This morning God is asking me if I’m a mountain man or if I’m His man. I am His man, but let me explain.

I was reading in my devotional book this morning (and I need a new one for next year if anyone has any recommendations) and the author made a profound statement that God is using to challenge me.

The challenge focuses on this verse:

Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt,
you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain,
‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen.
You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”
Matthew 21:21-22, NLT

That’s a powerful promise from Jesus…one that most of use struggle with living up to. Jesus says we can move mountains if we have faith and don’t doubt. And that’s where the challenge comes…

No one ever gets mountain-moving faith by obsessing about the mountains.
We get it by focusing on God.

I don’t know about you, but I am too often the guy worried about the mountain in front of me…whatever current stress, fear, or struggle that may be…instead of focusing on God. But He’s teaching me this lesson and I am slowly beginning to learn to trust Him, lean on Him, and have faith in Him alone and stop worrying about the mountain.

It’s a hard lesson…but the mountains are starting to move already…

This morning I had an interesting thought come to mind about my interactions with others. I’m sure it was a gentle reminder from the Holy Spirit and hopefully it’s a lesson I am learning more quickly than slowly.

I want to be a blessing to others—not a burden.

There is often a fine line between the two. Don’t misunderstand me…we are supposed to share our burdens with one another (that part of living in community with other people). But there is a difference between sharing my burden and being a burden.

As I go about my daily life I want to be a blessing to other people (even as I share my life and burdens with them) rather than being a drag on them (people already have enough to worry about). Perhaps the difference is in sharing my burden rather than simply dumping my burden(s) other people…it’s a two-way street, I share mine and help carry another’s.

So that’s my prayer today…that I will be more of a blessing than a burden. I’ll let you now how that goes.

The sermon this week was about the power of community…taking from two stories in Exodus: the Battle with the Amalekites and Jethro’s Advice for Moses. We talked about the importance of living in community with another because that’s how God has made us. We need one another to help carry our burdens, helps us when we fall down, and fight our spiritual battles.

We don’t get to be “Lone Rangers” in our spiritual journey…we need share the journey with others.

For more, please take a listen to the sermon podcast.

The first verse of Hebrews 12 gives us a serious challenge as Christ followers…

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a
huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith,
let us strip off every weight that slows us down,
especially the sin that so easily trips us up.
And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
Hebrews 12:1, NLT

In other words: you’ve heard about the spiritual giants such as Abraham, Moses, and David so start acting like them. Easy to say…not so easy to do. On the one hand, most of these “spiritual giants” had their share of problems (i.e.: lying, cheating, and murder) so they are as human as you and I are. On the other hand, they had great faith and walked close to God in spite of their weaknesses (and maybe because of those weaknesses).

Any way you look at it, it’s a tall order. How do we do this? Well, that’s why you have to keep reading to verse 2…

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus,
the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.
Hebrews 12:2, NLT

How do we run the spiritual race? How do we endure it? How do we act like the spiritual giants of the past?

By keeping our eyes on Jesus. It’s not about us. It’s about Him. It’s not about our strength or our weakness…it’s about His power demonstrated in our lives. We do not initiate or perfect our faith…Jesus does (sometimes we get that one backwards).

So….who you lookin’ at?

Who are the primary people in my sphere of influence? Are they the same type of people that Jesus hung out with?

Yes and no.

One the one hand, Jesus hung out with His disciples. Men who followed Jesus and were dedicated to learning everything they could from Him. Men who left everything to walk in His footsteps. I hang with a group very much like this. Imperfect men and women who are sold out on becoming more like Jesus. They challenge me. They encourage me. They inspire me.

But on the other hand, Jesus hung out with guys like Mr. Z (you’ll have to look it up in Luke 19). And He was constantly criticized for it…

But the people were displeased.
“He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.
Luke 19:7, NLT

I don’t know that the same would be said of me…certainly not very often. And this is an area that God is working on in my life. Where am I coming into contact with people that need Him most? A few weeks ago the topic came up in a book we are reading in LifeGroup (Crazy Love). Am I hanging out with “notorious sinners”? Am I feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, taking care of widows and orphans?

Not like I should be…and I’m praying for God to show me how He wants me to be involved at this level. Who does He want me to serve…and how?

I’d like to buy an “O”…as in: “Offense”…as in: what the Broncos are severely lacking right now.

Painful.

It’s was hard to watch the Broncos dominate field position, time of possession, yardage, etc, etc (at least in the first half)…and come away with only three offensive points for the entire game. I don’t care how good or how bad your defense plays (and ours is playing very well), if you only score three points in this league you will lose.

I am no offensive genius…heck, I’m no genius in anything…but here are my two major issues with our offense right now:

1. Our Running Game. As in…we have none! How did we go from having one of the most dominant running teams in the league to have no running production what-so-ever? By dropping the zone blocking scheme in favor of a power running scheme. One worked. One hasn’t. We should bring the zone scheme back pronto! We have the coaches (Dennison) and the personnel to run it…so why don’t we? Good question. Don’t have an answer, but I know that a short passing game does not substitute for a solid running game…we need ours back.
2. The Long Ball. I could count on one hand the number of times we have thrown the ball down field…and so can the defenses we continue to face. They know we aren’t going to go long so they don’t have to defend it. We should at least try it once in awhile. You never know…Brandon might even catch a few, or at least get a penalty. Defenses simply don’t have to plan or watch for this part of the game. Orton is no long-ball thrower, but he can give it a try…he just hasn’t been asked to do it (he does everything else he’s asked to do).

Come to think of it…these two go together. The running game sets up the passing game and the long ball helps with the run by keeping the safeties and linebackers honest. They get to cheat right now…and they are calling the bluff (nice poker reference huh?).

Is this team over and done? Not by a long shot. Am I giving up on them? Never!

Out of the next eight games we have four that we should win easily and should be able to at least split the remaining four…which would leave us at 12-4. And even if we split all eight games we’d be 10-6 (both FAR above anyone’s expectations heading into the year).

Up next? The Washington Redskins…that should cure what ails us!

Go Broncos!!!

This post is for me this morning. God has been challenging me hard for the past couple of weeks. He is slowly changing my attitudes and thoughts in a couple of areas of my spiritual life. It hasn’t been easy. He has been examining my motives and intentions…digging below the surface and showing me things I’d rather just leave alone.

But it has been a good journey too. I am becoming more like Him…but I have a loooooong way to go! I trust His heart. I trust His intentions. I know He has the best in mind for me. So I listen and learn…too slowly, but it is happening.

Just this weekend Go gave me this passage to wrestle with:

If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—
your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life.
Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.
And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple…
So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.
Luke 14:26-27, 33

Take a second and read that again…take it all in.

It’s a steep price to pay…being His disciple, following Him. Have I counted the cost? Am I willing to pay this price? Is this where my heart really is? Are His priorities my priorities? They easy answer is “yes”, but is that the honest answer?

That’s my challenge this week. He and I are working through the questions and the answers. It’s a process. It’s a journey.

We’re all guilty of it. I know I am. We start out on the right path, but somewhere along the line we get off track. Sometimes it happens slowly…sometimes quickly. Sometimes it happens on purpose….usually it happens unintentionally.

But it does happen.

The problem is that we are too confident in our own abilities. We think we have what it takes. In many cases this might actually be true. But not in this case. In this case our abilities fail us miserably. They always have. They always will. You would think we would learn.

But we don’t.

The good news: we’re not alone (everyone has done it).
The bad news: it just doesn’t work that way.

And when it happens we need to fix the situation…well, we need God to fix it because we can’t (that’s the problem)…

How foolish can you be?
After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit,
why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
Galatians 3:3, NLT

This last Sunday (October 25) I had the privilege of preaching on the 10 Plagues as we continue our sermon series through the book of Exodus. The sermon is entitled American Idol: Egyptian Style and focused on the idol worship God was confronting and attacking with each of the 10 plagues against Egypt.

We all have idols—things that take God’s place in our lives…but God never leaves them alone and He requires that we turn our hearts toward Him and lay our idols down. Sometimes our idols are bad things (i.e.: pride, pornography, etc) and sometimes they aren’t (i.e.: work, family, etc). Regardless, we need to keep our relationship with God the most important part of our lives. Our hearts are prone to wander and we need to come back to our Father daily…He’s waiting with open arms.

For more detail, please listen to the Sermon Podcast

I am reading this book again for the second time. I’m not going to go into a bunch of details or review the book or try and convince you. Trust me…get the book (click here or on the image above)…and read it. You won’t be disappointed.