covered in dust: April 2009

foggy confession

It has been a while since I've written.

I gotta be honest, I am wrestling with why I write and why/what I communicate. What is the purpose? What drives me to do this? What am I really trying to accomplish? What IS the point?

I am still wrestling.

I have not discovered the answer but the topic lies heavy on my heart.

I am in a fog.

I have several posts floating around my head and in my heart but they won't come out until God can give me some clarity.

For the record, I am not going to quit but I am doing a heart check.

If all you see here is me... then this blogsite is worthless. If this blogsite moves you to question, wrestle or seek out Jesus and God... awesome. If the ramblings of my life propel you to live out a life chasing after God with your all your heart, mind, soul and strength or seeking after Jesus with a renewed passion... great. That's the point. I am not.

Nothing I say here is of importance if I get the praise. I am not doing any of this stuff in my life but it is God working in me and through me. Don't miss that point.

File this post under transparent confessions of a recovering self-addict.

BTW- I will not be allowing any comments for this post. If your not sure why, please reread this post.

Peace.

| composed by dave |

see what Love has done

Today is Easter.

Today I am SO grateful that I get to celebrate the new life that I have because of grace and love; love SO amazing! I have been unleashed to truly live and this is only possible through the sacrifice that I do not deserve. I did nothing to earn this overflow of love but I accepted it as a gift.

I am able to live as I am intended to live- free. Free to love; not because I have somehow manufactured enough love to share but because I was first shown love which has been poured into me with super abundancy. Love more than I deserve but that I freely accept. I am learning to love well. I am learning to be loved and to rest in that love. I am learning to give this love away.

See what Love has done...

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (NIV)
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (NLT)

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through
Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NLT)
“Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift
is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.” (MSG)

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.” (NIV)

1 John 4: 9-10 “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the
world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not
that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to
take away our sins.” (NLT)

Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (NIV)

Romans 10:13 “for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (NIV)

Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have
peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.
Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved
privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to
sharing God’s glory.” (NLT)

Romans 8:1-2 “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And
because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you
from the power of sin that leads to death.” (NLT)

1 John 4:13 “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his
Spirit.” (NIV)

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone,
the new has come!” (NIV)

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things
there is no law.” (NIV)

Mark 12:30-31 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your
neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (NIV)

John 15: 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him,
he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (NIV)

Jesus accepted death so that I may live. He suffered beatings, torture and ridicule... on my behalf. He took what I deserved, death. Now, through Him, I live. Jesus then conquered death by God's power and he was made alive again. Through my baptism as a willing adult, I too have chosen to die with Him and have now begun to experience a new life through Him.

Maybe this is the first time you have read this. Maybe you have known this but for the first time it just seems to all make sense. Maybe none of this matters to you and none of this makes a difference in your life. Maybe this is already true of you life. Where ever you are in your faith journey, please know... it is for this Love that I write. It is because of Jesus' sacrifice and God's love that I have life and freedom. So it is with my life that I pursue Him because of what He has done for me.

If this has impacted you in any way, please consider talking to God with the following prayer... but don't just read it. Believe this with your heart and confess this with your mouth as a willing person ready to fully engage life as a person who gets a "do over" because of Jesus' sacrifice of Love for you.

“God, I know that I have sinned against you by doing life my way and that I am deserving of punishment. I believe that Jesus took the punishment that I deserved so that through trusting in Him I could be forgiven of all my wrongs. With your help, I place my trust in You and accept your gift of grace so that I may be made right with You. Today, I offer You my will for my life and want You to lead me in all areas of my life. Thank You for Your wonderful grace, forgiveness and love! Amen!”

| composed by dave |

life, liberty and the pursuit...

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Every red-blooded American alive knows this quote from the Declaration of Independence. I would venture to say that it is, at the core, one of the highest values in our nation. It is a great value to have! Just look at that phrase and tell me what could be wrong with any of those words? Nothing.

As followers of Jesus who live in America, we should have a similar value at our core that drives us much like this value drives our nation. Except, I would rephrase it a bit. If we are to have a similar value, it should read as follows:

"Life, liberty and the pursuit of godliness."

Now, you may be sitting there thinking to yourself, "But I thought the 'core value' we should have as followers of Jesus are to Love God and Love People?" You're right! For this application, I would call "Love God and Love People" a Mission Statement rather than a value. The Mission Statement defines us and the value drives us. This value would then uphold the Mission Statement. Does that make sense?

I want to very specifically look at "the pursuit" part of this statement. It is something that I have had a lot of discussion about in the past few weeks regarding what a life chasing God looks like versus a life of good morals and upright convictions.

To begin, we must first look at what it is we are pursuing as Christ followers. Well, I guess that should be fairly obvious just by admission of the title alone... Jesus Christ. So what is the standard? By what standard are we to be measured? Who are we comparing ourselves to?

The answer is Jesus. Jesus was perfect and blameless and we are called to be like Him.

"Whoa! But that's impossible; nobody's perfect," you may be saying to yourself. You're right. It's the pursuit of the character and life of Jesus that drives us in our Faith journey toward living lives as God intended them.

Let's take a look at what this might look like.

I am sure most of us have at one point in our lives learned how to ride a bike. I remember that it first started with just learning how to get on the bike. It was large and it was awkward as I attempted to climb onto my BMX. This is something that I had never really done before and the task of just getting my butt in the right place was a daunting task. After I learned how to adjust my position to properly fit onto the bike, the real fun started. I was committed and determined.

Balance, momentum, rhythm, direction... it was all new and sometimes scary. I wasn't really sure if I was doing it right but the whole time I had someone guiding me. They were helping me maintain balance, direction and speed. The training wheels on my bike gave me security and my helper (mom, dad, aunts, uncles and/or neighbors) were there to help me in this new adventure. I never gave up.

Then the training wheels came off. No more security of not falling. I remember the first time I took the risk of riding my red BMX without the training wheels. My helper was running behind me helping me balance and then... they let go! For a couple of rotations, I was riding the bike on my own. It was exhilarating and frightening! As you probably guessed, I fell. I did not maintain the balance that I was taught with my training wheels. I did not keep pedaling. I panicked, turned my handle bars and crashed! It was tragic! I didn't want to get back on my bike. I kicked my bike and blamed my bike for the hurt that I had (I was a bit misguided about the source of my pain...). However, I wanted to ride my bike. I loved my bike. So I got back onto my bike and kept trying.

As my story goes, I kept riding and eventually became accustom to maintaining the right balance, momentum, rhythm and direction. I felt free. The wind in my hair and on my face. The liberty that allowed me to go into the world to explore and meet new friends was inspiring. Eventually, I learned to ride and let go of the handle bars. By not steering, I trusted in the rhythm, balance and momentum to give me direction.

I felt alive.

At the most basic, simplistic level this gives us an idea of what following after or the pursuit of Jesus looks like in our lives. It is the constant decision to get up and back inline with Jesus that causes us to move forward. By constantly pursuing Jesus and chasing God in our lives daily, we get into a rhythm of constant internal (sometimes external) conversation with God. We maintain balance as we begin engaging in missional and communal Biblical study with other people in pursuit of a Holy God. The momentum of the Holy Spirit guiding us in every decision and every action propels us into life of adventure that is unleashed to chase the dreams that are woven in the fabric of our lives given to us by God. Our gifts, talents and passions align giving us direction as we lean into becoming the people of influence in our culture that God originally intended us to be.

Let us be driven to pursue Jesus with our lives and be defined as people of Love. Let us engage in true Life, real liberty and the pursuit of godliness.

This is what it means to be truly alive.

| composed by dave |

foggy confession

see what Love has done

life, liberty and the pursuit...

collections

my online spaces

blogroll

archive