Pregnancy is hard for a multitude of reasons and compared to most women, I've had a virtually symptomless pregnancy. However, it is still hard to feel this large and not just large but awkwardly shaped, like an upside down turtle. It's not easy painting your toe nails, shaving or putting socks and shoes on while leaning over a beach ball. It's also difficult to know that while giving up all your favorite food and beverage vices that you are still gaining weight rapidly and that you can't possibly exercise enough to tip the scales back the other direction and that dieting is out of the question.
These have just been some of my issues, but mine aren't even worth mentioning if you are hugging the toilet every day, are constipated, end up with hemorrhoids, high blood pressure, gestational diabetes or swollen feet and ankles or heaven forbid your belly button pops out.
However, even with some or all of these symptoms I think other people are the worst part of pregnancy. When you are pregnant, people suddenly feel that they can say whatever rude and unfiltered thing they want and if you happen to have a problem with what they've said it is because you are hormonal, like it's not possible that the real problem is that this person has just behaved like an insensitive asshole.
I don't care if you have been pregnant a million times or your wife has. That still doesn't give you the right to comment on my body or to touch me. What makes you think that any pregnant woman wants to hear your opinion on how big or small she is in relationship to how far along she is? What makes you think that it is suddenly okay to spontaneously touch her stomach? How would you feel if random strangers started grabbing your ass because they felt like they used to have one just like it?
Other colorful things that people think are acceptable to say to pregnant women include:
You are carrying wide
You are carrying low
You look so good (Random stranger, you don't know how I normally look so how do you know I look good?)
Wow, you are getting big (gee and to think I was wondering why nothing I own fits and picking up things I drop is strenuous exercise)
Mom-mma! (how is it acceptable for someone whose parent I'm not to cat call this to me at work, particularly when I'm not yet even a mother until this child is born?)
Hey little Momma.
Questions everyone who sees a pregnant women thinks they have to ask:
When are you due?
Is it a boy or a girl?
What are you going to name him or her?
How are you feeling?
Are you having any cravings? (what difference does this make? are you going to track me down a bag of potato chips and a lemonade?)
Why do you need to know these things? How does the knowledge impact your life at all? Fool, you don't even know my name but you think need to know the name of my unborn child?
I've gotten to the point that everywhere I go I just pray that people won't talk to me. I couldn't be more sick of politely answering these questions and hearing all the asinine commentary. I get that I have this huge and awkward bump growing off of my body, but I would still enjoy being treated like a normal human being. Maybe you could just say hi and have a nice day like you would if you saw me and I was not pregnant.
I don't call Bertha! after overweight people or tell them that they look like they are too big for their height. I don't reach out and rub their stomachs like they are the Pillsbury dough boy. I also don't ask them how they are feeling like it's obvious that they couldn't possibly be feeling well due to being overweight.
It's already hard to escape the identity and self esteem crisis given that your body doesn't belong to you anymore and you don't feel the least bit in control of it.
I miss feeling attractive and athletic and feeling like I look good in at least some of the clothes I wear. Therefore, I don't need people constantly reminding me that I look as crazy as I feel.
Be a pregnant woman's champion and don't mention anything about her being pregnant unless she brings it up. I guarantee you that if she feels like talking about it she will. Otherwise maybe you could lie and tell her something nice like that top really brings out the color in your eyes or I love that necklace.
If you aren't a good liar maybe you could just ignore her. it might be the welcome relief she needs to get through the next pointless and heartless conversation she has to politely put up with while struggling with some combination of all the lovely symptoms outlined above until her baby is born and she can stop feeling like she has a virus that she just can't seem to get over.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Merits of a Jackass
I learned today that donkeys protect their land. They stomp snakes too death and they can scare off packs of coyotes. They and deer are friends.
Donkeys have no resources that would indicate they could do this. They are not especially fast or ferocious. They have no tusks or horns or sharp teeth. They have no special sight or vision or hearing. They aren't even especially heavy like elephants. They have have no sharp claws or quills or a wicked bad stench like a skunk. They have no camouflage, they can't fly and they aren't climbers. They aren't even capable of the element of surprise.
They love to be with their owners.
I want to be Christ's donkey. I want to be discerning enough to recognize those who would harm me and those who would befriend me like a deer. I want to spend time with those I love and fight to protect what we hold dear. If nothing else, donkeys are fearless and faithful. They don't sit around and get gobbled up because of their lack of power. They just dig in and hold their ground and get it done.
I want to love to spend time with the owner of my soul and everlasting life, my Lord and my God.
To want nothing more than this, the world will view me as a jackass. God will view me as his true and faithful servant.
That being said, I want to be a jackass cause this jackass is not home until heaven so what I need to be protecting is not here but there.
Donkeys have no resources that would indicate they could do this. They are not especially fast or ferocious. They have no tusks or horns or sharp teeth. They have no special sight or vision or hearing. They aren't even especially heavy like elephants. They have have no sharp claws or quills or a wicked bad stench like a skunk. They have no camouflage, they can't fly and they aren't climbers. They aren't even capable of the element of surprise.
They love to be with their owners.
I want to be Christ's donkey. I want to be discerning enough to recognize those who would harm me and those who would befriend me like a deer. I want to spend time with those I love and fight to protect what we hold dear. If nothing else, donkeys are fearless and faithful. They don't sit around and get gobbled up because of their lack of power. They just dig in and hold their ground and get it done.
I want to love to spend time with the owner of my soul and everlasting life, my Lord and my God.
To want nothing more than this, the world will view me as a jackass. God will view me as his true and faithful servant.
That being said, I want to be a jackass cause this jackass is not home until heaven so what I need to be protecting is not here but there.
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
YOU ARE NOT DONE
The story goes a little something like this... I have a friend who has a husband whose cousin committed suicide. This cousin has two teenage daughters, one of whom saw her mom take her own life.
This is the kind of story that doesn't easily leave your mind once it's been communicated to you. As is often the case with the things on our mind, they come out of our mouths. I mentioned it to my boss at work and she said, "those girls are done....they're done."
I remember thinking yeah they are...they are scarred for life. That's not something you can get over.
I told my friend Brittany I would pray for the family. In trying to pray, all I found myself wanting to do is write the girls a letter or just scream out: You're not done!!!
You are in shock and an unimaginable and unfathomable grief. I can't begin to put myself where you are and wouldn't know how to move forward after what you've been through. What I do know is you won't make it alone. You're grief and confusion and anger and self blame and doubt and psychological insecurities will eat you alive.
Go to God. Lay everything at the cross of Christ and tell him you cannot do this. You will not do this alone. You don't feel strong enough to stand and you aren't. God will carry you. Will you instantly feel better because you sought him? No, no you won't. What you will do is get up every day and breathe in and out. You will struggle and you will hurt and it will be hard. This will go on for what we feel like an eternity and then one day you will realize you weren't quite as numb and you didn't hurt quite as bad today and you can even look back and think of a fond memory from the day for the first time in so long you began to wonder if you could still form happy memories.
You will go through the motions of your life and you will still continue to be productive, but you will feel like you are living outside yourself just watching your former self live your life.
You will have to surround yourself with people who love your God. These may be family members, friends, members of the church, teachers, etc. These people will listen to you, help you, guide you, cry with you and they will REFUSE to let you go down the wrong path no matter how many times they have to pull you up out of the mud and out of your self pity.
These people are essential but they are not your foundation. Jesus is your only solid rock to build upon. All else is sinking sand. If you have a strong foundation you can replace faulty stones without doing damage to the integrity of the structure. Remember that people will sometimes let you down. Let not your faith be shaken by this. They were never meant to be where you seek your worth or the meaning of life. Always seek strong human bonds and relationships but always know that God is the source of all love and life. People do not fail you because they don't love or care about you. People fail you because mankind has fallen and we are all an imperfect people doing the best we can, which will always fall short of our Glorious God but which in no way diminishes his power or his love.
You are hurt and you are broken, but none fall so far that their Heavenly Father cannot come to their aid and mend them. You can be healed and restored. YOU ARE NOT DONE! God will you give you the strength to survive this. However, that strength will only be strong enough for the current day so live it one day at time. Each day has enough pain and worry of its own without borrowing from the future.
This is the kind of story that doesn't easily leave your mind once it's been communicated to you. As is often the case with the things on our mind, they come out of our mouths. I mentioned it to my boss at work and she said, "those girls are done....they're done."
I remember thinking yeah they are...they are scarred for life. That's not something you can get over.
I told my friend Brittany I would pray for the family. In trying to pray, all I found myself wanting to do is write the girls a letter or just scream out: You're not done!!!
You are in shock and an unimaginable and unfathomable grief. I can't begin to put myself where you are and wouldn't know how to move forward after what you've been through. What I do know is you won't make it alone. You're grief and confusion and anger and self blame and doubt and psychological insecurities will eat you alive.
Go to God. Lay everything at the cross of Christ and tell him you cannot do this. You will not do this alone. You don't feel strong enough to stand and you aren't. God will carry you. Will you instantly feel better because you sought him? No, no you won't. What you will do is get up every day and breathe in and out. You will struggle and you will hurt and it will be hard. This will go on for what we feel like an eternity and then one day you will realize you weren't quite as numb and you didn't hurt quite as bad today and you can even look back and think of a fond memory from the day for the first time in so long you began to wonder if you could still form happy memories.
You will go through the motions of your life and you will still continue to be productive, but you will feel like you are living outside yourself just watching your former self live your life.
You will have to surround yourself with people who love your God. These may be family members, friends, members of the church, teachers, etc. These people will listen to you, help you, guide you, cry with you and they will REFUSE to let you go down the wrong path no matter how many times they have to pull you up out of the mud and out of your self pity.
These people are essential but they are not your foundation. Jesus is your only solid rock to build upon. All else is sinking sand. If you have a strong foundation you can replace faulty stones without doing damage to the integrity of the structure. Remember that people will sometimes let you down. Let not your faith be shaken by this. They were never meant to be where you seek your worth or the meaning of life. Always seek strong human bonds and relationships but always know that God is the source of all love and life. People do not fail you because they don't love or care about you. People fail you because mankind has fallen and we are all an imperfect people doing the best we can, which will always fall short of our Glorious God but which in no way diminishes his power or his love.
You are hurt and you are broken, but none fall so far that their Heavenly Father cannot come to their aid and mend them. You can be healed and restored. YOU ARE NOT DONE! God will you give you the strength to survive this. However, that strength will only be strong enough for the current day so live it one day at time. Each day has enough pain and worry of its own without borrowing from the future.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Plan
1) Work from 7:30-5:30 (5:15 on Rangers game days)
2) Spend 30 minutes outside
3) Spend 15 minutes in God's word and 15 minutes talking to God
4) Spend 30 minutes reading something else
5) Spend 30 minutes focusing on others - could be child sponsorship, volunteering, watching the news
6) Spend 30 minutes with my husband
Sunday, April 03, 2011
God's Breaking My Heart for the Things That Break His
I feel like lately I get emotional about things that have no direct impact on me. I feel like I am most emotional over my self centered focus. For awhile now, I have this strong feeling that God is telling me to cut the chaff. I need to start cutting off things in my life that don't matter. I seriously need to be limiting tv and facebook time. I need to start making serious goals for myself centered around using my time to engage in things that would please God. I need to learn how to give until it hurts and pour out my time and money for Him.
I need to be researching where God needs me to give my time and money and how I can use my strengths and gifts to be his hands and feet and love poured out on those around me.
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Understanding Engaged
I dont undestand being engaged. I understand I love you. I understand I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don't understand why we ask a person to spend the rest of our lives with us and then make them wait a year to do it. If we aren't ready to get married why do we ask?
I don't do well in gray areas and engagement just feels like a big holding pattern. I'm feel like I'm sitting in a plane out on the tarmac.
I also don't understand a wedding. I understand a marriage, but I don't understand spending a year of my life focused on one day. I don't understand spending thousands of dollars on something that will virtually be over in the blink of an eye (after you wait the year to actually blink your eye).
I don't understand how something that is truly only about two people becomes about everybody else.
I don't do well in gray areas and engagement just feels like a big holding pattern. I'm feel like I'm sitting in a plane out on the tarmac.
I also don't understand a wedding. I understand a marriage, but I don't understand spending a year of my life focused on one day. I don't understand spending thousands of dollars on something that will virtually be over in the blink of an eye (after you wait the year to actually blink your eye).
I don't understand how something that is truly only about two people becomes about everybody else.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Brainstorming up a Wedding
I like these for the flowers:
We should get married here:
First Presbyterian Church of Navasota
I'm thinking the bridesmaids should wear this:
I'm thinking I like this for me:
http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Allover-beaded-lace-trumpet-gown-T9612_Bridal-Gowns-Features-Most-Popular
http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_Allover-beaded-lace-trumpet-gown-T9612_Bridal-Gowns-Features-Most-Popular
We should honeymoon here:
We should get married on April 2, but due to extenuating circumstances I'm really super hoping for March 5th.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Clown Soul
"I think of myself as an intelligent, sensitive human being with the soul of a clown which always forces me to blow it at the most important moments."
I think this fits me to a T. I think I must like to struggle. I've had way more fun today than I did yesterday. Yesterday there was nothing going on PERIOD EXCLAMATION POINT. Today has just been a series of tiny crises.
My second attempt to make a cookie cake was a failure. It's okay because this time I failed in a completely different way than I did the first time. The first time I didn't have enough dough and had no clue how to spread the dough into the pizza crisper pan. This time I had both of those things figured out. However, I had no clue how to get the damned thing out of the pan in one piece. My attempt to flip it was a complete disaster. Now its oddly shaped cookie bars. Its the best I could do. They still taste good. Also, I managed to get cookie grease all over the present I had just wrapped Brian so I had to unwrap and rewrap it and clean up the colossal mess I made of the kitchen.
Give me a bunch of little problems, tasks, and things to do over boredom any day of the week and TWICE on Sunday.
I think this fits me to a T. I think I must like to struggle. I've had way more fun today than I did yesterday. Yesterday there was nothing going on PERIOD EXCLAMATION POINT. Today has just been a series of tiny crises.
My second attempt to make a cookie cake was a failure. It's okay because this time I failed in a completely different way than I did the first time. The first time I didn't have enough dough and had no clue how to spread the dough into the pizza crisper pan. This time I had both of those things figured out. However, I had no clue how to get the damned thing out of the pan in one piece. My attempt to flip it was a complete disaster. Now its oddly shaped cookie bars. Its the best I could do. They still taste good. Also, I managed to get cookie grease all over the present I had just wrapped Brian so I had to unwrap and rewrap it and clean up the colossal mess I made of the kitchen.
Give me a bunch of little problems, tasks, and things to do over boredom any day of the week and TWICE on Sunday.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
i'm a cartoon character
I'd like to say I've had a bad day, but with all that's going on in the world, I realize my day was really just a cartoon. You know the kind- the one where the silly clown drives a car that breaks down and the wheels fall off and the hood pops open and smoke seeps out from all over, and the one where the silly coyote is trying to run down the road runner on a bike when he hits a curb wrong and goes flying and little birdies circle all around his head.
It wasn't even as bad as all that. My friend Chelsea and I headed downtown in rush hour traffic to go to the friends and family event of my boyfriend's new restaurant opening. It's like 100 degrees in Texas this time of day in July so we are both hot and running the AC full blast so as not to show up as two separate puddles. Anyways, so the car is practically parked on the interstate for most of the trip and at red lights for the balance. The needle is dangling dangerously close to H for red hot, engine on fire. However, we make it there about six o'clock in tact and without blowing up the motor in my car. We walk in the restaurant which is wall to wall people, and we are immediately greeted by the other general manager working with Brian. I know its him even though we've never met, but he doesn't know its me. At least I don't think he does. He seems to stay right with us all through the restaurant and he's chatting it up. So I look at him for a minute and then I say like the Alabama blonde I am, "What's your name?" He says Ashton and extends his hand. I say I'm Katie, and then pause because I don't want to have to say Brian's girlfriend because that sounds stupid to me, so I just say Brian has told me a lot about you." I'm so not playing with a full deck.
Anyways, Chelsea and I miraculously manage to find a small booth and we sit and eat with Brian fetching us everything we need. He's a total sweetheart. We leave in good time, but the car which I've decided is now called Vicky, just like the GPS inside her, is not ready. Anyways, I crank her and she's all but coughing up blood. I never thought we would make it back to Plano but the last thing I wanted was to breakdown in Brian's restaurant parking lot on the day of the opening in my ancient car. I would have been mortified. I didnt care where I broke down as long as it wasn't there, so we get going with windows down and air off this time and backroads instead of the interstate and manage by the grace of God to make it back to my apt. I have no idea if the car will even crank in the morning for work but that's another day and today has had enough of its own junk.
When I finally get back I realize I will need to get outside and do something physical to calm my nerves so I decide to go for a little bike ride. In the car on the way back I was just remarking to Chelsea how we didn't get any rain like the weather people said we would. I'm about a mile from my apt, almost finished with my bike ride, when a large bolt of lightning distracts my focus for a second, I hit a curb just wrong and go flying through the air. Luckily, I managed to tuck and roll and land in the grass almost unscathed, but I'm all covered in dirt and grass stained up. There are a million people on the parkway and at the gas station who must have seen my wreck so I jump up and dust myself off and jump back on my bike, only to discover that my back tire is flat. Still, I rode the jewel about a quarter of a mile with the flat tire trying to be all nonchalant and then I walked her all the way in, just seconds before the rain came.
Life's tough, get a helmet!
It wasn't even as bad as all that. My friend Chelsea and I headed downtown in rush hour traffic to go to the friends and family event of my boyfriend's new restaurant opening. It's like 100 degrees in Texas this time of day in July so we are both hot and running the AC full blast so as not to show up as two separate puddles. Anyways, so the car is practically parked on the interstate for most of the trip and at red lights for the balance. The needle is dangling dangerously close to H for red hot, engine on fire. However, we make it there about six o'clock in tact and without blowing up the motor in my car. We walk in the restaurant which is wall to wall people, and we are immediately greeted by the other general manager working with Brian. I know its him even though we've never met, but he doesn't know its me. At least I don't think he does. He seems to stay right with us all through the restaurant and he's chatting it up. So I look at him for a minute and then I say like the Alabama blonde I am, "What's your name?" He says Ashton and extends his hand. I say I'm Katie, and then pause because I don't want to have to say Brian's girlfriend because that sounds stupid to me, so I just say Brian has told me a lot about you." I'm so not playing with a full deck.
Anyways, Chelsea and I miraculously manage to find a small booth and we sit and eat with Brian fetching us everything we need. He's a total sweetheart. We leave in good time, but the car which I've decided is now called Vicky, just like the GPS inside her, is not ready. Anyways, I crank her and she's all but coughing up blood. I never thought we would make it back to Plano but the last thing I wanted was to breakdown in Brian's restaurant parking lot on the day of the opening in my ancient car. I would have been mortified. I didnt care where I broke down as long as it wasn't there, so we get going with windows down and air off this time and backroads instead of the interstate and manage by the grace of God to make it back to my apt. I have no idea if the car will even crank in the morning for work but that's another day and today has had enough of its own junk.
When I finally get back I realize I will need to get outside and do something physical to calm my nerves so I decide to go for a little bike ride. In the car on the way back I was just remarking to Chelsea how we didn't get any rain like the weather people said we would. I'm about a mile from my apt, almost finished with my bike ride, when a large bolt of lightning distracts my focus for a second, I hit a curb just wrong and go flying through the air. Luckily, I managed to tuck and roll and land in the grass almost unscathed, but I'm all covered in dirt and grass stained up. There are a million people on the parkway and at the gas station who must have seen my wreck so I jump up and dust myself off and jump back on my bike, only to discover that my back tire is flat. Still, I rode the jewel about a quarter of a mile with the flat tire trying to be all nonchalant and then I walked her all the way in, just seconds before the rain came.
Life's tough, get a helmet!
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Healing
You are not sick. I don't care what your symptoms are. I don't care how you feel. I don't care what you've been diagnosed with. You are not sick. God healed you when he died for you on the cross. However, you have to claim the power of that healing.
No one gets to decide your health besides you and God. I've decided I'm not going to be sick and I've decided I'm not going to a doctor. God is my Great Physician. What more do I need? Do I need to put more faith in an earthly man and allow him to use my body like some chemistry experiment for the latest potion that the drug companies have concocted for him to pass out? Not hardly! Will I live and die according to some man's best guess on what's wrong with me or what will fix me? No, thanks.
I will live and die by faith in the Lord. If I'm wrong and I die of some simple disease that could have been cured by modern medicine, I'm gonna go home anyways and at least I won't have sat in fear and worry waiting for it to kill me, which is what so many people do after the doctor hands them their death sentence. There are a great many people who have lived on simply because they didn't let someone tell them that something was killing them.
The devil is a thief and a liar. He will steal your health, your joy, and your life if you let him because he knows he cannot steal your soul if you belong to the Heavenly Father. Your physical body, however, is of this world and he will bring hell to it if you don't guard yourself. He attacks your body through your mind. He gives you a slight physical manifestation, a symptom, if you will. It can be anything...a sore throat, a fever, swollen gland, pain in the side, irregular heart beat, a rash, and the list goes on. The devil is not without power here, and he has so much more of it than we give him credit for. It's not that he's not a good ventiliquist and puppeteer. He can do all this, and you won't see his lips move and you won't see the strings.
What we must remember is that while it's a very good act, it is nothing more than an act for Christians. Jesus Christ beat him and every demon and power he has on the cross. Therefore, the devil has NO power to determine your reality. He will do his best to convince you that you are very sick and there's something bad wrong with you and that if you don't get yourself to the doctor quick you will ultimately get worse and/or....GASP....DIE. Do not be afraid of death. We are immortal!
This is how easily the devil can take you out of this world if you let him. You get cold like symptoms. At first, you think its just a cold and you take over the counter medicine (first mistake). You don't get better. In fact, you get much worse. You've got a throat that burns, you've got a fever, you've got major fatigue and chills, you don't feel like eating, you feel dehydrated and exhausted. You go to the doctor (second mistake). They put you on antibiotics (third mistake). You don't get better so you go back to this same doctor and he gives you a different antibiotic (fourth mistake). You don't get better so he says he needs to check on your immune system (fifth mistake). Now, the Devil has you poised and ready to get some major disease that he can kill you with. What do we think when our immune system is not top knotch? HIV, cancer, heart failure, etc. Now he has you running scared.
This could be a crucial turning point. Why don't you stop at this point and tell the devil that you are not going to die. There is nothing wrong with you or your immune system except that your body had a pretty strong devil induced annoyance, and your body and your God would have fixed it except for two things. Number 1: you jacked up your body's abilities to heal itself by drugging it up. Number 2: you didn't seek your Heavenly Physician, you sought your earthly one. What good has he done you? Did he cure you? No, because he's a man and a man cannot in his own strength beat the devil, no matter how badly he wants to. This is because he has neither the strength nor the knowledge, and he usually has no clue what he's fighting or what his weapons are.
Here's the thing. The devil can make Christians "feel" sick. He can create symptoms and physical manifestations of sickness, but he cannot determine your reality if you won't let him. Therefore, when the devil shows you a sore throat, a fever, high blood pressure, irregular heart beat, high cholesterol... whatever the case may be tell him you are hip to his plan and you aren't buying it. Tell the devil...you are a thief and a liar and you do NOT get to determine the course of my life. I will not live in fear because you show me some symptoms of death. I will not get all frightened and run off to some modern doctor, who is really just a potion man with a lab coat instead of a bone through his nose.
I vote we tell the devil where to stick it. I vote we tell him, I see your numbness in my face radiating into my left arm. I raise you a BRING IT ON. I'm going to pray for my healing and know that if you do succeed in destroying this earthly body that the joke is on you because I'm going home and in the meantime I'm going to torture you by living in faith rather than worry and sickness. After all, the potion man can't cure us. He can only mitigate some of the symptoms some of the time, while giving us new ones (side effects) all along and telling us what to fear by telling us what we are dying from.
I'm not dying. Is my earthly body wasting away? Absolutely! Am I scared? No!
When its done wasting away to the point it is no longer functional, I'm going home. Right now, I'm going to live strong and healthy in the power of my God and I'm going to be every bit as happy as I would be if I weren't worrying about what other shoe the devil is about to drop on me. The devil will drop a bomb on you whenever he gets the chance, but your Savior is more powerful than all these things. Do not be afraid to look the devil in the face and laugh at him as you stand in the shadow of your Father's wings.
No one gets to decide your health besides you and God. I've decided I'm not going to be sick and I've decided I'm not going to a doctor. God is my Great Physician. What more do I need? Do I need to put more faith in an earthly man and allow him to use my body like some chemistry experiment for the latest potion that the drug companies have concocted for him to pass out? Not hardly! Will I live and die according to some man's best guess on what's wrong with me or what will fix me? No, thanks.
I will live and die by faith in the Lord. If I'm wrong and I die of some simple disease that could have been cured by modern medicine, I'm gonna go home anyways and at least I won't have sat in fear and worry waiting for it to kill me, which is what so many people do after the doctor hands them their death sentence. There are a great many people who have lived on simply because they didn't let someone tell them that something was killing them.
The devil is a thief and a liar. He will steal your health, your joy, and your life if you let him because he knows he cannot steal your soul if you belong to the Heavenly Father. Your physical body, however, is of this world and he will bring hell to it if you don't guard yourself. He attacks your body through your mind. He gives you a slight physical manifestation, a symptom, if you will. It can be anything...a sore throat, a fever, swollen gland, pain in the side, irregular heart beat, a rash, and the list goes on. The devil is not without power here, and he has so much more of it than we give him credit for. It's not that he's not a good ventiliquist and puppeteer. He can do all this, and you won't see his lips move and you won't see the strings.
What we must remember is that while it's a very good act, it is nothing more than an act for Christians. Jesus Christ beat him and every demon and power he has on the cross. Therefore, the devil has NO power to determine your reality. He will do his best to convince you that you are very sick and there's something bad wrong with you and that if you don't get yourself to the doctor quick you will ultimately get worse and/or....GASP....DIE. Do not be afraid of death. We are immortal!
This is how easily the devil can take you out of this world if you let him. You get cold like symptoms. At first, you think its just a cold and you take over the counter medicine (first mistake). You don't get better. In fact, you get much worse. You've got a throat that burns, you've got a fever, you've got major fatigue and chills, you don't feel like eating, you feel dehydrated and exhausted. You go to the doctor (second mistake). They put you on antibiotics (third mistake). You don't get better so you go back to this same doctor and he gives you a different antibiotic (fourth mistake). You don't get better so he says he needs to check on your immune system (fifth mistake). Now, the Devil has you poised and ready to get some major disease that he can kill you with. What do we think when our immune system is not top knotch? HIV, cancer, heart failure, etc. Now he has you running scared.
This could be a crucial turning point. Why don't you stop at this point and tell the devil that you are not going to die. There is nothing wrong with you or your immune system except that your body had a pretty strong devil induced annoyance, and your body and your God would have fixed it except for two things. Number 1: you jacked up your body's abilities to heal itself by drugging it up. Number 2: you didn't seek your Heavenly Physician, you sought your earthly one. What good has he done you? Did he cure you? No, because he's a man and a man cannot in his own strength beat the devil, no matter how badly he wants to. This is because he has neither the strength nor the knowledge, and he usually has no clue what he's fighting or what his weapons are.
Here's the thing. The devil can make Christians "feel" sick. He can create symptoms and physical manifestations of sickness, but he cannot determine your reality if you won't let him. Therefore, when the devil shows you a sore throat, a fever, high blood pressure, irregular heart beat, high cholesterol... whatever the case may be tell him you are hip to his plan and you aren't buying it. Tell the devil...you are a thief and a liar and you do NOT get to determine the course of my life. I will not live in fear because you show me some symptoms of death. I will not get all frightened and run off to some modern doctor, who is really just a potion man with a lab coat instead of a bone through his nose.
I vote we tell the devil where to stick it. I vote we tell him, I see your numbness in my face radiating into my left arm. I raise you a BRING IT ON. I'm going to pray for my healing and know that if you do succeed in destroying this earthly body that the joke is on you because I'm going home and in the meantime I'm going to torture you by living in faith rather than worry and sickness. After all, the potion man can't cure us. He can only mitigate some of the symptoms some of the time, while giving us new ones (side effects) all along and telling us what to fear by telling us what we are dying from.
I'm not dying. Is my earthly body wasting away? Absolutely! Am I scared? No!
When its done wasting away to the point it is no longer functional, I'm going home. Right now, I'm going to live strong and healthy in the power of my God and I'm going to be every bit as happy as I would be if I weren't worrying about what other shoe the devil is about to drop on me. The devil will drop a bomb on you whenever he gets the chance, but your Savior is more powerful than all these things. Do not be afraid to look the devil in the face and laugh at him as you stand in the shadow of your Father's wings.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
trying to learn to cook
Things I've learned so far:
I still hate onions...be they sliced, diced, slivered, dehydrated, fried, powdered, soup mixed, etc. I hate ONIONS!
Superior Meat Loaf: (very easy and good if you like onions)
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 lbs ground beef
3/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs
2 eggs
3/4 cup water
1/3 ketchup
Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, combine all ingredients. In 13 x 9 inch baking pan shape into loaf. Bake 1 hour until done. Let stand 10 minutes
Slow Cooker Pot Roast: (pretty simple and good aside from the onion soup mix)
1/4 cup water
4 medium red potatoes, cut in quarters
1 package peeled baby carrots
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 1/2 to 3 lbs bones beef chuck pot roast
Place water and three fourths of the vegetables in the slow cooker. Reserve 1 tablespoon onion soup mix. Sprinkle remaining onion soup mix over vegetables. Sprinkle and rub slat and pepper over the pot roast. Place pot roast on top of vegetables and place remaining vegetables around pot roast; sprinkle remaining onion soup mix on top.
Cook on low 8 to 9 hours or high 5 to 6.
Also, I hate mac n cheese, be it velveta or kraft although kraft is much better. It uses far less artificial ingredients even it is harder to make.
I like fried chicken....A LOT! :)
I like potatoes...particularly mashed but baked aren't bad either especially not if you load them down with all things bad for you. I'd like to learn how to Julienne a potato.
Bisquick does not make a good pizza crust even if they do have a recipe for that.
Biscquick Pizza
3 c. bisquick (less if like thin crust)
3/4 c. water
1 lb. ground beef
2 c. shredded
1 jar pizza sauce
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly grease pizza pan. Mix bisquick and water set aside. Cook ground beef until brown. Drain off grease. Add 1/2 jar of pizza sauce. Pat out bisquick in pan. Pour rest of pizza sauce on crust. Add beef mixture on top of tomato sauce. Top off with cheese. Bake 10 to 15 minutes until crust is golden brown and cheese melts.
I like sausage but only as balls so far.
Sausage Balls: (may be the best thing you can do with either bisquick or sausage)
2 1/2 cup bisquick mix
1 lb roll of jimmy dean sausage
8 oz grated cheese
Knead all of the above until moist. Pinch into ball shapes and bake on greased cookies sheet for 15 minutes at 425 or until tops are light brown
I like working with flour and sugar much better than with meat and flour.
Its more fun to make sweets than real meals because its easier to share sweets with the world.
I can make an excellent white chocolate macadmia nut cookie even if macadamia nuts are way over priced!
Its more fun to make cookies than cakes because the cookies always get eaten and the cake doesn't. It takes way longer to make cookies but it seems much harder to screw them up unless of course you add potato chips. That's not a good idea even though there is a recipe for that.
Potato Chip Cookies:
1 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup coarsely crushed potato chips
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup sifted powdered sugar
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add flour, potato chips and vanilla, beat well. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cooll for five minutes on cookie sheet. Remove and place on wire rack. When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
I cannot make Rice Krispie treats no matter how simple that recipe sounds:
Rice Krispie Treats:
3 tablespoon butter or margarine
I package (10 oz) regular marshmallows
6 cups rice krispies
In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted, remove from heat. Add cereal and stir until well coated. Using buttered spatula evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 inch pan coated with cooking spray.
Honey cookies are really good even if impossible to put onto the cookie sheets.
Touch O Honey
1 yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup margarine
1/c cup flour
Preheat oven to 350. Blend half of cake mix, honey, margarine, and flour, then beat until fluggy, mixing in rest of cake mix. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 10 to 12 minutes.
There is no way to mess up peanut butter cookies no matter how you make them.
Example 1: (very very easy and good)
Peanut Butter Cookies:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Mix all ingredients until it all forms 1 large ball. Pinch off small balls about the size of your thumb, place on cookie sheet and press our with fork to make crisscross design on top. Bake at 350 appoximately 10 minutes
Example 2: (very easy to mess this one up because the dough is very dry. I usually finess with more oil)
1 yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
sugar
Preaheat oven to 350. Mix together cake mix, eggs, and oil until powder is completely dissolved into dough. Stir in peanut butter. Drop balls of dough into a small bowl of sugar, then place on a greased cookie sheet. Press fork horizontally and then vertically across each ball to flatten. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Example 3:
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoo vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the peanut butter
I'm not done with this topic just yet but its time to study insurance.
I still hate onions...be they sliced, diced, slivered, dehydrated, fried, powdered, soup mixed, etc. I hate ONIONS!
Superior Meat Loaf: (very easy and good if you like onions)
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 lbs ground beef
3/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs
2 eggs
3/4 cup water
1/3 ketchup
Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, combine all ingredients. In 13 x 9 inch baking pan shape into loaf. Bake 1 hour until done. Let stand 10 minutes
Slow Cooker Pot Roast: (pretty simple and good aside from the onion soup mix)
1/4 cup water
4 medium red potatoes, cut in quarters
1 package peeled baby carrots
1 envelope onion soup mix
2 1/2 to 3 lbs bones beef chuck pot roast
Place water and three fourths of the vegetables in the slow cooker. Reserve 1 tablespoon onion soup mix. Sprinkle remaining onion soup mix over vegetables. Sprinkle and rub slat and pepper over the pot roast. Place pot roast on top of vegetables and place remaining vegetables around pot roast; sprinkle remaining onion soup mix on top.
Cook on low 8 to 9 hours or high 5 to 6.
Also, I hate mac n cheese, be it velveta or kraft although kraft is much better. It uses far less artificial ingredients even it is harder to make.
I like fried chicken....A LOT! :)
I like potatoes...particularly mashed but baked aren't bad either especially not if you load them down with all things bad for you. I'd like to learn how to Julienne a potato.
Bisquick does not make a good pizza crust even if they do have a recipe for that.
Biscquick Pizza
3 c. bisquick (less if like thin crust)
3/4 c. water
1 lb. ground beef
2 c. shredded
1 jar pizza sauce
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly grease pizza pan. Mix bisquick and water set aside. Cook ground beef until brown. Drain off grease. Add 1/2 jar of pizza sauce. Pat out bisquick in pan. Pour rest of pizza sauce on crust. Add beef mixture on top of tomato sauce. Top off with cheese. Bake 10 to 15 minutes until crust is golden brown and cheese melts.
I like sausage but only as balls so far.
Sausage Balls: (may be the best thing you can do with either bisquick or sausage)
2 1/2 cup bisquick mix
1 lb roll of jimmy dean sausage
8 oz grated cheese
Knead all of the above until moist. Pinch into ball shapes and bake on greased cookies sheet for 15 minutes at 425 or until tops are light brown
I like working with flour and sugar much better than with meat and flour.
Its more fun to make sweets than real meals because its easier to share sweets with the world.
I can make an excellent white chocolate macadmia nut cookie even if macadamia nuts are way over priced!
Its more fun to make cookies than cakes because the cookies always get eaten and the cake doesn't. It takes way longer to make cookies but it seems much harder to screw them up unless of course you add potato chips. That's not a good idea even though there is a recipe for that.
Potato Chip Cookies:
1 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup coarsely crushed potato chips
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup sifted powdered sugar
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add flour, potato chips and vanilla, beat well. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cooll for five minutes on cookie sheet. Remove and place on wire rack. When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
I cannot make Rice Krispie treats no matter how simple that recipe sounds:
Rice Krispie Treats:
3 tablespoon butter or margarine
I package (10 oz) regular marshmallows
6 cups rice krispies
In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted, remove from heat. Add cereal and stir until well coated. Using buttered spatula evenly press mixture into 13 x 9 inch pan coated with cooking spray.
Honey cookies are really good even if impossible to put onto the cookie sheets.
Touch O Honey
1 yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup margarine
1/c cup flour
Preheat oven to 350. Blend half of cake mix, honey, margarine, and flour, then beat until fluggy, mixing in rest of cake mix. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 10 to 12 minutes.
There is no way to mess up peanut butter cookies no matter how you make them.
Example 1: (very very easy and good)
Peanut Butter Cookies:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Mix all ingredients until it all forms 1 large ball. Pinch off small balls about the size of your thumb, place on cookie sheet and press our with fork to make crisscross design on top. Bake at 350 appoximately 10 minutes
Example 2: (very easy to mess this one up because the dough is very dry. I usually finess with more oil)
1 yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
sugar
Preaheat oven to 350. Mix together cake mix, eggs, and oil until powder is completely dissolved into dough. Stir in peanut butter. Drop balls of dough into a small bowl of sugar, then place on a greased cookie sheet. Press fork horizontally and then vertically across each ball to flatten. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Example 3:
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoo vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the peanut butter, egg, and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the peanut butter
I'm not done with this topic just yet but its time to study insurance.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
need to be bold
God is all powerful so he can allow Noah to live 800 years, years as we know them today, or years as they knew them in that time period or whatever. To God, a year is as a day so time is irrelevant to him anyways.
God is love. If we suffer, starve, are abused, molested, diseased, beaten, broken, robbed, cursed, alienated, tortured, neglected, and killed God's love is still unconditional. Just because bad things happen to you does not mean God has forsaken you or has stopped listening to your prayers or cries for help. God's plan for our lives is still right regardless of whether or not we can see or understand the plan and the big picture.
God allows free will. Just because sin and evil run rampant through this world does not mean God is not still in control. If the Devil lies to me and hardens my heart and I treats others harshly, coldly, and without love in my heart, God remains the same. My sin and my failure do not take power away from God. It takes power away from me.
Do I believe that the only people going to Heaven, that the only chosen people, are followers of Christ Jesus? With my whole heart! Being a part of this select few is not a view that I hold due to pride. How do I know? Because it does not make me happy to know that so few will spend eternity in Heaven with me. Why does a merciful God deny anyone Heaven? He doesn't.
Heaven is offered to us all and many reject it. God doesn't make you go; he just asks you if you want to and tells your heart how to get there. God allows free will because he created us in his own image to fellowship with him. If we are drones with no choice but him and no choice but heaven, it doesn't mean anything. He wants us to choose to give our lives to him. He doesn't want to take them from us.
I've been told that it is Hubris and close mindedness to believe that Christians are the only religion going to Heaven. That belief is incidental to me. I hold that belief by default. I believe in God and that Jesus Christ is my Savior. Here comes the default part. The fact that I believe that means that I believe I need a savior, and what am I being saved from if not eternal damnation and separation from God because of my sins? Therefore, believing that Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for my sins, and believing I need a savior, then how could I believe everyone else doesn't?
Adopting the tenents and beliefs of Christianity is not pride; it is the absolute letting go of self pride. It is to say: my life has no value if I'm not being poured out as an instrument of Christ. Salvation, following Jesus Christ, living the abundant life, and eternity in Heaven are gifts. Furthermore, they are gifts meant to be shared. God intended for us to be fishers of men, to spread the Good News.
He did not intend for us to look at living our lives for him as burdens to shield others from but as a gift to joyfully share, regardless of their response to it or the stereotypes that world would place on it. I cannot control the lies the Devil will feed those around me, all I can do is offer the Truth as an alternative. I do not look at sharing my faith as cramming what I believe down the throats of others. I look at it as offering them an alternative to the evil and superficiality of this world to accept the peace, love, comfort, and strength that comes from knowing Christ Jesus.
I will not "open minded" myself right into hell. My believing that this religious group or that one will or will not be in hell has nothing to do with where they spend their eternity. What I believe about my salvation does, however, have everything to do with where I will spend mine, and I do believe that in order to get to heaven I must accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. I am not perfect. I am a sinner. Sin separates separates me from God and the wages of sin is death. Jesus Christ only can forgive me for those sins and reunite me with the Father.
God's word says many are called, few are chosen.
Wide is the road and narrow is the path that leads to salvation.
He stands at the door and knocks...
God is love. If we suffer, starve, are abused, molested, diseased, beaten, broken, robbed, cursed, alienated, tortured, neglected, and killed God's love is still unconditional. Just because bad things happen to you does not mean God has forsaken you or has stopped listening to your prayers or cries for help. God's plan for our lives is still right regardless of whether or not we can see or understand the plan and the big picture.
God allows free will. Just because sin and evil run rampant through this world does not mean God is not still in control. If the Devil lies to me and hardens my heart and I treats others harshly, coldly, and without love in my heart, God remains the same. My sin and my failure do not take power away from God. It takes power away from me.
Do I believe that the only people going to Heaven, that the only chosen people, are followers of Christ Jesus? With my whole heart! Being a part of this select few is not a view that I hold due to pride. How do I know? Because it does not make me happy to know that so few will spend eternity in Heaven with me. Why does a merciful God deny anyone Heaven? He doesn't.
Heaven is offered to us all and many reject it. God doesn't make you go; he just asks you if you want to and tells your heart how to get there. God allows free will because he created us in his own image to fellowship with him. If we are drones with no choice but him and no choice but heaven, it doesn't mean anything. He wants us to choose to give our lives to him. He doesn't want to take them from us.
I've been told that it is Hubris and close mindedness to believe that Christians are the only religion going to Heaven. That belief is incidental to me. I hold that belief by default. I believe in God and that Jesus Christ is my Savior. Here comes the default part. The fact that I believe that means that I believe I need a savior, and what am I being saved from if not eternal damnation and separation from God because of my sins? Therefore, believing that Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for my sins, and believing I need a savior, then how could I believe everyone else doesn't?
Adopting the tenents and beliefs of Christianity is not pride; it is the absolute letting go of self pride. It is to say: my life has no value if I'm not being poured out as an instrument of Christ. Salvation, following Jesus Christ, living the abundant life, and eternity in Heaven are gifts. Furthermore, they are gifts meant to be shared. God intended for us to be fishers of men, to spread the Good News.
He did not intend for us to look at living our lives for him as burdens to shield others from but as a gift to joyfully share, regardless of their response to it or the stereotypes that world would place on it. I cannot control the lies the Devil will feed those around me, all I can do is offer the Truth as an alternative. I do not look at sharing my faith as cramming what I believe down the throats of others. I look at it as offering them an alternative to the evil and superficiality of this world to accept the peace, love, comfort, and strength that comes from knowing Christ Jesus.
I will not "open minded" myself right into hell. My believing that this religious group or that one will or will not be in hell has nothing to do with where they spend their eternity. What I believe about my salvation does, however, have everything to do with where I will spend mine, and I do believe that in order to get to heaven I must accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. I am not perfect. I am a sinner. Sin separates separates me from God and the wages of sin is death. Jesus Christ only can forgive me for those sins and reunite me with the Father.
God's word says many are called, few are chosen.
Wide is the road and narrow is the path that leads to salvation.
He stands at the door and knocks...
Friday, May 22, 2009
The Southern Way
I grew up in Alabama. I'm living in Texas. It's not the same.
Southerners, those from the Southeast, not the Southwest, as Texans still think they are Southern, have a way all their own.
Southerners are independent, stubborn, and proud as hell. We have this I can do it all on my own and take on the whole world while doing it attitude. It's this concept that I don't need anything from anyone and don't want to be a burden anyways.
The flip side of that is that no one in the South wants you to feel like a burden. They won't make you ask for help. Because they love and care about you, they'll take notice of your needs and just get it taken care of. They won't make you reach out and humble yourself to the point of saying I can't do this or I need help with that. Because they know you'd rather do without and endure any hardship to avoid that, and that if they have to ask you to do something for them that it won't mean anything. They know you have the same needs they do and that if you wanted to help them you'd have done it already. They don't want you to help them begrundingly and they'd rather eat shit and die than be your charity case. As a result, a Southern person will help the stupid SOB who won't ask for help and never mention having done it and not even expect a thank you.
The interaction goes a little something like this:
"You didn't have to do that. I could have taken care of that myself."
"I know. I just saw it needing doing and felt like doing it.
As you can see, much of what is transpiring goes unsaid. The emotion is lacking entirely from the conversation, but there is so much heart in what took place there that I don't know that outsiders can really get a feel for it.
Many Southerners don't really own anything of value. Therefore, the value is in the way they live and treat each other. Life becomes about how you can prove yourself a good man or woman and how you love those around you. Life is not about what you drive, earn, live in, or own. It's not about what you have or who you're trying to become. It's about what you give away and who you are. It's about who trusts and believes in you and what you believe in.
I was born and raised there. I'll you to my dying day that I don't need help with anything. That doesn't mean I don't want help and it doesn't mean I wouldn't let you help me.
It means I want you to recognize the need and never think of me as a burden, but think of it as a joy to do things for me because you care enough about me. On the outside, I'm a hard ass, but about six layers deep I have a heart of gold. Is it easy to get down there to see that? Hell no! I'll fight you every step of the way. Why? Because where I come from, people don't expect life to be easy, and the things worth fighting for are the only things worth having anyways. So why would I give you that which is valuable to me if you don't value it enough to fight for it?
I like Texas pretty well and I'm happy out here, but I miss feeling safe the way I do when I'm in the company of true Southerners. In my mind, heaven is being surrounded by a handful of people whose lives are lived to serve and please God, and whose goal is to figure out how to treat one another better. It seems like most of the people I've met out here live their lives only to have one experience after another, just to say I did that, I tried that. That's their definition of being alive, and their interaction with one another is not about being better to each other it's about trying to get the better of one another.
They never ask themselves of what value their expereiences are. They never ask whether it would be pleasing to God, whether they'd learn anything, or in any way enrich those around them. To me, they live their lives for no greater purpose than their own pleasure, and because of this I don't trust them and I feel like I spend my time in their company on the defensive. I feel like they wait to terrorize me and rip me limb from limb, just for the experience of it.
The people I've met out here seem to think you back your friends no matter what. I don't believe in that. I believe when they are wrong, you say their wrong. I believe you love them enough to make them experience the pain of growing into a better person. I believe we are a reflection of those we spend our time with. Therefore, if we don't reflect light back to one another, even when it burns, that we'll all walk in darkness.
I want to spend my time with people whose esteem I'm trying to be good enough to earn, rather than to spend my time with people I'm trying to be bad enough to impress.
Southerners, those from the Southeast, not the Southwest, as Texans still think they are Southern, have a way all their own.
Southerners are independent, stubborn, and proud as hell. We have this I can do it all on my own and take on the whole world while doing it attitude. It's this concept that I don't need anything from anyone and don't want to be a burden anyways.
The flip side of that is that no one in the South wants you to feel like a burden. They won't make you ask for help. Because they love and care about you, they'll take notice of your needs and just get it taken care of. They won't make you reach out and humble yourself to the point of saying I can't do this or I need help with that. Because they know you'd rather do without and endure any hardship to avoid that, and that if they have to ask you to do something for them that it won't mean anything. They know you have the same needs they do and that if you wanted to help them you'd have done it already. They don't want you to help them begrundingly and they'd rather eat shit and die than be your charity case. As a result, a Southern person will help the stupid SOB who won't ask for help and never mention having done it and not even expect a thank you.
The interaction goes a little something like this:
"You didn't have to do that. I could have taken care of that myself."
"I know. I just saw it needing doing and felt like doing it.
As you can see, much of what is transpiring goes unsaid. The emotion is lacking entirely from the conversation, but there is so much heart in what took place there that I don't know that outsiders can really get a feel for it.
Many Southerners don't really own anything of value. Therefore, the value is in the way they live and treat each other. Life becomes about how you can prove yourself a good man or woman and how you love those around you. Life is not about what you drive, earn, live in, or own. It's not about what you have or who you're trying to become. It's about what you give away and who you are. It's about who trusts and believes in you and what you believe in.
I was born and raised there. I'll you to my dying day that I don't need help with anything. That doesn't mean I don't want help and it doesn't mean I wouldn't let you help me.
It means I want you to recognize the need and never think of me as a burden, but think of it as a joy to do things for me because you care enough about me. On the outside, I'm a hard ass, but about six layers deep I have a heart of gold. Is it easy to get down there to see that? Hell no! I'll fight you every step of the way. Why? Because where I come from, people don't expect life to be easy, and the things worth fighting for are the only things worth having anyways. So why would I give you that which is valuable to me if you don't value it enough to fight for it?
I like Texas pretty well and I'm happy out here, but I miss feeling safe the way I do when I'm in the company of true Southerners. In my mind, heaven is being surrounded by a handful of people whose lives are lived to serve and please God, and whose goal is to figure out how to treat one another better. It seems like most of the people I've met out here live their lives only to have one experience after another, just to say I did that, I tried that. That's their definition of being alive, and their interaction with one another is not about being better to each other it's about trying to get the better of one another.
They never ask themselves of what value their expereiences are. They never ask whether it would be pleasing to God, whether they'd learn anything, or in any way enrich those around them. To me, they live their lives for no greater purpose than their own pleasure, and because of this I don't trust them and I feel like I spend my time in their company on the defensive. I feel like they wait to terrorize me and rip me limb from limb, just for the experience of it.
The people I've met out here seem to think you back your friends no matter what. I don't believe in that. I believe when they are wrong, you say their wrong. I believe you love them enough to make them experience the pain of growing into a better person. I believe we are a reflection of those we spend our time with. Therefore, if we don't reflect light back to one another, even when it burns, that we'll all walk in darkness.
I want to spend my time with people whose esteem I'm trying to be good enough to earn, rather than to spend my time with people I'm trying to be bad enough to impress.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Corinthinians Love
Love Always Perserves by Rev Jonathan Riddle
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
C.S. Lewis remarked within hours after losing his wife to bone cancer, "Why love if losing hurts so much?"
I suppose the reason why losing hurts deeply is because we love deeply. The scriptures teach us that loving is as much about us as it is about the other person. The reason we love others is to know that we're not alone. Lewis wrote, "I can teach now of costly love because of my own personal experience ... personal experience is the brutal teacher."
I write this column to share from my heart as a Christian, as a pastor and from my own personal experience. My older brother has struggled on and off with drug addiction for as many years as I can remember. It is hard to put into words watching someone you love slowly killing themselves in front of you. Most of my family has cut themselves off because it is too painful to stay engaged.
I suspect I would follow the same pattern if I fail to remember my own story of Jesus raising my life from out of the ashes. Believe me, I'm not strong and I'm not brave, and yet I know that I am a Christian with a burden to carry and a message to share. That is no matter how far someone falls, no matter how deep the pit, we must tell them that "no pit is so deep that God's love is not deeper still."
As Christians, we are called to stay engaged even at great cost to ourselves, because this is exactly what our master did for us, He laid down His life that we might have it, and no servant is greater than his master.
Since SouthPoint's beginning just over two years ago, one of the great lessons I'm learning is that everybody has a story. Every story is different and yet they're all somewhat familiar, asking the same questions, how do you love someone, how do you stay engaged, when it hurts so much?
Recently I watched again, one of my favorite movies, "A River Runs Through It." Norman Maclean's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Maclean) great American novel has touched so many because it depicts the emotions of those who've risked to love and suffered because of it. He shares of his experience listening to his father's last sermon on costly love shortly before his death.
"Each one of us today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing help Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding."
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
C.S. Lewis remarked within hours after losing his wife to bone cancer, "Why love if losing hurts so much?"
I suppose the reason why losing hurts deeply is because we love deeply. The scriptures teach us that loving is as much about us as it is about the other person. The reason we love others is to know that we're not alone. Lewis wrote, "I can teach now of costly love because of my own personal experience ... personal experience is the brutal teacher."
I write this column to share from my heart as a Christian, as a pastor and from my own personal experience. My older brother has struggled on and off with drug addiction for as many years as I can remember. It is hard to put into words watching someone you love slowly killing themselves in front of you. Most of my family has cut themselves off because it is too painful to stay engaged.
I suspect I would follow the same pattern if I fail to remember my own story of Jesus raising my life from out of the ashes. Believe me, I'm not strong and I'm not brave, and yet I know that I am a Christian with a burden to carry and a message to share. That is no matter how far someone falls, no matter how deep the pit, we must tell them that "no pit is so deep that God's love is not deeper still."
As Christians, we are called to stay engaged even at great cost to ourselves, because this is exactly what our master did for us, He laid down His life that we might have it, and no servant is greater than his master.
Since SouthPoint's beginning just over two years ago, one of the great lessons I'm learning is that everybody has a story. Every story is different and yet they're all somewhat familiar, asking the same questions, how do you love someone, how do you stay engaged, when it hurts so much?
Recently I watched again, one of my favorite movies, "A River Runs Through It." Norman Maclean's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Maclean) great American novel has touched so many because it depicts the emotions of those who've risked to love and suffered because of it. He shares of his experience listening to his father's last sermon on costly love shortly before his death.
"Each one of us today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing help Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding."
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Mission Statement
I will not let anything I attempt to do in honor of God come between me and God or become bigger to me than God.
I will not let myself be defined by any one thing other than God.
I will not tolerate idols in my life even if they appear to me as seemingly good things. Anything other than God in which you invest too much of your time, money & mental resources is an idol. Do not let even the best things in your life get out or proportion; all things in moderation.
Do not think you have the power to throw anything in the devil's face other than God. Any victory over satan is not yours and not come from any power of yours...to God be the glory!
Eliminate anything that is the source of your anger with God.
Do not tolerate negative self talk.
I will stop wearing abstinence around like some Christian badge of honor, like some special thing I have or am. BULLSHIT!
Just be liberated and free now that you don't have a ten foot wall around you dooming all your relationships to failure "for God" and then blaming Him for it.
I will not let myself be defined by any one thing other than God.
I will not tolerate idols in my life even if they appear to me as seemingly good things. Anything other than God in which you invest too much of your time, money & mental resources is an idol. Do not let even the best things in your life get out or proportion; all things in moderation.
Do not think you have the power to throw anything in the devil's face other than God. Any victory over satan is not yours and not come from any power of yours...to God be the glory!
Eliminate anything that is the source of your anger with God.
Do not tolerate negative self talk.
I will stop wearing abstinence around like some Christian badge of honor, like some special thing I have or am. BULLSHIT!
Just be liberated and free now that you don't have a ten foot wall around you dooming all your relationships to failure "for God" and then blaming Him for it.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Good Steward
Tithing: Giving 10% of my gross income to the Church.
10% doesn't sound like much at first, until you put it into practice and find yourself writing a check every two weeks for that 10%. You start thinking about all the things you could buy with that money: the extras you are doing without, the unexpected expenses it would cover, the trips you could take, the exam materials for your job you could buy, etc.
You even find yourself saying, well I would like to contribute money to the insurance program at my former college and since that is charitable giving, I can just not tithe that particular paycheck and use that money for the insurance program. God won't mind; it's a good cause. It's an all too familar little voice, and it belongs to the devil. While it's true, that is a good cause, it's not "kindgom building" money. The professor of that program does not even believe in Jesus Christ. She thinks Buddha is the end all and be all. She wonders why life is so hard and why she is unhappy and she still thinks the Buddha she wears around her neck (that idol) has any power to make her life any better, any more fulfilled, any more peaceful. Sad.
The major point is that tithing is one of the easiest ways to find out what people believe about God. Do they really have faith? Do they really trust Him to provide for them when they give up all that additional money every month? Do they really believe that God will bless that money and that its use will be better than anything they could do with it? Do they really believe He will bless their efforts tenfold as He promises to do?
Look at what people spend their money on and you will see what kind of person you are dealing with. Is it all about the latest technology? the fanciest cars? the nicest houses? Is it all about cheap thrills on a Friday night?
Or is it about making the lives of others better, easier? Simplifying: appreciating more and having less? Learning to be satisfied with less stuff to bless the lives of others more?
I recently started my adult career in January and have just very recently started tithing. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my walk with God is writing that check and dropping that money in the collection plate every two weeks when I get paid. It is a perpetual dying to one's self and choosing God and His ways above my own. When you start talking money with people, you are hitting them where they live. I've never even considered myself to be a materialistic, money-grubbing sort of person so I've been surprised at how difficult I've found this to be.
What I try to do is remind myself that this money is not mine. It has never belonged to me. It's always been God's money and for me to withhold it from Him is to steal from the Kingdom of God. When I take my last breath here and go back home, I do not want to explain to Him why it is I decided to steal from the Kingdom of God. I don't want to say, well, God, you see: I needed those books for my professional designation, and I needed to fly to Chicago to visit my friend, and I had to get work done on my car, and I had to have my fillings replaced, and I needed a new TV, and I wanted a bike so that's why the missionaries didn't get sent and that's why the children weren't fed, and that's why X number of people perished without ever knowing you.
He will say that is why you had more and enjoyed less and that's why your faith couldn't move mountains and why you never experienced true peace. That's why you never really experienced the intimate relationship with me I intended you to have. You didn't trust me with your everything, so there is no way I could give you the abundant life I came to earth and died on the cross that you might enjoy.
The truth is that every monetary benefit I experience is a direct result of the blessings which God bestows upon me. The reason why I'm as financially stable as I am is solely because God has seen fit to bless me. God tells us that those who can be trusted with little will be given much and those who cannot be trusted with little, even what they have will be taken from them. That doesn't mean that some months you won't be scraping by. I promise you, you will. It simply means that your Heavenly Father will provide for you and always has your best interests at heart. Your needs will always be met, even if you don't always think they are. After all, God has a really different perspective than we do on what we need. The difference is he actually knows what we need.
If you really believe that giving 10% of your income to God is going to break you financially, you might want to re-evaluate where the other 90% is going.
10% doesn't sound like much at first, until you put it into practice and find yourself writing a check every two weeks for that 10%. You start thinking about all the things you could buy with that money: the extras you are doing without, the unexpected expenses it would cover, the trips you could take, the exam materials for your job you could buy, etc.
You even find yourself saying, well I would like to contribute money to the insurance program at my former college and since that is charitable giving, I can just not tithe that particular paycheck and use that money for the insurance program. God won't mind; it's a good cause. It's an all too familar little voice, and it belongs to the devil. While it's true, that is a good cause, it's not "kindgom building" money. The professor of that program does not even believe in Jesus Christ. She thinks Buddha is the end all and be all. She wonders why life is so hard and why she is unhappy and she still thinks the Buddha she wears around her neck (that idol) has any power to make her life any better, any more fulfilled, any more peaceful. Sad.
The major point is that tithing is one of the easiest ways to find out what people believe about God. Do they really have faith? Do they really trust Him to provide for them when they give up all that additional money every month? Do they really believe that God will bless that money and that its use will be better than anything they could do with it? Do they really believe He will bless their efforts tenfold as He promises to do?
Look at what people spend their money on and you will see what kind of person you are dealing with. Is it all about the latest technology? the fanciest cars? the nicest houses? Is it all about cheap thrills on a Friday night?
Or is it about making the lives of others better, easier? Simplifying: appreciating more and having less? Learning to be satisfied with less stuff to bless the lives of others more?
I recently started my adult career in January and have just very recently started tithing. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my walk with God is writing that check and dropping that money in the collection plate every two weeks when I get paid. It is a perpetual dying to one's self and choosing God and His ways above my own. When you start talking money with people, you are hitting them where they live. I've never even considered myself to be a materialistic, money-grubbing sort of person so I've been surprised at how difficult I've found this to be.
What I try to do is remind myself that this money is not mine. It has never belonged to me. It's always been God's money and for me to withhold it from Him is to steal from the Kingdom of God. When I take my last breath here and go back home, I do not want to explain to Him why it is I decided to steal from the Kingdom of God. I don't want to say, well, God, you see: I needed those books for my professional designation, and I needed to fly to Chicago to visit my friend, and I had to get work done on my car, and I had to have my fillings replaced, and I needed a new TV, and I wanted a bike so that's why the missionaries didn't get sent and that's why the children weren't fed, and that's why X number of people perished without ever knowing you.
He will say that is why you had more and enjoyed less and that's why your faith couldn't move mountains and why you never experienced true peace. That's why you never really experienced the intimate relationship with me I intended you to have. You didn't trust me with your everything, so there is no way I could give you the abundant life I came to earth and died on the cross that you might enjoy.
The truth is that every monetary benefit I experience is a direct result of the blessings which God bestows upon me. The reason why I'm as financially stable as I am is solely because God has seen fit to bless me. God tells us that those who can be trusted with little will be given much and those who cannot be trusted with little, even what they have will be taken from them. That doesn't mean that some months you won't be scraping by. I promise you, you will. It simply means that your Heavenly Father will provide for you and always has your best interests at heart. Your needs will always be met, even if you don't always think they are. After all, God has a really different perspective than we do on what we need. The difference is he actually knows what we need.
If you really believe that giving 10% of your income to God is going to break you financially, you might want to re-evaluate where the other 90% is going.
Beam me up Scotty
I feel like an alien here, but God promised me I would.
Try telling people what you believe about living the life of a Christian, and they look at you like you have more than a few screws loose, even other Christians.
People closest to you will tell you that you aren't being realistic and living that way is not even practical.
Is it any wonder they say this? Let's revisit the first sentence: God promised us we would be aliens here. Besides that, God told us that we are not the ones being rejected. We are rejected because they first rejected Him.
This is not your home so don't live here like you are all cozy and wallow around in the slum and sin of the world.
Our Heavenly Father said, "If you love me, obey my commands." That's what I'm striving to do; I'm not always successful and I fail time and again, which is why I thank God for His grace and His mercy. However, what matters to God is that we adopt the attitude of Paul. We have to fight the good fight, we have to finish the race, and above all we have to keep the faith.
Faith is what you makes you willingly live a life contrary to all the lives around you, whatever it costs you here. I may not ever fully experience all the pleasures of this world, but what I do know is that any earthly sacrifice is nothing in comparison with the joy and fullness of a life lived for something greater than yourself, something so much greater than the superficial "happiness" of a life lived for things that are perishing and people who are but a breath.
I'm living my life for a Heavenly Father who is eternal and unshakeable. It is for this that I'm not willing to risk that which lasts forever on that which, at best, lasts 70 years but that could most likely disappear in the blink of an eye.
It all comes down to what you believe. I would be one of the top sinners indulging in the flesh if I did not believe that I have an eternal soul that is going one of two places after this earthly body fades away. Rather than a life of eternity in hell with shame and pain and "knashing of teeth," I choose a life of eternal holy joy and peace with my Father in Heaven.
Accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the way to get there. It's a catch 22 though because having accepted that sacrifice for the gift it is I cannot help but devote my life to Him. Through it all, I find peace here, amidst the schemes and whiles of the devil because try as he might to discourage me and make me believe that Jesus Christ is not all He claims to be, the devil has no dominion over me. I belong to Jesus Christ and my name is in the Book of Life. :)
Try telling people what you believe about living the life of a Christian, and they look at you like you have more than a few screws loose, even other Christians.
People closest to you will tell you that you aren't being realistic and living that way is not even practical.
Is it any wonder they say this? Let's revisit the first sentence: God promised us we would be aliens here. Besides that, God told us that we are not the ones being rejected. We are rejected because they first rejected Him.
This is not your home so don't live here like you are all cozy and wallow around in the slum and sin of the world.
Our Heavenly Father said, "If you love me, obey my commands." That's what I'm striving to do; I'm not always successful and I fail time and again, which is why I thank God for His grace and His mercy. However, what matters to God is that we adopt the attitude of Paul. We have to fight the good fight, we have to finish the race, and above all we have to keep the faith.
Faith is what you makes you willingly live a life contrary to all the lives around you, whatever it costs you here. I may not ever fully experience all the pleasures of this world, but what I do know is that any earthly sacrifice is nothing in comparison with the joy and fullness of a life lived for something greater than yourself, something so much greater than the superficial "happiness" of a life lived for things that are perishing and people who are but a breath.
I'm living my life for a Heavenly Father who is eternal and unshakeable. It is for this that I'm not willing to risk that which lasts forever on that which, at best, lasts 70 years but that could most likely disappear in the blink of an eye.
It all comes down to what you believe. I would be one of the top sinners indulging in the flesh if I did not believe that I have an eternal soul that is going one of two places after this earthly body fades away. Rather than a life of eternity in hell with shame and pain and "knashing of teeth," I choose a life of eternal holy joy and peace with my Father in Heaven.
Accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the way to get there. It's a catch 22 though because having accepted that sacrifice for the gift it is I cannot help but devote my life to Him. Through it all, I find peace here, amidst the schemes and whiles of the devil because try as he might to discourage me and make me believe that Jesus Christ is not all He claims to be, the devil has no dominion over me. I belong to Jesus Christ and my name is in the Book of Life. :)
Sunday, March 30, 2008
If I can see the speck in your eye it is because I have less than a speck of love in my heart
Jesus? Who is Jesus? Jesus is our savior who walked this earth preaching love, grace, and forgiveness. He spoke of hope and salvation for all sinners, not saints alone. He spoke of love covering over a multitude of sins. He spoke of correcting our brothers and sisters in Christ for not loving one another enough, for not building each other up, for not serving one another.
I know sin is all the same to God, but with my human mind and heart and soul it seems like one of the worst sins of all is to live a life devoid of true love for others-a life you spent sitting in negative judgement and criticism of others. A life of picking specks of sawdust from the eyes of others, despite the plank in your own eye.
A person of genuine warmth and kindness and friendliness who welcomes strangers and makes them feel like home is with us, the body of believers, the followers of Christ is who I want to be. I want to be someone who inspires peace and hope and confidence in others. I want to be someone who makes others believe first of all in our Savior and secondly in themselves. I don't want to inspire doubt and fear and confusion or self pity or hoplessness.
Okay so I'm a sinner; one who drinks and cusses and has sexually impure thoughts who fails to be as giving of my time as I should, who fails to have a servant's heart, and who fails to have a heart of true repentance the way I ought.
What do I not do? I don't fill the world up full of my judgement of its behavior. It's not my job! Or my right. It's my Father's job and he didn't delegate that duty to me. I don't critize and I don't make others feel bad, not for the things they don't accomplish or for their appearance and I don't make others feel like nothing, like they aren't special and they aren't valuable and they shouldn't be heard or that I don't want them around or that I feel sorry them.
I've met some people recently that represent the kind of person I want to be. They welcome new people into their group with open arms, like old friends. They get to know them just to shine the light of God into their lives. They find ways to include others in fellowship and they find ways to use their time and talents to serve God and teach to others to do the same, because he says "when I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was naked, you clothed me." They understand that as they do these things for one another, they do them unto God.
I cannot live a life of perfection on this earth. Of that, I have no doubt. But I will not live a life of misery doing what I can to make those around me miserable by constantly verbally belittling and berating them for the mistakes in their lives, pretending that because I do not drink and do not cuss and have never had a night of lust and I do not have piercings and tatoos and children out of wedlock or landed in prison for DUI or dropped out of college or gone bankrupt or smoked pot or what not that I'm the superior and ultimate Christian who gets to judge those who have done any or all those things.
I do not have that right! Neither do you! No one on this earth does. That is the business of Heaven! Besides, I would prefer any and all the sins on that list to having a hardened and calloused heart trying in vain to observe the law like a Pharisee paying lip service to God and all the while hating my brethen, his very children.
What do you accomplish if you have not love? You have nothing, you gain nothing. We were meant to point the lost to Jesus. Jesus is so much more love than he is judgment. Love saves people. Judgment is reserved even by God until the very end. Only when we are beyond saving are we are judged and condemned, never before that. God doesn't do it because he knows that until the very end there is hope for us and that judgment inspires and saves no one. Judgment is nothing more than the exclamation point of dissatisfation on a life lived without God. Judgment is not about a life full of mistakes. Unlike human beings God forgives failures and flaws.
You fail God only when you refuse to let him do for you what you cannot do for yourself. You cannot save yourself. You cannot follow the law. You can only follow Jesus. Take your sins and your imperfections and cover over their multitude with the love of Christ and pour it all out into the world of sinners. Love the evil in your heart out and love it out of others.
Don't judge others but remind and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ to love another with the love Christ has shown us.
I know sin is all the same to God, but with my human mind and heart and soul it seems like one of the worst sins of all is to live a life devoid of true love for others-a life you spent sitting in negative judgement and criticism of others. A life of picking specks of sawdust from the eyes of others, despite the plank in your own eye.
A person of genuine warmth and kindness and friendliness who welcomes strangers and makes them feel like home is with us, the body of believers, the followers of Christ is who I want to be. I want to be someone who inspires peace and hope and confidence in others. I want to be someone who makes others believe first of all in our Savior and secondly in themselves. I don't want to inspire doubt and fear and confusion or self pity or hoplessness.
Okay so I'm a sinner; one who drinks and cusses and has sexually impure thoughts who fails to be as giving of my time as I should, who fails to have a servant's heart, and who fails to have a heart of true repentance the way I ought.
What do I not do? I don't fill the world up full of my judgement of its behavior. It's not my job! Or my right. It's my Father's job and he didn't delegate that duty to me. I don't critize and I don't make others feel bad, not for the things they don't accomplish or for their appearance and I don't make others feel like nothing, like they aren't special and they aren't valuable and they shouldn't be heard or that I don't want them around or that I feel sorry them.
I've met some people recently that represent the kind of person I want to be. They welcome new people into their group with open arms, like old friends. They get to know them just to shine the light of God into their lives. They find ways to include others in fellowship and they find ways to use their time and talents to serve God and teach to others to do the same, because he says "when I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was naked, you clothed me." They understand that as they do these things for one another, they do them unto God.
I cannot live a life of perfection on this earth. Of that, I have no doubt. But I will not live a life of misery doing what I can to make those around me miserable by constantly verbally belittling and berating them for the mistakes in their lives, pretending that because I do not drink and do not cuss and have never had a night of lust and I do not have piercings and tatoos and children out of wedlock or landed in prison for DUI or dropped out of college or gone bankrupt or smoked pot or what not that I'm the superior and ultimate Christian who gets to judge those who have done any or all those things.
I do not have that right! Neither do you! No one on this earth does. That is the business of Heaven! Besides, I would prefer any and all the sins on that list to having a hardened and calloused heart trying in vain to observe the law like a Pharisee paying lip service to God and all the while hating my brethen, his very children.
What do you accomplish if you have not love? You have nothing, you gain nothing. We were meant to point the lost to Jesus. Jesus is so much more love than he is judgment. Love saves people. Judgment is reserved even by God until the very end. Only when we are beyond saving are we are judged and condemned, never before that. God doesn't do it because he knows that until the very end there is hope for us and that judgment inspires and saves no one. Judgment is nothing more than the exclamation point of dissatisfation on a life lived without God. Judgment is not about a life full of mistakes. Unlike human beings God forgives failures and flaws.
You fail God only when you refuse to let him do for you what you cannot do for yourself. You cannot save yourself. You cannot follow the law. You can only follow Jesus. Take your sins and your imperfections and cover over their multitude with the love of Christ and pour it all out into the world of sinners. Love the evil in your heart out and love it out of others.
Don't judge others but remind and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ to love another with the love Christ has shown us.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE
I am so blessed.
My arms bend at the elbow.
My legs are the same length.
I can feed, dress, and bathe myself.
I can walk, talk, breathe and use the restroom without the aid of man or machine.
I can hear and see.
I speak without a lisp, only a Southern accent.
I have food to spare, even if it does show a little about my waist.
I have no diet restrictions, no allergies to food.
I am not required to take presciption medicines.
I have a comfy, warm, and clean bed to sleep in.
I have clean water to bathe in and to drink.
I have family and friends who love me.
I have a job in a nice environment, and I have a car that gets me there.
I have plenty of clothes in my closet.
I live in a country founded in freedom and democracy, even if I'm not fond of the political candidates this go round.
I can worship my Lord and Savior whenever, wherever, and however I please, free of persecution or danger.
I have a past full of happy memories, and a future of hope.
I am blessed beyond measure.
I do not have problems, only mere annoyances.
Again I say, I'm blessed beyond measure.
Perhaps, you are too, despite your arguing yourself to the contrary.
My arms bend at the elbow.
My legs are the same length.
I can feed, dress, and bathe myself.
I can walk, talk, breathe and use the restroom without the aid of man or machine.
I can hear and see.
I speak without a lisp, only a Southern accent.
I have food to spare, even if it does show a little about my waist.
I have no diet restrictions, no allergies to food.
I am not required to take presciption medicines.
I have a comfy, warm, and clean bed to sleep in.
I have clean water to bathe in and to drink.
I have family and friends who love me.
I have a job in a nice environment, and I have a car that gets me there.
I have plenty of clothes in my closet.
I live in a country founded in freedom and democracy, even if I'm not fond of the political candidates this go round.
I can worship my Lord and Savior whenever, wherever, and however I please, free of persecution or danger.
I have a past full of happy memories, and a future of hope.
I am blessed beyond measure.
I do not have problems, only mere annoyances.
Again I say, I'm blessed beyond measure.
Perhaps, you are too, despite your arguing yourself to the contrary.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
FOR BAD NEWS
The hardest thing to learn?
This life will have misery, no matter how we live it.
However, suffering as a Child of God has purpose and it is a sweet suffering, a suffering borne of faith, hope, and love.
Suffering without salvation in Jesus Christ is total misery encased in hopelessness and worthlessness.
We draw close to God-we pray, we read our Bibles, and we go to Church.
What do we find?
We still struggle. Life is still hard.
Why, God, why is it hard?
It's hard because Satan hates that you're trying to be close to your Heavenly Father.
Plus, Satan knows what your greatest, deepest, darkest, most hideous, shameful and embarassing weaknesses are, and he bombards you with them daily. It's different for all of us. Some of us struggle with self-confidence others with pride and self love. Some of us love those on this earth too much and some of us don't love them enough. Some of us love material possessions too much and some make money an idol. Some of us hate our lives and do not have peace and joy but nothing more than the self pity and depression that come when you don't have a life filled with the peace and unbroken heart that only faith in our Lord Jesus Christ can give you. Some of us break every law in the Bible with no consideration of the consequences and others of us are so legalistic that we drain out every ounce of love that Jesus breathed into the Bible. Did you not see the verses that say that "Love covers over a multitude of sin." That's not a metaphor!!
You are in a war, you Christian Soldier! Bad things are going to happen to you. You are a human being and that is the human experience on this earth. This earth is run and controlled by demons and it has been infiltrated with the evil of Satan. Make no mistake about it: All evil is of Satan and all good is of God.
Can God can make sure evil and hard times never befalls you? Absolutely! But why would He? Think about this. If you are never attacked and you never feel the depth of your own weakness, you will also never find your source of strength in God.
With every trial and tribulation in your life that you take right back to God and lay at the foot of the cross and say, "I can't carry this with my own strength. It has to be you working through me. You have to stand for me because I can't," stengthens your testimony and shines the Glory of God into the world, which is what it so desperately needs!
You don't show the light and the love of God by reacting to pain and suffering and disaster and catastophe and betrayal and the heinous acts of others by crumbling like the world, by wringing your hands. You can only glorify God when you learn that happiness is not conditional. It is doing the will of God no matter what that means, no matter the sacrifice, no matter what you lose on account of it. It is that little voice at the end of the day, that says, "yes, Lord, yes yes Lord! I will forever trust and follow after you." It is Lot saying, "yes, Lord, I have lost everything of this world that meant anything to me, but I still belong to you. My heart is still yours!"
I want that to be what rings in eternity for me. I want that to be what I leave behind. I don't care what happens to me on this earth, what my experience is, what the cross I carry is, what the thorn in my side is. I want the message that rings in all eternity for me to be: "LORD, MY HEART IS STILL YOURS!"
After all, Satan is going to take some of the things that you love from you. The only way you can rob him back is to smile through the tears and take it to God. Run it back to the stronghold!
You know why you are special? The only thing that makes you special is belonging to God. His ownership, his blessings, his love, his mark, his suffering make you all the special you will ever need to be. The biggest loser on this earth that belongs to God is better off than anyone who doesn't, regardless of the trappings of wealth or success of this world.
Be fearless on this earth. Know that your confidence, your heart, your soul and the way in which you define yourself can never be broken, diminished or destroyed because it's all about the way God loves you, and that love is eternal and unforsakeable.
All you can do is glorify the One who has given you everything, and give others just a little bit of that peace and a little bit of that love.
Live outward. Focus on others and how you can serve them and lead them to God. How can you lighten their burden? If that's your focus, you will find you are carrying your burdens without feeling their weight.
Be prepared to serve God even when you're not too jazzed about it. I was in a young women's Bible study one time and one of the girl's said, "I don't think I could handle being single for a lifetime." The woman leading the Bible study said, "can you handle being single today?" That's the point: God's grace is sufficient for today, every single day.
Live in today. Do the best you can with what you have where you are, and take everything else to God. I am fearless, bold, outgoing, ambitious, intelligent, focused, and driven because God is to the right of me and to the left of me, he is beneath and above me. He is behind me and in front of me and within me. God surrounds me! I'm protected and blessed beyond all measure. I am His and he lets himself be mine-my Father, my portion, my peace, my fortress, strongold, and protector, healer, my everything!
This life will have misery, no matter how we live it.
However, suffering as a Child of God has purpose and it is a sweet suffering, a suffering borne of faith, hope, and love.
Suffering without salvation in Jesus Christ is total misery encased in hopelessness and worthlessness.
We draw close to God-we pray, we read our Bibles, and we go to Church.
What do we find?
We still struggle. Life is still hard.
Why, God, why is it hard?
It's hard because Satan hates that you're trying to be close to your Heavenly Father.
Plus, Satan knows what your greatest, deepest, darkest, most hideous, shameful and embarassing weaknesses are, and he bombards you with them daily. It's different for all of us. Some of us struggle with self-confidence others with pride and self love. Some of us love those on this earth too much and some of us don't love them enough. Some of us love material possessions too much and some make money an idol. Some of us hate our lives and do not have peace and joy but nothing more than the self pity and depression that come when you don't have a life filled with the peace and unbroken heart that only faith in our Lord Jesus Christ can give you. Some of us break every law in the Bible with no consideration of the consequences and others of us are so legalistic that we drain out every ounce of love that Jesus breathed into the Bible. Did you not see the verses that say that "Love covers over a multitude of sin." That's not a metaphor!!
You are in a war, you Christian Soldier! Bad things are going to happen to you. You are a human being and that is the human experience on this earth. This earth is run and controlled by demons and it has been infiltrated with the evil of Satan. Make no mistake about it: All evil is of Satan and all good is of God.
Can God can make sure evil and hard times never befalls you? Absolutely! But why would He? Think about this. If you are never attacked and you never feel the depth of your own weakness, you will also never find your source of strength in God.
With every trial and tribulation in your life that you take right back to God and lay at the foot of the cross and say, "I can't carry this with my own strength. It has to be you working through me. You have to stand for me because I can't," stengthens your testimony and shines the Glory of God into the world, which is what it so desperately needs!
You don't show the light and the love of God by reacting to pain and suffering and disaster and catastophe and betrayal and the heinous acts of others by crumbling like the world, by wringing your hands. You can only glorify God when you learn that happiness is not conditional. It is doing the will of God no matter what that means, no matter the sacrifice, no matter what you lose on account of it. It is that little voice at the end of the day, that says, "yes, Lord, yes yes Lord! I will forever trust and follow after you." It is Lot saying, "yes, Lord, I have lost everything of this world that meant anything to me, but I still belong to you. My heart is still yours!"
I want that to be what rings in eternity for me. I want that to be what I leave behind. I don't care what happens to me on this earth, what my experience is, what the cross I carry is, what the thorn in my side is. I want the message that rings in all eternity for me to be: "LORD, MY HEART IS STILL YOURS!"
After all, Satan is going to take some of the things that you love from you. The only way you can rob him back is to smile through the tears and take it to God. Run it back to the stronghold!
You know why you are special? The only thing that makes you special is belonging to God. His ownership, his blessings, his love, his mark, his suffering make you all the special you will ever need to be. The biggest loser on this earth that belongs to God is better off than anyone who doesn't, regardless of the trappings of wealth or success of this world.
Be fearless on this earth. Know that your confidence, your heart, your soul and the way in which you define yourself can never be broken, diminished or destroyed because it's all about the way God loves you, and that love is eternal and unforsakeable.
All you can do is glorify the One who has given you everything, and give others just a little bit of that peace and a little bit of that love.
Live outward. Focus on others and how you can serve them and lead them to God. How can you lighten their burden? If that's your focus, you will find you are carrying your burdens without feeling their weight.
Be prepared to serve God even when you're not too jazzed about it. I was in a young women's Bible study one time and one of the girl's said, "I don't think I could handle being single for a lifetime." The woman leading the Bible study said, "can you handle being single today?" That's the point: God's grace is sufficient for today, every single day.
Live in today. Do the best you can with what you have where you are, and take everything else to God. I am fearless, bold, outgoing, ambitious, intelligent, focused, and driven because God is to the right of me and to the left of me, he is beneath and above me. He is behind me and in front of me and within me. God surrounds me! I'm protected and blessed beyond all measure. I am His and he lets himself be mine-my Father, my portion, my peace, my fortress, strongold, and protector, healer, my everything!
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