Hey Friend,

In the past few weeks I have really been thinking a lot about you.  I really love you and I hope by this point you know that.  Forgive me please if at any point I have expressed anything other than love to you.  Also I wanted to share a few things with you that have been on my heart.  First, however, I would like to ask you a couple of questions and for you to be completely honest with yourself and me.  Have you ever stopped to ask God what he thinks about you and how he views you?  Also, how is your heart? 

            The one question I ask myself every time you come to my mind is; Are the words I speak to you bringing you life?  I asked that question because that is something I think God has asked me to do with my life.  He wants me to speak life and bring life especially to dead things.  I believe that when I am bringing dead things to life then I am fulfilling some of the destiny God has called me too.  Don't get me wrong I am not calling you dead but I do believe we all need life spoken to us versus death.  Also I want to live a life that is open and transparent before God.  I say that to you because I believe our relationship should work the same way.  I want us to walk openly and transparent before each other trusting that we have each other's best interest at heart.

            The last thing I what to tell you is something that is constantly keeping me in the process of learning and growing.  That is listening to the voice of God in my life.  What is God saying to me, how is that for me and possibly for others around me to bring life?  So how intentional are we about listening for the voice of God in our life?  I believe this is so important because He is the Word and we are the voice.  So we MUST speak.  When we speak the Word of the Lord dead things come alive. 

            Thank you for always being in my corner and going to the ends of the earth with me.  Lets continue to do this together because it was made to be done that way.  Plus, we are weak in just ourselves but together our efforts are expounded.  I love you, stay full of the Holy Spirit, and lets stay unified with one purpose to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth.

You're always on my heart,

Josh Bruce      

In yesterdays blog I ended with this idea that we wait until we hit rock bottom before we realize we need God. In chapter 14 Hosea offers that hope for the rock bottom moments and shares of God's deep love for us. 

O Israel, come back! Return to you God! You're down but not out. Prepare your confession and come back to God. Pray to him, "Take away our sin, accept our confession. Receive as restitution our repentant prayers. Assyria won't save us; horses won't get us where we want to go. We'll never again say 'our god' to something we've made or made up. You're our last hope. Is it not true that in you the orphan finds mercy?"

 "I will heal their waywardness, I will love them lavishly. My anger is played out. I will make a fresh start with Israel. He'll burst into bloom like a crocus in the spring. He'll put down deep oak tree roots, he'll become a forest of oaks! He'll become splendid - like a giant sequoia, his fragrance like a grove of cedars! Those who live near him will be blessed by him, be blessed and prosper like golden grain. Everyone will be talking about them, spreading their fame as the vintage children of God. Ephraim is finished with gods that are no-gods. From now on I'm the one who answers and satisfies him. I am like a luxuriant fruit tree. Everything you need is to be found in me."

 If you want to live well, make sure you understand all of this. If you know what's good for you, you'll learn this inside and out. God's paths get you where you want to go. Right-living people walk them easily; wrong-living people are always tripping and stumbling.

But the truth is we do not need to wait until then. God is constantly pursuing us and desires and intimate relationship with us. Those same desires we all have toward someone where, do you think they came from? The one who created every one of us. He will stop at nothing to have that relationship with you. It is truly a thought that I cannot get my mind around. The creator of the universe, the God who died for us will stop at nothing to have relationship with us. 

               THAT IS TRUE LOVE! So stop running after the things that look and fell like God.  Just turn around receive God's embrace because He is right behind you.

All biblical text comes from the Message Remix Bible

In the Message Remix Bible Eugene Peterson gives this introduction to the book of Hosea:

We live in world awash in love stories. Most of them are lies. They are not love stories at all - they are lust stories, sex-fantasy stories, domination stories.  From the cradle we are fed on lies about love. 

 This would be bad enough if it only messed up human relationships - man and woman, parent and child, friend and friend - but it also messes up God-relationships. The huge, mountainous reality of all existence is that God is love, that God loves the world. Each single detail of the real world that we face and deal with day after day is permeated by this love.

 But when our minds and imaginations are crippled with lies about love, we have a hard time understanding this fundamental ingredient of daily living, "love," either as a noun or as a verb. And if the basic orienting phrase "God is love" is plastered over with cultural graffiti that obscure and deface the truth of the way the world is, we are not going to get very far in living well. We require true stories of love if we are to live truly.

 Hosea is the prophet of love, but no love as we imagine or fantasize it. He was a parable of God's love for his people lived out as God revealed and enacted it - a lived parable. It is an astonishing story: a prophet commanded to marry a common whore and have children with her. It is an even more astonishing message: God loves us in just this way - goes after us at our worst, keeps after us until he gets us, and makes lovers of men and women who know nothing of real love. Once we absorb this story and the words that flow from it, we will know God far more accurately. And we will be well on our way to being cured of all the sentimentalized and neurotic distortions of love that incapacitates us from dealing with the God who loves us and loving the neighbors who don't love us.

As I started reading Hosea it did not take long to notice that Israel (God's people) had really got themselves into a mess. They had essential told God we have found something better. I continued read and began to compare myself to Israel and in the beginning thought I am not like that. However around chapter 5 the words of Hosea really hit me. Hosea writes in 5:4 'They couldn't turn to God if they wanted to. Their evil life is a bad habit. Every breath they take is a whore's breath. They wouldn't recognize God if they saw me." Also in verse 6and 7 he writes, "When they decide to get their lives together and go off looking for God once again, They'll find it's too late. I, God, will be long gone. They've played fast and loose with me for too long, filling the country with their bastard offspring."

Man those are harsh words but it is the truth. I have sold myself or prostituted myself to so many other things. I am like Israel. I have found so many things in my life that offer so much more than God offers. When I find those things I no longer need God. He is useless to me because I can make it on my own or with whatever I have sold myself to. I will go as far as I can and as long as I can until it is of no use and then find something else. The cycle repeats itself until the inevitable happens. I hit rock bottom. Hosea writes in 5:14, "Then I'll (God) go back to where I came from until they come to their senses. When they finally hit rock bottom, maybe they'll come looking for me." 

If this is you like it is me so many times in my life you do not need to wait to hit rock bottom. I do not really understand why in our mind this is the best way to live, but in the moment nothing could seem more right. But do not despair there is hope. Eugene Peterson wrote in his introduction to Hosea," God loves us in just this way - goes after us at our worst, keeps after us until he gets us, and makes lovers of men and women who know nothing of real love. 

In trying to keep this thing from being extremely long I will continue this blog tomorrow. I will look at what Hosea writes in Chapter 14 and the hope that this real love offers.

All biblical text comes from the Message Remix Bible

This is a story that you may have read posted by some other members of my team. But it is a story of what happens when you put aside the things you think you should do and allow God to do what he does best. Creating relationships with others and Himself.

            Tara, Johnny, Marissa, Shanda, Stephanie, and I hopped a train to ride up to the northern part of Thailand called Chiang Mai. When we decided to go all we knew was that Stephanie had been there before and knew of some cool people we should meet up with. With that in mind the other five of us thought that is enough info and we will just go for it with no other plans. Making a plan with no plan seems like the right thing to doesn't it? Is that not the way that things are done everywhere? As much as I am a laid back person in the back of mind I was wondering what was going to come of our time with no plan. That little thought is just one of the numerous ways that separates my mind from the mind of God. 

So we get to Chiang Mai in the morning and decide to stay at a guest house and wait for the only contacts we had to arrive the day after us. The rest of the day was spent walking around Chiang Mai and going to Starbucks and praying for our team and the team in Myanmar. The next morning we awoke with excitement about meeting the contacts that Stephanie had met from the year before. We proceed to get breakfast and Stephanie began share of some thoughts she was having about our time in Chiang Mai and what she had thought it would look like. In this discussion Matthew 10 came up (you can read it if you like) and little did we know that someone at another table heard this part of the conversation. Our little team discussion ended with us not really knowing what we were going to do and when we would travel to the other town we were going to go to called Chiang Rai.

            At that moment the man from the other table came over to us and introduced himself as Vern from Oregon and he is part of ministry in Chiang Rai. We thought great another contact we can make and when we get there we will team up with him and do ministry. This is great. The pieces seemed to be falling into place; we have a contact in Chiang Mai and now one in Chiang Rai. But we still had a small snag, how much time would be devoted to the two places? When would leave to go to Chiang Rai and come back to Chiang Mai or vice versa. In this little bit of confusion Vern says "by the way we are going back to Chiang Rai today and if you would like a ride you can ride with us. If that is good be ready to load up at 2." What do you say to that?

            After being apart of world race for almost five months now, when someone offers you a free ride to a place you are going you take it. Not did he offer us a free ride to Chiang Rai he also offered for us to stay at his place for free. This is another opportunity that you do not pass up.

                  I am starting the fifth month on World Race and my identity has experienced a wrecking crew of emotions, however, there has been something missing but I could not put a finger on it. So up to this point things have been good and God has been giving Tara and I dreams and desires for the future (more on that in future blogs as that becomes more clear) but something was still in the way. However, something was blocking the joy and fulfillment of beginning to understand what I would do with my life. But like in all struggles God continues to speak through His Word revealing truths about Himself and the best way to live this life; the best way to live this life in freedom. In Matthew 6:19-34 Jesus gives a powerful message that is in direct opposition to the whisperings of the World and those words shatter the bonds of the American Dream.

Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or - worse - stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

"Your eyes are windows into you body. If you open your eyes wide to wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!

"You can't worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you'll end up hating the other. Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can't worship God and Money both.

"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance that the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror even gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion - do think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers - most of which are never even seen - don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep you life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

                                                            Taken from The Message Remix

            As many of you know Tara and I own a house back in Georgia and due to the current state of the economy could not give it away if we wanted to. In spite of the current economic situation God provided a person to rent our home while we are on World Race but that was not enough. In the beginning of this I told you God has been giving us plans and dreams for the future and owning a house in Georgia is not part of that. But even before we were dreaming about the future I was always occupied with an unsettling feeling of owning something I could not get rid of. This robbed my joy as I wrestled and worried about it in the back of my mind. The more I wrestled the more tired and defeated I became. All I could think about was will this dream ever come to reality, will I ever have everything in place to start a family. Although I never voiced them out loud I began to believe less and less in the dreams God had given us and became more enslaved to the endless cycle of the American Dream.

            In that moment I had chosen who I was going to serve and for a brief time it enslaved my thoughts, my heart and my dreams. But God in his pursuing nature never stopped speaking truth into the lies. Then one morning as Tara and I where talking it broke. I broke. Truth had replaced the lies and I began to see the future for what it was. The future. The future no longer needed my plans and thoughts; it no longer needed my enslavement to itself. The future no longer needed my worries. In that moment I became content and overwhelmed with joy in the place that God had placed me. This was not the joy that you get when you score the game winning shot, but sustaining joy. Joy that only can come through freedom in Christ.