God's Presence in Me

I was thinking this morning about the fact that we are the temple of God and what that really means. It seems pretty simple, but it is more a question of the consequences.

The temple, and the tabernacle before it, represented the presence of God. God was not the Temple, but God's presence was in the temple. Even in the old Testament, the Israelites knew that God was not confined to the temple, but He clearly identified His presence with the temple, the cloud and fire above the temple, the most holy place in the temple, and the Ark of the Covenant kept in the temple.

Here's the question. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says that we are to be the temple in which God dwells through his spirit. Do people see me as a person in which God dwells through His Spirit? I know the answer to that is that most poeple do not.

How can I change that? Just thinking out loud, here. There are no easy answers to that question or more Christians might ooze out the presence of God. Maybe I will camp on this question for a while.

Experience - Chasing Dreams

You've heard it said that experience is something you don't get until just after you need it. But what about experiencing failure? No one is really looking for someone who knows how to fail, right?

In a previous post I talked about how Abraham Lincoln experienced failure numerous times in business and several unsuccessful political campaigns. Yet he would not give up. He ultimately became the president of the United States of America. That shows great tenacity and determination. That would make a good business anecdote if it ended there. But it doesn't. He went on to lead then nation during the deadliest war in American history. A war between brothers. A war of historic consequences.

Imagine where we would be today if slavery were not abolished in the 1860s.

America has been a deciding factor in several wars with a global impact. It has been the greatest humanitarian contributor to third world nations. It has been the leader in technology and innovation for the industrialized world for over a century.

Imagine what would have happened if we had had a president during the Civil War who did not have the strength of character and determination to fight the necessary battles to keep the country together. Imagine the global impact if the United States had split into two independent and antagonistic countries.

I suspect that his earlier experiences of failure were instrumental in preparing him to take on arguably the most difficult presidency in US history.

Isn't it interesting that King David, the greatest King in the Bible, faced more adversity before becoming king than any other king in the Bible. He was God's anointed man. God could have protected him from all of this, but He didn't. God's greatest act of kindness was to prepare him not protect him.

In the Army we used to say that more sweat in training meant less blood in battle.

If you are facing tremendous adversity and even failure, take heart. Maybe God is preparing you for a greater calling than than you realize. Difficult experiences are the training ground for good decisions when the consequence of failure are the greatest.

Suffering - Chasing Dreams

This post comes from Vince Antonucci.

God promises us we will suffer. For instance, in (2 Corinthians 1) we're told that the sufferings of Christ will flow into our lives. Paul shares that he has suffered to the point of death, and wishing for death. So why are we surprised by suffering?

Not only does God promise we will suffer, He tells us that suffering is one of His greatest tools in chiseling us into the people we need to become. So we should welcome and take joy in our suffering. But we don't. Actually, we get upset with God when we suffer.

So maybe we need to stop praying for our marriages to be easy, for our churches to be a joy, for all our desires to be fulfilled, and start inviting suffering, and praying for the comfort God provides when we do.

See the complete post.

In Honor of D-Day - 65th Anniversary

In honor of the 65th Anniversary of D-Day. This is a picture of me with a cross of an unknown soldier in Normandy in 2005. It says

Here Rests in Honored Glory
A Comrade In Arms
Known but to God

On D-Day, the Allies landed around 156,000 troops in Normandy. The American forces landed 73,000, including 15,500 airborne troops. In the British and Canadian sector, 83,115 troops were landed.

Allied personnel killed on 6 June 1944 in Operation Overlord, included 2499 American D-Day fatalities and 1915 from the other Allied nations, a total of 4414 dead in that one day.

Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with approximately 53,714 dead.

Today, twenty-seven war cemeteries hold the remains of over 110,000 dead from both sides: 77,866 German, 9386 American, 17,769 British, 5002 Canadian and 650 Poles.

Between 15,000 and 20,000 French civilians were killed, mainly as a result of Allied bombing. Thousands more fled their homes to escape the fighting.

Our Freedom was not free. It cost these heroes their lives.

Waiting - Chasing Dreams

Mark Batterson had some great insights into waiting.

The longer you wait the more you will appreciate.
We hate to wait. Right? But it's gratitude insurance. Waiting insures that we won't take for granted whatever it is that we were waiting for. If the process had taken half as long I honestly think we'd appreciate it half as much.

God is far more concerned with who you're becoming than where you're going.
And He won't get you where He wants you to go until you're ready to get there! I just read this incredibly encouraging verse in Romans 8:25. I have a feeling this is what someone needs to hear today!

"The longer we wait, the larger we become."

See the full post.

Discouragement - Chasing Dreams

Chasing dreams can be very discouraging at times, especially when things don't come together on our time table. The biggest problem I had with discouragement was feeling like I would never fulfill my dream, or be used by God, or get out of debt. I felt like I was too old and would never be who I thought I should be. It really was an issue of timing. Ultimately, I was saying, I am not there right now, so I am discouraged.

When I am in that place it helps to look at many of the major characters in the Bible.

• Noah spent 120 building a boat to save his family and some animals from a flood.
• Moses spent 40yrs in Egypt, 40 years as a shepherd and 40 years leading Israel in the desert.
• Abraham waited for years to have the child he was promised.
• Jacob worked 7 years for his wife, then had to work 7 more to get the wife he asked for, b/c his father was dishonest.
• Joseph was sold into slavery and ended up in jail for years before becoming 2nd in charge of Egypt.
• Rahab lived the life of a prostitute, before being used to save God's people and eventually joining in the lineage of God's own son.
• David, was chased and harassed by his predecessor, and then even some of his kids turned against him and tried to kill him.

There are more, but this is a good start. All of these people endured years of hardship before becoming some of the most significant heroes of the faith. There are some quick success stories in the world today, but you will have a hard time finding them in the Bible.

If you have been chasing a dream for a while, be encouraged to know that the character of God, is to spend years training and preparing people for the work he has called them to do. It is discouraging to be in that place, but rest assured that the above Bible characters thought it was discouraging too. Know that He is preparing you for a great plan that he has for your life. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and use this time when he is training you to grow into a deeper relationship with him. Imagine that you are in group of recruits being prepared for great missions. At some unknown time, God is going to come get one of the recruits for a great mission. Do everything you can to be the one he chooses.

Undignified and Humiliated - Chasing Dreams

It can be difficult to start on the path to achieving your dream. Sometimes it requires you to tell others about it to gain some kind of support. It can be hard to convince them that you can pull it off. If it were simple, it probably wouldn't be much of a dream.

Sharing the dream may make you look boastful or naive. And if you don't make it for some reason, you can look pretty undignified and feel pretty humiliated. Not fun. I've been there. It's reason enough to play it safe and never take on a big dream, and never believe that God could use you to do something that big. The willingness to take this risk is what separates the history makers from the rest of the world.

Abe Lincoln failed in business many times and lost congressional races. Many of us would give up before thinking we could be president. God does not promise you an easy ride, but the ride has a purpose. The majority of Bible characters had very difficult lives and spent many years of misfortune before God led them to His promises.

If God put a dream in your heart, it is His. He owns it. To believe that you can't do it is to believe that He can't do it. Here is the hard part. You may not succeed, at least in the way you think. Are you willing to follow God's plan for your life anyway? Will you say, as King David said, "I will become even more undignified than this"?


(One caveat: don't confuse selfish desires with God given dreams)