The Wall, My Canvas

 

"Daddy", my four year old son looked up into my eyes as he asked me one night as we were finishing story time, "Why did God let Guh Guh (Four year old for Grandma) have cancer in her body if He loves her?"

He then slipped into his nightly routine of saying his prayers and in those prayers began to ask God to take the cancer away from his Guh Guh.

I shut his bedroom door door behind me as i slipped into a quiet hallway and asked my Father a question nearly as difficult as the question that my son had asked of me.

"Father, how do I explain to my son, why you allow the things that you allow into our life?"

More specifically, "Father, how do i explain to Clark that you do love his grandma and that you loved her so much you allowed this into her life?"

How do you explain to a child or an adult for that matter a clear answer to the question, "Why God, Why?"

There are some who read this that are more mature in their Faith than I was and would say, "Dan, you have NO right to question God!!!"

Maybe not, but I did question.

This was a big blow to our close knit family, and the road through all of this for everyone was just in it's beggining stage.

Walls

 

No one asks for them and most certainly no one wants the ones that they are given.

They intrude into our normal routines and they have a tendency to bring the status quo activities of life to a screeching halt.

The Father did what the Father does anytime we go to Him for instruction. He instructed.

The Father gave me the idea of putting together a short story in the simplicity of a child like "Stick man" drawing that would bring a complex truth to a child level.

The idea was turned into a children's book called, The Man and The Wall.

That book was used in countless counseling sessions a speople were introduced to a different way of looking at the walls that God allowed into their life.  The book developed into a weekly blog that was started this past January and has been read in over 60 countries and had over 13,000 views. The e-mails have started rolling in and facebook messages from people that God is teaching through it and the ways that Father is choosing to use it blows me away!

This book was put into a short video that has been viewed now everywhere that the blog has been viewed and where this simple message is headed is absolutely beyond my capability of understanding.

The wall became something that magnifies The Creator and He is seen, not as some distant God who inflicts punishment and pain, but rather as a close friend who uses these walls to inrtoduce us to a better view of Him!

My life verse is:

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.    In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Father used this wall to open my eyes to the power of this passage. "In all thy ways (The things I do, the places I go, and the people that I meet) Acknowledge (Search for or discover) Him (God) and He (God) will direct (Lead or control) my path (Way of life or journey).

This is a wall near where I work. Someone came by and looked at this wall and left marks that detracted and discouraged people driving by. It had become a sign that the neighborhood was in decline and quite honestly it was depressing to see every day.

Then someone else came to the same wall and saw something more than just a wall. They saw an opportunity to express a creator. They took the same wall and decided to reflect something greater than themselves or even the wall itself. They took a brush and some paint and transformed the wall into a message of beauty to everyone that passed by it.

 

I have no idea who the person is that did it, and really isn't that the point of it all? It isn't about us but rather it's about Him!

 

The purpose of this blog is to help people see the walls in their lives as a choice and an opportunity.

The wall either becomes a depressing reality of a circumstance that we did not ask for or want, or it becomes a powerful opportunity to express The Creator and we see it for what it always was...an invitation to know more of Him in us!

 

What is the wall that you have on your path?

 

It is your choice what you do with it!

Climbing with you,

~Dan

 

 

 

Who Is Sitting In Your Chair?

I walked in to the salon with an extremely uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Hair salons and I have never mixed very well, and partly because of the way that I was raised.

I gave my name at the counter, took a seat by the door and amid the chatter coming from the workstations I could hear the words of my dad echoing in my head, "Son, men don't go to hair salons, they go to barbers! If it does not have a striped pole out front, a man behind the chair who smells like Brute, and a plethora of stuffed and mounted animals on the wall then you need to stay clear!"

I was sitting there in this salon, overruling these words in my mind, because my wife made me an appointment to be here, but what I did not know was that God made the appointment long before my wife had even picked up the phone.

What?

Yep, The Holy Spirit made a divine appointment at the Regis hair salon in the BelAire Mall!

Ever since i was old enough to comb my own hair, i have combed it like Elvis. I thought that he had the coolest hair, and it did not matter if it had been out of style since before I was born, I combed it and wore it proud! I do not care for his voice as a singer very much, but the man had the hair going on!

I know that this sounds crazy, but I had spent a ridiculous amount of time combing and making sure that every hair was perfectly in place.

I recently found this old picture in a box of my things where I was working an over the top Elvis pose... "Thank you, thank you very much".

This was fine if the look was Elvis in his twenties, but now I was in my mid thirties and starting to resemble the Vegas years Elvis, and "ain't nobody got time for that". I needed a change.

So here I am sitting in a hair salon waiting area, looking through all of those hair books at people that looked NOTHING like me, and wracking my brain trying to figure out a hair style to choose.

Then Joyce came around the corner and said, "Hey, you ready Mr. Daniel?"

Joyce stood out immediately because of the smile on her face and it emanated from a deeper source than just a pleasant personality or a cup of coffee that she started the day with.

I sat down in her chair and she asked me, " How old are you Mr.Daniel"?

"I'm thirty four", I replied to which she began to shake her head disapprovingly.

"Mr. Daniel, that hair has got to go! You look at least ten to fifteen years older than that and I am going to give you a beautiful haircut, because that is what I do!" she replied as she began to clip and spray.

As she cut she told me about her children and grandchildren, the things in the world that got her riled up and about the things that life had brought her way, and I just listened and felt what seemed like pounds of my hair fall to the floor.

It was the books that she had on her workstation, the window overlooking the mall where her workstation was located, the way that she phrased things and the responses that she gave to the things that she was asked by her family members that caught my attention.

We began to talk about Faith, and God, and the church and where society was headed when she just asked, "Mr.Daniel, the things we are talking about here about the Father, I don't see how people cannot see their need for Him. They walk past my window all day long and it breaks my heart sometimes to see how empty they seem."

That is when I became aware that this was no ordinary hair cut and that this was a divine appointment!

"Joyce", I asked, "What does your name mean?" (See Hello my name is)

"I don't know," She replied. " I guess i never really thought about it before."

"Your name means Beautiful", I replied.
"Joyce, look where God has placed you and what He has placed you doing. Each day you stand here and help people who come in with outdated hairstyles see themselves as beautiful when they look in the mirror. You help them see themselves the way that God has always seen them. Beautiful."

I could see the wheels turning as Joyce processed this. "Joyce, you are a beautiful person inside and out and God gave you your name and your way of thinking so that when you are surrendered to Him, you are able to express that attribute of Him to everyone that He brings to this chair and past your window. It has come out in every story you have told me about your family. They bring a hurt to you and God gives you the words to help them see beauty for ashes. What are the odds of that happening?"

Joyce lit up!

"Joyce, God made you to express to others that He is beautiful, and He gave you the skill to help people see that God made them beautiful! Not only do I look ten to fifteen years younger, but God allowed you to see that was only possible if Elvis left the building!".

The more we talked, the more obvious that it became that God had instilled within her the desire to make things beautiful since she was a little girl, and that this beautiful lady was expressing Him in ways that no building, program, sermon, or song could ever hope to.  She was just cutting hair every day and expressing Him to the people whose hair she cut.

 God has given each of us a chair, and He decides who is going to sit in that chair at any given time. For some the chair is "Parenthood", for others it is a job and the people that He brings across your path. (See "The Light that Came from Within")

He is not looking for you to "sell Him" or work whatever angle you can in order to "put someone into a relationship with Jesus today."

He does not need you to sell anything about Him or try to convince others that they need Him or that He will solve all of their problems.

He just asks you to tell others what He has done for you.

What does Jesus mean to you?

How is your life different today because you have Him than it was before you had Him?

Did you just live a life on a different moral plain or has He completely and internally re-wired the very fabric of you?

What Joyce discovered that day was the same thing that God opened my eyes to and it has changed everything about me. (See "What Is It?")

He placed her where He wanted her to shine and gave her the tools, skills, and personality to accomplish that process of "Shining". 

God did not save me to "put me to work", but rather to enable me to now be able to follow Him. He gave me the ability to surrender all of me to Him and have Him shine through me.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." ~Matthew 5:16

I want to challenge you to take another look at the chair that God has given you and then look at every way that He has equipped you to shine for Him and allow Him to shine through you today!

Everything that He has allowed into your life up until this point have simply been needed tools to perfectly equip you to be and do what He has asked you to be and do. It is not just a chair, it is an opportunity!

Climbing with you,
~Dan

Driven to Drink

"I can't do this..." He exclaimed with a cracked and trembling voice and then looked away from her and straight into my eyes before continuing. "I love her with all my heart, but she is the one who is driving me to drink."

I was asked to sit in on this meeting to help mediate and as I looked at these two people who God had made in His own image and pronounced them as "Very good", the mess of a situation across the desk from me seemed to be anything but "Very good". I had heard the phrase, "You drive me to drink" before and even heard a few song in regards to that thought, but I had never until that moment stopped to really listen to that statement.

Have you ever been pushed to your very limits edge?

Have you ever found yourself to be in the middle of a hurricane experience and looked up into the dark clouds above you where you expected to see bright blue sky and just cried out in sheer frustration?

Paul, who is accredited with speaking such powerful passages of faith in God had something to say about these seasons in life.

"For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life :" ~ 2 Corinthians 1:8

It is a bit shocking because we love to quote things like, "God will never put more on you than you can handle." as if that is Bible. I have heard people throw that out in difficult times, and I have even thrown that out there myself, but the simple fact is God DOES indeed allow times in our life that are more than we can handle.  Before you stone me as a heretic and after you are done searching through your bible to find the passage that says,

"God will never allow more on you than you can take."

just consider this thought with me please.

If there were no place where we are forced to come to a grinding halt in our own strength then there would be no place when we would ever realize that the only way we can truly make it is In the power of Christ in us.

I would venture to suggest to you that if you are in a place in life where the end of what you can do is absolutely gone, that you my friend are in need of a good drink!

So, let's take a minute and just have a drink.

 

I was told by a good friend that a life lived in the psalms will be a life lived well.

I find so much comfort in the psalms and even more so when He drives me to drink.

Did you know that God designed our ability to experience thirst?

In fact, every single thirst that we have was designed by God because every thirst that we have can only be satisfied BY God.

In the above passage, Paul goes on to say that it was the Lord that SUSTAINED them and as thought about this feeling that sometimes overwhelms even the strongest of us and the reason why we struggle I find a similar word for this in Psalms 42.

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.2   My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" ~Psalms 42:1-2

Jesus made a statement that really caught my attention.
 

"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying , If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." ~ John 7:37

 Did you notice what a person had to thirst for in order to come to Jesus? If any man thirsts for things that are good right?If any man thirsts for things that are noble, moral and good right? No.
Did you know that God designed our ability to experience thirst?

In fact, every single thirst that we have was designed by God because every thirst that we have can only be satisfied BY God. So the question is in the middle your crisis, what are you thirsting for?
What is it that you are thirsting for today?
Significance?

You can pursue any avenue you wish to try to gain this and many people do. It is a God implanted thirst, but it was planted with the only way to be satisfied being found IN Him. Our significance will only be found IN Him. If you are being driven to drink for significance, then rest assured the thirst is for Him and will be satisfied IN Him.

Intimacy?

True intimacy is not found in a relationship with anyone other than Christ. We were created to be in fellowship with Him and once we take our thirst to Him we will find fulfillment.

Security?

There has to be a time when each of us come to Him as our strength and shield. He is able to take care of us tomorrow just as He has every day leading up to today.

If you are driven to drink, understand that this is a good thing and that it is an awesome time of choice.

What source will you choose to quench that thirst.

Most people will continue to go back to the same empty wells that frustrated them before. Arms of another that will not satisfy them,substances that rob their very soul from them, faces and jobs that will continue to always hold the measuring stick of approval just out of reach.

"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." ~John 6:35

Driven to drink? This may just be the very best day of your life!


Thanks for sharing this drink with me... I feel so much more refreshed!

Climbing with you,
~Dan

God's Signature

It was a warm July afternoon and the room was full of academic scholars, financiers, and movers and shakers in the agricultural world. They were gathered in this stuffy room to watch the timid man who now made his way slowly to the lectern in front of the room. This man had some revolutionary experimental data to tell them about that would change the world and thirty minutes to tell them about it.

The man reached the podium and nervously looked down at the stack of note cards in his hands and mouthed the words "Mr.Creator, i need you now." He then laid the cards down out of sight and calmly looked up and introduced himself and began to tell these "Educated" individuals about a really, really big God and what He could do with a really, really small peanut!

George Washington Carver wanted to help Southern sharecroppers: their soil was exhausted from years and years of growing cotton and the boil weevil had destroyed thousands of acres of new crops. Mr. Carver needed to find alternative crops to restore the soil and create new markets. Carver, the President of Tuskegee Institute, turned to the Lord for help.

George Washington Carver was one of our great scientists, and he often prayed, addressing God as “Mr. Creator.”

One night he walked out into the woods and prayed, “Mr. Creator, why did you make the universe?” He listened, and this is what he heard: “Little man, that question is too big for you. Try another!”
The next night he walked into the woods and prayed, “Mr. Creator, why did you make man [meaning, the human race]?” He listened and he heard this: “Little man, that question is still too big for you. Try another!”
The third night he went into the woods and prayed, “Mr. Creator, why did you make the peanut?” This is what he heard: “Little man, that question is just your size. You listen and I will teach you.”
"Mr. Creator" did teach George and as you may already know,  God used George Washington Carver to invent some three hundred ways to use the peanut.

 In the post "Who am I and How Did I Get Here", there is passage that is discussed about God doing more with us than we could ever ask and think. George Washington Carver is an example of that passage.

I read this story and then my mind is drawn to this passage.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."  ~Psalms 19:1-6

I have had a strong desire to begin to learn Hebrew and how to read it. I have never desried to do this before, but I am drawn to it and it is just a matter of time before I find myself up to my eyebrows in the levels of this beautiful and complex language.What I have been finding is an absolutely stunning display of God in this language.

In Genesis chapter one, there is a little mark referred to as a "Yodh" that is placed in some really significant words.
 

You would pronounce it as "Yud".

The Yud in a word designates the name of God Adonai and what I find amazing is that in Genesis this little mark is in everything that is created .

As Yud is the smallest letter and powerful significance is attached to it. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus mentioned it during the mention of the Law when he says: "One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Jot, or iota, refers to the letter Yud; it was often overlooked by scribes because of its size.

As you read through Genesis one this little mark is placed within everything that God created. "Light", "firmament", and on down the line.

You find the Hebrew word for Light, and right there in the middle of that word, is one of these little marks. God's signature is on everything that He creates! His signature is in everything that He has created.

As an artist this blows me away.

You sign your name to an expression of your self that you have just created. It tells everyone who sees it, who created it and it literally shares their life with you. The art work or music is an expression of the person who created it, so in essence you are looking at their life on display.

 

 

"Father's Arms"

An Artist is defensive about their work because it is not just a picture or a piece of music that you are seeing, it is their inter most feelings and emotions on display in the image created, colors used, or notes and words arranged and on display.

Their inter most thoughts and feelings are on display for the entire world to see and hear.

Creation speaks of its creator.

"But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:  Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these things that the hand of the Lord wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." ~Job 12:7-8
 
I like the way Paul talked about us as God's masterpiece.

 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."~ Ephesians 2:10

You do not have to believe this in order for it to be true. You were hand designed by the creator, and you are an expression of Him. There are so many arenas and galleries that He designed you to be displayed in and more than ever, He wants people to see you because when you are surrendered to Him, He is on full display and when people see you they are seeing Him.

 I will praise thee; for I am fearfullyand wonderfully made : marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." ~Psalms 139:14
 
 I want to challenge you today at some point to take a moment and look in the mirror and say, "_(Your Name)____, You are God's masterpiece! You were created in His image and His signature is all over your life. He does not make junk, He made me to display Him!"
 
The gallery is full, and people are looking to see the heart of  "Mr. Creator" on display. What are you waiting for?

Climbing with you,
~Dan

Where am I and How Did I Get Here? (Pt 3)



Understanding who you are In Christ is the first step that propels you smack dab into the second step in the information "piece together" process.

This past Monday i started this three part study in a post that asked the question, WHO ARE YOU?

If you can realize who you are in Christ, there really is nothing that can rise up and take advantage of you unless you make a conscious decision to trade your established identity for one that is offered in a source other than Christ.

The day I truly looked at God as my Father was a transforming day. It was like I was given a new set of glasses to read the Bible from and I saw father and son relationship over the entire thing!

In the very first post of this blog "God's Created Picture of Us", I talked about this picture that I had drawn of my first born son and I.

It resonates with my spirit that God is my Father and He wants me to receive His love. There is nothing that He needs from me other than for me to enjoy Him and to be in His presence! He wants our fellowship to resemble this picture. A son enjoying his Father and completely secure in the fact that "Daddy" has His child safe and delights in him.

Does my your prayer life resemble this picture?

Does your conversations with the Father look anything like this image above?

This is what son ship looks like!

The next step in our identity process was to understand fully what happened when the Holy Spirit came to reside within us.

People say, "Well if God is all love then people will just go do what ever they want to do and grace becomes this limitless licence to sin!"

If the Crucifixion was the end of the story than yes it is. Jesus rose from the dead defeating sin and death and the Spirit now empowers us! You can do whatever you want, now what do you want to do?

Notice what Paul says to the Christians in Rome.

"What shall we saythen? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ? God forbid.
How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ?  Know ye not , that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed , that henceforthwe shouldnot servesin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shallalso live with him:" ~Romans 6:1-8

He explains the Spirit's role in our lives and as he writes to the Christians please notice that he never refers them to a law, but rather to the remembrance of who now indwells them. He says repeatedly through out the epistles, "Know ye not?". In other words he is asking them the same thing that this post would ask, "Don't you know" whose you are? "Don't you know" Who that makes you now?

"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"

                                                                                                            ~ Romans 6:16

 

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" ~ 1 Corinthians 3:16

In the first two posts of this series we looked at those aspects a bit more, but now that those foundations have been laid, let's look at the remainder of this passage where Paul is teaching our "Born Identity".

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." ~ Ephesians 3:17-19

The direct result of understanding who you are to Him, and who you are IN HIm is the awareness of His love for you. If you stop and just think about the dimensions of God's love for you as His child it is absolutely overwhelming because it tramples all over our paradigm of love.

God really does love you you know?

When you are filled withe understanding of His love for you as His child, your "wanter" changes. He fills you with an understanding of His love and it is not a matter of remembering a law, but rather a reflection of what you have been given that changes you. You cannot help but operate in and through that love.

 

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."~ Ephesians 3:20-21

I love the close of this passage. It prompts me to ask so many questions and the answers that come are mind blowing.

"Father, in light of who I am in you and to you, what can we do together?"

I think that i know my limitations, but God knows that I can do through Him more than I could ever think or ask of Him. God gave me "The Man and The Wall" simplistic concept and when I ask Him where He wants to go with it, He tells me so much more than a book or a weekly blog. I get goose bumps peeking in on the possibilities that He has in store for this message and the way it has and will impact His kingdom!

Climbing with you,
~Dan

 
 

Where Am I And How Did I Get Here? (Pt 2)

In the first part of this three part series we looked at the very first piece of information that helps us to find our identity In Christ.

Our true relationship to the Father.

Who are you?

I would dare say that if you were to be asked who you are, one of the very first things you would tell me right after you told me your name would be your occupation.

We tend to find our identity in what we do. This seems normal, but God did not create us to be "Human Doings", but rather He created us to be "Human Beings". If our identity is found in what we do, what we have, or what others think of us then I would venture to say that our identity has been stolen from us. Who we are is who Christ sees us to be.

I may not be the most intelligent dad, nor would I claim to be the best dad in the world. I am a dad that has set some goals to accomplish with my kids. They are not enormous and in fact I would say that the goals that I have as a Dad are remarkably simple. There are two things that I want to impart to my children before it is my time to "check out".

The first would be to teach my children how to SEE and HEAR God in their lives. If you can teach your child that, then it will never matter where they go or who they are with because they will always know that God is with them.

The second thing that I want to help them learn is who they are to Him. If they can catch that then they will never be in a situation where anyone can manipulate them  into doing something for approval, not even using God as the tool.

I have talked with a lot of people and I believe it would be safe to say that the majority of the Christians that I have spoken with are completely unaware of who they are IN Him. This is a sad statement to make, but an even sadder statement to see on full display in the world around us.

As Paul helped the Christians in Ephesus lay out their scraps of identity information on the table in front of them, he first reminded them of the relationship that they now had with God. This was not something granted by a church or any organization. It was given freely by God to us to accept and there is no power that can ever separate us from that love!

There may be people with agendas that are disappointed or frustrated because you do not gain your identity from their acceptance, but God IS your father and there are certain privileges that come with that relationship that can never ever be changed no matter what you do or do not do here on this earth! (See a list of those here)

Let's look at the next scrap of information that Paul pulls into view!

"That he (Your Father) would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;" ~Ephesians 3:16

You have an inner man! Whoa? Who is the inner man?

It is the Holy Spirit of God!!!!

Paul used the words "Chayay" and "Zoopoieo" to express this process. We translate it to our English word of "Quicken". It means to make alive, or to come to life! It is the process of our spirit coming to life IN Him! Our spirit is rejoined with God in fellowship as the Holy Spirit makes His home within our earthen temple. This is huge because it means that we are Holy!
 
Wait, wait, wait... We did not do anything yet. How can we be Holy? Don't we have to do anything to be Holy? I mean what about a list of activities to perform or abstain from?

The Holiness that we have did not originate with us, nor could we manufacture it. It came from God alone, the scandal of grace is that He gave us His Holiness.

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;"

                                                                                                           ~ Ephesians 2:1

 

"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved ;)" ~Ephesians 2:5

 

Paul goes on to add that it is God's grace that saved us.

 

Mercy is not getting something that I deserve, but Grace is me getting something that I do not deserve! It truly is amazing grace!

 

"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;" ~Colossians 2:1

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit;

                                                                                                            ~ 1 Peter 3:18 

So what does all this mean?

"Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:" ~Ephesians 1:9

Paul is essentially saying that there is no way to do His will for your life unless He is living through you. This is incredibly AWESOME!!!

His will for us is not some great "Mystery" that you have to search for your whole life hoping to find. His will is for us to be in His presence and to be seen through us and the kicker is, He is the one who teaches and leads us on how He wants us to shine and express Him!

You can live your life trying to "make" God see you as a worthy investment of His grace if you want to, and unfortunately there are a lot of people out there who are looking for just such mindsets. They have an agenda to fill, a building program to pay off, a name to make for themselves, and a multitude of reasons why they will never seek to teach who you are IN Christ. Once a person realizes who they are to Him and IN Him, then the control of that person is taken away from another human being and placed in the hands of His Holy Spirit.

He literally is able to transform you from the inside out!!!

This coming Saturday, I am looking forward to us looking at the final piece of identification that once they are all put together, reveals a picture that is absolutely amazing!!!!

Meditate on this thought today. Not only is God your Father and you now wear His name, but you have been given His Holy Spirit within you!

I cannot wait for you to see this Saturday's post as we conclude this study of who we are IN Him!

Climbing with you,
~Dan

Who am I and How Did I Get Here?

Who are you?

Your name is a big part of it (see Hello my Name is), but more than just the surface answer what I have found as I ask Christians this, is that most of them do not even know.

I had posted a two part series some time back called Born Identity and in that post I began to look at the subject of our true identity IN Christ!

There was a movie some time back called, "Bourne Identity". It was about a man named Jason Bourne.  The movie opened with the scene of a man floating in the water and when he is fished out of the water he is at a loss for who he is and how he got into the water.

This was a man who spent the entire film trying to find out who he was and how he was able to do all of the things he was able to do. He was frustrated because all he had to work with were fragments of information that were in his mind.

I have been in church my entire life and the most common thread I have seen within the walls of the church are Christians who have very much the same struggle as the fictional character Jason Bourne.

They have no clue of their identity in Christ. They are straining internally and externally to succeed at the "Christian life" and all they have to show for it at the end of the day are more questions.

They dot all of the i's and cross all of the t's. They sing the great traditional hymns of the Faith in church on Sunday and all of the contemporary classics in their car the rest of the week just to be considered balanced. They read every edition of Our Daily Toast, Swords of the Father, Ehud's Dagger and every kind of Christian periodical they can find.
Standards and convictions? You betcha Stan! They got every base covered. If it's out there then they have taken a stand against it entirely or justified the portions that they allow.

They sign every "Worker's Agreement" form that their church can print out, and show up a minimum of three times a week to hear every word they can about their need for "giving God their all".
Tithing? At least 30% and you would never catch them putting an "empty envelope" in the plate just for appearance sake. No collection counter can ever accuse them of giving the "Parson's empty Packet". No Sir!

The problem is evident. They do all that they know to do and forgive my light tone on effort here, but the answer they are looking for will never be found here. True identity is NOT found in activity.

They have all of the fragments of information available, but the direct answer is rarely taught.

I know this from experience, because this was my experience.

I looked at the Spiritual Mirror (James 1 refers to the Bible as a mirror) and asked myself, "Who am I"?

Paul makes a startling statement in the book of Ephesians when he tells the Christians at Ephesus that he is praying for them. What is so startling about a person telling you that they are praying for you?

Paul gets specific. He outlines the prayer need that these Christians had. It is the same need that many Christians have today!


"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,  "~Ephesians 3:14-15

I love this passage because it reminds me of whose name I carry. In the post, "Hello my Name is",  we take a good look at our name and the significance that it bears in our individual purpose and message on this earth, but this passage goes a bit deeper in the fact that it reminds me whose name i am IN.

There are certain things that my kids have in a relationship with me as their Dad that people outside of that bod have. If you have kids of your own, then you will understand this. Just bearing the last name that has been given to them by birth automatically transfers a relationship that is unique to them. I love the fact that Paul reminds these Christians of something that we tend to forget all the time. OUR NAME.

While we, as a culture, glorify and in some cases idolize movie stars or athletic heroes it is our parents that we become. Most likely it is our father that we ultimately mold into. Our view of our heavenly "Daddy" is so crucial in our Christian development. His relationship with us completely steps outside of the bounds of our logic and He is relentless and consuming in His desire for us. The thing that makes this so hard for us to understnad is the fact that we are human and because of that it is seemingly impossible for the finite to fully explain the infinite. We do have the Holy Spirit within us to "Lead us into all truth" about Him and His love for us as our Father.

Understanding our identity starts with understanding whose name we now carry at the "New Birth" of salvation. If you are a child of the King, then it literally means that He has become your heavenly Father! The relationship drastically changed when you accepted the shed blood of Jesus as payment for your sins.

"And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying , Abba, Father."~ Galatians 4:6

Your understanding of your identity IN Christ is started with truly understanding that the relationship you have with God changed at salvation.
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to becomethe sonsof God, even to them that believe on his name: " ~John 1:12

In the blog post "What is It?", I outlined at least twenty ways in which my relationship went from separated to son when I entered the family of God. This is incredibly powerful because a proper understanding of where I stand with God will affect the way that I see Him, and the way that I see Him will drastically affect the way that I present Him and how I approach my life IN Him.

On Wednesday, I would like to continue reading Paul's prayer for these Christians and look at how the statements that are made absolutely unlock who we are In Him. Until then, can i challenge you to just ask the Holy Spirit that is within you to remind you that you are His son and daughter and to show you what that relationship looks like. He is THE PERFECT TEACHER!

Climbing with you,
~Dan