Motive is Everything

"It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it.  The motive is everything."

--A.W. Tozer

Devotion to Christ

"Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink’” (John 4:7). 

"How many of us are expecting Jesus Christ to quench our thirst when we should be satisfying Him! We should be pouring out our lives, investing our total beings, not drawing on Him to satisfy us. “You shall be witnesses to Me . . .” (Acts 1:8). That means lives of pure, uncompromising, and unrestrained devotion to the Lord Jesus, which will be satisfying to Him wherever He may send us.

"Beware of anything that competes with your loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest competitor of true devotion to Jesus is the service we do for Him. It is easier to serve than to pour out our lives completely for Him. The goal of the call of God is His satisfaction, not simply that we should do something for Him. We are not sent to do battle for God, but to be used by God in His battles. Are we more devoted to service than we are to Jesus Christ Himself?"

--Oswald Chambers

A.W. Tozer on Entertainment and Amusements

Entertainment and amusements in the church are a counterfeit to the Presence of God.

The World is the Battleground
A Christian Cult
Enmity:  True Christians versus False Christians

Ways that Demons Enter People:  Entertainment

God's Purpose or Mine?

This is from My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers:

We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God’s purpose for us. In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself.

What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish— His purpose is the process itself. What He desires for me is that I see “Him walking on the sea” with no shore, no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see “Him walking on the sea” (Mark 6:49). It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.

God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself.

God’s purpose is to enable me to see that He can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.

A Navy SEAL, a Broke-down Car and Karl Malone

9 September 2015

Today I hitchhiked from Salmon, Idaho to Hamilton, Montana.  It seemed like it took a long time to get out of Idaho.  Some days are slow, some days are fast.

I got a ride from Salmon north on U.S. 93 to Tower Creek.  From there I walked for a while and then got a ride to North Fork (north fork of the Salmon River).

At North Fork, I got a hamburger at the local cafe and then started walking again.  I must have walked three or so miles when this guy in a tractor-trailer pulled over to give me a ride.  His name was Marvin and he came up from Texas a couple of days ago.

Marvin and I had a good chat.  He told me that his dad was a veteran of World War II and Korea.  After coming home from Korea, his dad and his family lived in the woods until 1974 when the U.S. Forest Service burned them out.  Marvin's dad liked being alone---that is why he spent so much time in the woods.  I told Marvin that I have met a number of veterans who suffered from PTSD and the common denominator with these guys is that they like to be alone and away from society.

Marvin told me that he was a Navy SEAL from the mid 1980s till the mid 1990s.  He was involved in an operation in Panama in 1989 where his helicopter was shot down.  He was wounded a few times and some of the SEALs were killed---the enemy knew they were coming.  They were pinned down on this beach for three days.  No help was coming, so they had to swim back to the ship.

Marvin was later sent to Lebanon.  He got out of the Navy and started hitchhiking.

Marvin was hitchhiking in Alaska when he saw this guy trying to fix his broke-down car.  Marvin walked up to him and asked him if he needed any help.  The other guy said, yeah.

So Marvin fixed his car and he got a ride to somewhere in Alaska.  The guy with the broke-down car was Karl Malone.  Malone was a power forward for the Utah Jazz; he was a two-time MVP in the NBA in 1997 and 1999.  For the next six years, Karl and Marvin would go on hunting trips in Montana.  Karl also owned two commercial fishing boats in Alaska and he took Marvin on a fishing trip.

You never know who you are going to meet on the road.

Marvin dropped me off in Hamilton and told me that he was heading into Idaho on U.S. 12.  I walked to the library and read some inspiring words by John Milton and Gerard Manley Hopkins.

At a Cafe in Merriman, Nebraska