all my adult life, not only to others, but to myself.  Embarrassing today to see it, but enormously freeing to embrace and enjoy myself, just as I am.   Others too, just as they are.  Circumstances too, just as they are.  I feel no pressure to be something I’m not, in my saner moments, and the…

but my heart is far from Him, when I’m leaning on my own understanding, wise in my own eyes, confident I know what’s best for me and others, pursuing my agenda, asking Him to bless my agenda, so I reach my goals, feel worthy.  When I function as an independent/shepherd/CEO, I have the name of…

just diagnosed with colon cancer.   All of World Harvest is in shock.  I’m copying his letter to his Pray-ers below, because it will point you to Jesus.  This is for your benefit, not his.  He has plenty of folks praying for him. –WeakDave, trying to promote the Jesus-dependency this friend is requesting This past…

For the past twenty years I’ve mentored this former pastor, now chaplain of a large nursing home.  Jesus is growing him wonderfully as an example of what GospelFriendships is attempting. –WeakDave, trying to get us believers to do the impossible, operate with Jesus-power — Jesus-humility and Jesus-love, so we will fruitfully love pre-believers into the…

My flesh demands that I be perfect in every decision I make.  Sometimes I’m tormented by bad decisions, even tiny ones, but I always get LIFE from good ones, big or small.  It’s easy to extend grace to someone I like who makes a bad decision, but I struggle to extend that same grace to…

This is a email prayer update I received last Thursday from a pastor I’ve mentored for twenty-five years, has an inner-city church in a store front, and lives next door. –WeakDave, trying to get Jesus to be so contagious in us believers that we love pre-believers into the Kingdom To receive my weekly updates, email…

but Jesus’ circumstances.  Designed by Him to perfectly meet my needs, His plan, His glory, and my good.  Dave is not sovereign over his life; Jesus is.  My flesh doesn’t agree, nor the devil, nor the world, and prefers me thinking of them as my circumstances, for Dave to encounter by himself, as an orphan/shepherd/CEO/arrogant/self-reliant.  Why?  So…

I mentor lots of pastors, and Paul Tripp’s story is not an unusual one, though many pastors are as clueless as Paul was.   I have not mentored Paul — just read his story.  We have come to expect/demand that our pastors be the together ones, and they had better not disappoint us, and this encourages…

to myself or others, that’s an indication that I’m ashamed of who I am, don’t feel good enough as a human being, or believer, or hubby, or dad.  Prove myself?  Winning, achieving, noticing the failure of others as a strategy to feel better about myself, and if the others are successful, any little chink in…

The idol of different.  Huh?  Wanting a change of scenery, different clothes, different car, different motorcycle, different home, different location or vacation, different/newer technology, different job, or more success or different twist to my present job, different experience, different arrangement of furniture, different wall color, different church, different self.  Be somewhere else, doing something else,…