Sometimes you fit in when you don’t think you do.

As I am moving on to this new part of life, a part filled with a wife, new job, new place to live. I cannot help to look back and see where I have come from. Lately it seems like a lot of people from my past have been popping up either in my mind or in person. I have been thinking about the different seasons of my life that has brought me to now.

I guess this is normal when you are preparing a list for people to come to your wedding, or your thinking weather you should go to the 10 year high school reunion or not. I think we all stop and think back from time to time. For me there were only a few people there to help me along the way, and God brought them into my life at the perfect time each time. I didn’t always treat them kindly but they were there, unlike some of the people who have helped me along the way, there were these teachers I had starting really in the sixth grade that really seemed to take an interest in my well being. An interest in my life, mind, and ability. Namely, Ms. Mangano, and later Ms. Cohen, they were sent from heaven in my opinion. At a time where I was most impressionable and susceptible to a lot of bad influences, these two people dealt with my short comings and flaws to help me harness my abilitiesy and make be better for it. 15 years later I look back and I am so grateful for them. What if they didn’t care, what if they didn’t like me, what if they were just mean to me cause I was a lot of trouble like a lot of the other teachers were to me? Who knows I could have gone down a very rough path in life, a path where I may not have found Christ. I may not have graduated even high school. I probably definitely wouldn’t be 25 days from marrying Amy.

So I write this especially for Ms. Mangano and Cohen, to say thank you. Thank you for standing behind me and encouraging me when no one else was besides my mom. Thank you to all teachers who have this kind of impact in their students lives. Not just to teach them the material but to show them something that will stay with them for the rest of their life.

Amy is scheduled to go to school in the fall to become a teacher herself, there is a special place in my heart for teachers. Especially Ms. Mangano, Ms. Cohen, and Coach McKay.

Moving Parts

Had a wonderful weekend, yesterday didn’t do much of anything, honestly it was wonderful. So today is 33 days until I get married, not a whole lot left to do. I am so excited to get married. Sometimes it is hard to believe and still seems like it is so far away. We have finished out pre-marital mentoring, and now I just need to get my tux fitted and some odd and ends then we will be there. Outside 

of that, I have moved and put in a resignation at the company I work for. I know a lot of you have asked, “Why would I leave a Job like this in this economy?” Honestly the only answer I have is I truly believe God is leading me on a path away from Solid Source. I have loved working there and learning the things I have learned. But it is time to move on. I would be a fool to stay when I and others believe God is saying move on. At least this way I leave on my own terms and not forced out the door.

The timing seems a little weird, I know. But even though I have 11 days left at Solid Source and 33 till I am married I am not worried. I am standing firm in what I have done and I am letting God move me in the right direction and into the right position. I have been on 12 interviews, and submitted over 100 resumes in the past two weeks. I feel confident everything will work out like it always does.

I haven’t updated my blog in a while. I have been contemplating where I should steer it. The good thing about the trip to Africa, leaving Solid Source, Getting Married, finishing Agent Appreciation Day, and searching for a job is that I haven’t had the time to dive into the politics. I know what’s going on but I am not brewing over it all day.

So for now, I am continuing looking for a job, finish everything for the wedding, and continue getting excited for what God has in store for both Amy and I in our lives ahead. Cause in a couple years, this transition will be the best thing for me. And the stress of not having a job will long be forgotten.

This is my favorite day!

Life is going so well, finally I have gotten over my addition to the election coverage and don’t really pay attention to all the rhectoric. Life seems to be coming together, there are some stresses, but my relationship with God is wonderful. My life with Amy is amazing, work is good taking more and more on and I am excited about my mission trip coming up. Sometimes I stop and think about life and how things in your life are important to you. For now! I see where God has brought me from and delivered me from and promising me for the future. I can honestly say that this is the best time of my life so far and today would ber the best of my life. Well until tomorrow probably. I never though how just being with a wonderful woman can make you feel like the man you were always told you were by others but didn’t believe it. I praise God for all these things in my life that are going so well and I cherish the wonderful times cause it won’t always be wonderful!

Farewell to one of my childhood hero’s!

Farewell to a childhood icon. Listening to Skip Caray all of my life growing up watching Atlanta Braves baseball. He died Sunday of heart complications in his sleep. I wish more people could pass in their sleep peacefully. Working as close to a few days before his death. He was a phenomenal announcer and a part of the history here in Atlanta. He will be missed glad his kids are doing announcing as well. What a dynasty in announcing.

There some wonderful memories, of him calling the Sid Bream slide into home plate to win the NLCS, to the braves winning the world series. He actually made the radio listen a good experience. In fact when the braves were on national television and they had the Tim McCarver’s announcing and we would mute the TV and play the radio broadcast.

Beheaded Canada bus man

I was reading a story this morning about a man who killed a young man on a bus. Actually removing his head, walking to the front of the bus and presenting it to the passengers. Who were then frightened. So I was interested in his story, it is sad the young man’s life was so tragically ended this way by a man he didn’t know and for no apparent reason. The story said that the murderer was emotionless and cold when he went to the front of the bus, as in he wasn’t mad, crazy, or any of the normal emotions you would think that would warrant a man do stab someone 16 times and cut off their head. It is a horrible story and the more you think about being present the more you would realize the crippling fear you would experience when that happened. While all the news people are talking about security and all that in the bus travel industry.

I am pondering what snapped in a persons mind like that?

How do something like that happen without a fit of rage?

How does human life then become so impersonal that you could snuff it out like that with as much reactions tying your shoes?

I bet a lot of people wonder why would God allow someone to do such a thing?

Or Why that kid, who was said to be funny and “bubbly?”

You would hear in church that things happen for a reason and God is weaving a tapestry and we cannot see the ultimate picture. That pain and suffering is a “megaphone of the cross” to steal Louie’s words. I am not going to answer that cause there are far more intelligent communicators who can explain that better than I can.

What I want to discuss, is how does a man or woman snap like that? Personally I notice when I do something difficult or tough the first few times it is hard. Then it gets easier! Had this man done this before? Another thought I have is God says he loves everyone, Does he really love this man?

The answer is yes, and this man still can be forgiven by the blood of the savior. He is one of the ones the church leaves out to dry, I dunno if it is cause some people don’t care for them to be loved since they showed no mercy or compassion for someone to cut off their head.

But we look at television and see a man named Jack Bauer cut off a man’s head to help solve the situation. Jack did this with no remorse or visible pain. Now I know it is television and it was the good guy doing something to bring down the bad guy. But on the show we would forget and even overlook this action by Jack Bauer. I know you are thinking, yeah this is a silly comparison. My point is that murder is murder and it is wrong. But like murder there are other things that are wrong and doesn’t make a person bad. We all have done things we wouldn’t want others to know about and would be shamed if they did. But actions don’t make our whole selves bad. I am not condoning or saying that the murderer is a good man I do not know him.

What I am saying is that this country has this “damn them to hell” attitude with people who commit crimes.

We have this “oh, I cannot believe they did that!” When you have thought about the same action! We say, “Eye for an eye, they killed a little boy they should be put to death.” Then they say they believe the bible and love Jesus. Not doubting that they love Jesus but, Jesus was the largest advocate for love, grace, mercy, and compassion EVER! He was with murders, prostitutes, thieves, and he loved them. He didn’t damn them to eternal suffering. He didn’t stone them for being a whore, even when he could have. He showed them love and compassion. Now the bible does say that there are consequences to wrong doing. (Gal 5)

How can we as a people and body of Christ sentence someone to death for their crimes we caught them doing?

How can the person who says they were appointed by God to lead the nation, send more people to death than any other leader?

I am not saying they should be set free, or they should work with our children of course not. What I am saying is that even the worst of the worst (Paul) can be changed in an instant by God. Even the man going out to slaughter a whole group of people for believing something can be stopped changed and go on to lead that group.

So let’s have some mercy let’s show people, “hey even though you messed up you are still lovable.”Cause Jesus did and God calls us to. I know you will say, “can you love a killer?” I want to answer yes, but the truth is through the Holy Spirit I know I can. Just because you have written someone or something off cause you think there is no hope. DON’T put God in the box! For He CAN change that man’s heart. And God may want to use you as the segway into his spirit.

So let’s pray for the persecuted and the persecutor that they both find their way to the Lord!

-hoov

S#&$ man, this is awesome!

Shit, for a lot of people this isn’t a word they give a “shit about. For me growing up in the church they always equated cursing with drug-use, pre-martial sex, smoking, and drinking. As a youth these things that were pressed upon me to abstain from because it makes your relationship with God not so good. Now as an adult, I quite often use that word. I look back on my youth and realize it was a good thing for the young people to be given rules and guidelines not as legalism or earning salvation. But more helping you, helping you keep margin at a younger age so that you will can try to stay away from things that can really hurt your life physically, mentally, and spiritually. I bring this up cause I have been hearting a lot from the past couple weeks about Christians and their mouths.
I think it is rather comical that most of society curses all the time with no real moral guilt or anything unless they are in front of an old lady, priest or you know what I mean. As a whole no one cares. The ones who do are the religious ones. The ones who say it is a terrible thing to say these things. Personally, I haven’t read in the bible or had a prophetic word spoken to me about the specific words I was using in my language. My take on this, I encourage you to read and find out for your self is not based from the bible directly (as I haven’t ever read anything about cursing or not cursing.) is that it is the intent of the words being said rather than the specific words at all.

Example 1. Let’s pretend someone said this to you, “Your are an ugly human being, your life makes me sad!”
‘That was very hurtful and it would make you feel terrible to hear that some anyone weather you knew them or cared about them or not.

Example 2 Here is something using a curse word, “Hey did you see Dark Knight, man it was the shit?”

Example 3 and another one “Hey man, this band fuckin rocks!”
Now on television both example 2 & 3 would have been bleeped out and edited. But the first sentence would be fine.

Moving on I understand that the “curse words” of our society do accentuate things and give them more power for the good or the bad. What I am saying in short is that; is it is NOT hypocritical for a believer to use any word in a positive manner. PERIOD they are words, the English language wasn’t invented till long long after Jesus and the bible.
Even still I hear from church leaders and such about how some other leaders said this curse word or that one. I think it is ridiculous, we should worry about the negative words being about the person who was using said curse word.

Jesus called us to love God with all our heart, mind and soul. As well as to love our neighbor as our self. I understand leading by example and the others argument about the limited vocabulary of the people who curse a lot. But sometimes you want to say what you want to say. Intent not that the word is what does the damage to someone else. It is the intent of your mouth that can start a forest fire not the word said.

So let me know what you think I mean I could be wrong, and I could be misguided.

-hoov

Just Vote!

Today is a state wide vote for different things in different areas of Georgia, US Senator, State Reps, Tax Commissioner, etc. Though these are the primaries for government offices it is still important. There are some non-binding referendums as well. Something that I think is really sad is when people complain the way things are, giving their opinion on how it could be better the leader only did such and such. Well that is all good, but a lot of those people don’t vote, or they only vote for the president. Which honestly doesn’t make sense, why if you were going to make your voice count why do it for the president. Why not city council, sheriff, mayor, school board, city clerk, judges, etc. Why not vote for those first? Those are the people that come up with the actual curriculum for your children in school, those are the people that actually try to punish the people who threaten our safety, and those are the ones who come up with the plans for traffic patterns, zoning for building and they control the local economy. Not to say that the president isn’t important, but rarely will the president make a decision that will directly affect you and personally change the way your life is ran. I know with times of war and with taxes it is personal.

The buzz word and theme this election season is “Change” people want change and they want things to be better. That is wonderful regardless of the candidate you vote for November. Why I implore you to think about, who makes the decisions that impact your life the most Whose political power and weight is directly attached to your children’s education, who’s decisions will affect your property value? I assure you the president isn’t the person and most likely your US representatives aren’t either.

So you say you want change, let’s make a change and vote every time there is an election. Educate yourself on the candidates and don’t just vote or an (R), (D), (I), (L), (G), (C), or etc. Vote for the man or woman who has YOUR best interests in mind. Voting the most patriotic thing you could do.

For more information on today’s primaries and local referendums click here!

GO VOTE!

We should all have a cease fire!

I was watching Joyeux Noël last night. The premise of the movie was the front line of “The Great War” and the Scottish, French & Germans were a 100 yards from each other in the trenches on December 24, 1914. The was based on a true story from the war. The story is about how their was a cease fire for the night and the opposite sides “fraternized” and took part in a catholic mass intermingled with each other.

It was interesting the way the soldiers interacted with each other after that moment when the opposite side became personal and not just a thing. Anyways towards the end of the movie the Priest who conducted the mass was told to go pack to his parish by his cardinal. The cardinal saying he had done a terrible thing. Then the priest said, “I sincerely believe that our Lord Jesus Christ came to me in what was the most important Mass of my life. I tried to be true to his trust, and carry his message to all, whoever they may be.” The cardinal quickly responded, the soldiers who are replacing those who went astray with you. May our Lord Jesus Christ guide your steps back to the straight and narrow path.” Priest retorts, “Is that truly the path of our Lord?”. The cardinal moves on to another room, and leads a group of young soldiers in telling them that they are performing the will of Christ, that Christ is calling them to kill the Germans, misquoting scripture and then praying.

I am not trying to give the point of the movie away it is a wonderful movie I am trying to point out how a lot of us feel about God. How a lot of people who believe in Jesus. We tend to put our God in a box, we put him in our backpack thinking that since we are for it God is too. I am not saying that I am for or against communism or the actions of the German regime in the early 1900’s what I am saying that, we all are capable of the grace and salvation of Christ. That we all as believers believe very different political things. We are on all parts of the political spectrum. So I understand there is sin and the bible describes sin. But we all do sin and we all will continue to sin. So why are we leveraging God to hurt people who love the same God. Why do we want to hurt people because they may have had an abortion. Why do we want to hate people and make them feel unloved because they are Gay. Like Jesus says those who want to be first must be last.
I makes me sad when I see the church persecuting it’s own and especially sad when the church persecutes non believers. Sometimes it feels like the story I read in the old testament about the people building the tower to God and he cursed them with different languages and they couldn’t communicate to continue building so the structure came crashing down. We as a body are not communicating properly to ourselves. But the people on the outside looking can see that there is a problem and don’t want to come near.
I know sometimes it seems like I am beating a dead horse, but I am saying that why can’t Jesus love our enemies, I mean he called us to love them?

Why don’t we recognize that someone else’s sin isn’t worse than ours, we just don’t have those same problems, instead of hating them or hurting them let’s love them?

I don’t know maybe I am way off on this one!

Don’t be fooled you cannot mock the justice of God!

I was reading Gal. 6 for my small group this week and the first part of that chapter was striking to me Gal. 6:1-10. The chapter entitled “We Harvest What We Plant,” I know this is an age old adage. You reap what you sow. But how many of us actually don’t believe that. I mean most of us don’t believe that with our “doings.” We recognize it in others and understand the principle, but we fail to see our own issues, and quickly proclaim the issues of others. Like it says in Matthew 7:3.

What I love about what Paul was telling the church in Greece (where Galatia was) was keep planting, keep doing for others. I was reading a commentary this is what it had to say about it. “When we sow acts of love, we reap a harvest of love in return. When we give generously and sacrificially to the needs of others, we reap a harvest of gratitude as those needs are met. When we sow the seed of God’s Word in needy lives, we experience the joy of response. But we must remember that reaping a harvest almost never happens on the same day as sowing the seed. We may not even see a harvest in this life from what we have sown. Nevertheless, we must never give up, because we know that at the proper time our Master will return and reward those who have been faithful servants.”(www.biblegateway.com)

I don’t know about you but I have great satisfaction in knowing that doing things for others not just for my own end is going to be used weather you see it or not. Reminds me of a principle I heard, “leverage what is yours for something bigger than you so that you can grow the number in heaven.” It was a monumental thought to me that the things, not just money I have, but stuff I can leverage for others to allow the “good news” to do it’s thing.

I know this entry was a little more preachy this time. But this is so important. Not just the principle of reaping what you sow. But the message of freedom, and grace through Christ. Paul talks a lot in Galatians about living free from the law, but brought into the law of love. It hurts me when I see other churches pastors and believers squabbling about the right and wrong with different things in our theology. A lot of us worry about the amount of curse words use by someone, or the number of times someone has done something we deem as wrong. When that doesn’t matter. We need to leverage our lives and our belongings to come together as believers and unite in showing God’s love to EVERYONE. When I say everyone I mean, black, white, gay, straight, murders, molesters, homeless, wealthy, arrogant and humble. We are all important to God and we ALL are loved by Him unconditionally, so we ALL can receive his GRACE. Never mind what who has sown they will reap what is theirs, it doesn’t void their acceptance in God’s house.

Sorry for the tangent, but we need to as a community and the body of Christ to come together to show we are here to love and embrace EVERYONE! Not push our views, condemn, judge, or sneer! Andy asked what are you praying for big, I am praying for a REVOLUTION in the believers community to leave the religion behind and show love, show the love of Christ to everyone around the world. I know it is big but our God is big enough!

My Morning Thoughts…

I was reading this morning that the dirt or soil or whatever you wanna call it found on mars, has the correct make up to sustain life. As well they found what they believe to be ice. This is interesting, people are excited cause they think we may not be alone or have not been the only ones living in time or to come. I see it a different way, I see it as Glory to God. I mean Mars has the stuff to make life, but it doesn’t. It has some of the elements, but as Rob Bell said in “Everything is Spiritual” there are hundreds of variables that make life abundant and possible here on earth. So I think it is awesome that there is life sustaining dirt on Mars, but I thank God all the knobs and switches are correctly positioned for me to have life and for the others around.

Secondly I was reading another story of a man here in Atlanta who was arrested for shooting squirrels in his own backyard. Beyond the hilarity of the article is was kind of sad that he was arrested for doing something that anyone who has a birdfeeder can understand. I just thought it was funny. Obviously he evaded the police and fired a shotgun close to the path of a neighbors playground. Which isn’t cool. Just makes me proud to be in the South! hehe!