Honk for Hell

(Warning! Controversial thoughts found here)

These are Jarvis Wright’s thoughts on the fight over illegal immigration. I’ll tie the title in later. :)

1) Just because you make a law doesn’t make you or that law just. See the Jim Crow era when lots of laws existed that had lots of popular support. However, these laws were evil to the core.
2) Secondly, we are all here illegally in some form or fashion. And, here’s what I mean by that… A long time ago, people from Europe came to this land that we call America on boats. They made the native people sick with their infectious diseases. They evicted the native people from the land they owned (at least according to their law) , and did whatever it took to make that land our own, whether it meant killing, raping, or just humiliating. And, then there’s a long history of other people being dragged over here unwillingly and being forced into a little thing we call slavery. And, then who could forget the thousands of Europeans and Asians who came here illegally and were hated by the ones who were already here.
3) Now! I get that the so-called illegals are taking OUR jobs, and using up OUR healthcare, robbing US of resources and draining our government of cash. But, guess what, the last time I checked, the earth was the LORD’s and all that is in it. So, we should all look around at all the things we claim to be our own, and consider that they don’t even belong to us.
4) My wife summed it up best when during a conversation on politics, she said, “We’re all selfish.” And, that my friends is the number one problem – our own self-seeking pride that wants us to have “our best life now”, not considering how we might show the love of Christ in reaching others to save their life – the current one and the eternal one. So, be less selfish. Preach the gospel for God’s glory to both legals and illegals. You can begin today by considering not seeking your own comforts and your children’s comforts when this world may not exist long enough for your children to be comfortable in. And lest we forget, it will be rather uncomfortable in hell if you teach your children and their children to follow in your footsteps.

So, the jist of all this is not about the laws and who’s enforcing them, but for me it’s a matter of Christ followers getting sucked into political arguments with no basis in the mission given them by their savior. Unless God wills otherwise, America will always have more than enough resources to support those that think themselves to be here legally and those that realize that they are here illegally. It’s all in his Sovereign hands.

In case it’s unclear, unless you are a Native American…i.e. Indian, you’re here illegally as far as I’m concerned. When I see people standing on the side of Highway 280 creating distractions during rush hour with their signs saying HONK FOR ARIZONA, it ticks me off. So, to that, I say HONK FOR HELL. Your prejudice and selfishness may well deliver you there on an express route. A sermon that I heard on Jonah recently may have said it best; don’t allow your national pride to hinder the global mission of God in your life.

Much love! And, I mean that…even if you’re from south of the border.

Is man inherently good or inherently bad?

Here's a post without a lot of fanfare or opinion.  When answering the question of whether man is inhrently good or inherently bad, Jarvis Wright takes the side of scripture that we are all desperately evil and unable to do anything about it.  The more I look inwardly and the more I look around,  the more I look to the following verses for what we are like... 

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.  -- Genesis 6:5-8

Here we see three elements 1)that after the fall of mankind, we are inhrently evil and continually bent on doing wrong and 2)that God is holy and hates sin, and 3)that God is gracious and compassionate toward whom he chooses.  Our only chance is that we would experience the grace of God.  I pray that God is gracious to you and makes his face to shine on you.   Let us turn from our sin, trust him for our salvation, and tell the world. 

Much love!!

Leaving Stuff Behind

"A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children, but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous. - Proverbs 13:22"   After attending church on Sunday, July 4th and hearing a great sermon, I specifically thought about the first half of the scripture shown above.   The fine folks here in the United States have a proud heritage that we like to pass from one generation to the next.  And, I don't knock that.  But, there is a greater heritage that we have in Christ that we should pass along to our children.  And, now I need to backtrack because I know you're looking at the scripture and you're looking at my words and you're thinking, that scripture is talking about leaving your children and their children some STUFF.  And, I don't deny that it probably is, but what about good men that don't have money to leave behind.  What would they leave?  And, for those that paid attention in Ecclesiastes to the story about the man that works so hard to leave money to his sons and he doesn't know whether his beneficiaries will be wise men or idiots.  What vanity?! 

So, here's what Jarvis Wright is thinking.  I won't spend the money that God blesses my family with frivolously but I don't plan on hoarding up so that my son(s and daughters) won't have to earn what they get in life.  But, I will pour out the life that I have for God.  So, if there's money for somebody to argue over when I die, great for them.  But, in my estimation, it's more important that we live simply that others may simply live.  And, if you know me by now, I'm not just talking humanitarian aide with.  God is moving us more and more toward pouring out our lives for the sake of reaching others with the gospel of Christ.  So, that means the inheritance that I leave for Caleb and others who may follow him will be an inheritance of a life surrendered to God.  And, the decision that I've made recently, is that I will live that life and journal about that life to leave the journals behind for my son and his future siblings; God willing.  Hopefully, what they see in me daily and what they read about me leads them to know that their dad loves God and loves them; even after I'm long gone.

Much love!!

Father of the Bride

“Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” These were the words I heard in a wedding rehearsal on a recent Friday night. And, there I was holding back tears. I think becoming a dad makes a man sappy. I mean for Christ’s sake it was just the rehearsal. And, my friend’s dad had just walked the wedding coordinator down the aisle. And, the wedding coordinator was too old and too mean to be a beautiful bride. So, why was I tearing up? I think it’s just the idea that a dad would give his daughter to be married to a man. That’s why I hope I never have a daughter to have to give away. I would probably kidnap her and lock her away rather than let her marry some dude that might not treat her as nicely as her mom and I would have.

I also almost cried during a visit to the movies recently. Janet Jackson’s character in “Why did I get married, too?” announced that she and her husband were getting a divorce. And, then they pursued to fight, one wanting to be married and the other refusing. And, the final chapter of the movie ends with them fighting and the husband being involved in a car accident. And, I sat there thinking I never want to be that couple. Once you’ve invested that amount of time into life with a person, you should fight for your love. I’m not saying that I’ll know how to do that if ever faced with the situation, but I hope I learn.

So, I know all of this is random, but guess what? On Friday, June 25, 2010, Kimberly (Patrice) Washington Wright will have been my wife for five (count them, 1-2-3-4-FIVE) years!! Her mom and dad gave her away and I hope they are happy with the decision. I hope to be her beau for many many more years -- maybe like 55 more. So that means we can have no divorces and no car accidents that could potentially leave us grieving for years.

Have you ever had a day like this?

Here's a great little entry on Thabiti Anyabwile's blog that made me laugh, mainly because it characterizes my life. I know exactly how the dinosaurs felt.

I Know Exactly How the Dinosaurs Felt

Are we the crazy ones?

Better yet, am I the crazy one?

Okay, I don’t shy away from the fact that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And, I consider myself to be a follower. There’s lots of ways that people describe that. Some say that they are “saved”, “born again”, “a Christian” and there are many other ways to categorize the fact that you’ve trusted in Christ for your salvation. Now the tough part is that there are many world religions all with rather different purposes and different gods. And, today we live in a world where everyone has a voice and right to be heard for who they are and what they believe in. And, there are many in this era that would say of the many world religions and the many gods that there are several “paths” to God. But, with Christianity, it is not so. Those whose hearts are being molded by the savior, Jesus, know that he is the only way to God.  There is no convincing them otherwise.

So, the question I have is this, are those of us who claim to follow Christ (and not only follow him, those of us who claim to follow him correctly), are we the crazy ones?  Lots of people reject Christ out-rightly by saying they don’t believe him. Others reject him though they say they follow him, there is no fruit in their lives to say that they do follow him; because their lives look an awful lot like the lives of those in the world. (See 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 to know why this is rejection). And still others claim to follow him but mainstream Christians reject them because they say they are not following right. Examples include Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, SDAs and others. So again, are we the crazy ones?  And even beyond that people from other religions say that he's a prophet or a good man but not "the" Son of the "the" only true and living God.  But, I believe in absolutes. So somebody in this world is right and someone is wrong.

C.S. Lewis made the following quote about Jesus:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.

So here I am.  I am following this Jesus guy as best I can in a corrupt culture and I am really starting to take him at face value when he says stuff like “love your enemies” or “you can’t serve God and money”. But, I really wonder some days if I’m the crazy one. So as you think about the quote above and you wonder if Jesus is lunatic. Whatever category you place him in, you’ve got to move me there too. If he’s the Son of God then he has and is making me a son of God. And, if he’s a lunatic, then label me in the same way. Just know I’m probably still evaluating too!

Much love!

College and Community

There I was in my driveway on Monday night, trying to repair a window that didn’t want to go back up after letting itself down. And, while doing this, the battery died in the truck. I knew it was dead when the window motor stopped making noise and the interior lights got really dim. So, to prove it to myself, I walked around the truck and turned the ignition… “Click, click, click” is all I heard each time I tried. Important lesson #1, the dude’s that change my oil told me I had a bad battery in December. It lasted almost til June. I think I have validation in not heeding their warning because I got six months more use out of the thing. Important lesson #2, I don’t know why or how, but for some reason we no longer have jumper cables or a car battery charger. These are essential to living with any vehicle. So, I bought a set of cables.

Now, for those that made it past the important lessons #s 1 and 2, the jumper cable thing got me to thinking. When I was in college, I had no fear of going across the hall and banging on a door when I needed something. In the dorm where I lived for four of my four and a half years of college, it was like a close knit community. But, here I stood 12 years post-graduation and I looked at my neighbors houses and decided I didn’t want to bother them. But, really, it would have been a great time to get to know them and possibly even share our life with them. But, instead, I got in the other vehicle, drove to Wal-Mart, bought jumper cables and came back to jump the truck off without any help from anyone.

I know I’m old school, but I like small towns and being friends with neighbors. Oh, if the world were a simpler place, I would move back into a college dorm, but somehow I don’t think my wife would go along with that. And, I’m sure it would be creepy for the 18 to 22 year olds too if I were bee-bopping around. So, I am going to make community where I am and I hope that you'll make community where you are. God created us for relationship. So go relate with somebody. Make a friend for life.

Much love peeps!