Saturday, May 31, 2003

Last week my wife and I spent a whole day together. We had not done that in a long time and it was great. On our tour, we went to the mall on the strip (I think it’s called fashion show mall). We had to get my mother-in-law a birthday gift. As we headed towards Sax Fifth I observed the people that were shopping, eating, and walking about. It troubled me. Once inside Sax Fifth, I felt strange. I had a “vision”, it was almost like a dream, of people walking into this store that was covered from head to toe in marble and gold. The people were buying masks of all shaped and sizes. All of them were different. Some were solid gold and silver. Some were decorated with feathers. Everybody who bought the masks put them on immediately and walked out of the store. It was strange. It was familiar. People were running from their hurt towards money. At least that’s what I got from it. Peculiar. We finished our shopping and walked outside to our suburban. The sun was bright so I put on my $100 sunglasses. What a great day.

Friday, May 30, 2003

I am calling on all of you who read this to pray for us. I feel somewhat awkward in asking this. It is not for the asking for prayer part but it is in the subject.
The store has been opened for almost a year and a half and I still haven’t been paid on a regular basis. Is seems in my mind that I should have seen some profit months ago but we have had many equipment failures which takes the wind out of my sails. I know that owning your own business is a struggle and that the rewards may or may not come. All it takes is only a few more customers per week to make this place rock, but I find myself saying that every week.
Pray to the Great Encourager that he will encourage me. All I want from this store is to pay my bills and allow me some time to spend with my family and you guys. I dream for the day that I can have two days off per week. I would spend a whole day with my family instead of doing house work.
Thank you for supporting me. The love that I have seen from this spiritual family is beyond words.

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

When we create a box to wall ourselves off from the Living God, just who really ends up inside? We do. We cannot contain God, nor should we want to. We can only limit his moving in our lives by refusing to honor him as God.
And that, I think, is what hell will be. It is the final box where the wicked can wall themselves away from God. C.S. Lewis said, "I willing believe that the damned are, in a sense, successful rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside." -- Wayne Jacobsen

Ok, I’ve got yet another gripe.
It seems lately, that I have observed others including myself, they see the world, faith, love, -- everything as abstract. Everything seems so blurry. Now don’t get me wrong, for the secular world, I can see how that is true. But our world – the one that includes the Master – should be sharper than any plasma TV that has been invented or ever will be. This is puzzling to me. There shouldn’t be any doubts. I’m not saying that there is no room for exploring, I just feel that we shouldn’t waist our time debating stuff that has no eternal value. This includes the way we do church. Although we might debate over spiritual stuff, does it have eternal value? Here is where I’m going with this – I want to live a life like Paul. I haven’t heard him say “it’s ok that you believe that, I’m going to believe this and I don’t genuinely care about you”. I want my life to resemble what I read in I Corinthians 9:19-end. I want so much to know people. I want to get into their world and see their life. Then I can say that I can relate to them. Paul said that although I am a slave to no man, I will make myself a slave to everyone so that I can share the gospel with them. I don’t want to merely talk about the gospel, I want to be in on it. I’m tired of talking about stuff that is wasting my time. I know that I don’t have a lot of time left.

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a dream. Ok, that sounds great and all, but I mostly have a gripe! Here I try to get on the web and it takes me a half an hour. I used to have warm fuzzy thoughts about blogging and now it has officially become a pain in the ass. We live in this new revolutionary world that enables us to communicate with great ease except for my computer is still trying to figure out mores code. I want to kick something really hard, but I know better. I know that if I did that I would hurt myself. I would be hobbling around for the next week and have to answer everybody’s questions about my foot. – Sorry, I got on a little tangent.

Last night I received some great news. Brian Rothrock is coming to town next week. For the two people that are reading this and don’t know him – let me explain. The group of people that I hang out with is always struggling to figure this whole Jesus thing out. What do we do? How do we act? How can we be attractive to those who don’t know him? Brian says screw it. I’m gona be me with lots of coverings on. I’m gona go the other way. If people finally figure me out, it will be too late and I’ll have them where I want them. Why do we try to appease? We are who we are. I’d like to see the day when everybody cuts the crap and we see them for who they really are. I wonder if those who don’t know Him can see this too?

I have tremendous respect and love for Brian. When he is gone we all miss him. I enjoy his point of view on life, love and all that. I think we all do. At least those that really know him.

I got more junk in my computer that I have written. I’ll have to share with you guys later.

Friday, May 16, 2003

Hey there blog boys and girls. I'm new at this here thing. However, i have been keeping track of you guys on a "regular basis". I don't have anything profound to say at the moment - hell, come to think of it, I usually never do. One thing that i can say is that I love each and every one of you deeply.