who's the man?

working on something lately (obviously on paper, not on this blog) that has been eye opening. at least opened my eyes. the folks more in tuned with God might have realized this all along.

i have always known the story of christ. (and when i say always, i mean always. thank you mom and dad for never letting a moment pass when we didn't recognize christ as our savior.) i have until recently always considered christ walk on this earth as other worldly. he made it easy because he was God's son. he was a third of the trinity so he could never have been truly tempted by the junk this world throws around at us.
i think many of us might view christs walk the same way. we appreciate his sacrifice but we believe he only did what he was sent here to do. and that's a huge "only". the ultimate sacrifice is definitely recognized!

here's where recent study has led me, although it is incomplete:

hebrews 2:9 jesus made little lower than angels
2:14 jesus shared in our humanity
2:17 jesus made like his brothers in every way
2:18 jesus suffered just like we suffer
4:15 jesus understands temptation ( yet he lived without sin)
5:8 jesus learned obedience from what he suffered

Philippians 2:6-11 who, being the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death- even death on a cross! therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name, that at the name of jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that jesus christ is lord, to the glory of God the father.

jesus chose to leave heaven and take on the likeness of man. he came to this earth as a man and suffered the life of a man. jesus the man faced all of our temptations and understands our weaknesses. he walked our walk and for one thing, HE WAS JUST A MAN.

the one thing that makes him different from us is substantial. Jesus did it all, faced it all without selling out. by faith, he lived on this earth as a vessel of his father. no temptation caused him to waver, even the prospect of being sacrificed on a cross. there is a huge difference between christ and me. its not that he was GOD, nor is it that he lived without sin. the difference is FAITH.

jesus didn't practice his faith as i do. christ lived his faith and became the author and perfecter of it. (hebrews 2:12)

he was a man as i am man. he is the son of God as i am a son of God.

purrrrfection

struggle with Matthew 5:48. thinking about perfection and how inconceivable it is in my mind. came across a quote in some old ramblings of mine. not sure who made the statement ( definitely not me) but it was scribbled next to the text of matt 5:48.

" our perfection in Christ does not mean flawless or without fault. folks, we are perfected when our spiritual life is fulfilled. when we mature spiritually (Ephesians 4) we become completely perfect in Christ."

perfect in the world is way different than being perfected in Christ. I'll take being perfected in Christ, its a lot more attainable.

"it was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors or teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." Ephesians 4:11-13

today!

therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. each day has enough trouble of its own. matthew 6:34

GOD is warning us. do not look ahead! let today end before you think about tomorrow. your troubles today may seem minor compared to tomorrows.

OR

why are you waiting for tomorrow to do what i told you to do today. today it will be easier. tomorrow gives you too much time to change your mind!

however i interpret his words, i know that he wants me to make the most of this day. by most i don't mean stuff. or the earning of more stuff. talking about the eternal most.

what have i done today to grow myself into his perfection?( matthew 5:48) if i did nothing today, what makes me think tomorrow will be any different?

so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 corinthians 4:18

"we fear our highest possibility (as well as our lowest one). we are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments." Abraham Maslow

scared of failure. scared of success.

nice to know that GOD has no expectations for my life. his hope is that my relationship with him allows me to give up control and finish this walk of life with him.

he leads. i follow freely

nameless face

spent the last couple of hours checking out different websites connected to tulsans. what did i find? mikey d giorno ( forgotten about him. had a good little talk show that at times turned my stomach and at times intrigued me), bob wills ( great music! have been a fan since my first trip to caines ballroom), jim inhoffe ( has this dude been a politician forever?), garth brooks ( uhh, great guy), oral roberts ( built a really big hospital that is now an office building, namesake for a university, charismatic evangelist), weber's root beer ( hawking franchises, god bless them)...



a bunch of different names, businesses that have different degrees of importance to most of us in our great city. this blog has no real explanation, its just me thinking about how important we find ourselves to be.

type in my name and you'll find nothing about me. however, ask my wife and kids and they would say i am important in their lives. insert your name and wait for a response from the great wide web. how important are you? if nothing pops up on the monitor, trust me- YOU ARE IMPORTANT TO SOMEONE!

too often we count success as the number of people that know our names. not the number of people we have touched with the grace of GOD! people that may not even recall my name but know that some dude prayed with them or for them. how much more important are the nameless?

when my mother was ill and we were at our lowest point of the battle some guy came in to her room, stood by her hospital bed and prayed with us. at the time we knew his name. more importantly, we knew his heart. he broke down with us. he spent time with us. he prayed fervently with my parents on numerous occasions when they simply didn't have the strength (physically or spiritually) to knell down before GOD. he brought peace into a very unpeaceful place.

we have all since forgotten his name. we will never forget the prayers! thank GOD this man came to us. he came as just another nameless face but he left a lasting impression.

never consider yourself unknown. the unknown are often the most known to the one that matters: GOD.

just a man

for this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to GOD, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:17-18 niv

that is why he had to enter into every detail of human life. then, when he came before GOD as high priest to get rid of the peoples sins, he would have already experienced it all himself- all the pain, all the testing- and would be able to help where help was needed. Hebrews 2:17-18 message

always think of Jesus as supernatural in his walk on this earth. he is GOD! a third of the trinity. but he came to his earth as a man, the same kind of man as me. well, not exactly like me. he had faith that his father would always be there and that he would never be let down. outside of the whole faith thing, Jesus and I are just alike.

he faced the struggles, he took on the temptations, he walked and talked with some of the cruelest folks ever placed on his earth. Jesus stood side by side with the devil! i would venture a guess that Jesus faced more temptation daily than i will in an entire lifetime. he faced all and overcame because he knew the one who sent him. he knew that the one that sent him here was faithful, therefore, he had faith that all would be well. no matter what the devil threw his way.

whats the point?

Jesus lived life as a man. he lived his life perfectly. not because he was GOD, because he had faith in GOD.

me to you, with respects to ernest

paco knew he could be a great matador. knew that he would have no fear. he met his end at the hands of a pessimist holding an arm chair and two steak knives. Hemingway wrote that one, i've just read it a few hundred times.

thought about it and have decided that many of us are strong in our minds. we are conquerors, until we face that which is unexpected. we play a good game. dipping and shaking at the right time and begging to take the bull by the horns. we succeed a lot, however, it just takes one shot in the gut to put us down for good.

to be a great matador in life one must recognize that at any given moment you will get stuck by the most unlikely foe. when things in life are good, when you finally have this crazy game figured out and have decided that you are the master of your own destiny, you will be blindsided.

biggest question for me is: how do i react?

i can fold up, question the causes, faint disbelief and give up OR i can scream out to the one i have ignored for so long, beg forgiveness for my arrogance, accept my consequences and fight back one step at a time. would love to say that i always fight on. for that matter, would be great to lie to you and say that i have never tried it on my own.

i am on the floor, bloody and disgusted frequently. have given up more than once only to find myself sinking in the abyss of my "mastery" in this life. thank you GOD for being kind enough to forgive. thank you for being the ultimate matador in my life.

" be merciful to me , o GOD, for men hotly pursue me; all day long they press their attack. my slanderers pursue me all day long; many are attacking me in their pride.
when i am afraid, i will trust in you. in GOD, whose word i praise, in GOD i trust; i will not be afraid. what can mortal man do to me?" Psalms 56: 1-4 niv

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happy fourth of July! let us be thankful and prayerful not only for our Independence, but for the courage to stand up and be counted on to do the right things for ourselves and for the millions of others in our world begging ( and dying) for freedom. in GOD we trust!

thank you

how many of us can say we were in country for the overthrow/ouster/ coup of a president? well, i know one. my nephew was in honduras when Zalaya was "replaced" as president. thankfully, he is home. safe and sound as of 10:30 pm sunday night.

what a cool story to tell. although his group was stashed away safely at Baxter most of his trip, he was still there. politics has always intrigued me and to be among the people of a foreign land while they struggled thru a constitutional crisis ( and come out better?) seems too cool for words.

GOD has a way of putting us in situations that reinforce his greatness and allows us to grow our trust in HIM.

aside from the political news, it seems that they had another successful mission. they were able to grow the reputation of GOD in a land that is so in need of it. VBS was a success, haven't heard how great the turnout was but i know that the good news was spread to many young minds.

thanks for the prayers, ( yes, i still know that no one reads) and please continue to pray for the country of honduras and of course, for the good ol' USA!

in case anyone stumbles onto this blog (unlikely, just covering my bases) please consider a few people from the bixby church in your prayers this weekend as they try to return from Honduras. seems that the political unrest there has shaken up the trip and left some wondering if they will be allowed to leave as scheduled. Honduras has a strong grasp on mi familia and prayers for the leadership of the country would also be greatly appreciated.

my nephew is 15 and in Honduras for the 4/5 time. great kid, great drive to do right by GOD, hoping this little struggle doesn't discourage his mission heart. HOPE this is just a little struggle in a small, underdeveloped country that holds so much potential in the kingdom. thanks for throwing up your prayers.

rejected?

i am not at all faithful to blogging. have tried it a few different times and lasted a few months before just giving up on it completely. i hate to admit it, but my best thoughts are found while mowing the grass. just me, the lawnmower and isreal, charlie hall or whoever is playing on the ipod. if i could find someway to harness the creativity, the insight i have when simply pushing the lawnmower life (and this blog) would indeed be easier.
(they say Sam Walton carried a recorder everywhere he went and faithfully used the thing to turn wal mart into the huge monopoly it is today. no good idea was ever wasted and the bad ones were sifted thru and forgotten.)
anyway, got me thinking. how many times are our ideas left on the table to die? they just weren't important enough to consider, didn't have enough flare to justify the time spent or just too darn hard to fulfill. i would venture to say that a lot of our forgotten ideas are better than the ones we put into practice. the return more valuable because the time spent.

today was not a lawn day so bear with me and lets see if my idea of the moment is worth anything: viewing souls in the same light that i view my ideas.

some of us are a perfect fit. easy to love, eager to learn, therefore, our souls are worth fighting for. others of us are a little rough around the edges. maybe we question traditions? or we have a past that scares folks? we will make it a little more than difficult for you to reach us. our walls are built high and they are built thick but with a little persistence and a whole lot of God we can be touched and eventually touch the lives of others like us.
i have turned my back on many that seemed too hard. heck, i have on more than one occasion turned on myself. given up because all the skeletons in my past. it has become more habit and not even recognized. the kid on the street that has 8 brothers and sisters, no father and an absent mother is too hard to be saved. his oldest brother is in prison and that's where he'll end up. too much work to do to save this one kid when there are so many easier souls to deal with.

we have been so wrong to shelve difficult souls the same way we do with tough ideas. one soul in Christ is as equal as any other, however, the harder God works thru you to reach the most desperate, the most unwinable the greater the hunger to do it again. we have missed the bus on so many folks/ ideas just because we were scared of the fight. God bless 1 timothy 1:15


"we know about remorse and death. But do we know about hope and life? I believe in life after birth!" maxie dunham

a bit from Romans

"But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day to day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. the night is about over, dawn is about to break. be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. we cant afford to miss a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. get out of bed and get dressed! don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!" Romans 13:11-14 the message

isn't that just amazing? love the message and the simplicity of the words.

absorbed so much in my day to day that i actually have the nerve to pray to God about my job, my bills or my selfish impulses. didn't pray for his guidance in my kingdom life, just asked that he would give me direction on ...

find it pathetic that we ask for this and for that but we seldom ask that God direct us to save a soul daily. never mention in our sacred prayer time the homeless guy begging under the overpass, the single mom struggling to feed her kids, the druggie that's only hope is Christ.

we miss opportunities to dress ourselves in Christ and be up and about. the words of the above verse ring truly, night is over, dawn is about to break.

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"truth is a demure lady, much too ladylike to knock you on the head and drag you to her cave. she is there, but the people must want her and seek her out." William F. Buckley, Jr.

how important is my job?

considering job changes lately. actually considered for the last 6 months and it has been taxing on my soul and tough on the family. the idea of packing up and moving to some place i don't know, don't care about and really have no desire to be for the sake of making a little more money is daunting. my mind has been enveloped by this for too long.



finally, found myself in prayer. 1 Corinthians 7 was laid on my heart and i read it in hopes of finding a decision. marriage? lord, why would you have me read about marriage when my deepest prayers have been about career?

vs. 17 nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him.

vs. 23 you were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.


these two verses struck me as more than just marriage speak, although i am certain that the situation could definitely cause a strain on my marriage. the words God put on my heart were that I am where he wants me. Gods reasons have been different from mine. he has expectations for us in Tulsa and we haven't met them yet.

i pray that i am correctly reading his advice on this situation. too many years of doing my thing and not enough time on his thing. his purpose in my life is no different than the purpose in your life. his idea is that we all stop putting limitations on his movement, follow his lead or at the least get out of his way and let him move us to greatness.

can we grow spiritually while ignoring the slightest nudge from God? will i ever grow up into his expectations if i ignore the answers to my prayers?

i have been a slave. a slave to the will of my earthly puppeteers. it is too late to change the past, however, today is a new day. today i will heed the advice of my heavenly father and let him pull my strings!

" what i do today is important because i am exchanging a day of my life for it." Hugh Mulligan

more than talk

my little niece! graduated high school a few weeks ago, traveled to the dominican on a mission and this week working with inner city kids at summer camp. its been a busy month, actually a really busy three weeks and she loves it. her spirit isnt the kind that we talk about, its the kind of spirit that we see. she does it, she lives it and has been living it for years.



18 years old and has accomplished more for the lord than most adults i know. i'll narrow that down, 18 years old and she has done more to grow the kingdom than i have in my 36 years of life. god bless her!

think on this

" it is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you feel you can do so little. do what you can!" sydney smith

with a few fish and a few loaves of bread jesus fed thousands.

with a stick in his hand ( and the faith of thousands) moses parted the red sea and freed thousands from bondage

with one small stone a little boy toppled a giant and helped lay the foundation of faith that millions of us survive on so many years later.

our offering in kingdom life may seem so miniscule that we are embarassed by it. it may seem so small that we overlook it, so tiny that we count on someone else to do it. but we must do what we can!
our nothingness could be the spark that ignites a blaze of life into folks more broken than we.

i personally focus on the big stuff. i cant preach, i cant sing, i cant write, i cant... so i resign myself to doing nothing. the gifts have been given to others, they have the honor of growing the kingdom. i sit back and let them work, so as to not get in their way.
my mindset has been so scarring to myself and to my family. my people have seen me do nothing and in seeing my lack of action they have fallen into the same pit. we have to do something, do what we can.