By Josh Weidmann on Friday, September 28, 2007 11:11 PM

Okay. Okay. I get the point.

Sorry for my long absence from this place. My time has been sparse, but that is no excuse for a lack of time for writing, thinking and communicating with my friends here. Please forgive me for misplacing my time and not getting back to something that is important to me.

I’m in Colorado tonight. Man, I love this state. I speak tomorrow in Buena Vista to the Freshman Cadets from the Air Force Academy. I love the mountains, the people, the coffee, the weather … everything about “here” is close to my heart. I wish for everyone to see this state because once you are here you can’t hold in your overflowing adoration of God almighty.

Today I had the chance to reconnect with some old friends. One of them was my childhood hero; someone that was influential in getting me into the ministry in the first place. The seven-year-old version of me would’ve been ecstatic to be sitting across the table from him. He is a gospel illusionist – someone who uses illusions to communicate truth. I love every moment of our conversation. I have the privilege of meeting his son and daughter in-law as well. They too were a great blessing and someone I know God had my path cross with for many reasons – some still unknown.

Finally I got share a meal with a friend at The Golden Corral (an old-country-style-buffet place with mostly gray-hairs eating there). I hadn’t seen or talked to this friend for seven years up until yesterday. He is now part of a major band, owns a production company and is authentically living out his faith. He again inspired me with his life as he is living a love honest before God as the world watches in on him. One of the things that this friend reminded me of as well was the importance of nurturing relationships.

Moral of my day: Don’t forget the importance of pouring your life into people; there is no greater way to drain your self because there is no greater way to fill yourself.

See you here again soon. I promise.

 

 

By Josh Weidmann on Friday, September 07, 2007 10:07 PM

This past winter I had the privilege of meeting Dar Merrill, a man highly influential in establishing the spiritual heritage of my family. He used to travel with my grandfather performing in a ministry using gospel magic (where I got my start in ministry at age seven!) and led my mother to the Lord, which resulted in my father also accepting Christ.

Our time together was filled with sharing stories from the past, but towards the end Dar asked me to partner with his evangelistic ministry in India and travel with him to one of his crusades there. Since then, Dar has been put in I.C.U. for health issues and has asked me to take his place and do the preaching entirely at the crusade in India. Though the idea of planning an overseas event and then speaking in front of more than 50,000 people each night through a translator frightens me, I’m excited to see what the Lord will do through this time. Please pray for Dar’s continued recovery as well as the planning of this evangelistic effort. Thank you.

By Josh Weidmann on Thursday, September 06, 2007 10:00 PM

" I Spent the first 25 years of my life wanting more freedom, the next 25 years of my life wanting more structure, and the last 25 years of my life realizing that structure is freedom."

Winston Churchill

By Josh Weidmann on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 9:42 PM

Exodus 20:2-6 and Mark 12:29-34

Wanting to be closer to God is something that all Christians should long for at one time or another. Like a person who has not eaten in a while groans for a good meal, we too should deeply desire to feast on the presence of God. But what does that mean? What brings on this type of hunger? What causes us to desire God?

In Exodus 20, God commands the people to love Him. You’d think that Israel would’ve felt as if God was forcing Himself upon them as He plain out threatened their lives (and their kids lives and their grand kids lives and their great grand kids lives) if they were to love anyone but Him. But after all He had done for the them, why would he have to ask them to love Him? Wouldn’t it be natural that they would love Him enough that nothing could sway their love? Obviously not because only 12 chapters later they couldn’t wait 40 days for the Lord before their love grew fickle and they were off making a golden calf to worship.

Also in Mark 12 we see Jesus reinforce the idea that we are not to love anyone beside the Lord. He cannot be compared to anyone or anything. He is the only one that can redeem us, forgive us, remove our guilt, bring us true joy… and the list goes on. And we are to love this God with all our heart, mind and strength.

God demands all of our love, but why would we give more love to anyone or anything else but Him? Yes, He is a jealous lover, but rightfully so. Anything we start to adore more than Him is an idol in our lives and must be removed. Exodus 20:5 says we are not to worship “anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Though this refers to things like golden calves, and we may not go make literal statues of things and worship them, but we metaphorically take things we like and make them into a grand object of our affection. Even though Israel knew the consequences for doing this, they did it anyway. Even though we know the consequences for worshiping the other “gods” in our life, we do it anyway.

How could we be so foolish and selfish?

Lord, give me the strength, understanding, and love, to respond to your jealousy with total devotion. Give me the furry of Moses to destroy to dust the idols in my life. Help me mimic your love. May my understanding of commitment to you grow enough that you may be able to respond to me in the way Christ did to the scribe in Mark 12:34 – “You are not Far from the Kingdome of God.”