Happy Birthday To My Son

Happy Birthday to one of, if not, the most loving person I know - my first born son, Josiah.

What a young man you are, and are growing into!

You have shown me Jesus, and, there are so many ways I want to be like you. You are passionate, loving, generous, forgiving, taking no thought of yourself, intimate with Jesus, bright, and more... and you are a blessing to our family.

I'm glad you're my son.

Happy Birthday buddy!

Heart Thoughts

As my family and I sit down for an epic movie adventure (tonight its our beloved Narnia: Prince Caspian), I thought I'd share some heart thoughts.

I took a walk Saturday to talk with the Lord and enjoy the morning air. Of course, for March 2nd, I was surprised to reach the pinnacle of a nearby hill to see the above. It was a chilly walk.

As I walked, I had many thoughts swirling through my mind. Thoughts mostly consisting of the future. Questions, ideas, etc.

Yet, it's different from other times in my life. My thoughts are a [little] more tempered with Scripture, and experience. I'm more aware of what God can do.

And more importantly, more aware of who He is.

He has revealed His love and nature to me in ways that I never knew before. As a result, I feel more equipped for the moments and days ahead.

I'm not going to get into the specific thoughts running through my mind, at this point. But I will give glory to God for providing His direction, will, counsel, love and presence.

With Him, I and my wife can be a peace knowing He orchestrates our future.

Soul Mates

I love to connect with my wife. I love our deep, heart to heart conversations. I love being able to spill the deep things of our heart with one another.

And I love that we had one of those conversations tonight.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. -Bible

Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my friend, companion, lover, sister, girl, and wife, Elizabeth Follman.

I adore you.

With much love,

Your Hubby :)

Amplify My Heart

Love the Amplified version...

http://bible.us/1John3.22.AMP And we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we [watchfully] obey His orders [observe His suggestions and injunctions, follow His plan for us] and [habitually] practice what is pleasing to Him.

What is your stance before the Lord? Does it match what was stated in the Scripture above??

Back At It

Back at it tomorrow.

It's been a wonderful Thanksgiving break. Time with family, lots of food, good rest, reflection, and time in prayer. I loved it!

We have about 4 weeks - 20 teaching days - until Christmas break.

I am excited to get back at it. God has graciously given me great energy, zeal, love and excitement to get back with the students I teach.

I also have this to bring with me from the message this morning...

Do your absolute best. Be excellent.

In ALL things.

I need your help, Lord.

And, I'm looking forward to it.

Your Steadfast Love

My good buddy Tom has been preaching on God's attributes. Recently, he talked about God's infinitude, and placed God's great love in that context. The truth hasn't left me...

God is infinite.

God is love.

His love is infinite.

There is no end to our God, His power, His majesty, His wisdom... His love. Our infinite God is infinitely loving. There is no end to His love. You cannot exhaust it.

I almost can't believe it. Then I read...

"Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds."

Believe it. Thank you Jesus.

This song is running through my head tonight, I'm so thankful for His love...

What Does Love Look Like?

http://bible.us/Prov3.12.ESV for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

My Good Thing

It was about 12 years ago exactly that my wife and I started dating. 10 years of marriage, 5 kids, and an adventure called "life" later...

I'm so glad we did.

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. http://bible.us/Prov18.2.ESV

Beautiful Balance

Wow. I am so blessed. My wife is just who I need, providing balance and insight in my life when I can't figure out which way is up.

So thankful for you babe, so thankful your my friend :)

Love Fuel

Yesterday I had the great opportunity to share from the Word of God at The Chapel. God orchestrated the morning in a beautiful and amazing way, a way that floors me and built my faith. Praise Him! He is so kind and gracious and loving towards us, to put it lightly.

This pic is a snapshot of one line in my notes from my message. It hit me while I was preaching on His love yesterday, that without love, there are no promises. His love for His people is the fuel that feeds these promises. Love is the motivation behind such great promises...

I have healing,

I have provision,

I have forgiveness,

I have authority,

I have protection,

I have favor,

And more,

...because of His love.

Without His love for us, there would be no promises for the Christian.

Yea, and it just so happens that God is love.

Agape

I have been preparing this week to preach this Sunday at The Chapel. God has been doing such a work in me lately by lavishing His love on me, that it's difficult not to want to share Sunday on anything else... so I won't :)

In my preparation, I was looking up the Greek word for "love" in Strong's Concordance. Most of us are familiar with "love" in the new testament being translated from the Greek word "agape," which is true. But as I dove into the meaning of the word, there were some enlightening aspects to this "agape" love that caught my attention.

One of the aspects of this "agape" love was that Strong's stated, "Love can be known only from the actions it prompts as God's love is seen in the gift of His Son." It then references 1 John 4:9,10...

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Wow.

If love is only shown through actions, God showed us the greatest act of love, by sending His Son to die in our place. How many times have we heard this?! Yet, it is so fresh and new for me this morning.

If love is truly something that can only be seen and displayed through the actions of someone, then God's actions were greatest...

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

God doesn't just tell us He loves us, no, He proves His great love for us by laying down His life for us.

For a recovering perfectionist, I am so thankful that God truly loves me this morning, and that He showed it! He shows me His love through more than mere words, but in action too. I find rest, hope, strength and peace in His love, and pray you do today as well.

Walking with God

I have a brief, few minutes to share what God has been doing in my heart.

Let me first say, that God is so loving, so kind, so gracious toward me. As His child in Christ, I feel Him taking me by the hand lately and walking me through life. He is both walking with me and leading me. It's so intimate, so kind, so personal.

The fact that God is even mindful of me is astonishing.

But to sense Him actually walking with me, and even better, sensing His love and delight toward me... It's unexplainable. It's unfathomable!

How can God love me?!

As I have wrote recently, it has been hard for me in the past to believe that the all-powerful, all-mighty, perfct and holy God would delight in imperfect me. But through Jesus, He does. I have been grafted in, I can partake of His love, I am beloved and part of the family. It was He in His love who chased me down even before I ever knew Him!

And the fact that He is even walking with me through this life is truly amazing.

How can this be? God with me?

That's it. Simple, yet miraculous. Seemingly common, but all so real to me lately.

I'm so grateful.

Psalm 103

Psalm 103 is a rich Psalm, and is a great reminder of the Lord's grace, mercy, kindness and love towards those who fear Him. It's a great reminder for me today that I can trust in His character. I can trust in His Name and that He loves me, even when my own mind and heart condemn me.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust. Psalm 103:8-14 ESV

Today, I'm so thankful that He is abounding in love, that He is merciful, gracious, and slow to anger. I'm thankful that He doesn't deal with me according to my sins. And I'm thankful that He is well familiar with my frame - He knows I am but dust.

It's Scripture like this that reminds me that it's not what I can do, but all about Him and what He did through Jesus Christ. He was condemned, so I could go free. He took my shame, and lifted my head. He was rejected, so I could be accepted into God's family. He took my sin and God's wrath, that I might be forgiven.

This is my God.

Yea, thankful today.

A Deadly Disease

I have a disease - I put too much stock in my efforts and accomplishments before God.

That's right, it's a disease.

It's a disease that keeps me from experiencing the fullness of His love and grace. It's a disease that centers on what I have done (nothing) instead of what Christ did. It's a disease that leads me to try to earn my keep with God, instead of trusting that it's He who keeps me. It's a deadly disease that leads me to be short on mercy and grace with others, and abundant in judgement, because that's how I interpret God's dealings with me.

Call this disease what you want - self-righteousness, legalism, righteousness by works... Whatever you call it, it's a deadly disease.

And I got it.

It sucks the life from you and prevents you from living in a grace-empowered life. It's filled with condemnation and fear rather than peace and faith. It focuses righteousness before God on me rather than He.

I have been desiring lately to experience God's love for me in a greater way. I want to experience His love and grace in a way that brings freedom and peace, that I might share that same love and grace with others. Especially with my family - those who feel the brunt of my self-righteous and condemning gaze the most.

I wish I didn't have this disease. I want to offer others the same grace and mercy that God offers me. Problem is, if I myself don't walk in His grace and mercy, and instead try to earn my righteousness, I won't be able to offer that grace and mercy to others. In fact, I pass that same demand for "righteousness by works" on to others.

I can't give you my love and approval unless you tow the line just so.

It's not God's heart. It's wrong. It's sin.

But there is a cure to this disease - the cross. The cross of Christ turns my righteousness before God back on what Jesus did, and not what I can do. Because, you know, I never could do. And all my "do-ings" no matter how good I think they are, are nothing but filthy rags.

So I repent. Again. And chose to live a cross-centered life today. That I might not spread the disease of self-righteousness to others, but rather, spread the cure - God's grace, love and mercy found in Jesus Christ.

[Aside: The Lord has been dealing with me on this issue over the past few days, and reading this post this morning inspired me to return to the cross for the cure to my deadly disease... Read it here.]

Love

Yesterday morning the Holy Spirit began speaking to me about His love for me. I went first to the Song of Solomon. This book is a beautiful picture of the love shared between a man and woman, but I believe that it is a greater revelation of the love shared between Jesus and His bride, the Church.

I read how the husband adores and finds such pleasure in his bride, and I knew that is how God sees His Church. I have known these things of course - that God loves me - but as I wrote in an earlier post, I found myself not wanting to believe that God would truly love me to the point of finding pleasure in me. Even delighting in me!

Me? Me? I'm not worthy of His love...

No, I'm not worthy. I never was nor never will be. And that's the beauty.

I found myself thinking on Revelation where we as the bride are united with Christ at the end of the age. We are the Bride. He is the Bridegroom. And the love we have for Him is not one way. This is a two way love relationship - as we delight in Him, He too is delighting in us. As we long for and are passionate for Him, so He is, even more so, and perfectly, towards us.

In fact, it's because He was passionately in love with us first, that we can even love Him.

Romans 5:8 says, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.


While we were weak to save ourselves, while we spit on His face and crucified the Lover of our Souls, He showed how great His love is for us by displaying the greatest love - laying down His life for us. I only love because He loved me first.

So I am finding myself enjoying an old truth in a new way the last couple of days...

God loves me! He really does!

There is freedom and joy in embracing and receiving His love for us. And I want to know Him and His love for me all the more. I am more motivated to serve the Lord and enjoy Him when I am motivated by His love, rather than a false feeling of guilt or condemnation.

While I was pondering His love for me yesterday, a song by Brian and Jen Johnson came on as I listened to an album of theirs, We Believe. The song was "You Have Ravished My Heart" - a song about God's passionate love for us.

Check out the song below, and I pray God reveals to you and I once again, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Ephesians 3:18-19

Date Night!

Had a wonderful time with my beautiful, (not so) little girl tonight. Love date nights!

Closer Emotion

Is it true that when you find something you love, and truly enjoy it, to a point of deep satisfaction, that you are brought closer to your Creator?

What about that favorite instrumental song, or that picture that invokes such emotion, or that hobby that brings an un-orchestrated smile to your face...

Is it possible that somehow when we stay true to our innermost desires and satisfactions, that we are actually drawn closer to the One who has created us and all good things that we enjoy?

When done right, blogging is therapy for me. It helps me to identify and bring out emotions and desires that otherwise I may not even realize are stirring within me. Blogging has helped me to get in touch with my "feminine" side so to speak. As a man we have a rap of being tough and bigger than our emotions, but come on guys, we got feelings too!

Though I'm not sure blogging helped me in pondering the things I'm writing on today, it has helped me to recognize, articulate, and sort through these very real emotions inside of me.

Anyway, the other day I was struck by a group of pictures that spoke to my soul. I don't know how else to put it except that the views that were in these pictures struck a deep cord in me. And somehow, I felt closer to the Lord through allowing myself to be so moved by the photos. Normally, I don't think I would have allowed myself to feel what I did, maybe because normally my subconscious wouldn't let me. Maybe it was because I felt the Lord was closer to me than usual during that time.

Either way, I felt it.

Maybe this is old news to some who are well-versed in recognizing and enjoying their passions and emotions.

Or, maybe I'm just crazy.

Not quite sure myself yet. But, I felt what I felt. And something tells me, I'm not the only one who has felt that way before...

Nor do I want it to be my last time.

To My Lovely Bride...

Your Eyes Still Capture Me,

Your Love Upholds Me.

Your Beauty Is Immeasurable.

Happy Valentine's Day,

To My Forever Valentine.

I Love You Elizabeth Ann Follman.

A Deadly Neglect

You can be doing things right, and in the midst of the right, be treacherously wrong. You can be walking in holiness, serving the family of God, performing good works with toil and patient endurance for the Master, and yet neglect the Master altogether, a potentially deadly mistake.

I venture to say deadly from what we read in the letter to Ephesus in Revelation 2. The church in Ephesus were commended by Jesus this way...

I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary.

I would love to hear this from the Master! He is commending them on their good works. However, the next thing He says is...

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

In the midst of their good works, the Ephesians had left their first love. In working for the Master, they forgot about the Master Himself. Here, we see Jesus's heart to have true intimacy and a love relationship with His Bride, His people. And we also see the potentially eternally deadly consequence of abandoning our first love - I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

In the midst of our work for God, we cannot forget or neglect a heart beating with love and passion for Him. In the midst of doing right for Him, we cannot neglect Him. Mike Bickle said, "there are lovers and there are workers, and lovers get more work done than do workers." Jesus is the lover of our soul, the One passion and longing of our hearts!

If you have fallen out of love with the Master, heed the loving, and I emphasize loving, words of Jesus and repent, today. Let's do the works we did when we first met our Savior and fell in love with Him.