I serve a Big God

I serve a BIG God. I have really been struggling in my walk with the Lord. Finally I had a good friend of mine beat me over the head figurativly and brought me back to my senses. I then went to a quiet spot, spent some time with the Lord and got myself out of the situation. I love this feeling. I continually sin and yet he in his infinite mercy continually forgives me. And on another note I am glad that I have friends that will beat me over head when I start getting away from the straight and narrow path. I need someone to hold me accountable and am glad to say that I have friends that will do that to me.

The Least of these

Matthew 25 verse 40 says "And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ "


With this being the Sanctity of Human Life week, Pastor Scott expanded my horizons this morning. Lets just not look at the sanctity of unborn human life this week but lets look at all life. I had to go through downtown Burlington twice this week and both times I saw people on the side of the road, homeless no doubt And I just kept looking straight ahead trying not to make eye contact. I was really convicted of doing this when Pastor Scott got to talking about this. These people no doubt are made in the Image of God. And we as Christians are called to love our neighbor as ourself. And yes if enough people read this someone will say that some of these people on the street do this as a profession and after a day's work they go home. That is true, BUT there are many people who are out there who ARE homeless and we are called to help them. So my challenge to you is this;

This week whether out on Friday night or going in to work tomorrow morning. If you see someone homeless on the side of the road; Take just a few minutes, go to the nearest store get a water and a pack of nabs and take it back to them. You dont have to share the whole Bible with them, you don't have to get out of your car but just give them the snack and tell them that Jesus Loves them.

Because we have so much I consider these people the "least of these" And if we do it to them then according to Matthew 25:40 we do it unto Jesus

His servant,
john

The Second One is in the Works.

Back, October 29, 2006 I had the extrodinary Honor to preach my very first sermon at Baynes Baptist Church. Between then and now I have been in kind of a lull in my spiritual life. I don't know really how to explain it other than I was in this rut; going to Church on Sunday's and Wednesday's and picking my Bible up only occasionally. This is a rut that many people get in and never get out of. I knew that I didnt want that to be the case with me. So about that time i got the offer to preach again in April which really gives me something to work on other than school I'm not going to let anyone know what it is, but it will fall in line with the first part of this post. So email me if you have any questions and I hope to see you in April

His servant,
john

Television

Over the past year or so I have had my horizons broadened. With this comes television. I am amazed at what is shown on tv these days. (As some of you know in my house we have never had anything other than an attenna) so I never get to watch all of the socalled great shows on cable or satellite. Which I have come to find out is a great thing. I have been exposed to some shows in the past 12 months to hit teen shows such as Degrassi, South of Nowhere, etc. And I am having a really hard time trying to figure out where the little bit of decency we had left went to. I seen a video clip from one of these shows recently and was shocked. It was basically watching pornography. Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to this world. And yet I have good friends who regularly watch these shows. And I say this not in a condeming way but in a way to make you think. 1 Cor. 10:31 says "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (NKJV)In my humble opinion if we are not glorifying God then are doing Him a dishonor. I briefly touched on this during my sermon back in October. Is watching these types of shows bringing glory to God? And if not I will use a popular saying "Be the change you want in the world." I have a few tv shows that I watch regularly and then there is sports and news. Other than that I try to keep the television off. I say this not to bring glory to myself because I am nothing more than a sinner saved by grace. Thanks for reading

His servant,
john

Imitators of Christ

(I found this while rambling through my computer and saw that i never posted it so here goes....)

Ephesians 5:1-2 "Be Imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God NIV


I've made more than my share of mistakes in my lifetime. Hindsight is 20/20 and when I realize that I have made a mistake I am going to do my best to correct it. But when I apologize to someone for doing them wrong and they want to throw it back in my face it really irritates me. And when you try to help someone by doing them a favor and all you get is disownment in return that is something else that annoys me. But we are called to be imitators of Christ. Christ wasn't liked very much either but he made it through. So to all of yall that are reading this. If I know you I've probably done you wrong with something and for that I am truly sorry. But if Christ can forgive the people who killed him so can you. And I'm preaching to myself too. Because I know that I'm not one who forgives like I ought to. But I'm trying to work on that.

people

July 17, 2006

i dont know what to do anymore. i try to right my wrongs and to make amends with the people i done wrong. and for the most part those people accept my apology but there are some who want to get even with me. by ignoring me. and sometimes it really irritates me. cause sometimes i tend to care too much i think. maybe u cant do that maybe you can. i just dont know. it can really be irritating at times cause i want to be friends again. i really do but they wont pick up the phone or nothing so i dk what to so thats all i just needed to vent a little bit.

This would be one of those times that i was down a little bit. and i needed to vent

Where The Lord Guides, The Lord Provides...And thats just the way we like it

I wrote this once I got back from Costa rica in July.

Its taken me a while to get my thoughts together for this blog about my trip so here goes:
We flew out of Raleigh on Friday, June 30th with about a hour and a half delay. We got to Atlanta and literally had to run to get our next plane. We barely made it but we did, praise God. The trip from Atlanta to San Jose was a long one but the supper on the plane was better than I expected :) (pasta). We got to San Jose about 10:45 local time (12:45 here) and we had to go through customs and immigration which was a pain. We finally got to the hotel and I went straight to sleep.
We had a good breakfast in the hotel on saturday morning and then we hit the road. The first part of the trip was good, the roads were halfway decent. But the second half was a different story. We went from side to side to dodge potholes, and the folks down there drive a whole lot different than the folks up here haha, but the drivers we had were good. It took us about 5 hours to get to Bribri and it is only about a 110mile trip, and no AC. Once we got there we unloaded and found our rooms (in the church) and then we just kinda hung out for the rest of saturday.
On Sunday they don't have church service until the afternoon so we got up and went to a waterfall; that was real fun. We got back to the church at about 12 or 1 or something then we got dressed for church. Doby, our youth leader, said it best; "Somewhere North of Burlington there is a youth room that is freezing cold with nobody in it :)" we sang a couple of songs for the congregation there and introduced ourselves and then we went into the back and did our own devotion in english.
On Monday was our first day of Bible School and basketball camp. It went better than I expected. We had 2 translators at the Bible School which helped alot, but what little spanish i knew i used it. (donde esta el bano ha inside joke;]) We had the infamous rice and beans for lunch and supper so that was interesting. Little did we know that it was the main dish down there and we would be eating alot more of it.
Tuesday we got up to pancakes which was a nice break from the rice and beans lol. I stayed at bible school again today which was a good thing cause we probably had about 40 kids there. Tom, another of our leaders, and myself are both big Third Day fans and I left my cd in the truck here so I didnt have any Third Day to listen to. He let me borrow one of his, so I used up 12 batteries listening to that cd lol. The pews down there in the church are made from wood and metal with no cushions so that was fun ha just kidding, but they did sleep real well using my Bible for a pillow. The joke was that I could sleep anywhere. :)
Wednesday, pancakes again for breakfast which was good. It was our last day of our ministry there with Bible School and Basketball, so I went to basketball which was alot more fun than I thought it would be. We have been helping John (the missionary and Doby's brother) in the afternoons with the new construction to expand the church. which makes you real thankful for the amenities we have here (backhoe's and concrete trucks) :).
On Thursday we took about an hour ride to the river, about a 45 minute ride up the river and about a 1:30 minute walk in the jungle to Bajo Coen. This remote place is home to Native indigenious people that go without many amenities we enjoyed at the church. (running water, indoor plumbing, electricity). We left them some flashlights that don't need batteries and I took them some clothes (Mom packed me way too much).
Friday was real fun we went to the beach and for the first part of the day we just relaxed and had fun in the water :) Then we ate some lunch, and took some bibles, tracks, and water; and gave it to people on the beach. after that I stayed with our things on the beach while most everybody else went up into a cave close to the beach. which I did get a good nap in so its all good. (Again I can sleep anywhere :))
Saturday we said our last good byes and headed again for San Jose. I rode in the truck which had AC that work real well (too well in some cases) we got there about lunch time and we became tourists for about a half a day which was new experience for me in a big tourist town such as San Jose.
We had a 8am flight from San Jose on sunday morning so that means we had to be at the airport at 6 which means we had to be up about 4 and leave the hotel by 5 which was realll fun. lol we got back to Atlanta about 1est (11 Costa Rica time) and we had to go through immigration and customs which was even more of a pain than in San Jose. but we made it to our flight to Raleigh which was a real blessing. We got to Raleigh got off of the plane grabbed our stuff and moma and pops was waiting at the airport for me :) :) we left Raleigh and headed for Prospect Hill NC on some real nice roads :) We stopped at Wendy's in Hillsborough for the best hamburger I think I have ever had lol :)
This was a great trip and im glad to be able to be on it. It really opened my eyes to how rich we are here and the Lord is still teaching me patience on some things that I want to happen but they havent happened yet. but like I said in my devotion; we as humans only see our little piece of the puzzle but God sees the whole picture.:)