Update #155 - Who Are You?

“I acted out of who I was, not by how I felt. And I acted in a way that would evoke honor, not blasphemy, from the nations…” Ezekiel 20:9 The Message

Rebecca, Me and Kim on my birthday - thanks for a great evening girls!

I like reading through The Message version of the Bible. It is in modern day English, for the most part, and sometimes passages I have read a hundred times or more get a fresh view, cause me to look deeper and rethink things. Ezekiel is hard for me to understand in most translations, so I thought I would “entertain” myself and read it in The Message version.

Chapter 20:9 popped out at me “I acted out of who I was, not by how I felt. And I acted in a way that would evoke honor, not blasphemy, from the nations…” I noticed the contradiction and as I continued to read the same sentiment repeated itself three times in the following verses.

Who are you?

What defines your perception of you? Your circumstances? Your bank balance? Your possessions? Events? Words spoken well of you? Words spoken in hate and haste? What ruminates in your brain – rumbling around, ranting, rationalizing; who you are?

This verse caused me to pause and think about who I am vs. how I feel. Honestly, right this moment I don’t feel all that great and when I look at some of the circumstances surrounding my life I am less than excited. But, who am I? Who am I really? What is the truth? What is the reality I should be living from vs. the not so stellar circumstances on which I am currently focusing?

I took this question to our weekly staff prayer meeting and asked them who they were. What is the truth about them? “Who are you really?” I asked. Here is a small list of what they came up with:

• Anxiety free
• Blessed
• Called
• Cared for
• Complete
• Conquer
• Discerning
• Empowered
• Energy-filled for what lies ahead
• Equipped
• Forgiven
• Friend of God
• Grace-filled
• Joy-filled
• Justified
• Land taker
• Over comer
• Peace-filled
• Power-filled
• Provided for
• Spirit directed
• Stronger than myself
• Victorious
• Warrior…

I need to live from God’s viewpoint of me. I need to act from this reality as well. Satan can get in and muck up our circumstances, send a hurtful word our direction – and if we aren't grounded in who we really are, where we really stand, our world can cave in.

“I acted out of who I was, not by how I felt. And I acted in a way that would evoke honor, not blasphemy, from the nations…” Who are you? What feelings block the real you from shining through? What actions evoke honor from the nations (nations being family members, coworkers, vendors, customers) around you? Are you bringing God honor through the way you think and act? Do people want to know the God you worship because of the reality from which you live?

Updates:

Travel – Off to San Diego for a birthday celebration!

Work – The Convergence Forum went really well – and had good attendance. Training is in full swing, several of my co-workers are also teaching an on-line university course, and TBW is about a month away.

Requests:

Travel - Off to Nigeria, most likely, right after Labor Day.

Work – The LEMON Leadership Forum on Wednesday, September 7th in Foster City / LEMON Leadership Webinar on Monday the 12^th closely followed by the Repurposing Capital Forum the 21^st and Webinar October 3^rd. Go to http://inst.net/events/index.html to register or for more information. We would also like prayer around our upcoming Nigeria trip (things are heating up there!). We would also like to return to Lubbock, Texas and spend some time with teams in Indonesia and India.

Personal – I would like to get home to Seattle between now and Christmas to see my parents. I haven’t been home since March. Prayer around this would be great! Also, I need some dentistry done – “When?” and “How?” need answers!