Taking God’s house to the streets…I read an article today in the Houston Chronicle (yes, I do read the paper and sometimes sections other than the sports and comics). As I was pilfering through the different sections the headline Taking God’s house to the streets caught my attention. I want to genuinely be Christ to others and I love to hear about others who are doing it, not doing “religion”, not playing “church”, but being Christ. So to say the least I was drawn by this heading. I wanted to hear more; know more. Who are they? What are they doing out there? Are they making a difference? If so, what can I do?

I long to be inspired by those living their faith out in a tangible way and loving God, loving people. Those who are willing to go beyond the pew, outside the walls, and into the world that needs love, compassion, and light. “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” -Jesus.

I definitely believe in the local church and its ministry. I believe in discipleship, worship, fellowship, ministry, and evangelism but when we can take those things to those in needs instead of always waiting for them to come to us, great things seem to happen.

Anyway, sorry for the rabbit trail and back to the article…7 years ago, Joe Williams of Joe Williams Ministries, began Street Reach, a ministry geared to reaching out to the homeless youth on the streets of Houston, America’s 4th largest city. He ministers to those who are too often forgotten and forsaken; those who we would rather look the other way than reach out to ourselves and show them the love of Christ. YWAM shortly joined in the efforts and partnered with Williams.

“This is church. We don’t have pews or stained-glass windows, but this is the house of God.” says Williams. “It is the house of God in a Montrose parking lot, open to those who live on the streets, in cheap hotel rooms, and abandoned buildings.” -Houston Chronicle.

Are they making a difference? I would dare to say so. So would Jason Healy who the Chronicle reports has been a regular at the street church operated by Montrose Street Reach since he lived at Covenant House, a shelter for homeless youth, five years ago. His wife, Elizebeth, was homeless when they met at the Street Reach. Healy has a job now, and the couple lives in an apartment with their 15 month old daughter. So would Carilyn Mallet. She is 21 and 8 months pregnant and living in a shelter. On Wednesday evenings she is able to let her guard down. “I don’t have to worry about being judged here,” she says. WOW! How many times have you heard someone in her position say that about church or Christians?

They are not alone. Kim Dale, who is with YWAM, estimates that Street Reach has helped at least 220 people leave the streets. “Some returned to their families, while others have entered rehab, job training or other programs,” she states.

Their purpose? “We try to make them see that we care about them as people, and that God cares about them. We try to show them Jesus in practical ways,” says Dale.

There is a quote from a minister who has helped in the effort that reads, “True Christianity is the front-line thing where you’re getting out there and getting your hands dirty.” Something to think about.

Are you willing to get your hands dirty? I am! Who knows, if you go to Montrose on a Wednesday night you just may find me and my bride there!

For more information on this ministry you can read more about it here.

Yesterday morning we decided to visit Houston’s First Baptist. We really enjoyed the services but that is not what I want to talk about. What I want to briefly discuss is the power of God that is able to tear down strongholds and break the chains of bondage. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.”

There was a man who was baptized who had been addicted to cocaine for 20 years. He was introduced to Christ and has been set free from his addiction. You should have seen the smile on his face displaying the joy of the Lord and the joy of freedom. It was refreshing to see and to be honest I was moved deeply. The services continued and I happened to look over right as this same man is being ushered to the area where his family and friends were and there was a celebration party going on for him right in the middle of the service. It was great. Tears, hugs, smiles…I couldn’t help but stare. There was a woman who may have been his wife; when he got to her they embraced tightly and my heart was lifted and I thanked God for His redemptive power.

I may not have been addicted to cocaine but I too have been set free by my daddy God! Strongholds have been broken by the power and love of my God. I thank Him and praise Him for this wonderful gift that I do not deserve.

What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ and what does that look like? When a Rabbi called out to a Talmadim to follow him as his disciple what he was in essence saying was that he felt that the Talmadim could be like him and do what he did. So when Jesus called the smelly fishermen and the crooked tax collector and us to follow him he was telling us we could be like him. Try to truly wrap your mind around that! Christ believed that we can be like Him.

Rob Bell did a great job explaining this in his video “Dust”. He also talked about how the new disciple would follow so close to the Rabbi that they would get covered in the dust of their Rabbi that was kicked up from the ground as they walked. Because of this there was a saying, “May you covered in the dust of your Rabbi”.

I recently read The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus and that coupled with Rob Bell’s video began to make me think…

If we truly followed Christ so close that we were covered in His dust, then where would that lead us? Christ went to the garden where He prayed so intently that His sweat was like blood and He cried out to God, “Let this cup pass from me, BUT IF NOT, not my will but yours be done.” Then He went to the cross and died. 10 out of the remaining 11 disciples all died a martyrs death. The 11th was exciled on the Island of Patmus .

That’s where following Christ got them. Here’s the crazy thing…they were glad to do it. Peter once even said, “I count it a blessing to be persecuted for Christ.”

Are you willing to follow Christ there? Am I? He may not lead us there, but He may. Are you willing? Do you really have what it takes to be covered in the dust of Christ? We need to be. Are you willing to say like Christ, “not my will but yours”?

If you want to truly be a disciple of Christ you need to be so willing. Christ didn’t say, “Pick up your Lazy Boy and follow me.” He said, “Pick up your CROSS and follow me.”

I had to truly ask myself if I would be willing to follow Him there? Are you willing?

It all started back about 8 months ago. My wife was reading through different blogs and stuff and came along a picture of Islande, a beautiful little Haitian girl. Her parents had died and her uncle couldn’t raise her for some reason. That picture stole our hearts. My wife made some inquiries about possibly adopting her and found that her uncle didn’t want her to leave Haiti. We began to read about Haiti and the need there. My wife also reads a blog from some missionaries over there. We began to pray about adopting from there and got all of the paperwork and began to go through it. Unfortunately things in our lives began to also change at that time and we found out that we would soon have to be moving which meant we wouldn’t have our own house for a little while and would be in between jobs. For obvious reasons you can’t adopt if you don’t have your own house or a steady job so we had to put the adoption process on hold.

We have been keeping up with kids who are need of love and care in Haiti through another blog from a rescue center there. We see the kids there and the way they come in all malnourished and then are brought to health again (sometimes). We keep up with them and pray for them. Our kids really like one named Ronel.

Anyway, my dad comes to me out of nowhere and says, “Guess where I am going.” “I don’t know, where?” He told me he was going to be going to Haiti for a missions trip. He was invited by Mission of Hope, Haiti. I was envious to say the least. He recently returned and told of the conditions the nation was in and how there was a constant stench in the air from the trash being burned and the lack of sanitary means. His heart was touched though as he spoke of the people and the kids. He was able to come home; they are still there in those conditions.

We have people we know that are now adopting a child from Haiti. You can help or read more about it here.

Then, as we were at the Song of Solomon conference, a man from Compassion International gets up to speak and tells a story of when he went to Haiti and how it forever changed his life. Once again there was Haiti so I went to talk to him about it. As we talked we realized we shared some of the same feelings and passions. His name was Josh Finklea. He showed me pictures of his 2 beautiful children, both adopted from Haiti. Crazy!

I don’t know…but we will definitely be praying for Haiti and those over there. And hopefully one day we will be able to go over there ourselves. Maybe one day it will be to pick up our new son or daughter…

Friday-

Finally…familiar friendly faces! Friday night our good friends Reagan and Caleb
from San Antonio came into town to go with us to the Song of Solomon’s Everlasting Love Tour at the Fellowship of the Woodlands. Matt Chandler was the speaker and he did a great job taking a beautiful book and revealing the treasure within. Hanging with friends was a breath of fresh air! We even had an added bonus…during one of the breaks during the conference I received a phone call from some other friends of ours, Ron and Susan, who are missionaries to New York City. They just happened to be going to Houston at the same time the conference was over and traveling the same hwy that would take them right where we were. We were able to see the whole family. We haven’t been able to see Susan and the kids for 5 years. God is awesome. He knew how much we needed some normalcy and a break from our present reality. IHOP until1:30am…good stuff!

Saturday-

Got up early and returned to the 2nd half of the conference. When it was over we went to eat at Johnny
Rockets and walked around the Woodlands Market Street. We then headed home and relaxed and just hung out with Caleb and Reagan and fell asleep watching college football. At 5:30 we had to head over to Atascocita. My beautiful wife had a photo shoot. Caleb actually owns my wife’s “dream camera” and he allowed her to use it for her shoot. She had a blast and I love to see her smile like she was. That night we returned to FOTW for the Saturday evening service.

Sunday-

Slept in a little. My mom bought my kids some little Lowe’s home project kits so while everyone else was still in bed the kids an I went out on the back porch and spent time together building their little projects. The girl made a napkin holder and the boy made a picture frame. I taught them how to use a hammer and they both did their own work. It was very fulfilling. I love my kids and spending time with them. They ate up every minute of it. Everyone else got up, we ate pancakes, and after all taking showers (1 at a time) and getting ready the guys started to grill, cooked some steaks, and watched the crappiest example of an NFL game I ever witnessed. Why do I even like watching it anyway? (this is not a sign that I will stop watching it anytime soon…sorry Debra) spent the evening watching the Disney Channel with the boy while the girl was at a kids rally.

It was a good weekend…

It started this morning when my dad called me and invited me to go the Administaff Small Business Classic at Augusta Pines in the Woodlands. I like to attempt to play golf when I get a chance but I am absolutely no good and I refuse to spend the time and money on it that it would take to get good. I also have to admit that the idea of watching golf rather than playing it isn’t that compelling to me but it was a chance to spend some time with my dad and do something I had never done before. Today was the Pro-Am so it was more casual than it will be the next 3 days when the actual Senior’s tour competition begins. When we got there I was taken back by the grandness of it all. We really didn’t know who was where or where we should go so we just went to the closest group of players that were teeing off. As we approached the tee box we noticed it was none other than Arnold Palmer. I don’t know much about professional golf but Arnold is like one of its icons.

We decided to just take it easy and follow that group for a while. As we were watching a guy came walking up and as I looked I noticed he looked familiar. It was Roger Clemens (AKA The Rocket) who is a pitching icon of the MLB. I have to admit that I always have admired his talent but my feelings were hurt when he left the Astros to return to play for the Yankees. And for some reason he always seemed like someone who would be arrogant and unapproachable. I really don’t know why I had that perception but I did. I will be the first to admit that I was wrong. He was very approachable and very nice. I was completely impressed by him and his actions today. He was talking to people like they were old friends (some may have been). He even showed me his World Series Championship ring from NY…unbelievable! It is probably worth more than my house. The same was true for Arnold. Very friendly and very approachable. I didn’t get any for me but my dad had me getting autographs for him. Unfortunately we didn’t take our camera because we thought they weren’t allowed…we found out that rule didn’t go into effect until tomorrow when the actual tournament begins. When it was time to go we finished it off with good ol’ Texas Bar-B-Q. It was a good time.

Then to finish the day off I had the privilege and joy of going to my sons little league game. I love to watch him play. At this stage in his life baseball is just about everything. He asks every day for me to go play ball with him. Sometimes the whole family goes out there and we play “Parker Baseball”. Good times; good memories. We lost the game 8-4 but my son threw 3 guys out a 1st, 2 at 2nd, and made some plays himself at 2nd. Not only that but he was 3 for 4 batting and had an awesome slide into home plate for the first score for our team. That’s my boy!!! (I’m not proud or anything)

Anyways, that was my day. Sadly it was much better than the day people in Cabaret Haiti had. Please pray for Haiti as they had severe flooding causing damages and deaths. Good night!

I am bored tonight. I am an insecure person. I am ignorant so I think I will go out and hang a noose in someone else’s yard just because they are different than me. How about it?  You want to go with?

It is a shame to think there are those people out there. It is a shame that there are people so insecure, so ignorant, so immature out there. How can anyone say they are better than someone else based solely on the color of skin?

I grew up just north of Houston in the thriving metropolis of New Caney, TX. When I went to church I had to drive through a small town called Splendora. Many a Sunday a group of people in camo and white hoods could be found on the side of the road recruiting. I didn’t understand it then and I don’t understand it now.

On TV there was an inter-racial couple and my daughter made notice of it. I took the opportunity to ask her what she thought of it. “Do you think there is anything wrong or weird about that?” I asked. She looked at me with a confused look and replied, “No way.  Why would I?” I told her that some people thought they were better than other people or didn’t like other people who were different colors than them.  “That’s crazy! I would like a person even if they were purple.” she said.

I told her that is how it should be.  Why can’t we all be like that? I know that racism exists in every race but as a white person I want to first apologize then state that I am concerned because I don’t want what others do or say in those regards to affect the way I am viewed or perceived. I love diversity and think it adds to the beauty of life.

One of the problems is there are too many people walking around with rose colored glasses who fool themselves into thinking racism is a thing of the past. We all need to wake up to the realization that just because we aren’t racist doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist or that there is nothing we should or can do about it.

I will close with this story…My daughter was about 3 or 4 at the time. My wife is part Hispanic and was adopted by a Hispanic family. Her dad is pretty dark complected.  One day my daughter was holding his hand and looked at it compared to hers and said, “Grandpa, you are chocolate and I LOVE chocolate!” She still loves her Grandpa…and chocolate.

Anyway, just  my thoughts…

Have you ever felt like God wasn’t listening?  Life gets hard…Decisions are difficult…Troubles come and there seems like there is no end in sight. Cries for help and guidance seem to not be heard.  “Where are you God?”  can be a thought that easily enters your mind. I have found myself in these same situations.  Too recently in fact.  Okay, I’ll be totally honest…in some areas even now.  I get frustrated, I get impatient, I get confused…”Hello, God!  Remember me?” 

This must be what David felt like in Psalm 22, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are You so far from helping me, and form the words of my groaning?  O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent…”

David goes into this whole pity party episode in the following verses.  He feels like we do some times.  He’s wondering where God is and why isn’t He listening…It isn’t long until verse 21 when he finds out that God was listening and God did hear his cry. 

Later we see David saying things like, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” 

What a turn around.

When we go through times of despair and it feels like God isn’t there, think of David.  He felt the same way and soon found out that God was listening.  We can also look to Job.  He had no clue why what was going on was going on.  He lost his security, his wealth, his family, his health…He eventually wished he had never been born but as we read of his account we see God was there and He was in control.

It may seem like God isn’t there.  It may seem like he doesn’t care or that He isn’t listening.  Satan may even try to make you doubt God’s existence or love…Just remember that God is there and He does care and He does hear and in His perfect timing and according to His perfect plan He will answer.  He is the one who can bring beauty from ashes.  He can turn our mourning in to dancing.  He can make all things turn out for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

We just need to be reminded of that sometimes.  I have to remind myself of that sometimes.  Plus if times were always perfect how would we know we needed God?

Dear God, when life seems bad and situations out of control; when it seems like You’re not there may I remember that You are there.  May I trust You and Your promises.  Help me to stand upon Your truth.  I have so many things to be thankful for; to praise you for.  Help me not to focus on the bad.  I know that You are there and that You will work all things out to my good.  I praise You for it Lord!

Okay, here I am. The switch has been made so from now on you will find me here at my new home on wordpress. Look forward to many a good times with you all. Leave me a comment so I’ll know you made it.

First of all, for all of my readers (that would be you, Debra) I will soon be taking a journey over to wordpress. Don’t fret though, I will let you know when the official “switch” has been thrown.

Now for my thoughts…

I am tired of “Christians”! There are probably some of you out there, especially those of you who are not Christians, who would agree. I know that mainstream TV and the majority of our society is.

The conversation came up as we were watching TV the other night and they showed a group of “Christian” teens who were a part of an abstinence group as being these wacko kids who ended up killing a classmate who was known to be a little “friendly” but was seeking to change her ways. All because they were all hypocrites hiding “sins” of their own that they didn’t want to get out or do away with.

The question was asked, “Why do they always make Christians look bad or crazy on TV?” The answer came from my bride, “Because they honestly see us that way, at least most people do.” I agree. I believe that “Christians” have been the reason society looks at Christianity, Jesus, and the church the way they do.

As Christians we are to be “little Christs” if you will; we are to portray and share Christ to those around us. We have done a poor job of this. “Christianity” has become nothing more than another world religion and the Christ being displayed isn’t the Christ I find in the Bible.

This would bring us to a question that I have been toying around with in my mind for a little while now…

Who is Jesus really? Or should I say, who is the real Jesus?

I think this is important…no, vital that we know this as we are to be Christ to those around us.

I want to just point out a few things as we could go on for a while looking at the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.

When we find Jesus we don’t find Him saying one thing a doing another. He was true through and through. Even when He was alone and being tempted He remained true. (Matthew 4:1-11)

When we find Jesus He isn’t condemning others for their sins, He was forgiving and restoring them. (John 8:1-11)

When we find Jesus He isn’t turned off or annoyed by the hungry, nor did He turn them away. We find Him feeding them and having compassion on them. (Mark 8:1-8)

We don’t find Jesus hiding within the walls of the synagogue or only hanging out with his “Holy Huddle”. We find Him eating and fellowshipping with sinners, meeting them where they are, and ministering to them. (Luke 19:1-10)

He wasn’t hating others and shunning them for who they were or what they have done. He sought those out to show them love and help them. (John 4:4-26)

Anyway, I could go on and on. We only have scratched the surface of who Jesus was and what He was really like. I also only gave you 1 example from Scripture on each point I made and there are in fact numerous examples for each.

My intent wasn’t to tell you what to do or to give you an in depth study on the real person of Jesus Christ. My intent was to challenge you to look at who the real Jesus was, look at His teachings, and look at the examples of His life (I encourage you to do your own in depth study of the real Jesus) and then take a hard look at your own life and see if the Jesus you are portraying is truly the real Jesus…

Luke 9:56, “For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”

Mark 12:29-31, “Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

There is a story about Alexander the Great that tells of how cruel he could be. He had his brother and several leaders in his army killed on the grounds of treason. If you were fighting for Alexander the Great and happened to flee in the middle of battle you were considered guilty of treason and brought before ATG and executed. One day there was a young soldier who in the middle of battle was filled with fear and fled the battlefield. He was caught and brought before ATG to be executed. Before they executed him ATG asked him to step forward. “What is your name son?” ATG asked. With fear and a quiver in his voice the boy answered, “Alexander, sir.”
There was silence and eventually ATG spoke up and did something he never had done before…”Alexander? Well today I am going to let you go but on 1 condition…you either change your name or live up to it!”

Think about it CHRISTian…