Christians Aren't Christ

Sometimes it's tough trying to come to terms that Christians aren't Christ. That is to say, often we set our expectations of others too high; often we hope that Christians will fulfill us.  Therefore, it's somewhat easy to get disenfranchised with the church.  We need to realize, though, that the church is made up of fallen people; these same people that are supposed to lift us up... will sometimes let us down.  These same people that are supposed to meet our needs... will sometimes rob our joy.  These same people that are suppose to accept us with open arms... will sometimes hide behind closed doors.  These same people that are supposed to love us unconditionally... will sometimes shun us reprehensively.  And we have done, or will do, the same to them.  While it is still wrong, it is still reality.

 

When these same people let us down, we need to remember, "...He will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock." Psalm 27:5 (ESV).  When these same people rob our joy, we need to remember, "The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel." Isaiah 29:19 (ESV).  When these same people hide behind closed doors, we need to remember, “For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face. Psalm 11:7 (ESV).  When these same people shun us reprehensively, we need to remember, "...Your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness." Psalm 26:3 (ESV).

 

It all comes back to who we place our hope in.

 

Romans 5:1-5 (ESV), "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

 

While these same people may "put us to shame" because we expect too much from them, we can never expect too much from God.

 

Hope encompasses desire. Hope requires focus. If we hope for something, we long for it. Our hope is what drives us. I admit that I struggle with this, but this minute at least, my hope is in the Lord.  Who or what is your hope in?  You see, your family isn't your hope, your job isn't your hope, your reputation isn't your hope, and finally, the church isn't your hope... those are all your gifts that the One who desires your hope has given you.

Accepting Compliments

Why don’t we feel we deserve praise or recognition when we do something right or good? Why do we feel we’re not worthy? Have we been pushed down so much throughout our lives that we can’t believe that someone would want to lift us up? Have we sinned so grievously in the past that we can’t grasp the meaning of forgiveness and therefore can’t accept the offer of encouragement? Have we been brought up believing that having pride, even in our accomplishments, is so wrong that we dawn this sense of false humility to counteract the lure of egotism?

 

I guess it’s only fair if I answer these questions for myself.

 

For me I think the question, “Have we sinned so grievously in the past that we can’t grasp the meaning of forgiveness and therefore can’t accept the offer of encouragement? “ pretty much sums it up for me.  Self -forgiveness is so hard.  It’s difficult knowing that I have caused so many people so much pain in the past.

 

I think sometimes I get so used to carrying the weight of sin that I don’t allow myself the freedom of love… the freedom of acceptance… the freedom of encouragement.

 

I need to remember though that through Christ I am worth something and I am worth acceptance and I am worth love, giving it and receiving it.

 

Awhile back I wrote the following, I just need to remember it:

 

“He loved me to pieces. He tore down my walls of anger, jealousy, bitterness and hate. He took all my denials, all my betrayals, all my sins and cast them away from His mind. He took all my pain, all my hurts, all my tears and touched them with His grace. He took all my abilities, all my talents, all my strength and blessed them with His hope. He took all my insecurities, all my wants and needs, all my dreams and placed each little morsel at the feet of His Father.

 

He loved me to pieces... so that He could love me to peace.”

 

1 Corinthians 15:10 (ESV) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

 

I am worthy, through Him, of accepting compliments.

Give It All

1 Peter 5:5b-7 (NKJV) Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

 

This past Sunday during our worship I heard someone say something to the effect of, "Now it's time to push everything that's going on in your life aside and just focus on God and worship Him."  While that sounds like great advice I think it kind of misses the mark of what worship is about.  True worship is giving everything to God.  When I hold on to my issues, my problems, my plans, my dreams, my desires, my anxieties, my cares... when I push them aside only to go back to them in an hour or later that day, I'm missing the point of what God wants from me.  He wants my everything.

 

When I push things aside in order to "focus on God" what I'm really telling God is that I can take care of these other things without Him or worse yet, I don't want Him involved in areas of my life that I want to deal with myself.  That's pride.

 

Part of worship is surrendering everything to Him.

 

I don't want to deal with issues without His wisdom.  I don't want my problems without His solutions.  I don't want to have plans without Him planning them.  I don't want to dream what He hasn't given me to dream.  I don't want to desire what He hasn't placed in my heart to desire.  I don't want to be anxious when He has said, "do not be anxious about anything..." Philippians 4:6 (ESV).  I don't want to care about what He doesn't want me to care about.  All my thoughts, all my feelings, all my emotions I want to be from Him and for Him.  I don't want His resistance... I need His grace.

 

Worship, true worship, is being all in.  It's striving for holiness by giving Him absolute control.  True worship is laying everything down at the feet of the One who is my Everything.

 

I love the way The Message paraphrases 1 Peter 5:7.  It says, "Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you."

 

I can be carefree in my worship, because He is careful of my life!

Mercy and Grace

I've heard it said before that mercy is not getting what we deserve; grace is getting what we don't deserve.

 

God has blessed me with so much of both mercy and grace that I can't even comprehend it.  I bow in awe of the God who loves so deeply.

 

Lord, thank You for the hope I have in You.

 

Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV) The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

 

2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV) But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Passion vs. Pursue

I have heard a lot of people talk about having a passion for God.

 

Wanting to know if I had a passion for God I got on www.biblegateway.com  (which, by the way, is an awesome reference website) and decided to search the word, “passion.”  After all, if these artists have such a passion for God there must be some Bible references to that.  The following is a list of the results:

·         9 results in NIV

·         3 results in KJV

·         27 results in ESV

It was interesting to see that none of the references referred to a passion for God.  In fact, the great majority indicated a passion for sin.

 

I then decided that I’d better define my term, “passion.”  Merriam-Webster at www.m-w.com defines passion as:

:          a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something

:          a strong feeling (such as anger) that causes you to act in a dangerous way

:          a strong sexual or romantic feeling for someone

So I had to ask myself what it means to have a “passion for God.”  Is it even possible as a fallen human to have that passion?  Passion is a feeling, feelings are fickle.

 

One verse really stuck out to me in every version, 2 Timothy 2:22 (ESV) So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

 

Another word caught my eye, “pursue.”  Again to Merriam-Webster – pursue:

:          to follow and try to catch or capture (someone or something) for usually a long distance or time

:          to try to get or do (something) over a period of time

:          to be involved in (an activity)

And again, back to Biblegateway:

·         100 results in NIV (7 reference us pursuing Godly things)

·         74 results in KJV (1 reference us pursuing Godly things)

·         109 results in ESV (9 reference us pursuing Godly things)

(Most of the references denote an army or person pursuing, as in battle, another army or person).

 

What I see is this: passion is a feeling ingrained is us all.  As humans, our passions are geared to human wants and desires.

 

On the other hand, to pursue is to act.  Action can be classified as work, which isn’t naturally what we want to do.

 

I guess what I’m getting at with all of this is that I don’t really care too much about having a passion for God as long as I am pursuing Him with all that I am.  My passion will be swayed by circumstance; my pursuit will be fixed on the goal of becoming more like my Father.  I don’t want to be passionate as much as I want to be purposeful.  As I pursue Him my love for Him will grow; love, like pursue, is a verb.

 

God, please help me to pursue You more.

Joseph - Another Perspective

The story of Joseph has always intrigued me, because for some reason the way people feel sorry for Joseph and pitied him for all his persecutions just never sat well with me.  Sure, from our point of view he suffered a lot of injustices.  But...

In Genesis 37 his story starts out with him being a tattle-tell.  He starts out in life trying to cause trouble.  He’s arrogant.  He wants a corner on his dad’s affections (like he needed to corner that market, he was already the favorite and he knew it).

Next , Joseph has two dreams.  Notice Joseph never said, “God gave me these dreams.”  Joseph never said that God revealed to him that his family would bow to him.  He didn’t even express that his interpretations of the dreams were revealed by God.  Joseph had dreams and he interpreted them.  Too bad, so sad for his brothers.

So his brothers, angry, sold Joseph to their cousins.

Next scene, Joseph is in Egypt and is sold to Potiphar.  Notice Genesis 39:2-3, but specifically verse three: “His master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.” (ESV)  Joseph may have been dumb as rocks.  He obviously was when it came to interpersonal skills and his own family.  Joseph may have been all beauty and no brain…”The LORD caused all that he did to succeed…”  What I find interesting here is that Potiphar even saw that the LORD did this through Joseph.  But do we see Joseph giving God any credit?  No.  I think Joseph thought that he was that good.  I think Joseph still had in the back of his mind his dream and that he was succeeding for that purpose.

So then Potiphar’s wife jumps into the picture.  She wants to have sex, he doesn’t (she was probably getting old and not very attractive anyway).  The last time she tries to seduce him Joseph starts talking about how he’s equal to Potiphar and how he can have everything in the house except Potiphar’s old, dried out wife (she might not even been a temptation for Joseph).  But Joseph never gives credit to God for his position.  The only thing he mentions is that he doesn’t want to sin against God.  In other words, God wasn’t responsible for his success, but if he sins against God, God might be responsible for his fall.  To protect his position he didn’t want to sin, but he never gives God credit for his position in the first place.  Interesting.

So Joseph gets thrown in prison… falsely accused… poor boy.  By now though he might be starting to get it.  When the cupbearer and the baker come to him with their dreams he at least gives God the credit for the interpretation.  And when the cupbearer is to be restored into Pharaoh’s house what does Joseph tell him to do, praise the God of Israel and worship Him, his deliverer?  (Sarcasm intended).  No.  Joseph tells him, “Remember me.”  I mean, I can understand that from a purely human perspective, but what an arrogant little snot.  Heaven forbid Joseph thanks God for anything, protector or whatever.  Joseph is gonna use God for the interpretations and as long as he doesn’t sin against God, you know, a BIG sin like adultery, he should be cool.  In prison, but still cool.  Praise God for His sovereignty, I think not; after all, Joseph’s family was still gonna bow before him.

I think Joseph did most of his spiritual maturing in the next two years while in prison.  Let’s go back.  The story starts when Joseph was 17.  He and Pharaoh become besties when Joseph is 30.  So in an 11 year time span (if my math is correct) Joseph goes from telling on his brothers, to having a couple dreams, to Potiphar’s house, (which I will just surmise Joseph was probably there at least 9 years, living pretty well I might add).  Persecution, eh… some, yeah.

After he relies on God to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams he tells Pharaoh to find a wise man to take care of things.  I think here Joseph finally realizes that his past success might not have been a personal fluke, but a God intervened feat.  I think the two years he was in prison, reviewing his “successes,” he might have realized that he probably made quite a few blunders that God had to fix for him.  “The LORD caused all that he did to succeed…”  So Joseph maybe had finally been humbled (prison can have that effect) to the point that he realized he was nothing without God.

And we know the end of the story…

I guess all this is to say:

Romans 6:23 (ESV) “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  I’m convinced that anything short of death, whether persecution, imagined or real - whether punishment, deserved or unjustified, is a blessing to grow us deeper in Him.

He Created Us Whole - We Are Born Broken

“This is what it really comes down to ... if this is the way God made me, then this is the way I’m going to live. It’s not like God made me this way and he'll send me to hell if I am who he created me to be … I really feel closer to God because I no longer hate myself.”

That was a quote from a Christian artist who, as recently as five years ago, came out and admitted he was gay.

Really?  Does God really make people sinful?

It’s crazy that so many people, so many Christians, are buying into this idea that God made me gay, or God made me anything other than a vessel created to worship Him.  I mean, it would be like an alcoholic going around drunk everywhere and rationalizing it because God made him with an addictive personality.  Or a kleptomaniac stealing everything he sees and rationalizing it because God wired his brain so that he would want to steal.

C’mon people.  God doesn’t create us to sin.  According to James, God can’t even tempt us to sin.  James 1:13-14 (NIV) “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.”

A lot of Christians have fallen into the trap of… no, I don’t want to use those words.  A lot of Christians have made a conscious decision to try to marry socially accepted behaviors (sin) with God’s Word.  They’ll argue, “Well, some theologians will interpret”… so… what, theologians can’t be wrong?  Theologians can’t be self-pleasers and want to rationalize what their heart wants with what God’s Word says?

I’m not tryin’ to judge anyone here, because I stand to be judged the most; but as Christians we all are guilty of this rationalization theology.  We rationalize not being good stewards with the monetary allowance God has blessed us with because buying this or that will make us feel good… and God wants us to feel good; right?  We rationalize drinkin’ just a little too much because the Bible says in Ephesians 5:18-19a (NIV), “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.”  So catching a “buzz” is okay; right?  We rationalize living together and sex before marriage because then we can make a better informed decision about our potential partner and not run as much of a risk as sinning with a divorce later on… ‘cause divorce is a sin; right?

The Psalmist writes in Psalm 139:14 (NIV), “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”  Notice he does not say, “fearfully and wonderfully and sinfully made.”  We, myself included, need to stop trying to rationalize what we want with what God wants for us.

God created me whole. My brokenness is inherited. How I respond is my choice. I can choose to surrender my brokenness to His holiness, or I can choose to spend my inheritance. I choose to surrender... daily.

Pride - Why We Don't Kneel

We are a people of pride.  The reality is that we can’t fathom God’s faithfulness, we are dreadfully unaware of His awesomeness, we will never be able to grasp His grace, we aren’t mindful enough of His mercy, we aren’t truly humbled by His holiness... all this because don’t fully comprehend the depth of our depravity... we were born broken.

As a church we see sin as society sees a moral code.  We justify the “little” transgressions, yet vilify the “large” ones, and through this we ratify our “righteousness.”  That is the essence of our pride... we see ourselves as better than most.  We lack face to floor worship, because we don’t see a need for it.

We don’t bow because we haven’t really learned the necessity of it.

 

Any time I am invited to kneel before my Maker, my knees should be hitting the floor.

Work Credo

I had dinner with some corporate people from work last evening.  They asked me how, as a warehouse operator, I get along with the main warehouse in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania... these are my thoughts:

 

Last evening you asked me why I get along with Fairless when most of the other sites don’t, to which I replied, “I treat them how I want to be treated.”  I just want to take this opportunity to expound on that a little more.

My work ethic is as follows:

·         First and foremost, I work to bring glory to God (1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV) So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.)

·         Secondly, I work to make the people around me look better in the eyes of others and become better men and women (Mark 10:43-44 (NIV) Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.)

·         Lastly, I work for a paycheck.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, I think people are more important than parts.  I think the attitude from the field to the warehouse is a little bit messed up.  Society has taught us that if you ask someone for something that they are supposed to provide to you then somehow that means they work for you and that they answer to you.  We’ve become an “Entitlement Society” where we feel that everyone around us owes it to us to make our lives easier.

The reason I get along with Fairless (and most of the people I come into contact with) is because I try to flip that idea around…I ask myself, how can I make your job better?  How can I make your life easier?  How can I encourage you today?  Ask anyone who knows me, I’ve probably called them “Boss” at one time or another.  I do this to remind myself that that person is more important than I am.  That’s not to belittle myself in any way, but it’s an act of humility, realizing that in God’s eyes I am no better.

 

I recently saw this quote on Facebook and it really grabbed me.  “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.  Be kind.  Always.”  If I can keep that in mind with everyone I talk to imagine what the impact would be.

 

I’m not saying that I’m perfect with all this in any way, shape, or form; but this is how I strive to be.  These are the attitudes I try to maintain.

 

Will this work ethic get me to the top of the corporate ladder?  Probably not, it’s far from the “American Way”.  What this work ethic does get me is this…when I lay my head down on my pillow at night and thank God that He has blessed me with a warm house, a working car, a job I truly enjoy, a relatively comfortable life I know I can sleep peacefully with the assurance that I have given my 110% best effort to make someone’s life easier that day.  And I sleep with the hope that God will allow me to do it again tomorrow.

 

Luke 6:31 (NIV) Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Relationship

Through my crazy life I’ve come to the appreciation that if God isn’t first and foremost my best friend, no other relationship I may encounter will have any real meaning.  I’ve come to the understanding that if I don’t give God my whole being and surrender completely to Him, then I can’t really submit to anyone else I come into relationship with.  I’ve come to know that if I don’t acknowledge and worship Him for His omniscience, His omnipresence, His omnipotence, His immutability, and ultimately His holiness, I will never really understand how I am to love another, or love myself for that matter.

 

It's all about a relationship... with my Father... through His love, grace, and mercy... for His glory.

4/30/2014 - God's second question to man - Who told you that you were naked?

Genesis 3:11 (NIV) And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?

 

That's really kind of a loaded question.  The first attribute I see of God in this question is His willingness to defend His children.  Who told you?  His first thought was to blame someone else for their shame.

 

Most parents who love their children don’t want to believe that their child could do wrong.  Their initial reaction is to blame someone else.  What’s the first question asked when a parent walks into a room and finds a broken lamp, even if there is only one child and one parent in the house at the time?  The first question asked is, who broke the lamp?

 

Before I even confess my sins to God He doesn’t want to believe I’ve sinned in the first place.  He wants to blame someone else for my shame.

 

Who told you?  The second attribute of God that I get from this question is His jealousy.  Every time I read the first three words of that question I can almost hear the pain in God’s voice.  Who told you?  Who has the right to tell you, Adam, that you’re naked?  Who have you put in front of Me... and listened to?

 

In this question, I first see God’s jealousy.  And many times through scripture I'm reminded of His jealousy.  Exodus 34:14 (NIV) tells me, "Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."

 

Whenever I put something or someone before God, He gets jealous.  He wants me to listen to Him and only Him.  How many times do I hear the jealousy coming through in God’s voice?  How many times do I hear it?  Karl, who are you listening to besides Me?  Who told you?

 

The third attribute of God in this question is His desire for me to be whole.  Who told you that you were naked?  Who told you something about yourself that you needed to feel shame for?  I made you perfectly, Adam, naked and all, who told you that you needed to cover yourselves before Me and before each other?

 

You see, when I listen to what others say about me and believe it, instead of listening to what God says about me and believing that, I am sinning and I feel shame.  In Psalm 81 the Psalmist talks about how Israel listened to other gods and how because of that God wouldn’t bless them.  Yet if the Israelites would listen to God, the true God, he would listen to them.

 

All through Israel’s history I read about how when they listened to God they would be cared for and prosperous, but when they listened to other gods or false prophets they would be taken into slavery or not have God’s favor upon them.

When I came to know Christ, when I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior, I became new.  I don’t need to listen to anyone else.

In 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 I learn that I am a new creation.

When I listen to what others say to me or about me and start believing it, I start forgetting what God says about me.

In Galatians 4:6-7 I learn that I am an heir.

This is for you, Reader, and me... who told you?  When we get discouraged at work because a co-worker or boss tells us that we're not good enough and we start feeling worthless, God is right there asking, who told you that you are worthless?  When we go to school and we hear others tell us that we’re dumb or stupid, God is right there pleading, who told you that you are dumb or stupid?  When we’re at home and we get lost in the family business of recitals, and practices, homework, and chores and we start to feel insignificant, God is right there screaming through the loneliness, who told you that you are insignificant?  When we go to church and we feel that we can’t serve because we don’t know this, or in our past we’ve done this, God is right there shouting through the judgment of others, who told you that you can’t serve Me?  When we’ve been abused physically, mentally, emotionally or even spiritually by others and we’re left feeling broken and discarded, God is right there frantically exclaiming, who told you that you aren’t whole?

Karl, who told you that you are naked?  And why are you believing them instead of believing Me?

4/29/2014 - God's first question to man - Where are you?

Genesis 3:8-10 (NIV) Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?"  He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

 

The first question God ever asked man was, “Where are you?”  I’ve heard countless sermons preached on Genesis chapter 3, about the fall of man, but it’s interesting how we sort of gloss over that question just to get to the “meat” of the story, so to speak; but I believe this question (and the next question, which I will get to in a later post) gives me the first glimpse of God’s character how He longs to be in a perfect relationship with me.

I think when God came to the garden to talk with Adam and Eve, He came because He really wanted to spend time with them.  It’s my belief, although I have no proof, that God came to the garden in human form.  Adam and Eve heard Him walking.  He wanted to meet with them on a personal level.

God being Himself, being sovereign, knew right where Adam and Eve were, so why did he ask them, Where are you?  I used to think when I read that that God was just being sorta facetious, you know, rubbing it in that Adam and Eve had sinned (the mean, angry God, so to speak) and they were hiding from him; yet as I get older and I review my own life I see the question from a different light.  Where are you?  It’s not an accusatory question.  I look at it sorta like this, God comes down, can’t find Adam or Eve and He gets kind of anxious, maybe even a little worried.  He wasn't anxious or worried because He couldn't find them physically, He was hurting because He didn't find them spiritually.  Where were His children?  God wasn’t accusing them of anything, He was simply wondering where they were.  He was used to them wanting to spend as much time with Him as possible.  Where are you, Adam?  Where are you, Eve?

When I sin I tend to try to hide from God.  When I know there’s sin in my life I tend to shy away from the Father.  I don’t want to spend time with him.  I seek shelter to hide my shame.  But it’s when I hurt God most that He seeks me most.  When I'm obeying and following His will in my life, He knows right where I am and He knows I'm getting closer to where He wants me to be.  It’s when I sin, when I walk away… when I run away, that He comes looking for me.

In Matthew 18:12-14 we have the parable of the lost sheep.  Go ahead, read it... you have time.

When I sin, I wonder off… I get lost.  And that’s when my Shepherd, the Father, comes looking for me.  In this parable the shepherd doesn’t accuse the sheep for getting lost, he’s just happy he finds him.

I need to ask myself, am I making God look for me?  Am I hiding from Him?  Am I happy to walking with the Lord?  Or because of sin, do I shy away from Him?  Where am I?

4/28/2014 - Introduction

I'm not sure how I want to begin this.  I've been encouraged by some of my friends to start blogging.  They say I have some interesting perspectives, sound insights, and creative ways of posing my thoughts.

Sometimes it's difficult for me to hear those kind words from others.  It's hard, because by nature I'm a very prideful man.  And so I have to question my motives.  Will I write for the praise of others or compose to the glory of God?

I need to write more.  Selfishly, I need to write more...for me.  I need to sort out my thoughts, fears, dreams, anxieties, hopes, disappointments, successes, and failures, by script, so I can better see where change is necessary.

Some of what I say may provoke controversy; yet where there is no struggle, there is no growth.  Where there are no questions, answers are not essential.  Where there is no challenge, there can be no victory.

Humbly, I invite you, my readers, to be patient with this man.  I will not promise to post daily, maybe not even weekly, perhaps not even monthly.  I will promise, though, to pray before I post, praying that I allow the Holy Spirit to speak through me.  I have so much to learn from the Trinity and I will strive to share those lessons.

Hold on, there's a chance this might get interesting...!