God saw all that He had made,

and it was all very good.  Genesis 1:31a

I was thinking about this verse today.  As some of you know I’m currently working through the book Wild At Heart, which takes a look at how God has a wild side and that is instilled in men in different ways.  

The story of creation is something that is taught to us a young children, often by well-intentioned sunday-school teachers.  What they miss is that God created parts of the world and many creatures to be wild and dangerous.  We miss that in sunday school.  Sunday-school, and church in general is supposed to be a ’safe’ place right?  I think that we may have missed the goal there.  We have replaced ’safe’ with tame.  

Yes, God created those little pets that we have that are sweet, he created all those birds to sing his praises and remind us that He loves music.  He created a garden for man to dwell in, but He created Adam out in the wild - in the wilderness.  If you look at chapters one and two of Genesis - you’ll notice that Eve was not created until after God had placed Adam in the garden.

God created those nice things we think of.  He also created the mountains, those animals that would consider you lunch with no extra thought, and the barren places of the earth that would swallow you.  The world is wild.  It’s dangerous.  God created it.  He said it was good.  And it is.  Let’s let God transform His church.  Let him make something wild, something powerful… something good.  There will be places within His Church that are going to be calm and ’safe’ or ‘tame;’ but let Him make the Church dangerous again. 

Living Hope has done a good job at letting God do this.  But can we be even more moldable? Can we let Him make His church even more dangerous?  I know I’ve missed that.  And I feel that maybe too many of us have.

Who encourages you?

Who speaks in to your life and gives you the courage to the point where you will dare to do something difficult?  Encourage is truly an active word.  We must work to encourage one another - this goes beyond speaking.  It extends in to giving active help to one.

 Or perhaps what I’m trying to get at is who is it that heartens you?  Who is that can speak truth and pick you up and hold you up to God so He can renew your spirit?  You see, we all need these people in our lives.  We need someone to come along side us and lift us up to God.  We need someone to come along side us and put us in a place where we are able to remain in God.  

Once we are heartened, we can then move to the next step, and that is inspiration.  Inspiration is the step where we can be infused with confidence, resolution, and enthusiasm.  How many of us have missed this?  The english language, although it has few words for different ranges of emotion, can still segregate out meanings in different words.  We so often miss the Inspiration step.  We gain inspiration from God, from His creation, and also from each other.

For a long time I had the blessing of a group of men who were able to encourage, hearten, and inspire me.  This was crucial in my development as a young follower of Christ as well as in my transition from boyhood to manhood.  However, I no longer have this group of men around me.  Who is it now that encourages, heartens, and inspires me?  I don’t know.  I find small glimpses of those who are able to encourage me.  You know who you are, and I thank you.  Where I am at right now, I feel I need more than you can give right now, and that is alright.  God will show up and His will shall carry on, and carry me.  I know for myself, I shall be spending a few days alone, in the Wild of God’s creation as soon as I am able.

Back to the first question.  Who is that that encourages, heartens, and inspires you? 

Reasons

Alright, so, I have been going to Living Hope Church for about 3 years, and in that time, I have grown a lot. But, last night, I got to talking with God and thinking about everything and I have come to the conclusion, I think that, I am not entirely sure that Living Hope Fisher’s Landing, or any other current campus is the place for me. I am willing to go there for the time being, but I just feel that there is another reason why God has me there. What reason is that? Well, to be honest, I think God wants to introduce me to my future wife there, and you know what, I am all for that.

Where has this come from? Well, last Sunday (the 13th of April) really. I just felt like  the message was not for me and that I was simply there to take a breather and relax from all the demons that have been tormenting me. And shelter is great, but I need spiritual food, and right now, I think my future wife, my best friend and God are the best sources of that.

I do want to start my own campus, free of DVDs and full of truth though, and I will beginning basically that this summer and I just might continue to do the online sermons for a while. Anyways, thought I would blog about that. later.

 

M to the B to the W,

Wild Wolf

More Leadership

Hi, everybody, i am Dr. Nick….oh, wait, sorry. wrong show. I am Wild Wolf, and will be your new author on this site and i join the many other authors here. Do not worry, i will be good, and enlightening, whatever that means. anyways, i look forward to talking with you guys soon, peace and harmony and love. later!

The Patriot

We’ve all (hopefully) seen The Patriot with Mel Gibson. Do you remember when the British forces were overwhelming the colonial army at the end? The rebels dropped their weapons, their flags, their banners because what they saw was an insurmountable force. When the flag was dropped it seemed as though the entire army lost their courage and their heart to fight. But what does Mel Gibson’s character do? He runs up the hill, picks up the flag and calls for one last stand. His foolish actions gave his men hope and en-courage-d them.

Why did he do this? Was he asked to take that flag? No. Because he believed in the cause of the revolution he knew that the right thing to do was to stand up and fight and not give up. Either way he figured he was going to die. Either as a patriot fighting for a cause or as a traitor for sympathizing with the rebels’ cause.

What revolution are you a part of? What is it you need to step up and lead?