the dog that is red

Recently I decided to make an attempt at learning Spanish. If it were not for 15 minute lessons on my iPod, I would be failing miserably. I took three years of Spanish in high school and remember a few things like:

Queso=cheese

Bano=bathroom

Bailamos=Let’s Dance (actually Enrique Iglesias helped me with that one)

One thing that has always procured my curiosity is the fact that the Spanish language seems to describe things backwards. For instance, instead of saying, “The red dog”, you would say, “El perro rojo” or “The dog that is red”.

The second phrase seems a little backwards and yet both phrases are saying the same thing. I began thinking about this in terms of what’s happening today in certain circles within the Church.

I have certain friends whom I talk with and have no idea whether I should use the phrase, “He got saved”, “He became a Christian”, “He gave his heart to the Lord”, or “He is now a follower of Christ”.

There are numerous other discussions in which I think we are speaking the same language until they assure me that I am not.

To me, these are all saying the same thing. And yet you could spend hours debating on which phrase is the “right” phrase. I mean, what are we really trying to say here? It’s conflict over not arranging words the right way.

I’m a firm believer in finding new ways of saying things. Culture changes. New words are injected into language. But to argue over “The dog that is red” seems foolish and a waste of time.

A life given over to God is beautiful in any language.

love me from somewhere else

Today I began thinking about the meaningful relationships in my life. For me, these are the people that I feel refreshed and lighter after being around. These people encourage me and help bring out the best version of myself. I love these people. I could spend all day with these kinds of friends.

Then there are friends that you enjoy most of the time. These are the people you love to be around! For small increments of time. They have the ability to make you laugh one minute and then say something annoying the next.

For instance, “You look really great in that shirt.”

Followed by

“You can barely tell how fat you are!”  *Stab

I believe we are to love the way God told us to love. Sometimes it may be best to love from a distance. The above illustration is a petty example, but allowing friendships that are hurtful and harmful to us is not good or healthy. If our friendships are more destructive than edifying it may be time for a change or time for some distance.

The question is: Which of these friends are you?

i hate spam

I have never partaken of the mystery that is Spam. To be honest, I’m not really sure what it is. I think it’s supposed to be like ham? Anyways, this post has nothing to do with the “edible” spam.

Over the last few days I have received direct messages on twitter from people claiming they were 24/female/hopeful (i censored the last word for all of my junior high readers). These people had their accounts phished and were not sending the messages themselves (at least I hope not).

We are all bombarded with junk snail mail, junk e-mail, annoying ads on facebook, invitations from scary stalker people on twitter, all with their own agendas. It is relentless and frustrating. They are unwanted messages, Spam. I don’t know about you, but it makes me a little cynical. In a way it has trained me to ask, “What do they REALLY want?” or “What are they trying to get me to do?”.

It’s what I call the “Bubble Over Your Head Syndrome”. In other words, “Yes, I hear what you are saying, but I’m trying to read the bubble over your head so I can see what you’re REALLY saying”. I love all of this social networking and new technology. I am a big fan and a big user and…ahem…mildly addicted. However, one thing the social networking craze has allowed us to do is to paint pictures of ourselves that we want others to see that may not line up with who we truly are.

It causes us to ask the question, “Is that who they really are, or is that just who they want me to see”. We unconsciously (and sometimes consciously) ask people to buy into touched up pictures of ourselves, while inwardly we are unknown.

To me, the altered, photoshopped, version of yourself is Spam (an unwanted message).

The real and unedited version of YOU is much more beautiful.

ouch that feels good

The other night I went to a potluck dinner at a friend’s house (and no one brought KFC!). I wasn’t feeling very social and found myself sitting on a couch alone in the basement with a guitar in my hands. After a few minutes I had 3 young boys come up to me and sit down and start talking with me. We talked about life, school, and video games (mostly video games).

After our in depth discussion about the most effective way to snipe someone in Modern Warfare 2, I began talking with another friend of mine. He is wiser and older than I. We had a very different conversation than the one I was just in.

We talked about science, history, and God. I could sense a divine appointment in this conversation. As we talked, I was convicted and encouraged all at the same time. God was using this conversation to reveal areas of my life that I had become lazy in. My friend talked about how I will be held accountable for what I did with the gifts and talents God has given me. It was like God was saying, “Get off your lazy booty and get crackin’ with what I gave you!” (what? doesn’t God use ebonics when He speaks to you?)

This was a “Parable of the Talents” conversation for me and I’m thankful to God for sending someone to talk to me and stir up something that was starting to fall asleep…even when I just wanted to be alone in a basement.

kids say the darndest things

Today i spoke at a chapel for a local Christian school. I expected to speak to 9-12 graders but slowly the younger grades began to  trickle in. I’m guessing that the youngest age was around 8 or 9.

i brought a message about Jonah and gave the PG rated version of how horrible the Syrian empire treated their captives (refer to previous blog post).

When I got to the part where I said that some cities would be so terrified of the Syrian empire that they would commit suicide, one of the 8 year old boys raised his hand and asked in a cute little kid voice, “What’s suicide?”.

“Umm, it’s when someone kills themselves”.

Later as I talked about Jonah and how the men on the boat finally agreed to throw him overboard, the little boy spoke up again and said,

(Little boy) “There were 4 of them”.

(Me to the class) “Evidently, there were 4 of them”.

(Little boy) “Or 60″.

This little boy made my whole morning.

bad mamma jammaz

today i was studying the story of Jonah. it’s crazy how evil the people of Nineveh were. they were a part of the Syrian empire. they were so evil that sometimes when a town heard that they were going to be attacked, they would all commit suicide just to keep from going through what was coming.

they would kill and rape. they would take the husbands as pow’s and skin them alive. then they would bury them in the desert sand up to their necks. THEN, they would pull out their tongues and drive a stake through them so they would go crazy while dying of thirst in the middle of the desert.

it is no wonder that Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh. he wanted them to be destroyed! after all, they deserved it right?

Jonah messed up and God forgave him and yet Jonah didn’t feel that Nineveh deserved that same mercy.

Forgiving others can be hard, especially when you feel that they don’t deserve it. Sometimes the reminder of God’s mercy for us and how much we have been forgiven helps us to give grace to the “undeserving”.

i don’t wanna be anything other…

today pastor barry phipps preached a message in which he said, “others judge us by our actions, we judge ourselves by our intentions.” this really got me thinking.

sometimes others misinterpret our actions when they don’t know our intentions. there are also times that people project their own intentions onto the actions of others (they assume that because they would respond one way in a situation that others would do the same).

some of the most hurtful things said or done to me have been a result of this. when there are people close to you (who you feel should know the intentions of your heart) assume the worst from your actions, it can sting and cause you to ask “do they know me at all?”.

i think God is showing me that it’s so important to put Him first, seek His approval and no other. we will never please everyone, and in trying we may lose who we are and who God wants us to be.

the size of a kumquat

had a doctor’s appointment today for the baby. right now he’s about the size of a kumquat. we got a chance to hear the heartbeat again today. hearing it helps me realize this is all really happening. thought i’d share the heartbeat with you today

Baby Coles Dropping Hot Beats With His Heart

walk in liberty

i’m off to speak at a campus Bible club at Liberty HS today. gonna talk about gideon’s 300.

this is one of my favorite stories in all of Scripture. there’s fighting, blood, confusion…it rocks. i was talking with barry phipps today about it. he pointed out something interesting. one of the first things God asks Gideon to do is to smash the idols at his father’s household. he goes on to do great things and win a battle in which all odds are against him with only 300 men!

then at the end of the story, he took gold earrings, melted them down and made an image that Israel worshiped and even Gideon himself along with his household became ensnared to it.

he smashed his idols, had a supernatural victory, then went back to worshiping what God asked him to destroy.

such a great reminder of how easy it is to go back to those things God has delivered us from.

we got to pray just to make it today

i just started reading my boy Matt Brown’s book called Revolutionaries. i won’t go too much into detail about the book because in a couple of days i’ll write a blog/review on it. however, i do want to share something from it that really challenged me.

matt talks about james, the brother of Jesus. james was nicknamed “camel knees” because he was known for spending so much time in prayer that his knees became hardened.

here’s the line from the book that challenged me.

He prayed so much that when he was martyred, the early Church could feel the effects of his missed prayers.

wow! that convicted me. i want to live a life filled with that kind of prayer.