Life. Faith. Jesus.

Some of you read the title, “God Recycles,” and may feel an inward resentment due to all the people in the world that has made recycling a religion.

And if you don’t do it, you’re a bad person.

Others of you will read this title and think, “Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about! It’s about time someone bring God into recycling! Everyone should recycle!”

Seriously guys, chill out on the whole recycling bit. You scare me.

I intend to appeal to neither of these parties in particular. Instead, I will simply share with you a conversation I had with my daughters about how God uses people for His good.



Sometimes my daughters get their little hands on fake tattoos. The ones they had today was a rainbow with a dove above it, and another one that simply read, “God’s Law.”

They know the difference between real tattoos and pictures they put on their skin that easily wash off. They also know that their dad has two real tattoos. One of them is in the picture you see above.

Earlier today, my daughters were asking me about why I got my tattoo. We have had this conversation several times, and I am always eager to share with them the same reasons each time they ask.

I tell them that when I got the tattoo, I knew for sure that I wanted it for the rest of my life. Then I tell them that now I would rather not have it there.

Obviously, this confuses them. So this is how the conversation went:

Daughter: “But didn’t you want it for the rest of your life, Daddy?”
Me: “Yes, honey, but I didn’t know then what I know now. Now I like the skin that God gave me better than the ink that I have put on the skin God gave me. This ink will never go away.”
Daughter: “Can’t you get the ink out somehow?”
Me: “Yes, there are ways to do that, but that costs a bunch of money. But I don’t think I would want to do that anyway.”
Daughter: “Why not?”
Me: “Well, hun, I have had so many conversations with people about my tattoos. Some people like them very much. And when I get to talk to people about my tattoos, then I may be able to talk to them about Jesus. There have been many times that I have done that. So, I believe that God uses the things that we might have messed up at, or failed at, to bring people closer to Him, to bring US closer to Him. God uses our weakness and our failures to help us get closer to Him.”
Daughter: “You mean like recycling? God takes away what’s bad and replaces it with something good?”
Me: “[moment of silence] Yes, honey, that’s exactly right.”

I could have cried when she said that. “God takes away what’s bad and replaces it with something good.”

I used this moment to teach her that it is times like this when we know God speaks to us. We learn from Him because He reveals a truth to us that we otherwise would not have known. To this, my little girl smiled the kind of smile that reveals gratitude and joy in knowing that God really is close to His people and communicates with them.

I got a tattoo when I was 19. I would rather not have gotten it now, but I would never get it removed. God has used that as a way to connect with people I would otherwise have never connected with. It’s happened numerous times.



It’s your turn: What is something that you have done in the past, that you may have regretted, but can see that God has now used it for His good?

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Today, I introduce a guest blogger, David Kreklau. David is a friend I met at our church, and he is a new blogger. He is posting as a guest today, not only because he is a friend, but more importantly he has a lot of good things to say. Be sure to stop by his blog and check out his content. Enjoy the following post!

I have been thinking about my home a lot lately. I am trying to sell it.

In fact, I have a showing today. Thus, I have been praying and praying… hoping and trusting in the Lord that it will sell.

But every now and then, a thought creeps into my mind… what if it doesn’t sell? And . . .

I begin to worry

What is worry? Why do we worry?

I think if any one of us were given the choice of whether or not to worry, we would all choose not to do so. But unfortunately, worry is a common part of our lives.

Jesus has this to say about worry: Read more

That’s the question I think many of you have wondered.

Honestly, it’s the question I have wondered also. “Am I there yet?”

That is, have I finally gotten over my blogging funk? I’m not sure.

Thing is, I really want to write. I have ideas to talk about, but that’s just it—I want to talk about them.

I love me some good conversation.

I’ll find myself talking with my friends about inspiration, interpretation, theology, life, culture, etc. I seem to do just fine in conversation, and in reality, I like it better that way.

So when it comes to writing, I’m really not sure why I’m so stagnant. I do, however, have a few ideas as to why.

1. I was overwhelmed with writing papers for school.
2. Life was very, very busy.
3. I was doing some editing in my book.

Of all the writing for school I had to do, I was kind of burned out. Actually, I dropped one class just so that I could do well at my other classes.
Read more

In my last post, I had mentioned that even though I was on a break from blogging, I was still working on a few things.

. . . Always working on things

That being said, I’d like to share with you what I have coming up real soon.

Remember the “T.H.I.N.C.” series I did for Demian Farnworth? It was a 5-part series on a Christocentric approach to reading the Bible.

What I have done is compiled all the posts into one concise book. Actually, I’ve done much more than that.

I have updated, expanded, re-written, and re-formated the whole series.

What was originally 30 pages all together is now a 100 page book designed to help you meaning, context, and application from a Christ-centered approach to reading the Bible.

Here are a few things I’ve added:

• Extended Chapters
• “Think About It . . .” sections for every chapter
• Journaling space for each chapter
• Highly Compatible for Preaching Series
• Highly Compatible for Small Groups
• Bibliography
• Focus Bible verses

This project has been nothing less than thrilling. I am very excited for the release date of the book.

Quite a few people are already asking for copies. The book isn’t even published yet and a church is waiting so that they can order an entire shipment for their people.

The book should be published near the end of May. I was ready to publish it earlier, but a few respective people have agreed to read it, review it, and offer feedback before I publish. Their insight for the book will be extremely beneficial.

Check out some excerpts below:
Read more

Want to know what’s been going on in my prayer life?

Well, I won’t tell you everything, but I will tell you this: stop blogging for a while. I suppose it’s been about a year that I’ve been thinking about this. I don’t really know what triggered it, other than God—plain and simply put.

In the past year, while I would pray in quiet time, I’ve had this re-emerging thought to break from blogging. You heard me right: a year. Well, here in the past six months it has been happening more. Moreover, the past three months has been even more intense.

Thing is, when I usually hear from God about something to this degree, I sense a pretty strong conviction. This time, it’s been very subtle and almost silent. When I pray, it doesn’t matter what I’m praying about, this thought will “introduce” itself into my mind. It’s not a strong voice, and it’s not overwhelmingly convicting. But it is persistent. This may be the softest God has spoken to me that I am aware of.

Read more