godquest.com

Good sermon today. Pastor took us to mapquest.com and the detailed directions it provided to get him from his starting point to his destination. How nice would it be, he asked, to be able to look up similar directions for life. Every maneuver, every turn, distances and times that will take us from where we are to where we want to be.

Going from single to happily married?
Brush teeth--3 min.
Iron clothes--20 min.
Go to church with large singles ministry, carrying the largest Bible you possess--2 hr/wk.
Introduce yourself to beautiful people--1 min.
Say you were really blessed by the sermon and want to grow in your relationship with Christ--15 sec.
Talk about how much you enjoy kids and puppies--5 min.
:-)

Ok, humor aside, his point was that God's will as we seek it is often quite different from God's will as He reveals it in the Bible. God does have a plan for your life, but marriage, kids, location, vocation, and vacation are not in it. These things are incidental; they do not contain the substance of His will for us.

I Thessalonians 4:3-8 "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God... For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you."

I stopped following the sermon here (the next 20 minutes he talked about sanctification and holiness--yeah, I'm familiar with the topic). I was watching the family sitting in front of me. The mother wrote a note to her ?high school/college? Daughter that said, "God and I will be praying for you every day while you're gone."

That's sweet; my mom loves me too.

That exchange was the motivator I needed to understand the sermon. God no longer sees my sin, but Christ's righteousness. Yeah yeah, got it. He wants me to walk worthy of that calling. Uh-huh, got it. God does not just tolerate me and wish I would grow up, He loves me as a parent loves his child. Oh. I am lovely and precious to Him, and in His affection He longs for the day when I will stop cutting myself in service to foreign Gods and worship Him alone.

Enough of pain killers and entertaining distractions (see previous post), "One day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere... No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly."

Sometimes I think it's a shame...

I was listening to an oldies station and heard a man strumming his guitar to these lyrics:
"Sometimes I think it's a shame
when I get feelin' better,
when I'm feelin' no pain."

It's a terrible admission, but I think most of us live this way.

My hero:

"My chest hair measures 40cm and sometimes if people ask me if my moustache is real I show them my chest hair."

Facial Hairy

I would love to know what you all think of facial hair. When is it acceptable? My mom seems to dislike it in any configuration. Most guys I know think if a man can "pull it off" (i.e. has thicker-than-average growth) then it's practically his obligation to show it off. The more he wears the more we respect him for ignoring the wishes of the average girl and being the studly man God made him to be.

I've been trying to grow a Marine Corps regulation mustache (must be neatly trimmed 1/8 inch below the nose, 1/8 inch above the upper lip, and shall not exceed the corners of the mouth--think Adolf Hitler). Problem is, I've been at it for two weeks and no one can tell yet. Well, almost no one--I was told it's terrible and should be shaved off before I walk in the graduation ceremony tomorrow.

I'm not going to, of course. :)

Psalm 15:4b

The righteous man "swears to his own hurt and does not change"

Happy Fathers Day

Friendship and Allegiance

Great sermon this morning. The pastor began with an account of his three year old bursting into the room with an urgent message: one sibling had called another sibling a "big bully." Pastor Chris dealt with the clearly agitated boy, then pondered what had made his son so keen to defend his older brother's honor. Normally, the three year old tattletale used his emergency broadcast system to declare how much of a bully the other was and how deserving of punishment. As it turns out, a deal had been brokered between them (to include an exchange of goods and services) and they had agreed to become allies and promised each other friendship.
He concluded that kids understand friendship -- friendship is allegiance -- but they are shallow in their practice and make friendship conditional. They treat it like money, exchanging it and trading for goods and services like any other commodity. How many of us, he asked, approach God this way? We pledge our allegiance to God with our fingers crossed behind our backs in case a better deal comes along. How many of us are unfaithful in our friendship with God? We serve Him when convenient, but when the world offers greater pleasures we transgress.

James 4:4-5 says, "Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, 'The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously'?"

The NIV says "hatred". If you love the world, you hate God. Our God is jealous and demands unadulterated allegiance. What's the big deal about friendship with the world? Why does faith in God have to be all or nothing?

Because claims of allegiance without the acts of allegiance are worthless.
"But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only."
-James 2:20-24
Abraham wasn't trying to broker a deal. He was committed, and because of this he was called the friend of God.

How do these words find you? My double-mindedness was apparent. I run after many lovers (idols) and return expecting to find the light on and dinner ready. I love the world, returning to God on Sunday mornings only to say I'm sorry and make sure the deal about going to heaven is still on. God be thanked that there is grace even for this.

How to install a wireless security system:

Go to a second-hand store, buy a pair of men's used work boots ... a really big pair.

Put them outside your front door on top of a copy of Guns and Ammo magazine. Put a dog dish beside it ... a really big dish.

Leave a note on your front door that says something like this:"Bubba, Big Mike and I have gone to get more ammunition - back in 30 minutes. Don't disturb the pit bulls, they've just been wormed."