Child Sex Trafficking

Hey, everyone…

This just aired tonight on WRAL TV in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Please give it a watch, get the word out, and consider how you might be a part of concerted efforts to rescue child victims of sex trafficking right here in North Carolina.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/10448783/

God bless you,

Dave

Link to Transforming Hope Ministries:  www.transforminghopeministries.com

Living a Life of Prayer

In To Pray and to Love, Roberta Bondi writes, "Prayer is shared life with God over an entire lifetime."  I love that!  And I can think of no better way to characterize or distill the central core of what prayer really is.  It is, just as Bondi puts it, a "shared life with God over an entire lifetime."  In this shared life, we get to know God—some of what He thinks, a little of what He feels—and we get to invite Him to be a part of our lives as individuals and as a community of faith.

As members of a fallen race, we share a woundedness that, all too often, leads us from God.  It is, unfortunately, a systemic sickness that inclines us not only to our own destruction but also to the destruction of those around us (even those we love the most).  Prayer is THE ground zero for the healing and reviving of God’s original Image in us, the quickening of those endowments of creating, feeling, thinking, dreaming, and worshipping that were given us at creation.  These endowments, and how they operate in our lives, affect who we are, which, in turn, affects what we do, and which, coming back around full circle, influences who we are.  They comprise the substance of what make us human; for to be a human being is to be one who has been created in the very Image of a creating, feeling, thinking, dreaming, and, yes, worshipping God.  Like many have believed throughout history, the monastics believe that the original implanting of God’s nature—His very ousia—can be awakened within us as we reacquaint ourselves with the Image of God within us and, with His help, embrace it once again as our own.  And It is ours to embrace, for God gave It to us, and, as the scriptures read, "the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable" (see Romans 11:29).

Thousands of years ago, God conveyed through the prophet Isaiah the following Words:  "My Thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My Ways" (see Isaiah 55:8).  While it is true that, in our fallen state, our ways of thinking and doing are not God’s Ways of Thinking and Doing, it is my belief that, through scripture and God’s invitation to pray through and meditate on it, God has provided THE means for us to make His Thoughts our thoughts and to make His Ways our ways.  For more than 1,600 years, the monastics have striven to live out this principle by making scripture and the praying of scripture central to their daily practice of living.
As I hope you will discover as you read some of the postings on this blog, I have a deep love for the Psalms.  For me, they are, along with "The Our Father" prayer, the starting point for individual and corporate prayer.  As millions, if not billions, have experienced down through the centuries, the Psalms embody almost completely the spectrum of the human condition.  In beginning to pray the Psalms, the early monastic communities rediscovered what the ancients had learned more than a millennia before, and that’s this:  that as they prayed the praises, laments, pleadings, confessions, and remembrances of the Psalms, the Holy Spirit began to bring the Words to life personally in their own particular situations.  God’s Word (read, “His Thoughts”) began to dominate their thoughts, and His Ways began to become their ways.

Through all of this, the monastics were not trying to earn their way to God.  No!  On the contrary, they simply had a singular, life-long passion to know this God Who loved them intimately…this God Who accepted them already just as they were.  And, it would seem, the more they learned of God, the more they wanted to know Him, and the more they wanted to know Him, the more God unveiled to them the many facets of His unlimited nature, character, and personality.  Prayer provided the means for them to feel their hunger for God, and, as they did, they allowed it to evolve into what I might call “a deep starvation.”  And it was a starvation that only God could satiate.

So I ask you, dear friend:  Do you feel your hunger for God?  If not (and even if you do!), I would like to urge you to venture forth, just as the monastics of the past 1,600 years have done, and allow yourself to get in touch with your own personal hunger for God.  For, as I have written already, nothing in life will compare with the surpassing pleasure of having God satisfy you completely, continuously, and forever.  I wish to close with one of my favorite verses from scripture.  It’s found in the Psalms, of all places, and it reads as follows:  “Thou wilt make known to me the Path of Life.  Thy Countenance is Fullness of Joy; at Thy Right Hand are pleasures forevermore” (see Psalm 16:11).  That, my friends, is the crux of life...and it turns on the axis of prayer and deep communion with Almighty God.

CU...

Dave

The Practice of Creating a Safe Practice Field

In his translation of James 1:2-4, J. B. Phillips writes, “When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends!  Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance.  But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence.”  This is and has been (for as long as I can remember) my favorite translation of James 1:2-4.

When facing trials and tribulations, welcoming them as friends is a pretty radical attitude, would you not agree?  I once did a word study on the phrase “trials and temptations” used in vs. 2.  These particular words come from the Greek word, PEIRASMOS, which, in Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, is defined as such:  Trials (plural); a making experience [e.g., that which creates something within you]; to receive or take; rendered “assaying” in the sense of having experience of (or of being tried).  As I think upon the above, it would appear to me that the trials James writes of are those experiences that (in and of themselves) create something within us; the sense, too, is that they are special problems given to us from the very Hand and Heart of God.  Not only are we to receive them, but we are to pursue (meaning, ask for) them as well.  Much like friendships with others, such problems must be actively sought out (or pursued) and received (read, "welcomed!").

All of this has changed the way I think about James 1:2.  The trials James writes of are those specific things created and sent by God to stretch us on a daily basis, with the ultimate objective of our becoming "...men [and women] of mature character with the right sort of independence."  I liken such trials to the fundamental drills a basketball coach might give to his young players to help them not just in preparing for upcoming games but in being better prepared to practice effectively each time they come together as a whole team.

I can imagine God being very much like a really good coach and giving each of us specific and personal drills intended to transform how we approach life, how we view ourselves, how we work and play and learn and persevere, and how we relate to God and to each other.  As with anything, though, “effective drilling” occurs within the context of a loving partnership.  God provides us with things to work on (read, “practice”), and, in response, we choose to practice such things as God has prescribed.  Can such drills become an intrusion?  At times.  Can they be fun and illuminating?  Absolutely!  Are they painful?  Sometimes, but not usually.

As I think upon such things, I am reminded of three slogans I adopted into my own slogan-practice more than fifteen years ago.  I am indebted to Dick Marcinko, a former Navy Seal, for opening up these truths to me.  Provided below are the slogans as they were first presented in Dick Marcinko's book, Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior, which he wrote with John Weisman in 1997:

1

Sometimes, one hast not to like it, one just hast to do it.

2

The more thou sweatest in training, the less thou bleedest in battle.

3

If thou hurtist in thine efforts and thou suffer painful dings, than thou art, most likely, doing it right.

In this essay, I want to encourage you to partner with God in creating your own training regimen.  The reason I urge you to create such a program with God is two-fold:  (1) It engages your heart and makes you an active participant in setting the course for your training; and (2) It ensures that God is the one Who ultimately decides on the course and pace of your training.  Through such a partnership, a safe practice field is created on which you can begin to practice the drills God gives you to work on daily (see Philippians 2:12-13 and Ephesians 2:10).

To expand slightly upon what I wrote in The Practice of Practicing Everything, your training in life should not be separated from the doings of your life.  No!  In fact, your training should be integral to your doings and should be just as natural as breathing in and out and just as biologically ordered as going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning.

In the posts ahead, I will, Lord-willing, write about many of the practices and drills that God may wish for you to adopt into your own life-practice.  I want to encourage you, though (as you read onward, I hope!), to take a prayerful, hands-off approach to the adopting of new practices into your life.  In what’s ahead, you will read of some practices that will, quite literally make your head spin and your insides wretch.  Please know that that is not only perfectly understandable but perfectly normal as well.  All that I write of is to be absorbed over a life-time, and not over a period of just a few short months.  Please pursue only those things you feel God desires you to pursue in the present moment.  A tender-hearted warrior is dedicated to deescalating self-aggressiveness in his or her life.  As such, a tender-hearted warrior neither steps out in front of God nor lags behind Him.  To lag behind is to deteriorate; to step ahead is to push oneself too aggressively and, thus, create deterioration.  Engaging in that which creates deterioration is self-aggressive, and, by fiat, is ungodly.  More strongly stated, urging you to react to the lie of the benefits of self-aggression is a key strategy of the devil…that enemy of your soul and mine who wishes to do nothing but rob you of your life and destroy you where you stand (see John 10:10).

Ask God, my friends—plead with Him, actually, to enable you to stay right next to Him, to stay right where He is, and to practice only that which He desires you to practice as He creates and places such desires within your own heart.  Just as an elementary math student will, typically, not be asked by his or her teacher to solve a college calculus problem, God will not ask you to work at something that is beyond you.  No…it is His desire to tax your current skills just enough to keep you from getting bored but not too much so as to discourage you or to break your spirit in some manner.  God is a master at pulling such things together; but you, my friend, must choose to stay right there with Him and willingly let Him do what He wishes to do.  This is what creating a safe practice field is all about.  One of the really neat things about all of this is that as you and God create such a field for yourself, God will begin to use you to help others to do the same in their lives.  Now... how cool is that?

CU soon,

Dave

PS...Here are a few things that have been very inspirational to me in motivating me to create with God a safe place to practice.  I hope you enjoy these...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9N0Q0ASRgE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ-_3Ug3wqU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

The Practice of Practicing Everything

How cool would it be if everything you did in life was just for practice?  And not necessarily practice in preparation for some future performance or competition, but practice just for the sake of learning or improving in the execution of a particular skill—be it, tying your shoes, sinking a jump shot, or communicating kindly, gently, and yet also honestly with your spouse, with your son or daughter, or, even, with yourself?

While a key and hoped-for byproduct of practice is, of course, improved competence, what if seeking to improve was no longer the prime motive.  What if instead, the principal motivation in practicing was simply to enjoy and become more of who you are already through your doing of something mindfully, meaning, with your heart, soul, and body devoted 100% to whatever it was you were doing?  I know I’m asking a lot of questions here, but what if instead of just brushing your teeth before bed tonight, you "practiced" doing so?  And did so in the manner I just described….where you stay completely present in the activity.

When one practices something, for example brushing one’s teeth, one’s attentions become focused intently on the various elements that comprise the activity:  dispensing toothpaste onto your toothbrush; turning on the water and waiting for it to heat up; slipping your toothbrush under the water to wet and warm the toothpaste and bristles; turning off the water; lifting your toothbrush to your mouth; and then commencing with the process of moving your toothbrush back and forth rhythmically across your teeth, gums, and tongue.

To practice is to begin to pay attention, also, to how everything feels, looks, sounds, and tastes:  the warmth of the water; the feel of the bristles on your gums; the taste of the toothpaste; etc.  When was the last time you listened intently to the sound of running water in the faucet of your bathroom or even allowed yourself to slow down long enough to taste (and, perhaps, even enjoy the taste) of your toothpaste?

More questions…

What if also, in choosing to approach everything you do as though it’s just practice, you allowed your compulsive need to be perfect or to get everything exactly right every time begin to fall by the wayside?  How much more enjoyable would your work and every-day actions be if this way of being became the norm?  And how many other pursuits would you attempt or take up if such became the case?  Many years ago, I asked my late wife, Brenda, if she would like to take piano lessons.  Her response was, “I’ve never been very good at playing the piano…why would I take lessons?”  As absurd as such a thing might sound (and I mean no disrespect to Brenda), ALL of us do this kind of thing, don’t we?  At least, to one degree or another.  It is, I believe, the curse of “responsible adulthood”...the curse that says, "Stay within the areas of already achieved competence because that's what will help you pay the bills, get ahead professionally, and provide a more secure future for yourself and for your family."

Our culture is incredibly performance oriented.  It is obsessed with it, in fact.  So much so that each of us on a daily basis—if not minute-by-minute—run the risk of feeling that if we don’t hit it out of the park in everything and all the time (even the very first time), we’re somehow a failure.  In baseball, the greatest hitters in the world get on base (aside from being walked) between 30 and 40% of the time.  Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs in his career.  Do you know how many times he struck out?  1,330 times.  Yeah, he was most definitely the home run king; but he was also the strikeout king.  To quote Merrill Hess, a fictional home run and strikeout king, played by Joaquin Phoenix in the 2002 M. Night Shyamalan movie Signs:  "It felt wrong not to swing."

When one is practicing, one DOES NOT have to get it all right or to get it right all the time.  A practicer makes mistakes and embraces his mistakes.  In fact, a practicer runs toward his mistakes and seeks to make them as often and as quickly as possible.  Such a one does this because he or she knows the value of a mistake and, as such, is not defeated or shamed by it but is instead honed and formed by it.

So…as I sit here in this moment, thinking upon all these things, I have concluded that I would much prefer to be placed in situations where I really don’t know what I‘m doing than to be placed in situations, time and time again, where I pretty much know already what the outcome is going to be.  The monastics and warriors of eternity past lived such a philosophy to a tee.  Perhaps, that’s why to each of them every day was so illuminating unto itself.  Each moment became a new creation from within as such a one practiced flowing with whatever arose in his or her current experience.  Oh, that we might all live in such a way.  And that we, too (beginning with you and I), might be a part of creating a culture where the making of mistakes is not just tolerated but lauded.  That has become my hope and, dare I say, my prayer for me and for those I love and care about.

To err is human, my friends, and we cannot possibly be anything other than who we are.  To learn from our “errs”is also human.  Be human, and please give yourself permission to be so, okay?  And practice…practice everything…practice all the time…even when you’re distracted, discouraged, tired, or just don’t feel like it.  And, as I’ve written before, don’t forget to have fun, okay?  Because having fun is at least half the point of doing or practicing anything!

Daver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijQuPvQdRfo

Close Encounters and the Way of the Tender-Hearted Warrior

Close encounters with Jesus are life-changing and, at times, terrifying.  They are, though, the most satisfying of anything you will ever experience.  And I mean ever.

I love what C.S. Lewis once wrote of Aslan (a "type" of Jesus) in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe:  “Safe?  ‘Course, He’s not safe.  But He’s good.”  The psalmist in Psalm 101:1 declared, “I will sing of Your love and justice.  To you, Lord, I will sing praise.”  Jesus loves and accepts you completely, and—yes—JUST as you are in this moment…right here, right now.  His love for you is so far beyond anything you could ever ask for or, even in your wildest of dreams, imagine.  While He does accept you just as you are, His love for you is SO great that He will not stand idly by while you languish in the sin, destructive habits, and poor conditions of your soul and current life.  While you may take the on-going and potential destructiveness of your life lightly, Jesus can’t.  In fact, it’s quite impossible for Him to do so.

In reading this blog and (it is hoped!) by taking some initial steps in the ways of monastic warriorship (e.g., in the ways of living that are centered in and upon Jesus and the things he did and said), you will begin what I consider to be the journey of journeys.  And it is a journey that I KNOW will challenge you to the core of who you are as a person.  Coming into close contact with Jesus—and I'm talking about CLOSE and DEEPLY INTIMATE contact with Him—can be a terrifyingly comforting thing.  Just being with Jesus will chase the darkness from within you as He works diligently, lovingly, and justly to recreate who you are from the inside out and from the outside in.  In Jesus, there is no separating of the mind from the spirit or the spirit from the body or the body from the mind.  You are a mind-spirit-body, and the changes that you will experience will be manifested in all arenas of your life and person hood.

If—and this is a huge IF—you will begin this day (in this moment, actually) to approach prayerfully that which lays before you and to do so by consciously inviting Jesus to be a part of every aspect of your life—even your thoughts, dreams, and imaginings—I guarantee that you will never be the same.  Never.  I write of this from personal experience (for that really is all I have to draw from).  I promise you that NOTHING within this blog is second-hand; everything is drawn from my own personal, first-hand experiences.  As you get into these things, though, I need to warn you, okay?  (I feel that if I don't tell you these things, I will be lying to you in some way.)  Okay…so here goes...

As you proceed with practicing that which is promulgated within these and other writings and as you seek Jesus through praying His Word and by inviting Him to be an Ever-Present-Companion—even to your most personal thoughts, there will be times of significant pain, struggle, distress, and outright anguish.  This I promise.  Please allow me, though, to reassure you that, just as the psalmist wrote in Psalm 30:5:  "while weeping may last for a night, joy comes in the morning,” these things will pass.  This, too, I promise, okay?  As your brother in Christ, as a fellow human being, and as one who has walked such roads with Jesus, yes, you will be changed, you will be challenged, and, at times, it’s going to feel pretty crummy.  BUT...through it all, you will experience a joy and a peace that far exceeds anything you’ve experienced thus far.  This will happen.  Make no mistake about it:  this will happen.

THIS...WILL...HAPPEN!!

Today, in this very moment, I am the happiest person I know of (aside from Jesus, of course!).  But the happiness I experience (and pretty much experience all the time) did not come without a price.  And that price was my life.  Or, rather, my life as I once knew it, experienced it, thought and dwelt upon it, felt it, and (at times!) lived it.  In my thirty years of walking with Jesus, one of the greatest aspects of His redeeming work in my life personally has been His removing from my life that which I thought I wanted (but, upon my obtaining it, came to the discovery that I really didn’t) so that room might be created wherein He could give me what I’ve longed for my entire life:  and that is more of Himsaelf directly or more of Who He is indirectly in other people or nested within an opportunity or an experience.

For me, walking in the way of the tender-hearted warrior (my definition) is the only way of living that feels entirely courageous, authentic, loving, and God-and-other-honoring.  The core of such a way is the practice of daily and weekly prayer.  As such, this way begins and ends in continuous communion with Jesus, the Master Warrior.

God's blessings on all'y'all,

Dave 

Embracing My Belovedness

Two Sundays ago, Pastor Benji Kelly (newhope church, Durham, NC, www.newhopenc.org) preached a short sermon on "The ABC's of Holy Communion."  One of the three aspects that he spoke of concerning our coming to "The Table" was our enthusiastic (read bold) embracing of our corporate as well as individual belovedness (AGAPETO:  the state of being delighted in and loved by God with an everlasting, unconditional love) as God's dear children.

I’ve been thinking about this very thing for some time now (for many years, actually).  In fact, Henri Nouwen's book, Life of the Beloved, is, and will continue to be, an all time favorite of mine.  In my heart, there are two things that I long to hear from my Father:

1. “Well done, My good and faithful servant.  Enter in to your Master’s rest. ”
2. “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I AM well-pleased.”

Of course, #2 above is that which was Spoken to Jesus upon His emergence from the waters of baptism.  But who among us does not want to hear God say something similar to us personally?

”You are My beloved son; in you I AM so very well-pleased!”

Or…

“You are My beloved daughter; in you I find all My delight!”

I, for one, long to hear God say such things to me and to my brothers and sisters around me.  Don’t you?

Something happened yesterday…

Something happened to me yesterday during worship.  But before I share what happened, I would like to share a dream I had more than twenty-five years ago.  Today, that dream is still as vivid as it was the night I dreamt it.

Here’s what I dreamt (I shared this in my blog several months ago)…

My dream…

In August of 1986, I dreamt that I died and went to Heaven.

While I think it was a dream, I cannot be sure.

In my “dream,” I’m in the temple of the Most High.  It’s an outdoor temple, with lots of stone and columns and green, viney plants, and before me is a set of steps leading up to God’s thrown.  In the moment of my awareness, I notice that I'm seated on one of the bottom steps and just gazing up at Jesus.  It's at this point that Jesus proceeds to come down to where I am and, with a touch of sadness, says to me:  "Dave…if only you’d just followed Me, we could have done so much more together.”  In that moment, I realize what a fool I’ve been and just lose it—and I mean lose it.  In my anguish, I cry out to God (as He wraps His Arms around me):  “Give me another chance, Lord!  Oh God, please, just give me another chance!  Please, please, please…give me another chance!”  I can hardly get the words out as I am so overwhelmed with grief over how I’ve wasted my life.

And then I woke up.

Or arose.

Did I die?  In a way, yes.  (And it was a very good death!)  For, you see, I had been struggling for so long against God over the direction of my life.  I wanted to be in ministry, and He wanted me to study water biology and civil/environmental engineering.  He heard me, though (just as I heard Him), because He granted me a second chance—OUR second chance...TOGETHER.  And, now, nearly 25 years later, all I want to do is to be where He is, and, most recently, it would seem, He’s been hanging out a lot in third world countries where clean water and sanitation is a scarcity.  Oh that my Lord might do much and just let me tag along with Him!

Okay…so that’s what I dreamt in 1986; here’s what happened yesterday...

My vision…

During worship, I had a vision.  (Last night, when I was recounting all of this to my dearest friend, I couldn’t remember what song it was that we were singing when I had my experience.  This morning, though, I remembered it:  “The Wonderful Cross.”  A link to the song is provided below.)

Anyway, as we were all singing this song yesterday during the third service at newhope, and as my arms were outstretched in worship of God, I experienced a vision:

In my vision (as we were all singing), I saw what appeared to be two angels take my arms and hold them up against the horizontal piece of an already erected cross.  As they held my arms down, I willingly submitted as they wrapped my arms to the cross-bar with rope.  I felt no pain, and, as I indicated above, I submitted willingly to all of this.  At that point, Jesus appeared and proceeded to drive spikes through my wrists into the cross-bar and then to drive a spike through the upper portions of my feet into the vertical stand of the cross.  Again, I felt no pain and submitted gladly to what was happening.  A moment later, Jesus stepped back from His work, looked at me, and then threw His Arms around me.  Though nothing was said, messages were conveyed.  After this, Jesus then knelt at the foot of the cross and began to wash my bloody feet.  Again, I felt no pain during any of this.

Yesterday, last night, and today, I have thought of almost nothing but this vision, the dream I had twenty-five years ago, the belovedness that I am invited to embrace at The Table of our Lord, the scriptures that recount where Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, and the scripture passage in Isaiah 52:7, which reads as follows:  How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!”

Listening to the Whispers…

While I’m going to give myself some time to listen for the interpretation God brings to me of all of these things and of how they all tie together in my life, here are some of my initial thoughts and feelings…

I am my Father’s beloved, and I am Jesus’ baby brother.  (By no means does this mean that I will become as Jesus and be God—NO!!)

The hug Jesus gave me in my dream twenty-five years ago, and the hug He gave me in my vision yesterday, while related, represent two very different things.  The embrace from twenty-five years ago was one of comfort and was given to bring about repentance.  The one yesterday, though, was one of great welcome, as though Jesus were saying to me, “Our work together has been exceedingly good.  You are with Me, and I AM with you.  I AM yours, and you are Mine.  Welcome to Life as it's meant to be lived, Dave.”

The reason I felt no pain being nailed to the cross is because, it would seem, a dead man feels no such pain.

The significance of Jesus washing the blood off my feet is simply to affirm that He and I are together and that together we will bring good news, proclaim peace, bring good tidings, proclaim salvation, and shout out to Zion, “Our God reigns!”

In time, I will share more, my friends.  Thanks for listening…

Dave

“The Wonderful Cross,” by Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sKcw9_PQYA