Joyous Thirst

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, his love endures forever." Psalm 107:1 Psalms are certainly a wonderful place to really get to know how God can work through a person.  David, the writer of many of the Psalms is a man after God's own heart, but he certainly had his fair share of failures in his life.  We can learn a lot from people who have been on the mountaintop and also in the valley.   This week I really had it on my heart to talk about "lists."  I'm talking about all kinds of lists.  For example:  Your list of things you want to accomplish this year, your list of tasks you have for work tomorrow, your lists of the seven things you need to do to be a happy and healthier you.  Lists can be both motivating and discouraging.  I find that when I have a long list of things to do, I can get discouraged when it feels like I don't make a dent in the tasks at hand.  However, lists can certainly be motivating when you get to draw ...

"Lord, the one you love is sick."  When He heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death.  No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it. -John 11:4  I've been wanting to write about this topic for many weeks, but just haven't quite gotten to it.  I felt it on my heart to share, but didn't exactly have the words to say until they came to me during my men's group session this week.  For a while you have heard me talk about the vertical relationship and the horizontal relationship.  The vertical is your relationship with God while the horizontal is your relationship with God's creation.  Visually, you need to think of the Cross.  When we are pursuing and in relationship with God, His being and His grace and glory is passed through you like a conduit into those around you.  What I want to talk about today is specifically how valleys are where you experience the most growth and where you can have the ...

"When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?  Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.  Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life."-John 6:25-27 It is a terrible feeling the moment you untie the metal wiring around your bread bag to find that the sandwich you were about to make would be impossible due to moldy bread.  Everything in our lives spoils....seriously, everything.  Time will spoil, relationships will spoil, food spoils, even our very bodies will spoil, but there is one thing that endures forever:  Jesus.  I've been really reflecting this past week on the season of Lent and how many of my friends and family participate in Lent.  Full disclosure, I'm not Catholic.  I think that the season of Lent is a wonderful thing.  Anything that f...

"For the word of God is full of living power.  It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires.  It exposes us for what we really are."-Hebrews 4:12. Have you ever noticed that it's the people that love you the most that are able to cut you deeper and sharper with their words?  I can only remember a few times when I actually got grounded (me going to my room was no big deal, I'd just putt in there for hours or watch old golf videos).  What hurt more though and really had lasting impact/correction was when I could just tell they were disappointed.  If someone that I knew only a little bit was disappointed in me, no big deal.  We don't care about those that are out of our "circles," but we do care about those inside our circle, and more importantly what they think about us. Since we are created by God, for God's purpose, when we are not focusing on Him, we are not actually being ourselves.  This verse fro...