began a journey down an amazing road chasing a dream that God gave me as I began to write. Tonight, I received an email from the publisher that my book is going to be published (and I'm totally stoked!). The difference in the two dreams, one was mine - the other was God's dream for me.

Back to the story, why was Joseph's dream such a stretch? Because most of the time, God's dream for us can only be accomplished with Him by our side. In fact, I'm convinced that most of the dreams we have we can accomplish on our own - but God doesn't want us to be safe when it comes to our dreams for Him!

So think about it today - how big are your dreams? Are they God sized? Because if they aren't, then don't waste your time. Just ask Joseph!

Gearing Up for the Season

Today has been a great day. I had the opportunity to sleep in and gain some much needed rest. After rolling out of bed and brewing some coffee I decided that the best use of my day would be to prepare for the changing of the season. Wednesday it was an incredible 70 degrees outside. Today it reached a blistering 49. It was still warm enough to do a few things outside, so I decided to prepare for the inevitable ice and snow that will be here in a few weeks. Many of you know that we have recently moved from our apartment into a three-bedroom house. One of the perks of the house is that we have a place to store all of our things. This summer we were able to move all of our possessions out of storage. The down-side is that all of those things have been cluttering up the garage for the last few months. Today, I decided to do some re-arranging (and win some brownie points at the same time) so that this winter my wife can pull her SUV into the garage.

A few hours ago, some college students from our youth ministry finally made it home and decided to come and crash at our house. They will be here for about four days before heading to their homes for Thanksgiving. I think it's safe to say that it's now time to get into the holiday spirit.

**This is an amazing time of year. A time for family, a time for friends, a time for celebration and for thanksgiving. However, I also believe that now is a time for dreams to be birthed and nurtured. Acts 2:17 quotes the prophet Joel when it says, "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams." Over the next few days, I will be posting a series on the topic of "dreams". Please be sure to check back and leave some comments! 

100th Blog

This is a special blog for me because it is my 100th blog since I began posting here on Typepad. So in honor of this special occasion here is what I am asking you to do - leave me a comment on this blog and tell me about one thing you think of when you think about me. It could be a memory, a funny moment, a touching story, some place or activity we did together - anything! Just leave your comment here for the rest of us to read. And thanks again for following my blog.

Call Out His Name

Have you ever wondered what kind of faith you have? Is your faith solid and firm or do you waver? I have always wondered if my faith could withstand the test. A few weeks ago - I caught a glimpse of where I stand with God in times of trouble. As many of you know, we had a large block party last weekend at Central. On Tuesday I traveled to Galena, KS to pick up a large bigtop tent for the block party. I arrived around 9 am and we loaded the trailer with the poles and vynal. My good friend who owns the tent helped me load it on the trailer. We threw the pieces down on the flatbed and put the trailer's ramps - weighing about 40 pounds each - on top of the tent. I have never had a problem with work, but at the same time I have never really been good at these sorts of things either. I was pretty sheltered from stuff most of my life. For instance, the first attic I was allowed in, I owned. So I just thought the way Al packed the trailer would be good. So I took off for home. After stopping for some lunch I continued down the Will Roger's Turnpike. I was a few miles from the Claremore exit listening to Air One on the radio when I heard a loud noise. I looked back just in time to see the ramp fly off the driver's side of the trailer and two pieces of the tent fly off onto the road as well. All I could say was dear Jesus, dear Jesus, dear Jesus. I watched the ramp hit a concrete embankment that separated the east bound traffic from the west bound traffic and that heavy piece of metal flew over the hood of a car and into the grass on the other side of the road. How no one was injured, I don't know. How no vehicles were involved in a wreck, I don't know. But call on the name of Jesus and anything can happen. I believed that on that day - God intervened and lives were saved. My faith was strengthened and I know that no matter what I can call on the name of Jesus.

Willow Lake Triathlon 2008

Today I completed the Willow Lake Triathlon here in Enid for the second straight year. I thank God for the health and ability to even be able to attempt to do this. The race is comprised of a 500 meter (1/2 mile) swim, a 9.6 mile bike ride, and a 3.1 mile run. I will admit up front that I am in no way a champion of the sport, but love the discipline that it takes to train and work hard to complete the three consecutive events. I compete to finish, and each year my goal is to better my time. Last year, in '07 I participated in my first triathlon and finished with a time of 1 hour, 31 minutes and 47 seconds. This year, I felt better and was a little more prepared and although I only finished with a time of 1 hour, 29 minutes and 33 seconds; I did better my time! Again, I thank God for my health and for the opportunity to put on the swim cap, jump on the bike and lace up the running shoes. Next year, I know that I can and will do better.

Going Public

This evening was incredible. Not only was my good friend and recording artist, Blake Aaron here to lead worship, but God did some amazing things during our service. Tonight, nine students followed the Lord in water baptism. Nine students went public in their walk with God. I'm so proud of Brett, Ben, Katie, Shannen, Starri, Amanda, Erika, Morgan, and Melanie. It was awesome as many parents were there in order to support their student. Many for the very first time. I preached a message tonight called, Going Public and talked about the Ethiopian in Acts 8 who begged Phillip to be baptized. It was along the "dessert road" where scripture says they came upon a body of water. I can only envision a gigantic crowd of people that must have been present by a body of water that was deep enough to baptize someone. A body of water that could be found along the side of a road called the "dessert road". Imagine the surprise the people got when this dark European man was being dipped in their drinking water. Why was he doing it? Because he was wanting to follow Jesus and take his faith public. Many times we are content in having our "personal relationships" with Jesus, but have we ever thought about what it means to take our relationship public? Have we ever stopped to realize that our personal relationship is very special, but that in a different way, our public relationship is just as important? So what about you today? Will you join those tonight who stood up and took their walk with God to a whole new level?  If you have the opportunity, will you do whatever it takes to take your relationship with God public?