The Gathering Nashville – Page 37

Today @ The Gathering: Jesus Doesn’t Work For Me

We continued our present series “They Promised Me Chocolate: The True Confessions of a Disappointed Christian.”

Nothing is more disconcerting than being disappointed with God. And yet, how many people are? Even people who claim to be Christians don’t seem to really be enjoying their life with God. Part of that stems from the assumptions that we’ve been taught, the things we’ve been promised, what I call the over-hyping of God.

The truth of the matter is this: Jesus doesn’t work for you. By that I mean He doesn’t reorient the center of the world around you for your wellbeing. God doesn’t move to us. We move to Him. And as such, we need to understand that a life with God is on His terms, not our own.

Today we talked about some of the misconceptions; the five best things God never said: things we’ve been promised that God is never going to deliver on they simply aren’t true and would be harmful if applied.

If you know someone who is living with disappointment in their relationship with God; that God feels distant and non-responsive, this would be the talk to listen to. You can either listen right here on my blog, or go to iTunes and subscribe.

This Weekend @ The Gathering: The Five Best Things God Never Said

This weekend @ The Gathering we’ll be continuing our present series, “They Promised Me Chocolate.”

We’re talking about the 10 greatest disappointments I’ve ever faced, and this week we really get down to the heart of the matter.

Disappointment ultimately comes down to your relationship with God. Think about it. God can make everything go right: all your days be perfect, all your teeth be brilliantly white, all your relationships be successful, and your bank account always going up and to the right.

Everything that gets to you first goes through Him. Think of that. Nothing, no matter how bad and severe it may seem to you at the moment, gets to you at least without God’s permission. So the question is, “Is God good or not good?” And if He is good and great, how can He allow things to happen that He had promised He never would? Enter the problem.

Most people you know have a bad relationship with God based on really bad information. I call it the over-hyping and the over-selling of God: talking heads trying to make God look better and sound better than they think He really is, making promises God never made to people in order to get them to give more money, attend their church or make a public confession of Jesus as their Savior. In an effort to get people saved, we’ve told them things about God that He never promised. God never promised that if you loved Him, life would be easy. He never promised that if you would give money He would multiply it back to you and you’d be rich, or at least have all the money you ever wanted in order to buy all the things you thought you ever needed to make you happy.

God never promised that you wouldn’t get hurt, that you wouldn’t feel lonely, that you wouldn’t be betrayed. He never promised that you wouldn’t get sick, your children wouldn’t die before you, or that you wouldn’t get cancer. God never promised to give you a pass or to make your life easier if you accepted Him as your Savior.

So the question is, what did God say? And how do we reconcile our disappointments so we get the true promises God has made and understand that He can be trusted? Understand that the only thing He demands from us is our trust; not our moral perfection, not our promises to do better, not our efforts to save the world, not our attempts to fix our family, but a trust that He will always do the loving and gracious thing no matter what the circumstances.

If you know someone who is wanting to come back to their faith, maybe they are mad at God, or maybe feeling the need for God for the first time in a long time, in this world of uncertainty, this weekend would be a great weekend to come. We’ll find out the five best things God did say and build our lives around that.

Remember, disappointment is God’s way of getting us to love Him against our will. You can collect disappointments or push past them to delight. Few people do. But those who do know that it makes all the difference.

Dave Rave – 7 Best Ways to Get Even

daverave If you’ve been hurt, betrayed, fired, put out in the cold; if you’ve been lied to and hurt, then join the human race.

Let me be quick to say that in no way am I trying to diminish what you’ve gone through. It is hurtful to lose a job, to be betrayed by the very people you’ve loved and trusted, to find yourself on the outside, or to wonder where your next paycheck is going to come from. But it is something that everyone faces sooner or later.

The question is not whether you’ll be betrayed, hurt, or kicked to the curb at some point in your life. The question is what do you do to get even with those who have hurt you, deceived you, attacked you, and gone out of their way to make sure the maximum amount of damage is done to you?

You can sit and ponder about how to get even. You can sulk and become sour and cynical. Or you can get even. Here are the seven best ways I know to get even with those who have done you wrong.

Be happy. That’s right. Be happy. Smile. Accept that sometimes in life even the best people lose, and sometimes in life things aren’t fair. Accept that it’s just now your turn. Put a smile on your face. Be thankful for what you have left; your life, your health, the friends you have yet to make, the new opportunities that will now come as you’re able to spend time and energy focusing in a new direction. Just be happy. If you can’t find happiness within yourself, on your own terms, then no job or achievement will make you happy. The world is filled with really angry, wealthy, successful people.
Live well. That is, care for yourself, physically and emotionally. Don’t allow yourself to lie on the couch and feel sorry. Don’t slip into a pity party. Don’t gain weight and let flab develop around your brain. Just simply live well. Get up and go to the gym. Maybe you have extra time to focus on your physical well- being; time you’ve never had before. Just find ways to build habits into your life that you’ve let slip because you’ve been too busy trying to climb the ladder of success.
Build something. Build a new company. Build a house. Build a strategy. Build a new career. We’re builders, so build something. Just because you have to start all over again, doesn’t necessarily mean that’s a bad thing. I’ve learned at the end of every good thing is a better thing waiting to be born if we’re willing to receive it.
Help someone else who’s going through what you’ve gone through. Get outside yourself and show empathy, compassion, and caring for someone else.
Gain a reputation for being the most generous, redemptive person in the room. Just because something is taken from you, doesn’t mean you don’t have a lot left to give. Be generous, redemptive; be a healer with your words. Don’t be sour and abrasive. Gain a reputation for being the kind of person that whenever you enter the room, everyone leans forward and smiles. Add something to the conversation. Don’t always be looking for someone’s shoulder to cry on. Find someone and pat them on the back and laugh. Gain the reputation for being the kind of person people want to be like.
Be redemptive. Think about those who hurt you. Pray for them. Let them go. Don’t worry about retaliation or retribution. Let God balance the scales. Remember that God’s forgiven you much. You’ve been redeemed and graced in ways that you don’t even understand. Since God has treated you lovingly and redemptively, show that characteristic in your life with other people.
Don’t hide. One of the weirdest things we do in life is that we hide from the people who have hurt us as though we have something to be ashamed of. When you see people who have hurt you, maybe deeply, don’t go out the back door. Don’t run. Walk up to them, extend your hand, smile, lean forward. They’ll wonder what drugs you’re on or what you’ve been smoking because the normal human response is to snub people, and walk on the other side of the road. But you’re bigger and better than that. Don’t hide from people. Don’t shy away. Extend your hand. Ask how they are doing and mean it. Be compassionate and gracious.

Maybe you can think of more, but these are the best ways I know to get even. Your best defense is a life well-lived, not a score to be made even.

Veteran’s Day: The Tale of Two Citizenships

Happy Veteran’s Day to everyone out there. I know we all thank God for those who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

I can’t help but have Ft. Hood and the memorial service on my mind today. I watched the moving ceremony as thousands of members of the Ft. Hood family gathered to say good-bye to 13 of their comrades who had been murdered.

I was impressed when President Obama acknowledged that the shooter would find justice in eternity and even on this earth. I was also impressed with his insight when he said no faith condones murder and the senseless taking of life for any reason. That a loving God does not smile on such things.

A lot of people want to make it “Muslim vs. Christian” or “Muslim vs. The World.” But let’s be honest. There are enough religious nuts in every religious camp for us to point fingers at each other every day. So let’s not do that. Let’s pause for a minute and make a distinction.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I do everything I possibly can to shun religion. I think religion is harmful and painful, and can justify any kind of outrageous behavior. Religion can even be pure evil in the wrong hands. But what I do advocate as a follower of Jesus, is acknowledge that we are indeed citizens of two countries.

As a follower of Jesus, I believe I am a citizen of the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom that God Himself is building, a Kingdom characterized by redemption, reconciliation, and restoration; not war, unbridled consumption and selfishness.

I am also a citizen of The United States of America, one that has a long heritage, but one I can also acknowledge has committed many sins itself.

So here I am, a citizen of two nations: the Kingdom of God, and The Untied States of America. The question is, “Who do I owe allegiance?” And the response to that can come straight from Jesus when he said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.” So here are my thoughts on Veteran’s Day.

As a citizen of The United States of America, I have a responsibility to make of her the best I can; to be a participator, to take responsibility, to work hard, to pay my taxes, and to promote the good. My nation is, in part, mine to make or break. So in some sense, we’re all nation-makes, culture-builders who are put here to work hard and make something. That means working together: working with black, white, Asian, and any other color you can think of, for the common good. There is no conflict in this citizenship and my citizenship in the Kingdom of God.

In the Kingdom of God, it is not mine to make. It is God’s to make. The moment I think God has left the building and handed me the keys, and I’m to force-fit everyone in the world into my way of thinking, I become the problem. I’ll remember that in this Eternal Kingdom that I am a part of, that God is building it as He chooses, on His time, and in His way. I need not force anyone to give me compliance.

I don’t need to condemn, cajole, or even try to win people to Jesus. He can do all those things by Himself. What I am to do is to love in His name, be good in His name, promote welfare in His name, be a peacemaker in His name; to bring about redemption, reconciliation, and restoration in His name. I’ll let Him do the building.

So on Veteran’s day I say, “Yea God” for this great nation, and “Yea” to all my fellow citizens. Let’s make of her something worthy of the sacrifice that has been paid. And to my other Kingdom, the Eternal Kingdom of God, a city built not by the hands of man; I’ll let God do the building and I’ll do the serving.

Stop Trying To Grow Your Church

I talk to more and more pastors these days asking the question, “How do I get my church to grow?” They have conferences about how to grow your church and increase your attendance, how to be more effective and reach different people groups. The truth of the matter is, you cannot make your church grow.

That’s right. I said it. Jesus said that He would build His church; he would grow it. That doesn’t include your particular organization if that’s all your church is; your little club, or your group that you want to build so you can build buildings and fill them up, and talk at conferences, and write books about how to grow churches. That having been said, and assuming you’re not that kind of person or you wouldn’t be reading this blog, here’s what you can do.

Instead of trying to make your church grow, or your organization, or anything else, let it grow. Every living organism, church, movement, particularly the church of Jesus Christ, grows by the law of the farm, not the law of the factory.

At most of the conferences I attend, speakers speak on the basis of the law of the factory. In other words, build a great assembly-line, fill it with product and great workers and out will come really great stuff. And if you want more of the great stuff, just increase the workers, do some re-aligning, and most of all increase the speed. Nothing could be further from the truth in growing something truly important and significant.

If you’re a pastor anywhere in America trying to make your church grow, stop it. Let it grow, which means you’ve got to have good seed. That’s the gospel. It’s the best kind. It is the power of God and the salvation to everyone who believes. The gospel works on its own. All we are to do is faithfully tell the redemptive story and be forces of reconciliation.

Once you’ve planted the seed, water it. Understand that you’ll be planting it in different soils which means it’s going to grow at different rates. So give it time. Water it. Fertilize it. Create a healthy environment. Give it some time and it will grow on God’s timing, not yours.

There is nothing you can do to hurry up the growth of the spiritual organization. Yes, it is true you can slow it down and you can impede it altogether. But your job is to take away the impediments to growth: the boundaries, the walls, things that arise to keep the church from growing spontaneously as a move of God.

So here is my advice. Love people, plant the seed of the gospel, water it, wait, and let God grow the church. You’ll be happier and the result will be a lot healthier in the long term.

Today @ The Gathering – “My Family Tree Gave Me Splinters”

Today @ The Gathering We continued our current series, “They Promised Me Chocolate” with installment number 3, “My Family Tree Gave Me Splinters.”

One of the most difficult realities new face in life is that it seems as if the very people at the core of our lives, those who we should be able to trust with our well-being are sometimes the first ones who disappoint us.

It is true that the closer you let a person into your life, the more they are able to hurt you, because the closer they are to you, the more you open up to them.

We gave three reasons today why family is so hard to get right.

You can’t fix them. You are born into a family of damaged people. You marry a damaged person. You have children who get damaged. And when you wake up and realize you can’t fix yourself, much less them, life gets interesting.
You can’t fire them. You can’t send them away because they’re your family. You can’t give them a pink-slip and tell them not to come back because they are forever connected to you because they’re your family: in-laws, outlaws, aunts, uncles, cousins. And your damaged family grows as your damaged family members marry damaged people.
You can’t free yourself from their influence. This is one of the hardest things to get over, and that is to face the fact that our families pass onto us a lot of the wounded-ness and damage that they themselves bear. And so the journey to health and well-being is a challenge because we’re constantly having to face not only our own issues, but many times deal with those issues through the lens of our weird families.

We talked about the four ways in which we tend to pass on our hurt and wounded-ness to our children.

We tend to pass on our habits. For example if you smoke, it’s useless to tell your children not to smoke because they tend to imitate what their parents do. If you have a habit of flying off the handle and becoming emotional, they would tend to do the very same thing.
We tend to pass on our hang-ups. Children aren’t born prejudiced. They catch it from their parents. And their parents caught it from their parents, and it begins to spread.
We tend to pass on our hurts. It’s an interesting fact of life that the hurt we receive from those who are closest to us we tend to pass on to those who are closest to us.
We tend to pass on our history. Not only is it the habits of our parents, but the habits of our grandparents and our family tree.

The challenge is to break that cycle, to free yourself from the bondage of the past, from the heritage that you received that you did nothing to create. And while it’s not just as simple as these three things, there’s something that you can start today to break the bondage of a bad heritage.

At home I will be a healer, which is the never sour piece of our Bulldog Principle. Remember, life will consistently and without warning let you down and so will your family. But God never will. As I begin to trust Him with my family issues, I refuse to become bitter, sour, and cynical. How do I do that? I make a commitment with my words and my attitudes that I will be a healer at all times. I’ll ask myself, “Are these healing words? Is this a healing thing to do? Will everyone win if I take this course of action?”
I will be an encourager which is the never settle piece. I will constantly spur on my children, my in-laws and outlaws and encourage them. I’ll encourage them to aim high, dream big, and trust God for a big life, to never settle for second-best or half-hearted efforts. It should be our family who are our greatest cheerleaders. Often though, the sad truth is, they are not. I will break this bondage. I will be a healer with my words and attitudes, and I will be an encourager.
I will be a bridge-builder, which means I will constantly be a source of reconciliation. As the Scriptures say, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, this is how you serve God.”

Your family tree may have given you splinters. You may be living today with deep disappointments, wounds and dysfunctions that were handed down by your family. But you can break that cycle right now by re-centering your life; not with your family and their dysfunction, but with God, His goodness, and His grace that is extended to you in this moment.

This Weekend @ The Gathering: My Family Tree Gives Me Splinters

This weekend @ The Gathering we’ll be continuing our present series, “They Promised Me Chocolate” with installment number three. We’ll be turning this week, applying the Bulldog Principles (never sour, never settle, never stop) to the major disappointments that we’re bound to face. We’re going to be starting with the disappointments we face from our family.

All of us are members of families populated with messy people. The truth is, people come in one basic size: messed-up. And we’re all on the continuum between what we are and what we ought to be. We are fallen, broken, and damaged in various ways. And we bring all of our issues (spiritual, emotional, and relational) to our families.

Who of us hasn’t been in a situation where our families, instead of being the encouragers and healers that they ought to be, were the very people who wounded us the most? This is possible mainly because our family is the first place we learn how to trust, or live in suspicion.

This weekend we’re going to be talking about why our families damage us so much, how it happens, and what the solutions are. We’ll learn how to take the Bulldog Principles of trust and apply them to our family situation.

No matter how dysfunctional your family is, no matter how great the disappointments have become, your family is still your family. You will never be able to run far enough to get away from their influence. So you might as well learn the three important ways in which you can bring redemption, reconciliation, and restoration to your family. It can be done, and you can be the one who starts the process.

Remember at 9:00 and 10:30 AM this coming Sunday, we’ll be talking about family disappointments and how to remove the splinters you’ve received from your family tree. You know someone who needs the hope and encouragement that comes from gathering together. The Gathering specializes in God simple; not church complicated and our goal is to help you make the original connection or reconnect to God, yourself, others, and your place in the world.

Three Years Ago Today, We Almost Lost Paige

As I look at my calendar today, it reminds me it’s three years ago today we got the dreaded phone call that every parent cringes at but knows one day will come. That’s the call from the police to tell us that our daughter is on the way to the hospital in an ambulance, that she’s been in a wreck, her car is totaled, and they don’t know her condition.

As you can imagine, our hearts sank as we raced to the middle of nowhere, between Nashville and Chattanooga, in a desolate part of the state on a place called Monteagle Mountain. It was in a rainstorm and Paige’s truck had hydroplaned sending her down into a ravine.

By the time we got there, we were relieved to find out that she was ok; that while the car was totaled, she had been protected.

What I remember about that horrible night is this: God had someone there, an angel, to stop, take care of her, get her phone, her purse and all her personal belongings out of the car, go to the hospital, stay with her, call us, and go out of her way to make sure that our daughter was ok. I don’t know who this lady was. I don’t remember her name. I just know she was an angel.

Here is my point. All around you are guardian angels; both with skin and without, sent by God to protect you and take care of you. Be alert and aware of the amazing people God is sending into your life; people that you can’t predict where they’ll come from or how long they’ll stay; the people God will send in to your emergency moments. Be open to that.

Why is this important? Because if you live a closed-off life, sour, bitter and upset at the world because of the wrongs that have been done to you, you’ll miss your guardian angels; the people God is sending into your life to restore, to redeem, and to make right those things that are wrong.

You too will get the phone call. I may get it again myself. But I will take comfort in knowing that whatever happens to me or to my family, God is way ahead of the curve. He is already preparing angels along the way to take care, to restore, and to redeem. Yea God!

Five Best Things God Never Said, Part 5: God Never Said That it Would be Easy

Well, we’re at number five. We’ve gone through the first four and we’ve arrived at number 5, and maybe the most important one to understand, and that is God never promised that your life would be easy.

Again, there are those who promise that if you will comply to their list of best practices, things would be easy for you. As a matter of fact, some people use the Bible to prove that, out of the teaching of Genesis when Adam and Eve fell that the difficulty of life became part and parcel of their fall and the redemption that Christ achieved on the Cross corrected that little bit of human misery. But does it, and did it? Is that your experience?

Here’s what I’ve found. Nothing of significance is easy. My marriage isn’t easy. It’s difficult. Paula and I are two messed up people. To find a way to love each other beyond our own damaged and wounded emotions is hard.

I have three beautiful daughters; grown, mature, human beings that I love and respect. But raising them wasn’t easy. Dealing with their ups and downs and transitions wasn’t easy. Working to provide for my family wasn’t easy.

As a leader, putting up with the criticism and betrayal of those that I’ve given my heart to hasn’t been easy. Nothing is easy. It doesn’t matter whether God is in the equation or not.

Here’s where the real difference is. Without God life is hard. It is painful and difficult. As a matter of fact that is the objection that a lot of people give. How can there be a God and life be so difficult and painful? Why do young children die? Why do bad things happen to good people? And the response is this. If you can’t live with God in a world of pain, you’ll live in a world of pain without God. It’s not an option.

So here is what God has promised; not that life would be easy, but that it would be worth it. And that makes all the difference in the world. My marriage has sustained me. And the pain and the difficulty of staying committed to my original promise and keeping my heart turned toward Paula alone has been more than worth it.

Yes, I could have saved some money and aggravation, and having to buy a mini-van (how embarrassing) by not having kids. But then I would not have these three amazing adults in my life right now who I look up to, and who inspire me. And they’re my kids! They’ve been difficult, but more than worth it.

College was difficult; more than worth it. Seminary was difficult; more than worth it. Graduate school was difficult; more than worth it. Starting a church from scratch was difficult; more than worth it. Everything that you will cherish, everything that will last, all that will endure come at a price. But remember this: all people pay the price. Some pay a heavier price than others. God promises that if we trust Him with all of our heart, mind, and soul, and show up one day at a time, we’ll get through it and we’ll look back, and we’ll have in our lives those things of incomparable value and worth: the hard things that were more than worth it.

And remember this: there is no shortcut to anyplace worth going.

Five Best Things God Never Said, Part 4: God Never Said You Wouldn’t Lose

I’ve lived long enough to learn that people fear losing and failing almost more than anything; even to the point of being willing to fail in the very act of avoiding failing. It sounds weird, doesn’t it? But that’s real life.

Add God to the equation. People tell you that if you love God and accept Jesus into your heart, He will bless your life with an unbroken string of successes. You’ll succeed at everything; marriage, life, business. You’ll have all the money you’ll ever need. Life will go up and to the right. You’ll never lose, like other people.

Then we come to a story like Job, who lost everything he had in the span of an afternoon, except of course his own life, and his nagging wife. Stories like these fly in the face of these surface, cosmetic promises that we hear people make.

The truth is, God never promised that you wouldn’t lose, just that nothing of significance would ever be lost.

As you go through life you’ll learn a bittersweet truth: everything comes to pass; nothing comes to stay, in this life. That’s the amazing thing about Jesus, The Christ, The Anointed One. He came to redeem, restore, and reconcile so that ultimately we’d go back to God’s original idea; a world in which we would make of our lives something beautiful and creative, and it would last for eternity in beauty, truth, and amazing grace.

On this planet, if you haven’t learned yet, you will, that you’re going to lose. You’re going to lose your hair, your good looks, even your physical strength. You may lose your marriage either by divorce, separation, or death. You most definitely will lose a couple of jobs along the way. Your teams will lose, your stocks will go down, this will happen. But the promise from God abides; that though we win, we lose, we gain, and we give back, nothing of true significance will ever be lost. The people we love, our soul, the things we give away in sacrificial love: these things will abide forever.

Even Jesus said to lay up our treasures in heaven where rust, moths, and taxes can’t chip away at true wealth.

If you’re mad and upset because someone promised you that if you love God and be obedient and go to church, serve, give, and sacrifice, that God would reward you by never allowing you to lose, or at least not lose much, jettison that lie for the truth. God promised that though you’ll lose, nothing of significance will ever be lost.

Five Best Things God Never Said, Part 3: You’re Going to Get Hurt; Count on It

As a speaker for God, not only do I face people who are hostile and have no belief, but I also have as much trouble from those who have too much belief. By that I mean they over-hype God. They make promises God never made in order to either make God look better or to make their own ministries seem worth supporting. Sometimes it’s hard to know the difference.

So it’s important for me, particularly as I am on this journey at The Gathering, dealing with disappointments, to talk about the 5 best things God never said, because most people deal with the over-hyping of God. If you reject the truth about what God offers and promises, that’s one thing. But if you’re confronted with an exaggeration, a religious promise that God never made, that’s another.

So far we’ve talked about the two best things God never said. God never said that you wouldn’t feel lonely, just that you would never be alone. And God never said that you would have all you wanted, just all that you’d ever need.

So here is the third best thing God never said. God never said you wouldn’t get hurt.

We have this idea that Jesus is like a lucky charm, a rabbit’s foot, a mantra that we can whisper when we’re in desperate situations. And He would somehow come and cover us so that we wouldn’t get hurt either physically, emotionally, mentally, or relationally.

So people turn prayer into a magic chant using Jesus as the secret formula. And when He doesn’t show up, when the hurt comes, when the bad news is delivered, when the husband walks away, or the child is killed, people are left angry; not just at the situation, but at a God who promised that if they would love Him and trust Him and be good and go to church and be generous, that they would be able to avoid the hurts that other people face.

So here is the truth. God never promised you wouldn’t get hurt, just that He would get you home safely. Remember, as a Christian, we have two citizenships: one, of this earth, and our mission is to make something beautiful and redemptive of our lives; and two, we are a citizen of the life to come – eternity where there, too, we’ll be making something of our lives. The journey from here to there is always a dangerous one no matter how good you are.

Yes, we do have God’s protection. We have His promises. But the application of that protection and those promises are strictly up to God. And that requires trust. And that is the issue, isn’t it? When we’re disappointed, it’s always a matter of trust. So God asks you to trust Him, that He’ll get you home safely; that while you’ll wander through dangerous neighborhoods and go through dark periods, He is not far away. Though He may be silent, He is not still. And though He may seem distant, He is ever present. He will get you home safely. You can count on that.

Five Best Things God Never Said, Part 2: God Never Said He Was Your Santa Claus

Oftentimes to make God look better, we think, we promise things God never promised: things like an unending string of prosperity, and a life filled with all the things you’ve ever wanted.

The truth of the matter is, God never promised to give you all you wanted, no matter how you live, what you do, how much faith you have, or how much of the Bible you’ve memorized. What God does promise is that we’ll have all that we ever need. The Scriptures promise that God will supply all of our needs according to His riches and glory.

The truth is, oftentimes God does give us the things that we want, things that we don’t really need; but the extra things in life that make it a joy, and fun, and full of anticipation and surprise.

So if you have a relationship with God where you’ve been promised that God would give you all you want and that His provision of everything you want is a sign of His approval in your life, then relax. God knows exactly what you need, when you need it, and it will be there on time; maybe not early, but never late.

Remember, God never promised that you’d have all you’d ever wanted, just all that you’d ever need.

Today @ The Gathering: When a Bulldog Speaks, Listen!

Many years ago I lived in Huntsville, Alabama and while there, I worked for an engineering firm that contracted out to NASA. In the first days of my employment I met one of the most unique people I’ve every met. His name was “Bulldog.”

Bulldog was a 93 year-old janitor, which means he was born in the 1800’s in the South. And you can only imagine what atrocities he had seen.

He told stories about his grandfather being lynched when he was just a small boy; about his father being beaten and being refused admittance to the hospital just because of the color of his skin. Bulldog himself walked with a limp from a beating he had received when he was just a teenager.

Bulldog was illiterate, poor, 93 years old and worked as a janitor. Yet he was the happiest, most vibrant and radiant person I’d ever met. And to this day, I am hard-pressed to think of anyone who makes me smile more when I think of them than Bulldog did.

When I met Bulldog I was a young Christian. And I found, in Bulldog, a mature one. What I saw in him that day, that I’ve been trying to learn all these years, is to trust God with everything, all the time, without exception, no matter what the atrocity or adversity.

So today @ The Gathering we talked about what Bulldog taught me. Bulldog always quoted bits and pieces of Psalm 37. He would say the Good Lord taught not to fret, to trust and delight; to commit and be still. Out of this pattern of trust came what I call, The Bulldog Principle. There are three parts to it.

1. I will never sour. Bulldog had every reason to be bitter at the world, but he wasn’t. He was happy. Why?

Because I am loved. You and I are loved by God, and His love is always more than enough.
Because I am blessed. God’s love has brought me all of His blessings: the blessing of being alive, of being adopted, of being redeemed, forgiven; of being reconciled.
Because I am called. I have a purpose, a destiny, and a goal toward which I am moving, and one for which I’ve been well-fitted and gifted.

2. I will never settle. Why?

Because I serve a big God.
Because love always finds a way. And love is indeed God’s motivation.
Because anything is possible with this big God.

3. I will never stop. Why?

Because I have a lot to learn.
Because I have a lot to give.
Because I have work to do. I will never stop growing, never stop stretching, never stop aspiring to greatness. Why?

All as an act of trust. Trust is the thing God blesses, and the only thing God demands. Some think it’s obedience and keeping the rules. And those do have their place. But it’s trust that separates the righteous from the wicked. And it’s trust that God longs for, trust that God accepts, and trust that God rewards. Every time I’m tempted to question God or to give up and to ask a long string of “why’s,” I think of the Bulldog Principles. And I make a commitment all over again to never sour, never settle, and never stop. How about you?

The Dave Rave on The Empower Wellness Hour on WLAC Nashville

This Weekend @ The Gathering: When a Bulldog Speaks, Listen

This weekend @ The Gathering we’ll be continuing our brand new series, “They Promised Me Chocolate: The True Confessions of a Disappointed Christian.” We’re talking about pushing past disappointment to delight.

Last week we introduced this idea of disappointment; that we all get disappointed regularly. As a matter of fact God sets us up so that everything that He gives us, no matter what it is, will ultimately disappoint us. Why? Because He’s mean and cruel? No. Because He doesn’t want us to find our satisfaction and our ultimate delight in the things He provides, and fail to fall in love with Him.

We’re going to be talking about a key ingredient in your life with God. It may not be what you think. It’s something that God requires. As a matter of fact, it’s the only thing God requires.

God doesn’t require high morality. He doesn’t require perfection. He doesn’t require that we make promises that we can’t keep or make changes to our lives to make us more acceptable in His sight. He demands one thing and one thing only. With it, everything God has to offer is yours. Without it, not even God’s mercy or grace will be yours on a permanent basis. This ingredient is so important that we have to get our eyes set on it before we can move forward. It is the key to understanding what I call the bulldog principle.

This weekend we’ll be talking about a unique individual I met when I moved to Huntsville, Alabama back in 1973. He was a 93 year-old janitor who walked with a limp, was deaf in one ear, had two teeth, and was the happiest spiritual man I’ve ever met, before or since. He had something that set him apart from all the NASA engineers around.

And what I learned from “Bulldog” in those days still holds true today, so many years afterward. He had that one thing, that key ingredient, that “it” that unlocks the life with God. What is “it?” Come and find out this weekend @ The Gathering at 9:00 and 10:30 am.