The title says it all. I wouldn't be so tired had I not gone to my cousin's house today and helped in their backyard landscaping. Not complaining at all. In fact I'm happy to have helped. it's good to work with dirt. It's what God made man to do.
Genesis 2:15 - The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. [NIV]
Also...
Proverbs 12:11 - He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgement. [NIV]
Fantasies. Wow. Film is fantasy. Hollywood in particular. At this moment in time I am repulsed that I ever sought that hopeless, desperate meaningless existence.
A lot has happened since my last blog entry. It's hard to keep up and I'm getting so busy that I'm forgetting what is important. It IS important that I keep you updated on the goings on of my life while I am in this time of renewal with the Lord.
Joining Impact195 was, is and will be the second best decision I have ever made for my own life. If you are in need, want, desperation, loneliness, any sort of shortcoming the absolute best thing you can do is to pray and submit yourself to the Lord God, Creator of all things. He is the only source of good in existence anywhere.
Amazing that He, knowing that we humans were going to make the simple mistake of sinning - that we would eat that fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil - had a plan from the very beginning.
In the beginning...
John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God.
The beginning - Genesis.
Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
He made this world and in it a garden. He created through mere speech every living thing except man. Man was formed by God out of clay - a sculpture, a piece of art. And God breathed life into man and here we are - alive still to this day with a natural desire to serve, seek and know our creator.
Yet we are flawed. Rather than to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life which sustains us everlasting, we were deceived and chose the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This fruit which we thought would make us like God, and thus so holy that we would not need Him, actually separated us from Him and we are exposed.
This isn't about Eve eating the fruit. This is a stark reality about you and me in our daily walk. The truth is we are constant, daily sinners. We are as dumb as the dirt from which we are formed. No better.
If we were any better than we could go ahead and eat that fruit from the Tree of Life. We could, at any given moment, forgive ourselves of our sins and forever redeem ourselves.
Romans 4:2 - If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about - but not before God. [NIV]
Then...
Romans 4:4-5 - Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. [NIV]
We can't possibly save ourselves from condemnation. We are all amazingly horrible sinners. I am. I could blog about all the horrible, evil, selfish things I have done. But what would the the point? I'm just like you, dear reader. In need.
Yet still, despite me and my sins God sees me as righteous and holy and worthy of His love. Isn't that amazing?
Romans 3:21-24 - But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness comes thought faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. [NIV]
Wow. I couldn't do anything to help myself even if I wanted to. I am powerless. I am futile and pointless. God, alone, is capable of redeeming me, saving me, loving me - and He alone gave me breath. His breath.
I'm an deeply sorry if you have ever known me to have bad breath. That was all me. Not God in me. Not Christ in me. Not His Holy Spirit who resides in me and directs my thoughts and actions when I am obedient.
If He loves us this much - imagine what He wants to do with us! Imagine the places He wants to take us and the experiences he wants us to have in His name and for His Glory!?!!
See now why I say that joining Impact 195 has been the second best decision of my life? I am coming into a deeper understanding of the Lord God - Creator of all things yet intimate lover of my soul.
Everything aside from submission to Him is futile and useless. So what're you going to do about it right now?
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
It's Been A Week...
I was thinking I would write the entire saga of Eugene The Jeep and one day perhaps I will. There is a lot to write and not enough hours in the day to get everything done. Impact195 does have homework, and not having a vehicle has really impaired my schedule and my ability to continue to find work. Yet, God is faithful.
The short version is my Jeep is currently in the dealer right now for the forth time since late July. The dealer I purchased it from - which shall remain nameless yet is the only Chrysler dealer in my Texas hometown - simply tried to sell me a new car rather than repair this one which is barely two years in my care. I also will not be purchasing another product from Chrysler - not because the Jeep failed on me, but because of their customer service and lack of interest at every level in doing anything about it. In short - an inferior product with horrible inner-company communication and impersonally indifferent customer service is exactly why that company had to use your tax dollars to keep from going out of business. Truth is, they deserved to go out of business. And that's all I have to say about that.
The lack of a vehicle has kept me from being able to stay in my rented room out at the Brotel. It's so far out and no one out there has the same schedule as me. So I have been crashing on my cousin's sofa, which I perceive as a huge inconvenience to their family. Even if they say it's not.
Frustrations upon frustrations when I discovered that AT&T (the company who probably trained Chrysler in inner-company communications and customer service) had over-charged me $400 on my bill this month, after having cut the bill down last month from another set of $400 over-charges. If this happens again I will quit AT&T and go to Sprint now that (as of about ten hours from the moment of this writing) they will start selling the iPhone. After an hour on the phone with their customer service I got that straightened out.
Another couple of calls to the dealership, then Jeep, then my mother - who God used to test my patience and humility* - and all I wanted to do was get out of the house. It was raining.
It rains in San Diego apparently. Two or three times a year maybe? Everyone here starts waving their arms around and screaming The sky is falling!!! Wimps. I don't want to get soft like these San Diegans - subject to such good weather most of the time that when something does fall out of the sky they panic. I crave a big Texas thunderstorm.
Steve Jobs died. Not that I knew him personally, but immediately I was struck with his mortality and that for all the accomplishments and brilliance we praise Jobs for on earth, what has it gained him where he is now? This was a bummer - an eternal bummer.
Last night I reached maximum grump for a few additional reasons that I wont go into here because, well, it isn't any of your business. But I did not react as well as I could have. God was working on me.
Then I get a text message from one of my Impact195 "family" members, Richard. He tells me that one of our sisters in our family group is having a bad night, and my first reaction was Me too. Wow - how selfish of me.
In our Servant Leadership class recently we have been addressing both pride and humility. Pride is the block between us and God. Humility is the opposite - the conduit to being able to interpret His Word as His Will for our lives, listen for His voice and grow close to Him.
Philippians 2: 5-8
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: [6] Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; [7] rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. [8] And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross! [NIV]
Jesus - in His humility became a human being - station very very very very very far beneath God, the perfect and permanent Creator of All Things. He actually became the created. Not just in flesh, but in status. Jesus departed from Heaven for this pitiful earth. Jesus was equal with God and could have done anything He wanted, but He didn't. Instead, he submitted Himself to humanity as a servant, and as a sacrifice. He died to carry sin. My sin. Your sin.
He was the most absolutely perfect human being yet He - because of humility (the absence of pride) - took on our sins, and the sins of every single murderer, rapist, child-molester, thief, liar, and politician. Your sins and their sins and my sins, all combined together and put on the only absolutely perfect, divine human being ever.
I killed Him. So did those murderers, rapists, child-molesters, thieves, liars and you.
And if you think you're any different than them, that's pride - the inhibitor that keeps us from God.
*I failed
The short version is my Jeep is currently in the dealer right now for the forth time since late July. The dealer I purchased it from - which shall remain nameless yet is the only Chrysler dealer in my Texas hometown - simply tried to sell me a new car rather than repair this one which is barely two years in my care. I also will not be purchasing another product from Chrysler - not because the Jeep failed on me, but because of their customer service and lack of interest at every level in doing anything about it. In short - an inferior product with horrible inner-company communication and impersonally indifferent customer service is exactly why that company had to use your tax dollars to keep from going out of business. Truth is, they deserved to go out of business. And that's all I have to say about that.
*not my actual Jeep, but it's how I felt
and I am upside down in it.
The lack of a vehicle has kept me from being able to stay in my rented room out at the Brotel. It's so far out and no one out there has the same schedule as me. So I have been crashing on my cousin's sofa, which I perceive as a huge inconvenience to their family. Even if they say it's not.
Frustrations upon frustrations when I discovered that AT&T (the company who probably trained Chrysler in inner-company communications and customer service) had over-charged me $400 on my bill this month, after having cut the bill down last month from another set of $400 over-charges. If this happens again I will quit AT&T and go to Sprint now that (as of about ten hours from the moment of this writing) they will start selling the iPhone. After an hour on the phone with their customer service I got that straightened out.
Another couple of calls to the dealership, then Jeep, then my mother - who God used to test my patience and humility* - and all I wanted to do was get out of the house. It was raining.
It rains in San Diego apparently. Two or three times a year maybe? Everyone here starts waving their arms around and screaming The sky is falling!!! Wimps. I don't want to get soft like these San Diegans - subject to such good weather most of the time that when something does fall out of the sky they panic. I crave a big Texas thunderstorm.
Steve Jobs died. Not that I knew him personally, but immediately I was struck with his mortality and that for all the accomplishments and brilliance we praise Jobs for on earth, what has it gained him where he is now? This was a bummer - an eternal bummer.
Last night I reached maximum grump for a few additional reasons that I wont go into here because, well, it isn't any of your business. But I did not react as well as I could have. God was working on me.
Then I get a text message from one of my Impact195 "family" members, Richard. He tells me that one of our sisters in our family group is having a bad night, and my first reaction was Me too. Wow - how selfish of me.
In our Servant Leadership class recently we have been addressing both pride and humility. Pride is the block between us and God. Humility is the opposite - the conduit to being able to interpret His Word as His Will for our lives, listen for His voice and grow close to Him.
Philippians 2: 5-8
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: [6] Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; [7] rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. [8] And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross! [NIV]
Jesus - in His humility became a human being - station very very very very very far beneath God, the perfect and permanent Creator of All Things. He actually became the created. Not just in flesh, but in status. Jesus departed from Heaven for this pitiful earth. Jesus was equal with God and could have done anything He wanted, but He didn't. Instead, he submitted Himself to humanity as a servant, and as a sacrifice. He died to carry sin. My sin. Your sin.
He was the most absolutely perfect human being yet He - because of humility (the absence of pride) - took on our sins, and the sins of every single murderer, rapist, child-molester, thief, liar, and politician. Your sins and their sins and my sins, all combined together and put on the only absolutely perfect, divine human being ever.
Be humble. Jesus was.
I killed Him. So did those murderers, rapists, child-molesters, thieves, liars and you.
And if you think you're any different than them, that's pride - the inhibitor that keeps us from God.
*I failed
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