Holy Fervor: Men.

Men.
Created first.
First to walk with God.
First to be given responsibility.
First to be silent.
I just watched a video by Pastor Mark Driscoll. It deals with the responsibility God expects from His men. Mark looks at two typical kinds of men. Two kinds of men God never intended.
God alone gives definition. And today -- right now -- men need to revisit God's definition for man. Pastor Mark explores this topic with fervor (a really smart sounding word meaning passion). He tells it like it is. And offers a glimpse into what God expects and how God reacts when men are idiots.
And we are.
I am.
This message caught hold of me. God's Spirit caught hold of me through this message.
Please -- whether you are a man, woman, married, engaged, dating, or single -- sit down at your computer and watch the entirety of this video.
You will not leave the same.
I promise.
Or I'll owe you a cup of coffee.

Here is the link:
http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/marriage-and-men

I pray that God uses this in big ways. Thanks Scott for showing it to me.
Please, let me know if you have any thoughts.
Welcome. To the conversation.

Awakening.

Father, speak to me.

Where am I?

I know why you sacrificed.

But have forgotten that you

Sacrificed.

I have been raised to celebrate.

Forgotten to remember.

Raised to appreciate.

Forgotten to say "Thank you."

Will I ever learn?

I am a long history of doubt.

Fly-by-night faith.

Fleeting glances of You.

Wandering in Nowheresville.

Do I simply accept this fact?

Do I stick my head in the sand?

Or do I finally break free?

Finally accept the truth:

You are nothing like

Nothing I have ever known.

You are more.

More than knowing.

More than worthy of celebrating.

More than needing of appreciation.

Yes, Lord.

Here am I.

Ready to listen.

This is your day.

Your moment of glory.

Our moment of life-birth.

This is Easter.

May I never forget.

(a poem I wrote a few years ago after realizing that Easter had come and gone and I had paid no thought to it's meaning.)

Play-Doh: Modeling Compound

Something is off. I don't know what it is. For the past few days, something has not been right. I have not been right. This is partly why I have not written lately. So do not think that my mind has been quiet. It never quiets. Not anymore.
The next time you are at the store, walk over to the kid's toys section and find where the play-doh is sold. Grab a container. Read the front label. Play-Doh: Modeling Compound.
This past weekend was incredible. JUMP Retreat 08 at Camp Geneva with my Middle Schoolers (Fuse students). The speaker brought the truth of the gospel home to the student's ears. And in our small group time, amazing things took place. I had used the example of play-doh throughout the weekend to describe how Christ made us to be. Moldable. Moveable. Shapable. Soft. Able to look like the hands handling us. I even found some play-doh from a couple years ago that began to crystallize over. This was the example of living outside of God's intent for us. When we do not allow ourselves to be molded by the Creator, we just get hard and gross. And it is not an easy thing to become soft and moldable again. God designed us to be shapable. So that we could be continually transformed into His image. Oh what a beautiful image. The God who was, and is, and is to come created a being in His image.
Play-doh was designed to be shaped.
Somewhere along the way, we all gave up our play-dohishness.
In search of our own image, we have all become like dried out play-doh.
You and I were worthy of being thrown out.
Christ came to restore the dried out play-doh.
He came to restore His image into us.
And yet, we still run in search of our own image. We find other things to categorize us. All we want. All we desire. Is to find something bigger-than-ourselves to categorize us. We need to be found in something. And since God is no golden calf, we put ourselves in the hands of everything else but God-Creator. Problems arise. Unsatisfaction takes hold. Where JOY in God-Creator once existed. Now BITTERNESS remains. Where PEACE once stood. Now ANGER resides. Where LOVE was given. Now SELFISHNESS is all that is left. What once was created GOOD. Cannot escape being BAD. And HARD. And GROSS.
Two examples of things existing outside of their purpose: hard play-doh and sinful man.
Here is hope.
"It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ's sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately--at the end of the ages--become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God. Now that you've cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it. Your new life is not like your old life. Your old birth came from mortal sperm; your new birth comes from God's living Word. Just think: a life conceived by God himself!"
"They called him every name in the book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you're named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls."
What kind of play-doh are you?
What kind do you want to be?
If I am honest with myself. Lately I have been the hard, gross kind.
The words set free are stuck like bad plumbing in my mind right now. These words strum a cord on the guitar that is my heart. This dry chunk of play-doh just wants to be soft again. Oh to be soft again.
Play-Doh: Modeling Compound.