dumb sheep dave

Promoting Jesus Dependency

  • The more Jesus grows us in self-awareness,

    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…

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  • The Thanksgiving holiday is very-dangerous

    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…

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  • Worst aspect of the human condition,

    is the confidence we all have, that we know best, what’ll make us happy.  We know NOTHing about what will make us happy, but we THINK we do, leaning on our own understanding, wise in our own eyes.  Fools we are.  Only SovereignShepherdJesus knows what’s best for me. Looking back over my life, I see…

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  • Most exciting development in the Church of the greater Philly area in the last hundred years?

    For folks in the Philly area, this Nov 16 event has the potential for being the most exciting development in the Church of the greater Philly area in the last hundred years, in my not-so-humble opinion.  My longtime friend and GospelFriendships’ board member, Glenn McDowell is the co-chair of Philadelphia Gospel Movement.  I’ve been praying for…

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  • God’s grace is for strugglers,

    not for the together ones, the strong, the confident, those above reproach, qualified for leadership because the outsides of their cups are sparkling clean.  If you don’t struggle to believe Jesus is totally sovereign over every detail of your life, if you enjoy everyone just as we are, and everything just as it is, if…

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  • Your biggest problem today,

    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…

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  • Getting-or-wanting-my-way is a curse,

    Getting-or-wanting-my-way is a curse, not a blessing.  WHAT?  Yup.  Pathway to miserable addiction.  Getting-my-way THWARTED by Jesus, is an enormous blessing, because it opens the door to my being retrained in a much-better way of living — disillusioned in my flesh’s confidence-it-knows-what’ll-make-me-happy.  But getting-my-way thwarted by Jesus is ONLY an enormous blessing when I’m convinced…

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  • When I’d get my way,

    I used to THANK Jesus.  Or feel great, worthy.  Now I’m more likely to CONFESS that I have no clue if this is the best thing for me.  Jesus has been retraining me to distrust my flesh’s confidence-it-knows-what’s-best.  So helpful. And when I’m frustrated or impatient, I’m more-and-more aware of my flesh’s confidence-it-knows-what’s-best.  Helps me…

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  • Christians have way-too-much self-acceptance,

    for our level of self-awareness.  Self-acceptance without unusual self-awareness is what Jesus referred to as the “leaven of the Pharisees” — imagining one is a good guy, a God-follower, when in fact, we are the evil, the wicked — followers of ourselves, willful, agendafied, defensive, proud, competitive, judgmental, confident-we-know-what’s-best, wise in our own eyes, leaning…

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  • How to get peace that passes understanding.

    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…

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