A slave.

What is a slave? When I was in high school, we held an auction to have a freshman as a slave for a day. You would be bought by a senior and have to do his/her bidding for the day and carry their books and open their locker. It was humiliating but fun.

That only lasted a while since it became uncool to say the word "slave." Now, the only thing I even see that is close to slavery is on TV or in the movies. I hear that it still goes on around the world even today....but I find it difficult to imagine what it would be like to be a slave.

The brutality, the lack of freedom, no vacation, no trust. Day after day. Just work. Obey. No escape.

In Philipians, Paul refers to himself as a slave to Christ. That paints a different image than what I believe my Christianity tipically is lived in these United States.

Today we find Christians living out their faith more that they are ENTITLED to the throne than they are a SLAVE to Christ.

Let's compare what that looks like.

ENTITLED

Heir

Good should come to you

Do what you want

Get what you want

Serve when it is convenient

Listen when you want

Eat at the good house

Be served

Talk with only the other entitled ones

Live as though you are privileged

As opposed to...

SLAVE

Do what you are told

Don't ask

Don't complain

Obey

Eat among the poor

Listen to your master

Be ready to go

Live not for yourself

As I read the Bible, I continue to see that we need to trust that God has a plan for our lives and that we must serve Him completely....as a slave serves His master. Our Master is one that is worthy to be served. He will be fair, and he will not disappoint.

While it is true that we have inherited the Kingdom of Heaven, we still must serve our Lord until that time comes when we fully get to take part in it.

We must obey, we must listen, we must be ready to do His will. And when we do, we will more fully understand what it means to love, to hope, and to live.

Brushes With Fame....

So, I noticed that some people are starting to read my blog and I hope that continues to grow. In an effort to increase comments and my reader base, I will list some people that I have met that are famous. If you are famous and reading this, please comment and then I will add you...

Some of these famous people are very famous and some are locally famous. Let me know if you want additional information on the chance encounter.

(I don't count rock stars like Madonna at her concert or Bill Clinton and Hillary when I was at the White House....they were there and I was there but not really as a chance meeting)

Charlie Brown. (the actual guy who the cartoon character was about)
Jeff Siemen --Vikings Linebacker
Billy Graham....twice
Rosie O'Donnell
Sally Struthers
Vicki Lawrence
Michael Damian
Alan Thicke
Ed McMahon
Fred Couples
Shaun Alexander
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Michael Douglas
Anthony Hopkins
Joanna Kerns
Carol Burnett
Oprah's Lawyer
Cindy Crawford
Tony Oliva
Sig Hansen (I think that was the Deadliest Catch captain whose truck I parked)
Mark Harmon
Tim Meadows (made him laugh)
The Village People (said hi to the native american)
Bill Maher (he ignored me when I said hello....he is dumb)
The wife of Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams
Oh....and his kids were in my youth group.
Dallas Raines
Johnny Mountain
Jean Enerson
Andrew Cuomo and his wife.....who is a Kennedy


That's all I can think of for now.

New thoughts...

I continue to open my heart up to where in the world God wants me to dig in, and I continue to not know.

It is so frustrating.

Here I am, ready and willing to go make a difference in the world for the Kingdom of God, and I don't know where I am supposed to do this.

Here are some things that I am pondering.

1. Am I not listening correctly?
I don't want to be someone who is always complaining and not able to see that I just have to get up and go......not just sit and pray......but face my fears and go.

2. What good can I do?
I can't help but face the fact that I am just a spec in the human existence on a spec in eternity. Why even bother? Does God need me? Not really. Does God think that I will fix all the poverty in the world? No.

3. Why do I have so much fear to start something?
Beginning any journey is a big deal. It effects my wife, my friends, my family. Just thinking about making a decision throws my wife into a weighty stress that is not easily shaken. But these are the things that I face every day when I begin to think about doing what God is asking.


So where does that lead me this March morning?

I am left with the fact that now is the time to take some risks. Go for it with all I have and continue to build a foundation of truth and righteousness. Live life with the motivation that God is alive and breathing His life into us and wanting to build His Kingdom using His people. Even people like me. Not because He needs me to spread His good news. But because He needs me to understand what it means to be used by God....


I really wish that I could know.

But I can't.

So I will just take a step.....one little step.....knowing that every step is scary....

One TV station and no radio...

I moved in October to a house in West Seattle. My wife and I decided not to get cable. We are poor and cable has way too many channels. It sucks the life right out of you. With cable, I can watch bad television for hours and see reruns of MacGyver, and watch the Scottish pole throwing championships and forget to go to sleep. It is not good for me.

Our friend, Tony, let us use his TV and so we plugged it in and found out that we get one TV station.......Fox. Any time of the day, I turn it on and there is some form of the Jerry Springer show or a Judge-in-Court show. At least at night we get American Idol. But for me, as I turn on the Television, when I see the show, "Two and a Half Men," it is the perfect way to make me turn off the set and do something else.

And since I lost my radio in my Jeep to some guy who must have thought it was his, I depend on two sources for my information....

1. The internet
2. The Bible

I am trying to read through the Bible in a year. I am using a plan that picks out readings from four different sections. I have already read through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Acts, and am mostly through Matthew, and the Psalms.

I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I wake up and brew my Starbucks French Roast coffee (since my wife works at their corporate office) and put way too much French Vanilla creamer in an oversized cup and get my reading done for the day.

These are some things that I dwell on...

a. The Old Testament is not easy to read.
b. Acts is awesome.
c. It is better to read this than watch TV
d. That I am glad that being a minister of the church is different now than being a priest in the Levitical Exodus times.


The priestly job back in the day was not for the faint of heart. You had to kill a lot of animals and burn them and wipe the fat on the side of the altar. You also had to determine what skin diseases were clean and unclean. You also had to judge people and determine what they needed to do to fit into the community...which necessarily involved casting some people out...

Not fun.

I am not sure I would even qualify. Since you had to not have a defect. "...whether he is blind or lame, stunted or deformed, or has a broken foot or hand, or has a humped back or is a dwarf, or has a defective eye, or has oozing sores or scabs on his skin, or has damaged testicles..." Leviticus 21:18ff (NLT)

So, as I tried to get something from these laws, I picture myself back in those times. And see it as fresh and novel.

Back in the day, Moses was given the command to ultimately set up a goverment where people had to follow and be obedient. At the time, they didn't know exactly why these laws were made, but they had to follow.

Now, as we look back historically, we can see that they were able to survive and that these laws prevented them from things like the Bubonic Plague, the spread of disease, and allowed them to stay as a community with a central heart.

In Exodus 40, a cloud settles over the Tabernacle and God is present in it. When the cloud moves, they had to pick up everything and follow the cloud.

This is where I am.

I believe that the cloud is moving. I don't know why I am doing the things that I am doing. I just have to be obedient and follow God and go where He is. It might not even make sense to me or my family, but I have to go.