Traveling Light (Discussion Fodder)

I've noticed in the last few days that my black back (the paratrooper one) is getting heavier. It happens slowly...I add a book that I want to read. Then, there's a couple of CD's that I take to work. There's a few papers that I want to take home to Deb. Eventually, the bag is no longer the lightweight tool I wanted to use to keep essentials close at hand. It's become a burden, something that I resent carrying.

My life is like that, too. I want to travel light, so that when God tells me "move," I can move. But there are so many things that take up my time, energy, money and thoughts that it gets more and more difficult to act on his prompting.

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."

Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family."

Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God."

-- Luke 9:57-62

I firmly believe that the words "No" and "Lord" have no business being together. But just as dangerous is "Yes, Lord, but..."

I see things that I will need to jettison from my life in order to grow closer to Jesus; I'll leave them in a comment. What's your excess baggage?

Others May, You Cannot (Discussion Fodder)

Dr. Bourgond read this to us last night. Due to my crappy phone lines and lack of energy, I wasn't able to focus on it over the phone, but I heard enough to know that I needed to read this for myself to process it properly. I'm passing this onto you. Your thoughts?

From Dr. Bourgond:
Many years ago, I was speaking in a church classroom. Before I began I was rumaging through the podium and found a tract that had a huge impact on me. Whenever I have felt misunderstood, or discouraged, or not being appreciated for what i was doing for the Kingdom I read this tract.

OTHERS MAY: YOU CANNOT

-by G. D. Watson (1845-1924).

If God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence upon Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious He may let others get credit for the work which you have done, and thus make YOUR REWARD TEN TIMES GREATER WHEN JESUS COMES.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an Infinitely Sovereign Being, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to Him, He will wrap you up in Jealous Love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then that you are to DEAL DIRECTLY WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this PECULIAR, PERSONAL, PRIVATE, JEALOUS GUARDIANSHIP AND MANAGEMENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT OVER YOUR LIFE, then you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.

Who Are You?

Introducing the Discussion Fodder category. These will be postings for stuff that we want to talk about, craft well-thought out responses to, but don't have the time for during group meetings. These are for conversations, so please leave comments!

The first one:

Who Are You?

When Brant and I went to the Dangerous Man Day a few weekends ago, the keynote speaker started his afternoon session by relating a scene from the movie Second Hand Lions. In the scene, Robert Duvall's character has had a crisis of self-identity. He's no longer the strong conquering young man who demanded and received respect and fear; he's wrestling with the fact that he's becoming an old man. However, when a young punk starts threatening him and asking him "Who are you, old man?!", Duvall's character remembers his self-identity.

We are in the process of examining our own self-identities. We're holding up what we belief (and what he have believed for years or decades), and examining them in light of God's holy word. The core beliefs that we've talked about while reading Victory Over the Darkness are our beliefs in who we are.

In the comments, I want to hear who you are. Imagine the enemy standing before you, challenging you. It's sneering at you, with disgust, with contempt. "Who are you?", it spits out. Satan is challenging you to identify yourself, drawing a line in the sand.

What is your answer? I want this to be my manifesto, something that I can recite not just out of memorization, but because I have made it my own. At the same time, it is making me, clearing the scales off my eyes that prevent me from seeing this world in light of eternity.

Who are you?