Ignore this post.  I had to blast this out.  -Ed.

Lord,

This type of work beats me down.  It takes all of my strength.  I hate doing this line of work.  I don’t care about technology.  I would give anything to not know what I know.

I feel like I do nothing significant.

How do I go from the highest of the high in being in a position to help somebody find a job in something they love to do, give a guy all the cash in my pocket and lending my cell phone to a lady looking for her friend who came to pick her up…

… to absolute dread and madness of working in something tech.

I am beyond anger and frustration for every second I have to even endure a software upgrade, troubleshooting a router or server setup.

But…

I will only do this if this is Your will, my Lord.

But in order for me to do Your will, Your word promises us that You would give us that endurance.  You also promised us strength and wisdom.

If this is not Your will, then take it all from me.  Remove all of my endurance, strength, understanding and wisdom.

Let me collapse.

I can’t do it by myself.

I refuse to do it by myself.

I rather just lie down and worship You.  I rather just sing Your praises.  Till I die.

For it is in your beautiful name I am so desperate to pray,

Amen

After a bit of an email exchange with somebody, I got a prayer over me.  It is so good that I could not help but share (with her complete blessing, of course):

“Having said all that, and having explored your site a little bit more this p.m., my prayer for you is that you never see another naked woman in the flesh again, because I pray that the next naked female form you see and hold will be so beautifully clothed in God’s righteousness that you’ll KNOW that you’re making love to her spirit a much as to her body, and that the whole thing would constitute an eternal covenant between you, her, and your (plural) Savior.”

Yea.

Wow.

My recent prayers have been really intense and honestly, I hardly know what to pray over because there is so much to pray for.

Knowing my cries, Holy Spirit then showed me some things that I need to pray for myself based on: Psalm 25 especially this gem in verses 4 & 5:

Psalm 25:4-5 (NKJV) Show me Your ways, O Lord;
Teach me Your paths.

Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.

To be honest with you guys, I don’t know how to be a man.  I used to not be good with finances.  I suck at being a husband.  Was a terrible dad.  I didn’t even take care of my body.

I may not know how to do those things.  But God does.  Therefore, I ask Him to be my Teacher.

Also…

Promise of God: Psalm 26:1b (NKJV) …I have also trusted in the Lord; I shall not slip.

Blessing of God: Psalm 20:4 (NKJV) May He grant you according to your heart’s desire,
And fulfill all your purpose.

I am at this time in my life where I should be worrying or fearing or doubting God and the desires of my heart.  Instead, in this moment, my spirit beat the snot out of my flesh and thus, I praise and worship the Lord Most High with a heart full of joy.

My blogosphere-yet-soon-to-meet-in-real-life friend, Cindy Beall, tagged me two weeks ago.

It is sorta fresh on my brain thanks to another blogosphere friend, Crystal Renaud, who challenged us admitting our strengths. So already, I am in the mindset on how God created me uniquely.

I won’t take the easy route of redirecting people to my testimony because that would be way too easy. If you read my testimony, you essentially know who I am. There is no secret left to be revealed.

But what makes up the day-to-day Joe? How do my friends perceived me? How do strangers perceived me?

So in that, I pick 10 things to share about me. Some facts, some personal observations about myself and from friends.

1. I am big and tall. 240lbs and standing around 6′5″.
2. I don’t eat a lot of sweets. I can always do without them. I rather have a second helping of pot roast rather than to have dessert.
3. I love food. I love all cuisines. I love to cook.
4. I have too much hair (see insert). It is getting chopped back this Saturday at 9AM CT.
5. I think I get stinky especially when it gets hot and Texas always has hot summers. My friends promise me that I am not stinky. It is not something I worry about but I definitely do ponder over it.
6. One of those same friends describe me as new like the springtime. That is one of the best compliments ever.
7. I am about to take singing lessons so I can technically sing well during worship services. Pray for my teacher. Seriously.
8. As big of a geek as I am, I never buy any technology that has just hit the streets for the first time. I just like waiting until all the bugs are out of it.
9. I am a social butterfly.
10. When I am at work, I am always barefoot. I kick my shoes and socks off almost immediately.

So tag, you’re it:

Tam

Brent

Minda

Chelsea

Ashley

Tagged by Ric Booth for a very cool conversation starter:

What is your favorite book of the Bible?

Not to over think it, I had to really ask myself, “What is my favorite book?”. If I am really honest with myself, this is different than asking:

Favorite prophet: Isaiah
Most quoted from: Jeremiah
Most identifies with: Hosea
Mark myself against: Mark
In Awe of God: John
Wraps up everything about God: 1 John
Absolute giddy about: Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation
Thinks is not boring: Numbers, Deuteronomy
Keep going back to: Acts
Currently stuck in: Psalm
Taught by: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon
Could spend a year on: Genesis

Even despite my constant temptation of getting Isaiah 53 tattooed on my back in Hebrew and English, my favorite book has to be Romans.

When I think of what I am placed on this earth to do, nothing but absolutely nothing is more important than sharing the gospel of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

It is this Epistle to the Romans that two things are established:

• Puts everybody on the same playing field when approaching the Most High God - It removes all excuses. Not only it establish how we stand with God but it challenges us into answering one very important question.  That question is not whether we can be saved but rather do we think we need to be saved. In other words, how is salvation possible if you don’t think you need to be saved.
• Despite it laying out the path to salvation in order to get to God, this letter is written out to believers - It essentially lays out the basics of Christianity: hope, faith, love, spreading the gospel, promises of His love, His holiness and righteousness, wrestling between flesh and spirit and the dismantling of religiosity by separating law and spirit. One way I have heard it put: The Gospel According to Paul. It is very good news, indeed.

Above all, Romans contains the single greatest passage in the Bible, in my opinion. We can put our faith in that when all else fails and everything is being destroyed around us, it is just God and us and nothing can separate us from His love:

Romans 8:31-39 (ESV) What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.