Walking in love

Joyce Meyer had an interesting column last week about putting God's love in your relationships. She shared a story about how God convicted her of her selfish ways:

I used to feel as if I was fighting the devil from daylight till dark, seven days a week. One morning about 11 years ago I discovered that the primary reason for my struggle was that I wasn’t walking in love.

My husband, Dave, and I had just returned from doing a conference. We went to McDonald’s to have some coffee and read our mail. Both of us were very tired.

When I’m tired, I like to sit in the sun to be revived. But in order to sit in the sun, we needed to sit in one of the booths near the windows, and by the time we arrived, there was only one left. So Dave said, 'You go get the booth, and I’ll go get the coffee.'

As I started walking, I saw out of the corner of my eye a little old man heading for the same booth. I stepped up my pace a bit and beat him to it. Fortunately, he knew the lady who was sitting in the booth right behind us and asked if he could sit with her.

She answered, 'Yeah, you can sit here. She beat you to it, huh?'

The worst part of the story is that the man was crippled.

God convicted me right then and there. 'Aren’t you cute?' He asked me. 'Here you are, a born-again, baptized-in-the-Holy-Ghost preacher, in the middle of teaching an ‘anointed’ series on love, and you’re racing a crippled man for the last seat at McDonald’s!'

Meyer goes on to say that by giving up the need to be right, she has been more in tune with the needs of others -- and has had much better relationships as a result.

How will your son learn what it means to be a man?

I want to be an effective father, and I want my son to know just how much he means to me.

A few years ago, I read a book by Robert Lewis called "Raising a Modern-Day Knight." In the book, Lewis provides a blueprint for fathers to use today to raise their sons in a Godly manner. Since reading "Raising a Modern-Day Knight," I have implemented some of the suggestions in the fathering of my eight-year-old son.

Now I'm taking it to the next level -- I and a friend of mine, Chris Blom, will be taking a small group of fathers of sons through the "Raising a Modern-Day Knight" curriculum.

The curriculum includes DVDs hosted by Lewis, along with Family Life founder Dennis Rainey. We hope to help dads:

• Discover the key issues that separate fathers and sons.
• Learn how to offer special manhood instructions their sons can use throughout their lives.
• Communicate the definition of authentic manhood clearly -- giving their sons a compelling vision for life.

Raising a Modern-Day Knight also provides:

• an overall fatherhood game plan -- what sons need to see, receive, experience and hear each year of life from ages one to 21!
• age-appropriate ways fathers can create special ceremonies as their sons grow and mature.
• what every dad needs to know as he leads his son on this great adventure called authentic manhood!

I have felt a stirring in my heart to do this for a long time, and I'm excited that it's finally coming to fruition. We are starting out with an orientation session on March 15. If you live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and are interested in coming to the orientation session, contact me.

An evening of hope

The last time I had heard of a house concert, it was from some MTV contest in the early '90s where Slaughter performed in a person's living room.

Well, tonight my wife and I are going to a house concert at the house of our friends Tom and Deb Henderson.

Jason Gray will be appearing at their house. The concert is called "An Evening of Hope" to mark the one-year anniversary of the passing of the Hendersons' son, Ian.

I, as many people in this world do, miss Ian a lot. I remember chasing him and my son in the gym at Living Waters Church. My son Branson and Ian would have so much energy. It didn't take long for me to get tired from chasing those fast boys. When I wanted to quit, Ian would say, "C'mon, Mr. Brant! Chase us some more!" And somehow I would find enough energy to chase them again.

I'm looking forward to tonight. By the way, the photo is of Ian and Tom Henderson driving a go-cart in Brainerd, Minn., in 2007.

Christ-Life Solution: Phase Two

Tonight I start "Christ-Life Solution:  Phase Two" at my church. It should be interesting. While Phase One took an introspective look at my past and God's presence in my life throughout my ups and downs, Phase Two deals with God in the present.

I look forward to changing my thinking to the way that God wants it to be.

Ya gotta have faith

It's important to have faith. Faith that God's plan works out better than any plan we might have. Faith that God will take care of us. Faith that even though we don't understand it, God knows what He's doing.

I was struck this week while reading Hebrews. There's an amazing summary of the stories of the Bible where people needed to have faith. And because they had faith, miraculous things happened.

The summary is in Hebrews 11:1-40. Check it out.

Go home

As much as I like to be in control (a side effect of being an adult child of divorce), I'm realizing more and more that it's God who really is in control. I just have a suction-cup steering wheel; it's really God in the driver's seat.

Therefore, I'm trying to ask God about what He wants me to do in all aspects of my life. Last Thursday, Minnesota was hit with overnight freezing rain. I started my morning commute going north on Highway 77 -- total gridlock. I then shifted over to I-35E -- total gridlock.

I asked God what I should do. Go home, he said. I went off on a side street, drove home, and was able to have a very productive day working from home. Now, it might seem logical that it was the right move to go home. Of course it was! Sometimes God makes sense to us, while other times we just know that He has a plan even if we don't understand it.

(By the way, the photograph wasn't my commute -- just add a lot of ice and snow, and you'll get the picture.)

God the wooer

On p. 70-71 of "Love and War:  Finding the Marriage You've Dreamed Of," John Eldredge shares some great insight into how God woos us:

Some of you found the romance of God at the beach. Some of you found it on the rivers or in the meadows. Some of you found it in books. All that has ever stirred your heart, that was God romancing you. For as the Bible says, 'Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father above' (James 1:17).


Sometimes I (John) will walk out of the house in the early morning or I'll be taking the dog out in the late evening and suddenly a breeze will come and just brush my cheek. I have finally come to realize that it is God wooing me. And you know what I'll do? I'll turn my face into it. That is what He wants. He wants us to turn our faces into those things that he is bringing to woo our hearts. He wants us to turn all of that longing and all of that desire, and just give it over to him. That is how you experience the love of God.

For me, I think that I find the romance of God in music. Some music just really moves me.

My son found the romance of God at the ocean on our recent vacation to Hawaii. It was a thrill to see the joy in his face; I'm sure that God lights up whenever He sees us enjoying His creation.