Relinquishing

My wife Melissa and I just came back from Ocean City, MD, where I was invited to minister for Son Spot Ministries. Upon our arrival, I wondered what my heavenly Dad wanted me to do this year – The 18^th year in a row that I’ve been invited to minister there in Word and Music. Every year, and I mean every year had been different, and I was excited to discover what Dad had for me to do this year.

After unpacking our bags, Melissa and I decided to walk up to the Boardwalk. We purchased two Polish Ices and sat on one of the benches, looking at the ocean view. It was an amazing time together, reflecting on how blessed we are and how good God really is.

You see, for the past year and a half our marriage had been strenuous, and I have been struggling at times to understand why this was happening to us. Why would our heavenly Dad allow this division to come between her and I? After all, had I not fed the poor, prayed for the sick, visited the ones in prison, all in Your name, Dad? Was this necessary? I’m not complaining… if anything, I’m grateful You brought us through this because You are truly good all the time. But I was still asking why.

This is what I heard from God: There had been and still are some items within me that I needed to relinquish to Him. There are items that I had to get over. In other words, I needed and still need to come to the end of myself and realize that Dad does not want 99 ½% - He wants all of us. Until self is under control and Jesus is on the throne in life, I am powerless where heaven is concerned. His power only comes with relinquishment. In Proverbs 11:24 it says, “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly but comes to poverty.”

It was the last day at Son Spot that I realized something – When I come to the end of myself – the end of my road, that’s when I drive up into Dad’s front yard. It was after the last service I did there that a flood of folks came up for prayer, and as I started to lay my hands on those for whom I was praying, something within my spirit was taking place. All the valleys that my heavenly Dad has brought me through, and the traumatic events throughout my life were not so much just for me, but maybe were for others like the youth, the recovery people, and those for whom I was praying in Ocean City. Maybe my yesterdays have been for someone else’s today!

Isn’t that what God did to Moses (Exodus 2,3)? He led Moses, the Prince of Egypt and a murderer, into the desert of relinquishment. Wasn’t it there that Moses learned many of the things he needed to lead Israel through Sinai? I bet you Moses wasn’t clicking his heels and singing “Zippidy do dah” about going back to Egypt with those bad memories. I bet he wanted to have a pity party, but no one would have shown up but the devil.

I know all about pity parties. When I came back to PA from California, I was kicking and screaming and trying to have a pity party, but no one showed up but the devil and temptations. I had to relinquish to God.

King David was familiar with pains of relinquishment. In Psalm 23:4 he says “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.”

As I was praying for the men, women, and children that came to me in Ocean City last week, I was receiving also from the relinquishing that has taken place with me – transforming my strengths into weakness and my weaknesses into strengths.

At the end of the service I shared a song: Here I am. I am convinced that will never find out who we are until we say to our Heavenly Dad “Here I am” I’m learning that I need to offer myself first instead of trying to find out what God wants first and then deciding whether or not I am able or willing!

Dad wants unconditional “Here I am.” He wants me to relinquish myself, then He can release His power in my life. Maybe that’s what Luke 22:42 is saying, “Father, if You be willing, remove this up from me; nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.”

Photo Credit - Jyn Meyer

The Rut

As I woke this morning, I was lying in bed, ready to pray to Dad, when I heard Him say to me in my spirit, 'JD, where are you?' I replied, 'What so You mean - where am I? You know where I am... lying here in this comfortable bed, getting ready to get up and pray to You like I always do, Dad.' But As I was getting out of bed, I heard Him say to me again, 'JD, where are you, my son?' By now, I'm sitting on the edge of the bed, still wondering what He means - Where am I? So, before I started to pray, I had opened up my Recovery Bible to the 4th step of Recovery which says, 'We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves'

It made me wonder why Dad would ask me where I was. The last time I remembered being asked, 'Son where are you?' was back in 1973. I was about to graduate from Southmoreland Sr. High and my dad, James had come into my bedroom one morning and said, 'Jimmy, where are you boy? What plans do you have after high school?' I remember telling my dad I was thinking about getting a gig around Scottdale and staying here. My dad said, 'Boy you ain't staying around here; you'll be going to college and make something of yourself. Your mother and I want to enroll you at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.' I remember saying, 'Dad, I don't know anybody in Pittsburgh, and my friends are here, my girlfriends are here, and I like Scottdale and I know Scottdale likes me.'

You see I was comfortable in the circuit i was in; the trails were well marked and very easily recognized. Things in my life, at the time were predictable and familiar on the merry-go-round. I liked my comfortable world and life. I knew what to avoid, what to look forward to, and what to expect. My friends were all here, but that day in 1973, my dad rocked my world and told me I would not get anywhere in life staying here - I was going away to college after graduation. My dad and mom put an end to my predictable routine! I was in a rut - they knew it, but I didn't. That's why my dad asked me that morning, 'Jimmy, where are you?'

So I'm here today, hearing the same question, but this time from my Heavenly Dad, 'JD, where are you son?' I am brought to God's Word in Deuteronomy 2, Where Moses was leading a ton of people forty laps around the same mountains, but not really getting anywhere. In their predictable routine, Dad said to Moses "You have circled this mountain long enough; turn and go in another direction." They were in a rut; it was time for new dynamics, new dimensions, and a new direction. It was time to crane the neck, scan the horizon, forget the past, and look ahead.

I've had some negative memories that i have had to put behind me; some wounds and pains that I've had to leave at the altar and get on with the life that Jesus says I can have abundantly.

I like what Paul says in Philippians 3: "Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead." In Isaiah 13 it says, "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things the things of old. behold I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth." Reaching forward is a good spiritual exercise, isn't it? I think it stimulates hope: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for" and puts us in a state of expectancy. We can't get this by being in a rut. My dad, James, used to always tell me, 'Son, if the kitchen is to hot, get out, and if you're at the bottom there's only one way to go - up'

I am convinced that our heavenly Dad did not send His only begotten Son Jesus for us to be in a rut. After all, He says, "For I know the plans I have for you - plans to prosper you and not harm you; plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11) I think I now why He asked me, "JD where are you?"

Yesterday was good, Today is better, Tomorrow will be better still!

First Post

Jd Has just got this blog set up and will posting soon