Happy Birthday Dawn!

Today is my lovely wife’s Birthday and unfortunately we are about 250 miles apart but I want to take the time to thank God for a wonderful wife who has supported me through a lot of stuff and helped me to become something better. She is the one God used to draw me to Himself and marrying her was the second best decision I have ever made. She has given me two wonderful sons and a multitude of blessings. I am truly blessed. What can I say… I love my wife. Happy Birthday, Honey!

Incidentally, if you’re reading this and you’re single, this is the kind of spouse you should be looking for. One who builds you off and helps you to become better than you can be on your own and helps you to walk close with your God. If you’re married, the above is the type of spouse you should try to be.

I should probably add at this point that Dawn and I will be married 25 years this Tuesday. As a result, as soon as I leave the conference I am currently at, We will be taking a few days off. AMOKArts will most likely go silent from the 21st to the 23rd.
I’ll be back Wednesday.

My wife is also creative

My wife, Dawn, and I seem backwards some times. When it’s time to purchase gifts, I gravitate toward arts and crafts stuff, she asks for power tools. I like to paint pictures she likes to rip stuff apart and repurpose it. This is her most recent piece. It’s made from parts of an old skid, four canvasses and those canvasses are held in place pinned against the heads of nails driven into the skids. It’s an extreme multimedia piece and I think it’s quite cool.

Just goes to show, there are many ways to be creative.

Guest Post: Dawn Weiss on Fear

Yesterday I was out speaking and had a fantastic experience which you will no doubt hear about in the days ahead, but today I want to give public praise for a wonderful wife who is really amazingly gifted. When I am away from my church, she often takes the pulpit. Right now we are working through a series based on the Bible stories behind Max Lucado’s book Cast of Characters: Lost and Found. This week’s chapter was on Ananias and Saul, the part where God calls Ananias to go to Saul (who would later become known as the Apostle Paul). At this point in history, Ananias was a Christ follower and Saul was the premiere persecutor of the church. God commanded to Ananias to do something that looked very dangerous. Dawn made her message about fear, the things fear keeps us from and the value of obeying God even if we have to do it afraid. I really loved this section of the message and thought it might be highly beneficial to this tribe of creatives.

“What does fear do to us?

1. Fear can make problems bigger than they really are.  I believe we have all fallen into this trap.  Something happens that makes us scared. We over-analyze the situation.  We think of all the different scenario’s that “could happen” and before we know it, the situation seems overwhelming and we are paralyzed with fear.
2. Fear prevents us from enjoying the blessings we have.  When we live in fear we are not at peace.  We focus all our energy on this thing that has us in fear and we lose our joy.
3. Fear can motivate us to disobey God.  Certain fears often prompt us to do things which are displeasing to God.  Fear of failing may prompt us to cheat on a test.  Fear of the truth being found out may prompt us to lie about what we have done.  Fear of rejection can lead people to give in to improper sexual advances.  Fear of persecution has led some christians to denounce their faith in God.

What are you afraid of?  Are there any areas of your life that are being stifled because of fear?  Satan is always going to bring fear against us at varying times.  It is one of his major weapons.

On Friday night I turned on the TV and the show Hoarders was happened to be on the channel the tv had been set to.  There was an older gentleman who was riding on a scooter around his property that looked like a junk yard.  Rusty bicycles, sewing machines, broken fences–just about anything you can imagine was piled all over the property.  The city had given him notice to clean up the property which was why Hoarder’s tv show was there. The psychologist spoke with the man asking him why he had accumulated so many things. He replied that he had planned repair the items and open a shop which was an old repair shop on the property. Suddenly he broke down crying.  She ask him what was wrong.  He confided that cleaning up the property made him fear that he would never get out of the wheelchair and that he would need to give up his dream of having a shop that rebuilds old items. The fear of facing his new reality was keeping him paralyzed.  Every day he would look at what he had hoped to accomplish and realize it wasn’t going to happen.  But instead of moving forward and moving on to something new that he could do, he got stuck in the fear and depression.

1 John 4:18 says

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We can resolve our fears first by focusing on God’s  immeasurable love for us.  His love will quiet our fears and give us confidence.”

Is there anything fear is keeping you from right now? What would you be able to accomplish if you could overcome those fears. Fear will keep you stuck in what might have been. Ask God to help you with your fears and to trust Him instead.

 

Happy Anniversary Dawn

Yeah, I know, she just had a birthday. I schedule it that way on purpose. I had heard all of these stories of inept men forgetting their anniversaries, so I wanted to schedule this so that I might forget one, but would never forget both. I never forget either, though I am frequently not around for one or the other, due to a conference my day job has every year about this time. This year I missed her birthday but will make up for it today.

Thank you honey for the best years of my life and for everything you’ve done for me. You are one of God’s greatest gifts to me.

Here’s one of our favorite artists doing one of our favorite songs, ad while it’s really a song about our relationship with God, parts of it could also apply to a really great marriage. I praise God because He’s given me both…

My Bride

I hope you’ll indulge a little personal reflection. Below is an image of the happiest day of my life.

We thought we had it all figured out, but we were so young. I’m 48 now, I’ve been married over half my life and I’m here to tell you we didn’t have a clue. It was so much harder than either of us could have imagined. It was also so much better.

Let me tell you about my bride. We met when I was 22 and I was a mess. I had spent the previous three years drinking my problems away and she was far too good for me. Good thing she didn’t know that. She helped me through my troubles, helped me get sober and got me to go to church for the first time in over 10 years. She was the one who led me to Christ. She’s given me two great sons, walked me through a heart attack. She was the angel that feared to tread when this fool wanted to rush in on too many occasions to count and as a result she saved me from a lot of problems. We’ve weathered a lot of storms together. I’ve often preached this life is a battle and I have a lot of friends, including some pretty tough guys, but there is no one I would rather have had by my side in this battle than her.

She’s been my voice of wisdom (of at least she’s spoken up when I was ignoring the Spirit), my sounding board, my strongest human supporter, my wife, my lover and my best friend. I love her more each day. I’ll be with her ’til God takes me.

And guys that’s the thing. The hearts and flowers of romance and the mountain tops are wonderful and we have had plenty of those times, but it’s the tough times that forge the bond. If we had left the tough times break us, we would have missed the wonder of an amazing life together. Too many people bail just when it’s getting good. The key is really simple. The Bible says “A cord of three strands is not easily broken.” It’s you, your mate and Jesus, hold on to each other tight and press on together. The family is God’s main building block in society and, as a result, it regularly comes under attack. Don’t quit, press on (unless your spouse puts you in physical danger).

If you’re not married yet, this is what you’re looking for. Someone who will stand by you in the tough times and love you regardless of circumstances. Follow God’s plan. Live God’s way. Build on Christ’s foundation and weave your three strand cord.

Part of the reason I posted this today is to ask you for prayer. My bride is having surgery tomorrow. It’s routine. She should be out by Saturday and we’re believing God for speedy recovery. I should be fine and totally confident. I trust the Lord, but she’s my bride so I’ll take all the prayer I can get. Please keep my wife Dawn in your prayers.

Another Praise…

I love being a minister, and there are few things more exciting than the privilege of performing weddings. Unfortunately there are few responsibilities of ministry that are more frightening. It is for that reason that I have two rules in place.

1. I don’t marry anyone I haven’t counseled and I reserve the right to refuse when the counseling is over.
2. I will NEVER, EVER marry anyone with a prenuptial agreement.

You can call me conceited, judgmental, whatever you want, I don’t care. You don’t have to stand before God and answer for why you married those people, I do. The pre-nup thing hasn’t come up for me yet, but this much I know. If you don’t have the trust and the love of the other party and you don’t value that more than your stuff, it probably isn’t going to work. You’re entering a life-time commitment with an exit strategy in place.

So far this doesn’t look too much like a praise but it is. You see today my wife Dawn and I are married 23 years and for us it’s 23 years on our way to eternity. We do have an exit strategy, one of us in a box and the other in mourning. I know that sounds a little morbid, but that ’til death do us part thing, God meant that. I love my wife and I plan on loving her until they close the box on me and with God’s help I will keep that commitment.

I know this sounds a little harsh, and I know this might offend some of my readers and I certainly don’t mean it to. We live in a broken world and sometimes things break, even marriages. If you’ve been through a divorce this is not a slam on you. We love you and pray God’s blessing upon you. I write this for the other married folks, maybe those who are teetering on the edge in hopes of pulling them back. It’s for the ones who have not yet chosen a mate, in hopes that something written here will help you choose well.

When Dawn and I first started dating and even into our marriage everything seemed perfect and wonderful. We were young and in love. Then life started to happen and things got tough. We experienced losses, struggles, tough jobs, financiall struggles, kids, schedules, conflicts and there were times in all of that when we might have felt like throwing up our hands and saying this is just too hard. Praise God, that’s not what happened, instead we pulled together and pulled each other through. There were times where it was very hard, but at the end of the day we’ve faced the last 23 years side by side and there is no one but Jesus I would rather have by my side to face anything.

Marriage isn’t easy and I am convinced it is targeted by Satan like almost nothing else, after all the marriage relationship is a “type” for Christ’s relationship with the church. It’s a symbol of the love of the one who told His people, “never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” Trials give us a choice, we can let them tear us apart or we can allow them to forge a bond that nothing but death can break. Dawn and I have chosen the latter, and with God’s help we’re sticking to it. What’s your choice?

I want to close by saying I love you Dawn, Happy Anniversary.

Bible Reading Guide
An important part of following God is knowing what He wants and a great way to know what He wants is to read His Word. Follow this plan and you will finish reading the Bible in a year.
Joshua 11-12; Mark 8; Psalm 127
You can also download your own chart here.

Celebrating One of My Life’s Greatest Blessings

I hope my regular readers will indulge me in a little personal reflection. You kind of have to because to be honest were it not for this person you would have no reason to read anything I write. On this date, an undisclosed number of years ago, one of the most important people in my life came into this world, my wife Dawn.

This woman met me at one of the toughest times in my life and saw something in me. She led me to the Lord and believed in me when few others did. She gave me two wonderful sons and has been my faithful wife for nearly 23 years. I can never repay you for all you’ve done for me honey but because you introduced me to Jesus, I’ll have forever to try.

I love you Honey. Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Dawn

Bible Reading Guide
An important part of following God is knowing what He wants and a great way to know what He wants is to read His Word. Follow this plan and you will finish reading the Bible in a year.
Joshua 7; Mark 4; Psalm 29
You can also download your own chart here.