Sprained Knees and Christmas Quizzes

Today, I spent the better part of my day at home doing nothing.  Yesterday, I apparently strained/sprained my knee while dragging file cabinets up two flights of stairs to the new office at my work.  I knew something was wrong the moment I twisted it.  I still did some work after I hurt it hoping that I had just stepped wrong and that the pain would go away as quickly as it came.  The pain continued to escalate throughout the evening and by the morning walking was quite a chore.  As I slowly made my way in to work this morning, I did not want to tell my boss that I needed to get the knee checked out but I knew that I couldn't do another day of work like I had the day before on such an unstable knee.

My boss sent me to the doctor where I had the opportunity to wear a lovely hospital gown.  A sweet old lady came to take a picture of my knee and after that I was given the wonderful prognosis of a common knee sprain from the doctor.  The doctor was kind enough to give me work restrictions that touched on every duty I perform at my job.  As I went back to my boss and he saw that I couldn't do much, he sent me home for the day in hopes that I would feel better tomorrow.

So that is how I ended up cooped up in my house today.  I have to admit that being at home wasn't all bad since I was able to complete some rebates I had been meaning to finish, pay some bills, and work on the music selection for church on Sunday.  All in all it turned out to be a pretty decent day.  I tried to be as kind to my knee as  possible and am really hoping that it will feel significantly better in the morning.

This evening Mel and I led our young adult group.  We decided to talk with them about common family traditions they perform.  Our young adults told us about many traditions their families do including: getting together, eating ham and other wonderful foods, going to candle light christmas eve service, giving white elephant gifts, hiding a special ornament in the tree, alternating who reads the Christmas story each year, and more.  As they went on and on about the many things they do around Christmas time, it was easy to identify with many of the traditions they shared.  Some of their traditions reminded me of when I was young, others are traditions that I still continue today, and some where traditions I had never thought of.

We decided to finish the night off with a Christmas quiz that tested how well people know the scriptural account of Christmas.  I have to say that it is alarming how many things we think are true that we received from tradition and children's stories.  Many of the questions were quite difficult and I have to be honest and say that I did not do as well as I would've liked.  I was tripped up by both past tradition and a few trick questions.  I highly suggest giving the quiz an honest try and seeing how you fair.  I hope you get them all right but if you don't, there are scriptures to go with each answer so you can be better prepared next year or even for an upcoming Christmas party this year. ;D Here is the link for the quiz, A Christmas Quiz: Is it scripture or is it tradition?

Blessings,

Greg

A Wonderful Time of Thanksgiving

Hello everyone!  As most of you can tell, I took a much needed break during the Thanksgiving holiday.  My wife and I were very fortunate to be able to spend quality time with both sides of our family.  I had the added blessing of seeing my grandparents this Thanksgiving also.  This is special because my grandparents live in Tennessee and I usually only get to see them a couple times a year.

This year we did things a little different for Thanksgiving.  We decided last year to start a family rotation schedule each year.  My family would have us for the full Thanksgiving day one year and my in-laws the next.  We really had a wonderful time at each house and this year was so much less stressful since we didn't have to run between both families on Thanksgiving or worry about either family feeling jipped.  We had enough time with each family to be able to enjoy both a wonderful meal and some much needed downtime including time spent catching up on how our families are doing.

Though both my wife and I often talk with our family members multiple times each week, there is something special about spending time in person that texting and phone conversations can't match.  I always look forward to coming home and seeing the new pieces my dad has added to his collections.  I enjoy seeing what new house project my mom has embarked on and marveling how much different that part of the house looks once she is done.  I love watching my dog play with my parent's dog.  There is nothing more fun than watching the dogs play tug of war on the rug and keep away with the toys.  I love spending time catching up with each family member on how work and life are going.  I enjoy spending time with them relaxing as we watch a movie, play a game, or just sit and talk together.  I seem to have so much more fun shopping when I have my family to share the experience with too.  I can usually count on the fact that both my family and my in-laws will have computer problems for me to fix and a few household task to attend to when I come and yet I don't mind.  These simple pleasures and much more are what I cherish at each holiday vacation.

This year the food was absolutely marvelous at both my house and my in-laws.  I ate multiple helpings of turkey, stuffing, pumpkin roll, pecan chocolate chip pie, and my grandmother's sweet tea.  There was a great variety of food including cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, broccoli casserole, corn, sweet potato casserole, yam casserole, deviled eggs, pumpkin pie, chess pie, and much more.  Both families did such a great job of preparing the food and each table had it's own set of wonderful conversations and joyful partaking of the food.

As i enjoyed each part of Thanksgiving this year, I found myself truly counting the many blessing the Lord has placed in my life.  I couldn't imagine having better families.  When I am home, I feel truly loved and appreciated.  I love seeing all the parts of my family that have contributed to who I am today.  I love the security of knowing that my families are constantly praying for my wife and I.  Each time I go home, I find a new thing to love about my families.  I get to make new memories I will cherish for the rest of my life while rekindling wonderful memories of old with the ones I hold most dear.  All in all, Jesus has truly blessed my life.  I hope you had an opportunity to count your many blessings this Thanksgiving season also.  Oh and it is good to be back. ;)

Blessings,

Greg

Thankfulness

I am so thankful to be at a job this year where I do not have to fight with my boss for time off to see my family. I am so thankful that my grandparents are coming up to my parents house for Thanksgiving this year. I am so thankful for my lovely wife who is so good to me. I am so thankful that she is such a wonderful loving Christian woman. I am so thankful for wonderful best friends who are serving the Lord faithfully abroad. I am so thankful for family members who have also accepted the call to reach the world for Jesus. I am so thankful for in-laws who love and support me. I am so thankful for a sister who involves me in the best and most difficult parts of her life. I am so thankful that the Lord shows me new ways I can minster and show love to the people around me. I am so thankful that my friend Mike is coming home soon from deployment. I am thankful that I have a home to keep my family safe and warm in. I am so thankful that I get the opportunity to lead worship for the Christmas season. I am so thankful for the many friends and loved ones God has surrounded me with in the past year. I am so thankful that I serve such a loving and faithful God. Simply put, I am thankful. What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? Blessings,Greg

Broken Past, Hopeful Future

There is a fine line between hate and love.  Unfortunately Christian history is filled with "Christians" proliferating hate in the name of love.  What seems so obvious to us today was not so simple at different points in history.  We now live in a time where everyone in the western world has access to the Bible and we each have the ability to read and understand it.  This has not been so for most of Christian history.  Imagine trying to be a follower of Christ and only getting input from a priest.  Most of the people in Christian history would not have been able to read the Bible even if it had been available to them.  There have been many times in our history where "the church" spawned more hate and murder than the most sinful of nations.  Oh how well the devil has been able to harm the world's view of Jesus through jaded followers.

I would like to believe that since we now live in an age were the Bible is readily available and accessible to all in the western world that we would no longer have the problems of our past.  Unfortunately, we all know that this is not true.  We still have people who twist the Bible and then teach their twisted perspective to willing followers who chose not to read and understand the Bible for themselves.  What is even worse is today we not only have hating, bigoted, vile people who profess Christianity, we also have many Christians today that believe Christianity is no better than any other religion and is only one way to find peace and heaven in this world.  The devil is still at work in our churches and there is still a large majority of people who have chosen not to read the Bible for themselves but to be swayed and wooed by men who intend to use the Bible for their own purposes.

Though I have to admit that I struggle greatly with both ideologies in our world today, I know that the only answer to truly battle the false teachings within the Christian realm is to truly live Christ authentically and boldly.  Hatred plus hatred does not equal love.  Vile words plus vile words does not equal peace.  judgment plus righteous anger does not equal living Jesus.  We have to live love.  We have to live truth.  We have to stand for the principles that Jesus set in place.  We have to love our enemies and let Jesus be the judge not us.  We have to be willing to humble ourselves to serve.  We have to be willing to go the second mile with the one who forced us to go the first mile. We have to be willing to lay down our lives for our brothers.  We have to be willing to sacrifice everything we are for the love Jesus lived and died for.

Jesus did not reach the world for himself by fighting the world but by dying in the place of sinners that they may have salvation available to them.  We have to learn from Jesus, Paul, and the disciples.  We have to stand up and be  different from the world.  We have to live love even when the world wants to perpetuate hate through intolerance.  We have to want to speak the truth when the world want all truth to be equal.  We have to live counter culture.  We have to authentically live Jesus daily no matter the consequences, which may include: broken relationships, lost jobs, and persecution.  Jesus intended for His followers to draw the world to Him not repel the world from Him.  It is our time to live authentically in Christ!  I challenge you to stand up and live Christ fully today.

Blessings,

Greg

Through the Eye of the Needle

Today I had to take our cats at work to the vet to get their vaccinations. In order to get the cats to the vet, I had to put them in cardboard boxes and tape the tops. Gilbert, our male cat, spent the whole drive meowing loudly and trying to escape through the hand hole in the side. When we finally got to the veterinarian, I opened up the box and Gilbert just sat there quietly in the box while the vet gave him his shots. I then closed the box again and Gilbert proceeded to begin meowing again and stuck his head out of the hand hold again. When we got back to my work, I took the box out of the car, put it on the ground, and took the top off. Even with the top off Gilbert tried to get out through the hand hold. He did not realize that I had made available to him an easier way of escape even when I petted him on the back. Ultimately my coworker pulled him out of the box and Gilbert finally was able to run off to freedom.

This got me thinking about Jesus' comments in Mark 10:25 about it being as hard for a rich man to get to heaven as a camel going through the eye of a needle. Maybe when Jesus was saying this he wasn't saying that it is impossible for a rich man to get to heaven but that most "rich people" will, like Gilbert, try to get to heaven worshipping God and the world instead at the same time instead of just letting go of the world to fully have Christ. In relation to Jesus' day most of us in America would've been considered rich.  In this world, most of us want to have our cake and eat it to.

We see how difficult fully following Jesus can be for the rich in the story of the rich young ruler just before Jesus spoke about the camel going through the eye of the needle.  Though the rich young ruler was a good and moral man, Jesus asked one more thing of him for the rich young ruler to be His follower.  Jesus asked the ruler to sell all his possession, give them to the poor, and then come follow Jesus.  In this passage the rich young ruler sadly left Jesus and was never mentioned in the Bible again.  Though I do not believe Jesus asks each of us to give up all we own, I do believe he ask that we live knowing that everything we own is His.  He has the right to demand for us to get rid of all we own if He chooses because He is the one that blessed us with our family and possessions in the first place, which is evident in the book of Job.

I believe this why Jesus taught the principle that in losing your worldly selfish life, you will find your full life in Him. There is nothing in this world that can compare to the worth of heaven and being with God. When we try to have all this world and eternal life offered by Jesus, we are essentially telling God that the eternal life with him, that He has offered us, is not sufficient or good enough for us. It is in letting go of this world and giving our complete devotion to the ways Christ that we showJesus that all we want is Him. It is not that Jesus made it difficult to get to heaven. It is that we want to get to heaven through the little hand hold with all our stuff instead of the huge open top with our lives completely surrendered to the one who gave us salvation.

Blessings,

Greg

Sheep, Goat, or Least of These?

Have you ever looked into the mirror and not recognized the person looking back at you?  I have been growing a beard and my hair out for the last month in an attempt to stay warm in the cold weather.  As I looked at myself in the mirror at work today, I marveled at how easily I could be mistaken for a bum.  This could be seen as comical in some ways but to me it opened my eyes to how we could all be one step away from the person on the street.  Every person on the street has a story.  I would even venture to guess that most of the people on the street had a normal life during an earlier stage of their life.

For many of us, this is a hard reality to accept.  It is much easier to believe the lie that all bums are there because they choose to be.  We can help develop our apathy towards people on the street by telling ourselves that they would just use the money for alcohol and drugs anyway.  Maybe you have even told yourself that giving a homeless person money would just be perpetuating a lifestyle.  Though all of these statements may be true at any given time, there is nothing in the Bible supporting the belied that we shouldn't love them anyway.  Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."  


Do we as Christians desire to teach, minister, and reach out to the sick today or do we prefer the healed who have it all together and have something to offer us?  Those who are sick, jobless, and/or unsaved are messy.  They have baggage.  They need extra support, extra love, and extra attention.  I find that many of us today, including myself, want to just be around the people who lift us up, who affirm us, and who make our lives easy and peaceful.  Dealing with the "sick," as Jesus put it, is difficult.  Jesus demonstrated he cared very much about the less fortunate.  This is best seen in the parable of the sheep and goats told by Jesus in Matthew 25:31-46.  The goats who did not care for "the least of these" were cursed to Hell.  I don't know about you but this parable brings me pause because I know there have been many times in my life I turned my back to the least of these.


As I stared in the mirror at the man before me, I realized that I'm closer to the "least of these" than I allow myself to believe.  The Lord showed me that the outside appearance does not reflect the inner heart.  The sheep before being sheared appears mangy and unkept to the world but the shearer knows that underneath that mangy wool is a beautiful innocent lamb.   We are each lambs of Jesus and he loves each one of us greatly.  Jesus looks past our outward appearance to our hearts.  As "little Christ's," we should also take the time to see past people's appearance to their heart.  I hope today you will walk with a new perspective and compassion for the different people you encounter.


Blessings,


Greg   

Fleeting Life=Perfect Opportunity

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  James 4:14


In this life there are no guarantees.  None of us are guaranteed our next breath or the breath of the ones we love.  Understanding the fleeting nature of life helps us to appreciate it that much more.  Our fragility is what makes each relationship we share so much more special.  As the holiday season draws near, take the time to tell there people who have made a difference in your life what they mean to you.  Don't be afraid to share your heart with those close to you.

In the last week, we have had three people put in their resignation at work.  I look back at all the missed opportunities I had to know each one of the people leaving.  I regret not knowing them better but am thankful for the times I did get to connect with them in a small way.  I am thankful for the ways they have blessed me in my time at my job.  Though I would only call one of the people who are leaving a close friend, I am so thankful for the many things I have learned from her.  She was always there when I had a struggle and I always knew that I could talk to her about any struggles in my walk with Christ.  She affirmed me and helped me to see new ways that God could use me.

One thing that I have learned in my life of moving 10+ times, is that many people you will encounter in this life will only be close for the moments you live, work, or fellowship near them.  This is not to say that there will not be a special few that keep up with you no matter where life takes you but they are just that, a special few.  So my advice to you, as one who has learned this lesson the hard way, let people know how you feel about them today instead of looking back on the past and regretting things unsaid.  God has brought each person into your life for a reason.  I hope you will take the time to sit down and count the blessings God has given you by the friends, coworkers, and family in your life.  Maybe this year you can do something special to show them how much you appreciate the unique impact they have made on your life.

Blessings,

Greg