Outrage!

Our country is in economic decline.  Our government is on a socialist path. Our culture is so juiced up on abnormal sex that normal, Biblical sex is virtually outlawed.  Abortion continues unabated.  Drugs flow freely in our streets.  Our military continues to be the world's police.  Hollywood is out of control. 

I am outraged! BUT, not over the things I listed above.  I am outraged at the American Church.  Though I love her I am disappointed.  We continue to waffle around in pointless political endeavors, moral crusades, and denominational rhetoric.  In a time of economic downturn, new multimillion dollar buildings are being built while the poor suffer and mission agencies are cutting back on missionary funding.  Many are too busy bashing the President while the call to spend time praying on our knees goes unheeded.  We sit by and watch as culture shapes our children instead of teaching them the way of Jesus so they can shape our culture.

Am I a hypocrite?  I pray that it is not so.  I have repented of bashing our government and instead chosen to pray.  I am raising my kids to fear and honor a holy God who expects them to change their elementary for the glory of God.  I live simply so I can personally take care and finance ministry to the poor and marginalized.  I strive, in the power of the Spirit, to be sexually pure in thought and deed.  I am refusing to participate in ungodly media.  Oh, I am still a hypocrite, yet, I am recovering and actively participating with God in the change that I want to see around me.

Please, Church, wake up!  Quit letting the enemy lull you to sleep.  The time is ripe for God's sons and daughters to arise and shape our land with the awe-inspiring greatness of Jesus the Christ.  "Let your light shine before men...."  Drop those things that don't matter and pick the things on Father's heart and mind.  In this we will see fruit, fruit that will last.

Course Corrections: Changing Thought Patterns

The Bible encourages us to "bring every thought under the control of Christ."  This is necessary because as our thoughts go so go our actions.  I am blessed in that when I wash windows I am able to let my mind be free to think, pray, dream, and wander.  Yet, often I find it drifting and in need of being controlled.

I have begun praying simple prayers and changing single thoughts to keep my mind focused.  I am processing some deep things with the Lord and my rabbit trails of thought derail the process.  The prayers and thought shifts refocus me on Him and what is at hand. This process has uncluttered my brain.

One of the joys of inner simplicity is the freedom from loose, bombarding thoughts because you have disciplined your mind. Your thoughts become purified. God's thoughts more easily slip in and take you on His journey of the heart and mind.  His thoughts bring purpose and refreshing in this wearying world in which we live.

Take a moment and breath up a simple, focused prayer.  Take your current thought process and submit it to Jesus.  Sense and know Him as He speaks and moves.  Dance in unison with Him as He steps into the moments of your day.  This discipline, done over the long haul, will go a long way to bringing inner simplicity.

Jim Elliot Quotes of Note

Since High School, Elisabeth Elliot has been a hero of mine. Her unswerving dedication to the Lord is legendary. My daughter is named for her. Her husband, Jim Elliot, gave his life to see the gospel go forth to a then unreached people group, the Aucas of Equador. These quotes stir me to live life fully in Christ and I pray the same for you. May we become firebrands in the hands of Almighty God!

"I pray that the Lord might crown this year with His goodness and in the coming one give you a hallowed dare-devil spirit in lifting the biting sword of Truth, consuming you with a passion that is called by the cultured citizen of Christendom 'fanaticism', but known to God as that saint ly madness that led His Son through bloody sweat and hot tears to agony on a rude Cross---and Glory!"

"Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me."

"Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."

"The man who will not act until he knows all will never act at all."

More New Believers at Awakening in Canada

The pastors of Awakening (Bill and Lorna, 1st and 4th from left in picture) in Canada continue to report a steady flow of new believers as part of their ministry there.   They are bold witnesses for the Lord and the harvest is coming in.  They are sharing the gospel along relational lines using oikos evangelism.  Whole families are being transformed.  Please pray for Bill and Lorna and the church they shepherd.  The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.  Bill and Lorna have answered the call for laborers and the Lord is honoring their commitment to Him.

The Wild Heart In Restraints

As a man who is continuously becoming fully alive in Christ, I often feel the need for the restraint of the Spirit to be in operation.  The wild, healed, fully-loved heart of a man longs for expression and yearns for the outer reaches.  The thirst for spiritual adventure leads me to crazy ideas like starting a business that cleans people's houses from demonic spirits.  I've had this idea crop back up again and realize that I would be painting a target on my chest and just daring Satan to lob his worst at me.  This, of course, is utter foolishness...unless...Father speaks and wills it to be so.  I can't say that is case at this point.  So, the idea lacks merit until and if the Lord moves.

So, to keep me in check, I have asked the Spirit to bridle that energy and push it in the direction it is most needed.  When my masculine strength is submitted to the Lord it can be used for His good purposes rather than useless destruction, no matter how noble the cause may be.  As a recovering Type A personality it is even harder to be a responder to the Spirit instead of a push ahead instigator.  I am growing more comfortable with the restraints and boundaries put there by God. 

Submission to Him is paramount for all of us as we walk in the unique callings He has placed upon our lives.  Men, the people in our lives need us to be fully submitted to the Champion of Our Hearts - Jesus Christ.  Then, with His mandate placed upon us as men we can conquer in His name and battle in His power.  The world needs us to be men like this and I am determined to be fully His so I can be fully utilized by Him.  May be walk together in the noble, high calling we have as the masculine part of the image of God in the earth.