I experience whenever Your Spirit freshly convicts me of being ShepherdDave — unthankful for the harrrd in my life, and returns me to being DumbSheepDave — childlike, clueless about what’s thankable, happy, peaceful, without problems to solve, without agenda, without willfulness, looking to my ShepherdJesus to direct my next steps.  Saweeet. –DumbSheepDave, experiencing tastes of…

is a bigger deal than I think.  One way is to wait until something goes south, then notice my reaction.  To the extent that I’m bummed, is the extent to which idolatry was a bigger deal than I realized, and the Spirit a smaller deal.  Another way is to notice my feelings under pressure.  If…

Whyzat?  I must have a deep need in my soul to feel important.  Whyzat?  I must be suppressing a feeling of unimportance, of being a loser, a nobody.  Whyzat?  Must be childhood pain from not being loved unconditionally, growing up with a need to prove myself worthy of being loved, cherished, worthy in the eyes…

it’s always — without exception, because I’m confident I know what’s best for me and those I love.  IndependentDave/ShepherdDave, wise in my own eyes, leaning on my own understanding, knowing what’s thankable and what’s not, agendafied, intense, and if praying at all, am asking Jesus to bless my agenda, definitely needing the Spirit to freshly…

Whenever I’m functioning as ShepherdDave/IndependentDave, I am self-deceived about my faulty wisdom, faulty understanding, my need to be rescued from myself by my ShepherdJesus.  I think I know good from bad choices so I don’t ask Him, and I think I know what’s thankable and what’s not, so I don’t thank him, for the harrrd. …

I could never have foreseen Jesus engineering me into mentoring Christian leaders, especially a good number of CEOs of nonprofit ministries.  I enjoy it because of the leverage: I mentor one who influences many others.  Pete Hileman is one such leader, and his life is inspirational, not because of Pete, but because of Jesus.  I…

Thank You, Jesus, for the genius of Your plan for us, that includes suffering.    🙂 http://www.charismanews.com/world/41096-persecuted-pastor-saeed-abedini-leads-30-to-christ-in-iran-prison

my idols have no power over my life.  My soul is a bottomless pit of need, and what it wants, is unconditional love from Jesus, and from myself to myself.  When I’ve been freshly convicted of my sin of dissatisfaction with Jesus, dissatisfaction with His perfect plan for my day, week, month, life, and my…

is a gift from Jesus, not something I can engineer on my own.  In fact, He frequently thwarts my plans to control my life.  Jesus is in the business of retraining me in a better way to live.  Dependently on Him.  And He uses suffering to that end.  Suffering comes from His loving hand and…

for a cool, fast car, I’m not denying myself happiness. I’m denying I will FIND happiness that way. The flesh, ShepherdDave, used to have me convinced that its pathway to happiness worked. It does not. Lie. Leads to addictive behavior for a wounded soul, and I still have an open, festering wound on my soul…