Your heart: God's roadtrip

So Josh,

I've driven many places, visited 45 countries, seen lots of things. And I know (as I'm sure you do) the difference between speeding through the countryside, windows down, sun shining, birds singing, your favourite song playing on the radio and being caught in rush-hour traffic in London, or Toronto, Ottawa or Cardiff. Inching. Along. Ever. So. Slowly. Oh, and it's raining, so you can hardly see anything between the window wipers swipe. Swoosh. Blindness. Swoosh. Blindness. Swoosh. Blindness. The car is getting humid. You're getting annoyed. Your head is starting to pound.

I've been read Psalm 84 all this week - every day in a different translation of the Bible. Today's turn was "The Message" (a paraphrase by this guy called Eugene Peterson). As I was reading, a verse literally stopped me in my tracks. My heart-rate actually increased as I was reading it (I love it when that happens!). The culprit for my near heart-attack was verse 5. The Psalmist is talking to God:

"And how blessed all those in whom You live, whose lives become roads You travel"

Boom! I know about us traveling life's roads. I know about God being our guide, our light, the one who never leaves us. But my life being a road God travels!?!? God taking a road trip in my life? That blows me away!
So my question to me and to you is this:

What kind of road trip is God having in your life at the moment?

Is He having the ride of His life, enjoying the freedom of the open road, speeding down your wholly clear roads? Holy clear roads? Is He loving the scenery, feeling the wind on His face, looking at the sheep running in the fields, the birds singing in the trees, the sun shining?

Or is He stuck in rush-hour traffic, in Youtown? The rain is pouring, there are pile-ups and garbage everywhere? Horns are honking and as He inches along the road of Your life, is He having to turn away from the billboards advertising those thoughts that are littering your landscape, even now?

Things such as "repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on " (Galatians 5:19-21, MSG)

You see, God wants to set you free - He wants Your landscape to be green and clear, the road smooth and straight. He says Himself:

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1 NIV)

He also promises that as we repent (which means we turn around, walk away from our sin and towards God):

"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws" (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

As God drives through this new, fresh, clean landscape he, passes through towns such as:
Love-ville, Joy-town, Peace Springs. He sees signs for Patience Village, Kindnessborough, and makes a mental note that He really wants to visit the Township of Goodness , Faithfulness-ville
Gentleness-town and the District of Self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

God is traveling your roads.
What kind of a journey is He having?
If there is junk or sin that is stopping Him from traveling to every part of your life, confess it to Him and invite Him to come in and clean everything up. Remember - you can't clean yourself up...you can only invite Him in with His all-powerful, Holy Spirit clean-up service to do what is needed. The price has already been paid - Jesus paid for your freedom when He died, thinking of you. He has paid the price to set us free! He has paid the price to set you free!

Remember:
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1 NIV)

Love you mate,

Dan

"And how blessed all those in whom You live, whose lives become roads You travel"

Lessons from Herbal Essences (How to more than just survive the summer)

So Josh,

I think I'm going crazy. Or at least you will, when I tell you what I'm going to tell you...

Shampoo has started speaking to me. In the shower. This very morning.

I hope the church leaders don't read this.

Let me explain.

You see, I was there in the shower, still half asleep when I happened to glance ahead and read the label on my wife's shampoo bottle.

You can see it in the picture - it was talking to me. Her shampoo bottle has a voice, and it's trying to sell itself to whoever is unlucky enough to read it. My wife was one such person - sucked in by the dulcet tones and sales power of a shampoo bottle. Talking to her.

WHAT THE SHAMPOO SAID TO ME
"Your colour-treated hair will love my replenishing shampoo and conditioner marriage, fused with extracts of acai berries and satin. I'll help protect your colour-treated hair because I'm packed with conditioners to help keep your hair healthy looking and truly radiant. And that's a sign of happiness"

OK, so my wife's shampoo is promising to have my back as well as bringing me happiness. Firstly, Mrs (Mr?...Ms?..do shampoo bottles have genders? - I guess that since it's pink, and belongs to my wife, let's go for Mrs)...firstly, Mrs Shampoo Bottle, what the heck are acai berries and how do you fuse them with satin? According to wikipedia, satin is a material! That's like trying to fuse denim and strawberries. I guess if you threw strawberries really hard at a pair of jeans, they might leave a bit of a stain...but I can't see how you could squeeze that into a shampoo bottle (I can see the bottle now..."fused with extracts of strawberries and denim")

Anyways, let me return from my rant against a bottle of shampoo...

The thing is that the bottle of shampoo promises me lots of stuff. And I can look at it and believe that my hair colour will stay radiant. I can look at it and believe that it is indeed packed with conditioners. I can believe I indeed will love her "replenishing shampoo and conditioner marriage.

But until I obey the instructions to "make a lush lather, make your colour treated hair happy with it, rinse & repeat" (yes, that's actually what the bottle says!) then my hair's going to look at dull and lifeless as it did before the shower.

SHAMPOO SPIRITUALITY
Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. (Philippians 2: 12-13)

"Work hard"..."God is working in you"

I put the shampoo in my hair. The shampoo does what the bottle says it will.

I work hard. God works hard.

If I do all the work, it's legalism and not love (legalism is trying to make God love me by doing all the 'right' things) .
If God does all the work, it's laziness and not love (laziness is sitting around on your butt all day doing absolutely nothing...but I'm sure you know that!)

The key is trust.

We trust that the bottle of shampoo with make my hair radiant, and we show that trust by putting it on our hair and following the instructions.

The trust results in action.

We trust that God has my best interests at heart - that He wants to lead me into holiness (make me more like Him) and that's there's nothing I can do to make myself acceptable to him - I just have to accept His free gift.

COLOUR ME HAPPY
But I can't just look at that free gift - God's grace has to make contact with my life for it to make a difference (just as that shampoo has got to make contact with my hair for it to make a difference).

Many people sit in their pews Sunday after Sunday, Wednesday after Wednesday saying:

"I believe that the shampoo can make my hair clean. I believe it can make my hair truly radiant and healthy looking, perhaps even happy"

Well not really, what they say is:

"I believe that God can make me clean. I believe He has a purpose for my life and He can make me radiant and spiritually health, perhaps even happy"

But until they take the plunge and actually receive free God's gift of grace, it's all for nothing.

Perhaps you're not there yet. Perhaps you're questioning the label and saying:

"Come on, give me a break - I've heard this sales pitch before. I'm tired of hearing it - it's so disconnected my real life...my everyday pain, my everyday anxiety, my everday worry"

Tell God that. Ask Him if He's for real. Then take time to listen - see how he responds to you.

The wonderful thing is that after applying the shampoo, after choosing God to rule your life and heal you from your sin and your crap, God says this...

"I am working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases me"(Phil 2:13)

Not only does He give you the power to do what He's created you to do. He gives you the desire. He says He will give you the desire. He will do what's necessary to make you want to serve Him. You don't even have to worry about wanting to serve Him. You don't have to drum up a happy smile when inside you're falling apart. You don't have to "pull yourself together" and just do it. Just. Trust. God. Another way the Bible puts this is in Psalm 37:4-5:

Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:

It doesn't say "try your very best and He will give your the desires of your heart"
Just delight in Him.
It doesn't say "read your bible for half an hour every day"
Just delight in Him.
It doesn't say "Stop smoking, drinking, screwing around"
Just delight in Him.

As you delight in God, He will give you your hearts desire...Himself.
HE WILL GIVE YOU HIMSELF

I mean, it'd be pretty ridiculous to think you had to first clean your hair before using Herbal Essences. The whole point of Herbal Essences is to clean your hair.

It's just as ridiculous to think we have to clean up our act before coming to God. Come to Him with all your sin, your shame, your hopelessness, your habitual sin, your dirt and scum. And let Him work on you, not just to make you clean, but to make you radiant. Holy. Just like Him.

HE WILL GIVE YOU HIMSELF

Just open the bottle, make a lush lather and massage it into your hair. The shampoo does the rest...and once you've taken the plunge and tried the shampoo once, you'll keep on coming back to it day after day after day - and your hair will become even more radiant, until it looks just like Jesus Christ's...

Check out this video called "He Never Said" by one of my favourite artists, Martyn Joseph

Lessons from the Bubble Buddy (or how to survive exams)

So Josh,

Last week I picked up a Bubble Buddy from a yard sale for about 50 cents (that's about 25p). On Sunday afternoon, I spent sometime outside with Wendy and the girls - Enya loved the Bubble Buddy - you get so much more bubble-for-your-buck than the regular bubble-blowing wand.


The deal with the Bubble Buddy
You see, the deal with the Bubble Buddy is that you press the trigger, which lowers the wand into the little pool of bubble soap at the end of the gun. Then, after the wand is loaded up, you release the trigger, which flips the wand up and simultaneously makes a fan turn for a couple of seconds. Et voila! Bubbles! The thing is, though, is that the fan runs down after a couple of seconds and the bubble soap is all used up. So, you have to keep pressing and releasing the trigger, pressing and releasing the trigger, pressing and releasing the trigger so bubbles can keep being created. It takes a little bit of effort, but its the only way to keep producing bubbles. The bubble wand needs to be recharged and the fan needs to be restarted for bubbles to keep on being made.

I think you've already had your exams, but there are a bunch of teens here who are just going into exam week. So this is for them, as well as a reminder for you.

Lingering in the bubble soap
I don't know about you, but my tendency is, when things are getting tough, to get close to God, receive from Him (dip the wand in the bubble soap) and start blowing bubbles (living in the power of the Holy Spirit). What I often forget is that I cannot blow today's bubbles on yesterday's soap, using yesterday fan. I need to put some effort in every day to make sure that I'm lingering with God (just as the bubble wand needs to linger in the bubble soap) which gives the Holy Spirit the permission to blow through my life once again, gracing this world with the bubbles of His grace, His love, and His power.

The only sadder than a Bubble Buddy (created to make bubbles) without bubbles is a Christian (created to glorify God) without the power of the Holy Spirit. You've seen them. I've seen them. They are miserable, because they are denying who they have been created to be. They are trying to do Christian things without the life-giving power. The sad thing is, that it's way too easy for me to be that person. Too often I am.

So stop exhausting yourself trying to blow bubbles. I mean, when's the last time you just lingered with God? Spent time with Him? Prayed to Him? Listened to him? Stop trying to live life in your own power. You. Can't. Do. It. Instead spend some time with God and as you get up from this time, the Holy Spirit will be blowing, you will be recharged because you will remember, exams or no exams, that God is on the throne, that He has a purpose for Your life, that He died and rose again to give you life and power in Him (click here for Romans 8:11). You will be blowing bubbles once again!


Don't forget the Bubble Buddy, buddy!
If you want to do something about this, why not take 5 minutes and visit Sacred Gateway. It's like a gateway into God's presence right at your computer screen. Alternately, check out this amazing song as you are renewed in God's presence. Don't forget, bubble blowing starts with dipping the wand in the bubble-soap.

Let's be forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air!

Love Dan

So Josh, why the "So Josh..." blog?

So Josh...I'm creating this blog for a few reasons:
1) You're in Wales, I'm in Canada - it's a way we can have our big bro / little bro chats across the pond. Mostly it'll be one way (that's the nature of blogs) but I look forward to you commenting on my chats with you, and so making it a conversation...
2) Summer's coming very soon, and I'm hoping that, in the summer months, some of the youth who I've I feel responsible over here in Canada for (and who I very much care for) will perhaps stumble across our little chats from time to time and be encouraged / challenged as a result...
3) I think that's about it really.

Love you, mate,
Dan