I  don't want to be a Christian in name only. I have no interest in merely going to church because it is acceptable. I don't want to force myself to pray just because it is expected. When I decide to give money or food to the homeless guy at the mall I want to give out of genuine compassion, not because it is the 'Christian' thing to do.

There is nothing I have done on my own to deserve the title "disciple of Jesus Christ", yet that is exactly what I want to be. Jesus Christ traveled around the ancient Holy Land for three years establishing His identity as the Son of God, the Messiah and the Savior who was sent to repair the broken relationship between man and Creator God. Why would I not want to follow Him?

Because it requires commitment, that's why. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ involves giving up our pride and submitting our self to the service of the rejected, abused, tortured, killed and risen Son of God. Following Christ means that I totally surrender my desires to the will of God. It means I may have to make a decision to put myself into an uncomfortable situation in order to truly minister to a needy soul.

I can do this because I realize that the man who walked the earth teaching about our need of God, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind and raising the dead was not just a man at all. He was totally human and at the same time was totally God. He felt hunger, sleeplessness and pain but never sinned. He trod in sandals across the rocky countryside while at the same time slipping gently into the souls of those who accepted His message.

That is someone truly worth following. I want to learn to communicate for effectively with Him, worship Him with integrity, and serve Him faithfully. I choose to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Oklahoma challenges

I want to lose a bit of weight. Currently at about 178 I want to be at 165. That means I need to lose 13 lbs or so. How will I do this? Pray, eat better, work out. Sounds easy, let's see if I can figure this out.

I am writing this as I am on the Amtrak train heading back to California after a few days visiting family in Oklahoma. I had a great time just being there but there were two extra's that I hadn't expected. Most importantly I went to my daughters church on Sunday (two services) and again on Wednesday to a Bible study where we talked about how to counter the current culture. I was also blessed to have some really  good spiritual discussions with my daughter and son-in-law. In these discussions I was made aware that I really need to pray about what I am going to do about ministering within my purpose.  I have a lot to say about that but I will  save it for another post, since  this one is about eating.

So, what did I learn about eating. Not a lot that was new, but what I  did learn is that it takes a lot of determination to eat well.

The problem for me  has never been not knowing what not to eat and what I should eat. I have always been able to plan my eating, the problem is eating according to my plan!  While in Oklahoma I was able to do three things: 1. Observe my daughters family struggle with the same problem. 2. Have good discussions about what it means to eat well. 3. Participate in some really good, clean meals.

I learned from watching Lisa and Stephen that all the knowledge and good intentions to 'do it right' are useless if we continue to yield to the temptations of foods that are essentially destructive. Things such as simple sugars, white flour products, carbohydrates devoid of any thing that is truly clean and healthy. I am not going to call them out, but I will tattle on myself.  Apple pie (4 pcs), ice cream (two helpings), cookies (three), white flour hamburger bun, apple fritter, croissant - you get the idea, I am not here to beat myself up too much.

Stephen has undertaken a challenge with his brother to eat clean and lose weight. So we talked a lot about what it means to eat clean.  We discovered that this was not really rocket science. Don't eat sugars and carbs that are essentially empty calories with detrimental effects on your body. That means no candy, cookies, cakes, pies etc. Try to eliminate as much gluten from your diet as possible, especially of the white flour variety. Don't drink soda pop, sugared or diet varieties,, simply not good for you. Don't fry foods in oil. You get the idea.

As far as do's - healthy fats, healthy oils, chicken, turkey, lean red meats, lots of vegetables, preferably roasted or steamed, whole grain bread products in moderation, a moderate amount of fruit (still has sugar). Drink water for the most part.

See what I mean, nothing earth shaking there, just common sense.  Now, I have already admitted to some of my not so proud moments of poor food choices. However, Lisa fixed some really good meals. Here are some highlights. From the grill, two racks of beautiful pork ribs - which disappeared  in one meal. And the kids ate very little of them - I'm just sayin', there were some great bone piles generated.  From the oven, roasted brussel sprouts with onions and bacon, roasted asparagus, sweet potato chips. I can't wait to get home and try some of this stuff on my lovely Debbie.

Also from the grill she did boneless, skinless chicken thighs which we had for two different dinners plus a couple of lunches and a couple of snacks (for me!)

So, two days on the train. I brought some healthy snacks but my meals will be in the dining car where choices are limited. I will make  the best of it and then start when I get home to see if I can make better choices, be healthier and maybe lose some weight in the process.

Finding my inner leader Part 3

In this series of posts I have been exploring my desire to be a leader in my church in the area of  prayer. I have determined that if I am going to be  the leader that is required I must first become a strong prayer warrior myself. So that is what, under God's direction, I will do.

I see three steps that I must take in order to become a prayer leader:

    First - examine my own life and make sure I am in step with the Spirit in all areas
 
    Secondly - read and study, learn from other prayer leaders

    Thirdly - pray for God's guidance and direction

Recently I saw the movie War Room, an inspiring story about the power of prayer and the importance of prayer warriors. I was so moved that I picked up the book and Bible study that are based on the movie. As good a place to start as  any I'm thinking.


As I begin moving towards this ministry, I don't want to neglect the other two areas of ministry I feel led towards - fitness/health and personal ministry. For now I will focus my attention on prayer and that will be reflected in my blog posts. Now and then I will share some thoughts on a fitness/health ministry or personal ministry as God leads.

Finding my inner leader Part 2

Let me start with prayer. God has given me a great desire to learn to pray better. This has been burning in me for a couple of years.  I just have this sense that I need to have a deeper level of communication with God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit.  I don't really consider myself a leader in this area because I have so much to learn myself, but I am working on it.

I have a vision. I can see the people of God gathering on Sunday morning before service to pray for God's blessing on the Lord's day. I can see an early morning prayer meeting at the church at least once a week where we gather to pray for our church, our leadership and our community. I can see a series of discipleship classes where we learn together to be more effective prayer warriors.  I envision an annual prayer conference where we have guest speakers who can lead us to greater understandings of the power of prayer.  There are 24 hour prayer chains leading up to special days such as Lent or Pentecost, an ongoing prayer chain where serious prayer requests can be distributed to many prayer warriors very quickly.

This is a vision. For this vision to begin to reach fruition requires a leader. I want to be that leader and I believe God wants me to be that leader. For this to happen I need to learn to pray more and to pray more effectively, this is in process.

More to follow in Part 3

Finding my inner leader Part 1

I'm 69, I am past the point where you would expect me to still be asking what I want to do with my life. Or, more importantly, what does God want from me? I am a firm believer in Jeremiah 29:11 where God says "I know the plans I have for you, plans for you to prosper......" So there is a plan and I think it is high time I lived up to it.

I am currently struggling with the difference between what I am doing and what it is I feel I should be doing. In prayerfully looking at this I find myself thinking about what leadership is. When I think of leadership I am tempted to think in terms of the ability to plan, organize and complete projects. I don't feel that I really have a lot of the strengths needed to lead in that way.

There is another way to look at leadership. It can also be about setting about modeling  something in a way that makes other people want to follow. So, if I feel it is important that people learn the value of arriving to Sunday School class on time ready to study, then I must model that behavior so that when I talk about it the response will be positive because they have seen me doing exactly that.

Before I continue talking about how I respond to this understanding I need to make it clear that I do feel called to lead.  And I feel God has given me specific areas in which I can make a difference and fulfill God's plan for my life.  This may be the first time I have ever expressed this in a public way. God has called me to minister and be an influence in three particular area's - prayer, fitness & health and  one to one ministry.

I will continue this in my next post.

Obedience trumps legacy

OK, guilty. I have spent too much time worrying about my legacy.  I have realized that I need to be more concerned about my daily obedience in following Christ.

Our Discipleship Class is studying the life and epistles of Peter. In our lesson this past Sunday morning was this statement: "Suppose God wants to teach you to say, 'I know how to be abased' - are you ready to be offered up like that? Are you ready to be not so much as a drop in the bucket-to be so hopelessly insignificant that you are never thought of again in connection with the life you served?"

Now look, I don't want to have my life considered insignificant. To the contrary I would like to die knowing that my life made a difference, at least to one or two people. I want people to think of me and remember the good person that I was and the positive things I represented and did for people. To be 'abased' does not sound like fun at all. Just look at these synonyms for abase - humble, humiliate, belittle, demean, lower, degrade, debase, cheapen, discredit. I think I can safely say, unlike Paul in Philippians 4:12, I do not know how to be abased. God does not expect me to like being abased for His name, but He does want me to be willing if that is what comes my way. He is more concerned that I follow Him in obedience day by day without concern for what history may say of me. I must be willing to be insignificant in the eyes of the world in order to be significant in His world to come. In fact, maybe when people look at my life and see that I was an obedient disciple that would be the ultimate significance.

Running against resistance

Part of my workout recently was running in the pool. 1500 meters (metric mile). 750m was running forward as shown in this picture, the other 750m was running backwards.  Running forwards  against the resistance seems to work mostly on my calf muscles while running backwards really works my quadriceps. Though I don't run as fast in the pool as I do going down the trail or the sidewalk, the resistance of the water works against my forward progress, putting extra work on the muscle groups of the lower body. The faster I try to move forward, the more the water resists my efforts.  All in all  a pretty good workout I think, although with out some of the cardio benefits of regular running. The advantage is that I don't have the pressure on my knee's and joints I get when  pounding on the  pavement or dirt.

While thinking about this during my workout I was reminded how much like the life of Christian discipleship  that is. Paul encourages us in Hebrews 12:1(NLT) "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us." In The Message it is even stronger - "Do you see what this means-all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running-and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins."

Running the race in life is just like running in the pool. Our forward progress in living the life of discipleship is constantly resisted. It is resisted by our own lack of faith. It is resisted by those around us who don't understand our journey. Most importantly it is resisted by Satan whose job it is to make sure we never reach the finish line where Jesus waits to reward us. Sometimes it seems that the harder we run the more resistance we meet. At this point we just need to push harder, listen to those who blazed the way who are cheering for our success and keep our eyes on the finish line. 

You can't run the race too hard, but you will lose if you fail to run at all