Author Archives: Daniel

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About Daniel

Follower of Christ, Author, Musician Though I have been a "Christian" for so many years, in many ways I feel life with Christ is a quest in with many troubles and dangers. It is frightfully more dangerous than anyone ever told me at the outset. Any "true" adventure would be, wouldn't it? This blog is about the adventure of discovery in this quest to follow the one who forged the path to life and true love so many years ago. I have found that the epic rescuing story of Jesus is far more relevant to you and I than we give it credit.

Follow the Narrow Way, Your life depends on it!

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Daniel

I was listening to the Sermon on the Mount on my smartphone’s Bible app as I was cleaning the kitchen the other day. My wife was in the other room and I kept saying to her, “Catherine, he sounds serious… Catherine, he’s not kidding”.

This morning I am wide awake at 1:55 with Jesus words echoing in my ear, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14 NIV)

Jesus GateOf course it must be stated right from the start that Jesus himself is the narrow gate. He says:

“Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.” (John 10:9 NLT)

Relationship and fellowship with him is to follow the narrow way.

Jesus has been so kind and compassionate to me. I think some of the reason I often avoid listening to him and seeking out what he has to say to me daily is because I think he is going to come down hard on me.

He never does. It seems that his aim is to kill my sin with his kindness and turn me from my self-destructive sin. (Is there a sin that isn’t self-destructive?)

I just looked up and read this from Romans 2:

“Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

5 But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 He will judge everyone according to what they have done. 7 He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. 8 But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. 9 There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. 10 But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.”

The fact is, I want to walk the narrow way that leads to life. Fact is, I don’t want to store up judgement by refusing to repent. I want to stop all the ways I live for myself and wickedness and “give Jesus a try”. I don’t want any vice to keep me from experiencing the life of Jesus to the full. I want to be a good friend to Jesus.

I don’t doubt for a moment that deep down you also want to respond to Jesus in this way. I have no doubt that you want to experience for yourself the abundant life Jesus said he came to bring to you:

“I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. 10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” (John 10 NIV)

Are you experiencing a rich and satisfying life?

As I ponder this question for myself I am amazed to be able to say, yes. In spite of myself I actually am experiencing an abundant life. Crazy huh?

It may seem like we don’t have too many real live examples of someone experiencing the abundant life, but I think that is because we are always looking for examples of someone who follows Jesus perfectly. I know that I follow Jesus. A cursory glance over my blog posts will reveal that I don’t do this perfectly and often times there are still foxes on the loose in the vineyard (to borrow a biblical metaphor).

We often wait till someone is dead to honor the memory of their life because the living still have time to disappoint us and leave us with egg on our face as they have been known to do (It’s happened to me so many times!).

You Are A Role Model

Even though you or I may not be bold enough to say like Paul, “follow me as I follow Christ”, we are still ALL role models for someone. We like to think we aren’t or we may even blatantly say as some sports figures do, “I never set out to be a role model.” We pretend we aren’t because we love to live for ourselves and seek our own pleasure. (Jesus brother James writes that this makes us adulterous people – see James 4).

If we are looking for perfect examples to follow, look no farther than Christ. He followed his father beautifully. He modeled what a follower looks like with a kind of trust that led him to do only what the Father does and speak only what the Father speaks. He followed His loving Papa all the way to the cross. He knew his Father deeply loved him. He was secure and grounded in that love and knew that his Sovereign loving Papa was leading him every day into what would be the most joyful ending to the story. Jesus didn’t have a five-year plan, he had a “what’s next Papa?” plan. We can too.

Someone told me yesterday that there hasn’t been anyone who has done a pure deed with the purest of motives besides Jesus. That touched my heart to hear that. My Savior and your Savior, has the purest of motives in his dealings with you and I.

The Narrow Way

theWaySo, back to talking about the narrow way.

For whatever reason this quote from the Matrix comes to mind. Morpheus tells Neo, “There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

Did you know that Christians were first called “followers of the Way”? This, no doubt, was a reference to Jesus who called himself the Way.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Yes the way is narrow. Jesus is it. The only way. There is no other way to the Father. So rest assured if you have received and are trusting Jesus you are on the narrow way. But are you walking in the way? Are you walking the path of Jesus that leads to you experiencing a rich and satisfying life?

Walking the path is going to look different for every one of us. What does “walking the path” look like for you? I can’t tell you. You have to ask the One who is the path and who destined a specific path for you.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2 NLT)

What good things has God planned for you? The question is, will you take the time to seek the One who holds the answers? He will never force the way upon you. You will never just stumble upon it but must do your part. We have a role in this. Paul writes in Philipians 3:12:

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”

I am reminded that the Christian life, being a follower of the Way, has much to do with maintaining a clean conscience before God. This means we “get to” repent and turn from sin every time it is brought to our awareness. This is how we stay on course and remain in fellowship with the Way.

The still small voice of God is here right now. He is speaking to your heart in this very moment. Are you listening? The stakes couldn’t be higher. Your life is at stake.

God rewards those who diligently seek him. Won’t you join me in submitting to Jesus today? Cave to his kindness and just let him love you. Repent and turn from your sin so you can enter his loving kingdom and come under his protection and experience his wonderful guidance along the narrow path to true and abundant life!

Related posts:

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Categories: faith adventure, Repentance | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Christmas, the most depressing time of the year?

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Daniel

eeyore2b
My little girl 3-year-old Ellie has a stuffed Eeyore. The other night I was putting her to sleep and had her stuffed Eeyore sing a depressing Christmas song, “I’ll have a Blue Christmas without you…”

“No Papa, have him sing a happy song”. At which point I think I had him sing Jingle Bells and do a little dance.

I know Christmas can be a depressing time for some, and for others, you may be depressed but it has nothing to do with Christmas whatsoever.

If there is anything I am an expert on, depression is one of them. I was depressed for most of my life. I remember always being melancholy as a kid and always looked on the gloomy side of life. My depression took a turn for the worse when I believed God turned his back on me and I slipped into a terrifying despair that lasted seven years.

I was looking back over what I just wrote and how refreshing it is to say “was” depressed. I have been free from depression (at least the worst of it) for seven years now. The last seven years has had many stepping-stones and breakthrough moments all along the way. I want to share these highlights of my journey out of depression with you because some of the things I learned along the way WILL BE game changers for you if you are depressed.

I remember watching this youtube video of this guy who seemed to have a big audience on youtube. He was speaking about depression encouraging kids with advice along the lines of find a purpose, some hobby or activity you can throw yourself into and just get lost in.

My advice is something similar, part of your cure is finding your purpose, but instead of just telling you to get a hobby I must tell you something that I expect some people may find hard to swallow but is the absolute truth.

Ready for it?

Jesus is the answer.

I know there are many people suffering depression right now. There are as many reasons for this as there are people. Some are brought on by life circumstances, some depression is brought on by foolish choices. In fact, at the root of all depression something called “sin” is the culprit. That’s a pretty broad statement and some may choose to take offense that I would accuse people to say that their depression is because they sinned. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that if sin had not entered the world there would be no such thing as depression. However it must be said that it is often our sinful choices in life that has led to a depressing end. That’s just what sin does.

Jesus was once asked by his disciples whether a blind man was born blind because of his own sins or his parents. Jesus said neither but that the glory of God may be displayed in his life. Elsewhere God takes credit for making some men blind. God is Sovereign after all, is he not?

Perhaps our Sovereign and good God is using your depression to transform your life and make you a useful and beautiful masterpiece. That’s what he has done for me. In retrospect, I have learned so much that I have shared with so many on a day-to-day basis, that I have actually become grateful for my suffering. Yes, grateful for my depression.

The shining breakthrough moments I’ve been able to share have touched and encouraged thousands of people. I’ve been able to bring the liberating truth of the real Gospel message to many because of my suffering. My suffering broke my pride. It humbled me and rendered me useful for God’s good purposes.

Finding Your Purpose

Earlier I mentioned that finding your purpose will be part of your cure from depression. We all have one similar purpose. To belong to someone.

One of the transforming breakthrough moments for me happened when I read Colossians 1. This is what I read:

“…all things have been created through him and for him.”

It struck me. I was created by Jesus for Jesus. I found my purpose! How did I ever think my life was my own? My purpose and meaning in life is only found in connecting to and in relationship with the one who made me for himself! Wow! Game changer! This is your purpose too.

Joni Eareckson Tada suffered from “a diving accident in 1967  that left her, then 17, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, without the use of her hands” (from her bio at her website). She was mentioned by Francis Chan in one of his talks as someone who inspires him because as she was recently suffering from cancer and a cold she took the time to call to encourage Francis and tell him she is praying for him.

What makes a person shine in the midst of suffering? I believe suffering to be a crucible. It melts us down. It refines us. It reveals us. Much of what is revealed is ugly. Sin is revealed. It is revealed in order to be removed. Fortunately we can take those painfully revealing moments to bring the sin in our lives to God to be dealt with. We get to repent!

Why do I frame it this way? That you “get to” repent? Because in my my own experience with seven years of terror and the horrors of depression I couldn’t seem to repent. I tried, but repentance (having a change of mind) eluded me. This inability to repent seemed to me to be a form of stern discipline from the Lord. I imagined He wept at my having to experience it. It doesn’t please him that any of us suffer. But my pride was dragging me to hell and this was the only thing that would turn me around, a seven year sentence in a dark dungeon of despair.

So you see, repentance (literally “having a change of mind” or “mind-set shift”) is a gift from God. He granted me this gift of repentance about this time seven years ago. The bible even says, ‘God grants us the privilege of repentance’. You aren’t doing God a favor to repent, God is doing you a favor by allowing you to repent. Seven years ago a spark of hope came back into my soul and Jesus has been fanning it into flame ever since. Many times it felt like it would only take a breath to send me into a deep dark abyss again but God didn’t let that happen. Hope remains and has become a sure foundation in my life.

This is likely the beginning in a series on depression. Stay tuned (subscribe) for more insights into the path to freedom from Depression.

ps. If you are really going through it right now. Be encouraged. Jesus has a way for you to overcome this. When your suffering has accomplished its purpose, and I pray that it comes soon, you will be a better person for it. God will see to it.

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Joyeux Noël

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Daniel

I have performed six Christmas concerts so far this December. Todays concerts were especially interesting. At the Rehab facility there was a young man named Vang (I believe he was Hmong) who seemed very interested in my Gospel presentation. When I prayed with the group he may very well have prayed with me to receive Christ and was eager to recieve a Gospel of John. He started reading it right away. I also felt led to give him a copy of my CD and he said he was glad to meet me. I am very glad because I think we have a new member added to the family of God!

At my last concert this evening I felt impressed to share about a movie I had seen called Joyeux Noël about a three day treaty that happened on several of the frontlines of World War 1 in 1914.

Here is the trailer for this movie:

It all started with the singing of Christmas carols among the soldiers.

A man spoke up at my concert, “Yes, it’s true. My dad was there and witnessed this event.”

Wow.

Please be praying for me that as I continue sharing the Gospel that many will respond and also that I continue to be led by the Holy Spirit as I was today.

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Earth Only About 6000 Years Old?

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Daniel

I just watched a few teaching videos put on by Answers in Genesis over the last few days. It explained various things like the geological evidence for the flood and how, contrary to popular views, the earth is indeed young. Like 6000 years young.

Is this surprising to anyone? Offensive to anyone?

I have to confess, I know people who would role their eyes at this post. “He went there. I cant believe it.” <shaking of head> “What a sad unenlightened fundy lemming”. At least that’s the response I imagine from a certain kind of person. I was once featured in a blog as being an imbecile for believing God created the world in six days… by someone I considered a friend who also happened to be a pastor. That hurt. So this blog post was influenced with these people in mind.

Seriously. Does it matter if we believe in a young earth or not? Isn’t this just another  non-essential issue of the Christian faith? Many think so, but to think that flirts with dangerous ideas regarding the authority of God’s word.

I am not presenting this as an essential to the faith, but what I will say is that if you believe the essentials of the faith, biblically presented views of origins become an inevitable conclusion. It’s much like a mathematical proof.

I take the Bible at face value. I do this because Jesus did. He seemed to think Scripture was the actual word of God and was utterly trustworthy down to even the very tense of a single word.

These days it seems difficult to present and prove a case for something and convince anyone of the truth even when there are many Scriptures from both the old and new testament that plainly teach on a subject (can you think of an example of this?). But Jesus and the apostles often make a solid argument out of a single word or even the tense of a word!

What kind of world do we live in that cares nothing for truth or reality or the way things really are? No one is actually submitting themselves to the truth and this is sad because at the core of truth is love.

Why do I bother writing a blog about the age of the earth? Even if I can prove it, (and it can be proven) would anyone care? Could I change a single mind on the subject and why would that even matter?

I have a Christian friend who refuses to even think through the whole issue of origins or take a position on the subject because so many of his Christian friends believe in some version of theistic evolution and he doesn’t want to cause those relationships undue stress. It doesn’t matter to him.

I know other Christians who will mock and ridicule you for believing what those whacked out fundy’s like Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis teach. Besides, over half the scientists believe in and preach a big bang and millions of years.

Yes, there is definitely a majority among the scientific community who believe this devil inspired whacked out religion. This is because this “community” is very careful about who it lets in. (Ever watch Expelled? Great film by the way.) Would it surprise you to learn that almost half of scientists do believe in a Creator aka Intelligent Design? (To my knowledge “Intelligent Design” is the label they use to dispel the notion that their views are “religiously motivated”. Come on, who are they kidding?)

I will tell you why I think the whole issue of origins matters and why a young earth is true. Personally I wouldn’t care if the earth was millions of years old. I’m not sure why the Bible insists on it, but it does and the evidence is there to back it both Biblically, historically, and scientifically.

ORIGINS MATTER

CreationThe whole notion of macro evolution and millions of years is a ridiculous fable, a grand deception meant to distance the creature (you and I) from the Creator. In reading through the Bible I am struck over and over by the references to God being our Creator. God is almost always the one bringing it up. It’s as if he constantly needs to remind us where we came from, who is our source, and where are origins truly are.

Did you realize that Jesus is introduced by the apostle John as the Creator? Just read John 1 and see for yourself:

“In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

Then Paul writes this in Colossians 1:

“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16 for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.”

Have you ever thought of Jesus himself personally being the one who created all things? The one who personally created you?

HIGH VIEW OF SCRIPTURE

As mentioned earlier, I take the God’s word at face value. God cannot lie. He would not deceive us. The trustworthiness of Scripture is verified and affirmed by none other than Jesus himself and Jesus is verified by his resurrection from the dead. It can be proven biblically that the earth is about 6000 years young. (This is actually really old, but of course, not when you compare it to millions of years.)

It seems that the earth is actually a few days older than the sun, moon and all the googolplex of stars. This shows us that his plans for the physical world started here, with us, with earth, with you and me. The earth and every person created in his image is the center of God’s focused attention. You are the center of God’s attention and care. Do you realize how special that makes you and I?

Let’s not forget the character of the Creator. He is pure and unadulterated love. God is love and He created you to love you. You are created by love for love, to belong to love, to be loved and then to love. All you need is love. (Had to throw that in there. Did anyone else read that to the tune of the Beatles song?)

Honoring our Creator has profoundly personal and wonderful implications for you and I.

If you believe in the resurrection of Christ then you must believe that Jesus is who he says he is. He is God and the Messiah who attested to the veracity and reliability of Scripture as his true and reliable word. It’s time we think through the implications of that and start viewing Scripture and what it teaches in the same high regard as Jesus did.

Jesus believed in creation in six literal days. How ridiculous it is to say “he believed it” when he was the One who did it!

THE PROOF

Genesis 1 spells it out, ““And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day…the second day… etc…” Genesis 1:5 and following.

And the again in the Ten Commandments written by the very finger of God (Jesus) himself,  “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work,  but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God… For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20: 8-11

Jesus on creation:
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’” Matthew 19:4

Jesus on the flood:
‘Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the Ark. Then the Flood came and destroyed them all.’ Luke 17:26–27

ALL of history is accounted for in Scripture and other historical accounts and places the earth at no more than 6000 years old.

If you are still not convinced, here is one final thought (not that there aren’t many other thoughts on this issue). Many seem to believe the days of creation were eons of time to accommodate for all those really brilliant haters of God scientists reliable and infallible interpretations of the “evidence” that makes it absolutely certain that the world and universe is in fact, actually and verifiably, millions of years old. If the days were eons of time, then how long was the seventh day? How long did God rest? An eon of time or a single day?

Adam was created on day six. We know his age was 930 when he died. He would be an eon older than his contemporaries if day seven was an eon. Think about it.

MADE BY HIM, FOR HIM

Let’s get back to that Scripture in Colossians 1 which tells us that everything was made through Jesus and for Jesus. I absolutely love this!

I was created by Jesus for Jesus. You were created by Jesus for Jesus. We are incredibly special to him and meant to belong to him.

Say it out loud: “I was created by Jesus for Jesus.”

Isn’t that powerful? You find your purpose and meaning in belonging to him, connecting to him, knowing him and nowhere else.

May the LORD bless your relationship with him today and increase your awareness of how loved you are. Allowing Jesus to love you is your primary responsibility.

Let him love you today! Spend some quality time with him and pray for me that I can do the same.

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Got to give Jesus some props!

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Daniel

I went for a run tonight. I was a mile into it going strong at a good 8 minute mile pace when I thought to take some time to pray.

‘Jesus, speak to me’, I thought. He said, ‘I want you to stop running.’

‘What?’ I thought, ‘I am out here to run a 5K and I’d rather have it uninterrupted, thank you very much.’

I was thinking he was going to chide me for using my Mapmyrun app on my phone to boast about my fitness (I know I still brag and take pride in my achievements and use my fitness as a way to be admired and respected. I wrote about it here: You have God’s Permission to Brag.)

‘Just stop running. I want you to stop running.’

‘Why? Give me a good reason……….. Fine. I’ll pause my run so you can chide me for being so worldly and so full of pride.’

I took out my phone to pause my workout and noticed that my “Live Tracking” button was not enabled and according to MapMyRun, I had traveled .15 miles at a 32 minute per mile pace. “WHAT?”

‘Now you can continue.’

“THANK YOU JESUS!” I shouted! “You are SO awesome! You just wanted to make me aware that the app which I use to boast to the world wasn’t working properly.”

He didn’t chide me, he just loved me.

WHY RUNNING IS SPECIAL TO ME

Running for me was a special thing when I was young. As a twelve-year-old I would take my bulky yellow Walkman and go run three or four miles listening to David Meece, Candle in the Rain. (Listening to it now in fact! You can too below. So many  memories.)

As a child I ran the famous seven mile Bloomsday race with my dad. My face was featured on the cover of National Geographic Young Explorer for a youth running event. The entire class at my elementary school would run a mile (every day I think) and I would almost always finish first. I remember running at an event at school and getting 5th place or something. (During this race there was this older girl behind me short of breath and saying, “Aren’t you getting tired? Don’t you want to slow down?” In fact I was getting exhausted but her comments spurred me on.)

While driving home from anywhere I would often ask me dad to drop me off several miles from home so I could run the rest of the way home. I was a regular Forrest Gump. “Run Forrest! Run!”

I’ve always loved to run.

THE BEST PART!

For the last ten years or so I couldn’t run over a couple of miles without my knees cramping up and being in extreme pain. If I pushed it I would limp for a while. This last summer I attempted a 5K. I was determined to finish running, no matter how slow, no matter how much pain. I did nearly the last mile limping and in extreme pain. Well, after that I decided running wasn’t for me anymore.

When I got my first smart phone through Republic wireless (cheap and great plan btw!) I was excited about checking out some of the free apps. Of course I was glad to see MapMyRun and other fitness apps. My brother-in-law inspired me to try another 5K. So on October 1st I ran a 5K.

The pain was gone! I was so excited that I have since just kept running. I have experienced pain-free running ever since!

God is good to me. I think, one way or another, he healed me.

My goal became to attain an 8 minute mile average. At the end of October I did it! Not a second over, not a second under. My facebook post: “I was shouting “Praise you Jesus!” “Thank you God!” for allowing me to reach my 8 minute mile goal tonight!”

I was shouting praise to Jesus at midnight in the park, just full of joy. He allowed me to reach my goal and he was right there in the midst of it smiling on me and sharing the moment with me. Awesome!

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Categories: Fitness | Tags: , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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