Author Archives: Richard Clinton

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About Richard Clinton

My name is Richard Clinton. I began a journey of learning about God in 2011, but did not fully surrender to Christ until January 2015. I began this blog in 2012 and it has evolved continually since then as my faith has evolved and grown and I’ve walked closer with God. My writing is through this page comes in a desire to seek the lost and provide inspiration through the Four Streams that are brought out in John Eldredge’s book, “Waking The Dead.”. As John laid out in his book, the Four Streams derive from the Four Streams through which Christ offered life in Discipleship, Counseling, Healing, and Warfare. I will continue writing in these areas of our faith and life. On the personal side, I reside in Georgia and I am married to my beautiful wife Amber and together we have 3 awesome kids. My life is all about my family and providing the best I can for them and also being there for each of them. 4 Stream Living came about as I was walking closer with God and I felt His Spirit calling me to do more with my life. I knew I was thirsty for more and God had a calling for me. I have spent my entire working life building a career in the corporate world toward what would be deemed as success. I was fully self focused on worldly successes. Standing on a mountain top in Colorado in January 2015, I completely surrendered my life to Christ and God has completely transformed my life. It has reflected in my writing and God has led me to awaken the desire to seek the lost through my writing and through counseling ministry, which I am now schooling for. Irenaeus declared that “The glory of God is man fully alive.” I am now coming alive as I have declared to live the unscripted life to follow God and live for Christ NO MATTER THE COST.

A Thankful Heart

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Family_Fall2015

I pondered this post for a few days.  Thinking exactly where I would focus as we draw closer to Thanksgiving.  When I look over my life and all that is around me, it fills me with a thankful heart.  I have been blessed with such a beautiful wife that is such a beautiful soul.  A true Proverbs 31 woman in my life.  We’ve been blessed with 3 beautiful kids.  They are our pride and joy.  My boys are the apple of my eye and my daughter is my delight.  Proud of all 3 of them.  We’ve gone through a lot together as a family and we’ve made it through storms together.  I’m very thankful to the Lord for having each of them in my life.

There are so many other things I can call out to be thankful for.  The biggest thing above all things, however has to be full and complete transformation.  I can stand here today and say that 2015 has been a year of complete transformation, not just for me, but for my family.  Jesus took a hold of my life this year like I had never imagined possible and boy oh boy, this is just the beginning of what I can tell already will be an exciting life of following Him and leading the lost to Him.

CrossLoganville

Through all of this transformation, through all of this change, there are so many things, just in this short period of time that I can point to and that am very thankful for.  I am thankful for my church family at The Cross Loganville.  My pastor, Tim Cash, and the rest of the team, our men’s ministry, the awesome small group Amber and I joined, and all the connections and friendships we have made so far.  Truly blessed to be walking with such an awesome body of believers.  They’ve welcomed us in and have been very instrumental to our lives.

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I’m thankful for Ransomed Heart Ministries, led by John Eldredge, and the opportunity to attend the Wild At Heart Boot Camp in Colorado.  This was the pivotal life changing moment for me.  One that God was prepping me for through many encounters right up to the day I left and I knew He was really leading me to, because of the spiritual warfare I dealt with before I left.  When I made it there, however, I was able to let go.  My life completely surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ as I stood in those mountains and I knew I would never be the same.

I’m thankful for the change of my heart to know I needed to follow Jesus into the unknown.  To live the unscripted life and follow Him to wherever He is leading.  I’ve always lived a life with a plan about where I was headed.  I can no longer do that and since then, there is so much freedom in knowing God is now leading the way, not me.  I go myself out of the way and stopped trying to control things that were not in my control and let Him take control.

LibertyUni

I’m thankful for the opportunity to attend Liberty University to pursue a Masters in Counseling.  Something I never thought I would do, but somehow, I feel as if God has been leading me here for many years through the many encounters I’ve had and the moments of counsel that I have given to others.  I never recognized it until this year, but once did, He put me on the fast track.  I’ve been blessed with great teaching, great fellowship when getting to go on campus, and great Christ centered learning and development.  Truly excited to see what the Lord is going to do with my life through all of this.

Amber_Fall2015

I could honestly go on and on and on here.  All of this points to what the Lord has done in my life since I surrendered completely to Him.  He’s been leading me back to Him for the last few years and this was the year He decided it was time to unleash.  The transformation for my life has transformed my home.  Seeing my kids light up, but most of all seeing my bride light up.  Now watching her day after day getting into the Word on her own and journaling.  Seeing her build up the courage to break out of her shyness to fellowship and know others in our church family and building the courage to share what is a very powerful story.  She just glows in it as I see her eagerness to grow and know God.  Of that I am also very thankful.

2015 has been the Lords year for me and family.  He’s taken the reigns and is leading us into the unknown.  It’s no longer about living the good, comfortable, content, and ‘successful’ life.  It’s about living the unscripted life that follows where we are led.  My heart is very thankful for this transformation and where He takes us from here.

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I want to wish every one of you a very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving from my family to yours.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! – 2 Corinthians 9:15

Get Ourselves Out of the Way

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It never ceases to amaze me the things that God will reveal to me or remind me about at the most random times and in moments when I’m not even locked into receiving anything.  Usually when I get to late in the evening, my mind begins to wind down as we all do, getting ready to turn in for the night.  Last night was a exception.  Coming home from an evening watching my daughter sing at a Talent Show, which was awesome by the way, we came home to wind down.  Kids went off to bed.  Amber was working on a couple things, and I flipped the TV channels and found “The Legend of Bagger Vance.”  It was about mid-way through, but I didn’t care.  Love that movie, so I kept it there and watched.

If you’re not familiar with the movie, Matt Damon plays a man named Rannulph Junuh from Savannah, GA, who had everything going for him as a golfer and then after losing his entire unit in World War I, even though he was decorated with the Medal of Honor, Junuh was completely lost and taken out, still stuck on the battlefield.  A chance to find his way back to the game comes a decade later to play against two great golfers, Bobby Jones and Walter Hagan.  Along comes Bagger Vance, played by Will Smith.  A simple looking man, who just happened to walk up one night and offered Junuh his services a caddie. It was on from that point and the work began to restore Junuh, not to who he was, but to who he was meant to be.

There’s something very mystical about this movie and one thing that John Eldredge shared at Wild at Heart was that Bagger Vance, in this movie, is the image of the Holy Spirit, looking to restore Junuh to his true self and finding his place in the field, or as we would say, finding himself in Christ.  Bagger counsels and guides Junuh in just the way I see the Holy Spirit working on us in restoring our union with the Father and the Son.  It’s really quite something to see and think about.  Follow-me a little here as I share this.

When Junuh first starts to play in the tournament.  He is terrible and falls 12 strokes behind Jones and Hagan.  He looks to Bagger for help and Bagger offers him little help.  He asks Bagger, “Any ideas?” when Junuh is in a bunker.  Bagger says, “huh..about what?”  Junuh frustrated, just grabs a club and Bagger says, “Yeah, that’s a good one there.”  At this point, Junuh is completely relying on himself.  thinking he can just get back to the way things were.  His game would return to the glory it once was.  Bagger leaves him alone in this self-reliance and Junuh pays for it as his game suffers.  After the round, Bagger tells him, “The Junuh you was, you ain’t never gonna be again; ever.”

This is just how I see the Holy Spirit working in us and restoring us when we are taken out and lost.  Often times we try to get ourselves back on our own.  That’s exactly what I did.  Thinking I could just find my way, find my motivation in life and career again.  I wasted 3 years in doctorate studies and went to different seminars looking for motivation, but nothing doing.  Trying to make it on my own didn’t get me anywhere but back to square one.  This is much the same way that Junuh found himself way behind.

In much the same way as the Holy Spirit, at just the right moment, Bagger says, it’s time.  Time to see the field.  Time find our swing.  Time to find our true self.  Time to find our authentic self and to be who we were created to in Christ.  To “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” Ephesians 4:24.  Through the next parts of the movie, Junuh leans completely on Bagger, listening to him and all of a sudden, his game returned and he found confidence in himself to maybe win this tournament against to of the worlds greatest golfers.

At one point, Junuh’s old self returns and he becomes over confident in himself again and his game began to crash back down.  At the moment of most desperation, when Junuh is retrieving his ball in the woods, Bagger digs right in.  Takes him back to the moment he lost himself on that battlefield.  Telling him it’s time to let that go.  He says he’s right there with him and that he’s been there all along. Time to let the field choose him and bring out his true, authentic self, but all we have to do is get ourselves out of its way.  In the same way, Christ is choosing us and wants to restore us, if we will get out of our own way and let Him in.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me” Revelation 3:20.  Jesus is there knocking, and ready to come in an restore us.  The Holy Spirit will be there to guide us through the whole thing.  It’s not an easy road and often times, it will be a painful one when we are brought back to the wounds and sins that took us out in the first place.

Jesus came into my heart and restored me over 9 months ago.  The Holy Spirit was with me over the last many years since I was lost and taken out.  He allowed me to go through it on my own at first, but at just the right time, caused me to throw my hand up in that Bible Study to admit I was doing things alone.  Caused me to venture outside my comfort level and head west for a few days. Then when I was at my moment of sheer desperation and pain, Jesus came into those wounds, having already chosen me, but I got out of His way and no longer relied myself.  It was all about Him and His choosing at that point and I’ve been following ever sense.

God wants to restore each and every one of us.  He choose each of us to put on our new nature of Christ.  We just have to get ourselves out of the way and let Him come in to restore us.  He’s there with us all along. He showed me that and just has Bagger told Junuh, “I’ve been right here with you all along.”  He has never given up on us and is waiting on us to open the door.

His Yoke Is Easy

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Jesus tells us something very profound and yet simple in Matthew 11.  He says in verse 30, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  We were talking about verses 28-30 this past Sunday at church.  I wrote the other day about the need to be obedient and follow Jesus.  Jesus statement here is something that seems to have been lost by so many in religious culture today.  The simplistic side of faith in Christ that does not carry with it the weight of religious rules and hoops.  Jesus’s yoke, His teachings, are easy.

This life, this world gets so bogged down.  We carry on us so many burdens and weight trying t life.  Trying to keep up with the demands of the world.  It’s amazing that something so profound gets so lost, especially in religious circles.  I can tell you this.  I cannot, absolutely cannot stand religion.  It drives so many people away from true faith in Christ.  It drives so many people away from Him altogether and they end up living lives for themselves.  Jesus tells us to take His yoke and learn from Him and through His humbleness, gentleness, and Truth we will find rest for our souls.  It’s not religious non-sense.  It’s real Truth locked into a real relationship in Him, if we will but open ourselves to Him.

We spend so much time, especially in our faith, trying to keep up with demands of the religious.  The world has created for itself growing bondage through the religious fog that makes faith so difficult and drives us away.  It drove me away for many years.  Look at the southern United States, in what has been called the Bible belt.  Our pastor, Tim, refers to it as the Bondage belt.  That’s exactly what it has become.  You see it everywhere.  Religion blurring what true faith in Christ is.  What real Joy, Love, and Peace in Christ is.

His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  That’s because it is for us all.  It is not made for the religious elite alone.  Jesus came for all of us and the door remains open for all of us, if we will just get out of our own self-righteous and self-reliant way and let Him in and choose to follow Him.

1 John 5:3 tells us, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”  Be honest here.  How hard is it to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves.  All of the commandments and teaching stem from these two commandments.  If we can get out of our old self and follow Christ, this becomes a lot easier than you may ever think.  Is it always easy in this world?  Of course not.  There will always be people that piss us off in some way.  There will things that happen in life that will try get us to question God or even doubt Him.

Jesus is the example to follow, though.  1 Peter 2:21, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  We have to choose to follow in His steps though.  When you learn to do this, you will find your true self, because He will show it to you.  You will become to come out from behind the fig leaf and stop living from the false self when you can make the choice live your entire life with the focal point of following Jesus.  C.S Lewis said, “Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self.”

Just think about this folks.  Choosing to follow Jesus is a big step for everyone.  Once you have made that choice, you can’t be half-way in.  I’ve been there and I know.  It’s not as difficult as you think, though.  Choosing faith in Christ and choosing to follow Him and actually following Him, is not difficult and overbearing.  Jesus says that Himself.  His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  Let’s choose to follow Him.

Our Struggles With Obedience

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On Sunday evening, I had the honor of leading the evenings lesson in my and Amber’s small group.  First, I have to say what a humbling honor that was to be asked to do that when our group leader was away.  Amber and I just started with this group this year, but I have to say, it sometimes feels like we’ve known them for a while.  A truly awesome bunch of people.  While this may have been just a small lesson with a small audience, it was a big deal to me to step out even with people I know and do this.  Anyway…I digress and move to the reason I’m writing this.

Our teaching on Sunday revolved around something that for many of us today, even those in the Christian faith struggle with at one time or another.  That is obedience to God.  The example from Scripture we study from is from Joshua 6, when the Israelites stands before Jericho and God gives Joshua instruction, as odd as it may sound to march around the city walls once for 7 days with seven priests each blowing a rams’ horn along with the full army and the Ark of the Covenant.  On the 7th day the march around 7 times, then after the 7th time around, first just imagine how long this took to get everyone around 7 times, and I’m sure they were exhausted, then the entire nation shouted and the walls of Jericho came crashing down allowing them to take the city.

This story exemplifies what trust and obedience in God’s commands can do for us. There were numerous stories of this through Scripture and also examples of where disobedience and the consequences that can come with that.  1 Samuel 15 came to mind when Saul did not follow God’s instruction to destroy the Amalekites completely and spared King Agag and kept the best of all the king had.  This lead to David’s anointing as king.  Also there was Jonah who was instructed to go to Nineveh, but he fled to Tarshish instead, and wound up in the belly of a giant fish.

Now look at Jesus.  He was one that showed complete obedience throughout His time here on earth following the Fathers will through everything, even to the point of willingly, despite the suffering he endured, to be nailed to a cross and give his life to allow us to return to the Father through Him. Our Sunday sermon at church talked about following Jesus.  This is another example of being obedient.  We are called to follow Him, walk with Him, not accept Him.  Too many just say they accept Jesus as their savior, but no real backing behind that to show that Christ has changed them.  We are called to walk with Him.  Look at the example of the ragamuffins that Jesus had with Him as His disciples.   They dropped everything to follow Jesus in obedience and the world was never the same from there.

Obedience is such a struggle throughout our lives.  Even when we know the Spirit is leading us somewhere or to do something completely different than anything we’ve ever known, we have difficulty with that.  We struggle with what will people think?  Can we really do what we’re being asked to do?  Is this really what God is calling on me to do?  Or just think it’s such so outlandish that we could never do this.

As difficult as obedience may seem and as odd a direction may seem, you can’t go wrong with following and obeying God’s lead.  This goes with all aspects of life, from career, to family and friends, to church and community.  We have to learn to follow and obey.  Yes, the word obey just seems a little old school to some.  For others it may just seem to churchy to talk about being obedient.  A.W. Tozer said, “Our Lord told His disciples that love and obedience were organically united. The final test of love is obedience.” This statement is so true.  Truly walking in the love of God leads to obedience in Him.  A desire to walk with Him, seek Him each day, to disciple and fellowship with others, to engage in the spiritual warfare we encounter.  We are in Christ there’s no other way to be, but obedient in Him.

2015 is the year I’ve recognized this.  It’s been a year of drastic transformation.  A transformation that continues, but has lead me to follow God down a path that I have never gone before.  Each day is now unscripted, but I follow God in obedience and with full faith in where He leads, even though it is now uncharted waters for my life and for my family.  As I’ve said before, it’s all in God’s hands, but seriously…Is there any other way to live?  I mean truly live?

“The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith. The two are at opposite sides of the same coin.” –  A.W. Tozer

My Timeless Truths – A Lifelong Journey

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These last few weeks, my church family has been in a teaching series called 11,000 Days – A Beautiful Struggle.  It began with our lead pastor sharing his journey to give us a look at, a vulnerable look as to where he came from in his 30 years (11,000 days) walking with Christ.  Along the way, we heard some other awesome testimonies from people within our church body on their own lives.  It has been a revealing look not just at how God touched each of these awesome people, but also how each one of our stories has significance and matters as one part of God’s larger, epic story.

This past Sunday, a few more people from our church family shared in short snippets, a timeless truth that they have discovered in their own personal journey.  At the end, we were challenged on our own to sit down and write out some timeless truths that have been huge in our own journeys.  As any of you know that follows my blog, I love to write.  My writing has been a way to not just share, but to take some of what would be my own personal journaling and put out there things I think about.  Never one to shy away from a challenge, I am going to take some a little bit to share some of my own timeless truths that God has revealed to me on my journey.

First, I look at my journey in two parts.  On the day I am writing this, it has been 1,501 days since I first opened up God’s Word and began to read it daily.  September 22, 2011.  For the first 1,227 days, my life was all about learning.  Taking it one step at a time, I was on a journey to learn about God on a deeper level than I had ever known.  One thing that was significant about most of this timeframe is that I did most of this leg of my journey on my own.  I was venturing out of 2 years of darkness in my own life finding some sense of meaning after my Dad’s death.  I reference that a lot, but it was a defining point for me.  During this time, it was about absorbing what I could and then process it over time.

The last 274 days was about complete transformation.  Standing in the snow filled mountains of Colorado, in the heart of winter I completely surrendered my life, finally.  Not out of a sense of duty or the right thing to do, but because I knew Christ was changing my heart and I could not go another day of my life not locked into Him.  I wrote about this journey a couple months back, comparing it to that of the prodigal son.  In 2011, I began to start my journey home, like the prodigal son who was broken and lost.  In the mountains of Colorado, God saw me coming, met me there and embraced me, like the father meeting the prodigal son.  It was on from that day.

So in this 1,501 day journey, there are some timeless truths that God has cemented in my heart.  The first of these is that God has never given up on me, just as He has never given up on you.  You may have seen me reference this a couple of times on my blog, but while in Virginia for school, I put together something called a Spiritual Life Map, where I drew out a timeline of my life and marked high and low points of my life and points where God’s hands were there.  What I discovered in this exercise is that God never once gave up on me.  He was pursuing me from the get go.  Even when I was turned away and living life for myself and living behind the fig leaf of my false self, He still pursued me.  Even when I was lost and broken and questioning His goodness after we lost Dad, He still pursued me.  In fact, He used that pull me out of the depths of myself to start me on the journey home.

He never gave up on me.  That can honestly be seen as such a cliché statement.  Oh sure, God never gave up on me.  Let me tell you something.  This timeless truth is relevant to us all.  Just look at Scripture.  It is a 66 book love letter of God showing that He never once gave up on us.  3 chapters into the story, man blew it.  We were fallen and in sin and lost, through each story, from Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to Joshua, to Ruth, to David, to Jesus, are story after story and through the ultimate invasion and rescue with Jesus, are examples of how God has pursued us from the very beginning.

It’s so easy in this life for us to give up on God; to just turn our backs for any little anything.  Sometimes it’s through traumatic circumstances, other times it’s because we’ve become dazed, cynical, or burned by religion.  So we look at the world we have surrounding us today.  I was writing about this in my counseling studies.  So much brokenness.  So much disorder in the world and so many that have completely turned from God because of their own circumstances, no matter the reason.  Yet, God is there always.  Never once turning his back and giving up on us, even when we give-up and turn away from Him.  The suffering we encounter, God uses as a means to bring about our healing and restoration.  Trust me.  He did it to me.  Broke me down and then lifted me up to the new and real me.  God never gave up on me and he will never give up on you.

I could honestly go on and on forever and the funny thing is, my journey is still so new.  My journey since my full surrender is even fresher, yet I’ve learned so much in this short time and I know God will reveal so much more over the course of my life.  That being said, I have one more timeless truth to share.  This truth came at the start of the last 274 days of my journey.  That timeless truth is I, make that we, cannot do this alone.  If you recall, I wrote that the first 1,227 days I spent walking alone.  I attended church occasionally; I talked with my family about faith, occasionally.  Actually, my wife and I would sometimes argue about certain things regarding faith, because I was going to convince her that I was right, even when many times, I still didn’t know.  I would just buy into things that sounded good.  Otherwise, most of the time, it was a solo journey of reading, some journaling and writing, and studying on my own.  I was going to figure this out.  You see the pattern there.  It was about me, me, me.

Then on January 21st, one week before my Colorado trip, I was sitting in our men’s Bible study and we were talking about Psalm 51.  The beautiful thing about our church family is that it is all about relationship and connection.  There was talk about connecting and doing life with others.  The question was asked during the time there if there were any of us that do not have people we walk with in the faith.  The Holy Spirit pierced me that night and my hand went up.  I knew I had been a lone ranger for so long.  It played into my personality well and unfortunately was beginning to resonate into the personalities of my family.  I knew I had to change my life and hopefully would infect change into the home.

The first guy to throw his arms around me was a brother named Russell.  It was huge moment for me.  From there, the connections have just grown more and more, from my church family to the men I met in Colorado and still connect with.  I firmly believe God used that night as a stepping stone to what He was about to do to my life the following week.  There was so much spiritual warfare I was contending with trying to keep me from going and this was almost the catalyst to say, “yep…you’re ready.”

I cannot do this alone.  It’s such a huge thing for me now.   I get to connect and dialogue now with some real men of God now and it’s been tremendous for me and my family as well.  I look to Scripture when I think of the importance of this.  We see fellowship and men doing life in circles all through Scripture.  Jesus is the prime example.  He took under his wing 12 ragamuffins who were from all walks of life.  Men who had really no clue about what they were really in for.  But Jesus walked with them and disciple them and taught them.  They grew together as a tight group of buddies.  We all need those connections in our life.  I just wish it didn’t take me 36 years to figure this out.

I don’t have this all figured out.  I still work daily to get out of my own shell to put myself out there to connect with others in fellowship and discipleship.  I am a natural born introvert from a family of introverts, married to an introvert, raising 3 introverts.  I have my work cut out for me. That being said, I will part with one final timeless truth that I believe is true for all of us who choose to do so. I (you) can break the cycle.  It starts with me (you).

“Let God have your life; He can do more with it than you can.” – D.L. Moody

No Matter Where You Turn He’s There – Psalm 139

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I’ve taken part in a couple of exercises this month that have painted a really vivid picture of my life.  I wrote about the spiritual life map I put together when I was in Virginia for my campus Intensive course at Liberty.  That was a tough exercise, but it helped me to gain a real clear picture of the journey that God has had me on from the very beginning.  It helped me to visualize many different parts of my life, the good and bad, and from it, I came to a distinct realization that through it all, God never abandoned me.

This past Sunday, my pastor issued a very unique challenge to us.  We are in a series talking about not only his journey, but that of others in the church who have come up to share their own personal testimony.  First, we are often challenged to memorize verses.  This week was Romans 8:1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  A short and simple verse, but the meaning behind that is so powerful.  I was breaking it down this morning in my own study and what that verse really means.  Condemnation is derived from the Greek word katakrima which means penalty.  We were under a penalty of death before Christ because of our fall.  In Romans 5:16, Paul says that judgement came from one transgression, from Adam, which resulted in our condemnation, but God gave us the free gift of Jesus Christ, who arose from many transgressions, which justifies us in Him.  Jesus took all of our sin and filth on Himself.  Conquered it and the grave, and rose to life to the Father’s right hand, interceding for us.

So we all have a story and journey that brings us through good and bad times.  Through sin and out of sin.  The challenge issued that was unique, was to read Psalm 139.  Then not only read it, but personalize it.  Re-write it a way that was personal to ourselves.  It was a very unique challenge.  Something I had not done before, taking a piece a Scripture and personalizing it to my life.  Here are the first 4 verses of this Psalm:

1O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
3You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
4Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.

So this was a challenge and I was up to, or so I thought.  I didn’t know how I would tackle it.  I sat down Tuesday and read the Psalm a few times and in a couple different translations.  It was a daunting task it seemed at this point.  How do I personalize this Psalm to me?  I opened my journal and before I knew, pen began to go to work.  At first it was very generic, yes the Lord knows me, even before I was conceived, He knew me.  But then it began to get personal.  It went into the depths of my life.  No matter what the next statement was, it always included you were there or you knew or your hands were there.

I’ve had some powerful experiences with God, especially in 2015.  This experience pierced me right in the heart.  It seems so cliche to say and I think often times we take this for granted, if we even think about it.  The simple Truth of it all that I’ve discovered my walk with Him and in this exercise is that God is in every single aspect of our lives, whether we know it or not or whether we want to accept Him or not.  He knew  and knows every single decision we are going to make, whether it turns away from Him or not.  He knows every single aspect of our being; our spirit, soul, and body, our heart, mind, and will.  He created it, so of course He knows us.

There are so many great mysteries that God has yet to unveil, but His presence in our lives is one that is laid out before us and we are told vividly about.  God loves us and is with us through all of our high and low points in life.  When are turn away and when we call out to Him.  Yes, He knows our sin and the darkness of our lives, but through His son Jesus Christ, we are no longer condemned to the punishment we deserve.  That being said, God is always there looking to pull us out of the depths of our sin.  He’s never abandoned us even when we can’t feel it and our so overwhelmed by guilt, shame, wounds, and just life in general.  He is always there and is out to restore each of us to Him.  No matter where you turn, He is there to pursue you.

I will re-issue the same challenge. Read Psalm 139 and the sit down and personalize it to you. You won’t be disappointed, I promise.

A Distorted View of Success

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About 3 years ago, just shortly after I started writing on the original version of this blog, I had the opportunity to meet some people who were truly passionate about what they did.  After the weekend, I wrote a post about that and being surrounded by passion and success.  When I reflect back on that time and in the years before that, I truly realize that I had a real distorted view of what success looked like.  For years, success always stemmed from business and career successes, whether starting your own business and working your way up the ladder in a company.  While continued growth in theses areas can certainly be good, there is one fatal flaw that I didn’t realize before.  None of this can be considered success, especially if a key ingredient is missing from it all.  That key is none other than Jesus Christ.

It’s quite interesting to look at life in this way and how being transformed and made new in Christ, not only changed my life, but changed my thoughts and how I see the world.  Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  That’s what happens when you finally let go and let your life fall onto the only one that can restore you.  Your thoughts and views completely change.

Back to looking at success, this renewing of the mind helps me to see that success in this life only comes through Jesus.  Our significance in this life is only possible through Christ.  In short, that is the only source of success.  I am not going to be defined by the money I make or where I work.  It is just not going to happen any longer.  So where does that leave me in this life.  Essentially, it opens the doors to a freedom I had never known before.  A freedom that cannot come through things of this world.  It allowed me to see that the focus of life had to change and I needed to begin doing life in a way that brings glory to God, not shut Him out.  So now we move forward with a new outlook and a renewed understanding of purpose.

This is something critical for everyone to remember.  In our fallen state, it’s so easy to search for our significance in this life in what we do and then think that doing well there or anywhere else means success. The distortion of the enemy is that this is not possible.  Significance in this life is not possible apart from Christ.  Larry Crabb makes a great point that, “so much of our Christian activity (or may I add, any other activity for that matter) is motivated by a personal desire to win someone’s approval and hence become acceptable.” We are justified in Christ however and therefore the approval of anyone is not needed because Christ deemed us acceptable by His works.

So think about your motivations in this world.  See what is driving you.  If your motivations are self-driven, then it’s time to reassess.  Let God consume you and your perspective will be completely different.  Trust me!

“When you become consumed by God’s call on your life, everything will take on new meaning and significance. You will begin to see every facet of your life – including your pain – as a means through which God can work to bring others to Himself.” –   Charles Stanley

The Absolute Love and Joy of My World

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Not sure where the motivation for this post came from today.  It’s not on any anniversary, any birthday, or anything.  It was just on my heart to write about someone that is so important to me and who I am so thankful that God has blessed me with.  That is my wife Amber.  It’s amazing to me, to see the life we have built together from such a young age.  She is my heart and my joy.  She has such a good heart and a humble heart.  What’s even cooler, is that through all of my own junk and faults, this woman loves me without any end, just as I love her and I think we grow in our love for one another with each passing day, even when we get under each other skin, actually that’s when I get under her skin.

So where do I begin.  It was almost 20 years ago, that I was working at my high school job at McDonald’s, in the late fall of 1995.  One afternoon, this cute redhead came walking in and was looking to apply to work there as well.  I remember to this day, the first time I saw her walk in.  We didn’t know each other, but she literally took my breath away.  There was just something about this girl, although at the time I didn’t really know what that was.  A few months later, we went out on our first date with some friends.  The more time we spent together, the more we became inseparable.  Something told me that this was going to be my wife, so at the start of my senior year in the fall of ’96, I proposed to her in the very spot where we first met.  I know McDonald’s is not a place of romance, but that’s where I wanted to do that.  Fast forward to the 10 days after graduation, and we were getting married.  We knew it was what we both wanted and we found safety and comfort with one another.

I look back on those times and then where we are now.  I couldn’t be more blessed to have such a wonderful woman in my life.  She has supported me through everything.  Through all of my years of schooling while also working and supporting our growing family, she has always been there.  Every move I made through my career, she was behind.  When our family endured the loss of my Dad 6 years ago, she was there along side me through it all.  Now coming out of the shadows of brokenness and being reborn in Christ, she has come alive in her own right and you can see the glow in her of the Lord doing a work in her as well.  She has been amazing through my schooling and learning now as we go through a life change in my current studies to help lead others to restoration.  Although we step into the unknown, she still is right there with me.

I sit here writing this as she is in there working on editing pictures for photography sessions she does.  I might also mention that she is a natural and talented photographer.  What’s awesome though, is that she does not do it for the money.  She just loves being able to provide people with family pictures.  If she makes nothing for it, she is perfectly fine with that, because her joy comes when people get to enjoy pictures of their families they can share with others.  I love her heart in that and the joy that comes from providing something to people that is often very unaffordable.

I’m just so proud of my wife and love her with every part of my being.  I felt a need to convey this to you all.  God truly blessed my life when He sent this woman in my world nearly 20 years ago.  Although I’m not always the best at it, I try now everyday to do as Paul said in Ephesians 5:25.  “Love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her.”  I would give anything for her, including my own life.  I thankful to the Father for her each day and look forward to spending the rest of our days here on this earth loving her.

“I have known many happy marriages, but never a compatible one. The whole aim of marriage is to fight through and survive the instant when incompatibility becomes unquestionable.”  – G.K. Chesterton

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God Never Gave Up On Me

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We’ve all had questions about life.  About who we are.  About why we are here.  We’ve all had doubts about ourselves and about our faith in some capacity and at some point in life.  It’s a part of our nature and a part of who we are a humans.  We are not infallible as some think they are.  We all jack it up at some point or another.  We all give in to temptation at some point or another.  It is a part of endemic sin nature.   It’s who we are.

As I wrote on Monday, we did this thing at Liberty last week called a spiritual life map.  I looked over mine over and over and as we were in class talking through them in practice sessions and discussions, my map revealed something very key to me and to all of us, through all of our doubts, questions, wounds, and sins.  God never once gave up on me.  At point after point I could see where His hands were there.  He brought Amber and me together at the right time.  He blessed us with 3 wonderful kids.  He brought me through the loss of my Dad which happened 6 years ago yesterday.  He used all of those circumstances even when I was not turning to Him, to continue pouring into me.  He used people around me to pour into me in different capacities, even when I didn’t realize it, and it all brought me to the point of complete surrender.

God never gave up on me and guess what, He has not given up on you.  He is eager to pull you back from the brink.  His hands are always there to grab us, even when we keep running from Him.  It takes our willingness to stop and face all of our sins and wounds, lay them at the feet of the cross and chose to live a life for only Him.  He desire that for each one of us, which is why He set aside his deitic privileges to walk as fully human in Jesus and willing give up that life and shed His blood for us.  That is the ultimate symbol of God not giving up on us.  To show that kind of love for us to bring us back to Himself.

When I thought of this last week, this was such a powerful time.  His hands have always been there through the ups and downs.  He never gave up on me and again, He has not given up on you.

The Power of Our Story…It Matters

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What a phenomenal time the last week has been.  Getting the privilege to be around many other developing counselors like me, all of whom share a faith in Christ.  My wife asked me if it was nice being in a school environment like that and the simple answer was yes.  Never experiencing anything like that in all my years of schooling was phenomenal.  It changes your whole perspective,that’s for sure.  Aside from that, I received some great inspiration.  The day I left and then yesterday, the day after coming home, my pastor began a teaching journey to begin to share his story.  His personal walk through life and then coming to faith in Christ. In addition, we have others that will be sharing their story.  It’s reminded me of something very significant.  Each one of our stories matters, as our stories a part of God’s epic story.

About 18 months ago, I stood in front of a camera at a local park and laid out a part of my journey after a challenge was issued.  You can see that video on this site.  That story was not fully complete though.  At the time, I was growing.  I was building my faith, but I was not yet, in all honesty, sold out for Christ.  I had not completely surrendered control to Him.  That came in January in this year when he radically transformed my life.

Last week, as a part of our learning, we had draw out something called a spiritual life map.  A valuable tool to have.  This is basically a time like of my life showing the high and low points and where God’s hands have been there.  As I review my life map and then talked with others on theirs, I was reminded that for each of us, no matter where God takes us, our story matters.  It is all an intricate part of God’s epic story that He is using for His glory.

What a powerful exercise that was, just being completely open and honest and putting the good out there with the bad.  It showed me something else.  Through the midst of the struggles and the awesome times of my life, God’s hands were always there and He never gave up on me, just as He never gave up on you.  Why?  Because to Him, your story matters.  In Ephesians 1:4, Paul reminds us that “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.”  God has always had us in mind from before creation.  In Matthew 25:34, Jesus said, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  Each one of our spiritual life maps look different.  They are all unique in their design.  God designed it all that way and to see it laid out in that way is so tremendous.

Now for some of you, you may have never really looked at your story or shared a testimony with people.  You may think to yourself, I don’t really have a story to share.  Let me tell you, you do and that story matters.  If your unsure of how the story unfolds, then I would challenge you to create a spiritual life map for yourself.  Just draw out a time line of your life of key events, starting whenever you want, birth, or last year.  It’s up to you.  Then mark key points of your life, when things happened, ups and downs.  Times where God’s hand was in your life and other times when you may have turned away.  Believe me, when you look at in this way, you can see His hands in he mix and it all begins to unfold.

You will see from this that your story is powerful.  Your story has been touched by God or you may see where God is calling you to come back to Him.  You don’t have to have some big mountain top experience like I did, literally, but you will see where God has been at work, if you’re honest and real about it.  Your story does matter.  Everyone’s story matters.

“Your story matters; as it is a part of God’s epic story.” – Me