Dan Sullivan

“Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised.
Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts.”
(1Cor 7:17-19 NIV)

- what we do is so not related to who we are, in the sense that we
do not get our identity from what we do, but we do according to
what our identity is.
- Righteousness and favor with God does not come from our job,
economic status, anything. It doesn’t come from the righteous
look we have or the suffering we endure. There is a lot of
laboring and suffering and striving in the Bible, but it’s never
the awful and burdensome task that people sometimes make it out
to be. Following Jesus isn’t a task we grudge doing.
- Yesterday there were two times where something wonderful and
amazing happened to me. I was walking to work-a 30 minute walk.
It was about 100º out and I had a laptop, external hard drive,
and all the wires and cables in my backpack.
- I was buzausted, as David says
- And then I did something I read in “Lifetime Guarantee.” When I
read it I thought it was pretty silly and a little too much like
a fairy tale.
- I just prayed, “Jesus, I can’t do this. I can’t walk and be nice
to people and then be joyful at work. I need to you live in me. I
give you my body, my mind, my moods, whatever you want.” and as I
prayed this something uncontrollable happened. I smiled. I smiled
a big ole smile and just walked and after a while I was at work.
- On the way home it was harder. There were some traffic issues so
the roads were closed and no busses were running (even though it
was hotter in the busses) and I was walking home with the
addition of a kilo of potatoes, a 2 kilos of bananas, a bottle of
ketchup and some canned pineapple. And it was 5:00 instead of
9:00, so it was a lot hotter.
- My wife called and asked me to get bread too, and let a thought
slip, “Is it really worth it to walk instead of drive?” I was
mean to her on the phone, got the bread, and kept walking.
- I stopped and bought a bottle of water because I thought I was
going to die of heat exhaustion, only to mistakenly buy a warm
bottle of soda water. I drank the first half liter in about 30
seconds and belched my way up the hill into our neighborhood.
- Then I realized I was really angry and mean and being a real
jerk. so I did it again.
- Jesus, you can have it all. There is no point in me walking if
I’m going to get home and be mean to my wife and kids and grumble
during all this time I can be with You.
- And He did it again. I started thinking about joy. It’s the only
thing that when you put it on, your load gets lighter. God said
to me, “If you’re not going to do it with joy, then don’t do it.”
I think that’s good advice for my last 3 years! I then added on
“and you have to do it, so do it with joy.”
- When I got home Cindy asked me if I soaked myself with the hose
before I came in the house. That’s how wet I was with sweat.
- So was it worth it? It is my least distracted, uninterrupted time
with God I have all day. You bet. I’ll do it again today.

“What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”
(1Cor 7:29-31 NIV)

yesterday a friend was sandwiched in by two ladies at the bazaar, to the point that she had trouble moving. What she didn’t know what that a third lady took a razor and sliced the bottom of her bag open and stole her wallet with $100 in it.
a guy at work went to USA and bought a $1300 canon. He loaned it to a buddy and when he got it back, the flash is broken. He can’t just take it to get it fixed, but the guy that borrowed it has no money. They had a talk to each other about it.
My wife said yesterday about our friend and her purse, “What if we caught them and just told them not to steal, but then handed them all the money anyway?”
wow.
what if we really used the things of the world as if not engrossed in them. I wouldn’t worry about all my tech junk. I would not own it as if it was mine to keep
I think there is a promised land waiting for us on the other side of our possessions. Sure, in the visible world we might lose a few thousand bucks worth of junk from accidents, people taking advantage of us, etc. But I think in the invisible world we will gain more blessing and growth than you could buy for millions.
I remember earlier in my walk I loaned a guy some money, like $150-250 bucks. I remember thinking several times, “Now would be a great time for him to pay me back–hey, what is that new MP3 player he has?” and being bitter.
Sometimes when I go to the store and I know I’m going to the next store and to the bakery and some other places, I put my change in one pocket and keep my big bills in my wallet. That makes it easier to whip out a dollar here and a dollar there instead of flashing my fifties and hundreds around to my fifty cent baker or beggar kids coming for spare change.
I know I have grown a lot since my early days of bitter loans, because I see my loans not as much as me giving money away and hoping to get it back someday so I can use it for myself, but I see it as God moving HIS money from one pocket to the other.
If it stays in the pocket of sew and sew, it will just sit, it won’t get spent, and supplies for the Kingdom won’t get bought. So God moves the change, often the little stuff by comparison, to another pocket, so it will get spent on the kingdom faster.
It’s all His anyway, and when He’s ready, the fives will burn at the same temperature as the hundreds.

“And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
(1Cor 6:11 NIV)

• You were slanderers, homosexuals, sexually immoral, all kinds of stuff. BUT YOU WERE WASHED! you are now clean and separate from that old death.
• I am reading “Portraits of Christ in the Tabernacle” by Theodore Epp, and he talks about the Tabernacle being out in the desert, and when someone came up to it, it would not look like a real big deal. Lots of people had big tents. Nomads have had elaborate tents for thousands of years. (I’ve heard in recent years some have pewter floors that fold out and DVD players hooked to big screen TVs. They aren’t poor, they are just nomadic.) From the outside the tabernacle looked like a big white tent with no roof. You might be able to see a little bit of the roof of the inner part if you would back up enough.
• Like the tabernacle, when you look around, Christians look just like all the other people. (with the exception of some groups like my Mennonite Homies)
• Some of us were pretty wicked people, but we’ve been washed and set apart for God. Now we might look a little different, like the tabernacle was all white on the outside, but still not too different.
• The only difference is noticed when people come in. As we invite people into our lives, just as foreigners and aliens were invited into the Tabernacle, they can see that what is in this tent is different than any other tent they’ve seen before.
• Inside this tent is one of the places where God comes down to earth.
• Inside this tent is one of the places where the One seated in Heaven gets His feet dirty in our world.
• Inside this tent is where God lives with Men.

“For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.””

(2Cor 6:16 NIV)

• Invite someone into your life that might not know about the God who lives with men. Your body is the tent He is camping out in. He is not on holiday, He is here on business.