Wednesday, February 8, 2012    

The Secret Life Exposed

Saturday, June 30th, 2007

I have just started the book of Romans as part of my morning devotions. For the past two days I’ve been stuck in chapter 2…challenged by two particular verses:

“The day will surely come when God, by Jesus Christ, will judge everyone’s secret life.” (Romans 2:16)

“And true circumcision is not a cutting of the body but a change of heart produced by God’s Spirit. Whoever has that kind of change seeks praise from God, not from people.” (Romans 2:29b)

Taken individually, these verses speak volumes to me.

In verse 16, I completely understand the concept of a “secret life”. Men are notorious for living secret lives. In fact, many men (and again, I speak from experience here) live multiple secret lives. We have our work life, our home life, our travel life, our Internet life, et al. And with each life comes a different face…and often a different set of behaviors. But verse 16 clearly states that God sees them all and will one day hold us accountable for our secret lives.

Verse 29 is about the change of heart that God produces in us. In this section Paul is chiding his readers for “playing church”. They are saying one thing but living another (we call that hypocrisy today). And here he tells his readers what a truly changed person looks like…it’s about God changing us from the inside out. And this produces a change in our focus. We stop looking for the approval of others and start looking for God’s approval (something I need to work on more).

However, the reason I’ve been stuck in chapter 2 is because God was trying to show me something (and I’m often slow at getting what He’s trying to teach me). He kept impressing on me that these two verses do not stand apart from each other–that they are related. I just kept wrestling with how they are related.

That is, until I read chapter 11 in The Call this morning. The connection between the two verses has to do with our responsibility. Not what we are responsible for (like our families, our jobs, our churches, etc.), but who we are responsible to.

Why do we have secret lives? Why does God need to change our hearts? Because we don’t live like we are responsible to anyone! But we are responsible to someone…we are responsible to God. We don’t even really have secret lives…He knows our secrets. And this whole notion of seeking God’s praise instead of others’ strikes at the heart of the matter.

Os Guiness said it better than I could on page 89 of The Call: “What we do then, when no one sees but God, is the test of our true responsibility.” That’s the key…we need to be changed at our core (by God) so that we aren’t living for ourselves or for others, but instead are living for God and no one else. That’s when we are truly living responsible lives.

Now my challenge is doing it…letting God change my heart to live for Him!

30.06.2007 Devotional, Spiritual Development, Spiritual Musings No Comments

Am I a Fireman Yet?

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

This is one of those email forwards everyone gets. I must admit, this one got to me:

In Phoenix, Arizona, a 26-year-old mother stared down at her 6 year old son, who was dying of terminal leukemia.

Although her heart was filled with sadness, she also had a strong feeling of determination. Like any parent, she wanted her son to grow up and fulfill all his dreams. Now that was no longer possible. The leukemia would see to that. But she still wanted her son’s dreams to come true.

She took her son’s hand and asked, “Billy, did you ever think about what you wanted to be once you grew up? Did you ever dream and wish what you would do with your life?”

Mommy, “I always wanted to be a fireman when I grew up.”

Mom smiled back and said, “Let’s see if we can make your wish come true.”

Later that day she went to her local fire Department in Phoenix, Arizona, where she met Fireman Bob, who had a heart as big as Phoenix.   She explained her son’s final wish and asked if it might be possible to give her 6 year old son a ride around the block on a fire engine. 
Fireman Bob said, “Look, we can do better than that. If you’ll have your son ready at seven o’clock Wednesday morning, we’ll make him an honorary fireman for the whole day. He can come down to the fire station, eat with us, go out on all the fire calls, the whole nine yards!  And if you’ll give us his sizes, we’ll get a real fire uniform for him, with a real fire hat – not a toy — one-with the emblem of the Phoenix Fire Department on it, a yellow slicker like we wear and rubber boots. They’re all manufactured right here in Phoenix, so we can get them fast.”

Three days later Fireman Bob picked up Billy, dressed him in his uniform and escorted him from his hospital bed to the waiting hook and ladder truck. Billy got to sit on the back of the truck and help steer it back to the fire station. He was in heaven. 

There were three fire calls in Phoenix that day and Billy got to go out on all three calls. He rode in the different fire engines, the Paramedic’s’ van, and even the fire chief’s car.  He was also videotaped for the local news program.

Having his dream come true, with all the Love and attention that was lavished upon him, so deeply touched Billy, that he lived three months longer than any doctor thought possible. 

One night all of his vital signs began to drop dramatically and the head nurse, who believed in the hospice concept – that no one should die alone, began to call the family members to the hospital. Then she remembered the day Billy had spent as a fireman, so she called the Fire Chief and asked if it would be possible to send a fireman in uniform to the hospital to be with Billy as he made his transition.

The chief replied, “We can do better than that. We’ll be there in five minutes. Will you please do me a favor? When you hear the sirens screaming and see the lights flashing, will you announce over the PA system, that there is not a fire? It’s the department coming to see one of its finest members one more time. And will you open the window to his room?”

About five minutes later a hook and ladder truck arrived at  the hospital and extended its ladder up to Billy’s third floor  open window——– 16 fire-fighters climbed up the ladder into  Billy’s room. With his mother’s permission, they hugged him and held him and told him how much they LOVED him.

With his dying breath, Billy looked up at the fire chief and said, “Chief, am I really a fireman now?”

“Billy, you are, and the Head Chief, Jesus, is holding your hand,” the chief said.

With those words, Billy smiled and said, “I know, He’s been holding my hand all day, and the angels have been singing…” 

He closed his eyes one last time..

28.06.2007 Misc Ramblings, Spiritual Musings No Comments

Spiritual Funk

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

I hate to admit it, but I have been in a spiritual funk for the last week. I can’t even hardly explain it. I think it started the day I looked into the details for going back to school (which isn’t nearly as bad as I made it). I’m not sure if I just got overwhelmed or what the deal is…and I’m only just now coming out of it. The best way I know to describe the feeling is a spiritual oppression…I’ve just felt “out of sorts” spiritually.

But I learned something during the process. I learned to lean on God a little more during this “funk”. I hate it when my prayers seem to hit the ceiling and bounce back, or when my Bible reading feels flat, or when I feel like I’m completely ineffective in my service. But I learned to persevere through it (with God’s help) and just leave it all in His lap.

And I’m convinced this is just another form of spiritual warfare that the enemy uses to try and keep us down (and maybe a way God tests us to see if we will really look to Him during the dry times). But it’s still no fun when you’re going through it. The mountain top experiences are so much more fun, but I don’t seem to learn as much up there. Pain and struggle seem to be one of the ways God gets my attention and keeps me focused on Him.

He never promised roses and cherries…but He does promise to draw near to us when we draw near to Him and when we resist the enemy (James 4:7-8). That’s a promise I can lean on!

27.06.2007 Spiritual Development, Spiritual Musings No Comments

Sunset from God

Tuesday, June 26th, 2007

Was driving the kids home tonight and as we turned the corner into our neighborhood we got a full view of the sunset tonight. It was out of this world beautiful…one of those sunsets where you can’t help but saying “Wow!”

I asked the kids what they thought and here are the responses I got:

Logan: “That’s cool.”

Kyle: “Beautiful.”

Lindsay: “Wow, that’s awesome.”

Then I said, “God sure knows what He’s doing huh?”

And that’s when Lindsay said this (from the mouth of babes): “I think God paints a bunch of sunsets every day and then picks out the best one to show us.”

Wow, now there’s a thought!

26.06.2007 Family, Misc Ramblings 1 Comment

Happily Ever After?

Saturday, June 23rd, 2007

Several times over the past few weeks I have heard several different people utter the following phrase:

“Well, as long as they’re happy…”

In each case, the person was speaking about someone else and some event that was going on in that person’s life. After the last time I heard the phrase (earlier this week), I realized that I don’t like this particular expression. For two reasons…

First, the person saying expressing it rarely really means it. It is often said to mask the speaker’s disapproval of the other person’s behavior, attitude, or action. I noted in almost ever case that I heard it over the past few weeks that the saying came at the end of a fairly lengthy discourse in which the speaker had made their disapproval very clear. It seems to me that this need to cover up is born out of society’s “truth is relative” paradigm. The cover up just seems a little disingenuous (and not very real) to me. If you disapprove…at least be honest about it (and truth is not relative by the way, but that’s a blog for another day).

Second, and perhaps most important, I just don’t think the phrase is true. Is everything in life really OK as long as we are happy? Absolutely not!! I speak from personal experience. There have been many times in my life when I was “happy” (doing what I wantedto do instead of what I shoulddo) and in almost every case I ended up miserable. And the inverse is also typically true…God has often (more than I can count), redeemed times in my life when I thought nothing was going right (I wasn’t “happy”). Looking back on those times…He has truly worked them out for my good in the big picture (see Romans 8:28 for more on this topic).

So while I want to be happy…I want it God’s way, not my way (because I tend to screw it up anyway). And if you see me doing something bone-headed, wrong, or just plain sinful…please don’t just say you just hope I’m happy. Hit me over the head with a 2×4 and knock some blessed sense into me…will ya please?

23.06.2007 Misc Ramblings No Comments

Knowing God

Thursday, June 21st, 2007

For awhile now (at least the last few months), I’ve been wrestling with the concept of knowing God. Knowing Him better. Knowing Him more. The concept has manifest in various forms in that time…sometimes it’s during my preparation for leading my Platoon (Men’s Group), sometimes it’s in a book I’m reading, this last time it was in my daily devotionals. I’m learning that when a topic keeps coming up like that I must need to pay attention…it must be God trying to get my attention (and I often wonder if I’m just not a very good listener).

This week I started reading out of 2 Peter and there it was again…right up front:

May God bless you with his special favor and wonderful peace as you come to know Jesus, our God and Lord, better and better. As we know Jesus better,his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! (2 Peter 1: 2-3,NLT, emphasis mine)

Seems so simple right? So what am I wrestling with? I’m wrestling with the how. How do I get to know God “better and better”? What are the practical things I should be doing to make that happen? This passage makes a couple of things pretty clear:

  1. Getting to know God is a process.
  2. Getting to know God has its rewards.
  3. Getting to know God is something every Christ follower should be doing.

As I’ve been wrestling with this process of getting to know God better personally it has changed my perspective on spiritual disciplines (I know…yuck!). Prayer, reading Scripture, silence, fasting, service, loving others, Communion…all of it takes on a different meaning when I look at each one as a way for me to get to know God better. I’m not just praying a rote prayer…I’m talking to God and getting to know Him. I’m not just reading a book in the Bible…I’m getting to know Him better. I’m not just serving others…well, you get the point.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that God is revealing Himself to me as I make the effort. And I’m getting to know myself better too.

So how about you? How are you getting to know God better? I’m looking for anything to help me along the way (be forewarned, if you give me a good one I will be stealing it)…

21.06.2007 Devotional, Spiritual Development, Spiritual Musings No Comments

Subscribe to Journeyman Journal

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

I finally got my act together (thanks again to Grant) and have updated the blog to include two different ways to stay up-to-date with each new post. Both are now a permanent part of the side bar (on the left). Here’s a brief description of each:

  1. RSS Feeds: Stands for “Really Simple Syndication”.  Wikipedia describes RSS as “a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel,” contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.” If you’ve got an RSS-enabled website or feed-reader (such as My Yahoo!), you can subscribe to the blog Posts and/or Comments using the links in the side bar.
  2. Email Subscription: If you just don’t want to mess with RSS (you really should take the time to learn RSS) you can also subscribe to the blog posts via email. Just enter your email address on the side bar and click “Subscribe”. Follow the instructions and once you’re setup you’ll get a daily email with any new blog posts.

As always, thanks for checking in…and keep those comments coming!!

20.06.2007 Blogging, Welcome No Comments

Pursuing or Pursued?

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007

At my Pastor’s recommendation, I’ve been reading a new book by Oz Guiness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life. I highly recommend it for anyone trying to find God’s purpose and calling for their life (and who isn’t?). This book has continued to surprise and challenge me…it has even gotten me to write a few notes in the margin next to highlighted sections. One section in particular has stuck with me over the past week. I actually wrote the word “Wow!” next to this excerpt on pages 13 and14:

We cannot find God without God. We cannot reach God without God. We cannot satisfy God without God-which is another was of saying that our seeking will always fall short unless God’s grace initiates the search and unless God’s call draws us to him and completes the search…The secret of seeking is not in our human ascent to God, but in God’s descent to us. We start out searching, but we end up being discovered. We think we are looking for something; we realize we are found by Someone. (emphasis mine)

What a thought! In the middle of my searching and seeking God I discover that instead of finding Him…he has found me! Instead of being the one pursuing God I find out that I am the one being pursued…and not just by anyone, but by God Himself. It’s hard to wrap my mind around the whole idea that God wants to get to know me, that he cares about me so much that He gave everything He had to find me.

The only way I can even begin to imagine how God feels about finding us is when I think about my own kids. Ever have that moment in a crowded store when you lose sight of one of your kids? Ever actually lose one for more than 30 seconds? Panic. Heart wrenching. Anxiety. At that moment nothing else is important…finding your child takes priority over everything. And if it goes on long enough you’ll do just about anything to find them.

Do you think maybe that’s how God feels about us? We’re lost. He desperately wants to find us. But as with all analogies, this one isn’t perfect because God actually has the power to find us. All we have to do is stand still and let Him do His thing. Maybe if I would just slow down enough for Him to descend on me then I would have what I’ve been looking for all along. Maybe then I’d be able to get to know the God who has been searching for me all along.

Just maybe…

19.06.2007 Misc Ramblings, Spiritual Development, Spiritual Musings 1 Comment

Jackson Lake 2007

Sunday, June 17th, 2007

The family was on vacation this week (from Wednesday until Saturday) at Jackson Lake State Park-about 2 hours North East of Parker. This was our second camping trip of the year and we had a lot of fun together as a family. We slept in every morning, went swimming every day (in freezing cold water that didn’t phase the kids at all), took a daily hike, napped some more, and had family devotions together every night and played a game or two (Go Fish and Uno). No TV, no video games, no phones…just one big happy family (except for when the mosquitoes attacked!). We almost made it out on the lake until the marina notified us the day of our excursion that the boat we wanted was in the shop (and of course the only other option was significantly more expensive). But even so we had fun…here are a few photos of the event:

Lindsay, Logan and Kyle
Lindsay, Logan and Kyle wet and cold at the Beach

The Sandman!
The Sandman!!

 Pop-Up Trailer
The Pop-Up Trailer

17.06.2007 Family, Recreation 1 Comment

Discipling Dads (Part 1)

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

Discipling Dads Logo 

As part of my role as Men’s Ministry Director, I’ve been working on a Seminar Series entitled: Discipling Dads. The goal is to give Dads some direction for fulfilling the Great Commission at home-with their own kids/families. As Fathers we are called to direct our “children onto the right path” (Proverbs 22:6) and give them the spiritual training they need for life. This is a serious calling, but one that too many men feel ill-equipped for (so in typical male fashion we often just leave it to someone else). At the end of the seminar, Dads should have a “blueprint” for going through the discipleship journey with their kids. Wouldn’t it be great to have kids going into our youth groups with a foundation to build on instead of waiting for the foundation building to occur (when it’s sometimes too late)?

This will be an ongoing blog series as I work out some of the content of the seminar and get it sharpened. I’ve already been doing some of the early work (it’s still actually in progress) and have been praying about it for some time now-it was God that placed the topic on my heart in the first place and He has been refining it ever since. I’ll be sharing the basic seminar outline, content, and materials as I more fully develop them, but… 

Here’s where I need your help now. One of the basic contexts of the seminar is teaching our kids the basics, the foundations, of the Christian faith (actually it’s more about modeling the Christian walk ourselves first and then teaching our kids). What I need to sharpen is this list of fundamental, Biblical elements that are essential for us as men to pass onto our kids. Here is the list I have so far. Note that these are general topics, I haven’t fleshed them out here on purpose (I’ll be doing that further down the road). Right now I am mainly looking for the big-picture topics:

  • Developing a Personal Relationship with the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)
  • The Core Spiritual Disciplines/Habits
    • Scripture 
    • Prayer
    • Worship
    • Fasting
    • Confession
  • The Great Commandment 
  • The Great Commission
  • Servant Leadership
  • Theology 101 (a.k.a.: What will you die for in your faith? This includes the Inerrancy of Scripture, Virgin Birth, etc)
  • Biblical Community
  • Submission
  • The Sacraments (i.e.: Baptism, Communion)

That’s what I’ve got so far (off the top of my head). Now it’s your turn…what are the foundational truths I’ve missed? How would you refine and/or expand on the draft version of these topics? There’s a lot more refining and definition to be done here so let loose. Let me put the question to you another way (actually two ways):
          1. If you were a Youth Pastor what would you want the new kids to already know?
          2. What do you wish someone would have taught you in your early spiritual development?

PS: Our family will be out camping for the next few days so there won’t be another blog submission until this weekend. Have a great week!!

12.06.2007 Band of Brothers, Discipleship, Discipling Dads, Ministry No Comments

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