How to avoid unwanted temptations in our lives (that which we bring on ourselves)

Saturday morning in men's group I had the privilege to lead and facilitate the discussion. I am very humbled by the growth and sincere faith that I am seeing with so many other men in this special group of Men of Faith.  This morning's topic was on avoiding unwanted sin in our lives.  That is, the temptations that we bring on to ourselves and how we can pave steps to in our lives to navigate around these erroneous ways.  I started the morning out by asking the men around the room to think about words in our lives:  Temptation, lust, pornography, anger, pride, forgiveness, un-forgiveness, Father, Parent, Shame and continued with a few more thoughts along the way.Realizing that the term "parent" or "Father" could be very painful for some, I asked them to think about our Father God and how much he loves us and how much he desire for us to run to him just like the father that we read about in the Prodigal son.  God desires for us to turn and repent and run to him.  He waits for us with open arms and is quick to forget and slow to anger.  For some of us, our earthly parents may have not shown the love of Christ.  For others, they may not remember their parents and for the few fortunate ones who remember loving parents who modeled Christ's love for us - count your blessings!  Come Holy Spirit come into our lives and grow us into the disciples that you want us to be.

There are some really good steps to work on daily in our lives to allow this growth to flourish:Pray continuously throughout the day,  "Matthew 6:13 (ESV) ¹³ And lead us not into temptation,  but deliver us from evil."

Use God's Word daily, "2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (ESV) ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵ We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,"  There is a very good acronym, which is MEALS, which means:  MEMORIZE, EXAMINE, APPLY, LISTEN and STUDY these words daily.  Before you say that you don't have time or it is impossible for you to do so think about all the passwords that you have to remember in our daily jaunts (come on - you can do it).  Make this a habit daily and as your put more of God's word in and less of the world's view in - see what happens in you life.  As one song puts it, "Break my heart for what breaks yours, open up my eyes...."

Know yourself (and your triggers to sin), "James 1:14 (ESV) ¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire."  For some of us this could be lust, it could be anger, it could be pride and it could be fatigue or for some others it could be a cocktail of all of the above.  Avoid these triggers at all costs.  Jesus said that if your eye offends you - pluck it out.  If you hands offends, cut it off.  I think we get the point - AVOID SIN and the Pitfalls of life.  The old saying of "the devil made me do it" is sometime lost when he doesn't even have to push us in the direction of our known weaknesses.  We can pray the armor of God on ourselves daily (Read Galatians 6).

Flee from sin (not walk, not poke around - R U N ! ! !), Verses from www.biblegateway.com on FLEEING.  When Joseph worked for Potiphar in his house and was tempted beyond what most single men could bear, he not only fled from sin, he left garments behind in order to avoid any further temptation.  God's word doesn't tell us to pretend that we have a good hold on temptation - it tells us to RUN (FLEE) don't even entertain temptation in any form (harmless flirting in improper friendships) DON'T DO IT!

Create honest accountability in your life, "James 5:16 (ESV) ¹⁶ Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working".  Let's be honest for one second here.  When you allow true accountability in your life, amazing things happen.  Seriously!  Accountability is only as good as how honest you will be.  That being said, if you hold back anything from your accountability partner(s) then you are cheating yourself and the bond of brothers that can help carry our burdens.  The thing about un-confessed sin is that it has so many repercussions, it separates us from God's holiness, from God's light in our lives and from the blessing(s) that he has planned for us.  Don't mistake my words here.  When we confess Jesus Christ as our Savior, then our sins of the past, present and future have been forgiven, are forgiven and will be forgiven.  Un-confessed sin in our lives puts us in a prison.  When we confess our sins to God and to our brothers - then we bring them into the light and then we feel God's love and mercy and we are free.  We are in the light!

Be Encouraged not discouraged, "1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV) ¹³ No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." Proverbs 3:5-6, "(ESV) ⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart,     and do not lean on your own understanding. ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."  No matter how far we have come in our spiritual growth and sanctification we have to be honest and believe that we have setbacks and continuous sin in our lives.  It is in us, that is, our old self (sin nature) versus our new selves and identity in Christ.  When we do fall, we do sin, we do mess up, do not be discouraged.  Confess and repent for our God is merciful.

Confess and Repent (turn from sin), "1 John 1:9 (ESV) ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What are some of your thoughts?

Blessings,

Dante

Are You All In?

While taking my daughter to school, I caught a morning radio show in which the hosts were talking about a recent news story of a wife who had a hidden savings account with over $800,000 in it.  The issue was that she never told her husband about it.

What was further disconcerting was that most of the female co-hosts and many of women who called in thought this was not only acceptable but smart practice.  When it comes to marriage, are we holding back or are we all in?

Don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with separate checking/saving/investing accounts and some of these women inherited money which is why it was separate in the first place.  But the overall tone of this piece was that we should hide things from our spouse to protect us "just in case."  Plus, many of the married women agreed with this idea that they needed a secret escape clause and money in case things did not work out.  Now, this could be done by both men and women, it was simply women used in this particular show.

The host tried to illustrate the point that it was not about the money but the fact that the women were keeping secrets from their spouse thus creating division and possibly mistrust in the marriage.  To this the women said that due to the current divorce rates,  they needed to not show all their cards and keep things from their husbands just in case things didn't work out.

In my opinion, this is one of the fundamental problems with societal attitudes toward marriage.  I look at my own marriage as a "burn the ships" and go "all in" type of arrangement between my wife, me and God.  There is no holding back or an escape clause because human fallibility will naturally use that as an excuse.  It's like going into a plan and expecting to fail, you will naturally hold back.  Instead, I see my role and the health of my marriage as a "succeed at all costs" arrangement and therefore have no fall back plan.  I have to give all of myself and accept the risk of being hurt, that's true intimacy.

The attitudes displayed in this radio show were not "til death do us part" but more like "til something better comes along" or things don't work out.  Maybe I'm just crazy or old fashion but I cannot understand this thought process when it comes to marriage.  You are basically setting yourself up for mistrust, suspicions and intimacy issues with your spouse.

Maybe the basic problem is that the secular culture sees marriage as a business contract and not holy matrimony?

I appreciate your thoughts and opinions?

Teach me your way, O Lord

Psalm 86:11-12

English Standard Version (ESV)

¹¹ Teach me your way, O Lord,     that I may walk in your truth;     unite my heart to fear your name. ¹² I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,     and I will glorify your name forever.

Your true identity

The past several weeks, my pastors have been focusing on true Christianity through love of others (based on 1 Corinthians 13).  Today was the final week and there was a lot of focus on how we show this love to our neighbor to our family and to our friends.  If we do not have love, then what is there to show for.  In my previous post about Identity, I talked about the problem of trying to love the body of Christ (The Church) when we cannot love our self.  The problem that we have in the body is our own identity crisis.  We are a new creation:  Ephesians 1:4-5 " For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-."  Colossians 2:13-14  "  When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross."  Colossians 3:12  "  Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." So what are we to do?  For we are all broken and sinful and continue to battle against are old flesh and against powers and principalities that desire to destroy us.  We try to do things are own way.  We hold back forgiveness.  We fail to love when Christ loved us first.  I would love to be able to tell you that I can resist all of these previous statements and that I am a mature Christian lacking none, however, I cannot.  You can ask my wife and my kids and my closest friends and accountability partners and they will all tell you that I fail regularly.  There are sometimes small victories and some good days (more like moments and minutes) that I do show signs of hope (Jesus's love shining through) but I have to admit that I get tired, selfish, hungry and angry.  I do sin every day contrary to my desire - so what hope do we have?

Our hope is not in our flesh, but in Christ Jesus.  He bore the sins of the world and took them all to the Cross.  In our sins and iniquity Christ bore all and conquered death.  For those who confess his name and bear his fruit, the Kingdom of Heaven is ours to claim.  There is no power or person that can take us away (snatch us) from the love of the Father.  We are a new creation who are called sons and daughters of God.  Galatians 3:26-27  "  You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."

Hear are some action steps for us to take:

1) Take out a piece of paper and draw a line down the center of the page  (On the left side write down this list:  Galatians 5:19-21 The Message (MSG) ^19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.).  NOW on the right side of the page, write down this list:  Galatians 5:22-26 The Message (MSG) ^22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. ^23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified. ^25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.".  Once you have done this, then check all those that apply to you and your life (your walk).  If you line up more with the left (the sinful nature - repent) if, you line up with the right, then continue to trust and obey and use your gifts to show those around you less of you and more of Jesus.

2) Get involved in a bible study (in a men or women's bible study).  Find accountability partners (those who you can be completely and bitterly honest too without being judged).  Look for mentors and look for mentees if you are bearing fruit of the Spirit.

3) Pray - continually (throughout the day)

4) Love (love others, love co-workers, love lost ones love family and love your neighbor as yourself (BUT first love yourself as a son and or daughter of God).

5)  What are some of your thoughts and ideas?

Let me know,

Dante

Identity Crisis

Recently, I had the privelege to teach our high school students in our youth group ministry.  I was asked to teach on the subject (question) of why do we need the church.  The youth Pastor played a poignant video prior to my speaking that was an interview of various students that had said why the church was irrelevant and why they were turned off by church.  The video, in my opinion, raised some really good and unfortunate honest opinions on some church members that are misguided in their relational ministries (note:  my opinion).  That being said, I began with a game (candy being the prize) and went right into various Scriptures:  1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12:5, Hebrews 10:24-25 and so on.Before this speaking engagement, I was going over my notes and timing myself for the youth pastor and scheduling.  As I was praying and reflecting I was struck by the fact that we are called (as the body of Christ) to love one another.  The thing that really struck my core is that some of us have an identity crisis, that is, that we do not love ourselves so how can we be expected to love others (encourage, comfort and urge)?  Thus, the identity crisis,  which is why my opinion is why we have problems of loving one another (because some of us cannot love ourselves).  I do not want you to take this as narcissistic or put "myself" before God's Kingdom, actually, quite the contrary.

Here is my position, we are no longer are "old-self".  We, those who profess Jesus Christ, are a new creation.  Thereby, we are now sons and daughters of God.  When we realize this fact, then we can have  a healthy identity of who we are and then we can allow the Holy Spirit to grow us into who He wants and not what we once were.  2 Corinthians 5:17  (ESV) ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.^[a]The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."  God has intended for his church to be his bride.  God has plans for us, plans to be his disciples.  He gave us the Church so that even the gates of hell could not prevail against it.  If the body is acting in the way that Jesus intended, then that is a very beautiful thing to behold and to be part of.  It is a very powerful force driven by the Holy Spirit.  Did you catch that, we are no longer ourselves (in our pain and anguish of our old sinful self) - we are now his Sons and Daughters.  We are engrafted into his family because of the love of the Father!

When the body is working together for the purposes of God's Kingdom (reaching the disconnected and growing the connected) it is such a thing of beauty.  It is powerful and it is effective in preaching and teaching God's love story - He came down, he bore our sin to death on a cross, he rose again and he now sits at the right hand of God.  Why? Because he loves us.  He loves his bride.  Why do we need community?  Why do we always ask our parents (when we were young) why?  Because they really do know better when they are showing Agape love.  As a Christian (a Christ-follower, a disciple of Christ) we can be rest-assured that Jesus loves us, that he died for us and that because of his work on the cross, we are FORGIVEN of past, present and future sins - IT IS FINISHED.  Jesus said that for a reason.  He knew that he was faithful and obedient to his Father's will.  Jesus called us to do the same for Him.  To be his disciple means more than just being a pew sitter, it means for us to move from pew sitter to heavy hitter!  Jesus gave us the Church, so we can have community with the Saints to help us carry our burdens to do His will!

Any questions?  Please let us know!

Dante

Do You Have Awesome Faith?

I'm finishing up leading a 5 week study with my churches youth group on Apologetics.  The first 4 weeks have been on dealing with questions like "Why Is There Suffering In The World"  "Can Science and Faith Co-Exist" and "Why Is Jesus The Only Way."  Most of these talks have been on truth, evidence and the logic behind what we believe as Christ followers.In the final session we are dealing with the topic of what faith really is?  

For years I was told faith and spiritual maturity was gaining more spiritual knowledge, understanding scripture and knowing my beliefs. I thought that the more certain I was about scripture, the closer I was growing to God.  Many followers need this constant study as a security blanket for their faith, I know this helps me stay on track.

But what happens when we experience life circumstances that do not line up with our beliefs?

When a faithful woman prays for years for a child only to have miscarriage after miscarriage.

God is good but why do massacres like Sandy Hook Elementary happen?  Why did innocent children need to be killed?

When you faithfully tithe for years and give to your church only to be furloughed or lose your job?

Yes, we live in a fallen world and sin is real.

But what do we do when these types of circumstances and life experiences defy our scriptural logic and faith?

What do you say to the great husband and father who spent years volunteering at church and giving his life to Christ only to have his wife die of cancer?

I believe that true faith and spiritual maturity happen when our faith answers Yes even when we don't have an understanding of what God is doing in our lives.  In the New Testament, Paul had every reason to doubt God.  He spent years being faithful, preaching and becoming one of the most prolific evangelists for Christ only to be rewarded with persecution, shipwrecks, beatings and imprisonment.  Just as many of the early Christians were martyred for their faith.

What do we do when circumstances say one thing and God's character say's another?

Maybe it's because we try to interpret God's character through our life circumstances and experiences and then try to fit our faith into that conceptual box.  When we should be interpreting our lives through God's character and having unconditionally faith that God has a plan?

When Paul was imprisoned and writing to Timothy, he didn't talk about WHAT he believed - a system or theology of rules to measure the truth.  He didn't have bulletproof, irrefutable evidence before he trusted God.  Paul walked by Faith not by sight.

Paul didn't say I know what I believe.  Paul said I know WHO I believe.  I know who HE is. 

Awesome Faith and Spiritual Maturity is not greater understanding of the word and our beliefs but unashamed confidence and trust in God regardless of our life circumstances.  This faith is shown through a unquenchable love, grace and empathy towards everyone and lived out in our daily lives and actions.

If you have to know everything and have all your questions answered before you trust in the Lord, we will never have this type of awesome faith.  We just have to start, step forward and trust in His plan.  Trust that God has the wheel.  That's easy to write but hard to live.

Sadly and authentically, I admit that I struggle with this issue myself.  Circumstances come up in life where I wish I could just forget about my fears, my finances and my doubts and just walk forward in crazy, awesome faith.  It's easy to surrender all the bad areas of our lives to Christ and become renewed but what happens when we're asked to surrender our lives in areas that are going really well: our careers, our financial security or our retirement plans?

What happens when we plan, commit and move in one direction only for God to pull at our hearts and lead us in another?

Maybe this makes sense or maybe it's just me rambling over yet another triple mocha?

I've met some people with this Awesome Faith and I wish I had it.

If you have any ideas or stories, I'd love to hear them.

- Lance

How to be a man, Part 1

This blog, www.legacydad.com,  talks a lot about manly things, dad things and building our relationship with God in order to be the man that he wants us to be.  Lance and Gary have talked in great length about their journeys (road maps) and right to passage for their kids/grandkids.  As the merchant in this group of three (one already home and two homeward bound) I have sat back and watched their progression and slowly ebbing and flowing what that will look like for my son.  I have a great dad.  A dad who taught me that a man needs to have his integrity and honor and to do what he says he is going to do.  He has taught me the value of being and living debt free.  I have not always heeded that advice, as you have read in several previous posts, but I can tell you the older that I get the more I treasure what he has instilled in me. The world (Culture) tells us their definition of what it takes to be a man.  How to be a man and the pleasures that we can have by pursuing this manly stuff.  The wisest man in the world said that without God this is all vanity.  Lance had asked our readers some things that they wanted to hear from us and the question arose on how to be man.  An excellent question if I do say so myself.  There are three things that we need to concentrate on and I will address them all here shortly, but first, I want to match some things up with Scripture.  First off, turn to John 12:26, (ESV) “26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”  Jesus was asked by religious leaders of their time what was the greatest commandments.   Without missing a step he said the first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body, soul and strength.  And the second was to love your neighbor as yourself.  All other commandments hang on these two.  Did you catch it?  As a man we not only have to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, we have to center our lives in him.  Secondly, we have to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Here is a list of traits that we think a godly man exudes: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, Citizenship, Courage, Perseverance, Loyalty, Duty, Self Service, Honor, Integrity, Grace, Justice, Humility, Mercy and Discipline.  This is a life-long process and even the best men do not always get each of these cylinders going at the same time.  However, you will note that a godly man has a humility like no other.  A spiritual maturity that can only be explained by God’s redemptive love for us.  Some can argue that these traits are inherited while others say that they are taught and others say that they can be learned.  I like to think (and believe) that when we align ourselves with God and his will, then he gives to those who love him.  In the Book of James we are told to ask for wisdom.  If we don’t have an earthly father figure (or a father that was never around or let alone a good example) then we have confidence that we have a heavenly father that loves us so much that He sent HIS ONLY son to die for us.

Here is a self-examination to see where you are at on the road to how to be a man:

1)      Know that God has made each one of us our own way.  Each one of us are fearfully and wonderfully made.  For instance, Gary rightly coined us three:  The Cowboy, The Warrior and the Merchant.  We are all different but we share the same passions.  We love, we learn, we grow and we are comfortable in our own skin.  We have to know our self.  We have to be content with who we are and where God has put us.  That doesn’t mean that we cannot strive to be better, we just have to be content with each day God has given us.  We have to respect ourselves as men.

2)      We have to know right from wrong.  C.S. Lewis has excellent books on this (read them all to find out what I mean).   We, as humans, have this inherent code of right and wrong.  If you are fortunate enough to have kids you can see that as early as of two years of age the child knows right from wrong even if they don’t know how to convey the wrong – they know.  WE have to be able to admit when we are wrong (to our neighbor), we have to confess our sins and trespasses to our God the Father.  We have to admit to those we love when we are wrong.  We have to be able to expressly state that we were wrong, that we can say “I’m Sorry” and be able to express why we are sorry.

3)      What we put in is what we get out.  This is true in mind, body and spirit.  We have to make sure that we are in God’s word daily.  We have to pray continuously.  We have to repent from sin.  To repent means to turn away from and to avoid doing it again.  That being said, many of us think that we can serve two masters, that is, that we think we can have destructive sin in our lives and yet be in fellowship with a Holy God.  That is not possible.  We have to humble ourselves.  We have to breathe in the grace of God and walk out our salvation with fear in trembling.  Knowing that we can never earn our way to heaven, we then can confidently except this amazing gift of love and after accepting this incredible gift we can find that our faith is alive in both works and deeds to give thanks for this incredible gift of love. 

4)      Has True Grit –my dad always quotes Shakespeare to me, “not a lender or borrower thee be, pay thy debts or it dulls the edge of husbandry.”  To me, this was more than just about lending money.  With my dad it meant so much more:  Character, Integrity, and so on.  We have to be willing to be the stewards that God wants us to be.  The stewards of His Time, His Treasure and His Talent.  These are all things that God, the most high, has given us.   The best way to describe integrity to you is to say how we act when no one else is around and whether or not we make the right choice.  Job puts it best in chap 29 (Read Job 29 here).

5)      Memorize and lives Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight.

6)      Have a Kingdom Purpose – It is not about us, it is about God.  The sooner that we learn that the freer we are to make a difference in the short time that God has given us.  To love our neighbor, our wives, our children and so on.  To give without expecting anything in return.  To serve as a servant leader.

7)      Know your purpose – why are we here.  What am I good at?  Where can I serve best?  What has God made me to do? 

8)      Walk with other men – no one should do this alone.  That is not God’s plan.  He wants us in community.  He is the Trinity:  God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  He knows community and he knows what we need.

9)      Take care of your vessels (body) – eat healthy, sleep healthy and make the right physical choices (exercise, diet, healthy choices).

10)   When in doubt of how to be a man pray – more to follow

Psalm 112:1-10 (ESV) The Righteous Will Never Be Moved

112 [a] Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,     who greatly delights in his commandments! 2 His offspring will be mighty in the land;     the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house,

    and his righteousness endures forever. 4 Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;     he is gracious, merciful, and righteous. 5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;     who conducts his affairs with justice.

6 For the righteous will never be moved;     he will be remembered forever. 7 He is not afraid of bad news;     his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. 8 His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,     until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.

9 He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;     his righteousness endures forever;     his horn is exalted in honor. 10 The wicked man sees it and is angry;     he gnashes his teeth and melts away;     the desire of the wicked will perish!

In order for us to move from Part 1 to Part 2 – let’s take another self test (please read Psalms 139).

More to follow on this awesome question:  How to be a man.

Thanks for the challenge!

Please give me your thoughts,

Dante

3 Reasons I’m Scared to Trust God

Imagine your dream job.  Your deepest passion.  That one thing that you would do whether you got paid or not.  The passion that would get you up at 5:00AM and keep you awake at night, full of excitement and energy.  You feel completely happy and on purpose when doing and living this dream.Now imagine God started opening doors in your life and mentors and friends started supporting you to follow this dream.

Would you have the courage to trust God’s calling and follow it?

Would you be willing to quit your job, take a lower salary or give up your family’s financial security to answer this call?

This is situation I find myself in and I’m scared to death.

Legacy Dad has always been a hobby, a side project, something to tackle full-time when I’m retired. One of those “Someday” goals.  I’ve never been serious about it.   But lately some doors opened, there’s some writing on the wall, influential people have come into my life and opportunities have been mentioned that could potentially lead me to take this thing seriously, take it to the next level and really start helping and impacting family’s everywhere.

And I’m doing everything to hold this back, put on the brakes and let my lack of faith control my life.

Reason 1:  Fear (Noise)

I would love to work full-time helping families, speaking, writing, coaching men, mentoring youth and doing work that really matters for the glory of God and his kingdom.  But the second I have those thoughts, fear and noise tell me all the logical reasons why this is not possible.

1. You’ve spent the last 15 years climbing the ladder to a healthy salary and position in your day job.  Are you going to walk away from that?
2. How would you support your family?
3. What if no one listens to you?  What if you fail?
4. You don’t have the experience, education, background, connections to make this happen?

Reason 2:  What If This Is Lance’s Plan not God’s?

This reason tells me that maybe I’m being ambitious or arrogant.  Is this what God wants or what Lance wants?

I wish God and I could meet up at Starbucks each Friday, have a triple tall, soy mocha and mastermind on my life.  We could laugh and dream and listen to Mumford and Sons playing on the sound system.  Then God would end the meeting by saying “Okay Lance, here’s what I really want you to do and here’s your 5 action steps to take over the next 90 days.  Don’t worry, it’s my plan, it will work.”

Reason 3:  Doubt

I don’t doubt God but I do doubt myself.  The voices in my head tell me that I’m not qualified, I’m too young, I don’t have enough experience, etc.  Everyone hears these voices right or maybe I need a psych consult?

I do have some ideas and solutions for these problems, but I’d love to hear from you instead?

How would you handle this situation?

Have you been in this situation?

Why do we doubt God?

Thoughts?

Lance