Things God cares about

I am constantly reminded these days that the things I worry about, think about, enjoy, etc. are not always the things that God cares about. I so want to be the man that cares about what He does. I want my heart to break for the things that break His. I want to get excited about the things that excite Him. I want to put my time & resources into things that would please Him. Please God reign in me every day and help me to put my wants aside for the things that you would have me do.

Does anyone else struggle with this? It is probably the most difficult thing in my life. Trying to priortize things in my life to be ready & available when He wants me to do something.

Book Review - Primal

I have been fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of Mark Batterson's new book, Primal, recently. I wanted to put a few thoughts in my blog about the book.

Primal is a call to Christians to leave the mundane version of Christianity that most of us practice and to encounter God on a primal level, to find the lost soul of Christianity. This is done by rediscovering what it really means to love God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind & with all of your strength. Mark Batterson refers to this as the Primal Commandment. Some of my favorite thoughts throughout the book are:

"Sometimes loving God with all your heart simply means listening to you heart instead of your head." (page 31)

Regarding the topic of giving, he said, "you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving." (page 32)

"What do you think brings more joy to the heart of our heavenly Father - singing songs or caring for the poor?" and "What if we saw compassion as a form of worship?" (page 44)

"Every act of generosity creates a righteous ripple effect that can change the course of history. It will also change your heart." (page 46)

"If loving God with all our heart means a heart that breaks for the things that break the heart of God, then loving God with all our soul means a soul full of wonder, a soul flooded with the glory of God, a soul awed by beauty and mystery, a soul that hallows God above all else." (page 52)

I could go on and on with statements from this book that have made an effect on me. As a good friend of mine (and fellow blogger) said on his blog recently, reading Primal is dangerous. It will cost you. It will cost you the life that you know today, but it will bring about a life that is changed, if you let it. We all need to find what it truly means to practice the Great Commandment. We must love God with all of our hearts, with all of our souls, with all of our minds & with all of our strength.

I want to challenge you to make Primal the first book you read in 2010. If you do this, please let me know that you did. I would love to chat with you about the book.

New post for Monday

We are now within one week from our trip to Central Asia. I finished my immunizations today with an MMR booster, Hepatitis A & B and a Tetanus shot. I guess I'm glad I'm not scared of needles or today would have been a rough day. Now I am officially immunized (is that a word?) for my trip.

We have begun official trip planning now with organizing all of the items I will need and they have their own place in my house now. It is becoming pretty real now. The money will be turned in tonight and I am so thankful for all those who were able to support me financially. It really eased some of the burden to raise about half the money I needed. Thank you to everyone who contributed. Without you, I would not be able to go on this trip.

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to hear John Harris at our church. For those who don't know John, he has recently gone into complete remission from cancer. What a great story he told about the last 6 months or so of his life and how he became so much closer to God through this experience. God has healed him. What an amazing story. John, continue to share your story my friend. You can impact the world. God has given you something to glorify Him. What a blessing.

Thank you everyone and speak to you tomorrow.

one week away

Well, our trip is now one week away. I still feel like there is so much to do. Still have to get all the money together, still have to buy some things I need for the trip, still have to make sure everything is ready to go for the family while I'm gone, still have to work hard to make up for the lost time at work this week...etc. Sometimes I can allow myself to feel like I'm behind the 8 ball. It just seems like there is more to do than I have time for. Sometimes, I just want to rest and sit down and relax for a while. Isn't that ok still?

This morning we have a wonderful opportunity to hear my friend, John Harris, give his testimony at Nations about his experience of having cancer and becoming cancer free. I cannot wait to hear his story of faithfulness and about his time with God during this time in his life. Praise God for healing John. I can't wait to hear it.

Good morning everybody. Have a great day!!

9 days to go

Well, the days are rapidly approaching where my trip is rapidly approaching. My days are filled with thoughts of nervousness & excitement. I really am excited to see what God is going to do. I was talking with one of my travel colleagues yesterday and told him that I cannot wait for that moment (or moments) where some sort of obstacle stands in our way and there is no way around it and then we get to watch while God steps in and removes it from our path. Wow, how awesome will that be. I think that happens to us here in America, but quite frankly, we are probably too busy to notice that He has done that.

Just a thought for this morning. Have a great day everyone!

Afghanistan....HERE I COME

For those that don't know, on October 11th, I will join 2 other men to travel to Kabul. I'm very excited about this trip and even though I can't get into the specifics here, I'm happy to share with anyone who would be interested to know.

Please do keep me/us in your prayers during the trip, which is from 10/11 - 10/20.

I will post more later.

Day one of new blog

Well, here we go. I am going to attempt to update this blog on a daily basis as I prepare for my adventure.

At this point, I am a bit nervous, but also very excited to see what God has in store. There seems to be so much to do now...start getting the items I will need to take with me, have to get immunizations, have to raise the money to go, etc. that it can certainly be a bit overwhelming. All this while still having to do the day to day things that I normally do, i.e. work, help with the kids homework and activities, stuff around the house after the move...etc. It certainly seems like a lot, but I know that God is with me and will give me the strength to do it all and to help me prioritize everything.

Stay tuned as there will be more to come.