Asking for the Specifics

When we go to a restaurant we take time to study the menu and then we order informatively as to what we feel our pallet would appreciate and then we order it to the specifics asking for extra toppings here or hold those onions, for instance. Even when the meal comes you may not trust the cooks in the back and without thinking add the salt and/or pepper without even a taste, I know there are some of your out there! We take the time to look at what we want and we get it. Some people are more picky than others and though I have not dined with this person to my knowledge I have heard that the most specific, or some may suggest confused people to order may go by the name Brad. Brad likes to ask many questions about each dish and then just when it might seem like he will come to a decision starts asking questions about another dish. Brad, i know that everyone wants to be known for something and this may just possibly have become your alma mater, the anthem to which others know you!

So I want to ask if you have recently studied the menu of your own life? If you have looked at the different hats that you wear and the various ways that you are connected to others and even how your own heart and mind have been processing things around you. Have you recently taken stock of how your life is going and if it is going in the way that you have hoped it would.

As a devoted Christ follower whenever I look at my life I also analyze my relationship with God and how it is being played out in my life. I've done that recently and here are some questions that I have asked myself:

- Have I taken time to spend in committed prayer? (refer to my first post titled Resolutions) 

- Have I shared my faith with someone recently? Like really?

- When was the last time I was uncomfortable for God?

- Have I been studying the Bible?

- Have I been memorizing scripture?

- How would others know that I am a Christ follower and an alien and stranger of this world?

- Do I commit to die to myself daily?

- Is there hardness(bitterness, rage, slander, jealousy) in my heart?

- What does my prayer life look like? Is it all about me or do I lift others up to God?

- Have I been faithful with what God has called me to do?

I think that if we took time to study how God is working in our lives that we could really hone in on the things that He desires for us. I think that we could then with confidence start to talk with God about all that life entails. I think that we could give the pallet of our lives that which will truly give us life and last.

Many people wonder why they should give their lives to Christ and the disciples asked similar questions at the beginning of the book of John. A number of times they asked Jesus, "Where are you going?" to which Jesus responded, "Come and see." The disciples wanted to know Jesus and they weren't given the answer up front but they were invited to join Jesus in the discovery of who He was.

I want to keep discovering the truth of Jesus and I want to ask for that specifically. I want my family to have this foundation in their life before anything and for that I want to ask Jesus specifically into each individual in my family. I want others to know the invitation and story of Jesus and I want to ask for the opportunities to share that and a life that reflects that truth and I want to ask for the specifically through many times of each day. I want to work diligently for God out of thankfulness for what He has done for me and I want to reflect this specifically.

Jesus says to ask and keep asking and your will receive. Seek and keep seeking and you will find. As you do this I urge you to ask and to seek the specific things of God that you might know them and that you might share them in everything that you do. He invites you to follow him and to reflect him with definition.

I ask that as you read this that you might be encouraged to ask God for those specifics that he wants to see in you so that the Lord might be forever praised. May this continue to be your alma mater! 

The Spoken Word - Jesus>Religion

Hope you enjoy the video. I did!

Moral Failure and Super Bowl Antics

Props to Jim Jones of Power 97.5 http://www.power97.com/DJsAndShows/Jim.aspx for calling out an organization that is outraged at the Super Bowl halftime performance by Madonna. The reason they are outraged is because supposedly Madonna (since I wrote this I have now realized that it was one of the performers on stage with her and not Madonna herself) flipped the bird (yeah, that's the middle finger and not a dead pigeon) either to the fans, the camera or both during her short halftime concert. Now I watched the entire halftime show and didn't even notice this gesture. I guess I was too entranced in all the other performances on stage that I didn't notice a little finger go up for a slight moment. And now this organization demands a repentant action to take place by either the NBC network who aired it or by the NFL who organized it because 100 million American viewers saw something that is unacceptable.

Meanwhile right after the Super Bowl was finished we thought we'd catch up on the world news and the top story was of Syrian locals pleading for foreign intervention on the atrocities that are happening to innocent civilians time and time again of which have recently become even more harsh. The National News showed only part of the videos that were taken because they didn't want the public being overly horrified by pictures of one guys leg that was completely blown off who looked to be a teenager and another guy who's lower jaw and throat had been severely, and I mean severely, damaged.

But no, we have an entire organization that is concerned with the middle finger! Like we've never heard or seen it before! Like a bleep on the TV for a swear replacement really takes away from it.

Side note: We were watching a cooking show the other day when one participant said, "What the bleep..." and yeah Isaac, my 8 year old son, responded, "I know what he said!" and snickered to himself. Great job not letting the public know what's going on! Great job! (THICK SARCASM INTENDED!!)   

So I just turned to Power 97 for a brief moment and heard Jim Jones call these exact two instances out as a moral failure and I totally agree! I took the time to call him up and tell him that I totally supported what he said on air. I told him that I work at a church and that so often collectively as a people we don't hear the horrific cries screaming for our attention and we take time to notice the tiny hiccups instead. The mole hill so often becomes the mountain in our small and secluded lives. Oh God forgive us!

PS. I enjoyed the halftime show and thought that the 53 year old Madonna still had a lot of energy and of course did everything to an extreme the only way she knows how!