Well I survived the day of love. Luckily I didn't get shot in the butt with one of Cupid's arrows..this is a good thing because I was hanging out with mostly guys all day. I think it is humorous how one fellow described Valentine's Day when he said, "I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon." I couldn't agree more.
I have never fancied myself a romantic. When I think of someone who is romantic, I think of a person who can creatively portray their emotions (hopefully good)to someone whom they care about very much. As my friend David Heffren talked about in his title in his last blog, I think romance is eating a heart-shaped pizza together with your loved one. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but for the most part I am not full of romance. But someday I am sure something will just click and I will be Romeo.
Besides thinking about Valentine's Day, lately I have thought about learning. I'm taking an online class called Creative Bible teaching. The class teaches a person how to creatively teach the BIble to students, and I have learned a couple of things. One thing in particular has really stood out to me while taking this course. Its the idea that a person can never stop learning, or they fail to live.
Socrates once said, "The unexamined life is not worthy living." We cannot go through life just living. There has to be some point of examination and thinking. If you are not examining and thinking, you are not learning. We must have this certain attitude- the attitude that we have not yet "arrived." We will never fully understand everything there is to know, so we must be in a state of continual-learning.
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the Holy Spirit and His role in the Christian's life. I have a lot of quesitons, and I have been praying to God that he will continue to open my eyes to the Spirit's power and leading. I don't know all the answers to my questions, but I'm trying to find them. I'm reading a book called Forgotten God by Francis Chan, and it is a very insightful book. I guess my question for you is what are you learning about? Are you examining your life? Because as soon as you stop learning, you stop living....You will also stop living if a real toddler shoots you in the heart with a real arrow. Just be careful.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Strong Biceps
I have never really been the type that just goes down to the gym to workout. I don't mind getting sweaty while playing some kind of sport, but I just feel like like it is a waste of time to get sweaty while working out. Maybe it is because I am really impatient. I workout one time, and I expect to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sadly, that isn't how it works out. Apparently you have to work out multiple times in order to see results. Well, one time I decided to go to the YMCA and workout with my little brother (the dude is a stud when it comes to working out), and we were doing a bicep curl exercise. For this particular exercise, you get the curl bar and place a 10 lb, 5lb, and a 2.5 lb. weight on each side. You do ten reps and then take 2.5 lbs. off after each set. You end up doing about 90 reps, but by the end you are only doing the curl bar because you have taken off all the weight. Well, I was on my last set of 10 and I was just just curling the bar (which is like 15 lbs.). As I struggle with the last couple of reps a very good looking girl walks in the door. As I look up, still continuing to struggle with just the bar, I make eye contact with the gorgeous girl. Embarrassed I finished up my reps of just the curl bar hoping that the girl didn't think I was as strong as a 5-year-old girl.
Sometimes all of us feel really weak in one aspect of life or another. In my case, I looked and i stress LOOKED weak when it came to lifting weights, but I think weakness is not always a bad thing.
In Luke 9:12-17 we find the feeding of the five thousand. It reads:
Late in the afternoon, the Twelve came to him (Jesus) and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here. He replied, "You give them something to eat." They answered, "We ahve only five loaves of bread and two fish- unless we go and buy food for all this crowd." (About 5,000 men were there.)
But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
This is a great story about Jesus' miraculous power and compassion for people, but this weekend at Believe Conference the Speaker for the weekend brought to light for me a new perspective of this passage. As the disciples told Jesus about the crisis, wouldn't it have been a lot easier for Jesus to have just called manna down from heaven? Or why didn't he just snap his fingers and POOF a carriage full of food for 5,000 people all of a sudden comes up over the horizon? But he didn't do either of those things. Instead he asked his disciples what they had? It wasn't much...just five loaves of bread and a couple fish. They barely had anything to offer Jesus, and I think He did that on purpose. You see, when it seems like we are weak and having nothing to give our Lord, he can and will use it to its maximum capacity in order to glorify Himself. But we still have that duty of offering whatever we have to him.
Looking through the pages of Scripture, it is easy to see the continuous theme of God using people who had weaknesses for His purposes. David was just a boy when he defeated the giant Goliath. Moses couldn't speak clearly, but God used him to lead His people out of Egypt. In the New Testament, Timothy was to lead a church in an immoral city even though he was timid and weak. God was born a nobody in a city that had no significance. The Apostle Paul really sums this whole idea up in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10:
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God uses people with weaknesses because if he used people with all kinds of strengths, then they would take all the credit for themselves. That is why God tells Gideon to fight a humungous army with just 300 soldiers. Without God, we could never do anything of significance for his Kingdom. Now I know that I am physically weak when it comes to lifting weights, but I also acknowledge that I have certain weaknesses when it comes to ministry. I am not the best speaker. I am not the most outgoing guy. I can't sing or play the guitar. But I know that when God does use me for his Glory, it won't be because of anything I did...For in my weakness, God is glorified.
Sometimes all of us feel really weak in one aspect of life or another. In my case, I looked and i stress LOOKED weak when it came to lifting weights, but I think weakness is not always a bad thing.
In Luke 9:12-17 we find the feeding of the five thousand. It reads:
Late in the afternoon, the Twelve came to him (Jesus) and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here. He replied, "You give them something to eat." They answered, "We ahve only five loaves of bread and two fish- unless we go and buy food for all this crowd." (About 5,000 men were there.)
But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
This is a great story about Jesus' miraculous power and compassion for people, but this weekend at Believe Conference the Speaker for the weekend brought to light for me a new perspective of this passage. As the disciples told Jesus about the crisis, wouldn't it have been a lot easier for Jesus to have just called manna down from heaven? Or why didn't he just snap his fingers and POOF a carriage full of food for 5,000 people all of a sudden comes up over the horizon? But he didn't do either of those things. Instead he asked his disciples what they had? It wasn't much...just five loaves of bread and a couple fish. They barely had anything to offer Jesus, and I think He did that on purpose. You see, when it seems like we are weak and having nothing to give our Lord, he can and will use it to its maximum capacity in order to glorify Himself. But we still have that duty of offering whatever we have to him.
Looking through the pages of Scripture, it is easy to see the continuous theme of God using people who had weaknesses for His purposes. David was just a boy when he defeated the giant Goliath. Moses couldn't speak clearly, but God used him to lead His people out of Egypt. In the New Testament, Timothy was to lead a church in an immoral city even though he was timid and weak. God was born a nobody in a city that had no significance. The Apostle Paul really sums this whole idea up in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10:
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God uses people with weaknesses because if he used people with all kinds of strengths, then they would take all the credit for themselves. That is why God tells Gideon to fight a humungous army with just 300 soldiers. Without God, we could never do anything of significance for his Kingdom. Now I know that I am physically weak when it comes to lifting weights, but I also acknowledge that I have certain weaknesses when it comes to ministry. I am not the best speaker. I am not the most outgoing guy. I can't sing or play the guitar. But I know that when God does use me for his Glory, it won't be because of anything I did...For in my weakness, God is glorified.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
MARVE-lous
Don't trust Subway Sandwiches...I thought I would never hear (or see) myself saying (or typing) that statement. What is there not to love about a $5 footlong meatball marinara? Nothing. At least that is what i thought before Monday night. I will spare you all the details, but lets just say that I was pretty sick Monday night from Subway. Sad day.
My last post I wrote about my experience at the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church in New York, but I didn't spend all of my time at the church...that was only one night! Another night we went and saw a show on Broadway called "Finian's Rainbow." It was really good! It was about how an Irishman travels to America and buries his gold in hopes that it will multiply and make him a very wealthy man. However, the gold was not the Irishman's gold in the first place. He stole it from a leprechaun, and the this little leprechaun comes searching for his gold. I won't tell you the rest of the story, because you need to see it sometime! But after we watched the show, a couple of us went into Time Square and went to Starbucks.
While David and I were waiting for Camille and Ray to get their coffee, we met this guy named Marve. He had just gotten some coffee, and we later found out that he was homeless but he was lucky enough to get some money from a man at church that night so he bought some coffee since it was cold outside. This guy literally had us laughing the entire 20-25 minutes we were with him. First our conversation started friendly enough with some small talk like, "What's your name?" and "What are you drinking?" But our conversation quickly changed!
First, Marve thought that Camille and Ray were dating. So when some random guy started talking to Camille, Marve became pretty upset. He kept saying "Camille, get over here girl. Get over here." When she wouldn't listen to him, he started talking to us guys about how girls are always playing games. After convincing him that Camille was not some flirtatious floozy, Marve went on to explain his wild escapades with women in Atlanta. We didn't let him get into much detail but he did start off with saying, "When I went to Atlanta...I had a shawty the first night!"
Then we went on to talk about nicknames for people. Marve didn't like it that we called our friend "Ray." He thought it would be more appropriate to call him Raymond. Then I told him that people called me "chuck" from time to time, and Marve proceeded to say "WHACK!" I guess he didn't think that was a good idea either. Then David told him that people sometimes call him "D-Heff." With some crazy eyes, Marve paused for a few seconds then exclaimed, "WHACK!" The moral of that story...don't have "whack" nicknames.
As our time with Marve was winding down, he finished with a story. He said, "One time while I was in Atlanta I was eating all of this food, and I passed out!" Kind of perplexed, we all waited for a couple of seconds and then I asked, "You passed out because you ate so much food?" Then Marve said, "Nah, man...from PCP!" Moral of the story...don't eat a lot of food and take PCP. You could pass out in Atlanta.
I know this post does not give the full effect of the real-life Marve, but i can only hope that you find some enjoyment out of it. This guy was hilarious! He was also really friendly and nice to talk to. My New York experience would not have been the same without meeting him. I didn't even mention that fact he called me a chipmunk and grabbed my cheeks. He also said I had a "body." I'm not exactly sure what he meant by that but I took it as a compliment. So if you are ever in New York City in Time Square in the Starbucks and you see a black homeless guy, tell MARVE that I said, "Hey...and I think your name is WHACK!"
My last post I wrote about my experience at the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church in New York, but I didn't spend all of my time at the church...that was only one night! Another night we went and saw a show on Broadway called "Finian's Rainbow." It was really good! It was about how an Irishman travels to America and buries his gold in hopes that it will multiply and make him a very wealthy man. However, the gold was not the Irishman's gold in the first place. He stole it from a leprechaun, and the this little leprechaun comes searching for his gold. I won't tell you the rest of the story, because you need to see it sometime! But after we watched the show, a couple of us went into Time Square and went to Starbucks.
While David and I were waiting for Camille and Ray to get their coffee, we met this guy named Marve. He had just gotten some coffee, and we later found out that he was homeless but he was lucky enough to get some money from a man at church that night so he bought some coffee since it was cold outside. This guy literally had us laughing the entire 20-25 minutes we were with him. First our conversation started friendly enough with some small talk like, "What's your name?" and "What are you drinking?" But our conversation quickly changed!
First, Marve thought that Camille and Ray were dating. So when some random guy started talking to Camille, Marve became pretty upset. He kept saying "Camille, get over here girl. Get over here." When she wouldn't listen to him, he started talking to us guys about how girls are always playing games. After convincing him that Camille was not some flirtatious floozy, Marve went on to explain his wild escapades with women in Atlanta. We didn't let him get into much detail but he did start off with saying, "When I went to Atlanta...I had a shawty the first night!"
Then we went on to talk about nicknames for people. Marve didn't like it that we called our friend "Ray." He thought it would be more appropriate to call him Raymond. Then I told him that people called me "chuck" from time to time, and Marve proceeded to say "WHACK!" I guess he didn't think that was a good idea either. Then David told him that people sometimes call him "D-Heff." With some crazy eyes, Marve paused for a few seconds then exclaimed, "WHACK!" The moral of that story...don't have "whack" nicknames.
As our time with Marve was winding down, he finished with a story. He said, "One time while I was in Atlanta I was eating all of this food, and I passed out!" Kind of perplexed, we all waited for a couple of seconds and then I asked, "You passed out because you ate so much food?" Then Marve said, "Nah, man...from PCP!" Moral of the story...don't eat a lot of food and take PCP. You could pass out in Atlanta.
I know this post does not give the full effect of the real-life Marve, but i can only hope that you find some enjoyment out of it. This guy was hilarious! He was also really friendly and nice to talk to. My New York experience would not have been the same without meeting him. I didn't even mention that fact he called me a chipmunk and grabbed my cheeks. He also said I had a "body." I'm not exactly sure what he meant by that but I took it as a compliment. So if you are ever in New York City in Time Square in the Starbucks and you see a black homeless guy, tell MARVE that I said, "Hey...and I think your name is WHACK!"
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