It has been a popular and known theme among my writings that I am “rough around the edges.” I really am. I am a karate fighter, an outdoors-man, and a little brutish in my conversational style. I drive an old truck. I wear a leather hat, always. I like hard-working people and pride myself, on being one myself. So I know I am only understating reality; when I confess to my audience that I am “rough around the edges.”

     Yet, I am a man with a profound faith and deep reverence for God. It seems that God likes rough-hewn tools. Cause, He finds ways to use me clearly, in ongoing ways in my life.

      This writing reveals  this “rough” man’s tender heart, toward God and my prayer life with Him.   I hope these thoughts help you discover this great treasure that I have found.

1.      I have found that when I get in the flow of God’s Spirit; all I have to do is stay in the current for Him to use me to bless others. It is like a salmon’s sense to return to his birthplace before it dies. All it has to do is stay in the current and keep swimming to fulfill its destiny. Knowing God’s will is like that for me. It is clear as the stream that the salmon swims in. All I have to do is stay in touch with that sense that God has put within me, overcome adversity and I will wind up at the place to fulfill His will. That is a great assurance. A genuine walk with God is like that. 

2. I offer me and my problems and in exchange I get Jesus and His solutions. What a trade this is!! I have found that the only way that God will not help me with my problems is if I will not confess them. (1st Jn. 1:19)  Opening up my heart and communicating with Jesus about the real messes I sometimes get myself into is always the surest path to finding His help. I have found that one reason people seldom find vitality in their prayers is that they miss this critical foundation. Really offering themselves to God. God is not interested in our put-ons. He wants our real heart service. Give Him who you really are and You Get Who He is and What You can only become with His help in return.  

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4. What’s eating at you? That’s a good starting place for prayer. God wants the real stuff, not words that don’t mean anything. I came to a crisis point in my life a few years ago; where I knew all this religious language and training by my walk with God had screeched to a halt. Knowledge, even Biblical knowledge is hollow stuff, unless the life is really engaged with The Creator who inspires it.

5. Sometimes people are all wrapped up in their heads & they have to shut up their minds to listen to their hearts, to find truth.  I went to such a deplorable low in a wrestling match with alcohol that knowledge became my enemy. Knowing stuff was making me bankrupt. Defending to God, others or even myself, my misguided lifestyle was something I was all too good at. Good enough at it that it kept me drunk. I had to come to a real place in my life, where I could tell myself to shut up! Yes!! My victory was not discovered in knowledge but in stillness. I became aware of a deeper sense of being; a whole new dimension of life; a breathtaking reality of spiritual truth BUT ONLY WHEN I ADMITTED I DID NOT ALREADY HAVE IT AND BECAME HUMBLE ENOUGH TO OPEN MYSELF UP TO IT.

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7. People hurt so much and are so lonely. I ache for them to feel the fulfilling of God’s care and love.. Now I know more than at any previous time in my life that it does not have to be this way. I am no longer a practicing preacher but I know more than then that a life of genuine union with God is possible. So, I try in other ways than preaching to spread this wonderful news.

8. I earnestly believe that if you will just relax into God’s presence; Christ can fill you with indescribable joy, happiness and peace. Sometimes, I expound on what I say by explaining but this phrase says more than any explanation can. If you will just relax into God’s presence; Christ can fill you with indescribable joy, happiness and peace.

9. God’s Spirit speaks things to me that I can never put into words but they are pure & good & absolutely reliable. One of the neatest things about amazing spiritual discovery is that it is irrefutable, profound and absolutely sure. I wish this for you my friends, even if your path to discovery is a painful one. Sorry! Yes, sometimes pain is involved in spiritual truth. You can look at this two ways. You can get mad at God for your pain or you can see that your pain makes a greater sense than you may be able to suspect at the moment; to bring you to a place of more beautiful spiritual realization.

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11. Sometimes I try not to share God… But it is like trying to hide a waterfall. I can not hold it in………… I rarely tell people that I am a preacher anymore. I don’t like preacher’s a bunch. LOL But really. I think the best preacher is just a real good man or woman, who has discovered the bedrock secrets of union with God. People still guess that I am, even when I don’t say it; because it shows. I guess I am OK with that!

12. The sweet embrace of the Holy Spirit is the most soothing thing that I have ever experienced in my life. God knows us inside out. If There is no balm in Gilead (Jer. 8:22); there is always one in Christ. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a bad guy; even when I journeyed to the bottom of the bottle. I was just a sick guy. I needed healing. When I really turned my life over to God and quit pretending that I had all the answers; the answers came to me. I found that there was healing a plenty to satisfy my deepest need. The encouraging presence of God’s Spirit will make the difference in a life of frustration and pretense; And a life of serenity and meaning.

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14. Oil best protects my leather hat. God’s Spirit is like an oil that penetrates, revitalizes and protects. — When I take a good oil and condition my hat; I have to work it into the leather. God’s Spirit is like that in our lives. It is only when He is worked into us and we are worked into Him that we find the deepest life of the Spirit. We need the Oil of the Holy Ghost in our lives. //{Folks, this is not weird, way out or strange}. God really shows up in the leather of our lives; when we really turn our lives over to Him. But this is a transition that many, maybe even most; are reluctant to make.

15. I never argue faith with people. But I long for others to experience the wonderful truth I have found in God’s indescribable holy presence. Nuff said.

16. My sister who was agnostic finally came to a deep relationship with God, greatly due 2 her seeing that He was so real to me.  God can use you in this way, if you develop a real relationship with Him. 

17. God’s passion for us is best seen in the Biblical account of the wayward prodigal son-His eyes are looking for us before we ever look for Him. (Luke 15:11-32) 

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    The Good Father is glad when His wayward children return to Him.

19. God’s holy search light shines as deeply in us as we are willing to let Him illuminate us , in prayer. God’s desires His relationship to be finely developed in us. We can have a casual relationship with Him if we want to but a deeper relationship is available.

20. When we are cared for in a hospital-we have to get used to being disrobed. -Prayer is like a spiritual hospital. -God deals with naked truth in us. One reason why people run from prayer is that it smells like religion. I don’t like that either. Prayer is real stuff. The pretense practiced in church is often more phony than real. Don’t disqualify prayer, because you have seen a lot of misrepresentations of it. When there are a lot of copies and phonies; it usually means there is a real thing to be discovered somewhere. Find the real thing. Prayer has the power to remake you from the inside out. That is its truest meaning.

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22. One of the most amazing things about prayer is that we are the sanctuary. God wants to make His habitation IN us! Real meaningful, deeply meant prayer will often make religious folks uncomfortable. God is not interested in how you appear but how you really are. You are the habitation that God seeks to indwell, not some church building or liturgical structure.

23. Prayer is often a layer by layer thing. We can not get to the deeper dimensions, until we let His Spirit deal with our outside issues.

24. When I die, I want to leave this life in prayer; spring-boarding into the next dimension. I want to jump into God’s arms like a swimming pool. This is so important. Prayer can add a holy assurance to your life. Instead of fearing mortality. You can look forward to it; realizing that the leap off point in this life is just the entry exam into the next. That means you live fully now, without the fear of losing life. Like the caterpillar; you gladly make your cocoon, ever sure that what you will become will be even greater than what you already are.

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26. Sometimes prayer is like basking in the sun. Words are irrelevant. You just soak up the rays.

27. God’s touch “Fits” the key hole of the deepest longings of the human heart. There is an infinitely wonderful companionship to be found. God is my best friend. 

28. Spiritual Union is the Secret of Prayer, if there is a secret to prayer.. God grants the infilling of His Spirit to His children who reverently seek Him. There are amazing things that you can only discover for yourself in this spiritual union. (Read Acts 1-4)

29. People get lost in religiosity when they lose contact with God personally. His fellowship is paternal and worship is really a deep bonding. God is my buddy. OK! OK! He is also my master. But I do not have to put on airs with God. He not only knows everything about me. I SHARE EVERYTHING ABOUT ME WILLFULLY WITH HIM! There is a big difference between the two.

30. Once you have tasted the priceless presence of God; prayer becomes a drawing force. You want that virtue and truth in your life more, once you taste it! (Job 28:18)

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32. Prayer is never superficial for me. Real issues of forgiveness-mercy-care, service, love, compassion, courage & spiritual union are dealt with. If prayer is phony for you; you are not really praying.

33. Sometimes God transports me to only a place that He & I know in the intimacy of prayer. All the strange sci-fi things you watch on TV are hollow fantasies. The place that God can take you to in prayer is an awesome thing.

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35. Prayer can be like a sacred envelope that draws you into a place of holy intimacy with God. There is a holy bubble that you can go into in even the darkest place. A place of wonderful divine union that makes even the hardest seasons of life bearable. 

36. There is such a sweet serenity to be found in the hallowed halls of prayer. A place of consecrated nurturing by our Creator. I hope I die on my knees. That is all I can say to explain this.

So, in closing this rough around the edges guy hopes that these thoughts of the realness of God in prayer to me help you also find a deeper dimension in prayer.

“Slam” is a praying roughneck. LOL