My Good Friends,

Recently, I had the pleasure of spending a relaxing weekend with two great fathers.
My son Joshua, “J Biggs” has a five year old son named Gavin. Gavin is just the finest little boy, so fun-loving, inquisitive and cleaver. [I think all of my grandchildren are the best; and I am ready to challenge all grandparents to duel of grandchildren.]

“J Biggs” is an outstanding father! What is the basis of my conclusion? Simply put, it is the generous outpouring of love Joshua lavishes upon his son. Never in my life have I witnessed such a bond of love and affection as that between Joshua and Gavin. I know that Gavin’s mother, Christine undergirds this wonderful relationship between father and son.

For the past several years there has been another fatherly example in my son Joshua’s life, his father-in- law “Big Josh” Dunigan. “Big Josh” is an exemplar role model displaying courage, love, caring, generosity and kindness to his family. I have a great admiration for Big Josh. Big Josh fought in the Viet Nam war as a helicopter pilot fighting the enemy and retrieving wounded soldiers from the battle field. Josh is a man of great bravery, a true warrior of the skies! Today, Big Josh is fighting Multiple Sclerosis piloting a wheel chair with expert efficiency. Big Josh takes on a daily battle with the coolness and confidence of a seasoned fighter pilot. With his wife Caroline by his side, there is no obstacle they cannot overcome. Big Josh is one of the most hospitable, generous and able men I know. Big Josh is the epitome of love modeled to those of us not his equal.

Jesus said in John 13: 20, “He who receives whomever I send, receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” The God has sent us fathers to reproduce the Lord’s character and attributes into our families. When you honor your father, you also honor the Lord Jesus Christ and the Heavenly Father.

Happy and Blessed Father’s Day to all you great role models.
Trusting Him for all and trusting all to Him,

Dave

Post Script: Fathers, earn this bestowed honor…Be the message!

You hear the voice of God when you’re out by yourself.

There’s a sound in the wind – melodic, whispering,

And the sounds of the birds.
With all these together, it’s like a sonnet.

Then there are the deep overtones of silence.
Whatever is the opposite of the sound of Niagara Falls crashing;

That’s the sound of silence.
I’m out on that bike for 6 hours.

Most of the time spent is thinking about traffic & terrain.

But I get time to listen;

One word that continues to come to mind is “worthiness”.

It’s that worthiness that God gives me – it’s more than
strength or endurance, it’s the heart.
What I’ve come to see is that I’m powerful beyond measure.

There will be something different when I get home;
Who God has made me to be.Untested you don’t know who you are;

I know who I am today & I’ll never shrink back.

The ride didn’t make me – I already was that guy,I just didn’t know it.

Now there’s no doubt of who I am.

To whom much is given, much is expected.

The answer to the question is never what you have done

The answer is who you areI’ve always been this man, I just didn’t know it.There’s always talk about trials to build your faith.But it’s not the trials we choose, but the ones God chooses
for us.Trials are not to just increase awareness;The trials are to let us know our limitations and the
character God wants to build in us.The test doesn’t make you strong or weak; it reveals
strengths or weakness;And God’s desire for our best. Therefore, you press on.

March 10 - Day One:  The coastlines of Florida & Alabama are spectacular and one of a kind.

The wind in the sea oats, the brilliance of the sand and the luminous blue sea, drenched by the sun -Spectacular!  The power of the sea is overwhelming. 

And the wind; on the bike, the wind is the game-changer.  I was riding and the wind was directly in my face; I couldn’t get any speed. I came to a nice downhill slope and peddled hard – “now I’ll get some time”, I thought.

Then, I checked the speedometer – only 12 mph! “What’s going on?”, I screamed!  “Oh, God, please stop this wind; I just want to get down the road.”

As this prayer left my mind, rounding the corner, half-way up the hill, I saw two white-haired men on bikes riding toward me up the hill.  I was shamed, another lesson from the Lord.  I recanted, “Oh, Lord, please give me wind at my back as I ride up the hills.  Give me the strength to ride into the wind.”

 

March 11 - Day Two:  Farmland & forests – connected with a ribbon of turning back roads – wavy hills.

Do what the road tells you.  You cannot have a preconceived idea of how far you will go, or how fast; the wind and the road dictate it all.  Seven miles per hour up a steep hill, or 30 mph on a smooth, new downhill.  You have to ride the road you’re on.  The road always wins.

Three kinds of roads:

1. The deceptive shortcut -  good on the map, but leads to impassable gravel & sand;
2. Rocks melted into the pavement – a rough road – treats you like a rub board, lugs you down, no speed;
3. Liquid crystal – smooth polished asphalt – fast – like gliding, the wheels of the bike were like ice skates, I sprinted.

You can’t choose your road; the road chooses you.  You can choose the direction, not the surface.  It’s all part of the ride.

How do you do it?  I mean, how do you ride for hours?  In a word – Responsible

I learned it as a boy hoeing weeds from half-mile rows of cotton.  I learned it while plowing for 12-hours a day.  I learned it setting fence for days without seeing anyone. Solitude demands responsibility. You just had to be responsible.

March 12 – Day Three:

Mississippi: more hills than Carter has liver pills.

Yesterday, I stopped in the middle of a long climb;

I looked at the top and it was too far, too high.

If you look at the summit you’ll never make it.

The best way to the top = never lift your eyes above the handle bar.

Look at the road you’re on – right in front of your tire.  You’ll make it every time.

Well Ole Pards, It’s time for the buckaroo to saddle up!

 I’ve trained hard… the time for action is now…to put all to the test.

 You recall the old saying, “Behind every good man is a good woman.”  It’s a lie!

In front of every good man is a great woman spear-heading the whole thing.

 I had the vision…Bonnie had the plan…the plan is incased in one super big three ring binder…Bonnie has mapped all 2,000 miles of the  trail…Whether you leave town for a month or for years the packing takes the same…Bonnie has single handedly packed everything we will ever need in the van…Bonnie is the unsung hero…the echelon leader just off stage…Can any of you men or women believe what Bonnie has done and is doing to allow me to live the life carved out for me before the foundation of the earth…Bonnie makes everything happen!   Bonnie has placed her life on hold just to go with me down that long dusty road.  Bonnie is the “Point of the Spear.”

 I always dreamed that I would take this road…it is today…Let the initiation begin…and let the good times roll…See you down the road…

 Trusting Him for All and Trusting All to Him,

 dd

 Post Script:   Check the website:  www.touchedlives.com for articles.  Click on the big circle at the bottom of the page which will take you to face book for pictures.

Prepare Your Heart

 “I have made him a witness to be a leader and commander for the people.”  Isaiah 55: 4.

 LEADERSHIP IS EARNED!  The fourth row on my book shelf is dedicated to twenty assorted books on Leadership.  I thought I could learn leadership from books.  What was I thinking?  Leadership is developed through discovery and unbreakable training.

 The purpose of the bike ride must be something more than an adventure to go on or a challenge to a busted-up old man to go the distance.   Is the ride about facing down delusional fear that I don’t have what it takes, the cost is too great, or that I could never bear up under the gut wrenching strain? Is there something greater to face than the obvious physical and emotional doggedness to pull off this exercise?  Absolutely!  My leader and commander mentor Tine Hardeman once told me, “Every now than then the Lord has to stretch us, to test us in order for us to know, without any doubt, that with the Lord’s strength, we can do whatever is required of us.  The end result being strong, mature, growth!”

 I believe the purpose of the bike ride is to accumulate a surfeit of life lessons on leadership and commanding.  I know that grand goals are accomplished by reaching specific objectives which are achieved by the accumulation of small efforts.  Bonnie’s Mother use to say, “Short strokes fell great oaks.”  In reality, greatness is not in the goal; greatness is accomplished by a succession of small yet wise choices.

 A leader and commander mentor, Buck Hatch, told me, “You cannot teach what others know, teach what you know!”  There is a great difference between expounding information and training others in leadership.  Training implies interlocking with others, pulling them along with you as you maneuver through the maze of life, as in the words of Jim Croche, “Who led me down the highway, who ran ahead so life won’t pass me by.”  My leaders and commander mentors locked their arms with mine and pulled me with them demonstrating the lesson in the thick of the encounter.

 I trust the ride will help to produce new understanding, develop more wisdom, hone-in diverse disciplines in order to reach my potential for fulfilled leadership in the fourth quarter of my life.

 “I am the Lord your God, who holds you with My righteous right hand, who leads you in the way you should go.”  What a Leader-Commander-Mentor!                                                                      

 Is your life like one of my books neatly positioned on a shelf filled with information but limited real life application?  Have you resigned your heart to religious theoretical ideas without the tools and skills to produce living character growth? 

 Prepare your heart; the Lord is calling for you!

 In love and service I remain, trusting all to Him and trusting Him for all,   Dangerous Dave  dd

Initiation:  Of the Heart...

Key Verse:  Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, be strong act like men.  I Corinthians 16: 13.

There is no such thing as a “self-made man.”  A person must be taught everything.

My father “checked out” when I was 10 years old.  I grew up fatherless.   I had no role model to show me how to develop my heart and be Dave.  I was abandoned and branded with a cruel curse, “figure life out for yourself.”  I spent my youth and early adulthood second guessing my life pretending to know what I was doing making things up as I went along.   Around age forty, I began a quest to seek out God, plus no one.  What could it mean to have a strong, loving Father who wanted to be intimately involved in my life; ‘Someone’ I could turn to for guidance, assurance and provision.  I learned that true masculinity is a process bestowed by God our Father through the guidance of Godly men.  Iron sharpens iron!

To grow into manhood a man’s life must be processed through a series of life stages initiated by men who know their own hearts.  The final stage is the Sage, a gray haired warrior-father with a wealth of wisdom whose mission is to guide and mentor others.  This is the level I am ready to embark!  I am 60 years old entering the fourth quarter of my life.  My goal is to finish out my life stronger, wiser and used to help men avoid a journey of the emasculated life.

For me, the Lord’s initiation or rite of passage into Sage hood is to peddle my recumbent bicycle across the United States from California to Florida.  The heavenly Father has used this training method with me in past stages of spiritual, emotional, relational and physical growth.  The Lord has often tested me by giving me a challenge.  I trust the Lord to help me rise to the challenge through preparation-training, all the while, learning valuable life lessons as I conquer each prepared interval.  I trust the lessons I learn in character development will be used to help others grow into the person God has always intended them to be.  I have always believed that you can never teach a person something what you do not personally know, and never attempt to guide someone where you have not gone yourself.  This is my commitment to authentic integrity, facing each one of life’s challenges.

The purpose of my ride is twofold.  First is the initiation of my heart.  Second, I want to be an example for others who are being initiated in their journey on life’s road.  There are times when God calls each of us to participate in some event, specific to you alone, in order to develop something in your life you could never learn any other way; you, plus God, plus no one.  What is God putting in your heart to do?

My plan is to ride my bike from Blythe, California on March 16^th arriving in Pensacola, Florida on April 16^th.   Let the Sage lessons begin!

Dangerous Dave

Check out pictures and comments of the bicycle training on Face Book…touchedlivesdaveruth.

The Lord has given me a rough and untamed gift for the New Year.  The Lord wants to get me back into His classroom;  I do not mean some bible school or seminary.  The Lord’s classroom is Dangerous Dave’s wild recumbent bicycle across the USA.

Last September I began training with the goal of riding the bicycle 2,400 miles.  The training has already accomplished several lessons.  First and foremost, the bicycle ride was the Lord’s plan to teach me something I could not learn any other way.  I am sixty years old entering the fourth quarter of my life.  In order for the Lord to use me more effectively, He knew I was lacking some quintessential learning that will be needed to take me through the next twenty years, if the Lord wills.  The bicycle training was not to focus on any “cause for mankind.”  The training ride is for Dave alone,  to learn and develop into the man God has always intended me to be.  So far, I can inform you that my physical health is improving with each ride.  I am now riding 40 miles per day gradually increasing to 60 miles per day in February.  I weight lift each day to strengthen my old body.  I am learning to be peaceful and develop patience for other motorist while becoming “road hard” navigating  the traitorous roads and highways.  I am spending 3 hours each day on the bike which gives me time to listen to Biblical teachings on various subjects.  Currently, I am studying  The Process of Redemption under Professor Hatch.   I am learning to listen to God’s voice, grow spiritually, develop emotionally and become physically fit.  I ride once in the morning and once in the evening, in between, I am able to work a full day of counseling, teaching and lesson preparation. 

I am planning on making the ride from California to Florida the end of March 2011.  I have two theme verses that push me onward each day, I Corinthians 9:23- 27. “I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”      

The Lord’s purpose for inspiring this ride is to teach me what I have yet to learn, then as I become proficient in the lessons being  taught; the Lord will release me to teach others.  You can never teach something you do not personally know and you cannot lead  someone to a place where you have never been.  Be the Message before becoming the Messenger!  When I was in High School the radio announcer nicknamed me Dangerous Dave.  Today, I am “dangerous Dave” fighting the battle for the hearts and souls of men and women, to lead them to a closer walk with our Savior.

Psalm 104:4 states, “He makes the winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers.”    Let the flame blow over me!    Wind & Fire!

Check out pictures and comments of the bicycle training on Face Book…touchedlivesdaveruth.

This has been a very special year for which I am truly thankful.  Bonnie and I have become “empty-nesters” this year.  We have had time to focus on our own lives and reflect upon the goodness of the Lord over this passing era.  Reflecting over the past years has helped us to celebrate the Lord’s faithfulness and, as a result, we are encouraged.  Additionally, we are charged to look forward to the next twenty years to experience personal growth and greater ministry.  Bonnie and I feel that we are starting the fourth quarter of our lives.  We want to finish our calling as strongly as when we started. 

The power of God is evidenced in changed lives.  We have seen how the Lord has changed our lives in character development, encouraging us to trust and depend upon the Lord for greater growth, as well as, to minister to others, helping them to be touched by the Lord bringing Godly character into their lives and into the lives of those they touch.

If there was ever a song to express my heartfelt gratitude during this Thanksgiving and Christmas Season, I would choose Andrea Crouch’s song, My Tribute.  Sing along with me…

How can I say thanks for all the things You have done for me,

Things so undeserved and yet You gave your life for me,

The voices of a million angels cannot express my gratitude,

All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe it all to thee.

Just let me live my life and let it be closer Lord to thee,

And if I should gain any praise let it go to Calvary.

To God be the glory, to God be the glory for the things He has done,

With His blood He did save me, with His power He did raise me,

To God be the glory for things He has done!

Thank you Lord for the indescribable gift of your love manifested in and through Christ Jesus for all mankind, throughout eternity.  Thank you dear friends for helping me touch some many lives with the gospel and the admonishment to grow up and mature in the character of our Lord and Savior.  To God be the glory for the things He has done for us!

I was sipping coffee from a Starbucks coffee mug I purchased while in Seoul, Korea when an Asian gentleman approached and asked where I got the coffee mug.  As it turned out, this delightful man had just moved to the United States from South Korean.  We laughed as my new Korean friend read to me what was written in Hangeul (Korean language) on the mug.  We spent the next part of an hour getting to know each other.  Mr. Kim was taken aback to learn I had spent last January in his home town, Dongducheon, South Korea.  Mr. Kim introduced his family to me and they were interested in asking me about particular southern expressions and customs they did not quite understand.  We laughed as I explained some of their questions.  What fun we had!  Like the Disney World song goes, “It’s a small world after all”.

 Lately, I have been re-thinking the “great commission” and how the command to go into the entire world and proclaim the good news applies to the counseling and discipleship ministry of Touched Lives. 

A dear friend of mine often teases me saying “there goes Dave trying to save the world”.  Most of my adult life has been spent in some form of foreign missionary work.  As I sought the Lord about the heart’s desire of Bonnie and me to finish strong to bring the gospel of hope and restoration to those in need, the Lord impressed upon me to look back over the past few months and take note of those who have sought out Touched Lives.  I was amazed to discover 14 different nationalities and multi-cultural couples who have come in for biblical counseling.  I admit that I am as slow as a West Texas terrapin, but I get the message.  How ingenious, the Lord brings the nations to downtown St. Petersburg, Florida!     

Most missionaries rightly focus on evangelizing overseas.  The ministry of Touched Lives opens our doors to local friends in the Tampa Bay area as well as a multitude of international and multi-cultural people.  Isn’t the Lord wise?  He knows how to do just the right thing and give to each of His children all that is best!  What a joy and privilege to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

I rarely discuss financing the ministry of Touched Lives; but if you have been called to support foreign missions perhaps you would consider sponsoring the missionary work of Touched Lives.  Some of you who receive our updates already support this ministry, to the rest I wonder if you would use a small part of your tithe to sponsor this truly international ministry?  I would greatly appreciate your help.

The last chapter of the Book of Isaiah 66:18 closes with a call to gather in all the nations.  As I enter into the last chapter of my life, I want to reach out to as many diversified people with the relationship restoring truth of the Word of God.

I remain  under the relentless love of Jesus Christ, Dave Ruth, Th.D.

I have a story that I would like to share. The story isn’t unusual; it’s just another example of how the Lord takes care of His loved ones in various circumstances and situations throughout the world.  The Scriptures tell us in Psalm 104: 4, “He makes the winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers.”

My wife Bonnie and I flew from St. Petersburg to Dongducheon, South Korea to help our daughter Abigail as she was experiencing pre-mature labor with her soon to be second daughter. 

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