Jesus and Morning Care

Like an episode out of "Kids say the Darndest things", as I was riding to work one morning, I had to take a 12 year old friend to school near our house.  I was later than normal because my schedule was changed for that morning.  He asked me a question that I found very interesting. 
    
    He said, "Why aren't you taking me to morning care?"  [Just to give you a little background, "morning care" is a period before school begins where one of the teachers stays with the students that are dropped off super early...6:30 AM ]
     So I responded happily, "We have a different schedule this morning."
     But he whined, "But, I love morning care and I don't want to miss!!"
     So, with a smirk, I asked him why morning care was so important just because I was in one of those moods to have a good debate.  He didn't really give an adequate response.  So, I continued, "Tell me then, do you love Jesus?"
    He responded, "Yes!"
    This was getting good now!  I said, "Well, who do you love most morning care or Jesus?"
    And, now it gets gooder and more interesting because responded that he loved them both the same.  Just when you think you're making a breakthrough, the breakthrough falls through.

The conversation went on mostly with me trying to convince him that as a follower of Christ we must love Jesus above all else.  In comparison to our love for Jesus we must almost hate everything and everybody else.  But, the conversation made me wonder about my own life.  Sure, I'm smart enough to say that I love Jesus supremely.  I'm not a universalist, ya know.  But, in the expression of the way I live, there are things that compete for the adoration that only Jesus deserves. 

Family can be one of those things.  I love Kimberly and Caleb and "my momanem" but I know I must be careful that my love for them is Christ's love and not an idolatrous one.  Work can sometimes be one of those obsessive things as well.  It is easy to look at my job as being the source of my supply, but it isn't my source because it is God who gives me the ability to get wealth.  There again, I must enjoy my work but love the one who gave the ability.  And, I know the list could go on, but I won't persist.  So, what's your morning care?

Much love!!

Busyness has stolen my life

i've been too dang busy to blog because i:
 - work more than 40 hours a week
 - have the privelege of chasing a 15 month old around when i get home from work and on weekends.
 - get to spend time with his mama (if i'm lucky)
 - have to travel for work (sometimes for the whole week)
 - am in the middle of reading 3 books
 - am taking a class from 6 to 8 on Sunday nights (that requires more reading besides what is listed above)
 - have to do yard work
 - have to do house work (the parts that my wife doesn't like to do)
 - have to spend lots of time on facebook checking out what my friends are doing (haha!)
 - think complex thoughts that aren't always easy to blog about either because you would cast me off as a friend or just because they're hard to articulate.

i'm sure there's more, but i don't feel like thinking of it, so i'm quitting.  americans are busy people and apparently somehow i've gotten sucked into that mode.

much love!!

Childhood memories

So, lately I've been somewhere or seen something or talked with somebody about something that took me back to my childhood.

First, the new school brings all the school buses back to the highways.  And, it takes me back to when I used to ride Marengo County School Bus No. 22.  Yeah, you guessed it, I'm old and so was my bus.  The bus driver was Coach Washington.  He picked me up at about 6:05 AM.  I was usually the first to get on even though my stop was second or third along the way.  But, that also meant I was among the first to get off.  I was usually home by 3:30 in the afternoons.  Coach Washington was awesome.  He was a heavy black guy that had been a basketball coach at some point in his career.  He came complete with a constant piece of drool on his lip.  That reminds me of my 15 month old.

The second bit from childhood came when the family was eating at the Pita Hut a couple of weeks ago.  A kid came in and tried to sell us some doughnuts on behalf of his "church".  Out of pity, we helped him out, but told him to give the doughnuts to somebody else.  I pitied the poor fellow because I remember selling doughnuts.  The great thing about selling doughnuts where I lived though is that KrispyKreme was a special treat because there wasn't a KK store there and they weren't being sold in the grocery stores like they are now.  Yeah, I'm both ancient and country.  But, oh the misery of rejection when you attempt to sell something.  And, oh the pain of having to deliver the tons of stuff that you've sold if you do make lots of sales.   Fundraisers are a double edged sword.  So, mamas don't make your babies grow up to be salesmen.

And, the next memory came when I was talking to somebody about Saturday morning cartoons.  I got my fair share when I was little, but the minute my dad thought I was useful for anything (even holding his hammer), he took my Saturday mornings and turned them into opportunities to make money.  We either went to my grandmothers to do stuff (like cut hay, rake hay, bale and stack hay, fix pasture fences, look for the cows - if they got out of the pasture, chase the cows into the catch pen - so we could haul them away and sell them for you your steak or hamburger, feed the cows hay or feed, pull corn, shell peas, pull watermelons, collect eggs from the chicken).  Okay you get the picture.  My grandma lived on a cattle farm and my dad made me work on Saturdays.  And, if it wasn't working there, it was cutting grass.  So, guess what I'm buying a farm and a riding lawn mower.  Caleb's going to be working soon.  That way, he can be a great guy like his dad.  Yes, I can be vain.  :o)

Much love

God still hates idols

The church that I attend is participating in something called the Radical Experiment.  There are five practical components including:

1.To pray for the entire world
2.To read through the entire Word
3.To commit our lives to multiplying community
4.To sacrifice our money for a specific purpose
5.To give our time in another context

As you can imagine, this is pretty challenging.  And if you're trying to be a legalist about all of the components, you are either a professional Christian or you are about to jump of the bridge.  It takes the Holy Ghost and a lot of grace to even try to keep up especially when it comes to including family in the whole picture.

But, I have been really diligent about reading which brough me to the following scripture.

1And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,
3 And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.

4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.
5 And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

6 In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.
7 And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.  -- Ezekiel 6:1-7

And, I just told you all of that Radical Experiment stuff and copied this scripture here to say that we are under a new and better covenant, but God still hates idols (even American ones ;-).  Things that you can buy or make or create in your mind that take the place of God in your life; yeah, he hates them.  So, be careful lest you idolize something and get destroyed along with it.  Reading the prophets makes me search my soul HARD!

Much love peeps!!

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!!