| | |

Your Will Be Done…

So I’ve been lying in my bed restless, and this after taking night-time cold medicine, for the last 2 hours. Before I layed down I spent a good long while reading some scripture, some devotionals, and another book. I’m feeling right now that all I want for my life is to be doing what God wants me to be doing and going where He wants me to go. I don’t know what this mean for my future. I’ve had a million possible actions run through my head, from continuing on with where and what I’m doing, to up and moving to even another country and doing something. I’m beginning to feel an urgency. I’m thinking this is what has been causing all my restless nights for the past two weeks. I guess perhaps I am feeling like there needs to be a change in my life. I don’t really know what that change should be, perhaps I’m not suppose to know yet what that change is. I wonder if God is just opening my heart to the possibility of change, so that when it comes I’ll be ready to follow Him through that change.

At times I sort of feel cursed having so many interests and abilities. I feel sort of pulled in every direction, even by my own thoughts. The areas of music, technology, and just the great needs I see that youth have these days, seem to cause me not to know which way to go. Something that compounds this is my continued growth in the area of the Life Shapes seem to pull me in yet another direction. Ultimately wherever God calls me, I sense that I need to be building the kind of relationships that count for eternity, not just for the here and now.

I had an excellent conversation with Andrew, the youth director at my church, last week. This issue of being able to model the kind of life we’re trying to teach young people, that was something we both struggled with. The great commission is to go out into the world and share the Gospel. This is something that I’ve been talking about for myself. The idea that I feel as though I live in a Christian bubble, and I’m not going out into the world. I want to be able to be in this world, modeling the kind of in-world living we as Christians are suppose to have, and sharing that with youth so that they can see that God is there to help us. Don’t misunderstand me in what I’m saying. I fail in my everyday life just like the next guy. I’m NOT some super-Christian that has it all together and can be some great leader. I’m only a man who daily has to lay his life before the Lord, asking for forgiveness for my failings, and the opportunity to be used by God. I just want to be able to share with the youth today that there is hope. That hope however is not found in anything of this world, but in Christ alone.

The attacks of this world on our young people has been growing rapidly and they are searching for something true and something solid that they can put their trust in. This world continues to let our young people down, making them feel like they are lost and alone with no answers. This is the daily spiritual battle that they face. They need people that can show them Christs love, and accept them for who they are, just as Christ accepts us for who we are. It angers me how the church today has gotten to look down on our young people and reject them, offering them salvation only if they conform to them. It is only Christ that can change hearts. It is not our job to change people, it is our job to love them and share Christs love with them.

While I have my own convictions as to what I feel is right in the eyes of the Lord I have no right to push those convictions onto another. However, I do feel that there is a concern when peoples actions do not seem to follow a desire to follow Christ. I do feel it is good as followers of Christ to be genuinely concerned for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We have a responsibility to at least question the motives of their actions, but not to judge. If our asking simply causes them to openly consider the true motivations to their actions, and in turn choose to turn to God for His truth, then we are doing so out of love.

Well, I do believe it is getting late. I didn’t realize all that was stirring in me before I started to write. I still don’t know where God is leading me in all this but I am realizing that I haven’t taken the time to really express my thoughts on my blog for awhile. I used to do that daily, this is something I need to get back into the habit of doing. I’m going to now try to get some rest. I guess I am feeling a bit better now. Perhaps this feeling a bit under the weather was just God’s way of givingme some rest and abiding in Him. Good night all!

Similar Posts

  • This One Goes Out to All The Analytics…

    Ok, so is analytics even a word….guess so according to Websters. I think it’s a riot how I can take a situation and analyze it to death, then God comes in and tells me to just follow His lead. Am I slow or what. It’s so easy to forget, that despite our best efforts God’s still the one in control. Well this is just a short post this morning before I get ready. God is the best, yeah! Ok, until later! Chow! Do I like the word chow or what? LOL
  • /

    Giving Up Control

    “Don’t run ahead of God in your own strength, but rather trust Him to show you the solution.” I think this is one area that, as Christ followers, we all struggle with at times. I know that daily I need to give up control and let God lead. Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.” JOSHUA 6:2 NIV
  • Haven’t Posted in Awhile…

    I haven’t posted in awhile, something I must work on as usual. Seems like these days I’m so terrible with keeping in touch with people. This isn’t the way I’ve wanted it to be. I seem to constantly struggle between holding on to the life I once led and pushing forward with the new life God has given me. As this new year has begun I’ve had some opportunities to reflect on my life, and how God has changed it in a huge way. A little over a year ago I would have never guessed that within the next year God would bring an amazing woman into my life and lead me to change almost my entire life. God is so good, and faithful beyond…
  • / /

    I Won, I Won…

    Yeah, Dan’s winning streak was finally broken in Settlers, I won the game. It was close, John was one roll away from winning, then he had his longest road taken away. It was downhill from there for him. Getting the longest road gave me the final points needed to win. I didn’t get a post up last night as I was working on getting a blog setup for my sister. Hope this works for her. Well, I need to go warm up the car and get to work. Good day all!
  • The Apple Saga Continues…

    So I’m happy to announce that I’ve been banned from posting to the Apple Discussion Forums. I was warned a second time this morning to cease my posts, then after posting again I was notified in the early afternoon that I was banned from posting. Here is the email I got: —- Begin Message —- Timothy J Nolte, A number of your recent posts to the Apple Discussion Forums, from one or more Apple IDs and/or IP addresses, continue to be inappropriate. As previously warned, your ISP(s) may be notified about these postings, and your Discussions posting privileges have been suspended. Apple Discussions Staff —- End Message —- And here is what I was banned for:

3 Comments

  1. These are great thoughts Tim. This is actually something that God has challenged me with in the last year. When my sister died a little over a year ago – that was one of those Kairos moments when I felt like God was telling me to build relationships like you are talking about (relationships that count for eternity). When Veronica died – the church was filled with students and adults that she had those kind of relationships with. Many shared in the funeral service of the eternal impact she had on their life.

    I guess I was challenged at that time to look ahead to when I die – kind of depressing I know. Anyways, who will be there to say that I’ve made an eternal impact on their life? Those are the kind of relationships that I want to build as well.

    Here is where it is easy to fail though – this is one of those things that you need accountability for – actually putting that process into action. It is easy to say that you want to build those type of relationships, but to actually do it is where it is hard. It takes time to build those relationships. My sister was great at involving others in the day to day aspects of her life – just sharing life with them. I think that is where those connections begin to happen.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. (Find out more about Webmentions.)