Hillbilly Slim

Some of my posts have been somewhat serious in content so I thought I'd try to go a little lighter this time. This is Hillbilly Slim, I first met him at church about a year ago. He's certainly not much to look at I would agree, and he actually frightened some of the younger children, personally I think it was the teeth. He is a great guy, a little goofy, ok so he's a lot goofy, but he really loves Christ and just wanted to be accepted and loved. I am happy to say Hillbilly Slim was accepted and loved by the people who got to know him, but if I went off of people's initial reaction they were quite shocked and awed, to say the least.

I will confess now that I am Hillbilly Slim. I did this when I was working with kids to make a point about how we treat people who are different from us. I'm just as guilty as the next guy for not being more open to this. I've been thinkin lately about Hillbilly Slim. I wonder if he walked into YOUR church, where nobody knew who he really was, how would he be treated? With the love of Christ? Yeah we would all say that I'm sure. But somewhere in us we may think, "dude this church isn't for you". Kinda sad to think that we take the head of the table and get to decide who comes and dines, when it's Christ's table to be shared with everyone.

When you meet Hillbilly Slim I hope he is welcomed, I hope I welcome him as Christ welcome me in my mess.

Ok so maybe it wasn't all that light of a post but they're coming.

The thorns

A couple weeks ago I watched the movie Amazing Grace, if you haven’t seen it yet you need to go rent it this weekend. It’s about the struggle to abolish slavery in the British Empire. The movie also involves the story of John Newton, the guy that wrote the lyrics to the song Amazing Grace. There is a point in the movie where two of the main characters are racing through a field, barefoot. As they slow down, one of them says, “Why is it you only feel the thorns when you stop running?” Hmmmm, good question.

I think as Christians we can be busy doing work for God and feel like we are running the race well because we are busy. The problem with that can be that we are so busy we aren’t growing in our relationship with Christ. I am fully aware that not all growing is painful, but some of it is and if we don’t stop long enough to feel the thorns of conviction we will eventually run into a brick wall that will halt our relationship and stop us in our tracks until it is dealt with. The other scenario is when there is sin we have been convicted about but we run to try and numb the conviction and neglect our relationship with Christ.

I have been guilty of both scenarios and then later wonder why I never dealt with the issue sooner. We all have thorns, but we need to stop long enough for them to be dealt with so that we can carry on and finish the race set before us. What thorns is God trying to get your attention about or already has but you refuse to deal with them? Let them go, deal with them; you’ll be amazed at your efficiency for Him when you do.

Preparation

"All God's dealings with man are characterized by two stages.

• There is the time of preparation, when command promise-with the mingled experience of effort and inability, of failure and partial success, with the holy expectancy of something better which these awaken-train and discipline men for a higher stage.
• Then comes the time of fulfillment, when faith inherits the promise and enjoys what I had often struggled for in vain. This law holds good in every part of the Christian life and in the pursuit of every separate virtue."
  

This is a quote from Humility by Andrew Murray. If you have a chance you should read this book, it will definitely make you aware of how much pride still exists. The time of preparation stage doesn’t seem to bad to read about, but I don’t believe it’s always fun. David is one of my favorite guys in the Bible. One thing I notice is that after he was anointed he didn’t take off running to the throne, he went back out into the field to tend the sheep. David served Saul, killed Goliath and spent time hiding and running for his life before he ever became king. He could have expedited the process by taking Saul out while he was hiding in a cave but he didn’t. David relied on God during that time and his fulfillment of taking the throne finally came to him. These two stages differ immensely but it’s not possible to skip the first stage as nice as that would be. It is during this time that God is molding us into the men, women, leaders, pastors, etc. that He has called us to be. Personally I struggle with this time of preparation right now, it’s hard, it’s tough, I want to impact in a huge way right NOW, but I know I’m not ready and that God is using this time to teach me. I’m also aware how easy it would be for me to say, “Look at what I’ve done”; this time of preparation makes me realize it will never happen on my own. If you are in this stage as well be encouraged during your preparation and know that the fulfillment WILL come, “when faith inherits the promise and enjoys what had been struggled for in vain”

Re-Beginning =)

This is my re-introduction so to speak. I decided to link my blog to the Regent website and possibly connect with some cool and interesting people. For the 3 or 4 of you who actually read my blog you will see some design changes on here since I’ve connected to the school. Hello fellow Regent students. I’m looking forward to getting to know some of you through your blogs and give you a little insight into my crazy little mind and world as well.

Crumbs

I’m not married and don’t have any children so God uses my dog to teach me things. I’m fully aware how crazy and silly that sounds but hang with me for a second. I was sitting in my chair, the other day, eating a sandwich. Typically, my dog Shadow will go to the other side of the room and hang out while I eat, waiting to see if I offer her any. This day though, she sat right in front me watching as I took every bite and sniffing the floor for crumbs she may have not seen fall. She was going to take whatever I dropped and not even think twice about it. I began thinking about how I need to do the same before God. Just sitting, watching, waiting for him to drop a nugget of food to me, and when He does I need to snatch it up like nobody’s business. I believe He is always dropping nuggets of food to us, but we aren’t always ready for it and we miss it or we may sniff it and say, “No thanks”. It’s kind of a slap in the face of God to say that what He is giving us isn’t good enough. I want to be ready and willing to take whatever He is dishing out to me without thinking twice about it and sniff the floor to make sure I didn't miss anything I might not have seen. On a side note that would also require me to put my face to the floor, hmmmm humility, but that's another post.

Expedition

The other day I had the privilege of visiting NewSpring Church, in Anderson, SC. The other day means about three weeks ago, it’s just my way of telling time that other people haven’t caught on to yet. I went with a friend of mine who has been wanting to go check this church out for some time as well. I’ve watched a ton of messages from Perry online so I am familiar with his preaching style. One thing I noticed though is that the stage looks sooo much bigger online than it does in real life. Don’t get me wrong the setup is absolutely amazing and incredible. I have to say though I was most impressed with how they treat their first time guests. My friend and I had not decided ahead of time whether or not to let people know we were first time guests. As we pulled into the parking lot there was a sign that read “First time guests please turn on flashers” split second decision and I couldn’t find the hazard lights until we were right up on the first parking attendant. They then pointed the way around the parking lot, and then up to the front. Not only that, but as we got out and began walking up to the church a volunteer greeter met us in the parking lot and escorted us all the way, engaging in conversation, then explaining and showing us around the atrium area. We also received free coffee passes. The service was excellent as always and the preaching was great. Not that NewSpring needs any congrats from me, but what they are doing there and what they are allowing God to do as well is phenomenal. They do it with servant hearts, happy faces(it was hot too), and excellence. Great job guys and gals for displaying love, grace, and representing the Kingdom in everything you do.