bearing no fruit, because he doesn’t remain in the Vine.  ShepherdDave is unfruitful, non-reproducing, with pre-believers.  Uncontagious.  Boring.  Independence never produces fruit, does not reproduce.  Worldliness.  Self-reliance.  Human-powered. –ShepherdDave, needing to be convicted of the sin of independence, momentarily transformed by the Spirit into DumbSheepDave, following his ShepherdJesus, so he might be fruitful with the…

the super-hero with all the answers to all the questions about the Bible, politics, health, and all of life.  At 72, ShepherdDave really does have a lot of knowledge and therefore a lot of answers, opinions, and he’s momentarily happy when given the opportunity to express his opinion.  But he’s pathetically circumstance-dependent for his joy…

of sin as I read Scripture — especially the sin of independence/worldliness/pride, reading Scripture is as detrimental to my spiritual health as it was to the Pharisees: nurtures independence/worldliness/pride/self-confidence/self-reliance in me.  ShepherdDave. Best thing I can do when I begin reading Scripture is to ask for the Spirit afresh to use Scripture to expose the…

in order for pre-believers to believe, especially the turned-off, and more especially, the antagonistic.  If we believers were miraculously changed by You, so that we operate in out-of-character ways – amazingly humble and amazingly loving, with joy and peace that have nothing to do with our circumstances, the pre-believers around us would be wowed and…

Being in awe of human excellence – others and my own, or wanting to be in awe of my own, by assuming excellence is credited to humans achieving greatness, or a product achieving greatness.  Intermediate-awe.  Misplaced-awe.  Horizontal-awe.  Only the competitive have stupid-awe.  ShepherdDave.  Intense, prideful. Jesus-awe is recognizing that Jesus the CreatorSustainer of the Universe,…

to atheists, agnostics, Jewish folks, and others who don’t celebrate the birth of Jesus, by wishing them, “Merry Christmas”?  Should I insist everybody celebrate the birth of Jesus?  Should I pressure companies to say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”?  Or complain because they don’t?  Or try and legislate my values on others who don’t…

is transformed/overhauled by Jesus, what does that look like?  He begins to enjoy others, rather than compete with them.  His envy/competitiveness/proving-addiction begins to dissipate.  He actually begins to enjoy the competition, in sports, politics, work, church, neighborhood, family, other nations, other religions, other values,  whatever.  Enjoys their victories more and more.  Enjoys their failures/mistakes, less…

extraordinary human accomplishment, competence, excellence, somebodiness, outside the Church and inside the Church.  But human-wow fuels addiction/idolatry in ShepherdDave.  DumbSheepDave, however, is only wowed by his ShepherdJesus.  And Jesus-wow brings a.m.a.z.i.n.g peace.  Ahhh. ShepherdDave is always hyper-competitive, always looking for ways to feel superior to others at their expense, especially opponents/enemies/losers/stupids.  Amazingly, DumbSheepDave is thankful…

not something I will into existence, work on, but something done to me from Above. I get zero credit for any humility/faith that shows up in my life. I am powerless to make myself humble, loving, grateful, Jesus-like. The nicest, sweetest, kindest thing He ever does for me, is fresh conviction of sin, especially the…

without self-awareness.  Self-acceptance without self-awareness was Hitler’s plight, and other narcissists/sociopaths, and the Pharisees, and the proud/independent/self-confident/self-reliant/willful/agendafied.  The nicest, sweetest, kindest thing Jesus ever does for us kids of His, is to freshly open our eyes to be able to look inside and see how much worse we are than we previously imagined, so that,…