January 2008
By: Scott Cram 

One night I had a dream that God spoke to me. His words were: “Stop asking and start reading.” Reminiscent of the movie Field of Dreams, I was thinking “read what?” So, first I read Joel Osteen's first book, Your Best Life Now, then on to T.D. Jakes new book called Reposition Yourself Living Life Without Limits, lastly reading Joel Osteen's latest book called Become a Better You. All very good books in which I learned valuable life lessons and found a lot of answers I've been searching for. It was the 100 page book called Epic by John Eldridge that really caught my attention though.

God's word says to not put new wine into old wine skins, for if you do the old wineskin will bust open and the new wine will be lost. In other words, it's time for a new attitude, a new mind-set, and a new way of thinking coming into a new season and new year. “He who has started a good work in you will continue that good work.” A lot of what I have to say has already been said by author John Eldridge's books Epic, Wild at Heart, The Sacred Romance, and The Journey of Desire. I've also taken some from Joel Oseen's two books, T.D. Jakes' book Reposition Yourself as well as two cd series from T.D. called After the Storm and Life Lessons. The passages from John Eldridge's books are marked in italics.

To start off the New Year I feel God wants to set a few things straight with me in showing me who He really is and what His intentions for my life truly are or more accurately what His heart really is like. This is what I've learned:

This is the world God has made. This is the world that is still going on. And He doesn't walk away from the mess we've made of it. Now He lives, almost cheerfully, certainly heroically, in a dynamic relationship with us and with our world. “Then the Lord intervened” is perhaps the single most common phrase about Him in Scripture in one form or another. Look at the stories He writes. There's the one where the children of Israel are pinned against Pharaoh's army barreling down on them in murderous fury. Then God shows up. There's Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendnego, who get rescued only after they're thrown into the fiery furnace. Then God shows up. He lets the mob kill Jesus, bury Him… then He shows up. Do you know why God loves writing such incredible stories? Because He loves to come through. He loves to show us that He has what it takes

It's not the nature of God to limit His risks and cover His bases, far from it. Most of the time, He actually lets the odds stack up against Him. Against Goliath, a seasoned soldier and a trained killer, He sends…. A freckle-faced little Shepard kid with a sling shot. Most commanders going into battle wants as many infantry as they can get. God cuts Gideon's army from thirty-two thousand to three hundred. Then He equips the ragtag little band that's left with torches and watering pots. It's not just a battle or two that God takes His chances with either. Have you ever thought about His handling of the gospel? God needs to get a message out of the human race, without which they will perish… forever! What's the plan? First He starts with the most unlikely group ever: a couple of prostitutes, a few fishermen, with no better than a second grade education, and a tax collector. Then, He passes the ball to us. Unbelievable.
•  Wild at Heart pg 31-32.

I've heard over and over again that in our weakness God's strength is made perfect or whole. It's a confirmation that I've chosen the right thing in choosing to pursue my dreams even though the odds were and still are stacked very against me. Victory looks extremely bleak, especially the last four years where I battled low energy levels due to having asthma and not knowing it among other obstacles. It's been a tough road looking back on racing.

But after listening to T.D. Jakes' series of sermons appropriately labeled After the Storm and Life Lessons as well as reading his book Reposition Yourself I know that my steps have been ordered by the Lord. He has me right where He wants me to be. This setback is just a setup to let God show me how big He is in my life. In Reposition Yourself T.D. illustrates that when an archer shoots an arrow he must pull the arrow back before releasing it to advance forward and hit its mark. Meaning sometimes when it seems you are being pulled back and things aren't going in the right direction it might be a time when God is getting ready to promote you to the next level.

“Now, understand that delayed does not mean denied, and just because you have to wait for it doesn't mean that it's not coming. Sometimes it takes divine intervention to prevail. Divine intervention and a lot of human tenacity make for a great combination in a fight for the freedom of any oppressed people. You can always begin again.

“my yoke is easy and my burden light” – Matthew 11:30

And here's the truth: It doesn't matter what you've done, who's hurt you, or whom you've hurt, it's not too late.

Instead of fighting this season and the cues it's providing you right now, allow yourself to experience what it has to offer, knowing that it's replenished. Only then can it return with a new healthy crop that lives up to the land's full potential.

One must know that one is gifted by God to succeed over adversity and injustice. For you see, true prosperity doesn't come from the outside. It comes from within.”
-T.D. Jakes Reposition Yourself

From the laughter of the Trinity we came, and to the laughter of the Trinity we must return.

As the father loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love ( John 15:9)   God created us in freedom to be His intimate allies and He will not give up on us. He seeks His allies still. Not religion. Not good church people. Lovers. Allies. Friends of the deepest sort. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart (Jeremiah 24:7)

the Son of Man came to give life as a ransom for so many (Matthew 20:28)

If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go look for the one? (Matthew 18:12)

In the midst of the great invasion, like the storming of the beaches at Normandy , God yet sets His eye on one lost soul. On you.

Historically speaking, Jesus of Nazareth was betrayed by one of His followers, handed over to the Romans by the Jewish religious leaders, and crucified. But there was a Larger Story unfolding in that death. He gave His life willingly to ransom us from the Evil One, to pay the price for our betrayal, and to prove for all time and beyond any shadow of doubt that the heart of God is good. And that your heart matters to Him, matters more than tongue can tell.

He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13 -14)
•  Epic pg 66-68

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth , answer once and for all the question, “What is God's heart toward me?” At the point of our deepest betrayal, when we had run our farthest from Him and gotten so lost we could never find our way home, God came and died to rescue us. You have never been loved like this. He has come to save you in every way a person can be saved. That is God's heart toward you.
•  Epic pg 72

When we think of God as Author the Grand Chess Player, the Mind Behind It All, we doubt His heart. As Melville said, “The reason the mass of men fear God and at bottom dislike Him is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy Him all brain, like a watch.
•  The Sacred Romance 71-72

I never thought that my image of God was much like the above passage until I read that.

In Reposition Yourself T.D. unfolded: “You must keep in mind that God delights in redeeming His children-in buying back that which has been lost, squandered, betrayed, or belittled.”

“There is a treasure for every malady you suffered in your life. Do not go out empty! Realize that true treasure may not always be in dollars and cents. It may be counted in wisdom and relationships, but you had better know that if God let you go through something, it is because there is a treasure in the dark places in your life.”

“When the children of Israel left for the Promised Land, they did so because Moses had described to them a land that flowed with milk and honey. However, he didn't mention that they would spend years getting there.”

Most meaningful progress comes in stages or phases. It takes great faith to endure the phases that don't seem to be as comfortable or as rewarding as the ultimate destination. Oddly enough, I have come to realize that the destination is not the place where growth is attained and learning is a process, not a product. We learn everything from planning to be patient in between destinations.

The heart is the connecting point, the meeting place between any two persons. The kind of deep soul intimacy we crave with God and with others can be experienced only from the heart. We don't want to be someone's project; we want to be the desire of their heart. Gerald May laments, “By worshipping efficiently, the human race has achieved the highest level of efficiency in history, but how much have we grown in love?”

We've done the same to our relationship with God. Christians have spent their whole lives mastering all sorts of principles, done their duty, carried on the programs of their church….and never known God intimately, heart to heart. The point is not an efficient life of activity-the point is intimacy with God. “You will find me.” God says, “When you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13). As Oswald Chambers said, “So that is what faith is-God perceived by heart.”

What more can be said, what greater case could be made than this: to find God, you must look will all your heart. To remain present to God, you must remain present to your heart. To love Him you must love with all your heart. You cannot be the person God meant you to be, and you cannot live the life He meant you to live, unless you live from the heart!
•  Waking the Dead pg 48-49

The war we are in would explain so great a loss. This is the last thing the Enemy wants you to know. His plan from the beginning was to assault the heart, just as the Wicked Witch did to the Tin Woodman. Make them so busy they ignore the heart. Wound them so deeply they don't want a heart. Take away their courage. Destroy creativity. Make intimacy with God impossible for them.

Of course your heart would be the object of a great and fierce battle. It is your most precious possession. Without your heart you cannot have God. Without your heart you cannot have love. Without your heart you cannot have faith. Without your heart you cannot find the work you were meant to do! In other words, without your heart you cannot have life. The question is Did Jesus keep His promise? What has He done for our hearts? The answer will astound you.
•  Waking the Dead 51-52

The more I read from John Eldridge the more I realized why God would shut everything down in my life to teach me what He has taught me through this time. Also, after listening to T.D. Jakes, when the things I‘ve done in the past to get myself out of the situations like the one I am currently in don't work, it means God isn't interested in tradition or past thinking. It means that God has me in a transitional period, getting me ready for the next level.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you, I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you To follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws
(Ezekiel 36:26-27)

This we now know: the heart is central. It matters-deeply. When we see with the eyes of the heart, which is to say, when we see mythically, we begin to awaken, and what we discover is that things are not what they seem. We are at war. We must fight for the life God intends for us, which is to say, we must fight for our heart, for it is the wellspring of life within us.

Standing in the way of the path to life-the way of the heart-is a monstrous barrier. It has stopped far too many pilgrims dead in their tracks for far too long. There is a widespread belief among Christians today that the heart is desperately wicked-even after a person comes to Christ.
It is a crippling belief. And it is untrue.

•  Waking the Dead 53-54

God has a battle to fight, and the battle is for our freedom. As Lemper Longman says, “Virtually every book of the Bible- Old and New Testaments- and almost every page tells us about God's warring activity.

You remember that wild man, Samson? He's got a pretty impressive masculine resume: killed a lion with his bare hands, pummeled and stripped thirty Philistines when they used his wife against him and finally after they burned her to death, he killed a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. Not a guy to mess with. But did you notice? All those events happened when “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him.” (Judges 15:14 )

I am attempting to rescues us from a very, very mistaken image we have of God-especially of Jesus- and therefore of men as His image-bearers.

•  Wild at Heart 25-27

“So many forces, and factors in our lives can inhibit us, thwart us, and slow down our progress toward prosperity. We must remain vigilant as we move forward, learning from our past mistakes and forgiving ourselves for yesterday's failures. We must remain true to ourselves and our heart's dreams, never settling for less than our full potential. Finally we must look beyond our current definitions of success and ensure that our lives are balanced with blessings beyond career, work, and finances. Like a mighty oak or a beautiful rose you are destined for greatness, growing taller into maturity, flourishing with an inner beauty yet to be released.”
•  Reposition Yourself

“ Understand that God created us to be always reaching for something beyond where we are presently. Always be growing and never allow yourself to become complacent. The Scripture says in Proverbs, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

You let your miracle become common. You need to go back and remember how God brought you to where you are. You need to fan your flame. God told some people in the book of Revelation, “I'm not happy with you because you've left your first love.” In other words, you're not excited about what I've done for you.

Miracles are all around us. The people in your life, the doors God has opened, the things that have happened along the way are not by accident. It was God's favor that caused you to be at the right time. We need to realize that this day is unique and irreplaceable. We need to make the most of it, and live like it could be our last.

“Whoever finds his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”
-Matthew 10:39

The Bible says, “To set your mind and keep it set on the higher things.”

“You have not seen, heard, or imagined the great things God has in store for you.”
-Joel Osteen – Become a Better You

It is the Friday before A1 and for the first time in 4 years I have no plans on racing Supercross in 2008. I am hoping to do the East Coast Lites Supercross series if everything happens the way it needs to happen for me to be able to pursue that. I do know if I get another opportunity to race it's going to be a whole new story. I have a new attitude, new mindset, and a new way of thinking. Racing is the only thing that I've wanted to do with my life. Now that I have had the time to rest, replenish, and learn what God has taught me over the last year I am ready to get back at it…with a whole new passion and desire. The odds are still stacked so against me it's ridiculous, but I believe in a God that is best described by a Jay-Z line in Kanye West's song Diamonds From Sierra Leone. “This is no tall order for me, difficulty takes a day and impossible takes a week!”

Scott Cram
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