faithrunner

Read Hosea 11 . In God's revelation through his servant, Hosea, we get an imaginative picture of the heart of God as he wrestles with what to do with his wayward child, Israel; and, in turn, we learn how God loves us. God's love is like that of a loving father who patiently puts up with a rebellious teenager . ( Hosea 11:1-4 ) Any parent who has walked alongside a child becoming an adult gets how God loves/feels in this situation. Hosea also reveals to us that God's love lets us experience the consequences of our choices. ( Hosea 11:5-7 ) God let Israel choose their kings and whom they would worship. God simply let all their choices play out in their history. Many of us blame God for our circumstances, but I'd say 90% of my messes I am in, I made! The troubles are simply the results of my free, self-patronizing choices--and being the human I am, I keep making them. God waits for me to admit my self-centeredness and turn to him. One more application : Too many parents ne...

While on a break from my routine, I took my Five Fingers to Cameron Park in Waco this morning. I have completed a couple of 50k runs there, and I still believe it is the best kept secret in Texas for mountain biking and trail running. I love the park, and with the many new improvements, it's better than ever. The trails rise and fall to the river and you can run in stands of Cedars and Bamboo. It's rugged, wooded, with steep elevation changes . Things every tail runner loves. The trails are well-marked , and if you need hill training or just want to get outdoors, it's the place to go. I covered some of the hardest and longest in the Park: Highlander, Powerline, and Powder Monkey . I took some green trails, too, but no black ones--that I know of. The trails have exposed rock face as well as packed dirt . Where water had drained and loosened the limestone rocks was the hardest on the feet. I put in 2 hours on the trails . Here's my take on the continuing argument for o...

As some of you know, I have begun to run and exercise in Vibram Five Fingers . After a rocky start , I have settled down to running and exercising (boot camp mostly) in them regularly. (I also do my lighter yard work in them.) Once my calves and Achilles tendons stretched enough to keep my heels on the ground, I have been good to go. I don't plan on going back to elevated sole running shoes again. I have run as far as 6 miles on concrete without complications and over an hour on trails with only an occasional stick between the toes and rock on my instep (the worst-but rarest-pain of barefoot running). The muscle and hip pains that halted my running in shoes have subsided, and running like I did when I was a kid has put me back on the road and trails at age 56. So, what does barefoot running have to do with discipleship? For those of you here because of the barefoot running title, discipleship is a biblical term for an apprentice of Jesus . When someone trusts Jesus is who he says ...

When the friend who recommended reading The Tangible Kingdom asked me how I liked it, I said, " It's missional church served with a lot of beer ." My statement came from the authors/village leaders' strategy of living out their kingdom life in what they call "incarnational community." This meant to them spending time where people hang out and joining them in normal celebrations and gatherings in order to build intentional relationships- something more Christ followers need to be about. Halter and Smay are practitioners , and that is what I like about their work. It is built on how they live out their mission and vision week in and week out as Adullam, a church in Denver . Little theory, much practice. My favorite chapter title is "The 1,700-year Wedgie," the best description of the institutionalization of the church I've read. I like the book because it parallels much of what Steve Pate and I wrote about in Evangelism Where You Live . (Chalic...

I am always inspired when I meet someone who says, "I have to do this. I don't know how, but it's got to be done," and then does it! That doesn't happen often, and I admit when people tell me something God has told them to do, I become a bit skeptical. However, every now and then, when someone like Robert Lee tells me he is compelled to meet a need, I believe them. Robert came to me soon after the 100-year flood in Nashville this past spring. He has a daughter, and granddaughter living near the flooded area. He heard of the devastation, which was mostly over looked by the media, but very much real and impacting the families there. He did not know how he would do it, but he would gather as much material and goods as he could, send it to Nashville, and distribute what he had to the children and their families affected by the flood. He needed a home base, and came to me, and, of course, I said yes. Legacy Church would collect and store whatever was donated. Alm...

This past weekend, I attended a family reunion, my family on my father's side. Sixty nine relatives gathered on Lake Whitney for two days of telling stories and catching up ; AND, celebrating the legacy which we share. My cousin, Terry, read of eight generations from John H. Mulkey, who was born in 1824 and to which my father, Mulkey Carl Wilkes, belonged . I learned that the head of each of those generations was a Christian. My father's father, and his father, and so on, not only embraced the faith but passed it on to their family. I am a recipient of that heritage of faith, and I trust the faith I have passed on to my children will be passed on to their children. The legacy of faith I inherited reminded me of Paul's words to Timotheos , when he was reminded of his young friend's "sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and...now lives in you ." ( 2 Timothy 1:5 ) We h ave the choice to pass on generational sins or...

Walter Brueggemann wrote that the essential message of a prophet is that the dominant narrative of the culture has failed and God's alternative way of life remains supreme. If the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has taught us anything, it is that the dominant narrative of a petroleum-based lifestyle has failed us . We can no longer count on it to give us the lives we want because it is essentially killing that life now. While British Petroleum has worked non-stop for over 50 days to stop the oil that gushes from the ruptured pipe 5,000 feet below the surface of the gulf and have invested their best engineers, technology, and ingenuity to stop the flow, the man-made leak continues. Our biggest and best can't stop what our biggest and best created. Even the President's promise to kick some a__ has and will not change the situation. Pointing the finger of blame will not solve this disaster. We are reaping what we have demanded by our lifestyles and what we have sown to have...