Skip to main content

Heart and Flesh Cry Out: A Meditation on Passions.

When some one asks you, "What is your passion?" how do you answer that? Now seriously, what do you get just about ANGRY about when you seeing done or not being done. Your heart pounds hard when the subject is brought up in conversation. You can barely sit still when people are talking about it. Rumbling in your inner being is a desire so great that your jaws can barely hold back the eruption that comes.

What is that to you? Is it justice for the unborn? Is it Waterloo? Is it adoption? What is it to you?

For me, it's pretty simple. I love to teach the Bible. Let me say that again. I love to teach the Bible. It has been about 3 months since the last time I have stood behind a pulpit and preached a sermon or taught on a passage of Scripture,...and every day that I read passages of Scripture my heart only burns more. Cautiously since I have returned this go around from Iraq, I have made it my goal not to throw myself into the 'teaching' arena so quickly. We recently joined a wonderful congregation near us and I am enjoying the 'soaking' stage of my life. But like a ship in a harbor,...I may be safe,...but I wasn't built for this.

I think these longings are good, as long as they don't press us to be critical or jealous. What are you truly pressed in your soul to do?

Bottomline: God created each of us to bring him glory. He gave us gifts and abilities that combined with His Church cause a body to function beautifully. Don't manufacture these gifts,...oftentimes they erupt in our heart as God moves us.

Comments

  1. Brent HobbsAugust 23, 2011 at 7:43 PM

    My passion? Chocolate Cherries. Oh and I like teaching the Bible too.

    I know you'll be teaching again soon enough.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 3, 10 years of John Piper

Its true, I am a Piperite. Here's my story: 10 years ago, I sat down in my lovely rented 'Triple-J' Ranch home with Josh Stewart, and popped in a sermon tape by John Piper. I remember as if it were yesterday. The title was appealing, "Did Christ die for you or for God?". Seemed provocative enough to engage my senses. 10 minutes after it had started, I could barely hold back my thoughts of how this man preached with such authority and seriousness. It wasn't hell fire and brimstone, and it wasn't comic relief. It seemed as though this was his last sermon, and this was the last sermon the audience would ever hear. Every now and then, I would steal a glance at Josh as we listened, and I could tell he was going through the same internal breakdown I was experiencing. Soon after the sermon was over, I made it my goal to read a book by this guy. The Borders I went and got a copy of "Pleasures of God". I began to read, and waves of questions flooded my m...
4 comments
Read more

Day 70, Avatar, Did I 'see' it? (I did but it was called...)

"So, what did you think?" is the reverberating mantra as we all stand out our cushy popcorn laiden seats and grab our mysterious trash. I didn't want to answer because I had such mixed feelings. So, after 48 hours of work, a 3.3 mile run, and a several cups of coffee, ...I think I can write something that is not completely nonsensical. Here's my try. It took awhile for me to get passed the Ferngully, Dances with Wolves, Never-Ending Story, Star Wars, Zelda and Smurf overtures. Ferngully/Zelda because it seemed I was watching a documentary on the rain forest and how the 'great tree' held everything together in green peace. Dances with Wolves, as the new 'Kevin' be-friends a tribe and eventually goes 'en-gine' (Indian) on the United States Calvary taming the ta-tonka (Buffalo). Never-Ending Story, because who in the world can hang on to any animal and fly. Star Wars because, if you remember in Star Wars I, the Naboo people with Jar-Jar...I trul...
3 comments
Read more

Day 67, Conversations that Change Us: Predestination

Sunday night a good friend of mine who is a West Point Graduate, and Battery Commander (Pretty Sharp dude) said, "Hey, I have got a question for you...What do you think about predestination?" Now, in many circles this would be resolved with two likely responses. 1. "Well, I think we should just leave those doctrines that divide the churches alone and focus on what really matters." 2. "Well, I have never really nailed down what I believe and thus will continue talking to eventually change the subject." I chose neither. I could tell that he had really been thinking about this. This was not one of those 'stump the chump' questions. I smiled and decided I would let him fill out the question and talk his way through it. As he did so, I would smile and put a guard rail or would give him what various views were. His eyes widened as he just began to have a huge dialogue with himself. I could tell his conversation was shaking and solidifying some idea...
3 comments
Read more