I Choose to Look Outward

So, I don't really ever go into detail about my faith on this blog or do too many scripture quotes (although I hope it apparent that I'm a Jesus freak), but after my bible study this morning, I wanted to write about what I read.

These verses in Romans 4:19-21 in particular caught my eye and got me thinking. They say:

"¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised."

Let me first give you just the quick backstory...

The "he" in the verse above refers to a man by the name of Abraham. Abraham was a great man of faith and ended up being used by God in big, big ways. God promised Abraham that he would have a child with his wife Sarah. Now, at face value this seemed like a pretty crazy promise since Abraham was about 100 years old and Sarah was well past her child-bearing years. So what did Abraham do? He simply believed God would do what He said He would do. Abraham didn't focus on his present circumstances and weigh them against God's promise. He simply turned his focus completely outward to the God of the universe while ignoring any inward struggle his circumstances may have provided. If you know the full story of Abraham, you'll know that he was not a perfect man, not even in this regard, yet God still used him and counted him as righteous to be the "father of many nations"(the simple fact that God never seems to choose people who have it all together to accomplish His Will encourages me every single day).

So, why did this verse stand out to me this morning? I don't really know. Maybe it's the fact that there have been times in my life where it seemed that because of my present circumstances, there was no way that God could use me to accomplish great things. Maybe it's because I feel so strongly that God has His Hand directly in my life guiding me through daily decisions that will ultimately lead to me being with my family for a long, long time despite what the statistics say. Maybe it's because I was told that I would never be a father, yet I had a desire to be a father at a very young age, never doubting that God would provide me a family. Maybe it's because my whole life someone has reminded me that the "median age is this" or the "life expectancy is that", but God seemed to always remind me that He was bigger and more powerful than any disease life could throw my way. Maybe it's because any time I start thinking that my God doesn't care, is too busy or maybe even to small to deal with the circumstances in my life, He always shows up in a BIG way.

Here's what I know. I serve a God that keeps His promises. I serve a God that promises that His Will will be done. I serve a God that uses the imperfect, the sinners, the diseased, the outcasts, and everyone in between to do His Will. I serve a God who can use a disease to accomplish His Will. I serve a God who doesn't waste pain. I serve a God who is not done with me yet.

"When there is no contest, it is true, no one, as I have said, denies that God can do all things; but as soon as anything comes in the way to impede the course of God's promise, we cast down God's power from its eminence." - Calvin

My prayer is that I can become even more encouraged by the fact that God has me right where He needs me. I pray that instead of focusing inward on my present circumstances, I can turn my focus outward, and have my faith strengthened knowing that God keeps His promises and has the power to overcome anything that this life has for me. I hope that I'm a man that trusts God in all of my circumstances, not just when life is good, but when life throws me a curveball...or a disease.

Bible Beliefs on Facebook

We all know I like to discuss a wide-range of topics. One of these topics, and by far the most important, is Jesus - Who He is, Who He is not, etc. Had a great number of questions, thoughts and counterpoints thrown my way (which I love) and my response ended up being a blog-like response, so I pulled it over here.

Here is my original post on Facebook:

From a Gallup poll of self-described Christians (in America):50% don't believe in the existence of Satan33% believe Jesus sinned while He was on earth25% dismiss the concept that the Bible is accurate in the principles it teaches
That's a dangerous road to go down my friends...

Of course, their were some who agreed that was dangerous and some who did not. And because FB is FB, it grew into a larger discussion about a variety of theological topics. Through my answers, you can probably glean what the questions were. If you cannot, click here.

I must point out that I am no Bible expert. nor God expert. My thoughts on this do come from my own study of the Bible and teachings that I have received for the past 3 decades or so. I will certainly give you my true belief on all of your points, but as always, I encourage you to challenge and study up on anything I say.

I agree with you that we will never know the FULL character of God until we are in His presence, but with that said, He has certainly revealed everything that we need to know about Him to develop a personal relationship with him. When people speak about "the mystery of God", they're not so much speaking of the unknowns of God, but the knowns of God that we will probably never be able to understand (eg. God's omnipotence, omnipresence, etc).

Totally understand you giving up on reading the Bible because of it's difficulty. I think the toughest part about the Bible, is that it's essentially a history book, that without cultural reference, is tough to piece together. Just like I was taught history in school, otherwise I would have never been able to tell you have of what I learned on my own, I always found it less frustrating, and more effective, to study/read the Bible with someone or with the help of some sort of guide, or commentary. I find myself always trying to challenge what certain commentary says with Scripture alone, and it always ends up strengthening my faith. I never just take so and so's word for it (or at least try not to). When studying the Bible, I always let the clear (what is easily understood or plain), trump the unclear. If God said it, I take His Word for it.

Yes, humans are flawed, for sure. Here's the thing though, the prophecies that Christ filled from the Old Testament, in His life throughout the New Testament would be nothing short of a mathematical miracle. Statisticians have run the number and essentially said that it would have been impossible for Christ to do what He did, no human has or could come close to replicating it. I agree, no human could. Thankfully, I don't serve a human. Why do I bring this up? Because it's all about Christ. That's Who it began with and that's Who it will end with. So, you can have a relationship with Christ, and still be skeptical about man's ability to write the Bible. I would however challenge you to develop a relationship with Jesus first, study His Word, and then reevaluate what you feel about the Bible. I must warn you though, to develop a relationship with Him, your going to have to get to know Him, and the only way of doing that is through Scripture and prayer. If you try to get to know Him outside of Scripture, you're making up your own Jesus. Jesus already gave us an entire book on Who He is.

I would also encourage you to look up what happened when they found one of the early manuscripts of the book of Isaiah (Dead Sea Scrolls) and compared it to the Bible we use today. I'll give you a hint, nothing substantive has been changed. There is no human telephone game that could have accomplished that without God.

Comparing Eve to the writers of the Bible is like comparing apples to oranges (pun intended)  They are alike in this however: She was a sinner, yet God used her for her purpose. The writers of the Bible were sinners, yet God used them for their purpose. Ultimately, they were all used for God's purpose, and super awesomely, that includes us. Remember, the writers of the Bible simply wrote down what they saw, experienced, touched, felt and were told. Any chance that God could have directed the events they 
witnessed and/or were told?

As always, I welcome your thoughts and challenges.

My Daily Bread

It's almost embarrassing to say this, but it's probably been at least a year since I've carved out time in my schedule to dive into the Word. Yeah, I read a handful of daily devotionals each day, but it's been quite a while since I've read the Word of God each day. Like many things, my alone time with God would come and go - On one day, off two; On three days; off four. One thing is for sure - I wasn't showing with my time how important the Word of God is to me and how I earnestly try to apply it to my life.

It seems I've been much better at carving out time for work, exercise, treatments, Mckenna, Mandi etc (which, please understand, those are all important), but developing my walk with Christ was more of a "hopefully I get around to it" kind of a thing.

Well, that changes now!

I finally realized that the key to my personal time with God was to treat it more of the way I treat exercise, and that is, knock it out sooner rather than later. With exercise, I'm MUCH better at getting to the gym 6 days a week, if I go to the gym sometime before noon. After noon most days, I start to feel a little more lethargic and the last thing I want to do is bust my booty in the gym. I thought, if that works for exercise, it must work for God, right?? ;)

Starting yesterday, I'll be setting my alarm for 4:45am and spending my first waking hour with God. This move mind you is WAY overdue.

As I've gotten older, I've become much better at allocating my time to the things that are truly important in my life, and this is probably the last stone that was left unturned. I can't tell you exactly why it took this long, but maybe through some Scripture reading I'll figure that out. Ha.

Anyway, please pray for me as I form this much-needed habit. Pray for strength, purpose and clarity in the morning...oh, and pray that my coffee maker doesn't break ;)

Did God Give Me Cystic Fibrosis?

Once in a while I get questions that really get me thinking. This was such a question. I'm no theologian or Bible scholar, but I have a deep love for God and believe in His deep love for me. I also don't think He makes mistakes. Most importantly, I don't think I need to know all of the answers. I only need to know one thing...God is in control and His eternal plan is a perfect one.

Question: 

I just finished having a really deep intense discussion with my 14 year old son (with CF) about God. Little by little he has started to share with me his doubts about God. After much probing by me I realized that some of his doubts are coming from the fact that he doesn't "get" how God who is suppose to be loving gave this disease to people. I answered his questions as best I could.  

You seem to have such a strong faith now; did you ever question if there was a God and how people could have this disease? If so how did your questions get answered?Any insight is appreciated!

That's a tough one. My perspective on this may be a little different though...

Problem is, I never once thought the CF was a terrible disease. I simply was raised to believe the opposite and my mom did a great job of always pointing out the opportunities that CF afforded me (I'm not saying that you're not doing that). She was always quick to point out the man that CF was molding me into. Quick to remind me of all the people I would have never met had it not been for this disease.

As far as my faith, I don't think God gave me CF. Sure, He allowed it to happen as He could have stopped it, but He didn't. I believe that CF is more of a tool used by God to shape my heavenly body than it is to destroy my earthly one.

He also promises to work ALL things for the good of those who love Him. It never says that everything that happens is good, but we serve a God that can take 100 bad things and shape them into something that brings Him ultimate glory. And that's what this life is all about for me. God shaping me into the man that will ultimately receive the joy of worshipping Him for eternity.

I don't get caught up too much in my suffering or the suffering of those around me. This life on earth is but a blink of an eye, and in the big picture, pretty "insignificant". I'm not living for the here and now, but the later and forever.

The one time I questioned God and His works was when my 16 year old cousin died in a roll-over car accident. It was sudden. We didn't have anytime to prepare. She was young, vibrant, beautiful and had a huge heart for the Lord. I wondered how in the world God could ever use that for His glory. I questioned why He would take someone who could end up doing so much for His Kingdom here on earth. I brought these and many other questions to my pastor.

What he said solidified my view on my own life. He said that each of us have a race to run. Some run it faster than others. Because some run faster, they will finish the race first (die). We're all running towards the same finish line, and as all of the other runners, the goal is to cross the line. Whether we finish first or last is of no consequence to God, it's that we finished and finished well. He watches how we are running. Once we cross that finish line we will be in His presence and get to hear the words that we all want to hear more than anything, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

When I took the focus off the death of my cousin and the sadness it created for me, I was able to see the joy it was bringing to her and to my Savior. He wants us in His presence more than anything else. The fact that my cousin got to see His face before me may be because she ran such a darn good race!! I may also never know why she was taken from this earth so soon, but I do have faith that God is true to His word and will work ALL things for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to HIS purpose.

So, why does God allow me to have CF? I don't know. I do however know that He doesn't make mistakes. I do know that He views me as a perfect creation formed in His image. And finally, I do know that one day, all will be revealed to me and will be more clear than it could ever be here on earth.

Like I said, this is a tough one, but hopefully something I said here will help you and your son.

Eternal Perspective

Here was the challenge laid down for today's blog:

Open a Book. Choose a book and open it to a random page and point to a phrase. Use that phrase to get you writing today. Free write for 15-20 without stopping.

For the book, I chose the Bible and I landed on Romans 8:18 which says:


"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us"


This verse speaks of eternal perspective to me. Now, I wouldn't describe much of anything I go through on this earth to be suffering, but I know what the author is getting at. Sin causes suffering of all shade, types, sizes and styles. Without sin in the world, I wouldn't feel pain - both physical and emotion - I wouldn't hear or partake in gossip, I'd feel no envy, I wouldn't speak an ill word of anyone, my thoughts would be pure and my actions would be edifying to myself, my God and those around me. Man, that sounds like a great place! Where do I sign-up??


The answer is, that place exists and I signed-up when I gave my life over to Christ. To me, the verse I pointed to above makes it clear that instead of focusing on the toils and troubles of this earth and this life, I should be focusing on the place that I will be spending all of eternity when this pencil dot on the continuum of time, that some people call life, ceases to exist. I actually take great comfort in that.


People ask me all of the time if I'm really this easy going and happy about my current health situation. Some people just can't wrap their heads around the fact that I would call CF a blessing. And yes, there are those that actually get angry that I don't seem to be suffering. I can tell you this - I have never and will never consider anything that happens to my earthly body as a suffering. This is just way to temporary for me to ever consider it that. 


Suffering to me would be spending eternity separated from God. I can't even fathom that. I often sit back and think about this life compared to eternity and it continues to blow my mind. I think if we get caught up in the short-term, and what happens in this life, we'll always have some level of disappointment. I don't think I've ever met someone who was 100% satisfied with how their life is, was and where it's heading.


The only way to be 100% satisfied with this life is to focus on the eternal perspective. The only way not to get overwhelmed with our circumstance is to know that ultimately, the suffering we feel here on earth will be like a gun shot amongst a Fourth of July fireworks show that lasts forever.


I take comfort in the fact that the story has already been written. I'm simply acting out a short scene before the director calls me Backstage.