Monday, November 12, 2007

Thanks for your prayers as we were in Asheville, NC at the end of last week. We had a great week and were warmly received by the medical professionals at this conference. There was some very good response and, hopefully, some new opportunities to meet with others further down the road.

Recognizing that many times others say things better than I can say them myself, I'd like to share an excerpt from a book I read the other day. The book is entitled "The Beautiful Fight: Surrendering to the Transforming Presence of God in Your Everyday Life" by Gary Thomas.

"If we don't think about God, pray to God, listen for God's voice, and consciously serve God, by definition we live an ungodly life. We usually think of "ungodly" as being against God, but ungodly can also be a life that simply ignores God or—out of busyness, indifference, religiosity, or apathy—simply doesn't tap in to God. In this sense, it is possible to give an ungodly sermon that may be theologically accurate. It is possible to lead ungodly family devotions that nevertheless focus on spiritual truth. Christianity doesn't address only the ends; it has a lively interest in the means. That's why every healthy, growing believer should experience God every day—his presence, his power, his wisdom."

This is some of what I am experiencing in my own life...learning to have Christ every moment of every day. I'm like many of you. I've heard conversations about surrender and His "Lordship" in my life. But, as I truly practice this, I see what a radical difference it makes in my life. Life and death and love and peace all fall into place when the Kingdom of God becomes a priority.

Don't get me wrong. This is still a journey for me. A real hard journey at that. But it's one that I am taking--slowly to be sure--but I am it taking nonetheless. It's a difficult thought to surrender every minute to God. That means that God's agenda quite often "interrupts" our lives at the most inconvenient of times or in the most uncomfortable situations. But surrender must be total or it is not surrender at all. My prayer continues to be that God would make me more sensitive to His promptings in my life so that I can begin to taste what true Godliness is all about. I don't want to be caught ignoring God today...

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