Tag: Christ

Song on my Heart

Have you ever just woke up and had a song on your heart. Not one that you have heard over and over in church or on the radio, but one that is sitting within you. That is what this morning was like for me.

 We watched “The Voice” last night and maybe some of the music stuck within me because I had a dream about such an instance. They were judging a person and just didn’t think that he had what it took. I was a janitor and just cleaning up some things and everyone was feeling really sorry for this poor fellow. We were actually in the poor part of town instead of on a stage, so everyone was really hoping that he would make it – to give them hope as well. All the sudden I started singing softly, then a little louder, and then into an all out jazzy song and I actually sounded good in my dream. Parts of the song were on my mind when I woke up and I wish I could remember the rest.

 Ultimately we all want the chance to be someone or do something special. There is hope a yearning for something more. I am just glad that I have someone special in my life; not only in my wife but with my God as well. He gives me hope and not all people have that. I could not imagine what my life would be like without him.

Some might think that is strange, others that I am outright crazy, while others that I have a beautiful thing. Wherever you might be, my hope is that you too will find this kind of love and hope as well.

I hope that you can wake up with a song on your heart, and a feeling of being loved by the creator of the Universe. I have a reason in believing in him and much of it lies within this hope.

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About Blogging

I have been thinking a bunch about blogging. I haven’t quite quit, I have just been doing it more on my personal blog. You see, I created a blog that is just between me and God and that is where I do my prayers. Many of my own personal prayers without my wife anyway. It is funny because I seem to do better when I am writing it all out. I feel as if when I hit the send button that I am lifting my prayer up to him. I can get personal with him. I can praise him. I can intercede for a friend. Not necessarily the conventional way of doing things, but it is an avenue that helps me to connect with God. I wonder how many other ways there are that someone can connect with him that isn’t the mainstream norm.

I am glad that I have a God that will listen to me. I don’t have to do anything special. I don’t have to do it way too cerimonial. I can just sit and gaze into the heavens and know that he hears me and listens to me. What a mighty God we serve. I thank him for all of his loving kindness, grace and forgiveness. There is no other like him. He is my God!

Praise Be To God, Christ the redeemer, and the Comforter of all.

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Open Door Policy

What a day! It is amazing how many things can break in one day, or at least over a short time period. I woke up and found that my car didn’t want to start (I think the battery is going bad and we just spent some money on it as it is), my computer doesn’t want to work, my IPOD froze (I cannot turn it off to reset it), the washer broke, and the dishwasher is not cleaning well for some reason. Am I complaining (Maybe a little) but what surprised me was what I was thinking.

You see my wife and I are trying to put the house on the market, pay for school, and go to Russia for a mission’s trip. All of which costs money. I started to think that maybe we are getting something wrong and God does not really want us to do something. After all shouldn’t he open the doors for us to make it happen, if it is his will! At least that has been my train of thought.

Have we been trained to think this way? Does God choose the easy way? If it is God’s choice, isn’t he just going to make it happen? That is when I started thing of things that were God’s choice like:

  1. His plan for Redeeming mankind – Christ had to die and rise again. It was not a easy path.
  2. For his Disciples – Many of them died a martyr’s death and lived hard lives.
  3. Scriptures like “Take up your cross and follow me” ring in my ears
  4. etc. etc. etc.

Maybe I have been thinking about this in the wrong way. This is when I remembered something that Dr. Woo was talking about in New Testament class. “When God opens doors, Satan is waiting!” We are in a spiritual war after all, and he doesn’t want the things that God wants. The open door can lead to opposition and not an easy life.

So what am I getting at? In everything give thanks and continue searching for God’s will. Simple answer, but even in the opposition I can count on him to make it happen even if it is not going to be easy. I like easy, but it is praiseworthy when you see God fill in the blanks and make things happen his way.

The next time you have an open door policy, when it comes to God, remember that, “just because opposition comes, it does not mean that that is not the way he wants you to go.” It could very well be the thing he desires for your life.

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Don’t Let Gilligan Guide Your Boat!

Gilligan's Island Title Card
Gilligan's Island Title Card

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?

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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.

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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 to awaken 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.

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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.

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