Did God Give Jonah Another Chance?

Wow, the last time I wrote I was feeling uncertain, feeling like Jonah, just wanting to obey…and I left it at that.

The job situation has worked out.  Despite my uncomfortableness, I’m going to work everyday and dealing daily with situations that only in the world of logistics would bring me.  God has never left my side, even though it sometimes felt lonely and so overwhelming, I am still here, thanking God that He is a merciful Lord and Father.

At the end of the book of Jonah, we see him so angry, “It IS right for me to be angry, even to death!”  He screamed to God.  I can’t imagine Jonah believed himself to be in the right when he answers the Almighty so rashly and foolishly, but he did it just the same.  Why in the world did God not zap Jonah into oblivion?  After all Jonah had been through, it appears he still does not understand God’s mercy.  God would have been just to destroy Jonah on the spot, but he doesn’t.

I’m so glad God doesn’t decide to do away with us whenever we have our little tantrums because we do not understand His plan.  I found myself several times over the past 6 months absolutely defying the Lord because I was so stressed out in my new position.  I found myself screaming in the dark, crying, having fits behind closed doors, sometimes thinking I was going out of my mind and wanting nothing more than just to get out.  A couple of times my wife believed I was on the verge of having  a nervous breakdown.  I did realize I needed to go to the doctor and get some help.   Besides that, I was acting crazy in the face of the Lord who had called me to a different ministry in life.  Now, I’m so glad he has different plans for me and my family.  I still get stressed from time to time, but God is there, He always was and is. 

I’d like to think that maybe Jonah was pretty stressed out the day he answered God so angrily, maybe, at the time, he really did want to die.  I think that maybe God understood this, and though He would’ve been just to destroy Jonah then and there, he was merciful to him and allowed him to continue in His work.  How do I know this?  Well, who else would’ve written the book of Jonah?

Me and Ole’ Jonah, Like Two Peas in a Pod

When Pastor Steve told me he would be preaching on Jonah after he wrapped up the book of Romans a couple of months ago, I had the feeling this book from God’s Word would be applying to me.  Turns out I was right.

We’re awfully hard on Jonah aren’t we.  Even non-Christians can tell us about “the man who ran” or “Jonah and the Whale” and put a negative connotation to him.  We look at Jonah and equate him with out right defiance towards God, and remember that God “punished” him for his defiance.  It’s enough to make any sinner quake in his boots if he or she would give the history of God’s Word more credit than a mere children’s story.

I feel for Jonah, and realize much of my situations relates to his.  Recently opportunities have come up that have blind sighted me.  I have a successful job, one where I am trusted, not micro-managed, make a decent wage, and I’m doing what I love.  Such was the case with Jonah, he had a successful ministry, when he spoke, people listened, and he was doing just fine in his career as a prophet until one day God blind sighted him as well. 

God told Jonah to head to Ninevah and cry out against it, to leave his comfort zone and cry out against a city that was wicked and needed to repent in order to escape the judgement of God, but they had to be warned of their sins, and Jonah was the man for the job.  The thing was, Jonah HAD to do what he didn’t want to do in order to do the job.  It cost him some pride, some discomfort (can’t imagine how comfortable being slowly digested by a fish just big enough to swallow you would be) diving into the unknown and his own understanding.

Now I have been faced with a situation in which I am VERY uncomfortable, I am afraid, panic overwhelms me on nearly a daily basis in this new situation that I believe God has called me too.  I believe I am obeying God’s will, but I do not understand why.  It makes me sick that I am so apprehensive on a daily basis, but as I learned today, it is not necessary that I understand the situation, just that I obey what I believe God’s will is.

Jonah did the same, once he was vomited by the fish, he went after his job with all he could.  Deep in his heart, he didn’t understand why God cared so much for these people, but Jonah obeyed, with very little of his own wisdom factoring into his decisions.

I hope I get it right, not making a terribly rash decision in a heat of panic, but I’m obeying…and for now, I pray that is all that’s required of me, not my understanding, and certainly not my emotion.  God help me love what He has given me to do.  Right now I’m just so uncertain….

Marked in Jail in Claremore, OK

            Mark, Chad, Zach, Johnny, RJ, Pat, Phillip, and I all have an understanding of God that we may not have had until this past Monday.  As I sat with these seven men from all walks of life who ended up in the same place by no other fault but their own, I began to share the things the Lord has brought to my heart.  Through the zealousness of a guy who changes oil in a local car dealership here in Claremore, OK, I am reminded that I am a marked man.  I shared with these men how they too are marked men.  They are not in this predicament through anything that I have done, just as I am not by anything that they have done.

            The Bible tells us that God knows the very number of hairs on our heads (Luke 12:7).  Normally this is a comforting verse to read, a verse that brings reassurance that God will take care of everything; that we are more important than the birds that God does not forget, but given the context I was sharing with these guys, it brought a shudder to my spine.  As we read that scripture, which, preceding just a couple of verses before, Jesus tells us to “fear Him, who, after He has killed, has power to cast into Hell,” it drove home the point…God is paying attention.  Scripture teaches that not one sparrow falls to the ground that the LORD does not know about, and He knows the hairs on my head.  It was at this moment I felt “marked.”

            If God is paying attention enough to know the hairs on my head, than surely He must remember that small piece of candy I stole from a convenience store when I was just a boy, which from that moment on, labeled me a thief (whether I was caught or not).  If He knows the hairs of my head, then He knows also the countless lustful thoughts I’ve had towards a countless of number of women (dressed appropriately or not) I just passed by in the mall or on the street.  Jesus said if a man just looks at a woman with lust in his heart he is guilty of adultery already.  If He pays enough attention that He knows the exact number of hairs on my head right now than surely He’s paid enough attention to the number of lies I have told to people I don’t even remember lying to, whether I remember or not, found out or not, one lie makes a person a liar, and I’m sure I’ve told many more than one.  A lying, thieving, adulterer…sins I have committed in my life and am labeled for eternity.

            I Corinthians 6:8-10 says this, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortionists will inherit the kingdom of God.”  According to this verse, I cannot go to Heaven.  The Bible teaches God’s wrath is upon me…I am an unrighteous man who will meet a righteous God, who will meet justice, a marked man.  It is appointed once for a man to die, and after this, the judgment.  And I did it; I chose all of my sins, all by myself.  It was my free will that knows right from wrong that chose wrong. God would be absolutely right to give me Hell eternally as the deeds I chose marred my soul eternally. I am at His mercy.  

            But thank God there is mercy!  Praise His name that God would rather have a disposition of love than one of righteous judgment!  He alone provided a way for salvation.  Once I realize I’m a marked man and turn from the sins that made me that way and I believe in His Son – Jesus Christ, I am saved from judgment.  I am free from the penalty of sin, for Jesus, who knew no sin, endured the penalty and punishment and death for me upon an instrument of torture, the cross, and God sees that sacrifice as enough.  My fine is paid.  Praise God that Jesus meant what He said when He said, “It is finished.”  Praise God Jesus Christ is alive right now so I do not have to endure death and damnation that I deserve.  I am marked, but Jesus’ blood from His death covers my mark.  It covers that impurity which God cannot righteously look upon and I can be with Him.

            All of us this past Monday night, sitting in a little room in jail learned we were marked men, by our own special individual designs.  Some may have Jesus blood covering their marks, others sat, realizing they were enemies of God, realizing the truth of the Word and were forced to make a decision, repent and throw themselves at Jesus’ mercy, or wait a little while longer, remaining God’s enemy, with his wrath on their individual, hair-numbered heads.  Tonight I pray they have made the right decisions. 

 

Pray for these guys in the jail in Claremore OK.  They need it, they are everyday folks just like us who got caught doing wrong and they need salvation just like the rest of us.  Pray the justice they are receiving now will be an example to them of how swift justice will come upon them when they pass into eternity and they’ll have the brokenness to repent before it’s too late.

Ignorance Was Bliss….and Now?

Jesus Christ reveals things about men that we do not like to think about.  That or we simply dismiss the things he says out of hand, happy that the condemning statements he has do not apply to us, because we are of the faith, because we are saved.  I think it is a rare thing that professing Christians look at Jesus’ statements about the nature of man and apply His words to themselves.  I certainly didn’t.  My eyes were not open, my ears did not hear, I was ignorant, not just two years ago, at the time of my salvation, when I called Christ my Lord, but even two weeks ago, when I came across Matthew 15:18-20 in my devotions. “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart…For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, blasphemies…These are the things which defile a man.” These are the sins many Christians see, myself included, happy that they have never experienced such sins as Jesus spells out.  They perhaps were in our thoughts at one time, like the “little white lies,” and the occasional use of God’s name in vain, but thank God we are now ”forgiven saints,” forgiven even of the BIG sins we never committed, like murder or adultery.  Gone are these sins, and the consequences of them.  “Ignorance is bliss,” we may not outwardly or even inwardly think, but our actions and pleasant smiles within our “saved by grace” souls are revealed.   Ignorance of murder and adultery and the consequences thereof is great…isn’t it? I have many friends who I wouldn’t consider to be Christians.  They don’t profess to be Christians, in fact, one of them DESPISES God and the things of God…but he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.  He is a man who has never committed murder, nor would he ever consider it, it’s against the law after all, and he just wouldn’t do that.  As far as I know, he’s never committed adultery, it leads to trouble and he knows it, it also is against the law, God’s law and man’s, at least in the state of Oklahoma, FYI.  But my friend hasn’t experienced these sins or their consequences, he is ignorant of them.  Is he one of the men Jesus is speaking about?  What’s the difference between he and the saints? Taking a look at myself, there are times I’ve wanted to scream, to be an “absolute brute” as Oswald Chambers puts it, to anyone who rubbed me the wrong way.  I’ve never really struck anyone in public, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t wanted to.  The only reason I haven’t been and absolute abusive person at times I realized ”is my own cowardice coupled with the sense of protection I receive from living a ‘civilized’ life.”  That doesn’t mean the desires are not there.  If I take an absolute hard honest look at myself, I would find that there are nightmares within me.  There are things I could be and would be if not for the grace of God placing me in the environments I was placed in.  I could be an alcholic idolater in India, I could be a crack addict in a trailer park in Chelsea, I could be a dishonest accountant in Claremore, I could be a cad, taking advantage of any married woman I know in Tulsa, I could even be a prisoner on death row who made one bad choice to express my anger in a real stupid and evil way.  One second in my life time is all it would take to reveal what is truly within my sinner’s heart.  I realized the only reason I am NOT any of those things or pursuing any of those sins has nothing to do with me; but has EVERYTHING to do with Christ pursuing me in the nick of time and laying hold of me and making me something–someone new.  He called my name, despite what he knows is within me, and brought me to Himself.  There is always the possibility I could become any of what Christ proclaims in Matthew 15:18-20, even as a Christian, that is why He deserves my glory. If Christ were stripped from my life, all that would be left would defile me, all that would be left would be death.  Praise God He cannot be stripped!  Praise God He is life! Praise God He doesn’t leave it up to me NOT to sin, but gives me life that I may never will to sin again because I have been crucified with Him, but live, but not I, but Him who lives within me.

The Human Condition of “Undeservedness”

“YOU DON’T DESERVE SPIT! — Unless you can pay for it.”  Dave Ramsey says in one of his teaching sessions of Financial Peace University.  This quote would have came right at a time when any one of us may say, “I deserve a newer model car.”  Or “I’ve lived in a mobile home all my life, I deserve a custom built house.”  Or maybe even, ”I deserve to feed the kids happy meals because they won’t shut up, and I don’t have an ounce of strength to open a can of spaghetti-Os or make a PB&J.  The premise is, if you can’t pay for it, you don’t deserve it, no matter how bad a day or life you’ve had.

I’ve been dealing with this idea the past couple of weeks…swallowing it is more like it.  In today’s cause and effect societry we assume God is that way too. 

It’s how we grew up isn’t it?  The parents tell us to be quiet and behave and we do, so we don’t get yelled at or punished.  Well, how many of us work and get paid?  We are so used to “deserving” the things that we get, good or bad, most of the time we absolutely will not be denied.  Yet over the past couple of weeks I’m reminded that God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. 

Karen and I have been looking for a rent house, deciding we may be able to save more money living closer to my place of employment than paying for gas driving back and forth.  Yet our search has turned up empty, and my frustrations have been made manifest a couple of times because I’m ready to leave the place we’re in.  Honestly, all the places for rent we wouldn’t be able to come close to renting on a month to month basis without sacrificing some major “debt snowball.”  I’ll admit I’ve prayed (or whined), wondering why the Lord doesn’t just lead us straight to the house right away so we can start saving MORE money immediately.  But you’d be surprised at the thoughts I’ve had, ”Lord, my family and I love you, we try to worship you in all we do, don’t we deserve more than what we have?  When will you bless, Lord?  Won’t you please help?”  It wasn’t until later that I thought of Dave Ramsey and realized that none of us “deserve” anything unless we can pay for it do we?  

The bible clearly states the ”wages of sin” is death.  That’s what we all deserve when it comes right down to it – death and Hell.  But we would never be promised a chance at a loving relationship with God had it not been for Jesus Christ who ”paid for” our sins.  Only does belief in Him, His sacrifice, and His ressurection and repentence of our sin allow us to be redeemed to God.  Blood bought and “paid for.”  It’s something we can never buy ourselves, but it’s a gift, all salvation requires is our belief. 

This redemption is not automatic though, just as I don’t “deserve” an affordable rent house just because I’m sucking wind-we don’t automatically deserve Heaven just because we repeat a little prayer after Jesus Christ died.  There must be a recognition of what we, being human and sinful, deserve (Hell); and repenting of what got us there, our willful sin!  This is a truth that is left out of so many churches today.  Too often we see Jesus Christ death on the cross for us as something we have earned just because we’re alive and breathing and God would never send us to Hell.  Unfortunately most of us think more of ourselves and what we think we deserve never allows us to come to this point.  In the end, we are undeserving of God’s grace, but He gives it anyway.  Praise God he gives us the choice to be paid for, without giving what we truly deserve.

A Most Embarrassing Moment With My Spouse

Tonight a memory came to me that I haven’t thought of in a long time.  I’m not one to rehash the past, but it fell right in line with the thoughts I had after church tonight.  This, coincidently, just happened to be the same Sunday as the Super Bowl.

 

This memory starts on a Sunday morning.  I’m tired because I’m sure I stayed up too late the night before.  My wife Karen, who loves me and my children dearly, is also tired because I’m sure I stayed up too late the night before.  It’s approximately 8:00 am, I really should be getting up, church will be starting soon and I really should be there.  But my stomach hurts, I think (I always have a stomach ache when I don’t have enough sleep), and I think God will understand me calling in sick once.  Only, I’m not really sick, not really, I just want to stay in bed a little longer.  I roll over and put my arm around my wife, who IS getting up, and I’m not going to be able to convince her to stay with me.  I tell her I don’t feel well (a little white lie) and I’m not planning to go to church this morning.  She looks disappointed and says “okay” as she’s getting dressed in a hurry.  In a flash she’s gone to dress the children.  That kind of surprises me because I figured if she was in as big of a hurry as she seems to be she’ll leave the kids.  The kids are tired too, but they also are dressed and look pretty good as they head out the door as Karen gathers up the last of what she needs for the morning.  I’m still laying there in bed when she comes in one last time to barely give me a cold peck on my cheek.  “Ya know,” she said, “our boys need to be in church.  I’m going to take them, and I wish you were going too, since you are their father and my husband.”  Then she left.

 

I knew what she meant with that last statement.  I was the man of this home.  I’m supposed to be the spiritual leader; I should be waking her up and dragging her out the door.  I should be showing the children how important it is to assemble with our friends and family in Christ Jesus and worshiping him in spirit and in truth.  But here I was, lying in bed, my spouse charging out of the home, running to Jesus, tearfully that her husband refuses to join her.  I was mad at first; she made me look like a fool.  I usually go to church, don’t I deserve a break?  Then I thought back and realized my church attendance lately was hit and miss at the very best.  But how dare she talk to me like that!  I am the man of the house, aren’t I?  But my conscience told me if I were, I’d be in that car, taking my family to church.  I was mortified.  That morning my lack of enthusiasm to take my rightful place as man of the home and meet Jesus, where so many others would gather together in His name, embarrassed me.  Knowing that Christ was the reason to be there, I was ashamed.  My spouse had shown me up because she obeyed the Lord.

 

As the church, we are the bride of Christ, the bible teaches this truth in more than one passage.  Yet as Christ’s spouse, are we still lying in bed, making excuses as to why not to go and see Him?  Take this illustration metaphorically or literally, neither way is good.  When in the world did it become okay NOT to go meet Jesus with our faithful brothers and sisters in Christ?  We are His bride, and yet use His grace and goodness as a constant excuse to lie in bed and complain that we are so tired, or we are so sick, or we are so sick and tired.  Of what, can I ask, sick and tired of what?  Think about it, doesn’t Christ tell us to come to Him, we who are weak and heavy laden?  What exactly are we so tired of or sick of that we can’t come to Christ, our husband to see Him and be with Him, as He’s promised He is there with us?

 

Recently I’ve heard two people comment that it is rather normal, in these days, for a church to have a high attendance on Sunday mornings and yet have extremely low attendance in comparison on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights.  One of these folks, mercifully, said that Sunday nights may be the only time church members have to relax after a stressful week of work, not to mention a stressful Saturday of running kids back and forth to different sports games and events.  I’m trying to picture it, me standing before Christ, explaining that after a week of trying to get money to pay for more stuff that will probably take my attention away from Him…eh, maybe not.

 

Why does His bride, His church, the one people on the earth that claim to love Him the most, avoid Him like the plague after one gathering?  If we love Him as much as we claim to shouldn’t we be breaking our necks to get into His presence?  Shouldn’t we be lining up to be in His service?  Why do we constantly make excuses as to why we shouldn’t be there and mistake his mercy for winking at our complacency?  Christ said He vomited us out because we are not cold nor hot!  It’s time for some kind of revival; it’s time for repentance, in our church and in our nation.

Psalm 139: The Effective, Loving, Ever-present God

Psalm 139: The Effective, Loving, Everpresent God

Recently a friend of mine asked if I had ever meditated on Psalm 139.  I’ve read a portion of it, but have never sincerely looked at it extensively…until today. Before I really go into my thoughts on just a few of what I feel are the main verses of the passage, I would like to say I believe in the sovereignty of God; He can do what He wants…period.  I know I will never understand all He wishes to do in my life despite the kind of person I am, but He does.  That’s one thing I’ve learned from this passage. Secondly, we know that God has endowed his creation man with a free will, and God is glorified when, despite of all we’ve done, we accept Him as He is, Holy, Sovereign and all. “O Lord, you have searched me, and known me.”This to me is the heart of Psalm 139.  God knows me, He understands me, and understands my thoughts far off or near.  He knows them as I think them; He knows them years down the road.  The Lord knows me so well that there is no word on my tongue or lips that God doesn’t know before I say it.  He is also behind me and in front of me.  He “comprehends” where I go, and when I just lie down…he understands my motivations for getting up in the morning and going from place to place and my motivations for going to bed - whether I’m tired or lazy.  If he knows that, He surely also knows why I stay in bed, and whether or not I believe I have any reason for getting up. God knows me; I heard it once said, “God is above me looking down, below me looking up, to my right side looking left and left side looking right, he is within me looking out.”  He knows my outside, every dimple, every pimple, every pucker, and every imperfection.  He knows my inside, every hair, every blood cell, every blood clot, every fat cell…He knows me.  He knows my heart, sinful motivations, sinful feelings and sinful flesh.  I’m a sinner, and he knows that…saved by grace, by Jesus Christ, but a sinner just the same…and with all that information that God knows about my person…verse 5 says He has “laid His hand upon me.” I cannot “flee from God’s spirit,” even if I wanted to.  This doesn’t mean I can’t go out from His grace and sin, it just means God is everywhere and ever present, no matter where I go, He is there.  God will orchestrate life to bring me back as a child of God, and as a sinner, orchestrate life to bring sinners to Him.  But even when I want to hide, when I say “surely the darkness shall fall on me,” even then God shall light the darkness so nothing may hide in the darkness.  He is there, and nothing will hide from Him, no secret sins.  He knows them, even the dark secrets of our past, it doesn’t surprise Him, He makes night to day and darkness and day are one to Him, because it is ALL light. “Oh that you should slay the wicked, O God!”  This passage seemed strangely out of place to me, until I thought that maybe the wickedness would be within me.  It makes sense.  After all that trying to hide my sin, hide in the darkness, and I now see how I am before a Holy, righteous God because of His light, would it not make sense to ask Him to slay the wickedness within? Can this sin within be  my enemy?  Who else might say that I am “my own worst enemy?”  Couldn’t all of us?  I think I’m on the right track in this line of thinking as the next section of verses say, “Search me, O God, and know my heart…see if there is any wicked way within me.” My friend asked after reading this Psalm 139, “How can God forgive me if He knows I’m going to screw up again anyway?”  Because He knows you, and mercy is in His disposition, He’s sovereign and He can, and He also knows He gave you a free will.  He has faith in Himself and His Word, and He knows His light will eventually lead your free will to saying “Search me, O God!  Try me!”  God is God, and He made a Way, and Jesus is sufficient for us, even when we doubt ourselves.  I see this passage as joyful.  If God knows me this well, how can I lose when I trust Him and Him alone?  Not trust Him and myself, but just Him.  And guess what?  We don’t have to understand it all….just trust Him, He does…He’s God.  Even the Psalmist said, “such knowledge is too wonderful for me: It is high, I cannot attain it.”  God is God, He is love, He puts His hand on me, He lights up the shadows and sin I’ve hidden (that’s a good thing), and He looks for us to cry out to Him because He is God, and he loves us, whether we understand it or not.

Banjara For Christ 2007-2008 (Day 10)

Karen has never looked more beautiful than when she did as I turned the corner of that airplane terminal.  I hugged and squeezed her, kissed her, and hugged and squeezed her some more.  All of our families and friends were there at the airport waiting on us.  It’s good to be home.

I’m thankful to God that I’m not sick this time around.  Though I think my stomach is having a harder time digesting food from home than I originally thought it would.  Karen was able to work while I was gone and was making some money.  It seems our washing machine, barely over a year old, shot craps along with our DVD player, also no older than a year.  No big deal though.  Karen bought a new DVD player and we’ll get the washer fixed.  We have folks who will let us do laundry at their house if we need too.

The boys are at mom’s house tonight as it is still their holiday break from school.  We’ll get them on the fifth.  I can’t wait to see them.  All seems well at home and the weather is unseasonably beautiful.

Karen gave me a new journal for Christmas this year.  I’ve been writing in it the entire trip as that’s what she bought it for.  I’m having a difficult time deciding whether or not I will continue to write my own daily thoughts in it while here at home.  Life is a journey, that’s for certain, and some days are not as exciting as others.  Even on a mission trip though, some days are not as exciting as others.  Life is so “daily,” someone once said, and it may do some good to keep a continuous flow of thought through this journal specifically as I’ve already started it through the New Year.

The mission trip is finished; I look forward to going back.  Yet life goes on while still at home.  Today is the first day of the rest of my life, the first day of eternity from here on out.  I’d like to live in a way and seize each moment like this, making things fresh and new when I can.  Praise God for His goodness, grace, and might.  I love you Lord, Amen.

Banjara For Christ 2007-2008 (Day 7)

It’s New Year’s Day and I’ve never spent one like this before, half way around the world teaching and preaching the gospel.  I appreciate the Lord’s grace in being here, though I miss Karen and the boys very much.  I hope she’s not upset that I’ve not called again.  I tried twice now a couple of days but wasn’t able to reach her.  Sush has not brought it up again so I’ve not asked; it’s so expensive to make international phone calls.  It’s fine I’m sure.  Karen would appreciate hearing from me, but has the strength to wait until I’m home.  I hope her New Year’s Eve went alright.  Maybe family was able to call her. 

Last night was a night I’ll never forget.  We had a service from 11 PM to 1 AM.  There was lots of singing and dancing.  A couple of the Banjara women were dressed in their traditional Banjara gypsy garb.  Steve taught a small message and there were gift exchanges and cake and everything wholesome in brotherly and sisterly love.  

Steve started preaching about 10 minutes to midnight and got about 7 minutes into it and the electricity cut off.  Apparantly the government here does this in order to save energy for the country.  It stayed off for about 3 minutes while everyone sang and when the light came on, it was midnight.  It was a great celebration.  The people (rather than kiss) stuff cake in their friend’s mouths.  I had a mouthfull before I could object.  Richard nearly choked…it was pretty funny.  We received cards and key chains and even rearview mirror ornaments.  These are such a loving people.

Richard got his suitcase last night.  It was like Christmas all over again for him since the airport had lost his luggage and he had to do without for a few days.

The girls are doing well too.  There is so much more laughter this trip because of them being here.  I wish my wife was here.

My lessons that I taught went well today.  Steve and Richard’s too.  I taught on ”Jesus the Hub” of the Christian Wheel.  God is so good in providing words to say.  I can’t describe how much he has blessed.  Damodar said I have improved in giving messages since last year.  I appreciated it so much.  He said if I remained in India, I’m going to be named “Bishop.”  I’m proud he said it, I’ll admit it, but still – that’s quite a compliment coming from him.

Tonight is a night for relaxing.  I’ve played some volleyball and visited with Sush and Damodar and Richard.  Dinner will be served soon.  Tonight, here on the roof of this hostel, my thoughts are with my wife.

Repent! The Rally Cry of a Cowboy in the “Autumn” of His Life

Church services were different today.  I’m not sure if it was the crashing of our projector computer, or the fact that both our pastor and associate pastor were away visiting family for the holidays, or even the fact that we had two laymen preaching today’s messages, but things were…different, and that was a good thing.  Tonight’s message focused on the simple message of a cowboy who admittedly is in the “autumn” of his life.  He knows he doesn’t have much longer to go before meeting the Lord, and that’s alright by him.  The fact of the matter is, Wes Ramsey has been working on sanctification for most of his life, it’s a slow process he says, and that was refreshing to hear, since I’m just now seeing the importance of being clean before God ON A DAILY BASIS.  It made me happy that just because I don’t see as much progress as I’d like to see in my spiritual life, Wes is still working on his too.  An interesting thing he said tonight, and I’ve heard him say it before…that this nation needs to “return to Holiness.”  And in order to do that, we must do what Christ preached when he started his ministry, and John the Baptist preached as the forerunner to Christ, and prophets of old preached to their nation when it had fallen to adultery and idolatry.  We must repent!  Repent from what?  Sin obviously…duh.  But what kind of sin?  I think I can safely say, you name it, we probably need to repent of it. “That’s judgemental” you say?  Maybe…maybe not.  Consider for a moment that I’m not being judgemental, that there really is something in YOUR life that is not pleasing to God, don’t worry about MY life, and whether or not I’m judging.  Why don’t you (and I say this in love to ANYONE reading) sit down, SHUT UP, and consider that there may be sin in your life that you aren’t aware of.  I bet it’s in an area of your life you would never have imagined.  The Pharisees and Saducees of Jesus’ day weren’t ugly demon folks, they were “good” people who believed they were in the right most of the time because they followed God’s law and the traditions they made to help God’s law.  Sound familiar?  Don’t we do the same thing day after day?  Thinking we’re right because we live by the Bible and man’s traditions of church?  Sure it started out as sincerity to God, but it has turned into hypocricy and idol worship.  Repent! For once, repent of being a “Christian” and start being a person who just loves God and wants to follow HARD after Christ.  Maybe we start seeing ourselves as “lost” instead of just assumming we’re part of the fold.  Repent of being just another drone.