I am going to do a little name dropping today but at the same time maybe give this person a little pub. You never know, you guys may be the audience he has waited for. But first, the preface:
I came to work today with the same expectations as always. I will have a handful of emails to peruse. They usually consist of the daily sales summary, one or two from the city letting me know what new developments are coming, a forwarded funny (or not-so-funny) and a few email strings letting me know what new developments are ready to be handed over to the sales department, me. All of which consist of about 48 typos per; these are the funnies to me. Anyway, I drink 6 or 7 or 58 cups of coffee, read the news, check the weather and hit the streets for the day.
Today was pretty much the same, said for one email. My friend from back home, Mel, emailed me. The title of said email; “I have been talking about you…in front of you back.” Huh? I opened the email to find three attachments. There were two pictures of Mel, his two girls and an old acquaintance of mine, Robbie Seay of Robbie Seay Band fame. The final attachment was a 7 second video of Robbie (clearly being coerced by Mel with a gun or flamethrower or something) saying “Hi David. Hello to everyone at Legacy Fellowship.” It was pretty cool…and just a bit weird too.
It is one thing to see a video such as this from a family member or something but from someone you admire and is known by thousands upon thousands of people. I guess that’s kind of cool. Thanks Robbie. Keep spreading God’s message in your very cool and unique way. Thanks Mel for putting a strange smirk/smile on my face this morning. God bless you both.
Go check out the Robbie Seay Band at the following three links:
Michael Vick’s apology sounded sincere and contrite enough. I have my doubts but I am willing to give the man another chance. Did he only apologize because he was caught? We will never know. He may have turned his life around without this mess happening. He could have “found Jesus” without the FBI finding his junk.
Vick said, “I’m upset with myself, and, you know, through this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God. And I think that’s the right thing to do as of right now.” I think that is fantastic. He actually said Jesus too. Most people don’t bring the Savior’s name up, they just say they found God or religion or something to that effect. Vick said, “I found Jesus and asked for forgiveness…” I am happy for the man and I pray he grows in his decision, if there truly was one made.
The part about this quote I don’t like is this; “…that’s the right thing to do as of right now.” The best thing to do, period. Right? Yesterday, today and forever. The first time you realize you need Jesus as your savior is when you should accept His forgiveness. That is the right thing to do as of then and for the rest of your life.
So I don’t know what to think of that part. He had no script. He seemingly spoke from the heart. He apologized to everyone you could think of except PETA…and I am okay with that. He said he was sorry to the kids that look up to him. He realizes that he is a roll model whether or not he chooses to be. I believe in forgiveness. Mr. Vick should absolutely be forgiven. Whether he deserves anything further is not up to me. I will leave that to folks that have the money to pay him or not.
Kudos to you Mr. Vick. I pray you truly found our Lord and Savior.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank my friend Chad for “coming to the rescue.” Thanks Bra! Look, you get a free plug.
Filed under: Conviction Hurts, Daily Living, Learning my trade, Missed Opportunities, Movies, Stupid Happens, Uncategorized
As I get a bit older and a bit further along in my walk with God I have noticed something. This “something” has intensified with my journey to become a pastor. I am well on my way to becoming a fantastically average youth pastor and I pray God will help with the inadequacies that keep me average. Anyway, I went to see a flick yesterday with two guys from church. Several of the ladies, including my wife, wanted to go see Hairspray (for whatever reason) and we wanted to see Live Free or Die Hard. Unfortunately we waited too long and Die Hard was no longer in a theatre near us. So we opted for Superbad. And boy was it.
I am twenty-ten years old. I have watched a lot of movies in my day. I love movies. I would go so far as to say I am a movie-junkie, or even a dork. I have seen a lot of inappropriate stuff in films. Some of the funniest movies I have ever seen are movies I would NEVER show my wife. Lately it has started to bug me too.
I don’t embarrass easily. It takes a lot to offend me. I was embarrassed yesterday. I couldn’t believe I was seeing what I was watching. I am embarrassed still to admit that I saw the movie. I new it would be crude. I was a teenager. I know how I was when I was a dork with raging hormones. But dude!!! I didn’t have a mouth like this. I am sorry I saw the movie. I am sorry I gave my money to support this garbage. I am sorry to Josh and Chris that I wasn’t bold enough to walk out. I am sorry to my wife for going. I am sorry to my pastor for seeing this. I am sorry to my church. I am sorry to the youth that I try to be a good influence to. I am sorry I didn’t check “Kids in Mind” before I saw it. I am Sorry God.
Tony said something yesterday that really got the wheels turning yesterday. It was like a double-shot of espresso mixed with rocket fuel for my thoughts. He said something about Dish Network and how you can go just about anywhere, set up your dish and if you face it the right direction you can get a signal. Seeing as my means of income is made in the cable industry I know that there is a bit more to it than that and it’s definitely not that reliable, but I am going to suspend disbelief for the sake of this post.
The point behind Tony saying this was that Dish Network’s signal is out there. It is just about everywhere and you just have to point the dish in the right direction. He likened this to God and His voice. God is always talking to us. Some of us know how to tune in a bit better. Don’t ask the Dish Network or even the Direct TV guys to help you with this. Besides, it’ll be a $79 trip charge. Anyway, you really have to learn to “tune in” to God’s voice. How does He talk to YOU? What is He saying to YOU?
It’s amazing to think that there is something like 6 billion people on Earth and God talks to each one of us personally. What’s more? God hears each one of us too. Try calling Dish Network during a blizzard. Welcome to call center purgatory my friend. Not with God. God picks right up and does one of two things: responds or not. That is the hardest part. And if you aren’t tuned in you will think He is never responding. But He is.
There one tool for the trade. You don’t need a ladder and a compass. Nope, you need a bible and some time. Take the following steps to successful fine tuning of your “Small, Still Voice Receiver” (SSVR):
1) Pray
2) Read your bible
3) Pray some more
4) Take time to listen for God’s voice
5) Pray a bit more
6) Read your bible some more
7) Pay attention to you surroundings and circumstances (God is creative and can speak to you in ways you never imagined…but don’t look for neon signs or flaming scrolls. They rarely appear and if they do you won’t have to look for them.)
8) Keep Praying
Follow these instructions and you are guaranteed to hear from God or your money back.
I am not superstitious. I don’t believe the enemy (Satan) has any power over me. I have Jesus and He is much more powerful that any other power that may try to mess with me. Still, when you open up your blog home page and find that you have had exactly 666 views you just want someone, anyone to look at your blog. Anybody? Bueller? Bueller?
I am not a big fan of Microsoft. Though they may produce the most user friendly programming for computers, they certainly are a pain in the butt. I spent the last 30 minutes trying to find someone, anyone with Excel 2007 so they could open a file I received. I should have know my tech-guru friend Mike would have it. He works for Dell for crying out load. I just hate the fact that as soon as something new comes out they don’t give it backward compatibility. Why is that? Because there is no money in it. Arrrrggggghhhhh!!!
Chad, does Mac do that too?
Filed under: Conviction Hurts, Dogs, Faith, Life Happens, Misbehavior, Relationships, Uncategorized
I am a man. That is unfortunate in that I am built out of flesh. Flesh is weak. My flesh is really weak. But through my weakness, and with the help of my dog, I think God has driven home a revelation.
Yesterday I took my truck in for some warranty work. I needed a ride home so my buddy Phil dropped me off. Phil has dogs and we talk about our dogs all the time. I brought him in to meet Grissom, my Terriersaurus Rex. For some reason Grissom was real aggressive to Phil so I put him outside. At bit later I took Grissom with me to check the mail. My neighbor and her two young daughters were outside and they wanted to pet Grissom. We talked for a few minutes then the husband came out to talk as well. Grissom went ninja-aggressive with him. He didn’t act like anything was wrong until Terry, the husband, got close then he started barking at him. Weird. I guess he smelt too much like dude and he was encroaching on his female targets. I don’t know.
Later that evening Cheri and I were watching a flick and I got up to use the loo. Grissom was on the ataman chewing his bone. As soon as I moved he started growling. I got in his face to show him who’s boss. He growled more. I tried to take the bone; he growled more. Finally I got the spray bottle and squirted him in the face with some water. He let the bone go and I was steaming for a while, like until about now (this is a way of venting for me).
So this morning I am tire and grumpy. I couldn’t sleep last night. Cheri calls me to ask me about one of the two bills I am responsible for paying (a little too much to handle if you ask me) and I am just not communicating clearly. We both get frustrated and the conversation doesn’t end well.
After a few minutes I go outside to call my wife and Phil is out there. I talk with him a few minutes about Grissom and he says, “You know, dogs can’t tell you when they have a migraine or their stomach hurts. When their behavior changes sometimes it is because something else is bothering them.” I can see Jesus smiling speaking that parable through Phil. I was bent out of shape with my wife because I was allowing something else to affect the way I acted. The root cause of my grumpiness was the situation with my dog, not my wife.
Is there something in our lives that we need to pray about before we enter any situation or conversation? What kind of junk are we bringing with us that could hurt someone else? Get down to the root of it and let God pluck it out or it will keep popping back up.
Michael Vick is no longer relegated to the likes of ESPN, FOX Sports, SportCenter, Colin Cowherd or Jim Rome. No, Michael Vick is in the mouths of seemingly every news organization’s talking head on the planet. That tells me a few things:
1) The news is old. Sports news is usually kept in the confines of the aforementioned sports news and talk shows. By the time the major media starts talking about it those that follow sports could tell you the who’s, what’s, when’s, where’s and how’s of the whole shebang. They can tell you where to buy your very own replica white Bronco or Michael Vick chew toy.
2) The news is big. Because most sports news stays in the sports world, it is usually not big news. Some athlete, somewhere on some team took some performance enhancing drug, went bankrupt or had his yacht repossessed. This is not major news, it happens everyday. But when a big star (i.e. Vick, O.J.) does something of this magnitude the rest of the public wants to know about it, not just those that listen to sports talk or watch ESPN.
3) The news is polarizing. There are rarely more than two sides taken when a popular athlete is in the news. You have side A, usually correct about most things, possibly militant about how badly this athlete has wronged their respective sport, their fans and their self. Then you have side B, usually very militant about defending said athlete, blindly suggesting we are all out to get him/her, stating that there ain’t nothing wrong with what happened or they compare the situation to Jesus on the cross (never a good analogy).
I have seen or heard about several athletes commenting on Vick’s “situation”. As nice of a person Mr. Vick may be, which I doubt, there has to be something seriously wrong with someone that will starve and fight dogs and then brutally kill them if they don’t perform well in the pit. This is not a mistake. The first time maybe. Placing buildings on one’s property and painting them black so they can’t be seen from the road is a systematic approach to malicious and twisted behavior that needs attention, specifically Jesus.
There is no excuse for this abhorrent behavior. Every rich, superstar athlete can rush to Mr. Vick’s defense if (s)he wants to. Protest to the powers that be that we shouldn’t take his career away. We didn’t. The owners didn’t. The NFL didn’t. Michael Vick forfeited his career. If you want to be absolutely fair as to whether or not Vick should be allowed back into the NFL, poll those that pay his salary. That is me, and my neighbors, and you and anyone that watches a football game at home, at a restaurant or at the stadium. I want to know what you think.
I received a fraudulent email today claiming to be the IRS. It stated that they had reviewed my fiscal earnings and I was due a refund of $109 and some change. WOW!!! I have never heard of such a thing. This is great! Which is exactly why I knew it wasn’t real. The IRS is not going to give me money back in the middle of the year for no good reason. They would play with my money until they could no longer extort it from me…err…I filed my tax return.
This reminds me of all the things in the world that are sent by the devil to lead us astray. There are all kinds of crazy religions and alternative lifestyles out there that seem really great on the surface. Many of these lifestyles promise all sorts of cool things but when you did a little deeper you find that you have to pay thousands of dollars to the upper level leaders and tiny aliens inhabit your body making you jump all over sofas on national television. Crazy stuff.
Jesus offers everlasting life. There are promises for us here on Earth, but the greatest promise is Heaven. Our God became a man, lived and died for us, and was raised from the dead so that we might receive life. That, to me, is better than anything anyone can offer me. It helps that it’s the truth. Besides, if I wanted to be a living room gymnast, I can do it without the help of aliens.
