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Thanks for visiting my diary. I've been journaling since 1984 and have chosen to share some of my entries online. They are not all positive thoughts, but I hope that reading them might be a blessing to someone who needs encouragement.
If you are just coming to my diary for the first time, please read my introductory entry, where I share some background that is important if you plan to follow this diary regularly.
Please also visit my music page, where you can hear samples from my debut CD, I Believe, which features songs written based on experiences shared in this journal.
Six things that identify the house:
The protocols of the house are:
There is nothing more compelling or attractive than love that goes above and beyond. Wow!
The world is looking for a love that goes beyond. Passionate people excite us. We feed off each other. Living passionately is how we encourage each other! Passion is powerful. Think about people's passion about homosexuality.
Something inside us longs for a love that knows no boundaries. But we seek that with each other instead of with God.
I belong to my lover, and his desire is for me. (Song of Solomon 10:7)
I want to be desired without being violated, possessed without being controlled. I need to see God's passion for me. It's the ultimate motivation.
What would I like to see in my life? Write it down.
We have come to see the "body of Christ" as a specific group of people... "I belong to ... church (I follow Paul, I follow John, etc.) We have lost site of the way this is really supposed to work. We enter a church to be built up, and then we are supposed to go out and pour ourselves out! We aren't meant to stay in the same place.
For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:24)
What does jealousy come from? We see this as a negative quality, but jealousy is a sign of deep love. It isn't the jealousy that is "bad." It's what we do with our passions!
God's consuming fire will set my future. It shows me what I was created for. God's fire of judgment is a manifestation of passion to remove anything that hinders love. He wants our love!
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
"You shall have no other gods before me.
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:2-6)
"Count the cost" is only meant for new believers. If I have already committed myself to God, counting the cost means I tear myself away from Him.
My destiny will pass me by if I don't allow the consuming fire of God to burn in me. How quickly a year goes by! What have I done to fulfill my passion in the last year?
If I surround myself with people who walk in the mundane, I will think it's normal.
My comfortableness can stop God's passion. Dear God, let me never get so comfortable that I ignore Your fire in me! That's a scary prayer to pray, but I know that it comes from my heart.
Passion begins in my heart and mind. How do I nurture it? Use it! Start doing it! I'll make mistakes, and I need mentors. But I can't grow my passion by passively "learning." Apprentices have the right idea!
Churches teach the wrath of God, not the firy passion. God, be real to me. Show me Your firy passion!
God will destroy whatever stops His love! That's why He will eventually destroy this world: because it is polluted with things that interfere with His love.
I must die to self... But that assumes I know what I'm dying for. Do I know what I'm dying for...?
Raising children in the ways of God... It's not about rules and regulations. I have to share the consuming fire with my family.
Reality TV shows: we're living through someone else. We do that in church, too.
What anyone else dares to boast about--I am speaking as a fool--I also dare to boast about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands. (2 Corinthians 11:22-32)
What do I suffer in my life because of what I do for Christ?
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