The Child Cocoon

I once heard a story about a butterfly:

The story of the butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldn’t go further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but
it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch it,
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
and expand enough to support the body,
Neither happened!

In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around.
It was never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness
and haste did not understand:

The restricting cocoon and the struggle
required by the butterfly to get through the opening
was a way of forcing the fluid from the body
into the wings so that it would be ready
for flight once that was achieved.

I found myself contemplating on this story as I read about Madlyn Primoff, the mom that dropped her kids off a couple of miles from home because of bickering. I read comments about this story when it first came out and was surprised how many people said that they have done something very similar, while other chided her for what she had done. While I am not condoning her actions, I wonder what we are doing to our children. Are we trying to protect our kids too much from the dangers of life – for instance – Teachers cannot use red ink because it may cause self esteem issues. Are we cutting the butterfly from the cocoons – metaphorically. I think that we need to give our children a little more benefit of the doubt, and let them grow up strong. The real world is not an easy place to live in, and we need to be preparing our children for this reality. I am sure that it is hard to let your children get a bruise sometime, but in alot of cases it helps them develop and mature. Am I off base or are we coddling our children into a life of dependence on others?

April 28, 2009 0

Don’t Let Gilligan Guide Your Boat!

There have been a couple of times recently that I have woke up with a statement in my head and didn’t know why. A few days ago it was 1 Tim 3:1: (if any man aspires to the office of Overseer, it is a fine work he desires.) This morning, however, the statement was a little odd: “Don’t let Gilligan guide your boat!”

I am such an odd person anyway so this didn’t really surprise me. So I started dwelling on what this could mean. First I thought about how, “If I let myself be guided by the wrong person, then I will end up in a place that I don’t want to go.” Second I thought, “It is when we take this kind of path (letting the wrong person guide our life) that we tend to take people with us. Gilligan’s mistake cost 6 other people their freedom and left them stranded. Each time they had some way of potential escape, Gilligan would do something stupid and it causes it to fail. Eventually they did get off the Island but by the end of that show they were back to where they started, stranded and starting over.

It is funny, I once heard that each of the Characters represented one of the Seven Deadly sins. Although I don’t believe that there is such a thing as the seven deadly sins, (I believe sin is sin) I have to admit it does seem plausible. Here they are:

Ginger is the most obvious with the sin of LUST!
Mr. Howell is easy to spot as well with the sin of GREED!
Mrs. Howell is a little harder with the sin of SLOTH!
The Professor: PRIDE!
Mary Anne was hard to see as well with ENVY!
The Skipper they try to associate with both ANGER and Gluttony but I think that it would be just the one. He was a big guy but that would be too obvious for gluttony. He did always get onto Gilligan and hitting him with his hat though.
Gilligan some websites attributed him to the devil but I think he would have been GLUTTONY – He was always eating something.

You have to admit it is an interesting concept and pretty creative if you think about it. I think that in my statement above, it has more to do with who is driving the boat, however. Many times we try to drive it ourselves, other times those who give us peer pressure, but I would like to think the person that is driving my boat is Christ Jesus, he will never steer you wrong and leave you stranded on an Island. The Skipper was a seasoned veteran when it came to it but it was Gilligan that caused the trouble. The times that the boat goes in wrong direction is when we try to take the wheel for ourselves. It is when this happens that we take the people that we love with us.

Curious! What are your thoughts?

April 25, 2009 0

Christ in the Passover

I wanted to share a video. It is a video that we watched in my “History of Israel” class and in “Old Testament”. With the Easter holiday coming up I thought it would be a good thing to talk about. The Video is “Christ in the Passover” and you can find it at:

But be warned it is 40 minutes long – but it is well worth it.

April 6, 2009 0

“ONE DAY” by Scott Ward

My wife was reading a poem that I wrote at a time when I was struggling with a particular sin. She thought that I should post it. So here it is:

One Day
One day things will be easier when stuggle goes by
and no temptations of sinning will arrive.
Self control seams so hard some days,
filled with struggle and war on the way.

One day I will fill the task
of listening more to a saviour at last.

One day comes, and one day goes,
and I realize I still have things that no one knows.
Sin beakons at the door, Struggle comes and then the war.

One day I will I survive and draw closer to the LORD,
but until that day, I will stand at judgements door.
Although I have messed up so many times,
I have hope of forgiveness of my many crimes.

One day I will win, this battle that rages from sin and death.
I will overcome and be his guest.

March 13, 2009 0

Passion

At the beginning of this semester Dr. Woo asked us to introduce ourselves to the class and tell the class what we are passionate about. Sitting about halfway around the room and listening to all the wonderful things that people were saying made me think, “What am I passionate about.” Finally I settled on archeology, but realized that it was not my passion. It is enjoyable just like comics, movies, and stories but I cannot say that I am really passionate about them. They are just interests.

I really do know what I am passionate about. I was just afraid that it would sound too egotistical. I don’t know why because it really isn’t. My passion is “I want to make a difference!” I want to make a difference in the lives of the people, in my family and in the family of God, in the Kingdom of God, and in the community. I believe this is the desire that God has placed in my life and I need to pursue it in the best way I know how.

Many of you don’t know it but Chaundra and I had a few people praying for us to help us find out God’s will is for our lives. For 40 day we had them praying to help us understand where God is calling us. To be honest we had begun to think that we were being called into the Mission Field. At this point we don’t know if that is where he has called us in the end, but many people felt like we need to concentrate on the answers that God is providing for us now and step out on faith in those areas; even if we don’t understand His direction. God desn’t show us the whole plan. He only shows us what we need to know at the time that we need to know it. Pastor Keith was right when he thought “These guys are going to be more confused after these forty days then when they began.” It was very confusing, but I think that the clarity comes in waiting for the right moment and following what God has for us now. I know what passion God has given me and maybe that is the best place to start. Bob McMahon gave us this verse and I am clinging to what it has to say.

Micah 6:8 (New International Version)
⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Beyond what we know that he is telling us personally to do, we need to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. For after all, if we are walking with him, He will always be where He wants us to be. My suggestion is to find your passion and walk humbly with Him.

March 4, 2009 1

Abstinence is Possible

I know that I haven’t posted for a couple of weeks now, but it hasn’t been because I didn’t want to. School has been heavy and the reading extreme, but I was looking on my blog and I saw a link to this one on CNN:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/17/abstinence-is-not-realistic-palins-daughter-says/

It is quite amazing that when someone agrees with the news that they give it high praise; while when it is contrasting to their view, it is something to attack.

So Palin’s daughter has stated that “abstinence is not realistic.” So I decided that I would discuss this a little from my perspective.

When I was a child, I accepted Christ as my Savior and wanted a pure life with my future wife. So I decided that abstinence was the way that I wanted to go. As I graduated High School I had achieved my goal and decided to go into the Military. I managed to make quite a few friends that helped me go to bars (the kind that clothes tends to disappear in) and drink and do all the things that I grew up believing to be contrary to what God had called me to do. However, I still maintained purity in sexual relationships with women that I had dated. Yes it was difficult and I lost a couple because of it. Then when I was around 25 years old I met a girl whom I loved very much and decided that she was the one for me. I thought it doesn’t really matter anymore because this is the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Besides I had waited 25 years and I was tired of waiting. Little did I know that shortly after we did “THE DEED” we broke up and my heart was broken. I had given up something that I could no longer give to my future wife. It was a few years later that I met my wife.

When I met my wife, she told me that God had convicted her to, “Not date anyone that she had not known for at least a year.” Confusing me, especially in this day and age, but at the same time it intrigued me. We decided to be friends and to just do functions with mutual friends and eventually realized that what we were doing was courting. It became a conviction of ours that we would not even kiss until we had at least past that year mark.

Titus 2:11-15 (www.biblegateway.com)
¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, ¹²instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, ¹³looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, ¹⁴who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. ¹⁵These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority Let no one disregard you.

One year after we met, we went on our first date. This was 4 months after I had asked her to marry me. It was quite a shock to people when we didn’t even kiss when I asked her to marry me. Now 4 months later we could date – according to her conviction, but we decided at this point we only had a couple more months before we would get married and decided that we wanted our first kiss to be at the alter. This is pretty extreme I know and very difficult at that. Either way we were able to go from the beginnings of our relationship to our marriage with a pure relationship. I have mistakes in my life, but I will never regret this decision and I have a true blessing in my wife.

Now we have been married for almost 7 years and I love her more today then yesterday. I did not think it possible, but it is. My point is that purity can be a choice but the road will be hard and it is also possible. Is it realistic, “Yes” and yes I messed up before my wife, but our relationship this time encouraged many people that it is possible! The question is then, “If it is possible, would it then be realistic?” Well that is something that you will have to decide, but either way “know that it is possible!”

Romans 13:11-14
¹¹Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you toawaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. ¹²The night is almost gone, and the day is near Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. ¹⁴But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

February 18, 2009 5

Heart Breaking News!

Recently I read a couple of blogs online that seem not only to reject the God that created them, but also to chide those who embrace him. I know that persecution is not that strong in the United States, but it is in other countries (See Voice of the Martyrs), but it still doesn’t take away the fact that these people are rejecting God. It is heartbreaking news to know that someone is outright rejecting God – that is heartbreaking enough, but to know that they reject and hatefully go after those who do, is even more heartbreaking.

I used to be the type that would argue my point until I was blue in the face. Then I realized that it was going to do no good when they closed to the idea that Christ died for them so that he could spend an eternity with them. This is when Matthew 7:6 came more to light for me.

Matthew 7:6 (www.biblegateway.com)
” Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. Matthew 7:5-7 (in Context) Matthew 7 (Whole Chapter)

The “Good News” (Gospel) that we have is a precious pearl and treasure to the Christian. It brings hope. It brings life. It brings joy (notice I said joy not happiness there is a difference). It brings us closer to a God who loved us enough to send His son to take on the penalties of our wrong doing (Sin).

Romans 5:8 (www.biblegateway.com)
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:7-9 (in Context) Romans 5 (Whole Chapter)

But your faith will also bring persecution. They will turn on you and trample you, but just like Paul you have to brush yourself off and continue in the Faith. It is not always easy but it is always for the good.

Now I read things like this with a saddened heart and maybe or maybe not leave a comment, then I move on. It is heartbreaking to leave them as they are, but we have to remember, “Just like the people complaining to Moses, it wasn’t him who they were rejecting.” We cannot give up on sharing the gospel, but remember Matthew 7:6. Give what information that you can in love and pray for those who persecute you – but don’t throw your pearls before swine for they will turn on you and trample it underfoot.

January 26, 2009 0