• Our hope-filled future is bound up in sharing the story of Jesus, in discipling others, in bringing those disciples together into communities of believers, and in developing and releasing those believers to create other communities... till Jesus the King comes again!

Praying ‘purely’

Posted on May 8, 2020 by wtdavid

A prayer to challenge and encourage us:

“My dear Lord, I can but tell You that You know I long for nothing but Yourself, nothing but holiness, nothing but union with Your will. You have given me these desires, and You alone canst give me the thing desired.


My soul longs for communion with You, for mortification of indwelling corruption, especially spiritual pride. How precious it is to have a tender sense and clear apprehension of the mystery of godliness, of true holiness!

What a blessedness to be like You as much as it is possible for a creature to be like its creator! Lord, give me more of Your likeness; enlarge my soul to contain fullness of holiness; engage me to live more for You. Help me to be less pleased with my spiritual experiences, and when I feel at ease after sweet communings, teach me it is far too little I know and do.

Blessed Lord, let me climb up near to You, and love, and long, and plead, and wrestle with You, and pant for deliverance from the body of sin, for my heart is wandering and lifeless, and my soul mourns to think it should ever lose sight of its beloved.

Wrap my life in divine love, and keep me ever desiring You, always humble and resigned to Your will, more fixed on Yourself, that I may be more fitted for doing and suffering.”

Filed under: Prayer, Pride, Transformation | 4 Comments »

I’m not giving way

Posted on July 6, 2017 by wtdavid

Driving to the World Team Global workplace, I have to cross a bridge that takes one over the Oise River.  It’s quite a lovely view in both directions.  Normally, it takes about three minutes to cross. Tuesday of this week, it took forty nine minutes!  Since we are in the summer months here, towns and ‘state’ governments take the opportunity to do a lot of roadwork.  Such was the case on the bridge this past Tuesday, moving a four lane road down to just two lanes.

What caught my attention wasn’t the roadwork, but the attitude of various drivers. Many had their own ‘method’ for dealing with the traffic tie-up and trying to get one more car ahead, by whatever means. One driver in particular caught my attention.

give wayThis driver was in the passing lane, next to a huge ‘earth mover’ type truck.  The truck was obviously ahead, but neither driver was going to ‘give way’.  With every meter, both drivers tried to ‘assert their authority’.  At one point, I thought the truck was literally going to scrape the side of the smaller car, and take the side view mirror in its path. I kept thinking to myself: “Just give way!  What’s the big deal?  So you’re behind the truck or behind the car, you’re eventually going to get over the bridge either three seconds sooner or later.”

Then it hit me that in my relationships with others at work, at home or in the neighborhood, I can be just the same.  Worse even.  I can be as stubborn as that car driver or truck driver, not wanting to ‘give way’ because my rightness is being challenged.  However, I don’t think it’s just me. In a given situation, all of us are capable of going ‘head to head’ with that ‘earth mover’ truck and pushing to get to the front of the line.

There’s why collaboration (one of the elements of our WT Ministry Framework organisational culture) is so hard.  It means we have to ‘give way’ sometimes.  It means we have to follow the consensus of the larger team at times.  All the while keeping in mind that we are going to get to the same end point.

There’s why delegation is difficult.  It means saying to another: “Go ahead, you work on this. I’ll support you, but you take the lead.”  It’s platforming or pushing another in front of you when we would prefer to be first or up front.

Next time, you are side by side with an ‘earth mover’ truck, merging into one lane, will you ‘give way’ or will you ‘hold your ground’?

Filed under: Collaboration, Delegation, Pride, Teams | 4 Comments »

Pride is insidious

Posted on March 3, 2017 by wtdavid

Our struggle with pride often happens in the ‘small’ moments of life.  We don’t even see it coming, and then it surfaces to work to convince us how ‘good’ it feels to detour-sign-k-6718be right.

A ‘small’ moment like this one. I arrived in Melbourne last Saturday night around 23h00. I made my way quickly to the rental car place and in a matter of minutes was on my way.  “I’m doing really well.  I’ll get to Mitcham quickly,” I thought.  I got out on the freeway heading into the City and not more than two kilometers down the road, there were signs indicating that the freeway was closed.  “Now what I am going to do?” was my first thought. I decided to follow the detour signs placed ahead.

After more than twenty minutes of following those detour signs, I arrived back at the very place where I started following the signs!  That’s when I said to myself, “I’m never going to make it to Mitcham (where I was staying)!”

So, here it was, 0h30 in the morning, most shops closed, and I wasn’t really sure in what direction was the City. I saw a 7-11 store open.  I pulled in and asked the young man at the counter how to get to the City.  He simply replied, “Just keep following that road.”  Now, I’m convinced this is the first response of many people in many countries at that time of the morning. “Just keep following that road.”

On the way out of the store, I saw an older couple getting out of their car, and I apporached them asked if they could help me.  The man looked right at me and said, “Where are you from?”  No words of help or advice, just ‘where are you from?’  When I told him that was a ‘hard’ question to answer, he laughed and said, “No problem, how can I help you?”  He proceeded to give me very explicit instructions to get the City and thanks to him I was able to get to where I needed to go.

I count at least three strikes of pride in that little event.  There was the ‘timing’ issue.  My efforts had led me to get out of baggage and customs and on my way in good time. I was happy with what I had done.  There was the ‘I’m going to figure this problem out myself’ issue.  Once the detour came up, I figured my sense of direction would get me where I needed to go.  I was confidant in myself.  There was the ‘accent’ issue.  The question of the man at the 7-11 store took me by surprise.  Why couldn’t he just accept me, instead of commenting on my American accent?

All little things you might say, but they all quickly add up to a focus on ME.  Pride is insidious.  Reflecting back on an event, even one seemingly ‘small’ in our minds, can help us to ferret out the work of pride which seeks to damage our heart and soul on a daily basis; and which seeks to keep us from our God.

Filed under: Pride, Reflection, Repentance & faith | 4 Comments »

Wrestling with pride

Posted on March 1, 2017 by wtdavid

When you ‘wrestle’ with the flesh, you are taking on an adversary that never stops his or her attack.  At the same time, you can seemingly never get your hands on or around this opponent.  It’s like trying to grab one of the many dishes at a Hong Kong Dim Sum restaurant with chopsticks.  You are a debutant at this and you just can’t get those two chopsticks around that dumpling without it slipping out.   chopsticks3

The ‘flesh’ is another way of talking about pride.  Pride is full out independence.  It is being convinced that you need to do something, and that only you can do it.

The trouble with pride is that it has blinded most of us to its systemic presence and power in our lives.  Sure, we all know we are prideful from time to time. However, we would never admit that the overwhelming majority of our actions are tainted by pride; by our wanting to be noticed, accepted or appreciated.

When you try to ‘address’ pride in your life, it’s like that dumpling slipping between those chopsticks. It gets away from you and pops up somewhere else.

So, is wrestling with pride a lost cause?  You would start to think so after the numerous ‘defeats’ we each have had at the mercy of this adversary.  However, the simple act of calling out for help can be a first step in grabbing hold of that pride and addressing it with the help of another.

Calling out to God (Psalm 139:23-24) provides us with the grace and ability we need to go after pride.  Calling out to a brother or sister in our community of believers gives us the hand that we need to prayerfully engage and overpower our pride (James 5:16).

Filed under: Community, Gospel, Pride | 2 Comments »

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