The Slumber of Christianity: Awakening a Passion for Heaven on Earth

The Slumber of Christianity:
Awakening a Passion for Heaven on Earth

By Ted Dekker


Structure of the Book:

The Slumber of Christianity opens with the forward written by Randy Alcorn. The book is divided into two parts: Our Descent into Slumber and Shaking Off Our Slumber. Chapters one through seven are in part one, and chapters eight through eleven are in part two. The total number of pages is two hundred.

Synopsis of the Book:

This book is an analytical discussion with some fictional story lines. “‘Are you desperately longing for heaven?’ It’s a question that begs answering. Peter says, ‘We are looking forward to the new heavens and the new earth’(2 Peter 3:13). But, in fact, as Christians today are we? Are we actually looking forward to and longing for our eternal home?”(forward page V). Ted Dekker says, “The church today has little passion for the coming life” (forward page V). Ted gives an in-depth look of how we, as Christians and heirs of the promise, have fallen into a deep slumber. He also explains what we can do to get out of the deep slumber that we’ve allowed ourselves to slip into. “Rise up from slumber. Set your mind and heart on an inheritance that will blow your mind. Feel your heart flutter and find a new passion for life here and now. This is the call from Ted Dekker, who writes with passion and insight on the search for happiness and heaven” (forward page V). “The Carpenter from Nazareth is preparing a place for us. He knows how to build. He’s constructed entire worlds, billions of them. He’s going to strip the damaged paint off the old Earth, sand and refinish it, then present it magnificent and pristine. He says it will one day be our home... and His, for He will dwell there with His people, forever bringing heaven to earth(Revelation 21:3)” (forward page V). “So listen to Ted Dekker’s wake-up call. You’ll never regret the world you’ll wake up to...not in a billion years” (forward page V).

Nature of the Book:

This book is also a theological discussion with analysis of the Scripture. It also contains many allegories upon the truth of the Scripture. Ted writes, “The world’s bumper sticker reads: Life sucks, and then you die. Perhaps Christian bumper stickers should read: Life sucks, but then you find hope and you can’t wait to die” (page 15). Ted writes that one of his favorite quotes is found in The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis. Lewis writes, “Indeed if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday by the sea. We are far too easily pleased” (page 15). Ted says that our passion is not on the holiday by the sea (page 15). Ted grew up in the jungles of Indonesia with his missionary parents. There in those hot and humid jungles, Ted started his lifelong quest to discover happiness (page 18). He writes, “Later I would characterize that quest with three questions:
1. Who am I?
2. Where do I belong?
3. Am I happy?” (page 18)


Ted uses two whole chapters to describe that quest in vivid detail. He explains how he, too, fell into a slumber and what it took to wake him up out of that deep sleep. He continually, throughout his life, asks himself those three questions. Ted writes, “Let’s return to King Solomon’s simple conclusion on man’s search for happiness. It’s true, as he stated, that there is nothing better for men to do than be happy while they live and do good, for this is God’s gift to them. But we must also consider his most critical comments that lead up to this conclusion. Here in the space of one verse, the wisest man who ever lived gave us a secret that must precede any attempt by man to enjoy the gifts of God. Read: ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end’ (Eccl. 3:11)” (page 42).


After the death of his brother, Danny, Ted has discovered an answer for those three questions. He writes, “Meaning and happiness in this life are subject to meaning and happiness in the next. This was Danny’s final lesson to me. My search for happiness was and is futile unless I have the bright light of eternity to show the way. Who am I? A person destined for bliss beyond this life. Where do I belong? There, diving deep into my Creator’s lake of inexhaustible pleasures. Am I happy? Only when I embrace hope in a glorious mansion of many rooms prepared for me. For now the Comforter will ease the pain of the Fall and offer many good blessings as foretastes of my inheritance. The blessings and the gifts of this life aren’t the good news of the gospel. Our hope for life everlasting, swamped by a never-ending bliss, is the good news” (page 60-61). “My search for happiness has led me to the secret I now share with you. Life is about heaven. It is about ecstasy and great pleasure, for God is both of these. They can’t truly be found here, on earth” (page 61).

Content of the Book:

Ted uses a parable about a machine in the desert that no one knows how to work. Then one day someone discovers a great pearl and places it in the designed slot on the machine, the machine roars life. The point is this: “The machine is the heart of happiness, placed in every man and woman and child by God himself. Though it once was full of life, it has slipped into a slumber and sits in darkness. The pearl is the hope of eternity, which fuels the machine and brings it to life. No matter how man will find pleasure within its gears and contrive usefulness from its gadgets, the machine of life is destined to lie in darkness unless fueled by the pearl of great hope. But powered by that fuel, the great machine will awaken with a thunder and fill the heart with an inexhaustible awe. Happy is the man who finds a pearl of great price” (pages 77-78).

Ted also brings up a topic that a lot of people don’t like to talk about: death. Ted writes, “There is one thing in your life that will necessarily lead to death. Living” (page 82). He says we can add or shave a few years to our lives, but ultimately, we have eighty or so years to do our thing, and then we’re gone (page 82). Ted says, “In its obsession with happiness and life, our culture has locked death in a closet and tried desperately to lose the key” (page 82). He writes, “We certainly don’t treat death as the doorway into bliss” (page 82). I Corinthians 15: 54-55 says, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Jesus and His dying and being raised up again defeated death forever. Why is it that we don’t look at death in that light? To live is to die, but to die is to gain Christ.

Ted says that we have lost hope. We have taken hope and forgotten about it. He takes several passages and summarizes them into the following: “Our hope is for what is stored up for us in heaven, and in our salvation from God’s wrath, and in being like him when he appears. If our hope is for only the things our faith can give us in this life, we are to be pitied more than all men! True hope purifies us and is the source of our joy through the power of the Spirit. Love and faith spring from this hope. Departing to be with Christ is better by far than living for him on earth. Therefore, let us hold unswervingly to the hope of the afterlife lest we fall into a slumber. This is the heart of the gospel” (page94). Hebrews 6:19 says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure...”

Ted writes about how he believes we’re created to obsess and how that reflects the emotions of God. “To best understand the rightful place of our minds and affections, we must look at the affections of our Creator, because we know that we were created in his image (Gen. 1:27). This isn’t to say that he made us with two arms and two legs and one nose because he had the same, but that we were fashioned in the image of his Spirit and his mind and his heart. And the image of his emotions” (page 108-109). Ted says that hope is the greatest emotion. He writes on how we should be obsessed with God just as God is with us. Ted gives us the definition of obsession, which is a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling; broadly: compelling motivation. He uses two parables from Jesus to illustrate this point which I will elaborate later. He explains how Paul, John the Baptist, and David were all obsessed. He asks, “Is God obsessed? If you say no, either you haven’t read his story or you’ve not understood it. The only difference between his compelling motivation to live as a human and die on the cross and our own motivation is the his required no faith. But his passion far exceeded any we are even capable of in this life. God is obsessive...He is preoccupied with you. He is determined to save you from his own wrath. He has wiped out many cities to protect his own...” (page115). “Yes, God is obsessive. Many frown on that term, but our faith in part depends on it. God is obsessed, and now we, too, can be obsessed. We can preoccupy our minds with an unreasonable treasure and enamor our hearts with the hope of glory” (page115). We should be obsessed with heaven, a treasure worthy of our obsession, which I’ll explain later. Our faith is not based on reason but on hope. Basing our faith on reason has brought about our slumber (page 117-119). Colossians 1:5 says, “The faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel...” “Hope, that gift God has given us to motivate our faith, is impossible to see if the eyes of your heart are closed” (page 129).


Ted also speaks about how powerful the imagination is. He claims it is a gift from God to help us. Eugene Petersen writes in his book A Long Obedience, “Hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion or fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain...It [hope] is imagination put in the harness of faith.” Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” “Eugene Petersen... said it best in a speech he made at the 2003 Christy Awards banquet: ‘Words amputated from stories lose accuracy, lose color and energy, congeal into god talk. They are flowers that fade and grow limp. For every theologian, we need five novelists to keep the language personally relational; for every biblical scholar we need another five novelists to keep the language participatory; for every church historian the church needs another five novelists to keep us aware that we are in the story’” (pages 141-142). Jesus used stories, which were fiction to the best of our knowledge, to get His point across. Imagination is good. (I’ve included with my report an excerpt from this book, containing an excerpt from Dekker’s novel Black. Please read that to get an idea of how imagination is used to bring understanding. It is in the back of the folder.)


Evaluation:

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “[Heaven] is the only thing we were made for. And there are strange, exciting hints in the Bible that when we are drawn in, a great many other things in nature will begin to come right. The bad dream will be over; it will be morning.” This book is about awakening a passion or obsession for God and for heaven. I can sum this book up with an excerpt from Dekker’s novel Obsessed: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. A certain man learned that the treasure existed and he developed a terrible obsession to possess it. He wasted all of his wealth and secretly sold everything he had to purchase the field so that he could own the treasure. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a pearl of great price. When a man found it, he sold all that he had and purchased the pearl. Unless you, too, obsess after God’s kingdom, like this man did over his treasure, you will not find it. Knock and keep on knocking. Seek and keep on seeking. When they send you away again and again, come back and seek still again. Then you will find the treasure you seek. Parables of Jesus. Paraphrased and expanded. Found in the book of Saint Matthew.”

This book is very easy to read and further more understand.

Recommendation:

I wish I had enough money to buy this book by the bulk and pass it out to people. I really enjoyed this book, and it opened the eyes of my heart to things I’d never considered. I strongly urge all to read this book by Ted Dekker or any book written by him. This book opened my eyes and got me thinking about why I lack passion in my life at times. It made me think more about the life to come and to be thankful for it. Now I know that you’re under the impression that Christian music today lacks meaning, but I disagree with you. Here is the song Everything by Jeremy Camp, which shows the book’s point: “I tried to find anything I could to fill the void that I felt inside/ I tried to hide because I never could release the very guilt that was in my mind/ but every time that I’d trace these lines/ I’d feel like I had been so blind cause/ You are everything I hope for, everything that I breath for, everything that this heart will need. Everything that I hope for, everything that I crave/ Sometimes I feel a fight to release the grip and trust that everything will be alright/ It’s been so real to feel the peace that you give start unfolding when I let things go/ every weight that I build inside/ When I lay it down I realize that/ You are everything I hope for, everything that I breath for, everything that this heart will need. Everything that I hope for, everything that I crave/ All these pointless ties to endless lies that this temporal life will satisfy/ I hide my life in You.” I believe that song aids in getting the point across. Notice the word he uses to describe his desire for God: Crave. Desire. Passion. OBSESSION! He craves God and is obsessed with Him. He is in love with God just as God is madly, deeply, passionately, and obsessively in love with us. I think the colloquialism, “You snooze, you lose” holds true for us Christians who have fallen into a slumber. By writing this paper, “I join with all of the other voices crying in this sleepy wilderness:


Wake. Wake O Sleeper.
Open the eyes of your heart to the bliss set before you
Run your race with your eyes fixed on the goal
Embrace God; embrace love; embrace hope
Preoccupy your mind and heart with Christ in Glory
Wake, Bride of Christ, wake. The wedding feast is coming soon” (page 200).

Proverbs 10:4

An older paper I wrote:

Proverbs 10:4

"Sloth makes you poor; diligence brings wealth." (Proverbs 10:4 The Message) Proverbs 10:4 informs you that you reap what you sow, but the proverb is not just speaking of monetary rewards but of life in general. You do poorly in school and you will receive deplorable grades. You work diligently in school and you receive excellent grades. The proverb can also apply to life at home. If you do not do your job then you will forfeit you privileges. Complete your job and reap the benefits of having your privileges. If you are lazy in your spiritual race consequently your relationship with God will not be all it can be if you had worked hard and put time and effort into your relationship with God. Let's take a more in-depth look at Proverbs 10:4.


Obviously if you are lazy in school then your grades will be poor. The Bible says you will reap what you sow. Sow bad seeds and reap a distasteful harvest. You can sow bad seeds in school by being a procrastinator. Procrastinating will make you a "Stress case," says Sean Covey in his book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, "and you'll seldom be performing to your potential." Covey states later that the procrastinator's motto is "I'm going to stop procrastinating--sometime soon." Procrastinating is not the only way to receive poor grades. Getting make-up will hurt your grades. Being late to class does not speak well of your character. If you will work diligently by completing assignments ahead of time, avoiding make-up, and being on time to class you will reap the benefit of your diligent work and receive extraordinary grades.


Sowing bad seeds in your life at home will cause you to reap an unpleasant harvest. Not completing your job can cause you to lose your privileges. Being late will cause you to lose your privileges. Proverbs 3:33 reads, "The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the house of the righteous." If one will do what is required of him then he will reap the benefits of his work and receive the blessing of the Lord. Home is where the heart is!


Finally, if you are lazy in your spiritual race then you will definitely reap negative benefits. Sleeping in church or not being attentive will not bring about positive benefits. You will reap a poor relationship with the Father. Paul writes in I Corinthians 9:24-25, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last." God expects you to work hard and be prepared. How can you be prepared to win an ever-lasting crown? Hebrews 12:1 reads, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."(Italics mine) If you do as Hebrews instructs then one day the Master will say, "Well done my good and faithful servant," and you will have reaped a great harvest.


In a nutshell Proverbs 10:4 warns you that if you are lazy you will live in poverty. Work diligently and you will be wealthy. If you work hard and sow good seeds then you should expect an abundant life. The proverb applies to not only your career but applies also in school, at home, and in your spiritual life. Harriet Braniker said, "Striving for excellence motivates you…" You should always strive for excellence in everything you do. Colossians 3:17 reads, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Sweet Waters of Tranquillity (February 6th, 2002)

Sweet Waters of Tranquillity (February 6th, 2002)


When I stepped into those Sweet Waters of Tranquillity
I knew my life would forever change
For in that moment of perfect clarity
I gave You all of my heart and over it You shall reign


Coming from a broken home
I thought I was all alone
Falling faster and faster towards death
But then I found You, the Giver of Breath
You breathed into me a fresh new purpose and meaning
You made my heart Your new home, I hope I never cause Your leaving


When I stepped into those Sweet Waters of Tranquillity
I knew my life would forever change
For in that moment of perfect clarity
I gave You all of my heart and over it You shall reign


Now I know that spiritual maturity doesn’t come overnight
It’s something that comes from knowing Your Word, our luminous light
With Your self-sustaining light You are the sun, and I am the moon
Together we’ll be like a solar eclipse that is coming soon
Shining so brightly on the hearts of men they can’t hide from the sin
That is killing them slowly from within


When I stepped into those Sweet Waters of Tranquillity
I knew my life would forever change
For in that moment of perfect clarity
I gave You all of my heart and over it You shall reign

O Lord an instrument of Yours I long to be
Winning men’s hearts for You to set free
From the bondage they brought on themselves
The bondage from listening to the Evil One, Satan himself
Lord we are here to do what You want us to
Help us so that maybe we could save a few


When I stepped into those Sweet Waters of Tranquillity
I knew my life would forever change
For in that moment of perfect clarity
I gave You all of my heart and over it You shall reign

Words by Jonathan Anderson

Frustration!

Frustration! It's one of those emotions that I haven't read a lot about. What causes us to be frustrated? Is it, perhaps, that we want life to go our own way so much of the time? Could it be that people are just that: people. We are all part of this broken, beaten earth. We will experience every emotion from pain to joy and everything between the two. Frustration is something I deal with a lot. I want what my heart desires now, and I don't want to wait. I get so frustrated with God, myself, and other people. I have desires placed in my heart by God, and deep down I know one day He will honor those desires. I just get frustrated because yet again it has been revealed to me that I don't run my own life nor do I want to run my life. Frustration is a by-product of striving to achieve wholeness, perfection, and HOLINESS! I yearn to surrender my life and become WHOLLY HIS, but at the same time I'm so frustrated with my failure to do so. Thus I can determine that my own frustration is caused by none other than myself. Frustration is my wanting to take control back over from God, it's the feeling of my wrecking myself with mass devastation being the injure. I'm beginning to feel that if we just let God do as He pleases then a lot of these up-and-down times and bad emotions would flee from us in complete and utter fear. So frustration doesn't have to be a part of our lives. Let's replace it with the God who is forever matchless!

How Do You Feel About the Word of God?

How do you feel about the Word of God?

All of the following verses come from the Book of Proverbs

“He who scorns instruction will pay for it, but he who respects a command is rewarded” (13:13).

“He who ignores discipline comes to poverty and shame, but whoever heeds correction is honored” (13:18).

“A wise man fears the Lord and shuns evil, but a fool is hotheaded and reckless” (14:16).

“All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty” (14:23).

“Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord” (16:20).

“Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city” (16:22).

“Of what use is money in the hand of a fool since he has no desire to get wisdom” (17:16)?

“A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinion” (18:2).

“It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way” (19:2).

“It is to a man’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel” (20:3).

The Lark Ascending

The Lark Ascending

He rises and begins to round, He drops the silver chain of sound Of many links without a break, In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake, All intervolv’d and spreading wide, Like water-dimples down a tide Where ripple ripple overcurls And eddy into eddy whirls; A press of hurried notes that run So fleet they scarce are more than one, Yet changingly the trills repeat And linger ringing while they fleet, Sweet to the quick o’ the ear, and dear To her beyond the handmaid ear, Who sits beside our inner springs, Too often dry for this he brings, Which seems the very jet of earth At sight of sun, her musci’s mirth, As up he wings the spiral stair, A song of light, and pierces air With fountain ardor, fountain play, To reach the shining tops of day, And drink in everything discern’d An ecstasy to music turn’d, Impell’d by what his happy bill Disperses; drinking, showering still, Unthinking save that he may give His voice the outlet, there to live Renew’d in endless notes of glee, So thirsty of his voice is he, For all to hear and all to know That he is joy, awake, aglow, The tumult of the heart to hear Through pureness filter’d crystal-clear, And know the pleasure sprinkled bright By simple singing of delight, Shrill, irreflective, unrestrain’d, Rapt, ringing, on the jet sustain’d Without a break, without a fall, Sweet-silvery, sheer lyrical, Perennial, quavering up the chord Like myriad dews of sunny sward That trembling into fulness shine, And sparkle dropping argentine; Such wooing as the ear receives From zephyr caught in choric leaves Of aspens when their chattering net Is flush’d to white with shivers wet; And such the water-spirit’s chime On mountain heights in morning’s prime, Too freshly sweet to seem excess, Too animate to need a stress; But wider over many heads The starry voice ascending spreads, Awakening, as it waxes thin, The best in us to him akin; And every face to watch him rais’d, Puts on the light of children prais’d, So rich our human pleasure ripes When sweetness on sincereness pipes, Though nought be promis’d from the seas, But only a soft-ruffling breeze Sweep glittering on a still content, Serenity in ravishment. For singing till his heaven fills, ’T is love of earth that he instils, And ever winging up and up, Our valley is his golden cup, And he the wine which overflows To lift us with him as he goes: The woods and brooks, the sheep and kine He is, the hills, the human line, The meadows green, the fallows brown, The dreams of labor in the town; He sings the sap, the quicken’d veins; The wedding song of sun and rains He is, the dance of children, thanks Of sowers, shout of primrose-banks, And eye of violets while they breathe; All these the circling song will wreathe, And you shall hear the herb and tree, The better heart of men shall see, Shall feel celestially, as long As you crave nothing save the song. Was never voice of ours could say Our inmost in the sweetest way, Like yonder voice aloft, and link All hearers in the song they drink: Our wisdom speaks from failing blood, Our passion is too full in flood, We want the key of his wild note Of truthful in a tuneful throat, The song seraphically free Of taint of personality, So pure that it salutes the suns The voice of one for millions, In whom the millions rejoice For giving their one spirit voice. Yet men have we, whom we revere, Now names, and men still housing here, Whose lives, by many a battle-dint Defaced, and grinding wheels on flint, Yield substance, though they sing not, sweet For song our highest heaven to greet: Whom heavenly singing gives us new, Enspheres them brilliant in our blue, From firmest base to farthest leap, Because their love of Earth is deep, And they are warriors in accord With life to serve and pass reward, So touching purest and so heard In the brain’s reflex of yon bird; Wherefore their soul in me, or mine, Through self-forgetfulness divine, In them, that song aloft maintains, To fill the sky and thrill the plains With showerings drawn from human stores, As he to silence nearer soars, Extends the world at wings and dome, More spacious making more our home, Till lost on his aërial rings In light, and then the fancy sings.

-George Meredith

The Weight is a Gift

The Weight is a Gift

Your shoulders begin to quiver
You’re straining under a heavy load
As your knees begin to buckle
Listen to the Voice in your heart saying,


“Don’t give up now
This weight is a gift
I know your true strength
Push with all your might
I am here with you.”


Your back is breaking under the enormity
Of the mass of sadness in your chest
As you are pulled closer to the ground
Listen to the Voice calling through the sadness,


“Don’t give up now
This weight is a gift
I know your true strength
Push with all your might
I am here with you.”


The Voice calls louder now,
“This is a test of love
I have searched your heart and soul
And have found that you love Me
I am here now and forever
To help you make it through"


The weight is a gift
A gift of love
Be still for He speaks,
“Well done O faithful one.”
...the weight is gift...

Words by Jonathan Anderson

I wrote this song for someone I love who experienced a hard time and really needed some encouragement. Yeah I know it's a hard way of looking at things but how true it is! Deuteronomy 13:3 says, "The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul." And God does this to test our love for Him. And it's the bad times in life that make us who we are. James 1:12 says, "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him." So even throught the hard times God's there. ALWAYS. The Weight is A Gift is a tough song to come to terms with I suppose. A lot of people may look at those words and be like, "Who does he think he is writing something like that?" Or others may look at them and take them to heart! But one thing is for sure when the weight is on your shoulders be sure that Hope is on His way. Our Solace God is comin' again. We have been rescued, are being rescued on a daily basis, and our gonna ultimately be rescued in the Second Coming! But for now we livin' in a broken, beatin' earth with pain and sadness and evil! We are tried and tested by life! The weight bears down hard at times, but don't be scared of the night for surely the dawn will break through casting a shawdow on yesterday and all its troubles!


Be Encouraged Brothers and Sisters
Your fellow brother,
Jonathan Anderson

Putting the Kingdom Above the Booty

An excerpt from a book I'm reading called His Rules: God's Practical Road Map for Becoming and Attracting Mr. and Mrs. Right. This comes from chapter 6, Putting the Kingdom Above the Booty:"When disillusion sets in, we take directions from our upside-down road map again:


'If things don't work out the way I want, I have not found the right person: MOVE ON TO SOMEONE ELSE.' We believe that the next person will be 'the one.' It's like driving down a highway and following a sign that reads HAPPINESS IS JUST ONE EXIT AWAY, only to exit there and find another sign that says the same thing.


Why do we keep driving down these roads? Because many Christian women don't realize that they are a prize to be cherished while dating--to be unwrapped only after the wedding. And many Christian men don't know that they are to be king, prophet, and priest in their dating relationships and their marriages. A king is a leader, a prophet gives the vision, and a priest initiates worship. A man should use his leadership, vision, and initiative to keep the relationship pure, healthy, and on track. One of the greatest needs a woman has is security in a relationship. When a godly man actively leads and guides the relationship, a godly woman takes comfort in his leadership (even if he makes mistakes now and then). This is how it should be but often it isn't.


If we hope to attract the Mr. and Mrs. Right who is God's best for us, we will put God's kingdom above chasing the booty--whether that be sex, beauty, money, fame, or fantasy. We will commit to being honest about our relationships and to learning what God says about how to conduct ourselves, and then we will cling to His ways for dear life."

The Restoration of Salvation Or (My Story)

The Restoration of Salvation Or (My Story)

“The Lord will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten…” –Joel 2:25


In the second book of Joel it speaks about how if God’s people will turn back to Him He will restore them. Locusts had come and destroyed their land, and He promises to restore what they had devoured up in their destroying the land.

Now, I know you may be wondering where I am going with this talk about locusts and promises of restoration. In a metaphorical sense locusts had destroyed my life. I come from a broken home.

I have an older sister, Amanda, who is 29 with a family of her own now. I am the second oldest. Then I have a little brother and sister who are twins, and they are 18. Our parents were good parents, but in 1992 things went downhill. In October of ’92 my dad was covered up by a rock in the coal mines. He survived but by the grace of God. He was in and out of hospitals and had multiple surgeries. It was there that he developed an addiction to the pain medication. Now before this my parents were never addicts. They smoked pot and drank while in high school and occasionally afterwards. But while my dad was recovering from his accident he became addicted and thus got my mom into his addiction too. Then in 1995 he got busted for selling pot. So for the next 8 to 10 years he was in and out of jail for various things; He was an alcoholic and spent time in jail for various DUIs being one.

While he was in jail we were left with our mom, who was always gone. My older sister had already left home and had a baby when she was 17 and a senior in high school. My mom was always out late getting drugs and would stay gone for hours while it was just me and the twins at home. So you can see that at a very early age I was forced to grow up and become the man of the house. I raised my little brother and sister.

When my dad was out of jail, the various times that he was out of jail, he and my mom would fight. And with them it got physical. My younger siblings and I would just shut ourselves in a room and cry while they fought it out sometimes even on school nights. There were times when there was not a lot of food in the house because our parents wasted it on their addictions to drugs and alcohol. In 1998 we lost our house because my mom had not been paying the payments so we moved into a trailer park.

Now this all went on for years. The same old cycle over and over. My younger siblings and I just looked out for one another. But I tell you this because it is just the introduction to how things got worse and my spiritual journey has come about due to all of this.

February 8, 2001 I can remember that day like it was yesterday. I had in-school suspension that day for cutting up in class, and I had gotten sick. I checked out of school early that day and spent the rest of the day at home. My dad was out of jail at this time. Later that night my younger siblings and I were at home with our dad passed out in the living room. Our mom was at some neighbors. Then came a knock at the door, it was our friend Jesse. We answered it and he said, “Your mom is lying dead in Dee’s kitchen floor.” We woke up our dad and rushed to find her overdosed from an 80 milligram OxyContin. She had stopped breathing multiple times but the people there had brought her back. I just got my little brother and sister out of there because they were crying and really scared. The EMTs arrived and took her to the ER. Meanwhile, I called my older sister and she came and picked us up. The next day we went to visit our mom at the Detox Center. Then my sister petitioned the court to let us stay with her. And the court granted her a month I think, and then we returned to live with our parents.

One day my younger siblings and I were out playing. Our parents were not home. My little brother had falling into a creek and had gotten a little wet. So I sent him home to change. But when he got to the house there was a police officer looking for my dad to serve him some papers. He noticed my brother was wet and that we were without supervision. He rounded us all up and took us to social services. That night we spent the night in a foster home. It was the worst night of my life. I laid awake worried about my little brother and sister and our futures as my little brother cried himself to sleep beside me. Thankfully, my older sister had been reached and the next day we were given over to her in a custody hearing in court.

Things started to be better when we started living with our sister who had two kids of her own. But it was not too long before things between she and her husband started getting out of hand. The fighting physically had started between them. My sister was stressed out and put on Klonopin. She, too, became an alcoholic. She and her husband went out on each other just as my parents had. In October of 2001 my brother-in-law found out that she had been cheating on him with her high school boyfriend. The fight was so bad that the law was called. My dad was in jail again during this time. We had to go to court again and the court gave us time to find somewhere else to live because my sister was to lose physical custody. At first it looked like we were going to a foster home, but a couple in my church told us about a place called Mountain Mission School. So we applied to get into Mt. Mission which is a home, school, and church for children in situations like the one we found ourselves. So we went and took a tour of Mt. Mission and applied. We got accepted due to our dire situation. So on December 21, 2001 we left home and moved into Mt. Mission.

I had been saved when I was a little boy. But I had never been baptized. About two months into being at Mt. Mission my younger siblings and I got baptized. It was February 6, 2002 two days before a year of my mom’s overdose that my younger siblings and I accepted Christ and were baptized.

Now that would you expect to be the end of the paper. But I have found that spiritual journeys are lifelong and there is more to say.

I was in 8th grade going into Mt. Mission, but due to my own stubbornness and refusal to do my homework I failed the 8th grade that year. I passed the next year and went on to 9th grade. Then I did the same thing again and failed the 9th grade.

While at Mt. Mission I fought and fought the staff. I was disrespectful and caused problems. I had a chip on my shoulder. I was a very, very angry and bitter young boy. I felt wronged. I was hurting. I hated Mt. Mission and wanted nothing more to leave. But things at home were still the same and even worse. My older sister had gotten drunk and wrecked her car with her kids in it. She was then enrolled in Teen Challenge of Chattanooga. My brother-in-law got the kids and was still into drinking and doping too. My parents were still the same. So I had no way out but to tough it out at Mt. Mission.

I do remember a few years after being there one Sunday one staff member spoke about being broken by God. And he had us pray at the end that if we really wanted to be broken by God to pray along with him, to pray that God would take over our lives and break us. He warned that if one prayers this prayer that God would follow through. He was right. It was there that God began to slowly get my attention.

My sophomore year I was 18 which is about the time I said that prayer. That year was a tough year for me. But 19 came and it was tougher. I had been dating a girl I really loved for about 7 months. I turned 19 on May 11 of 2006 and a few weeks later on June 3 I had to have surgery for a ruptured appendix. I was still at Mt. Mission but home for summer break. So I stayed with my mom. Now she had an apartment that my dad and she had gotten together. But in April of 2006 he left her for another woman and divorced her. He had gotten out of jail that prior December. He had been somber and was doing right. But my mom was just fighting him. She stayed messed up and drunk all the time. He wanted out of that. So he left. And he has been somber now for 3 years. So when I was sick I stayed with her. She would get so messed up and just make me so mad. I was still bitter and angry. My girlfriend Maranda had broken up with me. And that had just made things worse. So I headed back to Mt. Mission that year for my junior year very angry and bitter. I goofed off more in school that year. But later on in the year I began to realize, because of Maranda, that my anger and bitterness was pushing those I love the most away from me. God had used her to show me that. She and I got back together for a little while longer. And she helped me a lot in those months. I learned a lot from her that is for sure. I ended up being in jeopardy over becoming a senior. But due to the president’s grace they let me be a senior with certain requirements. While I was 19 God got a hold of me. He showed me that I was pushing people away, that I was copping out, and that I was throwing my life away. Thankfully, he sent me people like Maranda and the staff at Mt. Mission to love me and show me what I truly looked like. And they loved me through it all.

My senior year of Mt. Mission came, and I worked hard all year. And as of May 30, 2008 I am a very proud graduate of Mt. Mission School. I guess one could say I have come a long way. But God had to kick me along at times. Now I am a freshman at Johnson Bible College and loving it!
God has restored, is restoring, and will continue to restore my life to me. Joel 2:25 means so much to me because God has followed through with that promise in my life. Metaphorically, the locusts came and robbed me of a childhood, but with my willingness to let Him work God is restoring that. I had to let go of that attitude of always wanting to be in charge and be the authority where I grew up being the authority with my younger siblings. And it is a daily battle. God is still breaking me. In love there must be a death, the death to one’s self. And that is a daily thing. I have been through a lot in my young life. I have seen things that others my age have not. But even though I had a bad childhood for the most part, I am glad I went through it all. God has brought me though it all. He used it to make me who I am today. Everything happens for a reason. God is in the business of restoration. My older sister and her husband are now happily back together with their kids doing very well in Chattanooga. My dad is living with another woman and is not married, but has been somber from pills and beer for 3 years now. The only one who has not allowed God’s work to be done in her is my mom. She is in very bad shape. She lives in a motel room. She drinks all the time and still gets messed up on various types of pills. But we pray that she will let God in and free her from those addictions! It is so hard to deal with her. None of us want anything to do with her because she is messed up more than she is straight. It is hard to deal with that, to want to shun your own mother. It just angers me that she and my dad messed things up with us and she wants to continue to do that even now that her kids are all grown. But I have learned that you cannot help people like that until they first want to help themselves.

With God’s restoration you must be willing to work with Him. He is not going to come in and take care of everything. It is going to cost you something. He expects you to do your part. With me I had to let that hurt, anger, and bitterness go and let God come and heal me. I had to forgive and go on with my life. And that is where I am now. I pray that God will continue to break me and show ways to surrender to Him. My number one goal in life is to cultivate a relationship with Christ. This paper does not tell it all for me. I could tell more and get in detail about all that has happened to me. And I would need a book to tell how God has be so good to me. Yes, the Enemy comes and steals from us sometimes, but God is faithful to repay and restore. In His salvation we find restoration of our lives, our hearts, our minds, and our souls.


“…He restores my soul…” –Psalms 23:3

A Workman Approved by God (2 Timothy 2:14-26)

A Workman Approved by God 14Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. 15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. 19Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his,"[a] and, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness." 20In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 21If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 22Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. 24And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 25Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

The Ancient Paths Or (Roads We Choose to Follow)

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls…’” -Jeremiah 6:16

I really love the above verse from Jeremiah. I read that at the beginning of a chapter of John Eldredge's book "The Way of the Wild Heart". What follows is a older blog I wrote. Yes, it's a older blog for this new blog I've created, but it is the reason for the name of my blog and it's a concept I hold dear. Hope you enjoy:


In the New Living Translation Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” Since the dawn of creation man has had a choice. Men have had a choice to do that which is right and good or that which is wrong and evil. Genesis 2:15-17 says, “The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die” (Emphasis mine). So God set before men the choice to follow the path of righteousness or path of destruction. In the next chapter, verse 6, the author says, “¼So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.” From the very beginning we chose to disobey God and travel down a treacherous and deadly path. Our society today is not all that different. Whether through greed, hatred, or pride we as a nation are choosing to travel down the wrong paths.

We live in a society of “instant everything.” Instant food, instant messaging, and instant results. The advances of our technology have put everything at our fingertips. With the click of a mouse or the push of a button, we can get what we want on-demand, overnight, or with free shipping and handling. Now these things in essence are great! But they have had a bad influence on our society. Our society, more particularly this generation of young people, has become the “me generation.” Everything is about me, myself, and I. We want what we want, and we want it now. Apple has really sold this narcissistic idea. We have the iPod whose family is the iPod SHUFFLE, iPod NANO, iPod CLASSIC, and, of course, the iPhone. We want stuff that we do not need. We are emerging as one of the greediest and most selfish generations. Greed has had its effect on the family too. Proverbs 15:27 says, “Greed brings grief to the whole family…” A greedy father will neglect his family in order to obtain wealth. The path of greed and selfishness ends in death. Romans 2:8 says, “But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.” We are called to be externally focused not selfish, greedy, and self-seeking. We have what we have so that we may share with others who are in need.

Joel Osteen writes in his new book, Become a Better You, “The Scripture says that in the last days the love of the great body of people will grow cold.” Osteen is referring to II Timothy 3: 1-5 which says, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them” (Emphasis mine).We have an innate need, in our hearts, to love and be love. But I see that love has grown cold in the United States. Mothers are neglecting their children and in some cases killing them. A woman micro-waved her newborn, and a father threw his four children, ages three months to four-years-old, off a bridge into a river. I believe love is growing cold because our society’s finding love in all the wrong places. Our society tries to find love in everything from another person to their jobs. A wife tries desperately to find love and fulfillment in her husband. A husband seeks contentment in his job by staying late and working his way up the corporate ladder. We go about searching for something that is right in front of our faces. Saint Francis of Assisi said, “What we are looking for is what is looking.” We all go around desperately searching for love while Love is looking at us the whole time. Jesus is the only way to find love that satisfies our heart’s deepest desire to be loved. Proverbs 10:12 says, “Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.”

Pride. Pride is hard to discuss because we do not know where to draw the line to determine if someone is prideful or simply just stating facts. You can be proud of your children or take pride in who you are as a person or you could be arrogant. God says in Proverbs 8:13 that He hates pride and arrogance. The epitome of arrogance and pride is the New England Patriots. Game after game the Patriots shut down their opponents. They went into Super Bowl 42 with puffed up heads and an 18-0 record. They walked out with their heads down and an 18-1 record. They bragged throughout the season and looked condescendingly at other teams. They scoffed at the other teams and built themselves up to be better than everyone else. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” Their cocky attitudes cost them the Super Bowl victory. They have become notorious for cheating too. They got wrapped up in their cockiness and thought that they could reach the top by cheating. Isaiah 25:11 says, “…God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands.” The path of arrogance and pride does not end well for anyone. God used the underdog New York Giants to give the Patriots an attitude check. Luke 14:11 says. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Emphasis mine). That verse has Super Bowl 42 written all over it.

John Waller writes in his song The Blessing, “This day You set life, You set death right before us/ This day every blessing and curse is a choice now/ And we will choose to be a blessing for life.” God has placed the paths of life and death before us. He continues to place those paths before us everyday. The path we choose will determine if we are a blessing or curse to those around us. The question is this: “Are we choosing to be a blessing for life?” Jeremiah 6:16 says, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls…’” Even though we as a nation are choosing, by greed, hatred, and pride, to travel down the wrong path; the choice is still ours upon which path we will travel. Christians especially should be seeking the narrow path of righteousness. Robert Frost said it best, “Two roads diverged in a wood and I—I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.” Christians should be leading the way in traveling the right path. The path of life has been made known to us (Psalms 16:11).