Learnings from the Heart of a Warrior Advance

I had an excellent weekend at the Heart of a Warrior Advance at the end of September. The weekend included some great speakers, but my two key learnings came during the athletic competitions.

The first activity that I competed in was archery. When all the people who had signed up for archery arrived at the target area, no one had shown up to organize our competition. For some reason, all of the participants were looking at me to coordinate it. So I decided to take action and organize an archery competition that included three rounds for the nine participants. I was successful! From that experience, I felt, "Wow! I am a leader."

The other learning took place during a game of pickup football. Now, I was neither the youngest person nor the fastest person on the team. When my team was on offense, I was being covered for a while -- until the other team realized that passes were not coming my way. Then they stopped covering me. At that point, the quarterback huddled us together and said, "What are you seeing out there?"

"Well, obviously, they're not covering me," I replied.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes," I said.

During the next play, I ran down to the one yard line. I was open, he passed to me, and I scored a touchdown! From that I learned, "I have what it takes."

Incidentally, the theme for the Heart of a Warrior Advance was "Are you ready?" I surely am.

I'm excited to advance

This afternoon I leave for the third Heart of a Warrior Advance. It will be at Big Sandy Camp in McGregor, Minn. I'm excited to see how the Holy Spirit moves this weekend; I have never attended an Advance before.

Becoming a Christian Heritage Party candidate

In this political season, it seems probable that somewhere a candidate would be called to run based on the prompting of God. That's definitely the case. . .with a fringe party in Canada. According to The Lindsay Post, Dave Switzer is slated to run a modest campaign that will leave the result in God's hands:

'There wasn't anyone forthcoming to run,' he said. 'God spoke to my heart that he wanted me as a candidate for the Christian Heritage Party.'

Switzer explained the four main issues he will deal with are abortion, climate change, families and gay marriage.

20% of Americans have heard the voice of God

USA Today recently ran a front-page story on survey findings about Americans' religious beliefs and practices.

The survey, conducted by the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, found that:

• 55% of adults say that they have been protected from harm by a guardian angel
• 45% of adults felt called by God to do something
• 23% of adults witnessed or experienced a miraculous, physical healing
• 20% of adults have heard the voice of God.

The story has been very popular on USA Today's Web site; readers have posted nearly 900 comments so far.

God does not have a political party

An editorial in The Tennessean on Aug. 31 by Carol Swain, Ph.D., a professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, inspired a lot of reader comments. The topic? The role of divine wisdom in politics.

A life of adventure

Lynn Boleware has had an adventurous life. He's been a stock car driver, bull rider, a bounty hunter and a firefighter. But his latest adventure -- as rabbi of the Beit Lechem Congregation, a Messianic Jewish community -- has its roots in hearing God's voice in his early teens:

'I grew up in the Methodist church,' said Boleware. 'But at about age 12 or 13, I started asking questions. I saw a news story on television about Israel, and I believe God spoke to my heart, telling me that the people I saw on TV were my people. I didn't understand it at the time, but now it's quite clear to me.' (Madison County Herald)

Messianic Jews accept Jesus, or "Y'shua," as the Messiah. "Y'shua is the Aramaic name for Jesus, which translated, means 'God is my salvation,'" explained Boleware.

Music with a saving message

The Lufkin Daily News recently ran a story about Clayton Dyess, a guitar-playing, Louisiana-based gospel singer who plays his songs in parking lots.

Several times Dyess' music and God's message have saved someone's life:

• 'One time I was playing at a Wal-Mart in Center and a woman went in the store to buy pills to kill herself,' he said. 'She came up to me and said that she heard my music and that God spoke to her and saved her right there.'
• Another time Dyess was playing by the river in Natchitoches on a rainy night, with barely anyone listening. Suddenly he heard a splash and saw a man that had jumped into the water to kill himself. Dyess said that the man swam to safety because his message spoke to him and he wanted to be saved. The man ended up joining him on stage and singing in the rain.
• Another time, a man passed Dyess on his way to buy alcohol to fuel his depression. Dyess said soon after, the man came up to him, gave him his alcohol and turned his life over to God.

Dyess gives away his CDs for free to spread God's message as far as he can.