Thoughts of a Servant

I was listening to Air1 for the first time in a looooong time today.   Sometimes radio gets overdone (sometimes? okay, more than often).  But I heard something that made me think a bit about that day of Redemption.  When we go face to face with the Lord, what will he say to us?  What would be the expectations on which we will be judged?  On Air1, they put it like this:

1. What did you do with what I gave you?
2. Did you bring anyone with you?

1- Wow.  Its obvious that God has blessed us.  What have we done with it? Have we bettered other lives as Jesus says in Matthew 25:40, ⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

2- And as we go through this world, are we finding the lost?  Are we bringing our neighbors?

Hmmmmm

Today I got a random chat request from a friend that I havn’t talked to or even knew very well growing up.  I havn’t seen them in almost three years, but they chatted me today and it was a true blessing.  She was telling me all of the great things going on in Reno and how they are having services at Lawlor event center and how she has brought people from her small group to church.  I am stoked!  As random as that chat was, I really enjoyed it– and I honestly think I needed that.

If you can, please pray for her and her small group as it has been dwindling in numbers.

I also had a great chat with my Yogui friend today at salsa.  I love listening to people’s stories.  It brings great encouragement and sometimes it offers opportunities to talk about how great God is.

I love this guy! This is a man that is living. I am sure everyone else loves him too once they have seen Britian’s Got Talent’s Paul Potts.  What an amazing story he has to tell.  If you haven’t seen the video, I would recommend checking it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

I was watching that video over and over wondering why it is getting to me.  Every time he sings, it brings an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, atonement, and fulfillment to the performance. I had done some research and I found some things that interested me.  Simon said that he had heard so many opera singers that could sing like that, but what made him different was the fact that when he sang, you heard all of the pain– sorrow– suffering– anguish– etc. that he has endured over the course of his life.  You hear his story, his love, passion, and vigor struggle for success.  He shatters your first thoughts about him.  I’m guilty, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was absolutely blown away.

Apparently, he was severely bullied when he was young.  He was usually involved with the fights between the parents– and he would often run away to go sing.  Singing was his escape.  But thats not the end of it…  He found the love of his life on a chatroom, and then encountered several unfortunate events: his appendix burst before his wedding, complications came and eventually it was a tumor that they found.  But even in the midst of this, he performed at the opera thinking, “If I don’t grab the opportunity to perform, I might never get to do it again.”  Continuing on, he got hit by a car four days after his honeymoon fracturing his collarbone which put him out of work for 9 months.  His whole life he worked as a grocerie checker and warehouse manager, and then the extraordinary chance of fulfilling his dream through Britian’s Got Talent came about.

After singing on this stage, he was honored by the three panelists and the crowd.  He eventually went on to sing in front of the queen!

What an amazing story.  Was God in this? Most definitely.  Guiding him each step of the way.  Who knows where he goes now.  You can see his tour dates, and his life being unraveled on his site:

http://www.paulpottsopera.org/Paul-Potts-Autobiography.html

Cheers to you Paul.  Thank you for the smile.

It never stops. God is so good. I am blessed to be a part of what he is doing in my life. Today has been a great day and I have only been awake for 4 hours. I had breakfast with my friends of two+ years. They have come to Easter service but have never really asked questions about anything serious. But of them has been having a really difficult time with her job and career and schooling and really, life. She came to breakfast this morning, and I guess one of her really good coworkers (who had two kids, a beautiful wife, great job, etc) had recently committed suicide. It is a tragedy to her and people around her, and people are questioning whether he is in Heaven or not.

Continuing on, we were having a nice conversation about dancing (what else is new) until she interrupted with the question, “Where do we go when we die?” which I guess was God’s way of using that gentleman’s death as a tool (while still a tragedy, and I still feel deep grievances for her and the people around her– but He is using it to stir up our hearts causing us to ask the right questions).  And we sat there and talked about salvation (just being a real conversation, no preachy stuff).  And I am just blown away.  Because first of all, you have to realize the context of which this happened…  My friend has always believed that you have your belief, and I have mine, and we’ll leave it at that… But what I love about her is she is always open to discussion on any topic of choice.  So this makes it very easy to share what I believe and listen to what she has to say about her beliefs. We concluded the conversation on a good note, but I can only imagine the transformation that can occur.  This is a progression, nothing is instant– but it is the start of something beautiful.

To top it off, I come on home to find two Jehovah’s witnesses standing outside my door.  I ask them how they are doing, one of their names was Marvin–  I guess they were witnessing to Hispanics because they didn’t really want to talk to me.  I walked inside, but I felt that God wanted me to say something or talk to them.  So I found some water and walked back out to offer it to them…  If they asked a question or initiated some form of welcoming of the water, I knew that God would want me to talk with them.  But unfortunately they respectfully declined the water and waited for me to return inside.  Maybe I was ill-prepared for what they had to say and God was protecting me, or maybe it was not God’s timing on what they needed to hear.  Either way, just being open to God’s will is the key.  And he will work His wonders regardless.

I went to a leadership training the other day, and there was a Bible verse that just killed me.  I believe it was in Colossians 1:5-14…  Its kind of long, but well worth it.

5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on oura behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified youb to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption,c the forgiveness of sins.
The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996).

How Great!  God has stored our treasures up in Heaven, and he has “qualified” us to join in on the inheritance of a life tha is full of endurance, patience, joy, thanks, as he has recued us from the darkness, and forgave us of our sins.

Praise God for another wonderful day.  I am nothing, I am but dust– but He is the Creator, and my Savior.

ADDED: I found a cool passage that analysis the Colossians verse.. check it out:

1:5. Paul thanked God for their faith and love that spring from … hope.
This trilogy of virtue—faith, love, and hope—is a favorite of Paul’s (cf. 1 Cor. 13:13; 1 Thes. 1:3) and Peter’s (1 Peter 1:3, 5, 22). Faith is the soul looking upward to God; love looks outward to others; hope looks forward to the future. Faith rests on the past work of Christ; love works in the present; and hope anticipates the future. Even though “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6), and “hope does not disappoint us” (Rom. 5:5), nevertheless “the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). The Colossians’ love extended to “all the saints” (Col. 1:4), or all believers, probably not only at Colosse but everywhere (cf. 1 Thes. 1:7-8 for a similar commendation).

John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-).

I don’t really have a lot of words to go along with this blog post.  I am just saying that this song sums it up pretty well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-FYNY72ylI

I read Esther today, and was simply blown away by the power of God in the situation of the King over there.  Esther had to go against all of the most beautiful women to become queen, she also was a Jew– which would have surely disqualified her from the throne, but the king, once he favored her, didn’t think anything of it.  Then with her being queen was able to save Modecai’s life (later down the road, which was part of God’s plan)!

Modecai was a Jew and he was also in the king’s favor.  His enemy, Haman, was in the kings favor as well, but not nearly as much.  But Haman tried to have Modecai killed on the gallows because he didn’t like that he,  a Jew, was favored over himself– and Haman ended up being hung on the gallows that he built because of Esther, and Modecai / Esther went on to save their people by making a king’s decree + seal to warn the Jews that they are able to defend themselves against any attackers on the 13th day of Adar.

God’s chosen people were able to defend themselves against 75,000 people and in the end, they didn’t take any of their enemies goods.

How amazing a story!!

Up until now, I would have probably given you an answer saying singing to him and believing in him… But last night and here on out I have a new answer.  I will say that it is standing in awe of how Good He really is.  How patient he is. And just acknowledging how stunning and radient his Love is.

Consider this: Sometimes I wondered how come Jesus doesn’t just come back now, because I don’t want to be on this world.  But when you think about it, someone was wishing for that when I was not walking with God.  In other words, if he had come back some 2+ years ago, I would have spent the rest of eternity in the depths of Hell.  How scary is that?  But the only reason he hasn’t come back yet is because he is waiting for the maximum amount of people to be saved and their names in the book of Life!

I have been blessed with so much to praise.  I saw my friend from Africa, Ted, and we prayed for him at Wahoos.  :D  (wahoos is soooo good btw).  I have been blessed with a job that pays the bills and allows me to do some better things with money.  I have been blessed with  friends that uplift and are becoming stronger in their faith.  I have been blessed with multiple opportunities to talk with people, not even about God, but eventually they bring it up! And to top it off, a friend of mine came to church for the first time in a loong time.  They fell in love with it!!!

I have so much Joy– I pray that God never let me forget how Good my life really is, and how Good He really is.  And only by His Mercy I am set free.

Had a Bible study with Russell at Woodbridge, the guy that was doing the lesson is very intriguing.  He has studied so many languages like Greek, Latin, Russian, French, etc. and just has a great heart.  He went in-depth about Abram’s bloodline in Genesis 14ish and Romans 9 and so on.  He came with some great pointers!  I wish I could just type out what I learned, but we will have to do a dinner or something– there is just so much.

But I have had a great night.  My friend wants to start going back to church, my other friend wants to talk and go on a hike, I have people wanting to do dinner, and I pray that they don’t see me but they see the Jesus in me– and let them know that its open to anyone who wants it.  I pray that I remain a humble servant as I travel this path that could very easily turn into pride and vain by taking credit when really I am nothing more than the dust that inhibits this earth.

I have found that the best thing that I can do to preach the gospel is to just spend time with people and listen.  Thats all they want, and no one can give that unless they give time.  Time is the most valuable and most treasured memory / event you can give someone.  I have even started having dinner and chats with people that I don’t normally want to be associated with, because we need to love everyone–

Now loving everyone, before I get myself into trouble, is much more different than disagreeing with what they are doing.  You can have a son, and be disappointed, but you still love them.  So to love someone unconditionally means that you treat them as Jesus would.  But you don’t have to agree with what they practice, but that relationship may flower into something amazing if you give it time and patience (God’s time).

It has been on my heart to go and live abroad most likely in Africa.  I went there for a mission trip in 09, and absolutely fell in love with it.  One of the many things on my heart is the human trafficking, abuse / rape, and HIV/AIDS.  I got this idea the other day that I am exited about:

I haven’t fully thought it out yet, but I was possibly thinking about starting a safehouse for those people being trafficked and abused.  I would look for a team of individuals that are familiar with the culture and language– then establish a place that is safe and will be able to provide necessary things like food and education and love.

I just ran across this really cool note today in the Bible Knowledge Commentary of Genesis.  It shows an awesome parallel between Abram’s journey and his descendants journey.  Take a look:

One cannot miss the deliberate parallelism between this sojourn of Abram in Egypt and the later event in the life of the nation in bondage in Egypt. The motifs are remarkably similar: the famine in the land (12:10; 47:13), the descent to Egypt to sojourn (12:10; 47:27), the attempt to kill the males but save the females (12:12; Ex. 1:22), the plagues on Egypt (Gen. 12:17; Ex. 7:14-11:10), the spoiling of Egypt (Gen. 12:16; Ex. 12:35-36), the deliverance (Gen. 12:19; Ex. 15), and the ascent to the Negev (Gen. 13:1; Num. 13:17, 22). The great deliverance out of bondage that Israel experienced was thus already accomplished in her ancestor, and probably was a source of comfort and encouragement to them. God was doing more than promise deliverance for the future nation; it was as if in anticipation He acted out their deliverance in Abram.

John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-).