Passivity

 

One of the saddest of all the sad stories in the history of the people of God comes shortly after the dramatic Exodus from Egypt, as they stand on the brink of a whole new life in the land God had promised:

But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, “The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, ‘The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.’” Then I said to you, “Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you [Not "comfort you." Not "be with you in your distress, defeated by your enemies." Fight for you], as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God . . . Then you replied, “We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God commanded us.” (Deut. 1:26-41 NIV)

But it was too late. Their decision not to fight is what led to their wandering in the wilderness for forty years. We often cite that part of the story, talking about our own wilderness experiences, embracing the wilderness saga as if it were inevitable. No, that is not the lesson at all. We have forgotten it was avoidable. The reason they took the lamentable detour into the wilderness was because they would not fight. To be more precise, the wilderness was a punishment, the consequence of refusing to trust God, and fight.

(Fathered by God )

What Is Your Image Of Jesus As A Man?

Maybe it would be better to turn our search to the headwaters, to that mighty root from which these branches grow. Who is this One we allegedly come from, whose image every man bears? What is he like? In a man’s search for his strength, telling him that he’s made in the image of God may not sound like a whole lot of encouragement at first. To most men, God is either distant or he is weak-the very thing they’d report of their earthly fathers. Be honest now-what is your image of Jesus as a man? “Isn’t he sort of meek and mild?” a friend remarked. “I mean, the pictures I have of him show a gentle guy with children all around. Kind of like Mother Teresa.” Yes, those are the pictures I’ve seen myself in many churches. In fact, those are the only pictures I’ve seen of Jesus. As I’ve said before, they leave me with the impression that he was the world’s nicest guy. Mister Rogers with a beard. Telling me to be like him feels like telling me to go limp and passive. Be nice. Be swell. Be like Mother Teresa.

I’d much rather be told to be like William Wallace.

(Wild at Heart , 22)

Do Whatever Brings You Back to Your Heart and the Heart of God

Against the flesh, the traitor within, a warrior uses discipline. We have a two-dimensional version of this now, which we call a “quiet time.” But most men have a hard time sustaining any sort of devotional life because it has no vital connection to recovering and protecting their strength; it feels about as important as flossing. But if you saw your life as a great battle and you knew you needed time with God for your very survival, you would do it. Maybe not perfectly-nobody ever does and that’s not the point anyway-but you would have a reason to seek him. We give a halfhearted attempt at the spiritual disciplines when the only reason we have is that we “ought” to. But we’ll find a way to make it work when we are convinced we’re history if we don’t.

Time with God each day is not about academic study or getting through a certain amount of Scripture or any of that. It’s about connecting with God. We’ve got to keep those lines of communication open, so use whatever helps. Sometimes I’ll listen to music; other times I’ll read Scripture or a passage from a book; often I will journal; maybe I’ll go for a run; then there are days when all I need is silence and solitude and the rising sun. The point is simply to do whatever brings me back to my heart and the heart of God.

The discipline, by the way, is never the point. The whole point of a “devotional life” is connecting with God. This is our primary antidote to the counterfeits the world holds out to us.

(Wild at Heart , 171-172)

All Men Die, Few Men Truly Live

The most dangerous man on earth is the man who has reckoned with his own death. All men die; few men ever really live. Sure, you can create a safe life for yourself . . . and end your days in a rest home babbling on about some forgotten misfortune. I’d rather go down swinging. Besides, the less we are trying to “save ourselves,” the more effective a warrior we will be. Listen to G. K. Chesterton on courage:

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “He that will lose his life, the same shall save it” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. The paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.

(Wild at Heart , 169)

Martin Luther King, Jr.

‎”I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

A New Covenant

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezek. 36:26-27)

Moving On

Last spring I read a book called “Fathered by God”. It was absolutely amazing and hit home for me in a way that rarely ever happens. While reading that book last spring/summer I have never felt more connected to God. I was riding such a spiritual high while I journeyed through that book that I actually felt saddened when I was done reading it. I didn’t really know what to do next. While I read it I never really applied it to my life in a way to keep fostering change once the book had ended.  It stirred up a lot of questions but I never really took the time to come face to face with those questions.

So that’s what I am doing now. At the beginning of the book, it is encouraged to reread the book a second time and to follow a workbook written to go with the book itself. So that is what I am going to do. I have never really been one to do “homework” as a why to get close to God. It always seemed to “Sunday school” for me. But the workbook is intentionally written in a way to try to avoid that. Its not written as a lesson plan to be completed in so many weeks. But as a map to help guide you along the journey laid out in the book.

So here is to my new experience. I’m hoping to read through the life of David as I do this study as a way to see Biblical application of the message trying to be learned from the book. So here is to the next stage of the journey. I will try to update on here as much as possible this process, but at the same time it is a little more personal then anything I have ever done and the goal is to strengthen my one on one relationship with God, so we’ll see how it goes.

My Blog

Becoming Cowboys is my blog I stared as a way for me to keep a written account of my journey through the life God created for me. It gives me a place to keep my thoughts and memories so I can see where I have came from, where I am at, and where I am going.

Becoming Cowboys is simply my way of describing what I see as the finish line at the end of the journey of life. Which is simply authentic manhood in the way Christ designed it to be. I use the term Paleolithic as a way to show a continuous effort to change the focus of life from things I want, to things God desires me to need.
Basically its my way to talk about the things I enjoy.
-Life: My family and friends and the time spent with them.
-Power lifting and Running: my two biggest passions (which I’m aware couldn’t be more opposite from each other in the realm of the physical world) outside of my family. As well as a place to recap my training sessions.
-Walk with God: the growth of my friendship and dependence on him.

Throughout the blog I also talk about other passions that make up my life. Football (all forms: Soccer, College,Rugby), Music, and The Ohio State Buckeyes (which could fall under football, but its so much more). But the theme will always be life and my decision to always be moving forward.

A Christmas Story You May Have Never Heard

A great and wonderous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve starts on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his head. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a maled child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down-that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

“Now yhave come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.

Fot the accuser of our brothers, who accuses the before our God day and night, has been hurled down.

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; thet did not love their lives so much to shrink from death.

Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”

When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. The woman was given two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swollowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring-those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Revelation 12

Chapter 3 Part 1

According to the Scriptures, the heart can be troubled, wounded, pierced, grieved, even broken. How well we all know that. Thankfully, it cann also be cheerfull, glad, merry, joyfull, rejoicing. The heart can be whole or divided-as in that phrase we often use, “Well, part of me wants to, but the other part of me doesn’t.” It can be wise or foolish. It can be steadfast, true, upright, stout, valiant. It can als be frightened, faint, cowardly, melt like wax. The heart can be wandering, forgetfull, dull, stubborn, proud, hardened. Wicked and perverse. I think we know that as well.

Much to our surprise, according to Jesus, a heart can also be pure, as in, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt. 5:8). And even noble, as in his story about the sower: “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by perservering produce a crop” (Luke 8:15). The bible sees the heart as the source of our faith, our hope, and of course, our love. It is the “wellspring of life” with in us (Prov. 4:23), the very essence of our existence, the center of our being, the fount of our life.

Think about your work life for a moment. Why are so many people bored or frustrated with their jobs? Why do they dread Monday morning and “thank God it’s Friday”? Their hearts are not in their work. Far from it. However they arrived at what they’re doing with their lives, it wasn’t by listening to their hearts. The same holds true for their love life. Why do so many relationships fail? Because one or both partners no longer have a heart for making it work. On and on it goes. Why are so many people struggling with depression and discouragement? They’ve lost heart. Why can’t we seem able to break free of our addictions? Because somewhere along the way, in a moment of carelessness or desperation, we gave our heart away, and now we can’t get it back.

There is no escaping the centrality of the heart. God knows that; it’s why he made it the central theme of the Bible, just as he placed the physical heart in the center of the human body. The heart is central; to find our lives, we must make it central again.
-Waking the Dead (pg 40 and 41)

Its been to long! I lost heart, but we keep moving forward. RFM!