Book?

Hi friends,

I've shared with a few people over the years that the Lord has given me a desire to write a book. I've also been encouraged by a few of you to do such a thing. I've been seeking the Lord and praying about this for some time now, waiting for the right time.

I'm at a point now where it may be the right time. I've grown a lot in the past few years, and I've become pretty solid on what the concept of the potential book would be. That was never fully the case before. Anyway, through a series of events I've come to where I've arrived now, thinking I'd really like to get started on this. A lot of the busyness of summer is over, and the kids are back in school. I don't go to work until 1pm everyday, so I have my mornings 'free.' I say 'free' loosely, because with my wife and I both working full time, I do my share of things around the house, such as laundry, dishes, etc. My mornings are also generally a time when I'm more able to communicate with the friends who live in my computer! :)

But anyway, without all the noise and the distractions of "dad, dad!" all morning long (which I do miss right now - you don't know what you've got till it's gone!), I've been thinking that this is an opportune time to try to get focused.

And so I bring to you these prayer requests!

I love writing - but I'm not a very disciplined writer unless I force myself to be. I blog kind of haphazardly - which is really ok with me because I'm not trying to be deeply intellectual or deeply theological. I'm just sharing what's on my heart. If it appears intellectual or theological, it's generally by mistake... LOL... or simply because it's what's truly on my heart at the time.

However, in writing a book, I don't want to be so haphazard. Yes, I want to share my heart, but I also want it to be something that will stand the test of time. I want it to flow, and to be an easy read, and to not be "too" theological or doctrinal, while at the same time not neglecting the truth of scripture for even an instant.

I also have to say that I have always written at my best when I've been under pressure. That is, when I've had a deadline. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know! I always got A's and B's on writing assignments in school - but I always waited until the very last possible moment to begin writing. For example, I took a Human Dynamics college course about a decade ago. At the beginning of the quarter, we received an assignment that would be due at the end of the quarter. A pretty big assignment. Well, it was the Friday before the Monday that it was due, and I hadn't so much as started working on it! I worked on it the entire weekend, and I got an A! Of course, at the time we had no kids and no other major responsibilities in life like we do now, so I'm sure that helped. ;)

Like I said, I'm not a disciplined writer unless I have to be! In writing 20 monthly articles for my church between 2005 and 2007, I worked well when I knew the articles were due. I say all this to say that as of right now, I don't have a "deadline" for writing a book. So... it's very easy for me, if I'm not feeling disciplined to write or concentrate for a length of time, to put it off till another time.

Also, one major difference between blogging and writing a book is that blogging generally involves one "topic" at a time. Same with writing an article. That makes it pretty easy for me to do. But with writing a book, there's a "bigger picture" involved, and all the individual paragraphs and chapters need to sort of flow to make up the big picture. Like I said, I have the big picture in mind, but breaking it down into sections and chapters, especially ones that make some sort of sense when they're put together, seems kind of overwhelming to me. My thought, and something my brother suggested to me a couple of months ago, is to come up with some sort general description of the book, and then a brief outline that breaks it all into sections/chapters.

I'm sure that will be of great help. I'll just say that I've always hated outlines! I see their purpose and benefit, but I hate doing them!

I think what I'm trying to say is that writing a full book involves a lot of planning and thinking... and of course, work, and I'm asking for your prayers in putting all of this together! Throughout all of this, I'm keeping in the forefront of my mind and heart that this is Father's work, not mine. It involves the physical and mental work and concentration of my body and mind, but it's Father who's doing it in and through me.

I would also ask that if anyone has any experience, advice, tips or suggestions that might help in this process, feel free to share them with me, either in the comments section or through email (my email address is on the side of the blog).

Thanks so much! The message of God's grace has obviously forever changed my life. I've learned a great deal, and I'm always continuing to learn, and my hope is to keep passing on the message of truth and grace that sets people free.

The Heart and The Scriptures

I have really been enjoying hearing what others have had to say about "the heart" lately. For example, understanding that in Christ we have been given a new heart. In the Old Testament, it was said that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." (Jer 17:9). But God's promise for the New Covenant was, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." We have a new heart that is indwelled by the Holy Spirit, and that is not deceitful. Aida recently linked to a website that talks about the heart, and while I've yet to fully look it over I've at least found a few neat things on it. One thing is this post.

On that post, something very key stood out to me:

Contrary to popular culture’s view, the heart is not the emotional or feeling side of us. Popular culture tends to think of the heart as the sentimental part of us. (Think of Hallmark cards.) Biblically speaking, our feelings can express what is going on in our hearts, but the heart is much more than feelings.

I very much appreciate many of the teachings I've heard lately that talk about us being able to trust our hearts... because they're new hearts that are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. I think it's a good thing to understand this. However, I still think it's very possible (and sadly common) for Christians to mistake their feelings, emotions, logic, gut sense, etc, for the true heart. While our true heart (spirit) is fully in line with God, and can indeed express itself through our minds, feelings and emotions, at the same time our minds, feelings and emotions can express things that are not true... that are not of the Spirit... and I think it's very important to grow in our understanding of the difference. Otherwise, we may mistake anything we think or feel for truth, when really our minds, feelings and emotions can still deceive us and take us away from the truth.

This is why I'm thankful that we have the Scriptures. The sad thing is that I see many "heart" people getting defensive when the Bible is put on the table! To trust God with our new heart is a great and wonderful thing, but how do we even know about the old heart/new heart apart from what the Scriptures say? How do we know many, many wonderful truths apart from the Bible?

I'll be the first to say... because I've said it before... that most people who have ever lived have never had access to a Bible, and yet God's word has been true and has been revealed to mankind since the beginning. But here's the thing that I've seen, if only a little, in some of the "heart" teachings I've heard: A disregard for the truth that we do have in the Scriptures. Sometimes (although rarely) it's even been almost to the point of animosity against studying the Scriptures. And a little more often the teachings have, in my opinion, been contrary to what the Scriptures do reveal as New Covenant truth. I'll be honest and say all of this concerns me.

Truth be told, we don't all agree on the interpretation of all the Scriptures. That's not what I'm addressing here. I'm talking about people's feelings, logic, emotions, gut reactions, etc, that they regard as "truth" when the Scriptures reveal something to the contrary. Again, God does indeed reveal Himself to us in our spirits, often through the avenue of our minds, feelings and emotions. But also again, our thoughts, feelings and emotions can deceive us.

Here are a couple of examples.

1) A man comes to Jesus by faith alone, trusting solely in the truth of the gospel. Then his thoughts and feelings begin to make him wonder if the gospel is really that good, and if maybe God is angry with Him for falling short, and he begins struggling and striving to maintain his righteousness in an effort to stay right with God - all because his mind and emotions tell him something contrary to what the Scriptures really say.

2) A woman comes to Jesus by faith alone, and then becomes emotionally connected with a man who is not her husband. She begins having deep feelings for him, and in her "heart" she really feels that God wants her to be with this man, so she divorces her husband and marries the other man.

In both cases, the people really did believe something about God and about themselves that wasn't true. They believed their hearts were telling them something, but it wasn't really their new heart (spirit). It was their minds, feelings and emotions. They were truly deceived.

That's the point of all this. We can believe some really "good" stuff about who God is and who we are, or some really "legalistic" stuff about who God is and who we are - or anything inbetween - that may not really be the truth. The whole point here is that we can easily be led in our minds, thoughts and emotions by things that seem to be true, but yet the Scriptures tell us otherwise.

Some other examples include the ideas that hell is just a fictitious place, and that everybody is saved. I've heard people say, "how could a loving God put people in hell, never mind creating it?" (A recent comment by Matthew in another post reminded me of this). Or, "It's just not logical that God wouldn't save everyone." It's supposedly the new heart from which people have gotten these doctrines - but it's really their own thoughts, logic, emotions, feelings, etc. It doesn't line up with what the Scriptures say.

When helping Timothy to understand God and the gospel, Paul didn't tell Timothy, "just follow what your heart is telling you." He reminded him about the Scriptures, "which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." He told him, "All scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness..." The Scriptures he was referring to were, of course, the Old Testament. How wonderful that we now also have all of the New Testament to learn from as well! There is a TON of truth about who God is (and who we are) that we can be assured of through our studying of the Scriptures. Life is most certainly not about living by doctrines and theology. But if we're going to teach or share with each other things about who God is and who we are, and since we do have the Scriptures, which do indeed contain the truth about God and us, then let's not disregard the them as we learn to walk according to our hearts.

Waiting - Part 3

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, PATIENCE, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. - Galatians 5:22-23

"Lord, I pray for patience. And please give it to me NOW!" - Christian prayer

:)

I believe that as Christians, our spirits have been born again (1 Peter 1:23) - made into brand new creations (2 Cor 5:17). We've become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). We've been joined together with God (1 Cor 6:17). Christ is in us (Col 1:27) and we are in Him (1 John 4:13). We are complete in Him (Col 2:10). He has perfected us forever (Heb 10:14). This is good news! It's the reality of who we are in Him, and it's all due to His loving kindness and grace. Again, I believe this is the truth about our spirits. "God... made us alive together with Christ... and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:5-6).

I believe it's a different story with our souls. What I mean is, although our spirits have been made new creations and are complete and perfected, and have become partakers of the divine nature, there is still a daily sanctifying work of grace going on in our souls (our mind, our will, our emotions, etc). I can tell you for certain that my will does not always line up with that of the Spirit. My emotions do not always reflect the truth of who I have become spiritually in Christ. My thoughts vary from moment to moment. Put simply, one moment I can be thinking pure, holy thoughts and the next moment I can be lost in impure, ungodly thoughts. Happy one moment, sad the next. Trustful one moment, doubting the next. And so on.

But yet in this soul-life, through the daily, ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, I'm growing. And to get specifically to the topic of this post, this growing process isn't instantaneous! A lot of waiting is involved. Since we are joined with God spiritually and have become a partaker of His divine nature, our natural desire when we realize that in our souls (minds, wills, emotions) we're not patient with our spouse, our children, our parents, our friends, our coworkers, ourselves (or on a bigger scale the overall development of our own personal life stories), is to become more patient. And since we're impatient in learning patience, we wish God would simply snap His fingers and make us patient!

Of course it doesn't work that way. Patience, along with all the other fruit that comes out of an ongoing relationship with the Holy Spirit, takes time. It's not instantaneous. There's a process going on, and I think that most of the time we don't even understand all that God is doing in and through us to bear His fruit. I do believe there are times when we're given revelations and insight about what He's doing, and those are wonderful times, but we generally don't see the bigger picture. However, in all of this we've been given a gift that I believe can and should help to melt away all the doubt and uncertainty when we don't see. That gift is faith.

I wholeheartedly believe that faith truly is a gift, and not something that we can earn or muster up by ourselves, and yet there is yet a growing process involved in learning to walk in faith. To walk in faith is to know that there is a bigger picture, even though we can't see it. It's to know that God is at work in us, to will and to do according to His good pleasure (Phil 2:13), even when we don't sense what He is doing. There is a growing process involved in which you "let your roots grow down into him (Jesus) and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught" (Col 2:7 NLT).

Growth by its very nature is not quick or instantaneous, so it naturally involves patience ("long-suffering"). Patience involves waiting. Waiting expectantly requires faith. Faith requires believing what you don't see, but again it's a gift and it simply means that you are believing and trusting in the One through Whom all things were created - the One who is before all things and in Whom all things consist! (see Col 1:16-18). It's a well-placed trust, no?