Day 2 of my 5 day process of spending time listening to God each morning was about as different from Day 1 as you could get. No direction to read a passage of Scripture that jumped off the page (although I did read Mark 16). No, Day 2 was more about hearing the Spirit’s voice spoken into my spirit. It’s not something I do well…it’s something He’s teaching me to get better at.

And what I heard yesterday morning was a repeat of a common theme in my spiritual journey:

“Stay with me, David. Don’t ever leave me.”

My spirit has a tendency to do that…to wander from God and try to manage on my own instead of staying connected to Him…remaining (or abiding) in Him as He said in John 15. None o this was said with even a hint of condemnation or guilt…simply a gentle reminder that my heart is prone to wander and I need to stick with Jesus or I will wander off.

How about you? What reminders do you get (and/or need) from God regarding your spiritual journey? What is your heart prone to do…?

Yesterday morning was my first of five days simply listening to God…hearing from Him instead of filling the silence. And did He ever come through (like there was any doubt?). I started with some simple, but heartfelt, worship…praises and adoration for a God that would chose to love me even though He knows all about me.

And then God took me to Psalm 50. I actually read it a couple of times while asking the Spirit to speak to me through His Word…to direct my thoughts to what He wanted me to see here. What He wanted me to see was this:

Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God,
and keep the vows you made to the Most High.
(Psalm 50:14, NLT)

I have to admit that this verse opened up more questions than it answered for me. How is thankfulness sacrificial? I mean, sacrifice is supposed to cost us something…right? Well, how does thankfulness fit into that definition? Thankfulness doesn’t seem to cost much…if anything.

Maybe it’s about me putting aside my self-sufficiency…thanking God from a spirit of utter dependence on Him??

I am thankful. But I’m also still wrestling with this verse and its personal implications.

How about you…what do you think this verse means? What is sacrificial thankfulness? Let e hear it in the comment section…

Over the past couple of weeks I have been challenged to mix things up in my morning time/routine with God. I’m not doing anything wrong, but anything gets stale if you leave it sit long enough. And over the weekend God has impressed on my to spend the next 5 days listening to Him instead of my normal routine.

It will just be me, my Bible, and a journal. And I’m just going to listen…hopefully hear His heart and His direction. It’s always hard for me to shut up and listen (in general and with God), but that’s what I’m going to work at for the next 5 days. And I will blog about it a few times along the way too.

So…I’m off for morning #1…always anticipation about what God might say when I actually take the time to stop and listen for awhile…

Have you ever had someone say to you: “Trust me”? What’s your initial reaction? I may be a little cynical, but my first reaction is, “Yeah…right. Not gonna happen pal.”

That is, unless I really, really, really trust that person. It’s just that most people have a way of letting us down…often when they are trying their darnedest not to. We’re human. We fail. We’re frail. We kinda suck.

But there is someone we can trust 100%. He never lets us down. He never fails. He’s strong enough to lean on. He definitely does NOT suck. And He tells us to trust Him…

Don’t let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God, and trust also in me.
(John 14:1, NLT)

I confess that too often I trust in myself or others to try and get me through. Sometimes I even try and let God be my assistant and/or guide to help me through  life. But I got a reminder this morning that this isn’t enough…Jesus doesn’t want to just be our “copilot”…He wants to be the pilot that takes us where we need to go:

Do you see Jesus as someone who has come along to assist you? Or do you rely on His dwelling in your heart? He is not just your example or your copilot. He is the substance of your life. You cannot know the Father, and you cannot get to heaven, with Him only showing you how to get there. He must take you there. Having been born of His Spirit, we must let His Spirit actually live in us. (Walk With God, page 224).

Yep, that’ll preach…

I saw this cartoon this morning and regardless of where you stand (or sit) politically, it strikes a little too close to home…

I have been slowly reading through the book of Jeremiah over the past couple of months. Sometimes the reading is good…sometimes it’s painful (a little slow and repetitive). Overall, the message is good even today: Stay true to God and don’t let idols come between your relationship with Him. That’s what Israel had done. They had the real thing—God—but they chose a substitute—idols. And boy did they ever pay for their actions…70 years of captivity!

We do the same thing…or at least I do (and I’m sure I’m the only one). I substitute my relationship with God to often. Why? I’m not always sure. Maybe because it’s easier? Maybe I think God will ask me to do something I don’t want to do. Maybe I’m just weak like the Israelites?

A lot of Jeremiah is about God talking about how angry and disappointed He is with Israel. It’s about His punishment of Israel…telling His children why He is punishing them. It’s hard to read because I often deserve the same sort of reaction from God (but thank Him for His grace and mercy through Christ!).

This morning I was reading in chapter 50 (almost done)…and I almost missed something important. God is talking about the end of Israel’s punishment…of the time when they will come home. And this is what He says:

They will bind themselves to the Lord with an
eternal covenant that will never be forgotten.
(Jeremiah 50:5b)

That  hit me right between the eyes (once God’s Spirit got my attention and brought me back to it). I need to bind myself to God too. I need to be so close to Him that I am bound to Him forever. Christ does that for us…I just need to get closer and let it happen.

As I have for the past two years (I know…quite a streak), I took the opportunity this afternoon to stop by Dove Valley and watch Bronco’s Training Camp. I managed to talk  buddy (Paul Foster) into going with me even though he’s a Dallas Cowboy’s fan (we can’t all be perfect). The practice was originally supposed to start at 8:45 in the morning, but they pushed it back to 11:15…which was just fine.

Tonight the entire gang is practicing at Invesco field so it was a light practice and there weren’t too many people there. And when I say light I mean light. For a majority of the practice there were no pads, no hitting, and they walked through their routines instead of running—a big departure from the full speed, hard hitting practices of the past few days.

The practice started right on time with Special Teams running several drills..specifically working on their directional calls from the sideline.

Once that was done the first team offense and defense ran several situational passing drills. They worked on fourth down plays, goal-line, third down, punting, et al. Again, the pace was slow and the focus was on executing the technical aspects of the play.

Then it was time for the defense and offense to split up and work on some specific drills. The offense was right in front of us and they ran running drills (got to see McDaniels light up Buckhalter for missing his gap once), play action drills, screen plays, and even the wildcat (that’s it in the picture below. If you look closely you can see Orton running down the line…he’s in bright orange).

At the end of these drills the third team put on the pads and started warming up (a lot of people had left by this time). We got to see rookie QB Tom Brandstater throwing some heat in his warm-up (the kids has a gun). Then they lined up and went at it full speed and with contact…fun to watch even if it was the third stringers. And you can tell they were third string and that they don’t get a lot of playing time. Brandstater has some potential but he fumbled the ball once and missed two easy dump-off throws. Overall the offense seemed to get the better of the defense, but only by a slim margin.

It was fun getting out there for a couple of hours and seeing how McDaniels runs his camp versus how Shanny ran his. They are night and day. McDaniels is hands on and they demand perfection. The hitting in camp was fun to watch. It was also fun watching the new defense start to work on some of their stuff. Both sides of the ball have a long way to go, but I am feeling slightly better about their chances early on this year (just wish the schedules wasn’t so brutal at the end).

A few quick observations from my short time at camp this afternoon:

The Offense:

1. Kyle Orton looked good today. He only missed on pass…all the others were on target and had some good touch (of course, keep in mind there was no contact and it wasn’t full speed). At least McD didn’t yell at him once all day.
2. Eddie Royal continues to impress. The dude is fast, accurate, and an all-around good guy. He was steal!
3. Ryan Clady is huge…and nothing gets through him. It was criminal that he didn’t make the pro-bowl last year. If he stays healthy this year he will be Hawaii-bound.
4. I didn’t see a single RB that stood out way above the rest. Nobpdy looked bad. Nobody looked great. Moreno is oing himself a huge disservice by missing this much of camp.
5. Overall, it seems the McDaniels system is well on it’s way to being installed…but there is plenty of room for improvement too.

The Defense:

1. This one is a tougher call. I like how Nolan coaches, but they seem to have a long runway ahead of them to get where they need to be.
2. Champ Bailey was his usual self…nothing gets by or through him. The secondary as a whole looks very good this year.
3. The problem is that front seven. Not a single person stood out from where I was sitting. I couldn’t tell the difference between first, second, or even third string guys (and that’s not because they’re all that good).
4. Robert Ayers look like he can play…but his holdout clearly cost him as well. He had a coach by his side for most of the camp making sure he knew what he was doing…they are investing some extra time to get him up-to-speed ASAP. They need it!

Overall:

1. It was fun to watch.
2. They have a long way to go.
3. I like how McDaniels is coaching.
4. I still think it’s gona be a long year (but I am still optimistic).

It has been almost a year since I got my very first tattoo (you can read about it here). They say you never get one…that you get hooked and end up with several tattoos. I think they are right (and I don’t even know who “they” are). So while Anita was in China I took the plunge on my second tattoo. It was supposed to be a surprise even though we’d been talking about it for awhile.

A friend of mine at work (Christina Phillips) had gotten some work re-done by a guy (Rusty) up in Arvada and I liked the work…so on July 22nd I headed north and got the work done. And once again…I love it! Here is the inspiration for the design I ended up getting:

It’s called a “Chi-Rho” and is one of the earliest Christian symbols known. Here is Wikipedia’s description…

The Chi Rho is one of the earliest christograms used by Christians. It is formed by superimposing the first two letters in the Greek spelling of the word Christ: chi = ch and rho = r, in such a way to produce the monogram ?. The Chi-Rho symbol was also used by pagan Greek scribes to mark, in the margin, a particularly valuable or relevant passage; the combined letters Chi and Rho standing for chr?ston, meaning “good.” (Wikipedia)

I love the symbolism and the meaning behind this symbol, and it isn’t very common. Christina had also gotten some UV ink on her tattoo and I liked that idea–specifically for the Alpha and Omega symbols in the artwork above. Here are the pictures from the event (taken by Christina)…

The tattoo in progress.

Yes…it hurts!

The tattoo right after the sitting (wrapped in plastic even).
You’ll notice that the Alpha and Omega will “disappear” as it heals.

Here are a couple of photos from the tattoo today. It’s not completely healed, but it’s well on it’s way…

Here it is in broad daylight…see, the symbols are fading nicely.

Here it is under a blacklight…cool huh?

I love this tattoo almost as much as the first one (just something about that first tattoo though). And I can safely say it will not likely be my last…but that’s down the road. For now, I’ll enjoy what I’ve got. =0)

I got an email yesterday that is either funny or not funny at all…I am pretty sure that I am not the intended target market for this product.

Here’s the subject line of the email: “You may qualify for an electric wheelchair at little or no cost.”

Here’s the body of the email:

There are two things wrong with this ad:

1. I am not the right target market (at least I hope I’m not…maybe they know something I don’t know?). I have no idea how they got my email address…first time something like this has come to my inbox.
2. Ed McMahon passed away over a month ago (June 23rd to be exact). Is he really the spokesperson you want for the actual intended target market? you’d think you wouldn’t want that kind of reminder going out in your marketing campaign. I’m just sayin’.

This did serve as a reminder for me that we need to ensure that our message is reaching the intended market in a way that they will understand and relate to. Otherwise we simply miss the mark and go unheard..right into the recycle bin like this email is headed towards.

I got a good reminder this morning about living in community. It isn’t a new earth-shattering, light-bulb moment…just a good reminder that we need community. We need other people. And none of us is perfect. Here’s how McManus put it (better than I can)…

“Love always grows, not just deeper, but wider. Love always loves people more and always loves more people. Love calls us to community; love calls us to humanity; love calls us to each other.

A healthy community is not a place of perfect people. That place does not exist. We are all flawed. If there is a perfect community, it would be ruined the moment I joined it…strangely enough, the best opportunity for building meaningful relationships is admitting up front that you’re not perfect and that you’ve got issues. Honesty is the only context in which intimacy can develop.” (Soul Cravings, Erwin McManus, Entry 16).

So here goes…

I’m not perfect.

I’ve got issues.

There…I said it…I admit it.

I need other people in m life pushing me to grow closer to Christ. I need to be pushing others too. Thankfully, I am part of a community that does just that. They love me anyway. I love them anyway. It works.