What about obedience, Dave? A friend emailed me after last week’s email about a) obey, b) believe, c) confess, and wanted me to address obedience.  I did address obedience, but it’s not real clear, I admit.  Here’s what I think about obedience: When we try to obey, follow Jesus, live the Christian life, in our…

that Jewish people invented the concept of God to make life easier?  And Jesus is a hoax?  That no God exists who is great enough to control every tiny decision of trillions and trillions of living creatures on land and sea of Planet Earth, along with all the thinking of all humans all the time? …

is being humble.  My flesh hates the lowly place, clueless place, weak place, childlike place.  So it’s initially painful when the Spirit freshly convicts me of my independence, and I’m moved from being confident, competitive JudgeDave/ShepherdDave, analyzer/critic of all, down, down, down, to lowly DumbSheepDave, pitied by the strong, but indifferent to their pity.  Enabled…

from performance/somebodiness, which is a conditional form of love, but my soul wants something better — unconditional love.  The flesh’s strategy for happiness depends on conditional love from others and self, a strategy that leaves me empty, unsatisfied.  By contrast, the Jesus-dependent’s strategy for happiness is to experience unconditional love from Jesus, and from self.  …

and everyone, including myself.  Excellent, poor, mediocre.  I love having and articulating opinions on many issues.  Makes me feel strong.  ShepherdDave.  Winner. I do not love being a dumb sheep, feeling weak, clueless, helpless, powerless.  Always needing to be rescued.  Loser.  I continue to be surprised at the strength of my hungry, needy flesh, and…

I don’t have that kind of power.  I need Jesus working in my life, to do the impossible — love/enjoy/cherish those whose values are so opposite.   So what can I do?  CONFESS my sin of unlove/contempt/ superiority/self-righteousness.  Jack Miller said the starting place for faith, is conviction of sin.  True for me.  The more the…

team leader in rural Uganda, pointed me to Jesus today, through her story. –DumbSheepDave, always needing to be reminded he’s a dumb sheep needing his ShepherdJesus On Wednesday, we headed back to the Infusion Center for Round Three of chemotherapy. School is out so the kids went to the lake with my mother for a…

pressured, with a problem to solve, like it’s up to me, or when I feel confident-but-intense in attacking the problem before me, I need the Spirit to freshly convict me of my sin of independence/self-confidence, so I’m returned to Jesus-dependency, curious and expectant to see what my ShepherdJesus does next, in me, others, circumstances.  And…

accomplishment, performance, worthiness, righteousness, I will receive love from others and from self.”  This is the unconscious lie I have believed since high school, perpetrated on me by the world we live in, outside the Church and inside too.  I never understood why I have been such an over-achiever.  I always thought it was a…

is not the devil, not my deceased dad, not others.  The chief torturer is me.  And what this tortured soul wants in this life, in my less sane moments, more than anything else in the whole wide world, is to be accepted and enjoyed by TheGreatestJerkOnThePlanetToDaveMcCarty.  Dave McCarty is a cruel taskmaster to me, and…