welcome to the hike!

Working out the call!

I currently living in Millersburg or as God whispered in me ear four years ago in PA, "the land of my Fathers!" MILLERS - burg! OK! The best way to describe my life of late, is simply "Pastor-at-Large" I live "outside the box" of our usual expectation of life, family, employment and even culture. I live, breathe, and weave around a four county area as a local missionary and have learned of so many supportive faith communities. I meet people who contact me where they are in their 'hike 'o life."

The hats I wear are that of Life Coach, Writer, Speaker, Retreat Facilitator, Pastoral Supply, Prayer Counselor and well, whatever God calls on me to do (I actually get paid to do all of these things, which is awesome, unless you are helping me with my books!) I also work to "tent-make my mission work" as a church secretary for a sweet fellowship pastored by one of my favorite seminary prof's.

So what do I want to be when I grow up? Stay tuned! The goals are big and staying solvent month by month is a huge victory, but as I see my own heart and others hearts change and grow in my daily walk, I realize, I am not working for treasures on earth....I have direct deposit above. Guess that's a pretty sweet ride! Lacing up my hiking boots...on the hike o' life!























Friday, April 1, 2011

heart check - watch out this one is gonna hurt!

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?  Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 10: 12-15 (NKJV)

 and verse 16 the topic of our heart check today.....


Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart,
 and be stiff-necked no longer

and on to the end of Deuteronomy in Chapter 30, verse 6:


And the LORD your God will
circumcise your heart
and the heart of your descendants,
to love the LORD your God
 with all your heart
and with all your soul,
that you may live.


CIRCUMCISE?

MY HEART?

OUCH!

Let's stop right here. 

Circumcism?  Isn't that only supposed to be for the men, in their "privates" to make the sign of Abraham's covenant with God to be his people?

Can you imagine how Abraham and those men in his household,
GROWN men I might add,
 first responded when they learned that this was part of being God's people? 
(Check out Genesis 17 for the origins of this)

OUCH!

But they obeyed.

Through Moses, God reveals what He desires most though, not the OUTWARD sign of male circumcism that all Jewish and most of the Christian faith practice yet today;




but the INWARD work of letting that "double edged sword" (Hebrews 4:12) of God's Word do a inner circumcism of our hearts.






OUCH!

God wants to cut away

my selfishness,

OUCH!

my pride,

OUCH!

my greed,

OUCH!

my envy,

OUCH!

and every thing that is NOT OF HIM!

OUCH, OUCH, OUCH!



But this cutting or, if you must, CIRCUMCISM, we can be emptied of the junk of the flesh
 - so there is more room for those things that are of GOD.

LOVE,

PEACE,

JOY,

PATIENCE

KINDNESS

SELF CONTROL



I could go on......

Let me just say that the Paul's whole letter to the Galations deals with this topic per say.  The first circumcism is on of the flesh, an outward sign that God's people indeed belonged to God.  A sign for others to see... if you will.

This second circumcism, the one that requires a heart check, is the circumcism that GOD will be looking for in you.  It is an INWARD SIGN and a spiritual circumcism.  I could go to Jesus talking about the pruning of the vine in John 15 or Paul's defining the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit in Galations 5:  22-23.

But here it is - GOD DOES NOT LOOK SO MUCH AT THE OUTSIDE, but the INSIDE.

He has a plan for your heart, for the heart of _________ , who you are praying for.

ARE YOU WILLING TO LET HIM have his way.....

Going back to the verse of yesterday

from 1 John 4:11

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.


and from  Gospel of John 13:35

By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love toward one another.

OUCH!

Nope, it's not easy and it's not natural

AND IT HURTS!

If you go back and review the scriptures from Deuteronomy you will see that this circumcism of our hearts is first FOR OUR GOOD, and secondly so THAT WE MAY LIVE! 

Much like a doctor telling us that due to a blockage in our physcial heart, he has to do a bypass around that blocked artery.

 WE MUST BYPASS OUR NATURAL FLESH to allow God to APPLY CHRIST so that we may live in a spiritual joy....hmmmmm

Will you allow this surgery?

We pray for each other that we allow God

with HIS SHARP INSTRUMENTS

make our hearts more like HIS.

It certainly beats the the alternative!

So today in our heart check - I am not going to provide a prayer, but suggest you just sit silently and ask GOD to work on that part of your heart that needs a little trimming today...

Keep praying for _____________ as well!

Have a great Friday - and remember as God trims up that heart of yours, it will be lighter and happier and work more like it was created to.... on that Hike O' Life!



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