YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS

Where in the world are we going?

2011-11-14T11:27:00.001-08:00

When Velda and I set out on this journey, one of the questions we were asked the most was,"So, where are you guys going to go?" Our answer has always been the same," We don't know. We just want to go where God wants us to go." Basically, we had it narrowed down to this planet. We know we love Africa. We know we love Zambia. We know we love the Tonga people of Zambia, but what we didn't know was, is this where God wants to use us. We knew we had to proceed with caution and try and be neutral to where we would serve. We did not want to go to Zambia and work among the Tonga people, because it was what we wanted to do, if we were to end up there, we wanted it to be because God put us there. We made inquiries with the SIM personnel in Zambia about opportunities to serve there, but after gaining some information and praying about it, we realized that Zambia was not the place God had for us. Why is that? We had already been there, we were familiar with the people and the land. We had a burden for reaching the people there. Why would God not send us there? My answer is I don't know, but I do trust Him. I do know that we have to be desperately dependent upon Him to figure out where in the world He wants us to go. I do know that He wants us to passionately pursue Him, that He will make known His will. So Velda and I sat out on that pursuit. We looked at different countries and the needs listed in each one. I have to admit, it can be quite overwhelming sometimes. Velda kept telling me that she didn't want to pick a job, she wanted God to pick it. I kept searching and reading various opportunity descriptions, but nothing really seemed to be a fit for us. Then Velda suggested we go away for a day and just be with God. No seeking placement, no agenda, no supplications, just seeking God and His presence. I knew she was right. We went away for a day and just spent the day with God in prayer, in His word, and in worship. It was when we quit seeking "where", and just sought "Him", that He gave us what we had been seeking. Through a remarkable chain of events that we see His sovereign hand behind, he opened the door to us to serve in Malawi as pioneer church planters to an unreached people group known as the Yao. It is not yet official, we are planning a trip to Malawi to meet the SIM team, Yao people and seeking affirmation from God. We will continue to seek Him and we know that if it is to be Malawi, that is where we will be, if it is not Malawi, we have learned much about seeking His will. His will is for us to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." and you will be where he wants you.
Please continue to pray for us as we seek His will for us, SIM, the Malawi team, and most of all for the Yao people and that they would be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.
http://malawi.sim.org/
http://sim.org/index.php/country/MW

So What in the world is going on now?

2011-08-30T20:28:00.001-07:00

At the end of our last blog, I told you to stay tuned for "Why in the world do they want to know that?". Well, let me just say we had to send a lot of information to SIM (www.sim.org). From a 6 hour psych evaluation, to a extensive doctrinal survey, training and experience form, physical forms, medical release forms, and personal reference forms, it is quite possible that Sim know more about us than we know ourselves. The good news is, all of that is behind us now, and apparently we haven't scared SIM off. We received word that our medical condition was approved for service overseas. Our psych evaluation was approved.(Or they want to tell us we are nuts to our face). Our doctrinal survey was met with good reviews, and our training evaluation suggested that we only have to take a few specific classes in preparation for cross cultural ministry and language acquisition. Then finally after the sea of paperwork, we got invited to attend SIMStart. SIMStart takes place on Sept. 7-11 in Charlotte, N.Carolina at SIM USA headquarters. It is at SIMStart that we get to know SIM better and they get to know us better, and together we seek the Lord in serving with them. If we feel God affirming our serving with SIM and they with us, we will leave that Sunday with final approval and a better idea of when and where we will be serving. We will begin some online courses and training and prepare to attend SIMCO in November, where we will get more extensive training and placement.
But here is the really cool part. Even though we have not officially been accepted by SIM, we felt like God was telling us to sell our house. For a few weeks we had talked about and at Velda's urging, I began to pray about it. At first I was apprehensive about selling before we were approved, but as we prayed, we believed God was telling us to sell now. We talked about how to sell the house and decided that we would not use a realtor and try to sell it ourselves and use the money we would save on realtor commission to drill a well in Africa; something we have always wanted to due but could never afford. So, off to sell a house we went. We had contacted a dear friend to ask if he knew of a Godly real estate agent before we decided not to use one, and he had expressed interest in buying our house when we decided to sell. We called our neighbors and told them we were going to sell our house. Then we asked another friend, who has investment property, to advise us on how to sell and he ended up interested and told us to give him a price. Just a couple of days later, we set a price and let our friends know. Two days later they both let us know that they were not going to be able to buy our house. I had just set the phone down from hearing from the second friend when it rang again. It was our neighbors daughter, and she wanted to know if we were still going to sell our house. To make a long story not so long, we agreed on a price and sold our house. they were getting ready to build on the other side of our neighbors and the timing of our selling our house was perfect. (God's timing always is) We close on September 23 and have already moved out, and moved in with my mother, where we will stay until we depart for the mission field. and the best part, in a few days, we will get to write a check to fully fund the drilling of a well that will bring life giving water to generations to come. Bad economy, slow housing market and uncertain futures are know match for God. i would highly recommend him as your real estate agent.

So why in the world are we still here?

2011-07-08T18:19:00.000-07:00

So Why in the world are you still here? If you read our previous blog, you may be asking that very question. I will do my best to explain. After Velda and I began seeking the Lord together about being called to the mission field, we did what every good Southern Baptist does, we contacted the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist convention (SBC)and began applying for service with the division of the IMB known as the International Service Core.(ISC) (Gotta love those acronyms. "Hi, My name is Paul Rikel, I am part of the ISC with the IMB of the SBC." Just rolls off the tongue doesn't it?) Anyway, enough of that, The Morreaus were serving with the ISC/IMB/SBC so we pursued that same avenue because it was the only opportunity for people to serve who have had a divorce. So we made contact with them and filled out a few forms, prayed, prayed some more, waited, prayed while we waited...Then we got the news we had been waiting for. Only problem was, it was bad news. "Dear Mr. & Mrs. Rikel, Thank you for your heart for missions and intrest in the ISC of the IMB of the SBC. However at this time we are electing to cease the application process. We see that you and your wife have a history of divorce and we have found that divorce does not bode well in certain cultures. Thank you for your interest...etc." WOW! I must say that one stung a little. We had a ton of questions like "God, why would you put this call, passion, and heart for the people of Africa like this and then shut the door? Where in the Bible does it spell out "Thou shall not Be Missionaries if thy havest hadeth a divorceth? (Lil' rusty on my Kings English) What now?
Well, we went to Brother Dan, Jeff Wallace, Tommy and Cyndi, Wes and Laurie, and others and sought wise council. All of them told us the same thing, "Keep applying!" So that is what we did. We contacted the IMB and asked them to prayerfully reconsider our application. After a few days we received the news we had been eagerly awaiting.Once again it was bad news. I can not remember the exact wording but it went something like this, "Dear Rikels, Did you not understand the email we sent you a few months ago that said Noooooo? What part of Noooooo don't you understand? Don't make us tell you again!" You get the idea. (OK, i have to stop here and say we have the utmost respect for the IMB and harbor no ill feelings toward them whatsoever.) So what do we do now? Well I suggested we look into other missionary agency and we did check into a couple of others, but basically got the same reply, the divorce issue was a problem. On a side note, the ISC of the IMB was a 2 year commitment and after your term ended you had to reapply. Two years after we were turned down, the ISC program was suspended due to financial reasons and remains suspended today. God shut that door because that was not the right door at the right time.
So after a couple of rejections, we realized that yes, God had called us, but it just wasn't time yet. McKinley was in Junior High school and that is probably not the opportune time to move a child to a third world country and we realized God was wanting to do some things in our lives to prepare us before He sent us, so we prayed and waited. Over the next few years we returned to Zambia 3 more times. Each time we felt reaffirmed and fell deeper in love with the people there. In between trips we did anything we could to be an advocate for the people of Zambia and speak about them and missions to anyone who would listen.
After a while we began noticing God was moving us to make some changes in our lives. God basically started making us uncomfortable in our little world that we had become so comfortable in. I wont go into all those ways he was shaking us up, but I will tell you that the book Crazy Love really got us examining our lives. Not only that, but we felt like He was calling us to leave our big comfortable church. (Not that the church was comfortable, we had just become to comfortable in it.) That took some doing on God's part. But after seeking God for along while, it became clear He had another place of service for us.
At the beginning of this year we began visiting other churches. One of the churches we visited, and ended up joining, was Oak Grove Baptist Church. After our first couple of visits we began to feel that this may be the church God was calling us to, so we asked the Pastor, Michael Durham if we could meet with him one evening and ask him about the church and let him know a little about us. Early on in the conversation, we shared that we had been called to the mission field. Hey replied, "If I may ask? If you have been called to the mission field, why are you sitting here in my office?" Velda and I both looked at each other as if we new that was a very good question. We gave him the standard waiting on the Lord's timing answer, but we both sensed that the Lord was saying "It's Time." We talked about it and agreed that we needed to get the ball rolling. We had made contact with a ministry called World Venture a few months earlier and had made initial contact and they basically told us that we would be accepted by them, but for lifetime service with them, you have to have a bachelor degree with a year of Bible college. They even offered to give us a 2 year assignment and allow me to meet the education requirements while serving on the field. Velda and I discussed it and decided that sense we would have to rely on the financial support of other while on the field, we did not feel right about then having to pay for my education. So we came up with a plan. I would enroll at Mid-Continent in the Adult Advantage Program and get my degree. This would put us on a time frame of me finishing my education requirements about the time McKinley started his second year of college. He would stay here and we would go to Africa. Good Plan Right? Notice I said, "We decided, we discussed, we agreed"? Once again we were meeting with our Pastor for membership classes at Oak Grove. We told Him of our plan and he asked, "Are you going back to school because that is what man says you have to do or because that is what God told you to do?" Once again Velda and I looked at each other and realized we were making logical choices and not seeking God. That is when we earnestly began seeking the Lord's will and realized he was telling us to "GO". So we prayed about with who and believe we were led to SIM. They have a great organization and do a lot of work in Sub-Saharan Africa including Zambia, somewhere World Venture was not currently working.
With that being said, We have by no means been accepted yet. We may have the door shut any day. We realize that. In fact for us to get from here to the mission field will only happen if God does it. We are trusting Him. We are learning to listen to Him and not the world. We believe education is important and so does SIM. In fact I will probably have to take some classes tailored specifically for missions and cross culture evangelism but when i finish this term at Mid-Continent, I probably will not re-enroll. Instead, Pastor Durham has agreed to disciple and train me to help prepare us for ministry and I will probably take the classes recommended by SIM, online, in order to serve with them.
So why in the world are we still here? God wanted learn to trust Him more. And we have. In fact, we will have to trust him for everything if we Go with SIM. They do not pay us a salary, we will be totally relying on the support of ministry partners, friends, family and churches. He wanted us to start doing what we wanted to do in Africa in our lives everyday here in the U.S. He wanted to teach us some things about his sovereignty. He wanted us to be more mature in our faith and sound in our doctrine. He wanted us to learn to Let go and let God.
Stay tuned for; "why in the world would they want to know that?"

How in the world did this happen?

2011-07-05T17:17:00.000-07:00

As many of our friends and family know, we are currently seeking acceptance from SIM missionary organization as full-time missionaries to Africa. You may be asking yourself, as am I, "How in the world did this happen?" Well, here is the story.
One fall Sunday night in 2006, I was sitting in church minding my own business when God did something I was not expecting. Isn't that just like Him? Anyway, I had sensed God preparing me for something for a couple of years, but was unsure what it was. I had been Director of men's ministry for our church and really had a heart for discipleship of men. I thought maybe God wanted me to write a book, or begin speaking at Christian men's events. Missions were not even on my radar. No, that was Velda. She was GA director and was always talking about missions, missionaries, going on trips, being a missionary someday. I remember thinking, "You go ahead, I got work to do right here." That was true, however God has work to do all over the world and I we were about to be a part of it.
That particular night, a vision team had returned from Zambia where Tommy and Cyndi Morreau, members of our church, were serving with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. (That is the IMB of the SBC. Baptist love them some acronyms!) Tommy was someone I very much looked up to, respected and admired for his walk with God and always considered him to be a mentor. So as the team was giving their report, I was listening to hear what our friends were up to in Zambia. Then they showed a video. Suddenly I was heartbroken for what i was seeing on the screen. Not heartbroken like you get when you see the feed the children videos of the starving kids in Africa, but a broken heart that can only be done by God opening my eyes and breaking my heart. I remember thinking "I am supposed to go to Africa! God, I cant go to Africa. Why me? But there was no denying it, He wanted me to go.
At the conclusion of the service, I told Velda "God wants me to go to Africa!" She looked at me and said "God is telling me to go to Africa! We both can’t go, someone has to stay here with McKinley!" We decided to talk to Jeff Wallace, Dir. of Global Outreach, about going on the upcoming trip to Zambia. After speaking with Jeff, two things were evident. One, we could not afford for one of us to go, let alone both. Two, I was the logical choice if one of us were to go. We expressed concern about the cost to Jeff and he assured us that if God was calling us to go, He would provide a way. We left the church that evening trusting God to provide for my way to Zambia. Later that night as Velda and I were laying in trying to go to sleep, I noticed Velda was sobbing. I asked her what was wrong and she said "I have to go to Zambia and love on those kids; I know it is what God wants me to do." Bottom line was, we were both going and we were going to have to trust God to provide for both of us. And provide He did, but that is a story for another time.
After months of planning, preparing, and praying we finally arrived in Zambia. We were blessed to be part of a great team made up of people from Lone Oak First Baptist and Friendship Baptist. The team was fantastic and having the Pastors of both churches on the team as well was awesome. We were working with Tommy and Cyndi as well as Wes and Laurie Wilcox, also IMB missionaries, in training local church leaders. I immediately hit it off with Wes and off course it was great to see the Morreaus as well. Bur more importantly, I could tell that God was doing something in and through me like I had never experienced before. As I preached, taught, and visited with the Zambians, I felt God's anointing like I had never felt before. For the first time ever I felt like I was doing what God had created me to do. Even Velda said that God's anointing was upon me visibly, that she had never seen me like that before. The whole time I kept asking God "Is this it? Is this what you have been preparing me for?" Over and over I sensed he was telling me "Yes". I knew I had to be cautious and not get caught up in the Spiritual high and let my emotions lead me so I had just concluded a lengthy story where I had completely retold the story of Joseph in Genesis and I had sat down as Wes had taken over the session and we were getting ready to dismiss and I began to pray "God, help me to know your will. If this is it let me know. Help me to see past my emotions to hear you. We dismissed as I was finishing my prayer. As I was walking out the door, I was stopped by a wonderful Zambian Chief named Bo Nelson. He was in his 90's and was just an amazing Christian man with a love for God and His word. As I passed by, he took me by the hand and looked into my eyes and said "Mr. Paul, You are truly a man of God. You are a great help to the people of Zambia." Now he may have said that to everyone he met, but i know that it was God's answer to my prayers and a peace came over me.
After 10 wonderful days in Zambia, We were on the plain waiting for takeoff and I was still trying to process everything that had happened. i had not told Velda of what I had experienced because i feared she would think I was just being led by my emotions, something I had been guilty of in the past. As the plain began to lift off the ground Velda and I sat quietly as tears filled our eyes and i looked at her and said "We will be back" and she replied softly "I know".
In the days following our return to the U.S., I had confided in our Pastor, Dan Summerlin, and with Tommy and Wes about what I had experienced while in Zambia. Tommy and Wes both said that they were not surprised and i believe one of them said they were expecting to hear from me about it. Dan was very encouraging and it meant a lot to me to have the support of my pastor and he helped me tremendously through the whole ordeal. One thing they all told me was to pray that God would call Velda as well and that way it would be our call and not just my call. So for the next couple of months I prayed that God would call Velda. I started to get frustrated and even began to question my call when she didn't seem to be hearing anything from God. So one day we are sitting in the swing in our yard having a cup of coffee, when Velda says "So what has been bothering you the past few weeks". I said "Nothing, why do you ask" (I lied) She said that she knew better and that I needed to talk to her. So I shared how I felt like God had called me to the mission field while we were in Zambia and that i had been praying she would here the call as well. She looked at me and said "God called me three years ago and I have been praying that he would call you ever since." Talk about the power of a praying wife, there you go!
Well, that's how in the world it happened. Ever since that time we have been waiting on the Lord's timing. Almost 5 years of waiting. Now we are hearing Him say "Go". Can't wait to see how He pulls this one off. More of that to come so stay tuned!

The Dessert Road

2011-01-15T07:41:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, (let me change that) A lot of times God ask us to do something that we do not really understand and may not really want to do. I find myself in one of those times right now. It is much like in the book of Acts chapter 8, I read where Phillip is in Samaria and God is doing some amazing things in that area. Phillip was seeing people coming to Christ, the lame being healed, he even led a magician to the Lord. the Bible says "there was much rejoicing in that city." They were preaching the Gospel to many in Samaria but and angel spoke to Phillip "Get up and Go South to road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza, (this is the Dessert Road), so he got up and went."
Just a couple of observations;1.) Why did this road get the designation of the dessert road? didn't all the roads around there go through a dessert? To me, and I am probably wrong, Isn't that like saying "Take the corn road" to someone in Nebraska?
2.)Phillip just got up and went. Wouldn't be easy to say "Whhaaat? Good things are happening here. I am so comfortable, God is moving and i am a part of it. the people here are great the people are listening to me. etc..." But no. Even though it probably did not make any sense to Phillip, he got up and went. WOW! what faith, what obedience. And I notice that just like Abraham generations earlier, he just got up and walked because that is what god ask them to do.
That is where Velda and I find myself at this time. Now we are no Phillip or Abraham by any stretch of the imagination, but we find ourselves in a similar situation. We have been a part of Lone Oak First Baptist Church for about 15 years. It is the only church home I have ever had. I have experienced God moving and working in unbelievable ways and even on occasion I have been blessed by being used by Him in some small way that He might be glorified through a sinner like me. I have had opportunities of service and blessing that are indescribable. I have had people bless My family, love my family, encourage my family in more ways than I can recall. I would be crazy to leave there. But that is what I must do. Because I know that is what God is asking us to do. No, an angel of the Lord has not appeared to me, but His word has. In fact, I have had to ask His forgiveness for not being obedient to His call. You see He told us this a while ago, but because of our love for our church and its staff and people, we did not want to go and those are all noble things, but disobedience is disobedience regardless of the motive, and disobedience is sin.
People have asked us "What happened?" as if there is some ill reason why we would leave such a wonderful place, and my response is simply this. "God happened." He said walk and we are walking. Don't know why, don't know where, but do know God has a plan and a purpose and we can not wait to discover what it is. Please pray for us as we walk this road, that we will find our way of bringing Him Glory.

Lessons of the Lame

2010-02-20T21:34:00.000-08:00

Back in December I had some long needed surgery done on my ankle. Since that time I have pretty much become just a large gelatinous mass whose soul purpose is to consume mass quantities of food and then lie around and hear the fat cells popping into existence like Jiffy pop popcorn burning over a campfire. (Try as I might I have never successfully popped jiffy pop over a camp fire.)
I am trying to workout everyday....on one foot....on arms and upper body, which ironically is the only thing that has had any use in the last two months. Crutches seem to build the muscle under the arm (the pitisamus) and other rarely used unknown body parts. Right now I am just trying to keep from having to buy an entire new wardrobe. To make matters worse, the other day Velda and I go to Wal Mart and I get into one of those power chair cart things and we start rolling down the aisle. I was thinking "Boy I always thought these thing were for the obese, the lazy, or the old people". It was then i realized I was all these things. To make matters worse, I put the thing in reverse and it started beeping. Velda looks at me and said I wondered when you were going to get one of those back up beepers.
Not only am I getting so much mass that it will only be a matter of time before things start orbiting around me, but I am also noticing some other harmful effects. Because I am at home most of the time with nothing to do, I have been doing extra housework, a lot of cooking,and I am doing a Beth Moore Bible study. Let me just put it this way. I have to get back to work soon because I have had enough of my feminine side. I turned on the TV the other day and Oprah was on and I found myself watching it for about 5 minutes before I realized what was happening. I had all I could take and ran from the room before I started having hormone problems. I quickly turned on the XBOX and started shooting some stuff and then followed that up with a couple of hours of Sports Center just to get the testosterone flowing again.
Its not all bad though. God had taught me some things. One is, all that time you say I dont have time to spend with God, will you spend more when you have time or will you fill your time with other meaningless things. I have learned that God provides. All those times i despised my job, i was accumilating sick days that allowed me to not miss a check yet. (Missed out on a lot of overtime though)I learned how hard my wife works as i have seen day in and day out what her days consist of. (She is an Angle) I just pray that as I continue to heal God will continue to conform me to His image. I doubt that Jesus was this fat however.

Hammer Time

2009-08-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

As a part of my job, i get the wonderful opportunity to do some amazing things. One of them is occasionally I get to spend all day operating a compressed air jack hammer. I know, I know, you are all thinking, "you lucky dog you.", but it is not quite as glamorous as it may sound. Sure, on the back ache and pain reliever commercials it looks great, but you can't believe everything you see on T.V. It really is quite tasking. Despite its apparent technical difficulty, when you spend as much time as I do operating one, it takes very little mental capacity to bust concrete into small pieces. As a result, my mind usually tends to wander. I find myself contemplating life's small mysteries like, "I wonder what is for supper tonight, why do some people say supper and others dinner, chowder is a funny word, if ants could talk would they still call their father's sister Aunt, Is that something shinny, wasn't Jack Nicholson in The Shinning?" you get the idea, not a whole lot going on in the upper room of the Rikel cranium.

Today, however, was different. The concrete I was pulverizing was being replaced because the people who originally poured it, poured it on mud. The most important part of constructing with concrete and almost everything else is a good solid foundation. So, concrete is usually poured on a good base of compacted aggregate. Now I am no engineer, but I learned enough about mud as a kid trying to catch tadpoles in our farm pond to know that something that will squish between your toes is probably not a solid foundation, although it is good for grossing out your older sister.

As i continued to hammer away at the concrete, I was reminded of Jesus talking about the wise man who built his house upon a rock and it stood against the storms and waves, and how the foolish man built his on sand and it came crumbling down. I am sure from the outside, both houses looked pretty much the same, but it was what was underneath that made the difference. i think that is the way we are a lot of times. People can look like they are as solid as concrete on the surface, but that is just a facade. Underneath their foundation is not built upon their relationship with Jesus. It is built on Pride, Materialism, Greed, Selfishness, and when things hit us we begin to crumble. I know there has been times when my foundation has not been made of what it needed to be and God took His jack hammer and pounded away what seemed to be a good surface until he got to my foundation and replaced it with "The Rock" a is in the process of building the man He desires me to be. One set upon the rock. And just like the concrete I will pour onto that solid base tomorrow, I may get run over, beat on, stormed on, but I will not be moved.

Crazy Man

2009-08-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

About 10 years ago I was walking down the street in Nashville Tennessee after just coming out of a Promise Keepers event. I had just had an incredible experience with the presence of God. As we walked out of the arena, we were faced with the usual protesteors and demonstrators on the sidewalks. Feminist, Pro-Choice, pro-life, save the ameoba, all sorts of people trying to shout out what they thought I needed to hear. I however breezed right by them all and continued my stroll back to the van. As we walked past a Bar and grill with a little live country music spilling out into the evening air. I looked through the window at the people dinning and socializing and I thought, I wish all these people could experience what I had just experienced. So distracted by what I was thinking, I forgot to look ahead at where I was walking and quickly found myself about to run face first into someone. thanks to perifial vision, I was able to stop just in time to prevent knocking some unsuspecting soul to the concrete. As i looked up at my near victim, I saw a man standing on a crate with a bible in his hand. As if that was not enough to make me do a double take, the guy looked just like the crazy old Parson on one of the Poltergiest sequals. He was wearing a plain brown suit with one of those little string neck ties with some kind of big coin looking buckle around his neck. (Never understood those little things) He wore one of those" Little House on the Prairie" flat rim western hat, with kind of gumball machine center. (Not quite a Hawse Cartwright 10 galloon, but similar) He had long skinny teeth with a noticable gap between his front two, only to be highlighted by the fact that one of them was half missing. He looked at me with one eye, mainly because he had one of those crazy Marty Feldman eyes that just sort of revolved around like it had a mind of its own. He raise a bony finger toward my face and said "You will never be able to keep any promises (Going with the whole Promise Keepers theme) unless you Repent and Believe. Repent I say and be truly saved." I remember thinking "what a wacko" and just proceeding with my trek back to the van. Something about that man has always stuck in my mind. I remember thinking that he was over the top and no one could everpossibly take him seriously.
Now fast forward to present day. I was doing a little reading the other day about John the Baptist, and how he was quite the ecentric. the whole camel hair wardrobe, diet of locust and honey, living in the wilderness preaching "repent and be baptized." Who could ever take him seriously. Then I got to thinking about Paul. Whipped repeatedly, beaten, stoned, snakebit, shipwrecked, imprisoned, and the list goes on. I wonder if anyone ever had a near collision with him on the streets of Jerusalem and thought "What a wacko. Matthew - Tax collector, Peter - Fisherman, Elijah - taking on all the prophets of Baal and talking trash, running from Jezebel, being fed by Ravens, drought causing, dead child raising bonifide wacko. Noah - boat builder on dry land, flood predicter in a time that had never seen rain, STRANGE!
It seems all these guys in the Bible who were used by God to do great things, all seemed to have one thing in common. They probably looked off their rocker to the people around them. Despite being odd however, they all spoke the truth of God in their lives and God used them to fullfill a purpose. The funny thing is, I find myself wanting to be a lot more like the guy standing on the crate in Nasville, who at least was telling people how to experiencing God by repenting and believing than the guy walking down the street wishing people could experience God and doing nothing about it. I have become uncomfortable being the "run- of- the- mill Christian."mainly because I dont belive such a thing should exist. i no longer will be satisfied with not doing something about it. I think that following God will make you look like a crazy man. i believe it will make you be outside of the box, that you may actually end up standing on it shouting "Repent and Believe!"
So if you see me in the coming days and years doing something and you think "Paul has finally gone off the deep end." you are probably right, but thats ok. I would rather be nut from the tree of life, than a fungus on the trunk that just sits there and leeaches off the tree.
I guess I am just a crazy man

Hope and Change

2008-11-06T08:21:00.000-08:00

Well the long Presidential campaign is over and not a minute too soon. There is no doubt that this years election brought to the forefront some of the problems that our great country faces. At least one hurdle has been cleared and that is the election of an African American to the highest office in the land. What a day to be proud of. I must say many of the things that Barrack Obama campaigned on, I am in favor of: Health care, education, helping the middle class and the poor, making our country strong, being good stewards of our environment. I only differ in the way that these things should be handled and is why I could not vote for him. However now that he will be president and is going to try to empliment his policies I have a suggestion, here it is. "Oprah, if we are going to start this whole redistibution of wealth thing, I would like to encourage you to go ahead and get a headstart, and I would like to even cut out the middle man and allow you to just send me a check for some of that wealth you have that needs to be spread around. I know I haven't worked for it, earned it, or deserve it, but i believe that if you would just send me about $100,000.00 it would give me the HOPE I need to make a CHANGE in my life and stop having to break my back everyday for a measly $32,000 per year. Seems FAIR doesn't it?"
"HOPE and CHANGE". That used to mean to me "I HOPE I can find enough CHANGE in my couch cushions to buy a Soda." Now it means what people are looking for in a President. (I wonder how many twins will be born in the next few years that will be named HOPE and CHANGE.) I just want to go on the record as saying if you are looking for HOPE or CHANGE in any man, you are looking in the wrong place. Our HOPE should be in God. Our HOPE should be in His Glory, His Salvation, and His unfathomable love for us. His promises that He will never leave us or forsake us, that if we seek His Kingdom and His righteousness all the stuff we tend to worry about will be taken care of. And the only true CHANGE is the CHANGE that comes from allowing Jesus into your life and create in you a new creature. The CHANGE that America needs is for His children to allow Him to transform them and start not just saying I am a Christian, but start living that way and knowing His word and obeying it. I can say all day long that i am a conservative, but am I living according to those principles and showing that they work? In the Same way, I can say I am a Christian, go to church, attend Sunday School, give to the Church, but if I ain't livin' what it's teaching, No one in their right mind would believe it is real.
Where does your HOPE lie? I Know my King will always be on His throne and His plans and policies are perfect and he will never fce re-election. The CHANGE I am looking for is the transformation in my life and others as I allow God to form me into the person He created me to be, so that I may be effective in bringing His HOPE and CHANGE to a lost world.

I Left My Heart In Zambia

2008-08-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

This is worship in a small village called Nashoongo. I think its cool. I had the honor to preach in this little mud hut church, as well as present them 2 Bibles from our church to theirs. 1 for the men and 1 for the women. They had began this church, had begun meeting, and even formed a choir, yet had no idea of who Jesus really was and what salvation really is. We taught them several stories from the Bible like Nicodemis, Parable of the sower, Good Samaritan and others to explain who Jesus is and what it means to be a Christian. They were so open to the Gospel and eager to learn. There were 7 who accepted Christ this day and many have since and have been Baptized. Pray that they will continue to grow strong in the Lord.

What Was I Thinking?

2008-08-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

As I write this this blog post I keep asking myself "What were you thinking?". Earlier today, My family attended a Sunday School party at the lake, where we had fun and frolicking in a couple of boats on the water. Now for some people this would be no big deal, however for me and my infinite lack of wisdom and discernment, this was a time of being drug through the water on a giant inner tube at 35 mph. Actually, the being pulled through the water is not the bad part, it is the being thrown off the tube at just under the speed of sound and skipping across the water like a 240lb halibut on acid. At the time I was having a blast, and of course all that man ego stuff kicks in and you feel it necessary to conquer what ever the tube of doom can throw at you. You say things like "Faster, sharper turns, and I think I can stay on no matter what." I think about it now and wonder why? I feel like I went over Niagara Falls in a barrel filled with anvils, only to be pulled to shore by a 7 foot physical therapist named Helga and twisted into a pretzel as she repeats in a heavy Scandinavian accent "Yoga is good, no?" I feel like I was eaten by wolves and crapped over a cliff. I feel like the only surviving member of the parachuteless sky diving club.
You know that is the way sin is also. You think "This is a blast", and you are really not thinking about the consequences. Things like pride, ego, or selfishness kick in and before you know it, you are making poor choices. But eventually your sins catch up with you and you pay the price and inevitably ask yourself "What was I thinking?"

Air Guitar

2008-07-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we were watching a highlight video from McKinley's baseball team, and the parent who put it together, put music to the video. One of the songs was by Van Halen, and as Eddie Van Halen played his face melting solo, I pulled out my trusty old air guitar and played along quite masterfully I thought. I was quickly pulled back down to earth by the cutting words of my 13 year old son, "Dad, Quit being lame!". It is official. I am no longer cool. I guess it is time to retire the ol' air guitar and start driving 10 miles per hour under the speed limit and start saying things like "Maybe I just need more fiber in my diet."
On a side note. The other day i saw a short story on the news about the Air Guitar national championships. I had no idea there was such a thing. I couldn't help but wonder if people actually took air guitar lessons, or go to an air guitar store. Can you imagine being backstage at such an event and hearing "Mr. Smith you are up next." and a guy dressed like the lead singer of Loverboy saying "Oh my gosh, I cant find my air guitar. I sat it down somewhere over here and now its gone!" I wonder if the winner got an air trophy or the real deal.
I think maybe sometimes we have air guitar worship. We can go through the motions and really think we are doing something, but in reality we are just being lame. There is no real substance. Just like an air guitar makes no noise, neither does empty worship. When we worship it should be as beautiful and genuine to God as Mr. Van Halen's ax grinding is to me. It is pouring yourself out before God. Giving Him your very best. Realizing who He is and what He has done for you and His everlasting love for us. Only then do we set down that air guitar and pick up that Fender Strat and start making a joyful noise.

Hell is in the Bible Grandma

2008-07-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

I worked with a new temporary employee for the city on Friday. As I talked with him, I mentioned something about my time in Zambia (There is a real shocker:). He told me he was always scared of a preacher man. I wasn't for sure how to take that, but he went on to say he could probably handle it now that he was trying to get his ducks in a row. I proceeded to tell him how I chased ducks for a long time and could never get them in a line until I found Jesus and that any duck rows I had were all being held together by God and not me. He said that his grandmother was the only person of faith and source of religion in his family.He said she was practically her own church. He told me he used to aggravate her by saying "Hey granny Hell is in the Bible." "Did you know the word Hell was in the Bible Granny?" "I can say hell because it is in the Bible." He said she would finally say "Boy, you better shut yo mouth, you just wantin' to cuss!" She told him "Ass was in the Bible too, and he was acting like one."
I just happened to think later that there are a lot of things in the Bible that we just like to say, because it sounds good, or we know it is what we are suppose to say. Sometimes we are not too unlike a young child just saying things out of the Bible because we can, yet we have no more impact on our walk with God than saying "Hell" and then snickering. How about, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Oh we can spout that off in Sunday School like a kindergarten kid who just mastered his ABC's, but do we really mean it or better yet practice it. I will confess that loving my neighbor as myself is a real challenge to me. I am not talking about the people next door, they are fine people, and it is not that I am overly in love with myself.(Although who could blame me.) It is just that we all tend to focus more on self, than on God and others, so we can quote that verse all day long, and it will not make a hill of beans difference unless we realize what that verse means, and act upon it. The Bible is full of great quotes and warm fuzzy feel good stuff, and we can quote them all day long, but if we are not putting it into practice, we are doing nothing more than saying "Hell is in the Bible, Grandma."

Man Church

2008-07-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading an article in Homelife magazine about how today's churches do not appeal to men. I would have to say I agree. Do not get me wrong, I love my church and look forward to the worship and teaching every time I go. But sometimes I wish church could be a little more masculine. Jesus was kind and loving and forgiving and merciful and full of grace and gentleness, and I love that about Him and would never want to downplay that, but He also made a whip and assaulted the money changers in the temple. He called the Pharisees a generations of vipers, or sons of snakes, which is close to calling someone the son of a female dog. There is also the returning King with the fiery eyes and the big sword who will return and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord, and while Satan is on his knee confessing, he will be cast into the lake of fire and chained there for all eternity. How awesome is that? That is more manly than "We are Sparta!" and kicking some guy into a pit. I am a man, I want to here some man stories. Tell me about Elijah challenging the profits of Bale, then talking some smack, and eventually killing them all. Men don't want to join hands with the person next to them unless they are going arm wrestle. We don't want flowers and plants on the pulpit, we want big screen TVs or something to blow up or catch fire occasionally. I for one even get a little uncomfortable singing "You're all together lovely." or "Beautiful Savior" , "How beautiful is the body of Christ." Come on for crying out loud, where are the songs written for men like "Jesus rocks and He is going to kick the Devils butt one day and I am on His team!" Or "Act right, or I am going to make a whip and drive you out of the church"
Perhaps Brad Stine says it best when he says our society has tried to feminize everything including church. "I got in touch with my feminine side, I got married, I'm good. I got feminine side coming out my ears 24/7.
Books like "Wild at Heart" and others talk about how men are to be men and we do things differently for a God created reason, so it would only make sense that men and women worship and do church differently. Here are some manly suggestions.(please note the tongue is in the cheek):

We should be able to throw our offering at a target in the front of the church and keep score for closest to the plate.
Cage wrestling between the associate pastor and Pastor prior to all business meetings.
A remote control that is capable of fast forwarding through the lady who sings the opera sounding song.
Portable televisions made to look like Bibles just in case the Preacher gets a little long winded, you can check the score of the football game.
Little alarm clocks that vibrate any time the word "Amen" is spoken, so in case you doze off during the sermon and the Preacher makes a really good point you can wake up and nod knowingly, or in case you fall asleep during that Pharisee prayer that goes on forever.
Pyrotechnics!
If you can't feel the bass drum in the praise and worship, turn that puppy up!
Instead of flowers on the altar, have a tripped out 427 big block motor
Come on with the tiny Lord's supper cups. Give me a half a loaf of unleven pita bread, and fat glass of welches finest. I know Jesus wasn't that stingy a his last meal.
Turn to 2 or 3 people around you and ask them "Who are your picks for the final four?"
Random pictures on the big screen of record Bass or whitetail deer.
Concession stand
Intermission to go out side and pass gas or grab a refreshment

O.K. that's enough. I would love to hear your ideas. I am not saying completely change the way we do church in America, but just remember we need to bring men back into the church, so it wouldn't hurt to maybe mix it up a little. maybe a good benediction would be a collective primal scream of "CHARGE!!!!" instead of "Go in peace, serve the lord."

Stewardship and my gas tank

2008-07-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

OK. I know we are suppose to be good stewards of the earth God created, but come on, $4.00 a gallon gas. I keep seeing stories each night on the news about gas saving tips and more mileage for your buck. What about a poor sap like me who has been doing all these tips for 20 years just to get by? Throw me a bone like turn your gas gage upside down in your dash so it looks like your tank is filling up while you drive. Or how about outlawing drive-thrus? I wonder how much gas is wasted while people sit in line at a fast food joint or a bank. If people had to actually park and go in, it might make for a healthier country and save gas. Maybe we could eliminate junk mail from the postal system? How much extra weight is added to mail trucks and vehicles by junk mail no one reads? How much more weight is added to garbage trucks to hall off the tons of junk mail I through away each year.
Or here is an original idea; DRILL FOR OIL! WHILE WE RESEARCH AND DEVELOP OTHER ENERGY SOURCES. I saw a shirt the other day that said "I would drill through a polar bear's rear end if it had oil in it."
I also have heard about all this oil in Alaska, but apparently it is a caribou breading ground, and we don't need to disturb that. My lot where my house stands now was once a whitetail deer breeding ground. You know what? Come every November they are in my yard or close to it doing what deer do. Development where I live seems to make the deer thrive, I practically have to dodge them every morning on the way to work.
Call your representatives, senators, even the White House and tell them to drill for oil before Paul's family starves to death.

I Am My Own Gilligan

2008-06-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

Remember on Gilligan's Island how everytime it looked like a sure thing that the castaways were going to get rescued, Gilligan would inevitably do something to mess things up and they would be stranded again. That is a lot like my life. God has time and time again came to rescue me from my sin, and I always seem to pull a Gilligan and remain trapped on my island. How many times has God come to rescue me from my mundane life and replace it with the abundant life and I pull something ignorant and blow the whole deal. Things like, I can handle this on my own, or I cant do that, or If God will just give me a sign, or these are the cards I have been dealt and I just have to play them.
Just like Gilligan, if I would just stay out of God's way I would be a lot better off.

Staggering Statistics

2008-06-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the old sugarless gum commercial that said "4 out of 5 dentist surveyed recommend sugarless gum to their patients who chew gum."? Do you ever wonder who that one dentist was who recommended sugar gum. He must have been one greedy dude. He was probably telling his patients to chew gum, brush with cake icing, rinse with coke, and floss with licorice. Maybe he just owned stock in the sugar industry.
I read recently that 1 out of every 5 kids born in the world are Chinese. I am the youngest of 5 children, yet other than a love for egg rolls, I don't appear to be Chinese at all.
According to recent research, if you were to take every hockey puck in the world and stack them one on top of another, it would be an indication you have far too much time on your hands.
Here is actually a serious statistic. 10 out of every 10 people die. And 100% of those who die without being born again by accepting Jesus as their Savior will spend eternity in hell. The bible says that God wishes that none should perish. Think about the day that we will all stand before the judgement of God, and He will separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep being Christians, and the goats being those who do not know Him. Can you stand the thought of looking at the hopeless and helpless goats headed for eternal separation from God, and seeing faces you know? Faces crying out, "Why didn't you tell me?". Will you be able to truly say you did everything you could? Jesus is too good to keep to ourselves, 100% of mankind need Him.

Do You Know Mr. Luke Warm

2008-06-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

There is a disturbing image in the book of Revelation that I think of quite often. It is a message to the church in Laodicea and Jesus says "You are neither hot nor cold, you are lukewarm and it makes me want to throw up!" (That is the Paul translation.) Do you ever shudder at the thought that it is possible that you can make God sick at His stomach? Pretty scary, huh? Well you can. You see, when we say Jesus is Lord, it involves a lot more than most of us realize. Total commitment is the only acceptable option when it comes to being a Christian. There are those of us who say Jesus is Lord, but we have so at ease at being a Christian that we have forgotten what it was like when we first fell in Love with Jesus. Remember when you were on Fire? What happened? Did you let other lukewarm Christians tell you to just settle down? Did you hear the lukewarmers say things like, "You can't push Jesus and your beliefs on others" so you quit witnessing, or "You shouldn't judge people", so you stopped holding people accountable for their actions, or "You can't protect your children from everything", so you just let them watch whatever,dress however, and listen to whatever because you want them to fit into the world? Have you listened when they have said "That's just not the way we do things in this church."? Have you let them down play the amazing power of God and the miracles and wonders that He does everyday? "Just calm down, people are going to think you are some kind of Jesus Freak". Why do we listen to that stuff?
Think about when you fell in love for the first time. Did that desire to please that boyfriend or girlfriend make you act a little crazy? Granted testosterone can make a man do some some strange things, but when we are in love we all do some crazy things. For instance, my wife and I went to see an M.C. Hammer concert on our first date. I could not stand MC. Hammer, but I was in love and it didn't matter. All I know was where she was, that is where I wanted to be. That is the same craziness we need to have for Jesus. We are so in love it doesn't matter what we like or dislike, what we want, where we go, all that matters is we want to follow Jesus no matter what.
Do you remember when you realized that you were a sinner and on the expressway to hell, but Jesus reach out from the cross and snatched you out of the abyss you were getting ready to plunge into, and you were so broken, so thankful, so grateful, that you wanted to tell the world about what Jesus had done for you? You wanted to read every word of the Bible so you could get to know this wonderful savior even better. Do you remember? Does it still burn in your soul to do what ever Jesus says because you are in Love? It should. Are you still acting crazy like when you first fell in Love? Go on that mission trip, witness to a friend or co-worker, let down all your barriers and allow yourself to worship God, read His word, talk to Him, share your testimony to someone who needs to hear it, open your eyes to God working around you and the wonders He does in your life and the world around you. Don't allow Mr. Luke Warm to bring you down. Let your life reignite their flame and crazy love.

What would Jesus do at the Ballpark?

2008-06-07T17:09:00.000-07:00

You ever have one of those weeks when regardless of what you do, everything seems to stress you out? I am having one of those weeks. I am doing all the right things, Praying, spending time with God, studying His word, yet every little thing seems to get on my nerves. You ever have days or weeks like that? You tell yourself things like "Turn your eyes on Jesus upon Jesus and the things of this world will grow strangely dim." and about that time, someone who is obviously posessed by a demon of road rage, cuts you off in traffic. Or, you talk to your kids baseball team about being good sports and having a Christ like attitude and doing all things as though you were doing them for God, when suddenly the bus that says "School for the Vision Impaired" pulls up and the umpires get off the bus and yell "playball". At this point, it is all you can do to smile and pray for that poor umpire, that those scales will fall off his eyes and he will clearly begin to see things your way before you erupt into some kind of Mt. St. Helens explosion sending dust ,bats, hats and grumbles into some layer of the atmosphere that you haven't heard of since 8th grade. So what do you do? What would Jesus do at the ballpark?
In all reality the guy in traffic probably just didn't see you or maybe he is having as bad or worse a week as you are. And the umpires are probably doing a terrific job at something most of us wouldn't dare do or have the skills to do. They are doing it for the Kids mostly. Yet the stress is still there and perception is reality. The ol' straw that breaks the camels back was put on about 20 straws ago and the world keeps piling those straws on. So, what do we do? We ask that age old question "WWJD?" Our first thought would be, he would cast out the demon in that car driving like a bat out of the place prepared for the devil, or perform a miracle of healing on the umps eyes. However if you are like me, and exorcism and healing are not your strong suites, you may have to look elsewhere for some answers.
Do you fashion a whip out of strips of leather like Jesus did and just start driving people out of your life that seem to be ticking you off? There is a time for some righteous wrath, but if used in the improper way, can be considered assault and battery. No, I believe there is a time when you just have to get away and be by yourself and talk to the father. That is what Jesus did on a few occasions. It if is what Jesus did, it probably is a good thing for me too. There is no Biblical account of what Jesus said or prayed about when He went up on the mountain, but I often wonder if it didn't go something like this:
"Dad, you have got to help me out here. This place is driving me nuts. I understand now why cousin John stayed out in the wilderness eating locust and honey and dressed like a Sasquatch. These people are getting on my nerves, I mean I love them, but good grief! I got all the Pharisee's stirred up trying to trip me up everywhere I go, and they are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites with there 2 hour prayers and there noses in the air looking down on everyone. Then there are the disciples. They still just don't get it. Thomas always doubting everything. Judas has his hand in the teal. Peter blurting out crazy stuff all the time. John is so "In Love" with me, he wont give me any space. Then there is the multitudes. Everyone has to have a miracle. Sometimes I feel more like a wonders vending machine than I do the Son of God, Messiah. Cranking out miracles, healings, words of life, not to mention no one ever packs a lunch and we have to keep making fish and chips buffet for 5000. I am more like a Holy ATM than the source of all life."
Maybe His conversations were nothing like that at all, but it is how a lot of mine are. And you know what? I always feel better when I go to Him and just lay it all out there for Him. I think of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God, interceding there for me saying "He is right, I have been there. Those people will drive you crazy. Lets give Paul an extra dose of that peace that surpasses all understanding."
When the world is trying to tear you down, go sit and talk with Jesus. He will build you up, and strengthen you. After all, He's been there.