Lately I’ve been feeling as if I have been flying through a storm cloud. 

You start off smooth sailing, clear skies and calm seas.  Things are going well, all systems check out and the flight seems like it’s going to go without a hitch.  You have your itinerary, flight checklist and the crew is all aboard and competent.  It’s going to be a great trip.

You climb to cruising altitude and get up to speed.  Things are comfortable and you start falling into a state of complacency.  You put the plane on auto-pilot so you can take a nap and get refreshed for when you get to your destination.  As you doze the plane starts to pitch, first left, then right.  Turbulence begins in earnest, waking you from your slumber.  The plane jerks up and down, left and right as you try your best to bring it back onto the right path.  You can only look at the instruments at this point, try as you may your visibility out the window is at zero.  You cry out through the loudspeakers for everyone on the plane with you to buckle-up, it’s going to be a bumpy right.  You don’t know how it’s going to end.  You don’t know where you are, did the storm knock you off course?  Have you dropped to a dangerous altitude?

You fight the plane, trying to keep it together and safe as you try to pull the plane above the storm.  You call on the nearest air traffic towers and you get no response.  This is a serious storm.  Panic rises up in your spirit as you realize that you are now flying alone.  The tower can’t talk to you, you can’t talk to the tower and it looks bleak.

Finally, you realize that you need to check the attitude of plane and though you’ve been pulling up on the stick, the attitude of the plane hasn’t budged.  You wake up the co-pilot (how could he still be sleeping?)  You get him to help you adjust the attitude of the plane by pulling up on his stick.

Slowly, the attitude of the bird begins to rise.  As you rise through the cloud, it gets a little easier to adjust the attitude.  The co-pilot eventually gives you back the control of the plane and goes about fixing some of the other controls on the panel.

All at once you are above the storm and immediately you hear the control tower calling for you.  From the conversation that ensues, you realize that they had beads on you the whole time, the problem wasn’t the link between plane and tower, it was from tower to the plane.  They could hear you, but you couldn’t hear them.

They begin to tell you how to correct your course, it’s still dark and you’ve lost your bearings, but the tower knows exactly where you are.  They guide you back to familiar territory and you continue your flight to your destination.

Today I feel like I’ve just broken through the storm.  I still don’t know where I am, but I do know where I’m going.  I must trust my control tower, who has never lost sight of me, to guide me there from my current place.

At the end of February, beginning of March, I will be flying down to Sarasota to pray over the city.  I will be walking the streets and talking to people from the area to get a feel about what they are looking for in a church.  I want to know the people before the move so I can pray targeted prayer over the area. 

My current storm revolves around my job situation.  I was put on the bench at the beginning of the year and I’ve yet to score an interview.  They came at me with a possibility today, but it’s in New Jersey.  I don’t want to be one of those guys that travels for 4 days out of a week to return to my family on the weekend.  I want my kids to know me.  I don’t want Rilian to not recognize me in 6 months because he only saw me a couple of days out of a week.  So, I probably won’t entertain that one.

I will say this though.  I will be coming to Sarasota in February.  If I haven’t found anything by the time I get there I’m going to work on getting a position down there.  If that happens I will push my plans forward and start building a ministry down there.

I will get to my destination sooner or later.  My goal right now is to listen to the tower until I get there.

A few months ago I got to preach a message that I had written about here in July.  Well, the message of increasing your need boiled down to this: Give and it will come back to you, in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

Part of this is listening to the Spirit for opportunities to give.

I am a bass player.  I love playing bass.  I love singing as well.  I had an ESP F-204 Bass, that was Gun Metal Blue and beautiful.

Within our worship team I had stepped down from playing bass so that a younger guy could step in and perfect his craft.  He's a better player than I am, he has a gift, I have a skill that I had to work on.  Don't tell him I said that though, it'll go to his head .

A couple of months ago I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me to give him my bass.  I looked at it in one of two ways, and depending on the way things played out, I was going to be happy either way.  The two perspectives were:

1. My time of playing had passed and the Lord had more things for me that holding onto that part of my life would hinder and I needed to give up the bass in order to grab the higher call.
2. I had another bass on the way and it would inspire me to do more with the music and step out of the worship team and do more for God with music.

Well, it turns out #2 is the path on which he was sending me.

I was looking at basses that I was hoping to eventually get.  I believe that when you ask for something of God, be specific.  He'll give you the desires of your heart.  I was hoping that #2 would be the way the Lord was going to go, so I was preparing for it.  I found the bass that I wanted, which was a Schecter Stiletto Elite 5-String Bass that had a Transparent-Red Finish. 

I actually have reasons for wanting this specific bass:

1. I wanted a bass that had a neck-through body, which the Elite has.
2. I wanted a 5 string or 6 string bass.
3. The instrument sounds... of the charts good.
4. It's pretty.

Well, I was hoping to get this guitar at some point, but I knew I wasn't going to buy it.  That was part of the deal when I gave the other bass player the bass.  I, on my own, was not supposed to purchase a new one.  It was going to come from the power of God.

Well, my mom came to me about a month ago and asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  That is a tricky question.  Normally, I just say that I want Best Buy gift cards because what I normally want to get is expensive and I don't want any one person spending the money to get these things for me.  This year was a little different in that I really didn't even want anything from Best Buy.  I only had one want, a new bass, but I had no intention of anyone getting it for me for Christmas, it's too expensive.  So I told my mom that I didn't want anything from her, to get more for my kids, because what I wanted was too expensive.  She pushed me so I finally told her what I wanted a Schecter 5-String bass.  I didn't give her specifics.  I want to stress that, I told her, "Schecter 5-String Bass".

Christmas morning rolls around and she sends Jen out to her van to get my present and she walks in with a gig bag.  When I open it I see a Schecter Stiletto Elite, Diamond Series, 5-String Bass with a Transparent Red finish.  Not only that but there were two tuners, one standard Chromatic and one Chromatic pedal tuner, two chords and a Behringer 120 Watt Ultrabass Amp.  This is the pressed down shaken together and running over part.  I didn't ask for all of the extra things that were given, but they were included.

It turns out my mom had found this bass on the Pittsburgh Craigs List.  The previous owner lived in a town close to my mom.  They had been in bands a few years ago and had not played in recent times.  With the economy the way it is they needed to dump some of their equipment to make it through the holidays.  After listing it on Craigs list a couple of times and on Ebay, they hadn't been able to sell it, which is a miracle unto itself.  A couple days before Christmas, the couple contacted my mom, said it was still available, set up the deal and met my mom at Wal-mart for the transaction.

Not only was it exactly what I was wanting, it was not intentionally exactly what I wanted.  My mom didn't go to Guitar Center with my exact specifications.  She knew I wanted a Schecter 5-String bass, nothing more, nothing less.  To her, she simply got me the Schecter 5-String bass that was in her price range and available.  What she didn't know, but God did know was that this was the bass that was my heart's desire, right down to the color.

If you ever doubt that God wants to give his children every good thing; never forget that he provides your heart's desire.  When you listen and you follow his bidding, his word will not return void.  It can't.  It is impossible for Him to lie.  If He said it, it will happen.  If there is something specific you are to give up, give it up without doubting.  He has something better in store for you, not just something that you simply want, but he'll give you your heart's desire.  I would have been happy with any 5-String bass, but my heart's desire was exactly the one I received.

Sometimes life throws you a curve ball when you were expecting the fast ball. I was given one of these curve balls yesterday.

I am the Microsoft Practice Director at ConsultUSA in Pittsburgh.  It's a great company and I enjoy working for them.  As part of my job I am to be billable to a client so that there are is a ROI on my work.  I was informed yesterday by the client that I wouldn't be back after the new year.  Now, this doesn't mean I'm now unemployed.  If nothing happens in the next few weeks I'll be put on, what we call in the consulting industry, the bench.  While on the bench I will work toward getting certifications as well as getting off of the bench.  However, there is a good chance that I won't be put on the bench, I may end up going to another client for whom I used to work.

Anyway, I have always enjoyed working for this client.  It's been a lot of fun and I've learned a lot.  I went into my managers office to ask for some time off so I could work for an afternoon at the home office and was informed of the contracts end date.  Now, I have many opinions on the timing, the way it was done and all, but I'm not writing to rant.  I am writing to explain how I am feeling and thinking.

First, what am I feeling?  I feel a little betrayed.  Unfortunately, I didn't see this coming and it's not happening on my terms.  I'm also feeling a little depressed.  I gave much of my life the last 2 years to this company and I am feeling a loss at the prospects of not working here.

Second, I have to keep fighting.  The irony, as well as the saving grace, is that this all happened the day of my annual review with ConsultUSA and I had a great review, from both companies.  So, I know it wasn't because of my work, it was truly a part of the changing of the guard within the client.

The nice thing is, I'm marketable.  My employer looks at me as an A-lister and doesn't feel like I'll hit the bench at all.  Actually, the owner of the company is wondering if we can get me out of the client sooner to get me into the other client that I mentioned earlier.  That's cool.  I know that I'l be able to find something either way.  Whether it's pulling in some favors to open a new client, which I've done before or going to our existing client.

More than anything, I have to look at this as an opportunity.  If I hit the bench there will be time for me to get my certifications, whether it be my Microsoft Certifications or the PMP.  If I move on to another client quickly then there is an opportunity for me to get a pay increase and specifically, and more importantly, to not take the manditory bench salary cap, which would be a sizable hit.

Ultimately, this will be an interesting ride.

Now, All that was said to say this:

Isaiah 54:17 No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me," Says the Lord

OK.  The other day I promised to answer the question of, "Why did God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden?"  Well, here it is.  First let me set up the way I would ask the question if I were face to face with God... (Fortunately, I didn't actually have to ask the question to Him this way, He already provided the answer in the word.)

Lord, what were you thinking?  You knew that Adam and Eve were no better than children, yet you placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden anyway.  You then told them not to touch it.  You know the nature of children, I'm a parent, I know what my kids would have done, the same thing Adam and Eve did, oh, Daddy doesn't want me to have it so it must be good, let's eat!  You had to know that they would fall and they would fail.  You had to know that you'd be kicking them out of the garden.  You had to know, because you know the beginning from the end!  What in the world were you thinking.

Well, first, the basic answer to these questions, yes, God does know the beginning from the end, He exists outside of time.  He did know exactly what He was doing and He knew Adam and Eve would do. 

Revelation 13 states that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.  That means that before God created Adam and Eve Christ was already slain. It means that the fall of man was part of the plan.  Let me explain:

God gave man the freedom of choice, however, in the garden there was only one possible sin, it was the simplest of choices, to eat or not to eat, to eat of the Tree of Life or from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

This was simple and we failed.  However, choice was something that the Angels didn't have.  They were servants.  They were not created as children, they were slaves.  When Satan rebelled and took 1/3 of heaven with him, he rebelled against his master, not against his father.

However, when Adam and Eve fell, when they rebelled, they did it against their father.  However, when they did it the caused a great divide between them and their father.  A divide that needed to be bridged.  He provided a way to push sin forward through animal sacrifice, but this was inadiquite to bridge the divide.  He waited for the right time to send His son to be the ultimate sacrifice.  It was the sacrifice of Jesus, a man tempted by everything that we are, but did not sin, that bridged the great divide, It was that act that brought us back into communion with our Father.

It was through Jesus that the choice to have relationship with God was given back to man.  This is the story of the prodigal son.  The son rebelled, the son fell, the son repented, the son returned, the father accepted him back and restored him to his rightful place.

God is good people, God is real good.

Genesis 2:8-9 8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:16-25 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

18 The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Genesis 3 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" 4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

9 But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" 10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" 12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

22 And the Lord God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

I know that this is a long passage to read, but reading the WORD is a good thing :). 

There are a couple of things I want to point out in the passages above.  First we have God planting a garden and placing in it the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  The part of the passage I skipped describes the location, somewhere near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Then the Lord states to Adam that he could eat from any tree in the garden with the exception of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  If he did eat from that tree it would cause him to "surely die".

We then see that God finds it not good for man to be alone, and that ends with the creation of Eve.  They were both completely innocent, being naked and having no shame.

Chapter 3 sees the serpent (Satan) approach Eve.  There are several reasons that Satan approaches Eve instead of Adam.  The Bible states that women are "as the weaker vessel", but I don't think that means that woman are weaker, men are to treat them as the weaker vessel.  However, since women and men are different, women will be tempted by different things than men.  Where men are more tempted by women, women are more tempted by baubles, by pretty things, by things that look attractive.

However, I think that is only one of the reasons.  I think the bigger reason is, God told Adam directly of the results of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Eve wasn't created yet.  She wasn't around.  She had second hand knowledge of the command, not first hand knowledge, like Adam.  That would be the equivilent of me asking my oldest son to tell my younger sons to do something.  The authority is still there, but it loses something in translation.  A command from a brother doesn't hold the same water as it does coming from the father.

So Satan questions God's command and Eve retorts with the words of God (see, she knew the command).  Satan responds that God was wrong, that she would not surely die. 

As an aside.  When God said you would surely die, he was meaning a spiritual death.  Satan was partly correct when he said that Even would not die.  He was implying that the fruit would not cause a physical death (though he knew it would be a spiritual death, that's the lie.)

Eve looked at the fruit and saw it was good to eat.  She saw that it was attractive.  She saw that it wasn't poison to the body. She saw a bauble and wanted it, so she ate, and gave some to Adam who was with her.

Adam blunder came just before Eve took the fruit and ate it.  Adam was there.  He was a witness to the conversation, and he let the serpent speak.  He let the conversation lead to the fall.  He could have, and should have, exherted his dominion over the serpent and told the serpent to be quiet.  He could have done it, it was his right, no, it was his duty.

So man falls and we continued to fall out of control until Jesus was murdered and resurected from the dead.  We as the human race continues to spiral out of control, but we, the individuals were given a way out.

My next post will be on the topic: Why Did God Put The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden?

It's a simple answer and it will blow you away.  If you have any thoughts on the topic, let me know.

While in service on Sunday, our pastor said something that I found profound.  It's not that I didn't know it, it's that I never thought about it.  The statement that he made was:"God exists outside of time."

I want to elaborate on that though.

Does God predestine who is going to be saved?  Many people will say yes, and many will say no.  This can decend into an argument that does not gain anyone anything.  The reality is both are right and both are wrong.  Since God exists outside of time, he can't "predestine" anything,  Predestination by it's nature is a statement of time.  Since He exists outside of time it literally becomes that He knows the beginning from the end.  It's not predestined, it's preknown.

Predestination, the doctrine, precludes that you have no choice to follow Christ, you either will, or you will not, the choice is not yours.  However, that would make humanity lower than the angels and the word of God says that We were created a little lower than Elohim.  We were created a little lower than GOd and a lot higher than the Angels.  We were created in the image of God, not the image of angels.  God gave us the choice to love Him.  It's only when you choose to love God that it is a true expression of love.  To be forced to love God is to be a Slave, not a Bond-Servant.

I give myself to my God everyday.  I choose to give myself to Him.  He doesn't force me.  Because I give myself to Him and He accepts me, that makes me a bond-servant.  I am bound to Him by choice, His and mine.

Because God exists outside of time and space, He can speak in the past tense of those things that haven't happened yet.  I am assailed by diabetes.  That is the current condition of my body.  However, the word of God says that By His stripes I was healed.  It also says that to those with clean hands and a pure heart, they are the healed of the Lord.  These are statements in the past tense of things that haven't happened yet.

This means that God looks at me and sees me as healed.  The only thing standing in the way of me becoming healed is getting it into my thick skull that I have been healed.  I also have to ensure that my hands are clean and my heart is pure.  That is what this journey of introspection is all about, to purify myself and sanctify my life for service.

I know this post seems to be all over the board, and it is so, but I have a lot going through me and sometimes it's hard to focus.  One of these days I'll be able to have the venue to put this stuff out a little more efficiently and not fall into scattered diatribe.  However, that day is not today.

God bless you, everyone!

Yesterday, on my way home from work, I had one of the most amazing times of prayer in my life.

I've recently begun praying regularly when I"m in my car.  Not only is it one of the few places that I can truly be alone, but it's been part of my introspection.  I've always prayed in my car, but now it's an "appointment" with my father.  Scheduled time for He and I to get together and pow-wow.

I've been doing this for the past couple of months and I've noticed that it's been getting harder and harder to pray.

It's not that I don't have the words, anyone who knows me knows that words are not the problem.  It's getting harder because I refuse to be a repetative prayer.  I don't want to speak just to be heard.  I don't want to sound like the old priests of Ba'al who would chant the same thing, over and over again just to be seen.  I want my conversation with God to be relevant.  I want it to have conversations with God like I have conversations with my friends, frankly, because I want to be friends with God.

My abiility to pray and be relevent has been hindered because of God.  It's His fault.  You see, He's been meeting all of my needs, so it's more dificult to just converse.

With that being the case, I've decided that I must increase my need!  If the basics in my life, food, shelter, love, have been met then I have to find bigger things to need.  So what do I need now?  Considering that He is able to do excedingly, abundantly, above all we can ask or think, what do I need now?  I need for my wife to be happy.  I need my boys to grow up to be great men of God.  I need to be out of debt with money in the bank when we open the church in Sarasota.  I need to be able to give to my community.  I need to be a blessing to those around me.

When you start getting into details of everything you need in your life, even past the things that are normally considered a need, you'll discover a whole new world. 

Now, what will happen when all of my current needs are met?  Well, I'll have to increase them again.  I don't know where I'll be when that point in time happens, but I'll know what to do when it does.

Another thing, since He is able to do excedingly, abundantly, above all we can ask or think, I think it's time we stop thinking and asking small.  I don't think he wants us to be coming to Him with small ideas.  If I am $20 short of paying my bills, I don't think He wants me to ask for $20.  He want's me to ask for as much as I can think of, because he is able to do so much more.

I have a vision of what I want my kids to grow up and be.  I know that each one has a personality that will be used to do great things.  I know that they will all do different things because they are all different.  I know that Josiah has the heart, he is compassionate.  I know that Braedon is the thinker/schemer (in a good way).  I know that Thorin is going to be the leader.  I'm not too sure about Rilian yet, he's a little too young to decipher yet.  However, I'm praying that the Lord lead them all to immense success no matter which path they take in life.  I am praying that he protect them from my mistakes in raising them.  I'm asking that he do more than I can imagine with them, and I have a pretty good imagination.

Ultimately, we need to never be satisfied where we are.  We need to constantly be growing.  We should be getting past our current needs and into the next round.  We need to start thinking bigger.  Our small thinking keeps us trapped in a pit of despair from which no one can get out.  Expand your horizons and escape the grasp of this worlds system.

Rom 7:4-25

I think, sometimes, to be a Christian is to be schizophrenic.  As Romans 7 says:

Rom 7:15-17
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
NIV

We try so hard to do what is good, but we always go back to what is evil.  Our mind warring against our body for our souls, as I mentioned in one of my previous posts.  It’s the dichotomy of being a Christian.  We do the things we don’t want to do, but for the simple fact that we don’t want to do them it proves that the law is good.  That is just odd.  I like it, but it’s odd.

It makes you understand, though, that God doesn’t really put the importance on your actions as a Christian, but on the condition of your heart.  For instance, if you were entrapped in sin, and it is something that you want to do, it doesn’t prove anything but that your heart is evil.  However, if you are in sin, but it isn’t something that you want to do, but you stumble, it proves the law is a good thing.

The way I always tell the youth group at FFCC is this; the law was not created by God to limit your freedoms, the law was created to show you the things that will cause you pain.  In God’s attempt to keep His children safe He basically said, don’t stick anything into the light socket or don’t touch that pot of boiling water.

Ultimately, we need to continue to try to do good.  In all things we should try to abstain from the very appearance of evil.  However, when those times come and we do fall, and we will, don’t be too hard on yourself, pick yourself up, dust off your backside and continue pressing forward for the prize.  Falling isn’t failing, quitting is failing.  If you keep fighting for the prize eventually you will get it.

Our faith is not a sprint, it is a marathon.  In a sprint you have 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.  In a marathon, everyone, whether you are first or last, is a winner, as long as you cross the finish line.  It’s up to you in what condition you cross.  Do you want to be the beat up wounded warrior or the victorious king returning home, the choice is yours.  Even the king loses some battles, it’s how he responds that makes him the conquering hero.

I want to talk a little about human nature.

Let me explain.  Human beings have three distinct, yet intertwined parts of our nature.  We have three parts because we are created in the image of God.  We are made up of the spirit, soul and body, as God is made up of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In our nature, the biggest difference between God and man is corruption.  Where God knows no corruption, we humans are corrupt, flawed from the womb.

So, if we are corrupt, from where does that corruption originate?  The easy answer to that is sin, but I’m not talking about the outside influences, or the consequences of the corruption, I’m talking about the corruption itself.

To get a grasp on this, let me explain some basic things about human nature.

Within each person there is a war going on. When sin enters our lives, at birth, it brings two parts of our being into conflict over the third.

The human spirit is incorruptible.  It is the divine, eternal portion of our nature.  After our bodies have perished, it is our spirit which will endure.

Our soul has another name in the modern vernacular, it is called the mind.  This is also an eternal part of our being, however, it is corruptible. Anyone who has had an evil thought, and that is everyone of us, knows that the mind, the soul, is corruptible.

The body is not eternal, it is temporal, and it is in the body that the corruption starts.  It is the body that screams for pleasure, no matter how temporary, no matter the long term cost.  That is why addictions are so devastating.  The alcoholic drinks and numbs the pain that the alcoholism creates.  In order to avoid the pain the drinking continues until the bill comes due, and it always comes due in time.

So, the body and spirit are at war in the battlefield of the mind, and at stake is your eternal soul.  The spirit tells the mind to do the right things.  It tells you to live a good life.  It tells you to seek after your heavenly father, and seek a relationship with him.  It tells you to buffet your body and stay away from sin.

The body tells the mind, “If it feels good, do it.”  The body wants to corrupt the mind in order to have the experiences that it wants.  It doesn’t want to be in an unpleasant position, it want pleasure for the sake of pleasure, because it doesn’t care about eternity, it wants what it wants now.

Satan tells two lies that have been effective to deceive the body and mind.

The first is that he doesn’t exist.  If he doesn’t exist you can do whatever you want with no eternal consequence, because Satan doesn’t exist then God doesn’t exist.  If God doesn’t exist there is no heaven to be saved to nor hell to be saved from.

The second is that Satan is more powerful than you.  There is nothing you can do to resist him.  If there is nothing you can do to resist him, there are two consequences that people experience. First, if you can’t resist him, you are not at fault.  Second, if you can’t resist him, why try.

These are the lies that the body will introduce to play with the mind.

So why is the mind the battlefield?  The mind is the seat of intellect.  It is the seat of emotion.  It is the driving force of personality.  If your mind decides it wants to get drunk or take a drug or have sex, your body is going to rejoice and your spirit will scream.  If your mind decides to not give into the temptation, or decides to seek God, then the spirit rejoices and the body screams.
So, there is a war.  Do you recognize this battle in your own life?  I know I do in mine.  I know there are a couple of areas that my body uses.  Primarily it uses my love of food and the fact that I experience pain when I get involved in too much physical activity.

I know that if I lost weight, the pain would go away.  I also know that the physical activity required to lose the weight will hurt.  My spirit says go through the pain, lose the weight, be healthy. A healthy Shaun is a more productive Shaun.  My body says, “Ouch!”, surf the internet, eat some ice cream and be lazy.
I think it’s time for me to choose to listen to my spirit and get active.  What do you think?

I think that everyone who claims to be a Christian and has a true understanding of who God is and who they are agree that there are no words that can be used that can express the glory of our Father in heaven.

Just because any words we speak or actions we take are inadequate, doesn't mean that we shouldn't try.

With Father's day on the precipice this Sunday in the United States, I am going to put forth my best effort to express my feelings for my Father in heaven.

So as I continue this post, the remainder of is from me directly to God.  You are free to join me in any expressions to our Father.

Father, there is only one word in my vocabulary that I can use to explain my feelings toward you.

It's not majestic, glorious, awesome, inspiring, holy, loving, merciful, graceful, forgiving or restoring, even though you are all of those things.

These words are all a pale reflection of what you are.  They are the mouse compared to a dragon.  They are painfully and completely faulty and inadequate.

My word, though as weak in reality as any of the words above, express my true feelings for you Father.  This word encompasses my passion and my love for you more than any other word in the English language.  That one word.  That one amazing word is Daddy.

Thank you, Daddy, for never abandoning me when I had abandoned you.  Thank you for pursuing me and wooing me back to your arms.  Thank you, Daddy, for always being my comforter when I was in pain.  Thank you, Daddy, for always giving me those things I don't deserve and never giving me those things I do deserve.  Thank you, Daddy, for adopting me as your son.  Thank you, Daddy, for always allowing me to come before your throne with boldness and confidence.

Daddy, I love you.  If you had a refrigerator, I would draw you a picture to put on it.  If you owned a Zune I would sing you a song to share with your friends on the Zune Social.  However, more than anything, I want to hug your neck and kiss your face.  One day, when we're face to face, I won't ask you a million questions.  I won't stand dumbfounded.  I will throw down my crowns, run to the throne and throw my arms around you and do exactly what I've wanted to do for so many years of my life.  I will cry, I will not be able to stop it, I will be unable to hold back my unending joy.