Climb.
I really can’t believe this is happening.
In fact, I’m pretty sure I don’t even want to post this.
It’s not so much that I’m ashamed, as I am embarrassed.
I am stunned that such a thought could even enter my mind.
But it did.
Let me give a little background…
I’m a music guy.
Not so much playing it as listening to it.
Maybe even analyzing it a but.
I love it.
And so often music speaks so clearly into my life.
But this song…really?
Let’s go back and see how this could have taken shape…
Finishing.
I feel like I’ve been neglecting the blog for a couple months now.
I’ve started several posts about different things, but the priority to finish those hasn’t been incredibly high.
I can always go back to wrap them up, and eventually, I will.
The reality is that I needed to step away for a few weeks and let my thoughts be my own.
I was getting to a point where my identity was starting to be wrapped up in being a blogger.
Having a lot of views one month, being invited to join a group of bloggers passionate about men’s discipleship the next…
It is really easy for attention like that to go to the head of someone who has been in such a desperate search for his life to be significant to others.
I didn’t want to let that happen.
So, I backed off.
And booked a flight to Colorado.
Idol.
God is jealous.
He’s not a big fan of anything taking His place as the captivator of our hearts.
Even good and holy things.
Yeah, read that one again:
Even good and holy things can become idols.
Anytime we place greater value on the gift than on the Giver, we’ve seriously overstepped some boundaries.
And He will strip us of these precious gifts.
Because, like I said…God is jealous.
Seriously.
Jealous.
His words, not mine.
Look it up, I’ll wait…check Exodus 20…
Back?
Okay, good.
See, that’s no new concept that I’ve come up with.
It’s not something hidden away for deep thinking theologians to discover.
No, He comes out and says it. Point blank.
“I am a jealous God.”
He doesn’t even hide it somewhere in the middle of Obadiah, or some other book that just gets skimmed over.
No, He puts it in the midst of the Ten Commandments.
Where even the most casual of Bible readers is sure to stumble across it.
There are a lot of things that tend to take His place.
Some come and go with the seasons (i.e. sports, the War on the War on Christmas, etc.)
Some stick around for a while.
Stories.
I share a lot on this blog.
A lot of deeply personal stuff about my own shortcomings, even.
Transparency is not something you’ll find lacking here….
Which is where the problem comes in.
You see, I was a student pastor for a couple of years at a church back home.
There is even a “Reverend” in front of my name in the Baptist circles.
One year was all fine and dandy, and the second year was as Rocky as a Squirrel.
Heh. Rocky…Squirrel…get it? #lamejoke
Anyway…
There was a multitude of reasons why I left that ministry…and very few of them have been talked about here.
Read more…
Underlined.
I read a lot.
But only since starting to meet weekly, and read through the Bible with a friend of mine, have I begun to underline in books.
Mostly, I just do this for passages in Scripture that really stick out, or that I have overlooked before.
Though, occasionally I run across something in a book that strikes me for one reason or another.
Maybe an idea I’d never really considered before…
Maybe some quick synopsis that ends up being tweet-worthy…
Or maybe, something like this…
This week, I saw one sentence in David Platt’s Radical that made me absolutely
Want.
To.
SCREAM!
For a number of reasons.
What kind of statement could get me so fired up this week, you ask?
This kind:
“Disciple making is not a call for others to come to us to hear the gospel but a command for us to go to others to share the gospel.“
Seems like a pretty legitimate statement, right?
I mean, it does make sense…and it is Biblical…right?
