As bold as a lion...

I love to write.  I have truly missed it.  I’m not back where I want to be yet, but I have started to “jot down” some thoughts here and there again and with the encouragement of my beautiful wife I will begin to share them here from time to time.  

If you have been paying attention and following our blog, you’ll notice that we have very different writing styles and that the Lord is working on us in different ways.  I think that is amazingly beautiful!  I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to see what Jesus is doing in her life!

We started this blog together some time ago to give people a glimpse into what God is doing in our lives.  For a long time it has been dormant.  That’s not because God hasn’t been working as much as it is that we haven’t been testifying.  God is good!  He has always and will always be way better than we deserve.  I hope you enjoy honest heartfelt testimonies that you find here.  I hope you enjoy reading the true writer of the family (Hope) and that my ramblings at the very least make sense to you and maybe even encourage you a bit.  With that being said: Feel free to read on…

“The righteous are as bold as a lion.” Prov.28:1

Those following hard after God possess a boldness that is not of themselves.  As they seek the Lord with all of their heart, they find Him.  And in finding Him, they find His truth!  God empowers His children with His Spirit.  Their natural fears and inabilities are replaced by His power, boldness and giftedness!

As Christians we have the ability and opportunity to seek out the Lord and to cast our burdens upon Him in a divine exchange (where we give Him our yoke and we receive His).  We have the opportunity to give Him our fears, our inabilities, our shyness and selfishness, and to receive from Him His power, His ability and His confidence!

Can you fathom how good this God is?  He doesn’t just save us and then leave us as orphans (Jn. 14:18).  He saves us and invites us into a divine cooperation in which we are constantly equipped with His gifts and abilities.

I love what my good friend Andy Dietz says, “Anything done in the flesh is only as good as the flesh can do it, but anything done in the Spirit is done as good as God can do it.” 

No wonder the apostle Paul encourages us to live/walk/exercise in the Spirit!

Father God, thank you for being so awesome!  Thank you for saving us!  Thank you for being a God that goes even beyond Salvation!  A God that loves us enough to meet us where we are, but loves us too much to leave us there!

My Father, thank you for not leaving me as an orphan.  Thank you for this invitation to a divine exchange!  Thank you for abiding in me, empowering me, giving me your gifts as I abide in you!

Remind us each day of the invitation you lay before us: we can go about life in the flesh and the results will be only as good as the flesh can muster… or we can go about life in the Spirit and watch in awe as we witness life done as God and God alone can do it!

Father, the choice is clear!  I choose you!  For today and for a thousand days to come… I choose you!  May Your glory be made known as your children walk in an abiding relationship with you!