We finished 2018 $3400 in the red, so I’m asking the Board to reduce my salary from $30,000 to $26,500. Always good for me to be reminded that this is Jesus’ ministry, not Dave’s. And that He’s never failed to provide for Janet and me. Helps me to THANK Him for His genius plan, which…

you don’t really need to be reminded over and over about the sovereign reign of Jesus over every life and every thing.  But.  If your life is harrrd?  You need much-stronger medicine than a healthy devotional life, especially if you are unusually self-aware — in touch with your feelings.  If you don’t focus on Scripture…

the more we see our flesh’s pervasive influence on every area of our lives, and the root of it all — the confidence-it-knows-what’s-best.  Until we are unusually self-aware it seems normal to us, to feel like our lives are UP TO US, like we are SUPPOSED to make good decisions, and we have the wherewithal…

for followers of Jesus, seems to me, because thanking Him for the easily-thankable, obviously-thankable, reinforces control addiction, and surprisingly leads us into an INdependency that encourages God-bless-my-agenda kinda praying by believers, confident-we-know-what’s-best, confident we know how to direct the CreatorSustainer of the Universe. Thanking Jesus for the harrrd is commanded in Scripture.  Thanking Him for…

is your agenda.  Can’t have an agenda unless you’re confident-you-know-what’s-best, wise in your own eyes, leaning on your own understanding, circumstance-dependent for your joy and peace, easily irritated if anything/anyone gets in your way. Your biggest NEED today, is to follow Jesus’ agenda, which means being freshly DEAD to your own.  DEpendent, not INdependent.  Curious/expectant…

The other-worldly peace that is vastly superior to the circumstance-dependent peace provided by human understanding/wisdom that is always momentary, always fleeting, so the believer is like a wave of the sea, tossed to and fro.  Only Jesus-dependents experience this other-worldly peace. So how do I become more Jesus-dependent, more DumbSheepDave, more humble, less INdependent, less…

Because I know it’s the right thing, and I love feeling like a wonderful Christian.  Problem is, when I fail in any way, I feel like a loser/failure, and when I’m bummed by my failure, my dissatisfaction with Jesus and His imputed worthiness is EXPOSED, and I no longer imagine myself a wonderful Christian.  Grace…

they are Jesus’ problem.  You are NOT in charge of your life.  He is.  You are not alone in all that you face today.  Jesus has this.  CONFESS your lack of curiosity and expectancy as to what He does NEXT, in you, others, circumstances, so you can experience afresh the other-worldly peace that is so-vastly…

weary of confessing.  Only the proud believer.  The humble believer is focused on Jesus’ performance — the proud believer, on his own performance.  I don’t know any humble believers. — Dave McCarty, GospelFriendships To receive my Tuesday posts, email me, or subscribe to my blog: dumbsheepdave.com

You are being retrained in Jesus-dependency, and you NEED the harrrd, because easy has never done anything for your Jesus-dependency.  Why do others have easIER than you?  Domatter.  Quit focusing on them, and focus on YOUR need, due to your off-the-charts confidence-you-know-what’s-best.  This INdependence in you is being slowly rooted out, and being replaced by…