I am Nobody

I remember all those lonesome roads, those in Nebraska, Iowa, and others. And when I felt so all alone, I felt that God with my friend, Jesus was with me.

I know nothing more about God than you do, but I do speak.

I know nothing and am nobody.  I am not special.  I am only here the same as you.

For the mildew morning, the dead of night, the criss-cross rivers of the dead of blight.  I was there with you.

Those who called out to God, my father.  God, I was there with you and you died, your stinking bodies of mold and rot.  And how much I loved you so.

Powerless there with you as you died, but I was standing and left to live.

And you died.

God, I am sorry as your wilted body exploded in my arms.  I was so much concerned about me.

Here I am to carry on, but I am nobody.  I am no one special.  I was only spared by my Father to live and to spread the message.  I don’t deserve anything, anything at all.

In the headlights of the darkness, I was dead there with you.

In the life of the brightness, I know nothing more than the few.

In the absence of life, and in the deadness of life.

I am here in the sphere that seeks to swipe,

For there are two sides,

One is calling which side are you on,

And then again there are all those masses seeking to be heard

But not be told

And then again,

I say that I love you

And you smack that scar even scorns the side of God’s cheek.

I was here all alone.  And then I say, God bless you.

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How Dare God Impose His Will On Me

Me!  Me!  God has requested ME to succumb to His will?  How in the world?  Doesn’t God know that I have bills?  I have to pay rent.  There is electricity and food and health care payments.  And then there is the cable and food.  I have to pay that.  How about my auto payments and God wants me to give all of this up to submit to HIM?

And when my enemies fight me, I am supposed to bless them?  Give me a break.

NO!  How dare God tell me what to do?

Those who are homeless are there because of their free will.  I get up every morning and go to work and I am supposed to stop and help them?  They refuse to help themselves.

And then we have the druggies.  I am supposed to give to them to support their habit? Don’t they have the same choice and I to go out and work?

How dare God.

How dare God impose His will on me when I have troubles of my own.

Me! Me!  And God says I should care about them?

We can speak about grace all day long, but now He calls me to lay down my life for them.  This is stupid.

And people.  That is where it’s at.  Jesus tells us to love the unloveable.  We are to give to those of whom in the back of our minds, we despise.

The real wonder is that God doesn’t despise us.  He gives us His commandments and expects us to carry them out.

It all comes at a price.

And the price is our life.

Are you willing to give to all that they may live?  Christ did all of this and more for us.  How dare we demand more from God.

Now Don’t Take Me Serious

What happens when I have fun at your expense and constantly tell you “Now don’t take me serious.”?

Certainly after less than half a dozen exclamations of this, of course, you take the person serious.

The same is identical in our day to day affairs when we deny God and ‘play’ around with worldly adventures.  In prayer, we tell God just as we told our friends, we weren’t serious.

We do this all the time whenever we go to the club or out messing around with our friends.  No, we aren’t serious, we’re simply letting our hair down and all, relaxing and having fun.

No one wakes up in the morning declaring “I’m going to be an alcoholic or crack addict.”  This is more than appalling, it’s total nonsense.

And naturally you shouldn’t take me serious when I tell you that millions of Americans have fallen by the wayside all because they were just out being silly.  Robberies, deaths and suicides are reported daily by the thousands over people who just went out beyond the edge, not serious at all.

And if I approached you on the street and attempted to introduce you to Jesus I suppose you wouldn’t really take me serious as no one in their right might approaches strangers to introduce a King, the Son of God.

Seriously?

And after your rejection whereas I think that you’re a bonehead and foolish and I were to express that to you:  I follow all of this up with “Now don’t take me serious.”

Yes, yes and double yes.  All of this is serious.  In fact it’s so serious it all comes down to life and death for the people we are to serve.  And yes, we can play around with it and play with the fiery fire in our hands, but at some point, someone’s going to get burnt.

And while the people we are to serve may not be serious, our intent should be just that:  bone dry serious. And the reason I say this is that some approach life as if it were a game.  We play with it as if time were forever and that people’s lives simply don’t count.  I say, we should be as intent and purposeful in our life that people know darn well that we say what we mean and mean what we say and that all that we are is serious.  We shouldn’t have to tease people for them to guess that we are serious about what we do.  You can take all of this with a grain of salt about what I said, but then again, Don’t take me serious.

Guilty As Charged: God as an Enabler

The heresy of it all.  God, in all His wonder gives away free Grace of Salvation to worthless souls.  Moreover, He grants answers to prayers to those who are undeserving and worthless.  Look at all the second chances He grants.  See how He restores people who are lost and counted out.  I say He is Guilty!

There is no way that these useless bums should afford all the riches God pours on these people.  Doesn’t He realize that it will only make their lives worse off?  Doesn’t God consider how valued people lose out and suffer become of the poor?  Doesn’t God blame them for their poverty and sickness and circumstances?

The Nerve.  How dare God care for such a wretched people.  Clearly, He should be tending the Good people like us and not waste resources on the backsliders.  Thus, after hearing all the evidence, I declare God Guilty as Charged.  Yes, He is an enabler.  What shall we say is the sentence?  In the case of His son, it was crucifixion.  God. The Father should be next followed by all his followers, those nasty Christians.

You Can’t Always Have It Your Own Weigh

I’ve written before that life as a whole is not Burger King.  We can’t have it our own way.

Today, much talk is centered around rescheduling football games and other sports.  Can you imagine?  The nerve of a storm in Houston to disrupt America’s all important football game? The stupid storm!

Doesn’t that storm realize that football is far more important than the lives of ordinary people who attempt to struggle day to day?

It is bad enough that some church services and activities spill over where congregants can’t rush home in time to watch the game. With our Christian Athletes, we have Jesus as our Quarterback and you can’t get any better than that.

However, in counting the costs we have to measure:  for better or worse, pound per pound, God will lose in serving Him here on earth.  However, in the end, He will have it His way.

Not on Your Knees

Jesus, when teaching to pray, instructed a unique reverence for our Father in Heaven.  However, I don’t believe he was on His knees.

Yes, at one point we were told to pray in a closet, but I think most of this was so as not to seem religious to others and thus, to brag.

Jesus said He was our friend and servant to us.  This is not one out of fear, but one out of Love.

Before I’m counter instructed, I know about Paul with fear and trembling, but here we’re speaking about a relationship of Heavenly Father to Creation and one to His Sons, potentially to be Sons of God.

Yet, traditionally we’re told to fold hands or to be on knees and I say we are to approach our wonderful Father with heads up reaching to Heaven.  This is an approach to Goodness, not sorrow.

With contrite hearts then we are bend over or perhaps in a closet or on our knees, but in celebration we are to reach upward with if anything, hands up for victory.

I can’t help but think more traditional thinking always has us bend down low.  I say, where there are times for it, our general posture should be one with gladness and with reverence and most of all, in gracious love.

It was Possible for Jesus to Sin

Jesus was a man every bit the same as you and me.  That means He was human, sent in the flesh to become man.  Too, He was the Son of Man. It doesn’t mean He couldn’t sin.  Yes, Jesus could sin, He simply didn’t.  He was perfect in spirit and possessed perfect Union with our Father.

However, insomuch that Adam could sin, so too Jesus could also.  This should spur us on for we are also called unto perfection.  Only our perfection is unto Jesus as He is to His Father.

It doesn’t mean He couldn’t sin.  He was subject to the same temptations as we are, even more so, but he did not sin.

We don’t generally think of it this way, but we are identical to Adam with the flaw that we were born into sin.  Jesus was also born into sin, but failed to yield to it.  I realize this could be disputed in that many would say he was born perfect.  I say that he was and was not.  I mean this in that yes, he was perfect, but only because He was subject to His Father.  If he was already perfect, there would be no victory in overcoming sin.  Yet, He did overcome sin and thus death and so then grew into perfection by his obedience to His Father.

We are not that strong.  However, our virtue is that of Jesus to be LIKE him.  We obviously will not attain that status in this lifetime, but our role is to strive as much as possible with Jesus as the model.

When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to Lose Bob Dylan

Last night while at the local convenient store I spoke with two young homeless bums were sitting near the entrance.  They had been there for at least eight or nine hours panhandling.

Interesting enough, each ‘earned’ about $100 that day, but at the moment, they were flat broke.

None of what I’ve stated thus far is out of the ordinary, but another fellow who was with me left a lasting impression with me.

He’s only 40 years old, a non-believer and named Christian.

On leaving the store, Christian stopped and spoke with the two homeless guys. After tossing them two cigarettes each, he inquired about how they were doing. I mean, really asked how they were doing and chatted with them for about 15 solid minutes.

Now these guys were pretty beat up.  One jerked around feverously, obviously in reaction to drugs.  But the amazing aspect is that these two dudes smiled profusely and radiated a profound sense of peace in response to my friend, Christian.

The lesson is that a non-believer ‘ministered’ more to two homeless dudes than I could ever do.  Where I thought I was the so called ‘expert’ Christian, a non-believer demonstrated a far greater love. What a Marvelous lesson!

Poor People Can’t Afford Church

Anything in America costs money.  The same is true for church.  Aside from tithes, just about any event in church costs money.  Family night suppers are not free, and most activities involving kids are also costly.

It would seem that the poor, above any other group would be served by the church, but in reality the truth is that it is simply too costly.

Anyone who has ever lived out on the streets knows that your clothes get tattered, smelly and dirty and while one might shave in a restroom at McDonald’s, there is still the bath that is lacking.

Some churches seem to boast their services as a fashion show.  This is in conflict with the poor who are doing good to wear blue jeans and a t-shirt.

So then, whenever one might wonder why the poor fail to show up at church services, it may be that they are not out drinking beer, but stay away for they lack the resources to participate.

Consumerism is a principle facet of American society.  However, this characteristic is one that involves finances to enjoy the amenities of an industrial nation.  In the long and short end, many poor people don’t go to church simply because they can’t afford to go.  This should not be the case.  Can anyone think of Jesus rejecting the poor because they couldn’t afford the cost?  Of course, not.  And while churches don’t do this willingly, the poor will remain away from church due to cost.

Walking On Water

Don’t we all possess awe over Peter once he climbed out of the boat in reply to Jesus and walked on water?  Don’t we also have scorn for him when he sank and we so easily say that he lacked faith and lost focus on our Lord?

I’m not even asking any of this.  No, not at all–I’m not asking anyone to walk on water. Heck.  I’m simply trying to get Christians to walk out of the church building and nothing more.

Why is this that hard?  How is it the focus remains on the pulpit and not on the people it should for those in need of our service?  Climb out of the boat of the church.

Remain focused.  The faith needed to walk outside the church is not all that great.  The impending needs of those who need us is great and at times, overwhelming. However, we are not Peter and nor do we have Jesus outside in the flesh beckoning us on.

Yet, it is our role to be there with Jesus and Jesus is in fact there once we are outside doing His commandments and embracing His people beyond what we know as our own.

So then, no need to walk on water, but by all means, please let’s take that stroll outside the church to engage all of God’s people.  And in the process we can fellowship with other Christians and Jesus as He is revealed as we do his work.  Climb outside the boat of the church.