Toenails of Love (dated 1-27-2011 from SA)

Today while riding in the Hasselbring’s Speed the Light vehicle, (Thank you Assembly of God Youth in Alabama. You’re awesome!) the news came on the morning radio show. One of the headlines was that a man proposed to his girlfriend through text message…. He sent the message to the wrong number. Didn’t hear the Paul Harvey rest of the story, but I did read this tonight.

1 Corinthians 16:14 says, ‘Do everything in love.’ My first question is, how? My second question is, why? How could you send a proposal text to the wrong number, and why in the world would you do that via text message, but back to Corinthians. How is it possible to do everything in love? I can see doing some things in love, but everything we ever do; we are to do in love? Go to church because you love God. Got it. Go visit with grandma because you love grandma. Yep. Take your dog to the vet because you love your dog. He/She is family. Sure enough. Clip your toenails because you love to wear flip flops…? 

Which leads to my next question, Why? Why in the world would I clip my toenails in love? Personally I know my why (I prefer to be clean, and long toenails look nasty), but for your average joe with above average length toenails, why clip toenails in love? Truthfully, I have no clue why we are to do everything in love. If I had to guess, seeing as we are creatures of habit, and God has promised us if we are faithful with the small things then we will be blessed, I would say it’s just habit building. If we take everyday normal things, like greeting a stranger or even a  “friend” (you all know that person) early in the morning before that second cup of coffee, and do them in love, then those moments, those times that God has ordained for us to be with somebody who needs the very love of God, and we, yes you or me, are  the only one around, in those moments, we will know how to love because love is the story of our lives. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son. He did everything in love so why should we be any different.

Moral: Live a real life love story, and cut your nasty toenails! You so nasty…!

Sunday Fishing

I started off my day by waking up late for church, followed by a drive to the gas station for fuel and  a bacon and egg sandwich. I arrive at the IAG Church in Matsulu at 11:22, service starts there at 10:30. Not the way a missionary wants to start his first Sunday back in South Africa…

                I went fishing after lunch. No, not fishing for men, but actual bass and tilapia fishing. It also marked the first time I’ve ever been fishing with my little brother DJ (no worries my tilapia was bigger than his).  We only caught 1 fish each (total of 2 for you mathematically challenged folks), and with it being such a slow day, with all the ants and mosquitoes that God ever let come into existence biting, and only the same amount of fish that made it on the ark…(I do not know if fish were on the ark but I will ask Noah one day... or one of his sons... focus...), as I watched my cork drifting over a ripple made by a fish that was either smarter than me, or just not hungry, a thought came…

                How many of us, whom God called to be fishers of men, actually fish? So many more of us went through the excitement of Salvation, we grabbed our rod and reels, and casted away, but the first fish never bit. So we are waiting, our hook is still in the water, but instead of fishing, we are just cork watching whenever we are not swatting at the “mosquitoes and ants” of life. A lot of us will continue to cork watch until we get tired and “go home”, and most of us will never realize that we never baited the hook. I’m not saying it’s impossible to catch a fish with no bait, I’ve done it, but I am saying that it is much easier with a baited hook. I’m not saying Jesus is bait or that you want to hook anybody into anything. Jesus is no bait, but He is the only way to heaven. You know this, so no more excuses. You do have something to offer the fishes that have swam by your empty hook. He’s better than the greatest and latest jig, old school worms or crickets, and can do more good to them than Catfish Charley (stink bait) can do bad for your hands. Tell them your story, tell them His, so He can finish theirs, and you can have a partner to later go fishing with!

Moral of the story: Be on time for church… and go fishing!

Butt end of a joke...

I recently read a joke, and it read like this:
        When a traffic cop pulled over Pastor Johnson for speeding, the minister reminded the officer, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy." The cop handed the minister the ticket and quoted, "Go thou and sin no more."

As funny as that initially was, it struck a strong and disturbing reality inside of me. A thought came to my mind. What does it mean to be merciful? So I pulled out the Bible and dictionary to compare the two. The dictionary says merciful is exactly what I thought (kudos to my vocabulary teachers), full of mercy. The commentary in my bible says that the 'merciful' are full of compassion and pity toward those who are suffering either from sin or sorrow. The merciful sincerely want to make such suffering less by bringing those people to the grace and help of God through Jesus Christ.

I can't count the number of times that I was driving my granted 7 mph over the speed limit, and some "law fearing" person flies by me like I'm sitting on the side of the road with a flat tire. And in those times I hoped that a cop or two were sitting up the road just waiting on my 2 fast 2 furious want-to-be friend. Or when I only have one item to buy at Wal-Mart, and they have two cashiers on duty, one of which is the express lane, and the lady who just bought groceries for a family of what looks like 80, so graciously cuts me off and checks out in the express, 10 items or less please, lane. How full of mercy am I in those moments? How compassionate towards others am I in those moments? Who knows how many jobs the could be single mother, trying to feed her family of what looks like 80, be working? What if the "law fearing citizen" is racing to get to his elderly grandmother's house because she just fell, and somehow reached the phone to call him? How much more would a speeding ticket if not reckless driving ticket, set him back? In these times of no mercy moments in my life, is there any mercy for me?    

Moral of the story: Never read a joke without wearing some kind of close toed shoe because it hurts a lot less to have your toes stepped on.

Physically/Spiritually Fit

I just got back from the gym, and yes it is 4 AM. Funny, but not many people are at the gym from 3-4 in the morning. Just me this morning, but another guy came in as I was leaving... anyway back to the matter at hand...

It's been a few months since I've made a trip to work out, (And my body will not let me forget it for a few days... great!). Since graduating from high school, I have not worked out like I should have. Oh I meant to, but just never got around to it, or had other things keeping me busy. On my way home I was thinking how many Christians are out doing the same thing spiritually as I am doing physically. As Christians day in and day out we should be walking by faith, running the race, and fighting the good fight, but so many of us have become lazy. At one point we did actively run after God, and work to become as close to Him as we could, but then we hit a wall, lost motivation, reached our "high school graduation", and our desire to continue on in the pursuit, our drive to be all that we should be, just fizzled away. Sure we go to the gym (Church) every once in a while, or every Sunday, or every Sunday and Wednesday, but when we get there, how much working out do we do? How much running after God do we do? How much effort do we put into our walks? Most of us go expecting to be spoon fed by the pastor/youth pastor/associate pastor/Sunday school teacher. One thing that I've figured out physically is that if you continue to eat, regardless to how healthy you eat, if you do not exercise at all, you will start adding some fat, and you will start losing some muscle.

Which brings me to my next point. If we lose muscle, how are we to fight off the enemy? If we become fat, lazy Christians, will we be quick enough to see and avoid the traps set out for us by the enemy? Will we be able to flex our flab, resist the devil, and make him flee from us? And if we do see the trap, will we have enough energy to avoid them, or will we lazily walk right through the middle of them, and hope somebody bails us out (ew bail outs... another sermon for another day. Focus...)

Ok I'm back, almost lost me there for a second. But seriously, some of us have missed out on opportunities to pump some serious iron spiritually, and though it's going to be difficult and possibly painful the first few visits back to our "personal gym" (better known as prayer closet/quiet place), once the soreness leaves, we will better than we have in a long time...

I could go run another couple of miles after that. Anybody care to join me....?

Dinner and a movie... and a prayer...

I recently sat down to enjoy a great American meal, Chic-fil-a (love that place), and while sitting in the recliner in front of the TV,   I was taking my char-grilled chicken wrap out of the bag and spouting off a memorized, "Thank you for the food" prayer, something hit me. I don't necessarily mean something literally hit me like a piece of paper floating through the air after being lofted out of a good friends hand, I mean a feeling of conviction hit me. After I performed the multi-taskical extravaganza, I looked to my left to see my father doing the same. The only difference is that he had nuggets and was sitting on the couch. Then the thought came. Who am I to talk to the Creator of all things in this way? Who am I to ask His blessings, even upon something as simple as food, without taking the time to stop what I am doing, rid my self of distractions to enter His throne room? I also wondered, how many more are guilty of these same actions? It's kind of like we have taken his throne room, and turned it into a movie theater. We go and sit, and while getting entertained, we drop pop corn, spill coke, and our M&M's melt on the floor. As we leave, we also leave the garbage, and the mess that we spilled, not bothering to clean up after ourselves, not being courteous or even respectful to the place that we are allowed to come. Can you visualize that, treating the throne room of Almighty God as we would a movie theater? There is one similarity that I can find between the two. We should leave each of these changed. We should leave the throne room with a changed attitude, changed mind set, changed heart, worries are taken care of, feeling loved. When we leave the movie theater we should leave with our shoes sticking to the floor, with a mind set of That movie was awesome", or a mind set of, "I could've done something better with that money." I wonder how much longer God is going to clean up after us? After all it's His place, He could stop the open invitations altogether... or do like the movie theater and start charging...

The Starting Line

Well, I didn't really know where to start with this, being my first blog and all, so what would be more appropriate than the starting line (thus the title). It's been an interesting week so far, and it's only Thursday. Full clinical day (9 hours) monday, 6.5 hours of class Tuesday with a Clincial final, yesterday included a test on hymodynamics along with another 7+ hours of class followed by probably the most awesome villain of the century, Z Dark Swine, making his debut appearance at OFA Kids Crusade last night, today has held two tests up to this point with another 3 hours of class that are soon to follow and another appearance by Z Dark Swine will take place tonight, and then tomorrow shall hold Z Dark Swine summer finale. I still have to prepare for sunday school, and Buddy B has to make a trip to Kids Klub for BGMC sunday morning so I have to pull my hair out getting him to rehearse. (he hate's rehearsals). Never-the-less it's been a long tiring week, but God has been faithful, as always, my tests up until the last one have gone really well (and i'm not certain how the last one went, haven't gotten a grade yet...). I just needed something to do to get some of this information overload out of my head, and this seems to suffice. Who ever as actually read this entire thing I do commend you and promise that the next one will be much better... ok scratch that promise of the next one being better. I hope that the next one is better. Greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done here!

I'm out!