The Forgotten God

Sorry, it's been awhile since I've written. I just got a job and I jumped into a new ministry as well as taking on some new responsibilities in an older ministry and Foot Soldiers is starting up again this Saturday so between it all I've just been trying to figure out how to justify wasting a third of my day on something like sleep.

So one of those new ministries I got involved in was entering the Sunday Highschool teaching rotation. Once a month I'm given a piece of scripture to read/pray over and give a lesson on. I had no flipping idea how hard that would actually be. It's always been, 

'Hey, I need you to teach a lesson. Do whatever you'd like.'

That's no problem. I can whip up a lesson in a few hours with scripture to back up every sentence and enough life lessons to fill a pin cushion. Not so with a set piece of scripture. It's like telling someone to go fishing in the ocean and catch whatever they'd like and then telling them to go fishing in an obscure mountain lake where they can only catch a brown trout or a red gyarados or something.

I was literally up until 1 AM that Sunday morning still trying to piece together a lesson that wasn't complete gibberish. It didn't happen so I decided that instead of knocking my head against my desk and ticking off my dog who was trying to sleep I needed to pass out. I woke up at 6 and managed to get something together before class started. I thought it might just get me through what I was imagining was going to be the worst next 30 minutes of my life.

I had to teach on Isaiah 1:10-20

Funny now that I look back on the piece of scripture and the irony of it. God, funny guy.

That lesson was filled with so many stutters, repetition and awkward silences that when it was over I literally couldn't look anyone in the eye as I stepped away from the teaching stand. Sure, people told me it was a good lesson and that I didn't do as badly as I was saying but let's be honest, it's a rare person who will tell you how badly you actually did and I knew one thing - that lesson had been a complete flop.

So while I was having a little pity party for myself on the drive home it came across my mind that I should pray. I mean, this was a lesson for Church right? Why not ask Him why He hadn't delivered me from this Goliath? He'd let me be humiliated. That wasn't cool  and I needed to make him aware of that little fact. My sister told me awhile back that her time to pray is on the way to school. Stuck in traffic it's the perfect time for her to talk to God. I thought I'd give it a go. 

Father Goose. Probably one of Carry Grant's best movies and yet hardly anyone knows about it, but that's not my point (but really, a great movie. Go watch it!). There's a scene in it near the end, after Leslie Caron gets drunk and they're shouting each other out on Grant's boat over how stupid each of their lives are. Grant running from life while Leslie is stuck with her head in some royal cloud. Suddenly Carry Grant steps over the line, calling her out about one of her past relationships that, in her drunk stupor, she told him about and Leslie, red in the face and shaking with fury, steps in and slaps him hard across the face. That's what the first six seconds of that prayer was like for me. 

I had this romantic view of teaching - I'd stand up there and sling out fancy word play and weave together sentences that would pierce the hearts of every kid listening. I'd pound the pulpit and if things got crazy I'd throw off my hat and people would look at me like I was some amazing speaker - and that was so bloody far from what God was calling me to do...it's a little pathetic to look back on it now and actually even write it out but there it is. It was all about me. How I looked and how they were going to look at me and want to talk to me about their problems. It was going to make me important. The moment I began that prayer God thundered down at me, 'No. It's about me and I just set you in your place.'

Boom.

I'd just turned an opportunity for God to use me to change kids lives into a rock concert for myself. It hit me so hard that I just white knuckled the steering wheel and prayed to God for His forgiveness. It was all I could do.

But so many times that's what we do. It becomes about us, about the halo that we can make shine even brighter so that people will look at us in awe. We get involved in something because we want people to see us and thank us for what were doing and in the end how is that what God has called us to do?

I was supposed to give a lesson to those kids because they needed help. They're struggling in ways that no one can see. The Devil sits behind them, cutting apart everything good around them, his claws dug into their hearts, feasting on the torment of their souls while God reaches out to save them and here I am deciding on which of my hats will make my face look thinner.

See, when we take that step into ministry everything about our Christianity changes and I literally mean everything. Look at why I got saved. It was because I needed salvation from Hell, right? Because I needed God to save me from a life that was so torn in its foundation that only God could help me rebuild it. Me, me, me, me, I, I, I, I. All about me. But ministry - it's about them.

It turns from looking at our life and becomes us spending everything we have to try and lead whoever it is to God. It's about finding those hearts that are screaming, sobbing, for God in their life but who cover it with music and video games and porn and drugs and failing relationships and cheap entertainment and leading them to the only help that can save them. It's about going into someone's life and dedicating everything to bringing them to the peace that God has brought us. It's love on a level that only a relationship with God can bring.

You want to know how deep ministry is? It's Christ dying on the cross. That's where Church ministry began, when He breathed his last. That's the level He compares it to when he calls us out. You think I'm just making it up?

Luke 9:23-25

"And He said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, buy whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the world and loses or forfeits himself?"

2 Cor 6:3-10

"We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished and yet not killed as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything."

There are so many more verses on giving up ourselves for Christ and other but those are two that I really like.

God calls us to give it all up. It's a scary thought. I mean, I came from a life where I didn't care that I was causing my family to fall apart because I wanted to play video games and now I'm being called to give my life, riots and beatings and imprisonment for someone who isn't even my blood? But then I look at Christ and what I have in store - a mansion that God's spent 2000 years designing/building for me? And then there's the thought that I could possibly have a chance to have God use me to help bring someone to the same Heaven?

 Just sitting here in my chair and thinking about it all I can do is smile and think,  'Yes please'. I mean how could I dare to keep it to myself? 

But, weeks ago I would have look at my current passion and just have shook my head at this passionate version of myself. Sure, right now I was feeling pumped but give it few days and this feeling would probably ware off and when it came down to it I'd get scared and want to push all these ministries away and look for a way to get out of them...and after I gave that lesson I looked at my life and begged God to show me how to keep that passion for Him in my life. How do I keep this feeling in my soul, buried so deep that it seeps into every root of my life? How can I have a lasting love for people, a longing to bring them to God?

So, you read up at the start of this blog that I just got a job. Well the only reason I go to that job is because they pay me. I mean I only work because I'm paid for it or because it'll teach me something that will later on help me to earn money (either that or you're a cool friend haha) but see, no matter how much I hate having to pull poop from an old woman's main sewer drain out or dig trenches and blister my hands for 8 hours, I do it because I know I'm being paid for it (Sorry to my boss if you're reading this. Thanks for the job!). The strong desire to stop working isn't as strong as the urge to get that sweet pay check in my hands. I have something to fight for. 

It's the same thing with ministry. We need something to fuel us, to get us up and to keep us going out and get us past the times when we're made fun of and ridiculed and getting the door slammed in our faces. I didn't have a fuel. My fire had died and no matter what I did I couldn't seem to get it so stay alive longer than a few days at a time. What was I doing wrong??? I was doing the Bible study and praying and doing everything I was supposed to! Why wasn't it working? 

And that's what it all came down to. I'd forgotten God. Sure, I was studying the Bible and listening to Lecrae and going to my church  but I wasn't working on getting to know Him and that's what God calls us to do. He doesn't care about anything else - he just wants us to get to know Him and I was treating him like a school work assignment. Now I don't know about you but I never feel very inspired to go share my homework with the masses. If anything I'd like to shoot it through the face. I did homework because, 'it's the right thing to do'.

I'd gotten into teaching because, 'it was the right thing to do' but not because I was moved to do it. I was nothing but a clanging cymbal...I had no love. That needed to change.

But how do you change that? How do you learn to love? I mean I would do anything for my sisters because I love them but looking out at a bunch of highschoolers who I don't know, how can I learn to love them? It seemed impossible. I remember sitting in my room thinking about it. How was I supposed to learn how to love? How did I learn to be someone like Paul wrote about in 1st Corinthians chapter 13?

1 Cor 13

1  - If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have no      love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2  - And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries      and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove        mountains but I have no love, I am nothing.
3  - If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be      burned, but have no love, I gain nothing.
     Love is patient and king; love does not envy or boast; it is      not arrogant
5  - or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not            irritable or resentful;
6  - it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the          truth.
7  - Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all            things, endures all things. 
8  - Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as      for tongues, they will cease, as for knowledge, it will pass      away. 
9  - For we know in part and we prophesy in part
10 - but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away
11 - When I was a child, I spoke as a child. When I became a man,      I gave up childish ways. 
12 - For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now      I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been      fully known. 
13 - So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the          greatest of these is love. 

See, I wanted that kind of love! I wanted to be able to share THAT with people...but how? And then it hit me - I can't have a love like I have for my sisters or my mom/pops like I have for everyone else...I needed a different love. It was a compassionate love. A love that looks back on what my life used to be and causes me to ache with pain for those people without God, because they're hurting like I used to hurt. The numbness that I felt when I tried to sleep, feeling like my life was worthless and meant nothing. Where running away was the best option. Where a real laugh from my lips was a rarity. Where porn was the best part of my day.

It's a love that says, 'I want to help you...'

The only way to get that kind of love was to learn how to love God, and I mean a pure and humble love for Him, and from Him a desire to share that love, that relationship, would come from me. When we have something good, we want to get the word of it out there. Don't believe me? Girls, tell me that if you didn't find a new nail polish that absolutely blew your mind you wouldn't tell your best friend. Guys, Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite, Walking Dead. I couldn't shut up about that stuff, trying to get people to watch/play it.   How can we expect to want to share God unless we're so truly in love with Him that we just can't contain it??

So I began a different kind of study - a study of getting to know God on a personal level. A John 17:3 level

(And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.). 

That's the answer right there. If you're having problems with ministry then I'd look at your relationship with God. Is it where it needs to be? Because if you don't have a longing for God then you aren't going to give a bullocks about anyone else. You're going to sleep in on Sundays, play video games instead of going door to door or do your laundry instead of helping someone work through theirs (in a spiritual sense of course) because you don't care about God, so you don't care about getting Him out to the world. You can't just have love, it has to come from something. It has to be taught. Let Him teach it to you because honestly, there's no other way to learn it. Let him slip into every rusty gear of your heart and let it turn again. Let love in. Let God's love flow through us.

Get to love God and he'll let you love the world in a way that will blow your mind. 

In His name, Parker L. 

Why Do Bad Things Happen To "Good" People?

It's that time of year again - when you're preparing to eat a turkey that you're not really wanting to eat because you'd rather stuff your face with apple cider (as close as I ever got to hard liquor as an 8 year old) and broccoli casserole, but you do anyhow because, well it's Thanksgiving! Turkey's died for this day! It's also a time of confusion for a lot of people. Like, do I sing a Christmas carol because 103.5 is calling themselves our station for Christmas tunes? And yesterday I saw a car at the gym with antlers. Also Christmas lights are already up around the neighborhood...but to be fair they've been up all year (Is it just me who always looks down on those people until we have to start packing away the Christmas lights or untangling those suckers when they come out? Seriously, headphones on steroids.) Just all around a confusing time.

But for quite a few people it's a time where family starts to come together, talk and laugh and play pranks that only the holidays could make possible - but then there are those select few who take these days a different way. They begin to think about things, about life. It's a tender time that only a loving season can create. A couple years before I was saved this was me - except instead of taking a step towards an answer I crept back into music, video games, porn and cheap food. I didn't want to open the hole. I used generic ideas to create a barricade from God that kept me from having to deal with him. Today I wanted to deal with one of those question/statements.

"If God is so good, why does he allow bad things to happen to good people? It's not fair. I can't love a God who would do that. It says somewhere in that thick book called the Bible that God loves me. Then why let all these things happen to me?"
That's a fallacy that needs to be addressed here and now.

So a lot of people throw out, 'God is good', 'God is love', 'God created evil' but there's a sad degradation of the English language today that we don't know a quarter of what words actually mean. Words that were used to represent a fear of God, like awesome, now are used to describe a cheap pizza or a 1900*1600 resolution. Love - the word for something that is used to describe the deepest passion that you have with someone, something that goes beyond human instinct and drives you to take a bullet for that person is now used to freely when talking about a pair of shoes. We throw words around with such ease - but remember, God used words to form this earth. What we say has the power to change lives. So when people say, 'God is good' what does that really mean?

Good is described as something that's pleasant, agreeable and of high quality. Sounds legit. I mean that all matches up with what we know of good, right? Well that's how the world defines it - but what about the Bible? If there's really a word that describes what good is it'd be this one - God.

God is holy. Righteous. That means he's praise worthy. Without blame. Morally on the right side of the coin.

See, without God humans are at a place where we can't define what, 'good' and 'bad' are. There is no absolute (I read some stuff that I want to post on here but I'll save it for another post. Freakin' intense science that gets deep into atheists trying to prove some crazy stuff). But Christians know that God is our absolute. Without a higher power there is no good and bad. There are simply actions and reactions. So we're going to assume that there is a God for the rest of this talk and we're going to say that He is our standard of what is good in life and he gives us a level to live by which jumps right into my next point (how convenient.) - what is evil? If good is God then evil is essentially the opposite of everything that God is. And those are your definitions.

Another word that goes along with God is just. He follows the rules. Christ died as a sacrifice for our sins, right? Well why didn't God just say, 'Heck, I'm the head honcho! I love you all you can just come into Heaven! No need to sacrifice m'boy for you all.' That'd defy who God is, his very nature. He sticks to the things he's set in motion. If he didn't then we'd  be able to accuse him of not sticking to his word. But you might ask,
'Why have sin in the world anyway? Just create a perfect world and let us live awesome lives!'
Funny you say that because that's exactly what he did. See, if you check out Genesis 1: 26-31 we see that God created man in his own image, a spiritual image of perfection and in the last verse, just to add a little more bang to your buck, he said it was very good (and we remember what good is). So man was without sin, a perfect world. But he also gave man the choice to make certain decisions in his life (Proverbs 16:9, Genesis 2:19-20). The decision of right and wrong (which are different from good and evil. Something can be the wrong choice but not a sin/evil. Won't go in depth on it here.) was given to Adam. He made the wrong choice which, at that moment, let sin erupt through out the earth. (If you need more clarification and how Adam was without sin but still sinned, ask in a comment and I'll go deeper) Since God is just he kept to the decision of man. There was a punishment given because of a crime committed and because of who God is we have to live out that sentence.

That's not fair!
I know...if it were fair we'd be living a life completely apart from God, burning in Hell and that'd be the end of the story. That'd be fair. We've sinned and there's a punishment to be paid for that.
It'd be God saying, 'Follow these rules but in the end you're just going to suffer and go to Hell.'
But He doesn't.
He says, 'I'll pay your debt, man. In fact not only will I catch your bill, which is more expensive then you know, but I'm building a house up here for you and I've had my son, who's a carpenter, working on it for 2000+ years. Just accept my gift and it's yours.'

That sounds like a good God to me.

But I'm not going to sugar coat it - when you become a Christian it's not like everything becomes all lollipops and Guitar Hero, there are times where we still suffer. Talk to Job (well he's kinda dead but in a figure of speech way you should talk to him). That brother had it hard BECAUSE he followed God. Satan prayed on that man to the point of taking everything except his nagging wife and he STILL couldn't break Job. All because God wanted to prove a point and to teach Job.

See, God allows (Important word to remember: allows) things to happen to us to build us up. When we have it easy all our life then why do we even need God? Sometimes He brings us to our knees so that the only place we can look is up, to remember him. That may not seem fair to someone who doesn't believe but to a Christian the best time of our life is spent on our knees. You talk to any old Christian veteran and he'll agree that he wouldn't be where he is today if not for the challenges God put in his life.

God allows it to build us up.

And when we're not one of God's children? He'll use it the exact same way, to make us see that he really is Lord and to bring it to him.

(Though that's not the only way He can make your salvation happen)

But let's say you don't agree with God and you're a hard core atheist or diest or agnostic who just doesn't care about all that - two points.

1) If you say that God is evil because he won't purge the earth of evil then I ask this - if there is no God then you set the moral standard for life and you're the only one who can do something about it so why aren't you? I'm assuming you have at least a dollar to your name? Send that to Africa! Your whole being should be devoted to fighting this evil in the world. You can't accuse God of something and turn around and not do absolutely everything in your power to fix it. That's the essence of a hypocrite.

2) If you want God to take away all evil from the world, then what does that actually mean? You want him to take away world hunger, murder, rape, abuse and war? But where do you want him to stop? Because evil doesn't just stop there. We are sinners. We've lied, stolen and cussed. If God takes away evil then he takes away your will to choose, and he eliminates who you are. Are you willing to loose your ability to think? See most things we love are sin. Do you really want God to take them away from you?

So it's not so much a question of God letting things bad things happen to good people but more, why does he allow good things to happen to bad people? None of us are really good (equal to God). We need to be thankful for the blessings he gives us now and thankful that he doesn't decide to simply, make things fair.

Anyhow, I have a ton more I'd love to post on here but if you're reading this sentence then I applaud you being able to get through it all and I won't make you suffer through any more. I think I might do a part two - on the science of it all. Anyhow, I'd appreciate a +1 off Google or a share on Facebook and you can always follow me =) It's super encouraging to get feedback of any kind! Comments or questions? Just give me a holler!

In His name,

 - Parker

The, 'Normal' Life

Oh my gosh! He's writing again! Something tragic must have happened in his life - like the death of a hamster or a tragic loss of his crops. Yeah, no. Tanjida just gave me a kick in the butt to write again =D So thanks, Tanji! You da' bess!

I've been saved for a month a day and a year and if I wanted to psych some people out I could tell them how many hours. Minutes? Brother please, let's not get crazy. But for as long as I've been saved I've always had this one question - how can I do anything but serve God?

Now before you start biting your nails and thinking, 'Oh man, this kid's a religious fanatic! Flee, flee for your lives!' Please, stay 'till the end of the next paragraph at least. 

1 Cor. 10:31 - For all that you do, do for the glory of God. 

Well I'm sitting on the toilet (not currently, and I know you were thinking I was)...how does that work out? I'm pretty sure after dropping a heavy duty, bean burrito mixture that I'm not really living up to that verses standards - as anyone downwind of my bathroom could tell you.
What about watching a show like The Walking Dead on a Sunday night, and though I'm sure God probably the idea of a zombie apocalypse (Isiah 26:19-20), the show isn't exactly umm...what are the words I'm looking for? Oh yeah, Godly and uplifting - though Hershel did pick up a Bible a few times so I'm hoping that'll counts as a few points towards me.
What about traveling without the purpose of hunting out tribal villages to share down God's word? Will I ever get to go to New Zealand to see the hobbitsis??
Heck, even reading a book like Percy Jackson! Greek mythology and fiction?? Double time waster.  

Well I remember sitting at one of the tables of this Mexican restaurant during my college groups Tuesday night men's bible study. Fresh corn chips, home made salsa and unlimited refills - and I didn't even have to pay! Normally I was pretty into our discussions but that night I wasn't really feeling it.
It had just finished down pouring on the tools I'd forgotten to cover in the back of my truck bed and I was having trouble concentrating on the lesson. I was at the point where I was supposed to pick out a career for my life. Supposed to be a big deal or something. I absolutely loved to work with my hands so the choice was pretty clear to me; get a trade!
But yet - but yet I was saved. I mean all the signs were pointing towards going into Air Conditioning. I had so many connections in that line of work, it was scientific and fun and good work with, ahem, good pay but how could I do that when the world needed preachers or full time missionaries? Look at Paul! Dude didn't even get married, just decided to write like half of the books of the New Testament and become the most successful theologian/evangelist this side of the galaxy. How could I just concentrate on my life? On getting a wife and kids and a normal job? How could I do anything but sun-up to sun-down serve God and where could a normal life fit in that? Depressing, right? That seemed worse than my 7 year old fear of heaven being 24/7 church listening to the preacher talk. 

Needless to say, and that's why I'm going to say it anyhow, I was feeling a little woozy. I imagine Alice feeling the same way at the Mad Hatter's Table - okay, I don't really get how I imagine that but it's still working for me. I'll leave you to tie in the symbolism. Anyhow It was question that everyone else had seemed to answer in their life without a problem and they all seemed happy with their choices. So what was I doing wrong? The way I saw it, you've gotta be all or nothing. Working out, you either had to run until you saw black spots or do a Netflix binge complete with unlimited cream soda and Doritos. No middle ground! Die or diet! No guts no glory! No socks no shoes! Read a book over the span of three weeks? Brother please! 46 hours straight until I'd powered through that sucker!

...God or life. There was no middle ground. Sadly that's the way I saw it. 

Thank Heavens I wasn't dumb enough to stop there! See there's this cool thing called proper application and it can screw your life over worse than having to work a weekend shift during Christmas when your favorite cousins are in from Florida, you know, the ones who actually know how to buy a good present! Apparently I wasn't using this application tool properly. There should be an app for that. 

That night after the Bible study, after I had finished bemoaning the drenching of my precious Echo weed whacker (After much rehabilitation, a through cleaning and few good meals of gasoline and 2 cycle oil I'm happy to say he's doing much better.)  I decided to ask one of my friends/mentors about it. Good choice.

So I let out my heart felt spiel, expecting to hear all the answers I'd already come to - I was going to have to devote my life to wearing beige cargo pants, a wide brimmed shade hat, some kind of Jesus shirt and be preaching to ant eaters in the wilds of some country I couldn't pronounce. His answer - the Air Conditioning world needs missionaries too. 

The heavens had opened! God's cornucopia of wisdom and amazingness had just poured down on me. Choirs of angels sang and beams of heavenly light poured down on me! Kind of - if Angels were hissing alley cats dueling over the trash and beams of light were after shower mists. 

It's pretty simple and I still had more questions on the subject but it was the start I needed.

I had a co-worker who wasn't saved. I tried to share but he was pretty much turned off to it all. Not hostile but not interested. And then things started happening. His mom, wheelchair bound and homeless mind you, began to prostitute herself. His girlfriend had just left him because of a black out rage and he hated his job. Shrinks, hypnotists, 12 step programs - he was willing to try anything for an answer. His friends could only offer him a beer and say sorry but I'd been put in a position to share with this dude and If not for being in that position I never would have had a chance to. That jumps into my next point. 

See, now look at 1 Cor. 10:31 again. In all you do, do for the glory of God. While a bathroom disaster might not please God (or any of his senses) what if I thank God while I'm on the, umm, facilites for the sewage system, the people that work it or, heck, even the water to take the sewage away. The money we have to pay for the right to use the facilities or just the fact that I can go to the bathroom on my own! 

The meaning of Glory is to give praise to someone for something and while it's pretty much impossible to plan your whole life so it will give you the maximum opportunity to praise God (though that's not a bad thing) I look at the verse like this - in whatever you find yourself doing, give the maximum amount of praise to God for it!
If you're feeling called to be a missionary then heck, go for it! That's awesome! But something I learned pretty early on, if your heart isn't in it, you shouldn't be either because, in the words of the 70's generation, you'll be giving off the wrong vibes, dude. Now that doesn't mean that when something gets uncomfortable you're allowed to run away, arms flailing and that whole deal. God sometimes calls us to do things that make us sick to our stomachs but it's still something he's called us to do.
But how to know if it's something he's called you to do? Well since God is, well, God he has his ways of making it pretty obvious what he wants us to do. Sorta like getting swallowed by a giant fish or being blinded with beams of light and having donkeys talk to you or having pillars of fire lead you across the desert and stuff - believe you me, whether he wants you to get married or preach, he gets his point across. Just saying that if we don't see God pushing us towards something and we don't want to go their our self, why go?

See life was given for us to serve (Ephesians 2:10) and when that's being done we have the freedom to enjoy ourselves. Why would God give us marriage (women could just have been built to self-fertilize) or beautiful scenery or the capacity to laugh and feel love? Because God created us in his own image (Genesis 1:27) and God loved, he cried, he created, He was angry. 

He felt and we feel. I don't need a verse to prove that to you. 

As long as we're following Christ, giving praise to him in every situation in life whether or not it's to people with bones sticking through their noses or to sweaty blue collar workers or traveling to cool places or simply watching a sick zombie show to just unwind (as much as you can on the edge of your seat) then I take my hat off to you.
We were built to give God glory, so give it to him. No matter how bad it gets there's always something to say thank you for (James 1:2) but no one says that we have to go 24/7 Bible study beast mode. If you try then believe me, you'll burn out. 

When you're pumping iron you'll reach a point to where if you don't stop you literally start to do more damage to your body than good. Muscles eat themselves, your brain can begin to shut down and you'll internally explode! Okay, maybe not the last one but the message is clear - you'll burn out. It's the same with God's word. We need a time of rest. God took a breather to show all the lame people that won't take a break that we need to seriously chill out. Now check this -  Joshua 1:8 says that the word of God should constantly be on your lips, on your mind day and night. Even though we're not at a Bible study or evangelizing, our minds should be on God, giving him thanks for this and that. It makes everything about us better. Believe me, remembering God when you're about to blow your top over your sister drinking your protein shake, it'll calm you down right quick.

So all in all it doesn't matter the occupation - fight hard when the fight is needed, work hard when there's work to be done. Serve when service is needed. Rest when the time calls for it and follow your heart and God's word.

Thanks for reading!

Any comments or questions or stuff? Just comment or question or stuff. 

Have a blessed one!

In His name, Parker.   

Well that was...awkward.

Two weeks? It is to laugh.

Anyhow just jumped on to say I haven't fallen off the bandwagon. Really I came to a thought, and a pretty good one at that. They come every once in a while in the bathroom and while I'm taking out the trash.

I'll write to you whenever I'm doing a lesson for WoL. I just got a job and it's taking up quite a bit of my time (yes, I did just give that lame cop out) and though I'm still keeping to devotions and a good hunk of prayer time but to blog about it, I don't have the energy to think up any of those quality words and sentences and periods and stuff. But when it comes to WoL it's something that I have to do and make time for and so it'll come out quality on the blog and allow me to refine it for my lesson. Win, win!

So anyhow, I'll catch you all on the flipside. Should be posting in a few days on the lesson me and my teacher dude friend (Ryan) did on Wed. Sound good? Cool, cus that's how it's going down anyhow! Later!

In His name,
PKLizardi

The Idolatry Of Ourselves

    So I have six drafts for this sucker of a blog but this will be the last! As you might have been able to tell from the lack of hair on my head, the number of drafts I've failed to finish or the ridiculous number of CC's of coffee I've been pumping into me that this blog isn't going down quite as I had planned. I don't know why the topic of idolatry is proving to be so difficult for me. It's so simple in definition but that's where it seems to get so complicated - in its simplicity. We'll see where the ball lands. For now we're starting with it in my court.

    Idol, normally the word brings to mind a golden statue that was big enough to have its own gravitational pull or a little smiling chubby Asian dude whose belly you'd rub for good luck. They were something used by the Vikings who prayed for fare sea weather, ancient Egyptians for flooding of the Nile or fertility, or the Greeks for bumper crops or victory in battle. But except for a more symbolic use by a few religions, idols have become outdated, something old and no longer needed. Science, Wikipedia and Google has seen to that. We have our weather patterns, Navy SEAL teams, satellite reconnaissance and doctors with wooden sticks that they are somehow legally allowed to jam down our throats or a reasonable answer to most of our questions. Idols were for the ignorant who didn't have a cell phone. A comfort pillow. So why talk about something that's faded with the past? Because that's the thing. It hasn't. 

    C.S Lewis, in his book The Screwtape Letters, writes, 
    “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden   
     turnings, without milestones, without signposts..."


    See, you have to understand that this is how Satan works. Looking back at some of his best cases you won't see a massive attack on a man's faith, a proverbial Bunker Hill. If it were we'd be able to have something to stand against and beat back. It's easy to hit a target when there's a target to hit. But Satan's finest work, it's the gradual, slow, fade. That is what kills the man's soul.
For me it was computers. That's how it began. Robert E. Lee Civil War General, Backyard baseball, Stronghold, Bugs Life. At 10 I was essentially dying for any piece of technology I could get my hands. I would salivate over the chance to play. School was a passing thought, and the only reason I did it was to play.
    
    Suddenly one night it dawned on me...I wanted more time on the computer to be with my troops, cities and cartoon baseball teams, so why not just wait until everyone had gone to bed and then I'd just sneak to the backroom turn the sound down and play all night! I still remember that night. I was terrified that my mom would come walking out and find me. I got as far as the startup window before my nerve broke and I tore out the power cable and made a dash for my room and huddled in my bed. How I wished it had stopped there.
   
   Six years later that spark of rebellion had cacooned itself into a choking weed that, in no time at all had fully corrupted me, slipping its fingers through every inch of my life and choking me to Hell. I had stolen hundreds of dollars (possibly even a thousand) from my grandma (who was sick with beginning level dementia, that, years later, was paid back) to pay for my World of Warcraft/gaming addiction , which, after thousands of late nights by myself with a computer had branched off into another addiction to pornography. My life was falling apart with my family, daily yelling matches with my mom, ugly fights with my sisters. I wanted nothing to do with God and really, I didn't give a fig newton about any of it. I knew I'd still have the addictions to go back to. The comfort sins. Talk to pastor? Fine, if it'd keep the parents quite. It's not like I had to listen and I could just hack the computer later that night and get my dose. And honestly, if you had asked me (and was able to pry out a truly honest response) about how I could do it all and not feel bad, I would have just shrugged and said, 'Because I just don't care.'


    It started out small. Harmless games and laughs. But between a perfect blend of slow cooked apathy and cheap entertainment I ended up with addictions that I'm still struggling to overcome to this day. But you want to know what really ticks me off? It's how easy it was to take me down. How little of a fight I put up. I wanted it. Maybe not the addictions that came along with it but I wanted the cheap fun instead of school and family and God. Instead of struggling for my life, my little 10 year old mind decided to wimp out and take the wide, cushy, road. It was easier than God so I took it.


    And that blogger people, that...that is an idol. It's not a golden statue that we bow down to physically but it's anything that has that worth to you. The moment when you run over someone else to appease that idol, the desire, that's when you need to realize that you're loosing the battle. An idol demands worship, it demands everything from you, and why? Because it's fueled by our own desires. We are that idol. We want more sex, more games, more money, more praise, more attention. See the games were never the root of the problem. It was who I am. It was the greed in my heart, my selfish desires. I wanted more so I took it and didn't let anything stop me. It could have just as easily been any other catalyst - girls or cars or, let's face it, murder, but it's the route I set my self up on. We don't have idols...we have an idol and that idol is ourself. 
Paul writes to the Colossians (Colossians 3:5) 

    5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:sexual immorality, impurity, lust, 
       evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 


    See, Paul, the greatest known theologian (except for Christ which really isn't a fare comparison) of his time, states that idolatry is pure greed. Need to back that up? Ephesians. 5:5

    5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—
       has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God

    See, idolatry is made complicated by it's simplicity. Teachers say we idolize sports or TV or clothes. No, no, no! We idolize ourselves by giving ourselves whatever we want and from that we seep these little side issues, what the world has taught us to call, 'idols'. That's the mistake. It's not plural! And look at the consequences of it is...idolaters have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. How crushing is that? When we feed our every desire we leave no room for Christ. He is to be the only one we serve. Phil. 1:21 (one of my favorite verses) - As for me, to live is Christ to die is gain. Everything we do, we do for the glory of our God. Idolatry stands between that lifestyle. 

    So where do you stand? Do you put yourself before Christ? Don't know? Here's an easy way to see. When it comes to devotions and you want to sleep or play video games or exercise (weirdo) or eat or jump on Facebook, do homework (something is deff wrong with you then) or, even, doing something for God/the Church (Luke 10:38-42)(believe me, it gets tricky there.) and you pass the Bible and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, you need to take a look at what's going on. If Christ comes after you in anyway then you can be sure Satan is standing behind you whispering that it's fine, that's it just the one time. He's trying to slip his daily dose of idolatry into your life. Don't let him. Please, I'm begging you. Don't put yourself and everyone else who loves you through it. You can beat this! Christ is your power. 1 Cor 10:13. He will provide a way out from under it but realize that we're under it. It's weight is crushing but we have to fight to claw out from it. Please...start before your mole hill becomes a mountain. Just remember that in the end, you will kneel before Christ, the only true idol worth worship, and all you'll want to hear from his mouth is, 'Well done good and faithful servant.'
 
    Don't be the chaff he throws to the wind. The fish that is thrown back. The wo/man that is spit out. Flee from greed. From the love of yourself. Today I've sold my PS3, have top of the line restrictions set on my internet (seriously every possible device) (Covenanteyes.com is a beast of a site that I seriously recommend), skip all songs that have even a hint of sexual content, dropped 95% of the shows I watch and replaced it with God. It's the only way. I challenge you. Take that step. Step into the ring and begin to go toe to toe with that lion who stalks the earth, looking for your soul to devour. 
One more thing that's on my heart that I need to share before I sign off on this guy. I heard a sermon on the radio a few weeks ago while I was going to my Air Conditioning class. It hit me like an overweight rhino. 


    "People watch or listen to raunchy shows or songs or video games full of sex and cursing and all  
     un-Godliness and say, it doesn't bother me. That's the problem! If you're saved you should be   
     appalled! People...your conscious has died." 

    God gave us a that Jiminy Cricket on our shoulder, pleading with us to stop. That first night I went to play on the computer, I felt sick to my stomach. Why? Because my conscious was begging me to stop. When you fall to the Father below, he smothers that voice. Is Jiminy trying to stop you? Please...listen. It may be all that's holding you back from Hell. Is he gone? Fall to your knees and beg God to turn your life around. You may not have hit rock bottom. Don't let it. Brothers, sisters. Take action. This is a war. We will fight the good fight and in the end we'll share our stories in Heaven. I hope to see you there.

PKL
Godbless

A Little Note

    No scripture or crazy ideas just a little truth I had sucker punch me this morning - Christ gave us salvation through grace, giving us something we didn't at all deserve. That's bloody amazing and something I can't even fathom but beware the moment you start abusing that grace and committing sins on God's tab...I've seen first hand what it'll do and the moment you start down that road it doesn't end well. The moment you begin to rationalize ANY sin in any form, drop to your knees and beg God to help. Satan's most effective weapon is the slow fade, slowly integrating apathy into your every day diet until there's no stopping it...please, watch out. Just a note from the moron who's gone through it before. It all comes back to which father we serve, above or below. It ALL comes back to one.

Clarification

    So just wanted to give you a quick update on how often I'll be writing. I didn't really specify. Anyhow, anytime I complete a subject or (pride, self control, marriage, lying, anger, faith) I'll write a post. I might for throw some stuff out, quote that I found that were cool or powerful verses but for the most part it'll be on subjects. How often will a subject come? No idea.

   Anyhow, I'll be off now. Chores to do, clogged sinuses to deal with, and headaches to get over. Fun day.


PKL

God bless!