dumb sheep dave

Promoting Jesus Dependency

  • I open Scripture as ShepherdDave,

    not DumbSheepDave.  Whyzat?  I hardly know how to go through my day – interact with life, as DumbSheepDave.  So unnatural, other-worldly, unAmerican, unChristian, to be weak, clueless, childlike, dependent, because everyone outside the Church and inside the Church, stresses strength, being knowledgeable/wise, adultlike, independent.  So I feel pressure when I read Scripture, to understand everything…

    ·

  • My flesh wants easy, predictable, confidence,

    so I work really hard trying to make that happen.  But Jesus keeps thwarting my plans, at times, because I need retraining in a better way to live, going forward.  And to that I say, “Whatever it takes, Lord.  I want  Jesus-dependency/humility more than anything else in this world.  Thank You for this suffering, and…

    ·

  • Believers who love to win,

    are unsatisfied with Jesus and His imputed worthiness, because we feel the need to prove ourselves winners, because we suppress how much we feel like losers, deep inside.  Until we become aware of our hidden sin of wanting worthiness of our own, we will not be emotionally-and-spiritually healthy, and until we can accept ourselves as…

    ·

  • How do I “deny myself”?

    How do I deny my agenda, my plans, my wisdom, my understanding?  How do I ASK Him about everything, and THANK Him about everything, acknowledging that I don’t know what’s best, what’s thankable?   How can I be curious and expectant about what He will do NEXT, in me, others, circumstances?   How can I be dead…

    ·

  • Forgive me, Jesus, for feeling alone

    in attacking the big challenges before me today.  Forgive me for forgetting that this is my Father’s world and the battle is the Lord’s.  Forgive me for feeling like it’s UP TO ME.  Pride.  Worldliness. –DumbSheepDave, freshly convicted of the sin of confidence/independence/worldliness, so he’s momentarily curious and expectant to see what his ShepherdJesus does…

    ·

  • You will not experience the benefit of Jesus,

    if you believe He loves you unconditionally, but you don’t love yourself unconditionally.  Pride.  Unconfessed sin/idolatry.  And if you don’t love yourself unconditionally, you won’t love others unconditionally.  Critic.  Judge.  Competitive.  Superior. ShepherdDave loves himself conditionally and others conditionally.  Perform up to expectations and expect to feel love from ShepherdDave.  But woe to you if…

    ·

  • I wanna feel vastly superior to others.

    But I know it’s wrong, so I evidently suppress this, live in denial of how competitive I am, and convince myself that I’m more humble than I am.  I’m great at spotting pride in others, but not so good spotting it in me.  Janet says, “You spot it, you got it.”  So I must be…

    ·

  • What does a humble believer look like?

    Never defensive.   Never irritated.  Always gracious.  Always thankful.  Always relaxed.  Healthy indifference to reputation, failure, success, performance, bad decisions, paying too much for something.  Not competitive: enjoys the success of others, even jerks.  Not confident s/he knows what’s best for self or others.  Healthy contentment in light of intelligence, body, coordination, health, job, possessions, home,…

    ·

  • SAVED!

    Pete is one of the nonprofit CEO’s I mentor.   Understandably excited about this conversion.  Here’s his description from his prayer letter I received this morning.   �� Dear Pray-ers, Last Thursday evening, as our last guests were leaving our Open House, Jaimee came down the hall dancing, as David must have danced in the streets of…

    ·

  • This grace-junkie is a fraud.

    I like to think that Jesus is the big deal in my life, but now I’m seeing that He’s not.  The big deal in my life is feeling superior to others, especially try-harder believers — those who are clueless as to how pharisaical they are, blind to their legalism, blind to their superficial understanding of…

    ·