A Path Less Followed

Thoughts.

2007-07-12T10:45:00.001-07:00

Don’t complain about the way god answers your prayers.

Life Application

2007-06-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

Mike Cope wrote recently:

"Edith Rodriguez, a 43-year-old mother of three, couldn't get help in an emergency room at an inner city hospital in LA. So she called 911 and was rejected. People around her saw her struggling, and no one did anything. She died waiting for help."

"Is this a parable?"

When I boil down the bible it comes down to one word, love. When I think about what we are instructed to do and how to live our lives it comes down to one word, love.

Love all the people around you because God loves you. Love people you don't know and love those who you do.

I think if we stopped bickering over issues like abortion and gay rights and spent time loving people reguardless of the decisions they make this world would be a lot more caring.

"Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do to me." (Matthew 25:40) I wish someone knew that for Edith Rodriguez.

Beauty and the Beasts

2007-05-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

Today I had to go to the DMV. Everyone knows the patience it requires to wait in a seemingly endless line but the lessons I learned today will forever impact me. As I waited in line two girls in there 20’s were behind me along with their father. They were extremely loud and boisterous as they talked about getting drunk as soon as they were done here. They talked about how they got plastered the night before with their father and a slew of obscenities continued to be expelled from their mouths as the words echoed in my head. They talked about the countless times they drove drunk and the parties they can no longer remember.

I began to wonder why, why would anyone choose to live this way? Do guys find it appealing? I know for a fact that it was about the biggest turn off for me. I wondered what they are trying to cover up. Are they upset with their place in life and decided that if they mask it all with drugs, drinking and partying it will disappear long enough for them to deal with it? I have never understood behavior like these girls were speaking of. This has never been my battle in life. I thought about asking them to please keep it down or to at least choose different language. About the time I mustered up the confidence to do so, I noticed that beneath the beast of self mutilation these girls were expressing, beauty was blossoming right before my eyes.

There was a young girl who must have just turned 16 in the DMV with her father who was in his early 40’s. The father sat in his chair with a smile that only a parent would know. His daughter passed her driving test and as she smiled as she entered the door giving thumbs up, the father glowed. His child was becoming an adult and today daddy’s little girl got her license. His smile was so infectious that I forgot all about the girls behind me and their behavior. I stared in his eyes and I saw love. I saw a love that only a parent would understand. I saw a love that says you can wrong me but I will love you because you are my child and I am your father. In that moment I understood that though his daughter would go on and someday get married and raise children of her own, this moment in time was the moment she saw what a fathers love is.

The father never said a word but the look of love in his eyes became infectious to the entire line. Soon, everyone in the line was smiling ear to ear and congratulating her. No one cared about the two girls in the back any more, we were more then happy to share the celebration of the father and his daughter.

The bible says that love has the power to conquer a multitude of sins. Today for the first time in my life I understand exactly what that verse means.

Grace?

2007-04-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

Grace? Huh?

I am not sure I understand the concept of grace.

Why is it that the harder I try the more I beat myself up when I don't do what I should do. Paul said the very thing I should do I keep trying to do but I cannot seem to do. I truly am at war with myself.

The more I try to be a Christian the more I fail. It seems that when I don't try I beat myself up and when I do try I fail constantly. I really don't think that God wanted us to beat ourselves senseless; still I try to understand where the medium is.

I read about people who give up everything and give it to the poor, I read of the acts of faith that astound me yet I cannot seem to do that. Christianity has become about my struggle with sin rather then sins hold on humanity. It is as if there are two people battling out their dominance inside of me. One knows what to do and the other lives for his own inhibitions and self-centered wants. Far too often the later wins the battle.

I do not believe that being a Christian means years of personal torture. I feel that far too often we subject ourselves to this feeling of hurt, pain and frustration because we see the model in which we are to follow (Christ) and still we cannot hold a candle to the light he has shown. I spend far too much time beating myself up for not being a part of the church yet cannot bring myself to connect on the level I need to. This leads me to question, what is grace? How can we accept grace yet not cheapen its gift.

Far too many times I witness the concept of grace being taken for granted. Maybe the question is not what is grace, but how can I respond to grace? It is much like the feeling of having this massive debt you owe a bank. This debt is far too much for you to pay and one day your bank calls and tells you that the debt has been paid in full you own nothing. When my debt has been cleared from the bank it would be foolish of me to keep putting myself in debt following the same habits, yet this is my realization. Each day I wake I put myself in debt knowing that my benefactor, my father Jesus will come and wipe it clean.

This concept releases Christian culprits entirely and teaches them that if we just believe on Christ and ask forgiveness nothing we do will be held against us. That is not how the world works, that is not how we are taught. We are taught for every action there is a consequence. This is what I cannot wrap my mind around grace.

AMAZING Article!

2007-04-06T14:55:00.001-07:00

The following is an article on CNN.com by Roland Martin. Mr. Martin Thank you!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/04/martin.jesus/index.html

"When did it come to the point that being a Christian meant caring about only two issues, abortion and homosexuality?

Ask the nonreligious what being a Christian today means, and based on what we see and read, it's a good bet they will say that followers of Jesus Christ are preoccupied with those two points.

Poverty? Whatever. Homelessness? An afterthought. A widening gap between the have and have-nots? Immaterial. Divorce? The divorce rate of Christians mirrors the national average, so that's no big deal.

The point is that being a Christian should be about more than abortion and homosexuality, and it's high time that those not considered a part of the religious right expose the hypocrisy of our brothers and sisters in Christianity and take back the faith. And those on the left who believe they have a "get out of sin free" card must not be allowed to justify their actions.

As we celebrate Holy Week, our focus is on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But aren't we also to recommit ourselves to live more like Jesus? Did Jesus spend his time focusing on all that he didn't like, or did Jesus raise the consciousness of the people to understand love, compassion and teach them about following the will of God?

In fact, I've grown tired of people who pimp God. That's right; we have a litany of individuals today who are holy, holy, holy, sing hallelujah, talk about how they love the Lord, but when it's time to walk the walk, somehow the spirit evaporates.

An African-American pastor I know in the Midwest was asked by a group of mostly white clergy to march in an anti-abortion rally. He was fine with that, but then asked the clergy if they would work with him to fight crack houses in predominantly black neighborhoods.

"That's really your problem," he was told.

They saw abortion as a moral imperative, but not a community ravaged by crack.

If abortion and gay marriage are part of the Christian agenda, I have no issue with that. Those are moral issues that should be of importance to people of the faith, but the agenda should be much, much broader.

I'm looking for the day when Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Joyce Meyer, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, James Kennedy, Rod Parsley, " Patriot Pastors" and Rick Warren will sit at the same table as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Cynthia Hale, Eddie L. Long, James Meek, Fred Price, Emmanuel Cleaver and Floyd Flake to establish a call to arms on racism, AIDS, police brutality, a national health care policy, our sorry education system.

If they all say they love and worship one God, one Jesus, let's see them rally their members behind one agenda.

I stand here today not as a Republican or a liberal. And don't bother calling me a Democrat or a conservative. I am a man, an African-American man who has professed that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that's to whom I bow down.

If you concur, it's time to stop allowing a chosen few to speak for the masses. Quit letting them define the agenda.

So put on the full armor of God because we have work to do".

Mr. Martin, I said it before and I will say it again. THANK YOU. This is what Jesus is about; this is why I give my life, my passion and my work to spreading the true news of Christ.

AWESOME!

No Room for Hate

2007-04-02T10:22:00.000-07:00

No room for hate

What would this world do if there was no room for hate?

What would so many Christians do if there was no one left to hate?

Hate drives wars, fuels disunity, ignites riots and inflames wickedness. It seems to me that it is human nature to hate rather then love. Doesn't it seem so easy to you to discuss a persons flaws then to complement their character? Isn't it so easy to criticize then to complement? It seems that at the fabric of our existence we have this innate nature to think and act on evil.

I often wonder if this is the reason the book of Genesis was written and told for centuries to fellow Jews. I wonder if the stories in Genesis were written to explain humanities fundamental fixations on lust rather then love, sinning rather then sanctifying. I wonder if the story of Adam and Eve was there to help the human mind understand that before humanities current state there was a state in which we walked with God under the conscious mind of peace and tranquility, then came a great understanding that there is not just good in the world but a force that drives good into the dark recesses of oblivion; evil. Upon knowing this, I wonder if mankind replaced peace with hate, selflessness with selfishness and love with murder.

Even if the goal of the first few chapters of Genesis is to let mankind have a glimpse of the origin of our selfishness it doesn't answer any of the questions that would arise. How do we rid ourselves of this nature? How does one seek holiness and righteousness above the being of who we are? And most of all, why would we want to seek these things? These questions strike at the core of why we hate. I believe that when we do something not inline with our nature we take on the nature of God. For instance: when you spend time with the poor helping out in a shelter or providing for the needs of others you take on the very nature and being of God. We deny what we want and seek to give without expectation or seeking any reward, that is the nature and being of God.

If there was no room to hate what would this world look like? If we pushed away the evils of poverty, bigotry, slander, self aggrandizement, self promotion and greed, I think this world would look a lot like heaven.

Hate and love are separated but a chasm that cannot be breached unless you take the road not many want to follow.

Family Guy gets the last words:

Spiritual Poverty: A Global Battle

2007-03-15T10:54:00.000-07:00

Material poverty can always be solved by material things. The unwanted, the unloved, the forgotten, the lonely, this is much greater poverty.

We live in a culture that has raised the veil of blindness to issues that effect masses of people. We prefer to live in our small social bubble rather then walk in the shoes of those who cannot afford shoes. We are ever present of the latest movies and hottest songs on the radio but we fail to see the greatest poverty in the world today is right outside our doors.

The need for acceptance, the unloved, the lonely, the down-hearted, the forgotten, the unwanted, these are the ones who suffer from the greatest poverty the world has known. These people's hurt cannot be fixed with material possessions the poverty they suffer from is much deeper, it is a spiritual poverty. We live in a culture that is quick to judge the exterior of a person then understand the interior of a person.

We fill our minds with hate, anger and bitterness and cause a type of poverty that leads to death. Did you know that suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24. Did you know that 50% of all marriages in the America end in divorce? These two examples all have one thing in common, hopelessness. The victims of suicide feel hopeless, and failed marriages end in a lack of hope. To give hope and love you fight against the very nature of the world today. We know this because we know ourselves when we say it is much easier to insult then to build up, it is easier to hate then to love, it is easier to criticize then to complement.

Material poverty is killing millions of people across the world; spiritual poverty is torturing billions daily. You don't need to look far to find people suffering from spiritual poverty, you need only look out our front door. Each of us has a story in which the fabric of our lives has been written upon and etched into its woven thread you find strands, broken and frayed from abuse, insults, anger and malice.

We all hurt, we all bleed, we all cry, we all suffer from the very things that can destroy so many of us. Today we take a stand against the neglect of so many needs that people have. We are called to be inclusive with our love. We must not turn a blind eye to the needs that we all have, we must learn to love. It is in this very act of love that we will find true happiness and fulfillment.

The Commitment to Trends

2007-02-26T11:39:00.000-08:00

"If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me." – Jesus

Trends come and go, fashions are in one season and out the next and music that is popular now will soon become stagnate and old. Just as the leaves in spring will undoubtedly turn to red and yellow in the fall, the changes in our lives happen in a season.

There are moments in our lives when we face reality not as a fleeting trend but as something that will impact our lives for the rest of our existence. The death of a loved one, the loss of a first love, the birth of a child, the day you become husband and wife. These impacts of reality set in place foundations on which we remember life not as a trend but as a commitment. Marriage is not a trend but a commitment. Becoming a parent is not a trend but a commitment. Following Christ is not a trend, but a solemn commitment.

Trends are here today and gone the next, the words of Christ are eternal. Salvation is not a trend but a life altering choice in which you renew your vow much like the ceremony of marriage. You make the decision that for better or for worse you commit to love because God is love. You commit to the decision that though people may be different, they were made in the image of God. You commit to loving the sinner knowing that we are not that much different. You commit to loving the practitioners of other religions because God your father loves the practitioners of other religions. You commit to loving the people of different sexual practices because your father loves them and died for them.

When we see that Jesus is love and the lines of love are not drawn in division but drawn in the shape of his might heart we will stop categorizing people as sinners and saved, rich and poor, gay and straight, black and white, Jew and Muslim. We will no longer see a label we will look beyond the face of difference and see the face of God.

Jesus said: If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. We lift Jesus up by loving the very people who many refuse to love. The world will know we are Christians not by how much heat we pour on them but by our ability to let the nature of the meek and lowly Christ reign in our hearts.

Do you want to be right or do you want to be holy?

2007-01-29T11:09:00.000-08:00

Sometimes make the right choice is also choosing the hardest choice. When I think about doing right as opposed to doing wrong I sometimes cringe. There are many parallels in life when it comes to this:

It is easier to remember something bad about a person then something good.

It is easier to insult then to complement

It is easier to give in then to resist

It is easier to quit in the face of adversity then to keep going on

It is easier to hate then to love

Who wants the easy way out? Honestly, sometimes I do. But then I think about what I would be giving up if I took the easy way out. I would give up who I am. I would give up my identity and my beliefs for what?

What I see this coming down to is a battle of your ideas and wants verse a more selfless nature. One of the calls of the cross of Christ I believe is to transform your life, out of selfishness and into selflessness. This is something that I work on daily and still fail every minute. It is so easy to assume what I want is what is right.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.”

Bonhoeffer got it right on the button there; he knew that the person who loves THEIR dream of community will destroy it in the end. My ways are not Gods ways so many times. This brings up back to the subject at hand; it is easier to do wrong then to do right. It is easy to assume that you have the answers and you are the one who has it right but often I find myself on the other side of the coin.

What this comes down to is this: Do you want to be right or do you want to be holy? I confess so many times I care about being right rather then being holy. The more that I realize that love is never wrong and as Bonhoeffer said, “Be the person who loves those around you and you will create community,” I become humbled at the fact that I don’t have to be right to be holy. My acceptance is not based on a test. My salvation is not contingent on me getting it all right. This freeing principal leaves us with a calling on each of our loves.

So I ask you today, do you want to be right, or do you want to be holy?

Run Down

2007-01-12T12:12:00.000-08:00

I am run down.

Not because of physical labor but emotionally. So much is changing in my life as of late. I started a good job that I love, I am growing in my faith and beginning to see life in the eyes of a man no long as a child. I see the responsibilities that I have neglected so many times in my life and for the first time I am addressing them. Life is changing at a rapid pace and to be perfectly honest it is not the most comfortable thing but alas I know it is the right thing.

I remember when things years ago seemed so important, now they are mere memories of a fleeting past. The things that remain important are fundamentals on which I base my life and exsistance. I have found the strangest truth in life. The minute you empty yourself and server others you find yourself. Years ago someone would have said that to me and I would have scoffed at them. My whole life I tried to understand what I am here for, what is my purpose. I have found my purpose in the lives of the poor, the lives of the hurting and downtrodden. I don’t care if I never get a reward and to be honest part of me doesn’t want to post this because I don’t want an recognition for my “good attitude.” However I want to share with everyone that there is more to life then aquiring the newest things for our personal pleasure.

For years I was the person who was selfish and wanted to obtain the best of everything, now I see life in a different perspective and I see that I want to serve.

Mother Teresa said it best so she gets the final words:

“I am just a pencil in the hand of God.”

2006 in Review and my 2007 Resolution

2006-12-26T13:52:00.000-08:00

I wanted to use this time to look back on 2006. So many times in our lives we see only what we experience. This year you might have started a new profession, finished another year at school, had a child, got married, started a new relationship or maybe even moved into a new home. However I wanted to expose you to things that might not have fit into your life this year.

This year our country has fought another year of war in Iraq and 799 American men and woman have been killed this year alone. 51,814 Iraqi Civilians have died, 400,000civilians in Darfur were killed, 3,000,000 civilians in Darfur driven from their homes, 1.7 million children died this year because world governments have failed to reduce poverty levels and 2.9 million people died of AIDS this year. These names and numbers might not mean that much to you living in America, but it means a great deal to the children and parents these nameless numbers have left behind.

The first of January is a time of resolutions. You might resolve to clear your bills this year or save for that new home you want. Today I challenge you all to make a resolution to no longer tolerate the injustices of poverty, genocide and greed. I make my resolution this year to become proactive in helping the people of this country and world. You might ask yourself why? Why should we care about people that do not know or us? You might be uncomfortable with doing something that will take you out of your comfort zone.

As Christians, Jesus called us to a life working with the poor, the meek, and the less fortunate. We are called to be peacemakers, lights in a dark place, salt of the earth, people of love and doers of good. We do not do these things expecting a reward but we do them because we know that there is more to life then what we can acquire for our own personal possessions. Did you know that on any given night in America, anywhere from 700,000 to 2 million people are homeless. Did you know that thirty-one million Americans now live in hunger or on the edge of hunger or one in five people in a soup kitchen line is a child. I am willing to bet you didn't know that because we are blessed and don't have to experience that but I am here to tell you that we are the minority not the majority.

You might think that you are only one person and there is nothing that you can do. At the end of this blog I will have links to many sites that will get you involved! I know first hand that one person can change a life. One man defined an empire, a religion and created a movement in which 2 billion people still practice today, that man is Jesus. I know the power of ideas. It was JFK who said that by the end of the decade on 1960's we WILL have a man on the moon. The technology didn't exist at the time he said that, but the idea was powerful and challenged the hearts and minds of a people who made that idea into a reality. I have seen ideas come to life and I have seen that life prosper all because one man or woman decided not to take no for an answer.

In 2007 you have to decide if you are going to live for yourself, or for others. If you live for yourself you will find all the problems that many people face, depression, the feeling of not being fulfilled, and the want of something more. I irony is that it is in emptying yourself and giving all you have that you truly become fulfilled. Don't give expecting something in return, just give, knowing that you're directly blessing the lives of people who need it. This may be counter cultural to your mind set but I implore you to empty your hearts and wallets to others. By the time you finish readying this seven more people have died in Darfur. This world still has good left in it, it resides in the hearts of men and women who demand justice rather then injustice. It resides in the notion that all people who live should have freewill, and have their basic needs provided. The choice is yours this year, you define necessity.

What can you do to get involved? Visit these sites; donate your time, you old clothes, money and food. One person can change the world!

What can we do?

http://www.one.org/

www.savedarfur.org

http://www.care.org/getinvolved/advocacy/index.asp

http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/

http://www.satruck.com/FindStore.asp Put in your zip code and go donate!

http://www.volunteermatch.org/

35 Ways You Can Help the Homeless

1. Understand Who the Homeless Are - Help dispel the stereotypes about the homeless. Learn about the different reasons for homelessness, and remember, every situation is unique.
2. Respect the Homeless as Individuals - Give the homeless people the same courtesy and respect you would accord your friends, your family, your employer. Treat them as you would wish to be treated if you needed assistance.
3. Respond with Kindness - We can make quite a difference in the lives of the homeless when we respond to them, rather than ignore or dismiss them. Try a kind word and a smile.
4. Develop Lists of Shelters - Carry a card that lists local shelters so you can hand them out to the homeless. You can find shelters in your Yellow Pages.
5. Buy "Street News" - This biweekly newspaper is sold in almost every major American city and is intended to help the homeless help themselves. For every paper sold, the homeless earn five cents deposited in a special savings account earmarked for rent. What an impact!
6. Bring Food - It's as simple as taking a few extra sandwiches when you go out. When you pass someone who asks for change, offer him or her something to eat. If you take a lunch, pack a little extra. When you eat at a restaurant, order something to take with you when you leave.
7. Give Money - One of the most direct ways to aid the homeless is to give money. Donations to nonprofit organizations that serve the homeless go a long way. 8. Give Recyclables - In localities where there is a "bottle law," collecting recyclable cans and bottles is often the only "job" available to the homeless. But it is an honest job that requires initiative. You can help by saving your recyclable bottles, cans, and newspapers and giving them to the homeless instead of taking them to a recycling center or leaving them out for collection. If you live in a larger city, you may wish to leave your recyclables outside for the homeless to pick up -- or give a bagful of cans to a homeless person in your neighborhood.
9. Give Clothing - Next time you do your spring or fall cleaning, keep an eye out for those clothes that you no longer wear. If these items are in good shape, gather them together and donate them to organizations that provide housing for the homeless. 10. Give A Bag Of Groceries - Load up a bag full of nonperishable groceries, and donate it to a food drive in your area. If your community doesn't have a food drive, organize one. Contact your local soup kitchens, shelters, and homeless societies and ask what kind of food donations they would like.
11. Give Toys - Children living in shelters have few possessions --if any-- including toys. Homeless parents have more urgent demands on what little money they have, such as food and clothing. So often these children have nothing to play with and little to occupy their time. You can donate toys, books, and games to family shelters to distribute to homeless children. For Christmas or Chanukah, ask your friends and co-workers to buy and wrap gifts for homeless children.
12. Volunteer At A Shelter - Shelters thrive on the work of volunteers, from those who sign people in, to those who serve meals, to others who counsel the homeless on where to get social services. For the homeless, a shelter can be as little as a place to sleep out of the rain or as much as a step forward to self-sufficiency.
13. Volunteer At A Soup Kitchen - Soup Kitchens provide one of the basics of life, nourishing meals for the homeless and other disadvantaged members of the community. Volunteers generally do much of the work, including picking up donations of food, preparing meals, serving it, and cleaning up afterward. To volunteer your services, contact you local soup kitchen, mobile food program, shelter, or religious center.
14. Volunteer Your Professional Talents - No matter what you do for a living, you can help the homeless with your on-the-job talents and skills. Those with clerical skills can train those with little skills. Doctors, psychiatrists, counselors, and dentists can treat the homeless in clinics. Lawyers can help with legal concerns. The homeless' needs are bountiful -- your time and talent won't be wasted.
15. Volunteer Your Hobbies - Every one of us has something we can give the homeless. Wherever our interests may lie -- cooking, repairing, gardening, photography -- we can use them for the homeless. Through our hobbies, we can teach them useful skills, introduce them to new avocations and perhaps point them in a new direction.
16. Volunteer For Follow-Up Programs - Some homeless people, particularly those who have been on the street for a while, may need help with fundamental tasks such as paying bills, ballancing a household budget, or cleaning. Follow-up programs to give the formerly homeless further advice, counseling, and other services need volunteers.
17. Volunteer At Battered Women's Shelters - Most battered women are involved in relationships with abusive husbands or other family members. Lacking resources and afraid of being found by their abusers, many may have no recourse other than a shelter or life on the streets once they leave home. Volunteers handle shelter hotlines, pick up abused women and their children when they call, keep house, and offer counseling. Call your local shelter for battered women to see how you can help.
18. Tutor Homeless Children - A tutor can make all the difference. Just having adult attention can spur children to do their best. Many programs exist in shelters, transitional housing programs, and schools that require interested volunteers. Or begin you own tutor volunteer corps at your local shelter. It takes nothing more than a little time.
19. Take Homeless Children On Trips - Frequently, the only environment a homeless child knows is that of the street, shelters, or other transitory housing. Outside of school -- if they attend -- these children have little exposure to many of the simple pleasures that most kids have. Volunteer at your local family shelter to take children skating or to an aquarium on the weekend.
20. Volunteer At Battered Women's Shelters - Volunteers handle shelter hotlines, pick up abused women and their children when they call, keep house, and offer counseling. Call your local shelter for battered women to see how you can help.
21. Teach About The Homeless - If you do volunteer work with the homeless, you can become an enthusiast and extend your enthusiasm to others. You can infect others with your own sense of devotion by writing letters to the editor of your local paper and by pressing housing issues at election time.
22. Publish Shelter Information - Despite all of our efforts to spread the word about shelters, it is surprising how many people are unaware of their own local shelters. Contact your local newspapers, church or synagogue bulletins, or civic groups newsletters about the possibility of running a weekly or monthly listing of area services available to the homeless. This could include each organization's particular needs for volunteers, food, and other donations.
23. Educate Your Children About The Homeless - Help your children to see the homeless as people. If you do volunteer work, take your sons and daughters along so they can meet with homeless people and see what can be done to help them. Volunteer as a family in a soup kitchen or shelter. Suggest that they sort through the toys, books, and clothes they no longer use and donate them to organizations that assist the poor.
24. Sign Up Your Company/School - Ask your company or school to host fund-raising events, such as raffles or craft sales and donate the proceeds to nonprofit organizations that aid the homeless. You can also ask your company or school to match whatever funds you and your co-workers or friends can raise to help the homeless.
25. Recruit Local Business - One of the easiest ways to involve local businesses is to organize food and/or clothing drives. Contact local organizations to find out what is needed, approach local grocery or clothing shops about setting up containers on their premises in which people can drop off donations, ask local businesses to donate goods to the drive, and publicize the drive by placing announcements in local papers and on community bulletin boards and by posting signs and posters around your neighborhood.
26. Create Lists Of Needed Donations - Call all the organizations in your community that aid the homeless and ask them what supplies they need on a regular basis. Make a list for each organization, along with its address, telephone number, and the name of a contact person. Then mail these lists to community organizations that may wish to help with donations -- every place from religious centers to children's organizations such as Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.
27. Play With Children In A Shelter - Many children in shelters are cut off from others their own age. Shuffled from place to place, sometimes these kids don't attend school on a regular basis, and have no contact with other kids. Bring a little joy to their lives by taking your children to a local shelter to play. Plan activities such as coloring, playing with dolls, or building model cars (take along whatever toys you'll need). Your own children will benefit too.
28. Employ the Homeless - HELP WANTED General Office Work. Welfare recipient, parolee, ex-addict OK. Good salary, benefits. Will train. That's the way Wildcat Service Corporations's Supported Work Program invites the "unemployable" to learn to work. Best of all-the program works! More than half the people who sign on find permanent, well-paying jobs, often in maintenance, construction, clerical, or security work.
29. Help The Homeless Apply For Aid - Governmental aid is available for homeless people, but many may not know where to find it or how to apply. Since they don't have a mailing address, governmental agencies may not be able to reach them. You can help by directing the homeless to intermediaries, such as homeless organizations, that let them know what aid is available and help them to apply for it. If you want to be an advocate or intermediary for the homeless yourself, you can contact these organizations as well.
30. Stand Up For The Civil Rights Of The Homeless - In recent elections, for example, volunteers at shelters and elsewhere helped homeless people register to vote . . . even though they had "no fixed address" at the moment. Some officials would not permit citizens without a permanent address to vote.
31. Join Habitat For Humanity - Habitat for Humanity, a Christian housing ministry, builds houses for families in danger of becoming homeless. Volunteers from the community and Habitat homeowners erect the houses. Funding is through donations from churches, corporations, foundations, and individuals.
32. Form A Transitional Housing Program - One of the most potent homeless-prevention services a community can offer residents who are in danger of eviction is a transitional housing program. These programs help people hang on to their current residences or assist them in finding more affordable ones. The methods include steering people to appropriate social service and community agencies, helping them move out of shelters, and providing funds for rent, mortgage payments, and utilities. For information, contact the Homelessness Information Exchange at (202) 462-7551.
33. Write To Corporations - Some of the largest corporations in America have joined the battle for low-income housing. Through the use of the tax credit or by outright grants, they are participating with federal and state government, not-for-profit and community-based groups to build desperately needed housing in Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and dozens of other cities. Contact various organizations and ask them what they are doing.
34. Contact Your Government Representatives - Our legislators rarely receive more than three visits or ten letters about any subject. When the numbers exceed that amount, they sit up and take note. Personal visits are the most potent. Letters are next; telephone calls are third best. Housing issues don't come up that often, so your public officials will listen.
35. Push For State Homelessness Prevention Programs - While states routinely supply aid for the poor and homeless, many do not have programs provide funds and other services to those who will lose their homes in the immmediate future unless something is done. Homelessness comes at great financial and human cost to the families who are evicted or foreclosed.

Namaste,

Keith

What is wrong with our world?

2006-12-12T10:34:00.000-08:00

For the people who expected Part 2 of the Revelation study, I apologize but this has been on my heart and wanted to share it.

Love,

The definition can be broad and its experience deep. I want to speak of a love that embodies the Greek work, Agape. Agape love is a form of love which is both unconditional and voluntary. Meaning that this love is not conditional on you loving me first, I am not required to love you because you love me. This kind of love is divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. It seeks nothing in return.

If this were practiced today there would be no lines to divide race or class there would be only people, people who knew that there is a scarlet thread that connects us to one another. So that the family on the street is just as equal as the rich family who passes them by.

If this where practiced today we wouldn't see a person in ragged clothes but the image of God.

If this were practiced today we wouldn't seek revenge for injustices against us but seek to repair our injustices with kindness and humility.

If this were practiced today we wouldn't take more then we need but feel the need to give more then we can.

If this were practiced today we would embrace the suffering of all people and take up their cross with them.

Greed is the God of this world and its message is clear; consume, confuse and contort. Consume all we can and take more then we need, confuse the truth so that we see people as objects rather then people who are as worthy as you and I and contort the meaning of love. With this gospel we sow a harvest of bitterness and rot, is it any wonder why we live in a world where we pass a homeless man on Saturday and then praise one on Sunday?

You may think that you cannot make a difference, because you are just one person. After all even if you make the change and decide that you will not see with your eyes but see with your heart what difference will that make?

It only took one person who loved the world and cared for all that he laid down his life and died even for the people who hated him. So yes, one person can change the world.

We cannot do great things, on small things with great love, it is in that gospel that we live and breathe and have our existence.

Revelation part 1: The Vision, the Lies and the Message

2006-11-28T11:40:00.000-08:00

Revelation part 1: The Vision, the Lies and the Message

You might think that Revelation is a strange and mysterious book. Its language is like no other book in the New Testament. Furthering this mysterious facade is the fact that more speculative theology has surrounded this book than any other in the bible. Whenever some war breaks out in the Middle East we hear warnings concerning the signs of the times, the battle of Armageddon, and the end of the world. The strangle language and cosmic visions we encounter in Revelation are a breeding ground for such interpretations of Revelation.

Preface (PLEASE READ)

Let me first preface Revelation by stating that the bible was written for a situation in life. This means that during the actual writing of the books of the bible, there was a situation in life that called for its writing. For instance, Paul telling the church in Rome that there is no difference between Jew and Greek we all fall short of our own morality therefore we fall short of an even higher morality, Gods. (see Romans 3:22-23) This was written because of a situation that transpired in the life of the church in Rome and thus Paul saw it fit to correct them. This passage transcends its situation in life status and speaks to us today in the fact that there is no difference between black and white, Asian or Spanish, we all sin and fall short. Understand that when Paul was writing his letter to the Romans he intended the Romans to read it because it had practical lessons for their lives in the first century.

All scripture must be read with the previous example of an author writing to an audience addressing a situation in their lives. If we fail to understand that the bible was not written in America in the 20^th century we will miss the lessons that it does have for us today. That being said understand that context is equivalent to meaning. What this means is that the context of something, (the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation,) equal what that thing actually is trying to say. If the context of a given passage of scripture is taken from its root, the meaning will be changed. Let me give an example; if I quote a passage from scripture that says, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13) Then I say to you I am going to lift a Volkswagen, and then I would be taking the context of this passage and misconstruing it. Paul is in prison when he is writing to the church in Philippi and he says I will endure because God is my strength. See how context affects the meaning?

Part 1: The Vision

A fragment of the book of Revelation

Every piece of literature has a literary structure. Letters, especially those of the Apostle Paul, manifest a clear literary form. Revelation, likewise, has a unique literary structure. The structure of Revelation is in the form of a two part drama with the high point coming in Rev 12-14. Revelation is a letter to the churches of Asia that draws heavily on the Old Testament and other writings of the Jewish-Christian community. It speaks in highly figurative, dramatic, and symbolic language. In technical terms we refer to the literary style John uses in Revelation as Apocalyptic. This literary style is highly symbolic, figurative and dramatic. There are many passages in the Old Testament which use this literary style, and John adopts this and develops it further from a vast library of literature.

The author describes himself simply as John. The early church believed this to be the Apostle John, but this has not been universally accepted. The author could possible be some other respected person in the church in Asia in the 1^st century whose name was John. Most scholars today prefer the date of AD 96 and the reign of Emperor Domitian for the writing of Revelation. Revelation was a unique circular letter written by God and Jesus to seven churches in Asia (now modern Turkey). We know that there were more than seven churches in Asia in the first century, but the figurative number of seven, which dominates Revelation and symbolically signifies completeness, means that the letter was in fact written to all of the churches in Asia.

The following is a brief outline of the book:

The high point in the story of Revelation comes in Rev 12:1-14:20, and especially in Rev 12:10, 11.

Prologue. 1:1-20

I. The Church in Imperfection. 2:1-3:22
Seven Letters to the Seven Churches

II. The Authority of God over Evil Explained. 4:1-8:6
The Scroll with the Seven Seals

III. The Warning Judgments. 8:1-11:19
Seven Trumpets

IV. The Lamb - God's Answer to Evil. 12:1-14:20
Seven Unnumbered Figures and Angelic Messages

V. The Consummated Judgments. 15:1-16:21
Seven Bowls of Wrath

VI. The Authority of God over Evil Exercised. 17:1-20:15
Seven Unnumbered Descriptions of God's Authority

VII. The Church in Perfection. 21:1-22:5
Descriptions of the New Heaven and New Earth

Epilogue. 22:6-21

Part 2 The Lies:

Revelation 1:1-3

There is no text in all of Revelation more important for interpreting the book than these few verses, yet so many interpreters pass them by without much attention. If we ignore these verses at the risk of misinterpreting the remainder of the book!

The prologue opens in concerned manner which stresses both the urgency and significance of the revelation. The events described in the revelation are to take place soon (urgency), and this revelation comes directly from God through Jesus and angels to John. The opening emphasizes the gravity, urgency, and seriousness of the message contained in the revelation. We are told something very literal and specific in verse 3, we are told that the time is near so get ready! John states that this message (or Revelation) relates to things that must soon take place (Rev 1:1). Driving this point home decisively John maintains that the time of these things is near (Rev 1:3)! Rev 1:3 implies that the significant time, or crisis time is about to break in on them, in fact, it is already brooding over them, hence the urgency of the revelation.

This Revelation is urgent and takes place soon. The next question is to whom? We see clearly that this Revelation is addressed to the seven churches in Asia. Seven in ALL of biblical meaning is the number known for completeness. It goes back to Genesis where God created the world in seven days. So this revelation is for all (the complete) churches in Asia.

Remember how we established that the bible was written to address a situation in the life of a people during a time? Still holds true here as well. In view of the context we must understand that this Revelation was something that was urgent and soon to take place in the first century where it was written down by John to the churches in Asia. Does Revelation have meaning today? YES!!! However in view on the context of just the first three verses we see that this revelation is for the churches in FIRST CENTURY Asia not 20^th century America. The next question is if this revelation was reviled to the churches in Asia 1900 years ago, what happened? If Revelation is viewed in context (not my opinion but the WORD OF GOD) and the context says these things MUST SOON happen, 1900 years later would not exactly be soon.

Put it this way, If I were to tell you that soon you will win the lottery because God told me, then you die, your children die, your children's children die and over a thousand generations later your offspring hit the lottery would my prophecy be correct? Of course not! The same thing is true with this revelation. Jesus gave the revelation to John for the first century church in Asia to prepare them for something that was about to happen that would shake the foundations of the world. This was reviled in their life and this revelation happened around 100AD. In part 2 we will explain what these events were and what this means for us as Christians today.

What do you think? Remember to voice your opinion but know that this discussion is not based on hate but love. In the end we are not judged on how much we know but how much we loved.

Namasté,

Keith

Letters in the water

2006-11-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

The following article is from CNN and talks about how a man and his son found letters addressed to God belonging to a New Jersey minister washed up on shore.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/02/unanswered.prayers.ap/index.html

"There are hundreds of lives here, a lot of struggle, washed up on the beach," said Bill Lacovara, a Ventnor insurance adjuster who was fishing last month with his son when he spotted a flowered plastic shopping bag and waded out to retrieve it.

"This is just a hint of what really happens. How many letters like this all over the world aren't being opened or answered?"

Many of the letters were addressed to the Rev. Grady Cooper, though many more simply said "Altar." According to the text of several of them, they were intended to be placed on a church's altar and prayed over by the minister, the congregation or both.

Some were neatly written in script on white-lined paper, others in a feverish scrawl on tattered scraps of parchment or note cards. Many were crinkled from being in the water and then dried out after Lacovara fished them out of the sea.

He opened a few with his son, Rocky, on the beach. Many were written by anguished spouses, children or widows, pouring out their hearts to God, asking for help with relatives who were using drugs, gambling or cheating on them.

One man wrote from prison, saying he was innocent and wanted to be back home with his family. A woman wrote that her boyfriend was now closing the door to her daughter's bedroom each night when it used to stay open, and wondered why.

A teenager poured out her heart on yellow-lined paper in the curlicue pencil handwriting of a schoolgirl, begging God to forgive her and asking for a second chance.

"Lord I know that I have had an abortion and I killed one of your angels," she wrote. "There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about the mistake I made."

One unwed mother wrote that her baby was due in four weeks, and asked God to make the father fall in love with her and marry her so the child would have a father.

Lacovara said he is sad that most of the writers never had their letters read. But he hopes to change that soon: He is putting the collection up for sale on eBay."

It is strange to me that more tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones. When I was little I was read a story of a little boy who asked God before he went to bed that it would snow 20 feet the next morning so he didn't have to go to school. The next day he got up and there was 20 feet of snow on the ground and he saw the hurt that it caused. At the end of the story he was told, be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.

It is a fact of life that we can pray for something that we think we want so bad, upon obtaining it we realize that it is not what was best for us at all. Mother Teresa wrote, "We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty."

Our job is not to rid the world of sickness; our job is to love the sick. Our job is not to end crime; it's to love the criminal. Our job is not to end poverty; it's to love the poor. In all these things we must strive to provide love in the face of suffering. I find it extremely ironic that Mr. Lacovara had to get these letters out of the water. These letters were floating in the water for all to see, but on this day Mr. Lacovara decided to get a bit reckless and venture out into the depths of the water to see what this flowered bag could be.

Imagine in our own lives if we were to just get a little reckless. To venture into the depth of the water even though we cannot see the bottom and reach out our hands for one another. What if we were to say, I don't know what I am getting myself into but I know that love is my motive and that is the meaning of suffering, to love one another through our struggles. The fact of the matter is that we cannot do great things on this earth, only small things with great love.

People are hurting everywhere, today I ask you, will you get reckless and not wait for them to go to you but take the first step into the water and go see them? If you do, you might see people much like the people in these letters. It is in our suffering we see Christ not as the servant but as the savior.

It is time to get your feet wet

Namasté,

Keith

No Meaning

2006-10-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

I still remember when words had no meaning. Words like terrorism, Jihad and revolution had no meaning and were not part of my vocabulary. I remember as 9/11 happened words like Taliban and insurgents became known. I remember when Katrina happened, words like FEMA, Levees and devastation got meaning.

Not all words are bad.

As I heard of lepers in Calcutta I heard of men and women leaving America to tend to them. I learned words like Namasté. There is no word in English that we have that compares to this word. Namasté means, "The Spirit in me meets the same Spirit in you." Another way to translate it would be; "I see and honor the God in you." This greeting was given to the workers in Calcutta from the lepers that were being treated.

As Christians we are called to defend the defenseless, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the broken hearted, give hope to the hopeless and love the unlovable. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. With words, wars start, conflicts being and lives are taken. With words we find meaning in all things.

To the lepers in Calcutta the only words they could use to describe the people who dressed their wounds were, I see and honor the God in you, Namasté. If only the English language had a word like Namasté. If only Christians would portray Christ so that all around us would say, I see God in you, and I honor him because you honored me.

People ask me all the time, "where is God when people are suffering? How can he allow it?" I typically answer them with the same question, "where are YOU when people are suffering, how can YOU allow it?" We are the hands and feet of God. We are his people and thus we represent all Christ is, was and ever will be.

Words give us power to understand meaning, that meaning empowers us to a greater knowledge.

Please watch the following video for in these actions we see Jesus not on a cross or in a church but alive in people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXOMb-3Lgww

Namasté

Keith

The Light of the Life of Jesus Christ

2006-10-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

Christians are called to be the light of the life of Jesus Christ.

Christ told his disciples that upon lighting a candle one would be foolish to hide that light in a basement where it cannot be seen. Likewise, a city on a hill cannot be hid because the light of that city is too great for the darkness to penetrate it.

I believe that Christians maintain this light when we seek love above all other things.

I believe that Christians maintain this light when we care as much about the loss of innocent Iraqi lives as we do about the loss of innocent American lives.

I believe that Christians maintain this light when our churches stop preaching about prosperity and start giving so that all will prosper.

I believe that Christians maintain this light when we no longer let race effect our vision but through Christ we see each other in love and fellowship

I believe that Christians maintain this light when people accuse us of being terrorist sympathizers simply because we are called to love our enemies even if that enemy is a Muslim.

I believe that Christians maintain this light when we believe that even the hardest of hearts can be changed to see the love that Christ gives us all

I believe that Christians maintain this light when we stake the claim that in this world we know perception leads to deception and its not my will that must be done, but Gods

I believe that Christians maintain this light when money no longer becomes a way of success but a means to love our enemies.

I believe that Christians maintain this light when we understand that though someone chooses to live their life according to the world we love them regardless and realize that Christ did as well.

I believe that Christians maintain this light when hate is given to them they know they are in good company because this world hated Christ long before it hated us.

I believe that Christians maintain this light when we stop viewing giving as a means to receive and start receiving so that we can use to give more.

I believe that Christians maintain this light when we don’t feel like letting it shine.

I believe that Christians maintain this light when we stop seeing people as nonbelievers and believers and start seeing everyone as children of the Lord.

With this light we will be stomped on, accused, hated, betrayed, mocked, ridiculed, laugh at, spit on, beaten, hurt, persecuted, struck down, and reviled against. …

But never alone. ….

I believe that Christians maintain this light knowing all these things but still making the claim that Christ is the Lord and besides him there is no other.

The Mega church: The Mega crisis

2006-09-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Mega church: The Mega crisis

(Above picture is the Crystal Cathedral in California)

Let’s face it, bigger is better in our culture. Bigger cars mean bigger status, despite the gas it consumes. Bigger houses mean that we are more successful then others with smaller homes. Bigger TV’s are better then smaller ones, after all no one wants to watch sports on a 13” TV. Bigger churches mean they are more successful and must be doing “church” better then others. That might or might not be true but it certainly is the trend that has coined a new phrase in America, the “Mega church”. By definition a Mega church is a large, independent, usually nondenominational worship group, especially one formed as an offshoot of a Protestant church, also called seeker church. However in today’s culture the mega church has become a stable in which many have flocked too.

Time magazine recently did and article on the phenomenon in American Christianity that deals with if God wants you to be rich. In this article they spoke primarily about Joel Osteen’s church, “Lakewood Church” in Houston, TX. The Lakewood church packs in over 25,000 people a week!

I wanted to highlight some parts of this article.

"Jesus' words about money don't make us very comfortable, and people don't want to hear about it," notes Collin Hansen, an editor at the evangelical monthly Christianity Today. Pastors are happy to discuss from the pulpit hot-button topics like sex and even politics. But the relative absence of sermons about money--which the Bible mentions several thousand times--is one of the more stunning omissions in American religion, especially among its white middle-class precincts. –Time Magazine

The quote made by Collin Hansen says it best, “Jesus’ words about money don’t make us very comfortable, and people don’t want to hear about it.” If there is one thing you know about me it’s that I will not water down the message of Christ. Well what did Jesus say about money? What is the Christ ethic he preaches?

1Timothy 6:9-10 says: But if it's only money these leaders are after, they'll self-destruct in no time. Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after.

Luke 16:13: No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

Jesus said that you CANNOT serve both God and money. He understood that money and its love will cause you to fall into many sins. There are many times throughout the word of God that Jesus commands us to give up all we have and just follow him. What would it look like if we were to follow Jesus today? I think his path would lead us to the poor, the meek, the imprisoned and the sick. I cannot see Jesus taking collections for his ministry. On the contrary, the only thing I ever see Jesus do is give. Give the people listening to him preach food, give his life, and give his time. Can you imagine Christ walking around today? I think he would hurl stones at the Crystal Cathedral in California and tell the people in there if you tear down this idol I will build in you a people alive that no building can contain.

The Time article goes on to interview Osteen.

"I don't think I've ever preached a sermon about money," he says a few hours later. He and (his wife) Victoria meet with TIME in their pastoral suite, once the Houston Rockets' locker and shower area but now a zone of overstuffed sofas and imposing oak bookcases. "Does God want us to be rich?" he asks. "When I hear that word rich, I think people say, 'Well, he's preaching that everybody's going to be a millionaire.' I don't think that's it." Rather, he explains, "I preach that anybody can improve their lives. I think God wants us to be prosperous. I think he wants us to be happy. To me, you need to have money to pay your bills. I think God wants us to send our kids to college. I think he wants us to be a blessing to other people. But I don't think I'd say God wants us to be rich. It's all relative, isn't it?" The room's warm lamplight reflects softly off his crocodile shoes. –Time Magazine

(Above picture is The Lakewood Church at "collection time")

I used to get angry when I read things like this because it’s so far from the gospel that it angered me. I now just hang my head and pray. I pray that through the darkness of a perverted gospel people like Osteen and Benny Hinn who has custom made 24 Karat gold symbols on his jacket see that Christ’s message was not a call to riches but a call to sacrifice. The cost of discipleship has nothing to do with the cost of a building. It has everything to do with the cost each one of us pays to follow Christ and that price has no tag, no dollar sign and no distinction.

(Above picture is Benny Hinn and his 24 karat gold embroidered logo)

We want bigger, we want better, we want more. We want our churches to reflect our culture and the reason I know this is because we are buying into it. We want comfortable sermons that tell us of the love of Christ but purposefully leave out the cost in which he obtained it. Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. The call of Christ is not to raise a mega church but to raise a people committed to love. Not to be conformed to this world but to transform it by love. With this Christ ethic we cannot survive in this world for long, but with this Christ ethic we will live and reign with him in the kingdom of heaven forever.

Shane Claiborne said it best in his book, “The Irresistible Revolution” when he said, “How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and pass one by on Monday?” I wonder if people like Joel Osteen and Benny Hinn can say what Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew 8:20 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." See Jesus had no home. He didn’t get over 100 million dollars a year for his ministry like Benny Hinn, he didn’t wear crocodile skin shoes like Joel Osteen. He knew that the message he brought was all the riches that one needed. We don’t need fancy youth groups that promise us camping trips, we need Jesus. We don’t need TV’s that line the walls of our churches, we need Jesus. We don’t need hundred million dollar churches that are beautiful, we need Jesus. We need Jesus, not the Jesus that mega churches claim to offer, promising you riches and living your best life right now. We need the Jesus that told us to leave the ways of this world and go love the ones who are last. Go love the poor, the hopeless, and the meek.

I am what I am by the grace of God; I am not called to live according to feeling, but according to his willing.

The Cost of Christ

2006-08-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

The Cost of Christ

I wonder who the first person was to get the idea to mass market to Christians. I would have loved to be in that meeting room, I bet it would go something like this:

Ok, I have this idea and I know its going to sound crazy but hear me out, Lets exploit Jesus. Lets plaster an image of Jesus on everything from tee shirts to dolls to action figures so that people will feel as if they are being a better Christian for buying it.

At this point I am sure some other person sitting their spoke up and said,

Sure!! But we dont have to stop there, think about the possibilities, we can market mints with bible verse called Test-a-mints. We can sell CDs that sound like secular music but we switch the word baby, with Jesus! After all who doesnt feel closer to God when they wear their Jesus is my homeboy tee-shirt, or raise their hands to a sweet God inspired rock solo.

Lets face a hard truth, all the tee-shirt and CDs marketed to Christians in the world cannot bring us one iota closer to knowing Christ. Just cause we wear a cross around our neck doesnt mean we know who died on it. Just because we attend church doesnt mean we know who the cornerstone of the church is. Just because we listen to Christian music doesnt mean that we listen to the actual words of Christ. If we listened to the words of Christ we would know that he NEVER said Go into the world and make them Christians, mass marketing to all nations, he said something much different.

Matthew 28:19

Therefore go and make DISCIPLES of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

One thing that I have always found profound about the bible is not what it says, but what it doesnt say. Note that it DOESNT say; Go into the entire world and make them believers. It says make them DISCIPLES. Here comes the part about Christianity that angers me, ignorance! So many Christians like myself, have sat in the backseat of their salvation waiting for Christ to drive them home. I have some disturbing news for everyone though, that 20 dollar tee shirt proclaiming that Jesus is your homeboy wont save you here. We think that the word Disciple is a Christian word, but nope we just adopted it. A disciple is one who embraces and assists in spreading the teachings of another. I wouldnt classify giving a person a Test-a-mint being a disciple.

Being a Christian is wearing a name, being a disciple is a way of life. Jesus said in Luke 14:33: In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Its funny how we take the good from God but refuse to take the bad. We buy the Jesus tee-shirt but pass the homeless man because, Well he might just buy drugs. Were quick to raise our hands in worship when the church is looking but slow to understand the cost of discipleship. Face it, Christianity has sold out. From the Benny Hinns to the Jerry Falwells who rake in over 100 million dollars a year, Christianity has sold out. Then again what do I know? Well, I know a man named Jesus, no not the one Benny Hinn and Jerry Falwell speak of, a different one. My Jesus says:

Matthew 19:16-24

Now a man came up to Jesus and asked,

"Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"

"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied.

"There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."

"Which ones?" the man inquired.

Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and 'love your neighbor as yourself."

"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

THAT is the cost of discipleship. Discipleship is not in coming forward on a Sunday service and saying a prayer to get into heaven, the truth is that when Christ calls a man or woman, he bids him come and die. Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.

When will we start to think there must be more to Christianity, more than just laying your life and sins at the foot of the cross. I came to realize that preachers were telling me to lay my life at the foot of the cross and weren't giving me anything to pick up. Handing out tracts at the mall and hanging out with Christian buddies going to see Christian bands just didn't seem like the fullness of Christian discipleship. Mark Twain said it best when he said, "It's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that scare me, but the parts I do understand."

The Complete Anti-God

2006-04-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

Some things in life are so embarrassing that you will never forget them. I remember when I was learning to drive standard. I was so excited to get my car, but driving it home was a whole different story. I never drove a standard more then 10 minutes before this and when I got my car it must has taken me 30 minutes to get the thing down the road. I stalled that car so much that I was beyond frustrated. The absolute worst was the first time that I had to stop on a hill. It was in the middle of the city and of course I am trying to look as cool as possible in my brand new car. So I stop at the light on the side of this incline that I swear was about as steep as Mt.Everest. The light turns green and I take my foot off of the clutch and BAM it stalls. Now at this point I start to panic, I restart the car and BAM it stalls again. By now all the people behind me are honking and people on the street are trying to see what all this commotion is.

Needless to say we all have stories in our lives that humble us. It’s because of stories like this that I often ponder how Christ’s message was accepted when he says in Matthew Chapter 5 verse 3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Now believe me after stalling a car and having 5 angry drivers that are behind you all the while trying to play it cool, I knew about being poor in spirit. What Christ is saying here though hits a nerve with every single person on the face of the planet today. Why? Simply because it’s something we all battle with, pride. Christ is saying blessed are the people who are not filled with pride.

Why is pride so awful? We hear all the time take pride in what you do, be proud of who you are. If these are such great things then why do we even care what Christ says about pride? In this passage there is a life lesion for not just a “religious” sect of people but also for people who want to get more out of life. At this point I am sure that we can all say that we want to get more out of life. Pride is basically, a sense of one's own proper dignity or value; it’s the complete anti God. The sin of pride is a preoccupation with self. It is thus very fitting that the middle letter in the word is "i." Pride is all about "me, myself, and I. I know that is quite a loaded statement but let me explain, pride is the complete anti God because it seeks to venerate and glorify self rather then build up and love others and God. C.S Lewis says it the best, “Unchastity, anger greed and all that, are mere flee bites in comparison, it was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice; it’s the complete anti God.

Pride is essentially self-worship, it’s not a respecter of person and it draws us back to the earliest temptation, to try to be and speak for God. Pride in essence tries to get us to stop being the creature and start being the creator, to know all good from evil, to tell my life “Life I know what you need.” This of course is total ignorance on our part but alas it’s something that we do day in and day out. Pride lead Lucifer to become Satan, it was pride that first lead Eve to eat the forbidden fruit it was the pride of the Jews that killed Jesus. In all these things pride corrupts everyone and everything we are. It leads us from dependence into our own independence.

I started this off by saying Christ’s message is not just for the “religious” it’s for all people. Christ looks out and says,”Blessings on you poor in spirit you humble people because yours is the kingdom.” He doesn’t give commandment he doesn’t say BE POOR IN SPIRIT BE THIS BE THAT, he beings with blessings. He knows something about life, he knows that pride corrupts and kills, it’s the complete anti-God.

Let me put it into a better example for us. A man by the name of Irwin Mcmanus visited Japan. While he was there he wrote that he was perplexed as to when entering the shogun’s castle all the doorways and walls seemed to be about 2 feet to short. As Irwin approached the inner chamber he realized why. He realized that you had to enter with your bear neck. You were essentially putting your life in his hands: submission before entrance.

This resonates with our lives today all too much, pride kills and can cause us to lose more then we can even know. What Christ was trying to explain to people is the same principal that Irwin Mcmanus figured out that day, you have to enter with your neck exposed because you have to be helpless. We all know that we are powerless over whether we wake up tomorrow just as we are powerless over whether it’s going to rain or be sunny. Its submission before entrance. That is why Christ looks out and says Blessed are you humble people because you don’t pray for selfish things you realize that there is more then just you in this world. Desperate people are the ones often praying. Desperate people who know there is no where else to go. It all comes down to submission, its realizing that we do not have it right and putting your life in his hands, its submission before entrance. Pride tells us that our way has got to be right, the poor in spirit cannot rely on being right, they know they need God. They are stripped down and know that they have nothing to bring.

I leave you with an old Hymn called “The Rock of Ages”

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

God Bless you all, he sure has for me.

Practical Theology

2006-04-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

Practical Theology

I use the term “practical theology” a lot lately. Using the term might suggest to the reader that the current theology implemented in churches these days is not practical. Let me clarify that this is not my insinuation at all. I use the term “practical theology” simply because of the fact that things have changed since the time of Christ and thus we need to look at the practicality of many functional fundamentals of Christian theology.

Let’s start with a basis that we can all expound upon. First we must understand basic principals of the bible.

Principal number one: The bible was written for a situation in life. This means that during the actual writing of the books of the bible, there was a situation in life that called for its writing. For instance, Paul telling the church in Rome that there is no difference between Jew and Greek we all fall short of our own morality therefore we fall short of an even higher morality, Gods. (see Romans 3:22-23) This was written because of a situation that transpired in the life of the church in Rome and thus Paul saw it fit to correct them in righteousness. This passage transcends its situation in life status and speaks to us today in the fact that there is no difference, black and white, Asian or Spanish, we all sin and fall short.

That is the practical aspect of this theological message. That no matter who you are the situation is the same, one sin, one body, one world, one savior. This is the crux in which we will seek to understand a series of books (the bible) written over 2000 years ago and its relevance into modern culture.

Principal number two: Context is equivalent to meaning. One of the basic principals of theology as well as psychology is that context is directly related to meaning. If the context of a given passage of scripture is taken from its root, the meaning will be changed. Let me give an example; if I quote a passage from scripture that says, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) Then I say to you I am going to lift a Volkswagen, and then I would be taking the context of this passage and misconstruing it. Paul is in prison when he is writing to the church in Philippi and he says I will endure because God is my strength. See how context affects the meaning? This is the basis for principal two, context is equivalent to meaning and thus we must see what the context is.

Practical Theology is at the core of what it means to apply the moral principals of the bible to this modern world. It seeks to ask the difficult questions on how the teachings of Christ affect the modern Christian culture today. I do not believe that we have adequately addressed such difficult issues like homosexuality, abortion, cultural norms such as tattoos, piercing, lust and sexual promiscuity. If we bury our heads in the sand then we will remain without knowledge and people without knowledge cannot find truth. Based on these two principals of basic theology we will seek to understand Christianity today and its modern practicality.

Love...Bible vs Psychology

2006-04-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

A famous psychologist once wrote that The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances. If there is any reaction, both are transformed.
This was written by Carl Jung, one of the most brilliant minds to ever live. As you know, there are many types of love. You love your daughter, you love ice cream, you love your friends. As they all have physiological effects on things like norepinephrine which is secreted by the adrenal medulla and the nerve endings of the sympathetic nervous system to cause vasoconstriction and increases in heart rate and trigger chemical responses in the synaptic gap. There are however unexplained things that love brings.

Love is the bais for all human emotion. Love like death has an impact that can stretch like none other. Its ok to be synical about it but the vital realization is that true love can come in more then 1 form. My diffenition of success is to be the best husband and father that I can be, to be the father that I never had. What this takes is a deeper understanding of human emotion for me. I want to know what its like to be 90 years old, sitting on a swing holding hands with the woman that I made it through life with. Love cannot ever be diffined because its so many things for so many people. For you love might be holding your daughter as you kiss her on the cheek at night, for others love might be going that extra step to please someone.

Love is described diffrently but the effects as with its counterparts can be dramtic. As years progress our diffinition of love grows from out of selfishness into selflessness. We make decisions based no longer inpart on what we want for ourselves but based on what is best for the other people in the relationship. It all leads to agape love, an unconditional surrendering of your will to the will of love.

Love in its purest form has nothing to do with who is right and who is wrong. The best way to describe it is what the bible says:

"Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end."

This is about seeing something from a different perspective. In psychology we learn that we all have schemas in which we view everything. These schemas are responsible for an interconnection of ideas, beliefs and values. Its essentially our filter in which we define a given stimuli. Keep in mind however that perception can lead to deception. Challenge your schemas on love and life keeping in mind that life is not a dress rehersal, this is the only one that we have. I believe that while we are alive we create our own happiness. Its up to us to make everyday count and live like it is on purpose. This is the same philosphy that I encourage in love and that is the premise for this jargan The body reacts to every thought that we have. There is no distinction in love as well.

Just something to think about.

A true engineer...

2006-04-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

There was a news article on yahoo about the total eclipse that happened a couple days ago.

"As the heavens and Earth moved into rare alignment, all that could be seen of the sun were the rays of its corona — the usually invisible extended atmosphere of the sun that glowed a dull yellow for about three minutes, barely illuminating the west African nation."

It's a good read but there was something that caught my attention. During the course of this article a Muslim man is quoted but saying, "I believe it's a wonderful work of God, despite all what the scientists say," said Solomon Pomenya, a 52-year old doctor. "This tells me that God is a true engineer."

It never ceases to amaze me the wisdom that people can say without even knowing it. This doctor, a man who sees the worst and the best in life makes a profound statement. In these 23 words, it somehow captures the essence of God.

An eclipse an event that aligns the heavens and the earth is profound in many physical ways; however this highly educated man who has spent his life studying the way that our human body interacts with each other and our environment finds a deep spiritual understanding by just looking up.

I wonder in our own lives how it would change our perspective, beliefs and feelings toward our self, one another and God if we stop and just look up. It doesn't take an eclipse for us to see that God is a true engineer, the good doctor knows that. I wonder if I asked the doctor to describe the workings of the central nervous system if he would find God there as well. The complexities in life are not as simple as looking up, but it seems that this is a good place to start.

I agree with this Muslim on his characteristic of God. I may not believe the same on other issues of his faith like salvation, Jesus, scripture, but I stand with him in saying, I too believe that not just this eclipse but everyone and everything is a wonderful work of God despite what others will say. This tells me, That GOD is a true engineer.

The Emblem of Suffering...

2006-02-02T12:58:00.000-08:00

William Willamont is preacher on the Duke University campus. One day there was a film being made, a movie called, “A handmaiden’s Tale.” In this movie they had to make the props for a gallows. So there in the middle of the Duke campus sat this huge constructed device meant to torture. The students and faculty were up in arms that this instrument of torture was on their campus, no one wanted to even look at it because it was so real and life like. The student news paper quickly wrote about the outcry and published it so all could read. Then a week later William Willamont wrote back, he said I know you are all upset about this gallows this instrument of suffering in our court yard but did anyone ever bother to look that right behind this gallows is the chapel and right there is a cross?

Sometimes we overlook that the cross was an instrument of torture and suffering. See, we love to hear words like, grace, love, redemption and salvation but if we take the cross for what it’s worth imagine the implications. I often wonder why the first century church decided on a cross as its emblem to raise high. Think about it for a second, why not the dove and its meaning of the Holy Spirit or a fish? Why the cross? The cross is something in which Romans would never speak of! To flog a man was indeed a crime to kill him was a travesty but to crucify him, well that is something that is unspoken of. There are no words for us to use to understand the pain and suffering of that type of death. It was the most vile, unspeakable painful event to exist, used only for the worst of the worst.

I want you to imagine for a minute that as you drive around today imagine you see someone crucified every 100 feet or so. You see there nakedness, you see their bleeding you see them gasping for air, parched dried lips. How would it impact the way you look at the cross? See far to many times we fail to understand that this act of selflessness this act of righteousness doesn’t call forth words of grace and peace but they call forth words like suffering, shame and pain. True, behind this act of obedience is love and salvation but I am thankful that Christ wasn’t crucified in a temple between two candles but on a cross between two thieves.

Brings to my mind one of the greatest reasons why I believe in Christianity. If there was ONE MESSAGE that wouldn’t sell in the first century it would be the cross of Christ. Think about it, to the Jews its not the way it’s going to happen, see they believed that the Messiah would come and free the people and there would be a suffering servant who might even die for the people but they couldn’t understand that they might be the same person. To the Romans this message wouldn’t sell either, Christian’s message to the Romans would be, “Come follow our God he was crucified and died… But he arose.” To the Romans and to all people crucifixion was the most vial ungodly thing there can be, and your god just got it done to him. The fact of the matter is that myths don’t make martyrs. Christ’s greatest passion was compassion, even to the point of the cross.

The message of the cross is about obedience even when it hurts. Suffering is inevitable but Salvation is free. I want you to read this quote because sometimes the ones who suffer the most can explain it the best. “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” The person who wrote that was Hellen Keller.

God Bless you all

Go Fish

2006-01-08T03:44:00.000-08:00

When I was little my mother and I would play the classic game “Go Fish.” For the people that never had the change to play this amazing card game I will explain the premises for you. Basically you ask the other player if they have a certain card that you have. Once you obtain 4 of the same kind of card you place in down as a set. If you ask a player for a card that they don’t have they say the phrase, “Go Fish”. Now if you pick the card that you ask for, you get to go again. In essence if you get what you wanted in a card you get another turn.

Far to many times we use the Go Fish attitude when it comes to our lives. Its funny because far to many times we see this same philosophy in kids when two months after Christmas they are not longer playing with the toys they wanted so bad. In desperate times we will beg God for anything. How many times have we said to God, “please if you do this one thing for me I will do anything.” It’s funny that in desperation we try to bargain with God, however this bargaining with God is not something new, Abraham did it when God was pronouncing judgment on Sodom. Still the point remains, how easy is it to keep going when we get what we wanted.

This Go Fish attitude in life allows us TEMPORARY comfort but what it ends up doing is making us weak when we need strength. There are so many thing that I have want in my life. So many things that I prayed for night after night. I would beg God, please if you do this you will make so happy. I had the Go Fish attitude that if you gave me what I wanted I will keep going but… And that is where we stop. See I believe and am guilty of this same thing, where we say God its not your will but mine and if you grant it I will praise you but if you don’t I will complain. Now lets take a real approach to this and understand that we have all done this. After all desperate times call for desperate measures. Its in these desperate times that we are called to submission but who likes to submit when our will is stronger then our calling. Let’s face it what we want superceeds what God wants at times.

When the game would near the end I would look at the cards that I was delt and tried to make it work so that I would become the winner. Far to many times in Go Fish I never got that cards I wanted but somehow I always came out on top. There were so many times that I would have three 5’s in my hand wanting for there to be one more 5 that I drew and it would give me a queen or a king. Funny thing about cards is the fact that even though you don’t get what you want it still something you can use.

Three years ago if you talked with me and asked me where I would be right now, it would not be where I am at this moment. Still I struggle day after day to understand how to play my next hand with the cards that I am delt. Life is never cured its only managed. There is no pill that you can take that will cure your crappy job, your troubled relationship, your loneliness, your heartache, your family, you. The only thing you can do is manage it. If we play with the hand we have I can promise you that even though you don’t get what you want in that turn, it will end up that you come out on top. The bible says that ALL THINGS work to good for those who love the Lord.

Now its your turn.. GO FISH!

I attribute

2005-12-17T11:19:00.000-08:00

There she sat in the office of some stranger telling the story of how her life the last 5 years has lacked any sort of meaning and depth. She remembered a time that she felt as though lifes simplicities were the air in her lungs. She remembered a time when she felt complete. Now watching the last threads unravel from a life forged on an oath she gave her final plea. “I will never love again men cannot be trusted.”

In life we attribute cause and effect to events so that we can grasp things that normally we cannot deconstruct. A for instance is the story above about the newly divorced woman who attributes her failed marriage to men. That woman in the story was my mother. The major concept here is what do we attribute things to? Its so easy to place blame and believe me we LOVE to place blame. If you don’t believe me, just look at the country after events like Sept 11^th and Hurricane Katrina. We attribute these events into something that we can either hope to prevent or something that is simple so that we can deconstruct it and make sense of it.

See we knew for a long time that we were going to have to get real with God or one day face God for real. We attribute that our lack of getting real with God or just simply believing and never doing anything about it was going to get us a ticket to heaven. I am hear to tell you that just believing in something doesn’t make you get that ticket. I bet if we found out tomorrow we were going to die we would repent. Its funny how we want the prize but don’t want the work that earns the prize. Don’t get me wrong here you cannot earn your way into heaven but you can surely find a deeper meaning, a meaning that you can attribute to EVERY aspect of your life to help you, can keep you calm when your life is spinning out of control and right now. Fact is we need to get real with God or face a REAL GOD.

Many people ask me why I believe this. I always tell them what happens if I am wrong about all of this? I will tell you what happens, if I am wrong nothing happens. In this life I have found a way to help me everyday with all my problems. I have found something that takes the place of drugs, partying and things that will harm me. I have found something that fills me when I am dry and cannot do it alone. I am nothing I need nothing because I have found something. Something that works and guides me when I don’t know where to go.

Truth is if I am wrong, nothing happens except the fact that I have an amazing life and learned how to be truly happy inside and out. What happens though if I am right and you are wrong? I attribute everything to Jesus Christ.

The following is my favorite song ever from a group called AVB (Acappella Vocal Band) Its called I attribute. Please do me and yourself the favor and just take the 1 minute it takes and read these lyrics. This might be another blog entry for me but it could mean that for you its time. Time to get real about God or face a real God.

I attribute
Thoughts of adoration as your past enters my mind thing men didn’t not deserve you did in perfect time. Think of the sweetness of your love like no one has yet to taste. Tears stream down line as I try to seek your face.

In this world there is only one freedom in this world there is only one life in my heart there is only one hero I attribute everything to Jesus Christ.

Come to me make your self known securing my heart at your throne. I know you planned for this day before you laid the first stone. What can I do to be worthy? Just admit I ‘ll never be. Let your blood wash until my blind eyes to know that.

In this world there is only one freedom in this world there is only one life in my heart there is only one hero I attribute everything to Jesus Christ.

Since I know that you are freedom I make myself a slave to you. Because I know that you are life to myself I will die for your gift you became my hero to be like teach to give like you must see me as worth it Lord but I will always wonder why.

What is life not lived for you? But a vain friendship with emptiness. This path the day we choose is proving to be best. I give anything to be like you and finding what that takes. Rising above to live on wings of hope and faith.

In this world there is only one freedom in this world there is only one life in my heart there is only one hero I attribute everything to Jesus Christ.

The Dreaded day!!

2005-11-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

The dreaded 10th of November is here. This day has haunted me for years, 11/10/05... Holy freaking crap...

So much time has passed, so many memories made, so much life forged and now I stare at it from a different perspective. A perspective that makes me thankful that I learned what I did and never took it for granted. A perspective that makes me thankful that I got a chance to change the life on such an amazing person. The following is my Final Reflections on this major event in my life.

" Once in a lifetime you will figure out that your greatest rewards will only come by your greatest sacrifices. I never knew until this point that my sacrifice was not her, it is myself. A relationship is never 50 , 50 its always 100 , 100. If you go half way and expect your other to go the other half then you are setting yourself up for failure. Love is about letting go of yourself even when it has the possibility to cost you everything. I tell my friends who come to me all the time for advice in love that if you bring a broken person in the relationship, you get a broken relationship. God really had his message right when he said that the greatest is love about sacrifice. Even at times when it means that you have to sacrifice the concept of being in love and having a relationship at that moment so that later on in life a new and better one might be forged. I am not sure if she will ever understand that. I am not sure that she will ever know what its like to give up something you love so much so that later it may come back to you new and alive. To me this is the same principal that Jesus preached, give up everything you have now so that you may inherit it all later. This is my lightbulb moment, where the last 3 years of my life have made sense. I learned so many lessions through this and become that much stronger. I learned that when you are desperate for something you will beg God for anything, but all to many times our ways are not his ways. As cliche as it sounds its true.

Think about something for a minute. We can cut and apple and count the seeds in the apple, but only God and count the number of apples in a seed. We think we know what is right for us at anygiven time but only God truly knows. I thought my life was set for me three years ago, I thought I was with the most perfect person ever and I was headed to where I was supposed to go, but I was counting the seeds that I saw and while I was doing this God was there knowing that as many seeds as I could count at that time, he was counting the number of apples in one seed. My perspective was wrong and to tell me then would be useless because I believed what I could see and at that time I saw my life in my eyes. I said not to long ago in a post that Absence makes the heart grow founder. Well the absence can do 1 of 2 things, it can either make the heart grow founder or rip apart love at the seems. If it rips it apart then you have to question its strenght.

I have taken my lessions from this chapter in my life and have moved on. Today I stand firm on the fact that I may think I know what is right for me at the moment but there is a force that is seeing something in a totally different light. I can count the seeds I see but only God can count the things I cannot see.

2005-10-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

Its amazing what you can experience in a short time. When you fall in love with someone its such a paradox. The most beautiful person I ever met once said something to me. She said " Absence makes the heart grow fonder." It amazes me that something so long ago still affects the person that I am today. How does one ever really get over things in your life that have such a major impact for good. Sure this is a total mushy bitchy post but all the people who never experience it cannot understand it. One thing I believe about like is that life is managed not cured. I don't think I can cure me feeling this way but I do think I can manage it.

On another note, I am happy with where I am. I will be happy with who I will become and no matter what no one can take that away from me. I often wonder when I see what people do and how they deal with things, drugs drinking and all that if that was gone what would they replace it with? Are we that afraid to deal with our emotions that we have to cover them up with other stuff? Each day if you had to look into the mirror what would you see? A person who can hold their head high and say I am proud and successful? Or how do we define success?

Me, I define success as this; being the best husband, father and provider that I can be. I want so bad to be a husbad who is caring, loving and supportive. I want to be the father that I never had. One who is involved in their childs life. I want to provide the lifestyle for my family that I never had, not living check to check but memory to memory. If I can do this then I will feel pride and content. My greatest fear is life is failure. I don't want to be a failure and I am afraid that what I fear I create. I am not content with mediocrity, I want to be the person who my wife calls her best friend. I want to be the father my son looks up to.

What does it take to accomplish this?

A crime against self

2005-10-02T15:25:00.000-07:00

Over the chores of your life your encounter so many things that influence the way you shape your life. Friend plays an impact and weather the experiences are positive or negative it changes who you are. In the negative experiences it can shape the person that you are or it can distort your inner most self. When I look at my life I like to pretend that the most painful impacts came from people I don’t like, but it seems that the latter is true. It seems that the most painful experiences are the ones that come from someone you respect and admire.

We all like to believe that we don’t care what people think but if that was true we wouldn’t do a lot of the actions we do today, dress a specific way, listen to a lot of music we do. We do this to fit into something that we can then be accepted by. It is much worse when we see that the only thing that is worse then this is when we are hurt by the people we admire and love. When you put work into things like relationship and friendships you become part of the solution or part of the problem. Think about all the negative comments that people have said about you in the past? We either choose to accept them as truth or we have an option to deny them as unsubstantiated garbage. People have to draw conclusions because the fact of the matter is that it takes a thousand good deeds to erase one bad. No one pays attention to the hard work and discipline that it takes to do good things but when we hear that so and so has been doing something wrong we immediately accept this as truth.

Fact of the matter is that instead of airing on the side of caution we make the choice to accept these negative aspects of a person rather then excepting that it might have been misconstrued. I believe one of the most poisonous things a person can do is speak lies about another behind their backs. Why? Simply because you NEVER fix a relationship my turning to another person. Relationships, whether they be friendships or more intimate relationships are never fixed by explaining the problem to another person, sure they can give advise but that person you turn to hears the negative about the individual and never sees the experience of when the two people work it out. That person you turn to stays with the negative impression and thus a negative outcome is achieved.

Their comes a time in life when you have to make the choice to take back your power that people rob of you. Weather it is from comments about who they think you are or actions you may have done in the past only you know who you are and no one should take that away. The fact of the matter is that people can bring you down but they cannot destroy you, not unless you give them that power. It’s so easy to jump to a conclusion in life and boy do people love to spread lies about it but how much greater is the reward when in the face of this you stay calm. In the face of the greatest storms of you life you can find peace if you reclaim your power and let these people talk.

When I write things my whole goal is never to convince a person that what I am saying is correct, I simply want people to think. I want people to challenge their own conclusions on what is right and what is wrong and then go from there. How easy is it to cast judgment without even going to the person and asking them what happened. I want in my heart to believe that I am a person who will do this but I confess it’s a real challenge to. If this were my last day on earth and in my final hours of life when all is said and done I believe two truths about myself. I stood my ground for what I believed in; God, love and forgiveness and my heart was in the right place. If I fail at everything I attempt in life the one truth that my friends have said about me is that my heart is in the right place. Reclaim your power, its time to stop letting what others think influence who you are today for the greatest sin against yourself is letting others think for you.

Just something to think about.

Feelings.. >:)

2005-09-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

Ever get to the point where you regret a lot you did in the past? It sucks how you can love and hate someone at the same time.. (( Jenn if you read this its not you LOL)) I hate this feeling but this sums it up!!

To know you is to hate you
So loving you must be like suicide
I don't mind if you don't mind
I'm not the one that's going to die
I guess I just can't listen
To this one sided conversation again
'cause I don't care if I don't care
No one ever said that life is fair

Everybody loves a joke
But no one likes a fool
And you're always cracking the same old lines again
You're well rehearsed on every verse
And that was stated clear
But no one understands your verity

The center of attention
Got an honorable mention once again
Congratulations and salutations
You're a figment of your own imagination

Everybody loves a joke
But no one likes a fool
And you're always cracking the same old lines again
You're well rehearsed on every verse
And that was stated clear
But no one understands your verity

To know you is to bait you
And you fell victim to your own denial
I don't mind if you don't mind
If you're wasting all your time

I think music is just about one of the best things ever. It can put us in the best mood or piss us RIGHT OFF! Just venting right now thanks for listening everyone!

Hard work

2005-09-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

Today while doing some stuff around the house I was pondering this. I often wonder if this is the reason that relationships, marriages, friendships and more never work because people do not want to invest the time into making them work. Still I have an issue with worth and work. I am the type of person that if I value something I will invest my time and energy into it and really try; however the flip side is if I really don’t care about it then I will not try hard at all. This is a very selfish quality that I cannot stand about myself and thus am trying to change. Still I wonder what it would be like if people really said what they ment. For instance have you ever had a friend that you haven’t seen in a long time and they said hey we should hang sometime, yet you know it’s a blow off statement. I know I have done that on many occasions.

I wonder if we decided to not lie about things and really open ourselves up what the difference would be with our friends and relationships. Maybe next time someone is making you mad not hold it in and say listen what you are saying is making me mad or irritating me. We live in a culture that has shunned the feelings of our lives and taught us to harbor them so that we will be accepted. Your feelings are important just like mine but far too much time we shelter then in hopes of acceptance. It’s the same with conflict in our lives, far too many times we run from it instead of embracing it.

Embracing conflict? Yes that is right; see conflict promotes a growth in a person’s life. Conflict is evitable however disunity becomes unacceptable. We fight and quarrel all the time and it’s not the act of fighting that is wrong it’s when we harbor the ill feelings to the other person without resolving the situation. This is a hard thing to do all the time because emotions can get the best of us and really upset us in the events that unfold, however if we lets these emotions get the best of us without resolving it, it will lead to disunity.

This is hard work huh! However if we did this in our relationships weather it be marriage, family or other then I am sure we would see much different results. The fact of the matter is that you cannot weight one life to another and the person that you are quarreling with is made in the direct image of God. He or she is a child of God thus we respect and give that person that same sort of respect that we would treat God with. This cuts to the core of our lives and to the core of who we are as people. At the end of the day we must realize that life is a gift. We can look an infant and see the hard work that it takes to raise that child or we can see the image of God and that the child is beautiful. ANYTHING worth doing takes hard work.

Back to posting

2005-09-15T10:06:00.000-07:00

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.

I have fond memories of my first time on a roller coaster. I remember being 8 years old looking at the big rollercoaster’s at Canobie Lake Park saying someday I will get on that thing and I will have a blast. I saw the faces of people that got off the ride, some where scared some were so happy. I wondered what my first experience would be like.

The day came when I was 11 on a class trip to Canobie Lake Park. I knew that this would be the moment that I have waited for when I can finally get on that coaster and experience it. I was so afraid though, I didn’t really know what to expect. Many people have a fear of coasters and they were adults who were much more experienced then I was. Still I climbed into the seat riddled with fear. The person next to me saw how afraid I was and began to talk to me. He said “don’t worry man you will have a blast!” Still it was my first time on a really big ride like this and I had no idea what to expect. I was about to leave before the ride got underway but he convinced me to say.

The coaster started up the long trek to the top of the hill. With every noise and sound it make I became more startled. Still the person next to me kept encouraging me to keep going and I can do it! At this point it didn’t matter if I could or couldn’t, I was in for the ride. The top of the hill came and the adrenaline came with it! What seemed to take an eternity to get to lasted 3.5 minutes and it was over and so was my fear. That fear gave way to excitement and fun as the coaster went back to its destination.

Fear causes so many things in ourselves and as I said before it’s a force that can drive us in many different turns and directions. It’s interesting to know that perfect love drives out fear. What does that mean though? I am sure many of you reading this do not believe in perfect love. Lets replace the word perfect with pure and say it again. Pure love drives out fear. This statement is something that many cannot understand because we live in a world that hates purity. Purity is something that is not easy to obtain and as a culture we are used to fast results or we quickly lose interest. This is a major reason why divorce rates are so high these days. If we cannot fix it we will try for a bit then we will give up.

We like to assume the position of control in our lives when the fact of the matter is that we lack more control then we like to think. I couldn’t control that coaster no matter how hard I tried but I found out that the ride was a lot more fun then I expected, despite my fears. If pure love drives out fears then how do we obtain that pure love? This is not just one type of love that I am talking about; it’s applicable to all kinds, relationships, friendships and more. Motives must be pure, far too many times in relationships it’s about what I want and not about what is best for the other person. We take times that we have been hurt and build our lives upon that fact. Thus restrictions are placed on a person because we fear what may happen. Pure love casts out fear, because fear deals with punishment. That is the crux of the matter, when we learn that fear is a form of control we use to see what we really feel then we know that love in its PURE and perfect form will cast it away.

We may search our lives for this one aspect that has alluded so many, yet its concept is not foreign to us. What hinders us is the fear to ever step aboard. We can choose to never get on the ride or we can choose to find the pure love that casts out that fear. The person who encouraged me that day understood that even without knowing me. He knew that pure and perfect love will take care of all fear. What do you fear in your life today?

God bless you all he sure has for me

2005-07-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

First off I know its been FOREVER since I have written. For the 2 people that read this you already know that I moved to Merrimack and now work like 3413431443 hours. I will post more by the end of this week. Thanks for understanding you 2 lol

God's Plan? Love?

2005-05-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

I have really good days when i just allow God to be in control of my future, and really bad days when I take control and realize how much I am messing it up. I cannot shake the past of what might have been in many aspects of my life. At 24 my best days are in front of me yet I still do not have the knowledge to reach into the past and prevent it from dictating my future. Past relationships still haunt the person that I am now and the grip is far to much to bear. People ask me what my ideal woman might be. Its a hard question, if someone asked you what is your ideal woman or man how do you answer that? Best answer I have is, someone capable of making me feel secure. One who brings out the very best in me and enhances my relationship with God and loves all of my flaws, and my ramblings, and my absolutely annoying tendencies. I want to work at marriage because its not all the good times that I personally look forward to, its the hard times when you are both working together as a team to learn to love each other dispite the little flaws that we all have. Love is about patience, kindness and it is the most selfless thing in the world. Its about pleasing the other person before you even think about your needs.
Once and only once in my life I held a person who emboidied this. If I ever find it again only time will tell, till then I sit and wonder what is God's plan?

Unattended Baggage

2005-05-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

Yes,

I know for the 2 of you that read this it has been awhile and for that I am sorry. I had a friend up from Sweeden (Clause) and I have been busy with work and hanging with him. Life really catches up with you when you choose not to deal with it for sometime. When I picked up Clause from the airport it was one of the longest days ever. They almost didn't let him into the country because he didn't know the exact address he was staying at. We got a phone call from customs asking us a million questions. When Clause was FINALLY able to enter the country it was 2 hours after his plane arived.

The irony about airports is that the people who are leaving on different flights are all in a hurry most of the time. The work related fliers are easy to spot because they are the ones who look so normal in their passings and are always on their cells. The others maybe vacationers who are escaping their lives for a couple of weeks in a warm tropical paradise. I suppose the ultimate slap of irony is there is something that both cannot escape. Baggage. Now I personally try to pack light, but I cannot seem to do it. I see other people with one bag then others will 3 and 4. The fact of the matter is everyone no matter who has baggage.

This is the same aspect that transpires in the real world. We might not know our ultimate destination but we have to realize that we all pack for every occasion. Whether its going to the store or talking to a friend one fact remains, there is NO reality ONLY perception. Repeat that last phrase "there is no reality, only perception." What you perceve to be true is what is true in your mind. If you believe you cannot accomplish your goals, then the simple fact is you are right. If you believe you are a loser and no one likes you then that same concept transfers over to everything you do. The key to getting through to people is to look at their baggage. You have to identify what filters you and others are looking through.

Now you may ask yourself why in the world am I talking about this? Simply because I see so many times that people communicate so dramatically different that perception becomes so skewwed and all communication breaks down. Think about the concept of an argument, two different views clashing in a heated exchange of communication. Now what is not told there is that each party involed has a set of filters which they view the world, themselves and others with. If I because passionate about moral and ethical concepts that passion has a source. We far to many times want our views to be the views of others and the fact of the matter is, is that this simply cannot be. You need to get real about the filters you use in a given situation. Just as the people in the airport we too have baggage, baggage that carries with us from place to place and event to event. Don't you think its about time to drop that baggage off and view the world without burden?

I do..

Or maybe its just something to think about..

God Bless you all he sure has for me

Is there a point?

2005-05-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

I know, I know its been a bit since I have updated. I have been super busy with transfering to Rivier, which is the new college that I will be attending. If you have never transfered out of a school before you cannot understand that amount of work that it takes. This is not a complaint by any means! This is just saying that it is more work to transfer then it is to apply to a school. Still, I cannot be happier about the opportunities that await me at Rivier.

To be honest when I thought about writting in this journal today I kind of didn't want to. I started feelinging kind of pointless. Let me explain, I know that there is about 2 people that read this, Charlene and Mike, and they are to GREAT people! However I figured if people are not reading who am I really writting to? I started to think that this might be a waste of time and that there are other more productive things that I could be doing instead of wasting my time with something that no one will see.

I think we have all had that feeling about something in life one time or another. A friend of mine over the chourse of the last week wrote to me about King David, his trials and his struggles with everyone he loved turning his back on him. David's life was entwined with success and sin. Still God found him as a man after his own heart. I thought about Mephebosheth, whose name means dispised thing, and how he was an heir to the throne that David sat upon and how Mephebosheth thought David was going to kill him yet David wanted him to live a life that was worthy of his place.

It became clear to me that people like Mephebosheth and David had feelings of inadaquacy at times however they knew that there is something that presses them on. I thought about this in context of this journal and the two people who do get something out of my writting and I realized how selfish it would be to stop it. If I can make a difference in one aspect of their day or bring them a quarter centermeter closer to God as a result, then a thousand pages a day would be worth it. To many times in life we have so many negitive reflections. The positive things never penetrate into the lackluster core of our self image. My simple and humble prayer is that I can be used to make some difference in the life's of the people that I come into contact with.

God Bless you all he sure has for me

The Mighty Sheep

2005-04-19T14:24:00.000-07:00

It was once said that a thousand sheep lead by a lion would defeat a thousand lions lead by a sheep. The Psalms are riddled with analogies of God's people being lead in life by a shepard. But why, of all animals, the allusion to sheep? In truth, the sheep is a strange and funny animal. If there is any way in which it can land itself in trouble, you can rest assured that it will find it! And this is something that the shepherd has to reckon with all the time. A shepard made a statement about his life and tending to the sheep. He said that there many things that sheep get in trouble with. They get tangled up, sometimes sheep get themselves tangled up in brambles because they aren’t looking where they are going. Their fleece is thick and the more they try to free themselves the more stuck they become. The shepherd has to come and cut the sheep free.
They fall over, sometimes sheep fall over and can’t get up by themselves. The shepherd has to come and help them up. The constantly get lost. Sheep don’t always pay attention to where they are going. Sometimes they are so concerned about what they are eating that they tend to wander off and get lost and the shepherd has to go out and look for them.

Its funny that Jesus compares us to sheep, because of the similarity that happens in our lives. How many times do we get tangled with event in the world and never give God the time that he deserves? How many times do we try so hard and life and fall? How many times do we get lost along the trail not staying close to the shepard, Jesus? See we have to understand that the good shepard gives his life for his sheep. He knows that they will wander off, fall down and get tangled but all the while he still has his eye on them. He lets the sheep graze and do as they will however when they fall or get stuck he is right there all the while. Amazing what a worthless creature like a sheep can teach us about the creator of life.

As you go along today, if you are lost, fallen or tangled know that there is a shepard who is out there willing to give his life for you if you let him.

God Bless you all he sure has for me.

Drama: Life in the Real World

2005-04-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

It amazes me that life is full of these dramatic moments that seem so utterly obsurde. Some people crave this type of lifestyle, I personally HATE IT. Even worse is priorities in your dramtic situation. Its so easy to lose sight of your goals and values when you encounter situations that may be out of your hands. It seems that people and society demand perfection and if it is not accomplished then you because a failure. I remeber that carefree days of my youth when drama never exsisted. Drama to a child is not getting a bike for christmas. If only our lives were that simple. If only we would get worked up because we didn't make that green light instead of having to deal with a divorce or a loved one passing away.

As pressing and trying as these situations can be, time plays the ultimate factor. Time has the ability to heal but our patience wants a quick remedy which may not be the healthly one. Time does heal all wounds, however some cuts can become infected and must be treated. You can watch a mother who lost a son pour her heart out and her conflict with coming to decisions yet never drink from the pain that she feels. We all know what it is like in our little worlds with relationships and friendships to experience hurt from a partner. This drama causes us to do things that we know might not be the best fix, but its a quick fix. As bad as our lives can be there is always someone who has it worse. I have seen this so much in the last 5 days that it astounds me!

The one thing that I cannot seem to prevail in though is setting my priorities right in the face of adversity. When life starts to rain I lose sight of the goals that I set and I try to deal with the problems that I have right in the moment. It bothers me to no end that I bottle this inside of me and cannot seem to keep my eye on the goal. This cuts at the heart of who I am, I know what I should do, I go after it and its raining so hard I lose focous. I don't believe that life should be without struggle because I think we learn through the adversity, however its hard to take out eyes off of the pounded storm to see that it will not last forever.

Just something to think about

The hand-off

2005-04-13T09:21:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago I went to play some football at the park with some friends. There was this kid that we were playing with that was super quick I mean he would run circles around most of the other players. I was blocking for the quaterback and this kid would juke and spin off tackelers and everything in perfect order. We can to 3rd down and I said let just run a pump fake hand off. That is where the quaterback is faking the pass and hands off the ball to his halfback for the run. We choice that play to go with. The kid got the ball and took off like a lightening bolt, ran all the way to the endzone for the touchdown. It seemed to me that everytime this kid had the ball in his hands we were scoring.

After football I began to think about the major sports and people who have made millions of dollars on account of them. For instance, A basketball in my hands is worth about $19 A basketball in Michael Jordan's hands is worth about $33 million It depends whose hands it's in. A baseball in my hands is worth about $6 A baseball in Mark McGuire's hands is worth $19 million It depends whose hands it's in. A tennis racket is useless in my hands A tennis racket in Pete Sampras' hands is a Wimbledon Championship It depends whose hands it's in. I pondered this concept for sometime on the drive home and them while having dinner. It struck me as irony that it really does depend whose hands its in. As I sat down to read and e-mail the phone rang, turns out my cousin passed away at the age of 41 from lymphoma. It was shocking because he passed away so quickly. As long as I can remember my aunt has been one of the strongest people I have ever known. This is a lady who survived 2 alcholic husbands, a mother who passed away and now her son dying at 41. My heart really went out for her knowing that in life the hardest thing we may have to encounter is the passing of a child. I heard her struggle, her pain and her hurt wrapped in her sentences as she explained to my mother what the arragements will be for his memorial service.

After talking with my mother and having time to reflect the football game seemed so trivial compaired to what has gone on. My mother came in and said, "well he is in God's hands now." Then it clicked for me. She was right, it does depend whose hands its in. Just like that kid who would score when the ball was in his hands it depended whose hands it was in. I couldn't score everytime, if I had a sling shot in my hands is a kid's toy, a sling shot in David's hand is a mighty weapon. If I had a rod in my hands will keep away a wild animal, a rod in Moses' hands will part the mighty sea It depends whose hands it's in. It depends whose hands it's in. Nails in my hands might produce a birdhouse Nails in Jesus Christ's hands will produce salvation for the entire world. It depends whose hands it's in. See, it depends whose hands it's in. So put your concerns, your worries, your fears, your hopes, your dreams, your families and your relationships in God's hands because It depends whose hands it's in.

God Bless you all he sure has for me

Make me a Storm

2005-04-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

When I was little I remeber some BIG thunderstorms. Storms that seemed to last all night would howel at my window beating rain like a drum upon the glass as I slept. The sound was awe inspireing as the dark room would glow with the light as it flashed upon the midnight sky. In my younger years I was really afriad of thunderstorms. I think it was more of the sound of the thunder shaking the pictures on my wall more then the lightening. We can look at the power of nature in awe so many times as houses can be picked up and places miles down the road from a single storm.

Knowing the force of a violent storm I think back to a time when the diciples were in a major storm.

Mark 4:36-41 They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, "Teacher, is it nothing to you that we're going down?" Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, "Quiet! Settle down!" The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: "Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith at all?" They were in absolute awe, staggered. "Who is this, anyway?" they asked. "Wind and sea at his beck and call!

We can read the 5 verses like nothing ever happened but I can imagine that these diciples who were fishermen have seen some mighty storms in their day right? They made their living on the sea and I am sure experienced some major storms, however this storm was so violent that they thought they were going to die. There is so many great lessions in these 5 verses that it astounds me!

The title of this is "Make me a storm" I personally want to be that storm that Jesus calms. Lets look at these lessions. The wind and waves obey his voice I wanna be like that. They listened before each choice. The raging sea never thought twice, it followed without a fight. This story has so many good points to it like the lack of faith in his people, the faith of the Lord that nothing will hurt them but for me I love the aspect that the sea listened and obeyed. How many times do we see the raging sea and think we will be going under when all we have to do is submit and listen.

I challenge you for this week to pray in all honesty;
Father hear this humble plea help us to be like the ocean that is under your command. Help us be still and listen for you will, Lord make us a storm.

Faith Verse Fact: Humanity's Struggle

2005-03-28T13:25:00.000-08:00

“Faith that does not doubt is a dead Faith.”

This was written by a man named, Miguel de Unamuno. Miguel was a Spanish author and philosopher whose views on faith, life and God became contrary to many ideologies the Catholic Church embodied. Miguel's writings raised many questions for a personal faith with statements that seemed to imply, “Let’s question our faith; do we really believe? Or are we just accepting what it has been taught to us? It is the constant battle within oneself that the religious people of Spain face. It is the constant debate within oneself: Should we take existence as matter of God’s work? Or as a matter of men’s invention?”

Do we really believe? Or are we just accepting what it has been taught to us?

Personally I love this question. This strikes at the core to so many people because of the emotional responses that it raises. It’s far too easy in life to believe in things because we saw it on TV or we read about it or a friend or family member raised us to believe it. We accept things because we don’t know any better. The fact of the matter is that this is the same concept that destroys what we work hard for. I believe that a firm faith has to have structure. What does that mean? That to truly believe in something you have to investigate. I can tell you that the Spanish Inquisition started in 1470 and you might believe it. However I would be wrong because it started in 1478. We accept facts and beliefs from others because we don’t want the work to figure out if they are wrong or right.

This is the same danger that ministers possess in their churches. So many times we take what they say in blind faith and never look it up. We accept what is being taught and never truly believe. True belief must have structure that structure must consist of a fundamental understanding of the subject. Faith is the fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. Everyone on the planet today has faith in something. We have faith in love, in our abilities, in our safety as we walk across the street. Faith has one aspect though; we cannot see the end result. In faith we HAVE TO experience uncertainty or it would no longer be faith but fact. Many people believe that having faith in God means never doubting, however nothing could be farther from the truth. Having faith in God means learning in the face of doubting.

Faith is a powerful force in our lives and if we let it, faith can be a powerful force for good in all of us. Today you are given a choice, will you take a step in faith not being sure of anything but willing to learn. Or will you close your mind and your heart to what could exist. For years we thought that we were the only planet to exist until someone had faith that there is more to this vast and beautiful universe. Will you explore in faith or will you continue to believe we are all that exists.

The choice is yours.
God Bless you all he sure has for me

Easter Unwrapped

2005-03-25T09:32:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite times of the year is Christmas. I remember Christmas’s long ago when I was younger, all the presents that would be under that tree. It seemed so long ago that we thought Santa was coming with all his gifts for us if we were good through out the year. My mother was never really big into the Santa concept however my aunts and extended family was! Every year we would go out to their house in Hopkinton NH and Santa would magically bring presents to me.

As the years past and Santa became a concept that was obsolete however the magic of Christmas still remained. Who doesn’t like to get gifts? As I became older I realized that some of the best gifts are not packaged in wrapping paper or given on a special day of the year.

Sunday is Easter, a time when we reflect on a gift that was given without wrapping paper and without disguise. So many people these days wear crosses on their necks in remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice. It pains me to see that reminder of Christ on the cross because I hate to see the death. See we remember the death Christ had but there is NO POWER IN DEATH! If Christ died on that cross and that was the end of the story we would be hopeless and doomed.

However the story does not end there. The gospel of Christ is his DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESSURECTION! To many times we see Christ dead but fail to see that he is not on that cross. The gift Christ gave us on that mourning has the stone rolled away is a gift without wrapping paper yet it was the greatest gift we can know. This is not a gift that will become obsolete in a couple of year or a gift we can outgrow. This is a gift that will impact our existence forever. For the message of Christ is not in his blood he shed. The message of Christ is empty grave he left. The message of Christ is in his people who bear his name, Christians. The message of Christ is in the single mother who gets up to feed her kids and bring them to church knowing that there is not much gas in the car. The message of Christ is on the face of the children who sing praises to the Lord like their parents do. The message of Christ is in YOU.

God made him who had NO sin, why? So that we might become HIS righteousness. This gift we were given was not because of a selfish purpose, this gift was selfless and blameless. Praise God that he is not on the cross for death we learned on that Sunday mourning was not the final path. Through his sacrifice we too might rise again.

God Bless you all he sure has for me.

Watered Down Messages

2005-03-23T10:03:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid growing up I loved colored sidewalk chalk. Ok, I know its childish and all but I loved that I could draw all over the place and on the streets and sidewalks and leave my own images that I wanted people to see. I would spend a great deal of time doing this, then at the end of the day my mother would come by and take all the time that I spend drawing and wash it away with the hose! Hours and hours I would spend and with in 30 seconds it was gone. Looking back on it today I wonder if it would have been more productive just drawing on paper, at least then I could have kept it.

The thing about colored chalk is when you would hose it away you could see the streaks of the colors blend and melt down the street and wind up in some sewer drain down the road. I would write my name or some message that I enjoyed and when that hose hit the words it was gone! Why is it in life the same sort of thing happens far to often?

How many times have you sought to tell someone something and they still cannot understand what you are trying to say? Or even worse how many times do you go to tell someone something and because of fear of hurting their feelings or getting someone angry do you water down the message? We walk away from these things not getting our true feelings out and the person will not know the way you feel. This transends the obvious and goes into the aspect of how we live each day.

We are expereince frustration in the aspects of our lives, in work, school and people however we tend to put a smile on and water down the fact that we hurt. I believe that pain is the quintessental aspect that identifies our vulnerablity. To know pain and suffering is to know victory. Ok, now you are asking yourself how does pain and suffering quarilate to victory? In baseball the Yankees have dominated for the last decade almost! NY'ers love to win just like the rest of us, so this year when BOSTON won the World Series NY was pissed! You get to the point in life where you expect a victory if that is all you get! If all we did was accomplish everything we do and come out perfect and nothing bad ever happend we wouldn't know how to handle failures and we would never be thankful for the things in life we have.

I am guilty of this same thing, as I am typing this I am not thinking how lucky I am that I can have fingers to type with and the words to explain the emotions that I feel and the ability to get up and go make a sandwich if I am hungry. Yet all these things are a GOD given gift. To many times "RELIGION" teaches us what man's inturptation of God is and not the other way around. To many times "religion" will water down the message of what is REAL and what they think God is saying to them. Life is a presious gift from the creator and to acknowledge that gift is the first step in a series of steps in which you become clensed.

Each day we wake up we must ask ourselves, what message are we watering down to protect ourselves, our friends or our lives? Will you watch your works flow down the sewers because when lifes pressures hit you you melt? I want to stand firm on what my message is and I want the world to see what I have to say.

God Bless you all, he sure has for me.