Getting Back to Those Externals

Ever wanted to measure how Christ like you are? Or even better how godly someone else is? Are you searching to please God through looking a certain way? Search no more. Look no further than the top of your head. Thank you G.I. Barber for your classic challenge. And thank you Jeff Powell for passing this along. It has changed my life and it will yours!!!

http://www.crewcommunity.org/podcast/hairology.mp3


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Brothers and Others

I played basketball at a local church gym, I'll leave unnamed, last night. Now before I tell this story you need to understand something about me that is a major flaw of mine: I'm a jerk. A lot. Meaning I can be a pretty big smart alec and just flat out sinful.

First, let me tell you who was there. It was a band of brothers. Hence, the post title.

• I had my youngest brother Chase with us. He drove.


• My brother in law Ben played.


• 2 fellow elders at Crew, Brian and Jason.


• Brothers in Christ from our area.


• People I didn't know. They were others.

Second, here are my impressions through the night. Prepare yourself for an honest reflection. Not whether it was right or not. In fact they weren't right responses. That's my point as you will see. Here are some thoughts that I either thought or verbalized:

• The guy who let us in to the gym had a Dutch Boy haircut. I thought that was pretty stupid looking. Turns out he was a magician and I made a comment about that. He also wore a Larry Bird jersey and I was having a field day with that little quirk.


• This church is also a church that is more separitist in their ministry philosophy and I don't like legalist at all. Based on this fact alone, I kind of walk into this gym with an attitude.


• Another thing I noticed was that they had a banner up with a psalm. I think it was Psalm 24. But it was referenced as Psalms 24, not Psalm 24. The words ...mighty in battle... were the only part of the psalm they printed. It motivates their basketball team I guess. I didn't like that either. Who's mighty in battle? The Philistines? The Israelites?


• About half way through playing they have someone, this time it was Larry Bird, give a mini sermon and invite folks to trust Christ. They call these things devos which is short for devotionals. I cannot articulate how much that aggravates me. Not the mini sermon, but that they were called devos. Devo is a band not a quiet time.


• A few miscellaneous items: I lost every game I played in. I think it was 5 losses. I called an Asian fella who wore trendy glasses Rob Bell. I also made a racist ping pong remark since there were Asians there. What else? Oh, I called another guy fatty.

Here's where God called me to repent. It was when Larry Bird was giving his "Devo". He did a really good job. He shared the gospel. The gospel got me. Here they are giving me a place to play basketball and invite my friends to play basketball. I also left my check book there and last night, the magician Larry Bird called and he's mailing it to me.

Man, I suck! The gospel means that God loves people who wear Larry Bird jerseys, people who refer to mini sermons as devos, he loves legalists, he loves bad basketball players, and he loves insecure self righteous smart mouths named Josh Perry.

I prayed to ask God to forgive my bitterness and asked him to give me a heart like Christ. I mean think of what Christ must have thought when he walked our earth. All the stuff he could have slammed on and made fun of. But he loved us and died for us. Thank God.

Since our blog is called real and I want to be real I shared real. So, let's not think that real means right. Many times real is sin. Many times real needs repented of.

Last Night at My House

I came home from playing basketball late last night and Jack (my 3 year old son) was culred up in bed with his momma. They were both asleep. Turns out that while I was out running, sweating, and missing shots. Jack was puking and Sarah was cleaning him up. There was a calm when I got in. I picked Jack up to take him to his bed. As soon as he made it to bed he erupted again. After that little session. He slept in bed with Sarah and I slept on the couch for about 5 hours before getting up for a meeting this morning. While I was sleeping. Jack was sick a couple more times and Sarah was cleaning and changing sheets a couple more times. I'm trying to figure out God's plan in all of that. Here are some thoughts:

• The devestating effects of sin on humanity and the world. We look forward to a world with no puking that comes through Jesus resurrection. And while proclaiming that hope we hold the heads of those who are sick and put cold wash cloths on their heads.
• I'm a human who needs sleep. God made me to be unconcious for a third of my life and so there I'm dependent even in that. So after a rough night and a full schedule ahead, Sarah and I look forward to glorfiying God through sleeping tonight.

English, Spanish, and German

So, I have noticed a constant theme in most of my blogs - God is the same in any language. I certainly don't want to beat a dead horse here, but God is constantly proving this to me and teaching me so much about how HUGE and AWESOME He is through this concept. As you have probably read in my e-mail updates and old blogs, I host a Bible study at my apartment every Wednesday. And, you have probably read that both English and Spanish speakers regularly come. Well, last week, another language was represented. A young couple from Germany, who are here working in the hospital as nurses, came this past week. We watched a Nooma video in English, with Spanish subtitles, so they were hearing it and reading it in two second languages. So, after the video, the discussions began. And I just sat back and could barely focus on anything because I was just so amazed at what I was seeing. We had a new missionary here, who doesn't speak any English, joining in the discussion. We had several Spanish learners and beginners joining in with our broken Spanish. We had a Spanish speaker, understanding our broken Spanish and occasional English and joining in with his Spanish. And, to top it all off, we had two German speakers, joining in with their Spanish and little English they knew. And the thing I could not get over was that we all managed to understand eachother. Not just understand what the other person was saying, but truly UNDERSTAND eachother. We all have the same hopes, fears, questions, etc. concerning God and His Word. And, here we are, speaking in first, second, and third languages about the same God; talking about experiencing the same God in the same ways. While all of this was amazing enough, I have to say my favorite part of the evening was when I suggested we all pray out loud in our own languages. We went around the room and prayed - English, Spanish, English, German, German, English. And it didn't matter that we couldn't understand eachother. Because God could. And that's the thing I take comfort in almost every day.

Thank you, God, for Your promise that You will always hear me when I call on You!