Random Rantings Friday

Well here we are on yet another Friday… My ‘who are you’ post was cool but after 238 views and 16 comments , which i guess for a blog the ratio is about right. So now for the randomness, and the random guy…

If I filled up my 80GB I-Pod (20,000 songs) with music, according to apple, if I let it play on shuffle I’d never hear the same song twice, ever.

I met a girl today checking in an intern whose name was Kyle… yeah thought it was weird to… If I meet a girl named Zack I think I might just go hide in a cave.

Fill up your tanks! Gas prices are going to sky rocket again now that we are putting sanctions on Iran. Mahmoud is too stubborn to release those British naval officers, so expect a lengthy stand-off.

I drink Diet Coke, not for the Diet quality, I just like the taste better than regular coke. However I must admit I feel less manly buying Diet Coke, but oh well…

I love Spring! the trees and flowers are blooming and the are so beautiful! BUT it means yard work season is commencing. Which I’m excited about, and loathing at the same time. Yard work is like eating the scroll, sweet in the beginning, but bitter in the end.

I look forward to morning time simply because I love coffee. In fact I can’t wait to go to bed, just so I can wake up and drink coffee.

Proverbs 28:5 “evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord, understand it completely.” This is why the world misunderstands justice.

Update on the girl I like… yeah got nothing to report other than she’s incredible, and I respect and appreciate her alot. My plan is to be her friend, whatever happens, happens.

I love the Jordan’s!! Stephen, and Chelsea!! and I just met their Mom. they are a beautiful bunch of people!

When I was younger I used to run Triathlons, I won the Silver medal in Arizona, and went to the national championship in San Antonio. I came in 5th out of a 100. I probably would have won the gold, but my bike chain fell off during the race, which meant I lost 30 seconds putting it back on… errr

I’m going back home to Phoenix this week to DJ a friends wedding and raise support. The support part is important, mainly because I’m broke as a joke…

which begs the question; What does broke as a joke mean? Is it a clever rhyme, or does it have some sort of actual meaning?

I just got a whole new group of interns today, and I’m really excited about them. I’ve been contemplating how to lead them best, and this track I’m going to try something different. I thing we are going to work on a project together and build something. This also serves a minor selfish gain, because I think we are going to build a Gazebo for my backyard. I think there is a bond, and something to be learned when guys labor together… I’ll let you know how it turns out.

and scene…

Who Are You!!??

Greetings friends, readers and tag surfers,

I’m going to try something that I’ve seen other bloggers try but never seems to work. (I know, I know, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, but humor me!) I’m doing a ‘Who are you‘ post. Looking at my blog stats, I average about 230-250 veiws a day, and have had 14,000 views in the last 2 months. Only thing is everyone that I know, when I ask them if the read read my blog they say no.(including the girl I like) I know of 10 people who read my blog, that leaves hundreds of views unaccounted for. So I pose the question; who are you? Comment with your name and city, I’d like to see what my readership base looks like! bless you all!

Stay tuned, Random Rantings Friday will be posted Friday evening, and there is oh so much randomness to dish out!

My Proverb of the Day

I’ve started going through the book of proverbs daily. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, and 31-30 days in a month. So I read the Proverb for that day. My study plan looks like this:

I read the chapter. Then I write out each verse meditating on it for 5 -10 minutes. Then a paragraph or more exegesis on each verse. This has helped my understanding of the book so much. THEN after I’ve done all the interpertation I write out a plan of how I can impliment that verse in my life. Then next month when I go through and do it again, I evaluate how I’m doing on implimenting that verse. Sounds a bit intense but has helped me out so much! I’m only one month in but I hope in the next year or 10 to be a man striving toward wisdom.

Rain gutters

So to my surprise the gutter on the front of my house fell off. Fell Off! What’s the deal?! Apparently my gutters have leprosy as I just finished reacttatching the one in the back. This creates a drainage issue, meaning the rain goes straight down in the my basement causing flooding during heavy rain. All this is somthing I never really knew much about. See growing up in Phoenix, one never worries about gutters. Well I’m on a mission to fix them!

If anyone has any tips feel free to chime in!

Story Time Wednesday/ Miss. Kansas

Two years ago I made a living as a DJ for weddings, parties and such. Every year I’d have to go to this Midwest wedding expo, to advertise my DJ skills and book clients for the year. The place would literally be filled with thousands of soon to be brides, browsing for dresses, cakes, Dj’s, performers, flowers, Wedding planners. Everyone in the wedding industry within a 200 mile radius of K.C. would show up to solicit their trade. They even had a gigantic Runway where professional models would show off that years line of wedding dresses from the different designers. Needless to say, It was quite an event, especially since I got to sample all the different wedding cakes!

Thousands of people milling around, and I’m given the job of getting their attention to our DJ booth. Well I just so happen to thrive in this type of atmosphere. Being loud and drawing attention to myself has never been a problem for me. So I grab the mic and go to work. After the first couple of hours, I begin to draw a pretty substantial crowd. I’m dressed in a tuxedo, and if I do say so myself am looking pretty good. Which is when I notice this beautiful woman in the crowd who has been watching this whole time. Now in a room full of bride to be’s noticing a cute girl is useless so I don’t think anything of her. People are cycling through enjoying the show I’m putting on, but she seems to stick around the whole time. Finally the time comes to take a break, and the other DJ’s start giving me a hard time about the beautiful woman standing there starring at me the whole time. Again I brush it off, not only is the room full of engaged woman, but I’ve never been one to notice girls outside of a Christian context.

As soon as they leave me alone I look up and there she is again. “How are you? My name is Jenifer (don’t remember her name)” I shook her hand and gave her one of my business cards, still assuming she is here looking for a DJ. We talk for about 10 minutes, then she asks if I want to walk around with her. At this point I make the quick glance down to her left hand… empty… “sure I’ll walk around with you.” We talk for another couple of minutes, you know, the what do you do, how did you get here type of stuff. We are interrupted by a sweaty little guy running down the aisle, “Jenn! You are on in 5 minutes!!” On in 5 minutes? Is she a model? She asks me if I’d wait for her, I told her I’d be back at my booth. As I’m walking back the runway music stops and some sort of anthem comes on, then the announcer. “Ladies, please join me in welcoming Our Kansas Sweet heart, Miss Kansas!” I turn and to my amazement the beautiful woman so interested in talking to me, now has on a tiara, and a gold sash that says ‘Kansas’ on it. The other Dj’s come running up to me, “dude! are you gonna take her out!! you’re dating Miss Kansas!” Again I brush off their remarks. She finishes her speech, comes back down to say hi. I don’t know what come over me but, I acted completely shut down. She asked if I was doing anything later, I said yes. She asked if I was free that week, I said no. I politely told her good bye and went back to entertaining the crowds.

An odd story… I mean I turned down a date with Miss Kansas. Main reason why? I’m not interested in just a beautiful woman, but one that is in love with Jesus. Now I didn’t know nessesarily that she wasn’t either. But I also know I didn’t want to spend alot of time watching her at fasion shows, and beauty padgents, things that I generally loathe. I suddenly feared that Tiaras, gold sashes, and day spas were suddenly going to become staples in my life if I dated this girl. On the other hand I Could have over thought it, and should have at least had Coffee with her. But what’s done is done. So to Miss Kansas…

healing for Angie

Tonight I heard an acquaintance of mine, one I hope to one day call friend, is possibly going to have open heart surgery today because of severe artery blockage. Her name is Angie she is 24 years old. From my knowing of her, she is a beautiful, faithful, woman desperately after God’s Heart. IHOP is a funny place, in how you can feel connected to someone you only know in passing. I labor day in and day out with hundreds of people I would give my life for. I don’t know their stories but I see their faithfulness to the Lord through the various seasons of life. Angie was one whose faithfulness I’ve been touched by.

Please pray for her healing. I know the Lord is faithful to complete the work he has started in her, I know he is good to those who love him… Father be good to Angie, bring healing

an impromptu baptism

So it’s during my luch break at 1:30am Saturday night. Clay Edwards comes marching into the cafeteria with that look in his eyes. I’ve been friends with Clay for many years now, and I know that look. “You’re up to something…” I said. He smiles, “yep! Have you ever baptised anyone before?” I said no, but I had grown up watching my parents at baptisms, and I baptised my Cousin with my Dad once. “That’ll do” he says, “wanna help me baptise Cameron?” “Sure, I’m in”.

Cameron was one of my interns who is finishing the internship tonight, and had never been baptised. So Clay decided to get him baptised right then and there. There was no place on the missions base to do it, and at 1:30 in the morning finding somewhere would be an obstacle. Then I had a thought, Longveiw Lake, that would work great. Clay agreed and we jumped in his car and sped away. While in commute I grabbed Clay’s Bible and began praying for Cameron. I figured I’d read him all the scriptures about being made alive in Christ. So I hit Romans 6, Ephesians 2, and Colossians 3.

We get to the Lake and there are a ton of shady people standing around smoking pot. Clay asked me what we should do, I said lets go for it. After all they’re stoned what do they care? Plus maybe they’ll ask questions and get saved. So pant legs were rolled up and into the water they go. I stood on the shore and shouted out scriptures, (I had 4 more hours to go in the Prayer room I didn’t want to sit there soaked all night)  Clay and I prayed over him, asked him if he renouced the works of darkness and all that, then down he went. The water was so cold he might really have died and been risen to life. When big Cameron came up he screamed both from the cold and for the joy of his salvation.

The whole night and today there has been a different look to him. In the disorganised baptisim he really had been raised to newness of Life. God blessed him, and he looks like a new man! Plus it was just a cool experiance…

The problem with the Christian Right

The problem with the Christian Right pt. 1 …ready set….Go!

With good intentions in mind, the conservative right has slowly become the Christian right. Abortion, and gay marriage have been the issues responsible for this change. The church rallied in 2004 behind G.W.B. for the purpose of seeing abortion ended, and keeping Gay marriage from happening. The church held campaign speeches during worship services, and many used their pulpits to preach the need to back the republican party. Now I’m against gay marriage, and abortion, quite vehemently in fact. However in many ways these issues have been exalted higher in the church then prayer and preaching the gospel. There are many specific examples that I could lay out for you where this is true, but I’d rather not implicate those whom I share the grace of God with.

Over the last few months I’ve had many interactions with people from many different spheres of political opinion. Whenever I mention that I love Jesus, or am a Christian, I’m immediately hit with aggression, not because of Jesus but because of the republican party. “You’re a Christian?! How can you be a Christian? You support 3,000 troops dying in Iraq? What about Karl Rove how can you like that guy? How can you be a Christian when Dick Cheney is obviously a wicked man?” Evangelical leaders, and Christian political activists (lately it’s been hard to differentiate the two) have turned Christianity into a political issue. I’ve witnessed to people who don’t want to hear about Jesus because his name has become synonymous with G.W.B. . Now I voted for Bush, I vote on the issue of Life, which means I vote republican most of the time. However I’m not a republican, nor am I a democrat. In the end, both parties are run by wicked and deceitful men who I pray desperately find Jesus to keep from eternal flames. No, I live under the theocratic kingdom of Jesus the Christ, whose kingdom reigns now and will forever more.

Never in the bible did a man or a woman lobby their government to make changes, nor did they ever rebel against the government to make changes to laws. There are a few times when God came and gave men and women assignments to make changes, but the key word is GOD CAME. When he came whatever the change was, it was always unto his name being made known either in that nation or among his people. Paul never rebelled against Rome nor instructed people to do so even though they were being unjustly treated, and persecuted unto death. Jesus never went to Pilate and pleaded with him to change laws. No, instead they preached the gospel of the coming kingdom. The general rule through out the Bible is this: obey the laws of the land unless they go against God’s law. If they go against God’s law then you obey God’s Law first, for it is higher than the law of the land. If persecution comes then rejoice. That’s it!

Here is the summation to this part 1 (so we can talk about it in the comments before I write part 2): The problem is not that the church is wrong using the democratic system to promote leaders that will lead more righteous than others. The problem is the church (you, me, us) does not trust God enough to make the right choices. After all, is it not He who raises up kings and tears them down? If we want to see a change it’s outlined for us what we are to do. Fast, weep, mourn… humble ourselves and pray… petition his throne for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger abounding in love. My purpose for writing this is not to point any fingers but to make a call: We my take our hands out of the political arena (unless visited by God to do so). We must stop bickering with wicked men over moral issues. We must get down on our knees and ask the Lord to have mercy on us and our nation. For his wrath will not be held off forever!

Talk to me…

random thought…

You know that warning on your toaster that says “do not use in the bath tub”? You know that warning only was brought into existence after someone tried it. hmmm

Oh you gotta love humanity!

fantasy vs. reality…

Proverbs 20:6 “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find.”

It’s 4:09am, Clay Edwards is leading worship. “I will waste my life” is being sung by myself and the other young adults in the room. In fact every night 200 of us gather to make proclamations such as these. Diatribes like “take all of me”, “Your all this heart is living for”, “be my everything” can heard all night long. Wonderful shouts that should be shouted, but is that all they are? Simply zealous proclamations meant for the stirring of emotions? Or are they things we intend to walk out after we say them?

I’ve been faced with these questions in my own heart. How many times will I declare love for my savior, without faithfully walking it out? How long will I live in my intentions without embracing reality?

We live in a world of fantasy. People hold superficial relationships on the internet, use credit cards to spend money they do not have. People dream of the perfect vacation, take the vacation, and are upset that it didn’t meet their romantic expectations. Young men dream and look for the flawless woman they have contrived from movies and magazines. While young women starve themselves to become the fantasy men put before them. Christians think they are more perfect than they are. Republicans think they are more Christian than they are. While our nation claims to be founded on a God it hates.

Fantasy: Imagination; the forming of a mental concept or image; fiction

Reality; OH if I lived in reality! OH if what I declared was faithfully seen in my life! We’ve been trained by a world lost in fantasy, to speak of our dreams as though were. Reality is starring them, you, me, humanity in the face, while we cling to ideas about ourselves that are false. Intended, maybe even partially seen, but not real.

The summation here is this; we must be honest with ourselves about who we are. Only then can we move forward as a people who are faithful.

“Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find.”