Can you see me?

In 1 Samuel, God finds David, a man after his own heart. He told the prophet for whom the book is named " the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (16:7). Recently, God has allowed me to experience several challenges which have brought this to life. It inspired me to write the following:

Invisibly Visible by Amon Dobbins

When you see me, do you see me, or

Do you know me before you know me

Am I a mystery worthy of mental and conversational excavation, or

Or am I just another set of behaviors for your statistics?

Can I ever truly be free from preconceived notions?

Not in this life.

What kind of programming causes us both to think we know everything

About one another without stopping to talk?

What makes you believe that I’m the exception instead of the rule?

I’m the rule in my circles.

Maybe the problem with a circle is that it always returns to itself

As opposed to reaching out.

But that’s risky, I’m liable to get my hand chopped off

But what if I don’t? What if I reach out and someone actually grasps my hand

Am I ready to grasp back, or will I recoil into my circle.

What if I reach out and grab on and that hand begins to pull me away from my circle

Will my circle pull back or give me up as a social casualty?

Can I bridge the gap, or will I be ripped apart?

The danger of choosing sides is that one side’s always the villain.

The danger with being neutral is that you become the villain to both sides.

Well, at least they agree on something.

Is it wrong I don’t care that I don’t care about not caring?

I do care about truth, about relationship, about sharing a God engineered adventure with like-minded people.

The more time you spend with different people, the more you realize that you really don’t know someone,

Until you really know someone.

If you really want to get to know someone

Take on a project together, play them in a game, talk about their dreams,

You may not like them, but at least it’s based on something.

What makes the Truth that God created each of us to be in a faultless, guiltless, relationship with Him so hard to accept?

If we have an open conversation about God will we accept the ramifications of the facts and revelation as Divine Truth?

Agreeing to disagree sucks, if there’s truth and I don’t accept it, keep arguing.

The Truth is neither subjective nor debatable; rather our perception of the Truth, at least that’s how I see it.

Let it Go

Man, it's been a minute. Gotta make more time to write. I feel led to talk about a move of God that's coming up. God is calling His children to a higher level of self-discipline. Especially His sons. He is coming for his families and want His sons to step up and become the Spiritual heads of their families. Including me. I admit, I've been slacking (note the last blog entry). I've allowed my flesh to dictate what I do instead of what the Spirit dictating what my flesh should do.

This has resulted in my eating habits getting out of hand, occasional bouts of drunkeness and pornography peeping. Shameful for a so-called man of God. Perhaps worse than all this, though, I have not spent regular time engaging my family in Bible study, even at my wife's and children's requests.

I would look around and see them doing different things, and even when God's Spirit prompted me, I excused myself from having them stop what they were doing, as well as me stopping what I was doing, to sit and dive into God's word.

I had bouts of occasional study, but nothing consistent. After last night, this will change.

Last night, I called a Bible study. I started off tense and kind of chaotic. We began doing sword drills: calling out random verses to see who could find them first and then read them. While that was going on, our old, broken camcorder began making weird noises, my daughter had to use the bathroom, my youngest son kept talking about Legos and Star Wars, my wife and I had a disagreement about the flow of the Bible study, and my oldest son got fed up and walked out of the room.

We almost gave up. Then God showed up. After having a heart to heart about what we wanted from our Bible study, and how we talk to each other, it became clear to me that my wife and I had not communicated clearly about what we wanted for our children, so we decided as a family how we wanted to do our Bible study.

We would start with sword drills, just for fun, but then focus on a verse or lesson from the Bible. Well that's what we did. I had a verse that I wanted everyone in the family to memorize:

1 Peter 2:15 "For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men."

That's a foundational verse, but the most powerful verse came from my youngest son, who was the last to share.

God led him to : Isaiah 49:15 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!"

We then talked about times we feel all alone, even in a family. The Spirit then led me to an activity. We each took turns telling each member of the family what we appreciated about them. IT WAS POWERFUL! Hearing words of encouragement, love, and honor from each other melted a lot of hostility, irritation, and distance that had built up between us.

My wife cried, my daughter cried, my youngest son laughed and cried, my oldest son and myself BARELY made it tear-free.

The lesson is MEN, lead your families in the word. You don't have to be ordained, trained, or perfect, you just have to be willing to call for it, pray about it, and lead it.