13 Meanwhile, the messenger who went to get Micaiah said to him, “Look, all the prophets are promising victory for the king. Be sure that you agree with them and promise success.”
14 But Micaiah replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, I will say only what the Lord tells me to say.”
- I Kings 22

Micaiah was in a tough position.  Everyone was telling him what to prophesy.  They were telling him what to say that God says.  His reply told of his amazing character - “I will only say what the Lord tells me to say.”

I want to live like that.  I want to say what God says.  No more and no less.  Regardless of what anyone else is saying, I want to speak what he speaks.  Often, I speak too much.  He would probably have me speak less. Other times I speak very little, he would have me say more.  At times, my content is way off.  I am speaking what Scot thinks, not what God is telling me to say.

Speaking what he tells me to say means that I must listen. Like a parent telling a kid “Go tell Uncle Bob what  you did yesterday,”  God is speaking to me.  He is speaking to all of us.  I want to listen and tell.

Am I listening?  How?  Am I so busy that I don’t stop and listen?
Am I speaking?  I know I am, but am I speaking he words of God?

What about you?

photo by Brooke Anderson

Kyle just brought it to my attention that Delirious will end their tour and call it quits as a band.  Many fans (including myself) are saddened by the news.  However, let me say thanks to a band that rocked my world with the whole worship scene.  When I was a kid, Petra was the a band that had a dramatic effect on me.  Years later, Delirious gave me a re-birth and (for me) redefined worship music.  Cutting Edge 1 and 2 may still be the best worship project in my collection.  It effected me in ways I am unable to express here.

Thanks boys, for a great ride. Thanks for following Christ among the critics, and pushing the boundaries.  Here is to a new and better season.

Click here for the press release from the band.

Not a bad way to start the day.  Thanks to exchanger and pilot Paul Felty!

Hot Air Balloon Ride! from longyear on Vimeo.

I just got rocked pretty hard.  In the middle of listening to a sermon  from Craig Groeschel, I sensed God convicting me to pray more for exchange.  It felt like a punch to the gut.  It’s not that I don’t pray, it’s just that I need to pray more frequently and intentionally.

To add to the beating, check this prayer from Sir Francis Drake, 1577

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

The conversation went something like this:

Steph (my fly wife):  Are you going to register to run a Marathon next year?

Me:  What?  No.  I said that I would run a full marathon when I turned 40.

Steph:  Um, this year you turned 39. 

Me:  [pause.  pause.  cold, empty realization that I am staring 40 in the face.]

40 is coming.  It will try to knock me down but I will not have it.  I will prove to it  that I am a driven and violent man.  A little bit of crazy.  A little bit of fun.  A whole lot of stubborn.  40 may be coming, but it will get the slap-down in my neighborhood.  I think I heard it shiver when I registered for the January 2009 Disney World Marathon.

Oh yes, I did.  And I’d like to tell you that I am excited.  The truth is that every time I think about running 26.2 miles, a little pee comes out.

Like I mentioned Sunday at exchange, I do my daily Life Journaling in the computer.  The benefits:

• I can read what I type (I can rarely read what I write ;>).
• It is searchable
• It can be backed up
• I am a faster typer than writer

Shawn also Life Journals on the computer and put together a sweet tutorial here.

However you do it, whenever you do it - just do it.  Devour.  Digest.  Disperse.

photo by DeclamTM

Kicked off the Red series tonight in exchange.  Great, great night!  We are dropping into a series where we look at the spoken words of Jesus.  Next week: Judging Others.  Prepare for another body slam.

In other news . . . we diverted our scheduled New Orleans Crash Team to serve flood victims in Terre Haute.  If you have a day off this week and want to join the team, send Jeanette an email at vjsouder@yahoo.com.

We were glad to be part of this series.  I had some doubts of how things would go with 4 weeks of teaching via video, but it was great.  If you missed exchange’s contribution, check it out here.

A little Tuesday morning pick me up.

OK, you have been asking for it.  Here it is, in al of it’s wrong-ness.  This was the video we used to intro Pastor Wayne’s video, Make us Wise (part of the One Prayer series).

I feel a restraining order coming on.