Jarvis Wright on addictions

Addictions are real. And, I will say this; Jarvis Wright believes that people can be born with predispositions toward addictions. And, I believe that because we are born a product of the fall. If you have a bible and I hope that you do, see Genesis 3 for more on “the fall”. We can be born with a number of ailments and desires that are a part of our physical makeup that aide us in our rebellion and hatred for God. To see proof that we hate God (that is -- our flesh hates him), see Romans 1:28-30.

So, now that you know where I stand on that, I think it is also necessary that I say addictions should not be taken lightly. In light of first paragraph, we have to trust God to help us in a our time of need to overcome additions so that we don’t just live with them tolerating them and giving into them. Here are two verses that help us to know that he will… 1) No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability and 2) My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." So, he’ll either give us the strength and a way out of the temptation or he himself by his grace will bring us through the temptation -- that is to give into our predispositioned addictions.

Now, here’s what I wrote all of this to say. I’m addicted to peanut M&M’s I eat about three handfuls a day. I can’t fight them. They’re like kryptonite. My knees buckle and I get short of breath if they're around and I'm not eating them. I go into withdrawals if I don’t have them. I'm talking about shaking and sweating and quivering for something that's the size of an almond. And who could forget how they melt in your mouth, not in your hand.

Mucho amor mis amigos

Falling and Laughing

Okay, so we’ve all done it. We’ve seen someone stumble and either fall or almost fall. And, without fail there’s someone that finds that funny. I will raise my hand because I am one of them. I don’t know why, but watching somebody who is clumsy almost fall is an entertaining part of life. And now that I’ve lured you into reading this post by talking about that I’m going to drop in one of my favorite scriptures about stumbling…

Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Psalm 73:1-3

I love this scripture. It is funny to me because I imagine myself literally being close to falling because I am not watching the path that God has me on. I am overtaken with watching how good it appears that the ‘evildoers’ have it. They have no regard for doing good or being good. They have no regard for life beyond this life because the target is enjoying their best life now. In the words of Ray Charles, “Let the good times roll.” They’re not facing any of the problems that I’m facing (seemingly). They have all that a person could want out of life, the quintessential American dream even. The writer of that Psalm goes on to say just that. But, in the end he realizes that as long as God is in control of the universe, it is he, not us or the wicked that will have the last laugh.

The Psalmist wraps it up in this way.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works. Psalm 73:27-28

In the end, it’s all about this. We have one life to live here and “then the judgment” as the writer of Hebrews puts it. So, it’s important that every person that follows Christ view life through a lens of eternity. That’s all that really matters. I had a friend tell me today that it seems that all of my facebook statuses bend toward drawing people to Christ. And, my response was simple. But, that’s all that really matters. What good is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul? I mean really now, what good is that?

Yo! Don't forget about Haiti!

Don't forget about Haiti!!

Don't forget about Haiti!!

Don't forget about Haiti!

Don't forget about Haiti!!

On January 12, 2010, the nation of Haiti suffered a devastating 7.0 earthquake about 16 miles west of the city of Port Au Prince. Haiti has been and remains the most poverty stricken nation in the western hemisphere.  The impact of the earthquake took their situation from bad to worse.   As people continue to live in tent cities with little or no sanitation, don't forget that they need us.  Do what you can to save a life and to save a soul.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.  --  Galatian 6:9,10

If you can go, go.  If you can't go, give (even if that means you can't stop at McDonald's on the way home...I'm sure you could stand to miss a meal).   Give to a reputable organizations like Samaritan's Purse or Compassion International.

Warning! This gets political

Subtitle: Jarvis Wright’s view on politics

In light of today’s turbulent political scene where everyone who disagrees with the next guy is an idiot, I thought I should finally get in on the action. So, let me set it all up and tell you how I filter my political views. More than anything, I consider myself a follower of Jesus Christ [meaning that I confess with my mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead resulting in a desire to answer the call "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men."]  Being a follower of Jesus Christ should work its way through a person’s whole life. At least that’s what I believe. So, my everyday actions, feelings, and thoughts toward my country, my community, my family, my stuff and myself should align themselves with the thought that Christ rules over every area of my life. Got, it? Alright then we’ll move on from here.

So, the primary thought that I have on politics is that Jesus wasn’t a conservative, he wasn’t a liberal and he definitely wasn’t a moderate. But, he was and IS a radical. I am about to make very broad sweeping statements about all of these political alignments, so don’t condemn me until you hear me out. But, I do welcome your thoughts. Conservatives want small government and big business when it comes to our money, but they like to have morality ruled with an iron fist. Liberals like to have big government that helps those in need whether those in need in anyway live morally. And moderates can’t really make up their minds. They like stuff about both sides so they’re afraid to commit to just one. :-) Haha! So, by me saying Jesus is a radical what I mean is that he doesn’t lean in any of these directions (or that he isn’t in this taking sides business). He walked to a different drumbeat; that of his Father in heaven of whose will he said he came to fulfill.

There were liberals and there were conservatives in Jesus’ day. The most conservative were the Sadducees (who didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead) and then there were the Pharisees. At the opposite end of the spectrum were the Zealots who wanted to overthrow the Romans and were willing to risk the livelihood of the nation to do it (sounds radical – or just crazy?) But Jesus didn’t fall into any of their camps, he made his own camp. It was a camp of caring for the lost sheep of Israel and preparing the way for all men that would to receive eternal life. And, so now my point of all this is that for Christ followers, he has made this way and he has left us with a mission. See Matthew 28:18-20. So, why are we more concerned with this world’s affairs and making life comfortable for us and our children than we are concerned about telling lost men and women about Jesus? Why are we more enthralled with the latest gadgets, gizmos and trappings that the pagans chase after than we are with “look[ing] after orphans and widows in their distress and [keeping ourselves] from being polluted by the world”? See 2 Timothy 2:4 and James 1:27… We have a fight but our fight should not be with each other over political “stuff” unless it is unjust to the poor – not your friend that owns the tanning salon that might be hurt by an excise tax but people who are truly poor through circumstances such as oppression and/or calamity. Our fight should be against a very real enemy that is dragging people off to hell at alarming rate. So, brothers and sisters, I urge you live the life you’ve been called to by Christ and preach the gospel both with your lifestyle and your mouth being led by the spirit.

Don’t get me wrong. We should be involved in the political process. We have a very powerful voice called a vote. We should study candidates, we should pray, and we should vote in the way that we believe God is leading. We should also cry foul when we see the defenseless being oppressed. But, more than we are involved in politics for the sake of politics, we should be involved for the sake of the kingdom of Christ.

Stop all that (letter) cussin!!!

Alright, I’ll go ahead and tell you up front, I like to write blog entries that have some redemption at the end. But, since this one will likely lack that, I’m attaching a link to a video that DOES contain actual BAD language but has a redemptive point. It is audio so don’t play it around your children. :-) Just click here.


Now, since the beginning of time mankind has justified himself against everyone else around including God. We always like to use the term that "I’m doing better than , so I must be okay."  Well, for me there’s one particular sin that bothers my conscience but that I still flirt with just a little bit. (Oh, did I say one?) Ha. Here’s one of the sins. And, that sin is not always having wholesome language. In other words, I don’t like to be around people that swear or use bad language. And where I come from it’s called cussin’. I don’t like to be around cussin’, especially from women or young people. At a power plant, I’ll tolerate it. Not sure why on that last part. But, I really don’t cuss (very often).  And, it catches me off guard and bothers me to hear people that do (very often).

So, here’s my justification. If I want to say it but don’t actually do so, then I’m okay, right?  Ha! So, if I’ve adopted a system called letter cussin. Let’s say that you want to fight somebody. I don’t like to fight either. But, if I wanted to, I might say something like “I oughta kick you’re A.” Or if I’m just dumbfounded at the dumbness and the dumbnity of something (or someone), I might get that amazed look on my face and say something like “What the H?” But, that’s about it for me. A, B, D, H (and a very rare S) are enough. I stray away from the granddaddy of them all. I think it is a most offensive word and would rather stay around the fringe of cursing than get really bad by throwing out the bomb.  You know the one.  I don't use it.

For those that wanted to know, there’s my explanation of letter cussin.  So now, don’t make me mad and don’t do anything stupid or else I’ll have to break one out on ya.

Much love!!

Seven out of Ten

I heard this statistic a couple of weeks ago (didn't confirm it but heard it on the radio as the intro to a conference about helping break the trend). And, it broke my heart to hear it.  I’ve heard it before and it is disturbing.  I shutter at the thought of sharing, but here goes. Seven out of ten church attending men view pornographic material at least once weekly. By the sheer grace of God, I am in the three. I don’t take that lightly because I know that the temptation is always there for sexual impurity of any kind to creep into our lives. So again, it is by the grace of God so that all I can boast in is Christ and his work on the cross for being in the three rather than the seven.

Our bodies are demanding and they are prone toward what is wrong.  They urge us to turn from good to evil every moment of every day.  But scripture urges us that love God to 1) remain unstained from this world 2) confess our sin that we may be made whole 3) and to pray for those that are weak. So, pray for the seven. Sin is serious and it kills. Sexual sin kills individuals, it kills marriages and it destroys whole families.  So, men, put up a fight, it's worth it to prevent the shame that the enemy would bring into our lives.

And so no one thinks I'm exalting myself as better than anyone else, I will add this, being in the three doesn’t make me great.  I fight my own battle every day as Paul said, I discipline myself that after I have preached to others, I myself am not disqulified.  Trust me, I have enough mental images from my own corrupt past (and present) or from today’s mainstream media (from ‘Rated PG’ movies to the evening television drama) and even a casual walk or drive through the local community without ever seeing another naked body.  Some of the ladies make sure that there’s not much left to imagine when they suit up to go out into the public eye.  And, I have no control over that.  So, the struggle is real for me without a need to watch dirty movies or visit websites.  So, I make it my aim to follow the example of Job -- “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl…”  No matter what she's got on, I am pretty sure, it's not my job to examine her for anatomical correctness.

Dang, this was a tough one, but this is the stuff I think about.

much love my friends, much love!

Bad Customer Service

Another day, another encounter with the fine agents of Wal-Mart. I actually like the Wal-Mart that is nearest our house. I’ve had lots of good experiences there. But for some reason I chose to go to Wal-Mart 280 on the way homw Wednesday. While there, I realized that I have it good at the Chelsea Wal-Mart because they have all the things we need and in just the right package sizes. And, I bet their fried chicken is fresh and not all dried up like a raisin.

So, here I am, looking for Motrin which has apparently been recalled at all the local pharmacies. I didn’t know that but in case you didn’t know either, now you know. And, then I got the call from Ms Kimberly that her back hurt and she wasn’t fixing dinner so I better get something. Well, I stepped right up to the heat lamp in the middle of the store that had what was probably at one time a fine tray of fried chicken under it. It all looked like it was cooked 8 hours ago. So, I stepped on over to the deli where I THOUGHT (my bad) there might be actual factual “so fresh and so clean clean” fried chicken. Nope. It was cooked at the same time as that over there in the mobile heat lamp and the lady behind the counter had a major ‘tude.

She flinched not, and she smiled not, and she acknowledged not my very friendly “Hey! How are you today?” I took immediate offense. How could you live in the south and be unwilling to engage in the beginning of a good Southern conversation. I won’t belabor the point from here. But good customer service is a lost art. Why can’t people that are at work do the things that it takes to do their job well. If one customer upsets you, don’t take it out on the next customer. Be friendly! Be firm if you have to but be good to your customers if you’re in customer service. It goes a long way.

much love my friends, much love!