Over the past month or so, I've been given so many opportunities to serve God...an overwhelming amount. However it's been ironic how difficult it's been for me to see God working even though I'm doing so many things for Him. Here's the problem, I've hit a plateau in my faith (a good one I think), but I haven't been relying on the LORD for my energy and focus. I have been focused, but my focus has been on getting things done, not on letting God work. I've hit the plateau, but I'm not comfortable staying here, it's too easy. 


Now there are things that God has been speaking into my life recently, from many people. God's been telling me to fear HIM (Deut 6:13), give Him control, and rely on him for my energy, focus, and guidance (Psalm 26). I think I've finally realized why; I can do a lot of good things without God's help, and I have been; but letting God lead those things, will allow them to transcend the shallowness of doing them on my own, and let God give the fullness of work done by Him. I have been doing them for God, and not letting God do them. 


Romans 8:26-28 says, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."


I am weak, I know that full well. And I have the Spirit of the LORD in me, but I truthfully believe that I have been trying the do the work of the Spirit myself. I haven't let myself be led by the Spirit like Paul suggests in Romans 8. God is working for good, but right now I need to transcend the good, and let God take me where He wants me to go. 


I've been spending some serious time considering my doubts, and why I haven't seen God in all this. I need to surrender my control-freakness to God. Allow His Spirit to lead me. Spirit led is God led. I want God to do the leading, not me. 

Luke 15 Son, Sheep, or Coin?

This week has been a short one for me, because I got back from vacation at Oily Shores (that’s a different topic all together haha) on Monday, and didn’t have to come into the office until Thursday. When I did get into the office my first assignment was to make a VBS type class for River City on Sunday. Easy enough, Casey gave us some ideas and we ran with them. But I started to look a bit deeper into the passage that we chose. Luke 15 tells three stories of finding something that was lost. One of them is one of the more popular parables that we talk about, the Prodigal Son. However they are all so important to show the lengths that God goes to in order to regain His lost sheep, coins, sons, etc. And it shows that every person (if you think the objects are supposed to be people) requires a different type of return. The First two require God (I think God is represented as the Shepherd, Woman, and Father in Luke 15) to search for the lost item; and when He finds it, He brings it back. In the third story, God waits, and waits, and waits, until the son realizes what he has done, and returns. Meaning perhaps that different people need God to be different with them. I’ll explain…

Lost Sheep: The sheep is lost, so the Shepherd goes to get it and brings it back and rejoices. In the same way sometimes God seeks out lost people, works to bring them back, and then rejoices upon their return.

Lost Coin: The coin is lost, but it also hasn’t gone far, it is in the house the whole time. Sometimes people are still here (showing up even), but they have to be noticed for them to come back into God’s light.

Lost Son: The son leaves, and eventually realizes how dumb he is, and returns. Sometimes God leaves us to learn on our own that His way is always going to be better that our way.

The part that I like the most about all of these returns is that there is great rejoicing and praise (and even partying) when a sinner repents. I love the way the NLT puts it; “ ‘He [the son] was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began. (Luke 15:24).” God throws a raging party every time a sinner repents. God is pumped.

Then there is the faithful son. He is so mad that his dad throws a party for his brother who was lost. He had been working so hard to honor his father, and he feels hurt that he hasn’t gotten his reward. He is wondering why his brother gets spoiled all the time, even though he has never shown love to their father. He’s questioning the legitimacy of his brother’s return. I struggle so much with the same thing, when a person comes back to God, but once again who am I to judge? If God is happy when a sinner repents than I should be too. The Kingdom of God is larger, and it is definitely big enough for all of us.

Consider this: think about which character you are. Are you the coin, the sheep, the lost son, the son at home, the servant, or the rejoice-er? If you are one of the lost, think about how God is searching for you. If you are the one who’s always been home, and is wondering why you don’t get any attention, remember that everything that God has is yours, and that you should be rejoicing when your brothers and sisters come to back to Him. 


(Plus thanks to all my friends that I've discussed this with at Ethos House Church, I stole some of your ideas). 

Real living.

When I was thinking about what to blog about this week, I decided to look through some of my favorite verses to see if there was some wisdom in there that I was missing. Romans 5:1-11 struck me in a way that it hadn’t before. Verses 6-8 were especially new to me for some reason. It reads:

“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

When it speaks about how it is unlikely that anyone would die just for Average Joe, it struck me. I’m average Joe. I would not by any means be considered righteous; I would not be considered an evil man either (I hope). No one would consider dying for me. But Christ died for me, so that I could become righteous and approach His throne. Something I love about Jesus that we so often forget is that Jesus would have died if you were the only person on the planet. He died specifically for you. Do you get that? HE DIED FOR YOU! 

How often do we forget that? 

We talk about it every Sunday, but we don’t talk about how personal it was. God would have sent Jesus if only one of us would have chosen to follow Him, if we were the only one person were going to meet Him in heaven. God was going to give that shot to any and everyone, even if only one person took the risk.

So how do we take this? This week, live like you have a new lease on life, live in a way that radically shows how important Jesus’ sacrifice was to you.

Live—like someone you know and love—died for you.

Westboro Baptist Church

Before I begin this blog, let me apologize for all quotes and sign statements that I repeat. I do NOT in any way agree with the teachings of Westboro Baptist Church.


I was just watching 20/20 while drinking a milkshake with my mom (cute right?). They began talking about 13 year old boy who climbed Mount Everest, which was really cool, but that is not the subject of this blog. The subject is Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). After the neat story about a teenager doing the impossible, they moved to a radical group of "Christians" that spread hate around America. Seeing the story on 20/20 brought about two feelings in my heart: anger and sadness. I was brought almost to tears, first because I wanted to hurt many of their members, and second, sadness because of their ignorance and that a family would abandon a child because they believe differently.


The reporter was playing with the children of a young family from the church and the son told him, "I don't think you'll go to heaven, I think you'll go to hell." Prompting the reporter to ask, "why?" Obviously the 6 year old boy did not have the answers, but his dad went on to talk about why they think that "God hates fags...America...and soldiers." 


I almost punched our coffee table. 


Right now, I need to say that I am trying not to begin a raging condemnation of what these people are doing. I am not God. I do not choose what is right and what is wrong. Condemning WBC and the actions of it's members would make me no better than one of them.


However, I cannot for the life of me understand how these people could use scripture to say those things. It looks like blasphemy to me (again I'm not the True Judge). It is obvious from Scripture that our Savior loves sinners enough to spend time with them (Luke 15). Jesus said, "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent (Luke 15:7)." I don't think that any member of WBC could say that Jesus alienated a single sinner by condemning him (except maybe the Pharisees). God wants the lost to come to Him, but telling those people that they are going to hell is the dumbest form of "proselytizing" (yes, dumber than those brochures that people have hanging in the foyer of their church buildings) I have ever heard of.  


Their hatred is alienating to all the "sinners" that they talk about. They act like they have never done anything wrong. I wonder what they would do if a "sinner" actually repented and entered their church. Would they accept that person? I'm telling you that God's grace is enough for ALL sinners. I am a sinner. I struggle with porn. I battle everyday to become clean and honor God with my thoughts and actions. Is my sin any worse than that of a homosexual, kleptomaniac, rapist, or soldier? Is it any better? 


I'm not exactly sure what I am asking, I've done a series of posters contradicting the type of hatred these people are spreading. If you are not a Christian and are reading this blog, please know most Christians are NOT like WBC, we want to love people who are struggling with sin.


I know that most of you would be very uncomfortable if a homosexual, prostitute or ex-con walked into your church, but I know that God loves them, and our goal as Christians should be to love and nurture them, and help them grow closer to the Awesome God who saves. 


Going back to WBC, I find it very hard to believe that I worship the same God that they claim to worship, because I don't think He's the same. I know that the God I worship sends people to hell, it's the sad reality of sin--becoming separated from God. However, I also know that we are on this world to find God, and to worship Him, and that we all have a shot to get to know Him. 


This post has been quite scatterbrained, most likely unintelligent, but I hope I've put this in your mind. Love people, that is my simple request. 

Spirit Led

Last week Gary Neal (preacher at the Levy Church of Christ) brought up some great points that resonated with me for this entire week, and it all keys in on two verses in Galatians. Galatians 5:24,25 “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” The reason this resonates so clearly with me, is that I forget so much that I have the Holy Spirit living in me (whether consciously or not). This passage is just so overlooked in our lives. Everything that we struggle with, every pain, every sin, is nailed to the cross, end of story. Now the great part of this is that God can rescue us from these problems, He is not just an old man who wants to watch us suffer. It’s been a major focus in my spiritual life to let God rescue me from my sinful desires. God loves us, and He wants more than anything for us reach out to Him, and to allow Him to help us. To think that God can’t help us is limiting God (Daniel 6:27); to think that we can overcome ourselves is extreme overconfidence. The message here is simple: the next time that you are tempted, tried, coerced, or pressured, ask for God to rescue you. We know that He will not give us more than we can stand (1 Corinthians 10:13), and we know that “the LORD will fight for you, you need only to be still,” (Exodus 14:14). 

The Rich Man

Luke 18:18-29 is one of the toughest passages in all of Scripture to me. Before I left Lipscomb, I heard a man named Dave Clayton preach on this very passage (shameless plug, check out his podcast on iTunes, Ethos Church); and I hated the message. He talked about how it wasn’t necessarily the fact that he was rich that was keeping him from God. Or maybe that doesn’t communicate clearly enough, because it was his riches that was keeping him from the Kingdom of God. The point was that riches did not necessarily apply to everyone. What is keeping you from the following Jesus may very well be riches, but it could very easily be anything else.

So what is keeping you from God?

I’m not going to write out a list and suggest that you tell everyone, and tally up your weaknesses. I do believe that for most Americans, in this consumer driven society, money is going to be one for all of us, but with all that we have, we can have more distractions. Look at how busy we are?

I don’t have a clear-cut suggestion on how this will affect your Spiritual Journey, whether this week or beyond. I can’t tell you how to get rid of these “idols” or “hindrances,” or whatever you want to call them.  All I know is that there are things getting in the way, and Jesus wants us to follow Him. When we became Christians we committed to a life of loving Christ, believing that He saved us, and that our love for Him would be above everything else in our lives.

If Jesus literally asked you today to follow Him into the mission field (wherever it would be), what would be your excuses? 

One man's rambles, another man's treasure?

So I've let this thing die, my blog I mean. October was a long time ago, and lots of things have happened since. I'm not longer in Europe. I've finished my Sophomore year of college, and I am 4 days from beginning my summer internship at Levy Church of Christ. I am 20 years old, and the more I learn, the more I realize I know nothing (I didn't make up that quote!). I will most likely regret what I write here years from now, but I also know, that I have a chance that I may say something good.

I've noticed for a while now, that when I feel passionate about something, I have the ability (whether good or bad) to speak about the topic until I'm exhausted. I need an outlet for this (because I know my parents and girlfriend are always in the mood to hear a rant, sermon, or speech). I was just reading a blog--a response to someone else's blog. It got to the point that it was so wordy and dense that I decided it wasn't worth reading anymore. So here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to blog, whenever I feel necessary, for as long as feel I need. I don't care about correct grammar so much (I just got a "C" in Comp II), but I do care about the context of what I am saying (I got an "A" in O.T. Exegesis and Hermeneutics, go me!). I doubt I will get to the point that my blogs will be too long to read. I also doubt that anyone will read them at all.

Here goes nothing.

Life is Beautiful and Pre-Italy

This post has dual implications. I just watched the movie, "Life is Beautiful," for the first time. Also, and very appropriately I am going to Italy for the first time tomorrow. Yes, I mean literally tomorrow night. First off I'd like to start with the movie. LIB may just be one of the best movies I've ever seen. It has everything: love, humor, family, violence, and really no bad language. The story is absolutely genius, never in my life would I be able to have the amount of optimism to convince a child that he was playing hide-and-seek for the entire holocaust. It's incredible. It's even better, because I rarely will agree to watch, much less enjoy foreign films. Not that I think they are bad, I just have a hard time getting over the language barrier. LIB does this with flying colors.

Bottomline: I recommend this movie for any and every person on earth.
Grade: 94

Secondly, I am going to Italy tomorrow. By far the place I've been looking forward to going to more than any other. I hope that it is all it's cracked up to be. I'm ready to see all these places that have more history than I've ever experienced, and a culture truly different than my own. Not to mention, I love Italian food. I'm not sure if I will document my journey via this blog or any other electronic media, but I will enjoy myself. I'll be back in a little over a week.

Andy

Prague Praha Prag

This weekend I went to Prague, It was great... just the thing for a little 2 day trip. We left early Saturday morning and returned late Sunday afternoon. We began by de-boarding our charter bus and walking around the city for roughly 6 hours. I would say that is a little to much for a person who doesn't really know much about Prague to begin with. We ate and hiked around the city, to the Palace complex all the way down to the Old Town Hall (we found out what these were later). We got taken advantage of on exchange rates and meal prices... because we didn't know how to easily convert Euros to Crowns. We got up very early Sunday morning and began our tour around the historical center of the city. We retraced our steps for the most part and saw a few extra things. St. Charles' bridge was really cool, even though it had almost 1000 people on it at any point. Overall the Czech Republic was great, but very Americanized and crowded. I suggest getting a tour guide first thing when you get to Prague, otherwise you will have to see everything twice, or just study the history before you arrive and find a self-guided tour.

Prague is a great 2-day city, but I would not want to spend more than 3 days without getting out to the countryside or another area. There is a lot of shopping, but I would not go to Prague just to buy clothes I could get in America. The shopping market for souvenirs is great, but the further away from the historical center you get, the better the prices... so look for shops that aren't surrounded by others just like it.

Bottomline: Prague is a great 2-3 day vacation as a part of a larger trip... but I wouldn't spend your whole savings planning a trip to Prague.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Recently my girlfriend and I went to see "The Time Traveler's Wife." I'll be completely honest, there was only one reason I wanted to see this movie... Rachel McAdams. The movie is actually a very fresh take on the romance movie. The nudity, every time that the guy travels through time, got out of hand in my opinion, I don't like seeing a naked man every ten minutes or so. And the fact that the man falls in love with a young girl, that he waits for, was rather weird too. On the other hand, I liked that it was creative. I also enjoyed that they came up against odds to be together, and have a child. It was simply a story of love, and they did do it in a fresh way.  Overall the movie was entertaining, however it wasn't my idea of a great movie, especially for a romance.

Bottomline: I would only recommend this to serious romantic movie lovers.
Score: 77

Inglourious Basterds

"Inglourious Basterds"

I've never been much of a Tarantino fan, so I was hesitant to get my hopes up about this movie. However violence, has always intrigued me. The thought of American-Jews fighting Nazis seemed like a new take on an old theme. Inglourious was actually not set up like I thought it would be; it was set up like a book, in chapter format. Most chapters, were one long scene, in one place, with a few exceptions. There was less action scenes than I expected, however the over-the-top gore that Tarantino is known for, does make an appearance. The story was more complex than I thought, so in that regard the movie overcame expectations. Overall the movie was very entertaining, but way to long.

Score: 80
Bottomline: I recommend this movie, for people who appreciate gore and don't mind language. Not for your average movie goer.

Changing of my blog.

I've decided to test my skills as a movie critic. So this blog isn't going to have the same function that it used to. As a disclaimer I would like to say that I am still a Christian, and that will factor into part of my reviews.  I just lost the fire to blog about my spiritual thoughts, and I'm going to use this one to review movies... I love movies, so I figure I should be alright at this... If I'm not, I'll quit eventually.

Impact.

Impact is awesome if you haven't been. I'll post my thoughts about it when I get back on saturday! I'm posting little updates on twitter.com/pickleat

The Shack

I just read "The Shack." Like most things that are "hyped-up" I was a little apprehensive. I don't want to give away anything, or a synopsis, but just say a simple message.

Sometimes we take away the healing God can give and sometimes we limit His abilities. God is bigger and can handle our mistakes, I'm so glad that God loves me, and loves you (whoever you are if you are reading). I don't think I'll ever understand why He loves me, but I don't want to question it, because He really has no reason.

Read "The Shack," and pass it on, with the "Missy Project." God's grace needs to be passed around to everyone, whether you believe this book or not, the story is good and it needs to be read.

-Andy

http://theshackbook.com/

Born with a Purpose

Judges 13:5 "You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be cut. For he will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”

This passage is The Angel of the LORD speaking to Samson's mother. The Angel is telling here that she will have a child and he is going to lead Israel. Talk about being born for a purpose. Some people struggle in life, wondering what they should do, or who they should be. There is something I believe God, that we are all born with a purpose, that each and every person has a niche or talent that will benefit the kingdom of God. 

Ephesians 1:11 "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will..."

God has a purpose for us too. Imagine if you woke up everyday and lived our lives with purpose, how much more joyful and meaningful would your life be? I'm not speaking to other people here, I'm speaking to myself as well. I think so many times that life is boring, but should it be that way? I'm going to try to live my life for a purpose, the greater purpose is the will of God, specifically... I'm still figuring that out. 

Andy

Twitter

Hey everyone, I got a twitter today to see if I like it. I'm going to keep this as my spiritual blog, but I might post a thought there from time to time. Just thought I would update...

http://twitter.com/pickleat

A.P.

Trust God Will...

Ok, after a long hiatus I'm back for all one of you who read this. Here's today's thought.

After doing my daily reading, I realized something. God is teaching me something directly. I had just finished reading about Gideon the Judge and how he conquered the Midianites. God is teaching me to be faithful. I need to trust Him, trust that He's called me here to Jonesboro, trust that I can be what I need to be. I know that He will guide me, I just need to listen...

My new phrase to help this is "Trust God Will..." fill the blank of what I need to trust Him for that day. I hope this helps you... thanks.

Andy

Everyone! Anyone...?

Everyone, anyone? If you are keeping up with me, you've noticed I've taken a break from Blogging while at home. I leave for Jonesboro, Ar later today and I am planning on picking it back up. Please be patient with me, I hope I can get back into it soon. 

Andy. 

Sorry I've been away.

Sorry I've been away, but this is finals week. I fully intend to keep this blog going after my ministry class is over, however right now I'm concentrating on my tests. Thanks, Be back soon.

Andy

Homestretch

Man, we are so close. I have less than a week of school left, and my freshman year is over. I will be in Jonesboro this summer, and Vienna in the fall. I'm so excited, but I don't know when I'm going to rest. Because that's all I need, is a long rest. My prayer is that God will give me the stamina to finish the semester, give my all in my internship, and in my travels. I can't say much more, because studying and final assignments are calling my name. But God willing I will get good grades on all of these, and finish the year strong. 

andy