Day Two - God is our safe place

This is my personal journey through LENT of 2010. . . may it encourage you in your journey!

DAY 2 – God is our safe place!
This morning I had a hard time focusing, going to bed at 2 am and waking up at 6:25 means that I didn’t sleep much, but I believe that my time with you will be more effective than sleeping. By faith I rise to meet you, Lord help my lack of faith . . . I am weak and very tired.
Today’s Reading: Psalms 2, 32, 62, 92,122 . Proverbs 2 and excerpts from Dallas Willard's, “Spirit of The Disciplines”
I got up believing that you will make up lost sleep. But do you? Or do I pay for my lack of discipline, of not going to bed earlier? I will see how I last, tonight is our big Parent University where I will be speaking to over 80 parents of Polk Middle School. . . I will only make it if You Lord are my strength. Please go ahead of me, convince the parents to come, work on their hearts now, may their hearts burn for more of You as I speak on principles of parenting.
I am not sure if I got much out of Psalm 2 in my first reading but I have to be honest. . . but Psalm 32 is awesome. “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven . . . then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. . . . and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” WOW. Its sad how I normally confess my sins in such a surface way to you. . . but not this morning. I know that the deeper I confess and more honest I am the more heaven opens up to me. I know that my relationship with you can be even more real and wonderful if I lay it all before you. “ Psalm 62 is in the same vein, “pour out your heart to Him for our God is our refuge”. I translate that to mean, “God is our safe place”. . . I am told by Him to trust Him, to pour out my heart to him even more than I do to my best friend. Why? Why does He want me to do that? Because the more honest I am with Him, the more intimate we become. Intimacy is all about honesty and trust. Point of the day, If I truly trust Him, I will confess deeply and pour out my heart honestly.
Lord forgive my sins, you hear my honest confessions, that its not just the sin, it’s the lack of trust in you. I sin because its easier for my flesh to escape than to be crucified. I run from you because my flesh would rather enjoy a momentary pleasure or thought than face execution. Lord crucify me! Kill the old man. I don’t want to worship other gods anymore. Self worship is so empty. Kill my flesh and raise me again as a new man.
Lord help me today to walk in the Spirit not the flesh. Galatians 2. Help me rely on your strength when I want to escape, sin or stand in wickedness. Remind me that this life is not about me, remind me that living for you and others is much better.
“Spirit of the Disciplines” is a great book. I love what Willard says about discipleship, it’s the password into experiencing the Kingdom of God. You can’t experience it here on earth without it. . . yet most of our churches don’t require it. You can be a member in almost any church without being a disciple. . . we think its optional, like a great stereo in a new car. “Churches are filled with undiscipled disciples.” Most pastors know this but don’t know how to change this wave of disobedience in our churches. Kill membership classes and processes we have in place is my view. I did it too, I led the membership process for a while in my old church – how wrong I was. I let many come into membership without requiring the most important thing – being a follower of Jesus. Its too complicated, it requires real relationship with our members, honest and deep relationship . . but that is too many people in a large church. Its much easier to have a class and keep distance with the sheep. Willard says, “ we omit enrolling people as Christ’s students and we omit the step of taking our converts through training, that will bring them ever increasingly to do what Jesus directed . . ..”
“The disciple above all else desires to be like Him.” We should not put the label of discipleship flippantly but carefully after testing the new convert in time, watching them for a while becoming consistent followers of Jesus.
Lord, make me a disciple. . . I want to follow you!
Some of My Prayers
I pray for my friend with cancer, I ask you to heal him, heal him today, I know you can. . . I ask you to give the doctors great wisdom. . . that you give him peace and his wife peace. Please be merciful to them. I pray for my family Lord, be with my dad in the nursing home today, do not let diabetes take his other leg, may He find you in his loneliness, save him Lord. May my mother, brothers and sister be in your blessed plan. May my wife have great wisdom today as we parent two wonderful kids, thank you for adoption, thank you for the love that you have overwhelmed us with . . . we don’t deserve it. Help them be safe, healthy but most importantly godly, give them great thirst and hunger for you and your mission. May both be amazing Jesus followers. I pray for my staff, give us peace, unity and purpose. May all be encouraged and excited for today’s great ministry opportunity at Polk. Please bring about your kingdom at both this school and Field. Thank you for all these things . . . I look forward to Day 3 and our time together.