So, I was sitting at work one day in Dallas (sometime in 2002), dreaming about lunch. I'm a pretty big guy and this is a common occurrence.
I had five bucks and change in my pocket and I was thinking about how I was going to go to the Italian place two blocks away and get a stromboli. yuuummmm.
Carla and I had just talked the night before about not using the credit cards. You know, the whole radical idea of not spending money you don't actually have. Where do people get this crazy stuff?
So, I was going to be good. I was going to spend actual cash.
As I was sitting there, I felt God tell me that he wanted me to give my money away and fast for lunch. I had been thinking about fasting and had done it once or twice and it was pretty cool. Not something I wanted to do all the time, but a good thing to get one focused on the right stuff.
Ok, the whole fasting thing is cool and all, but this stromboli is GOOD. It was not going to kill me to miss a meal or six, but I really wanted that stromboli.
Here's what I did: I said, 'Ok, God. If someone asks me for some money when I go to lunch, I'll give them all my cash. But if they don't, I'm doing the stromboli thing."
I sat at my desk, counting the minutes until lunch. I planned to have a working lunch...
11:30:01 I was out the door. I didn't get twenty feet before a homeless-looking guy walks up to me and asks if I have any spare change. Boom. Just like that.
What was I supposed to do? If I give this guy my money, no stromboli. There was no way I could use a credit card to buy myself lunch...
Then, I had a brilliant idea. It was so brilliant, I was stunned by its clarity and magnificence. I would use a credit card to buy HIM lunch. That way, I would get my stromboli and eat it too. So to speak. I would gain points with God for being obedient, and there was no way that using a credit card to help someone could be wrong.
I said, "How about I just buy you lunch?"
He said, "Ok."
I asked him where he wanted to eat, but his attitude was "you're buying, I'm flying." I suggested Subway and he said fine. (Crucial part of the plan; Subway takes plastic, McDonald's doesn't.)
As we walked to Subway (which is, coincidentally, just past the stromboli place), I talked with him and asked him questions about his life. His name was Keith, and he seemed fairly with it. There did seem to be just a little something missing. Not mentally, more like he had accepted his station and had given up. This, from a five minute conversation...
Anyway, I told him that I was buying him lunch because God told me to and had given me the money to do it. I just didn't tell him which money... As we waited for his 12 inch meatball and mayo combo, we chatted about inconsequentials, I paid, wished him luck and headed to stromboli heaven.
I crossed the street and was immediately run over by a bus.
Just kidding.
Sitting on the sidewalk, right in front of me, was a guy asking for spare change.
Stromboli.
I told the guy, "I'm sorry, I just bought lunch for someone and now, all I have is enough money to buy myself lunch." I then promised to help him out another day.
I walked away, towards my blessed stromboli.
Inside the Italian place, I ordered my stromboli, paid, and sat down to wait for them to heat it up. As I was waiting, I thought, "I have change in my pocket. I can take it to the second guy who asked for money." I was so impressed with myself. I had been obedient to God, bought Keith lunch, got a stromboli, and was about to give my change to another homeless guy. It was the five loaves and two fishes all over again in Dallas, Texas.
I stepped out onto the sidewalk and started to walk towards the guy begging on the sidewalk. I looked up the street to where he was and stopped in my tracks. Sitting next to him, sharing his sandwich, was Keith. He had taken the sub I bought and split it with the guy. Even the chips and soda.
I made myself keep walking towards them, even though I was struggling not to cry. I handed the man my change and told Keith, "You're a better man than I am."
It sounded melodramatic, but there was nothing else I could say. Here I was, a fat, rich man, blessed by God with everything I needed. There was Keith, a skinny, homeless guy, blessed by God with a good heart.
I Samuel 15:22
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Raising Support Update
$234 in monthly pledges to go...wow. That means we have been able to raise $1878 in monthly pledges. Who woulda thunk?
Right now, we have a total of 34 supporters with more on the way. Praise God.
Yesterday, I was doing some daydreaming - as I do from time to time. I was imagining what it would be like to have a lot of money. Yes, God convicted me about this, I just didn't respond to the conviction as quickly as I should have. I KNOW that I can't depend on money. It just causes more and new problems and doesn't really solve anything. God has also shown me that it would be very easy to make money a god. But man, wouldn't it be cool?
So, as I was putting away the thoughts of having big money, God showed me that I was doing the same thing with the $234 in monthly pledges. It's not big money, it's little money. But, I am still looking to that money for security. 'If I just had the rest of my support raised, everything would be cool.' Or something like that. I'm not sure that God is concerned with scale on issues like this. The love of money is wrong, at any level - see 1 Timothy 6:10 and Hebrews 13:5.
Of course I want to have the support raised. Of course it would be cool. But I keep going back to a statement by John Candy in the movie, 'Cool Runnings.' He said, "...if you're nothing without a medal, you'll be nothing with a medal."
Right now, we have a total of 34 supporters with more on the way. Praise God.
Yesterday, I was doing some daydreaming - as I do from time to time. I was imagining what it would be like to have a lot of money. Yes, God convicted me about this, I just didn't respond to the conviction as quickly as I should have. I KNOW that I can't depend on money. It just causes more and new problems and doesn't really solve anything. God has also shown me that it would be very easy to make money a god. But man, wouldn't it be cool?
So, as I was putting away the thoughts of having big money, God showed me that I was doing the same thing with the $234 in monthly pledges. It's not big money, it's little money. But, I am still looking to that money for security. 'If I just had the rest of my support raised, everything would be cool.' Or something like that. I'm not sure that God is concerned with scale on issues like this. The love of money is wrong, at any level - see 1 Timothy 6:10 and Hebrews 13:5.
Of course I want to have the support raised. Of course it would be cool. But I keep going back to a statement by John Candy in the movie, 'Cool Runnings.' He said, "...if you're nothing without a medal, you'll be nothing with a medal."
More Matamoros ATLs
The third ATL I led was cool. Way. Just remember, I was there, I saw this with my own eyes.
It was a pretty large group - about 12 - and we had to meet right outside the noisy VBS tent. I introduced the ATL and sent them away to pray.
When they came back, they immediately started to tell me what they thought God had revealed to them. Red shoes. A woman, all alone and carrying a heavy burden. A blue house. A man in a yellow shirt, walking by a blue car and Trinity was supposed to translate (this was from a young girl of about 12. I'll never forget what she said because she said it with such assurance). One of the leaders said, sort of embarrassed-like, 'something Irish...?' No one really reacted. We just said ok, and moved on to the next person.
We did the test and started out. I asked which direction we should go and they all said they wanted to go find a woman they had met the day before. They knew where her house was, so we started in that direction.
The first house we went to had a few people in the yard. We talked with them and weren't getting anywhere. It was apparent that they were just being polite. We said goodbye and walked across the street to a big, blue house. A young woman came out and three girls from our group went over to talk to her. The rest of us stayed back and prayed for them.
While we were praying, one of the girls in the group came up to me and asked if it was ok if she kept praying and asking God to show her something. Of course, I said yes. She moved across the street and began to pray. She came up to me five to ten minutes later and said that God had shown her a boat. I asked her what kind of boat and she said, 'a boat.'
Meanwhile, the girls that were at the house went inside for about five minutes. When they came out, they were smiling like you wouldn't believe. They said that the girl they had talked to was pregnant and her husband had been missing - she thought he was in jail in the States. One of our groups had visited her the day before and had prayed for the lady and her husband. He came home that night. When we showed up, she was ready to accept Christ as her savior and her grandmother was too. Praise God!
We continued walking and got to the house of the person they were looking for. She wasn't there. They talked with her young son - he was 12-14 - and, as we were leaving, I saw Trinity slip him some cash.
We turned a corner and saw a woman carrying a baby who was wearing red shoes. Some of the group started talking with her while about four others from our group went to the next house and started witnessing. The lady with the baby was a Jehovah's Witness. They gave her a tract and a Bible and left her alone after talking with her for a while. I wish I remembered what happened at the other house, but I don't.
As we were leaving, someone came out of that house and went to the bus stop. One of our girls, one who had not said a single word voluntarily the whole time we were out, took Trinity and the pastor's wife and went and talked with the girl at the bus stop. She told me later that she felt a strong push from the Holy Spirit to talk to the girl and she said to God, "If you want me to talk with her, you're going to have to make her come to me." When she looked up, the girl was walking straight at her. Is that cool or what?
It was time to head back, so we headed towards the VBS site, keeping the three people at the bus stop in sight. We stopped at a corner and someone saw a bunch (3) of people wearing yellow shirts standing across from a blue car. They shouted at me, 'Hey, look, there they are.' Meaning, the man in the yellow shirt thing mentioned earlier. I pointed out that none of the people wearing yellow shirts were, technically, male and therefore did not fit the criteria. They acknowledged this and went to talk with them anyway. What the heck, it was what we were there for.
I stayed on the corner so I could keep an eye on both groups. When the group of three left the bus stop, I directed them across the street to the yellow shirts.
I'll never forget what happened next. It was like I was watching a movie that I was also in...does that make sense? I saw a man in a yellow shirt walk by the blue car. I watched Trinity, the pastor's wife, and the junior high girl turn their heads and see the man in the yellow shirt. They headed towards him and he just kept on moving, around the corner and out of the picture. The three of them went to the house behind the blue car and led the father and the daughter to the Lord. Woo Hoo!
I found out later that the blue car had a shamrock hanging from the mirror and the thing that caught the eyes of the three girls was a water truck that drove by with a boat on it.
Why does stuff happen like this? I don't know. Does God do this kind of stuff here in the States? Yes. So what?
If someone is actually reading this, please comment on what you've read. I'd love to know what you think.
It was a pretty large group - about 12 - and we had to meet right outside the noisy VBS tent. I introduced the ATL and sent them away to pray.
When they came back, they immediately started to tell me what they thought God had revealed to them. Red shoes. A woman, all alone and carrying a heavy burden. A blue house. A man in a yellow shirt, walking by a blue car and Trinity was supposed to translate (this was from a young girl of about 12. I'll never forget what she said because she said it with such assurance). One of the leaders said, sort of embarrassed-like, 'something Irish...?' No one really reacted. We just said ok, and moved on to the next person.
We did the test and started out. I asked which direction we should go and they all said they wanted to go find a woman they had met the day before. They knew where her house was, so we started in that direction.
The first house we went to had a few people in the yard. We talked with them and weren't getting anywhere. It was apparent that they were just being polite. We said goodbye and walked across the street to a big, blue house. A young woman came out and three girls from our group went over to talk to her. The rest of us stayed back and prayed for them.
While we were praying, one of the girls in the group came up to me and asked if it was ok if she kept praying and asking God to show her something. Of course, I said yes. She moved across the street and began to pray. She came up to me five to ten minutes later and said that God had shown her a boat. I asked her what kind of boat and she said, 'a boat.'
Meanwhile, the girls that were at the house went inside for about five minutes. When they came out, they were smiling like you wouldn't believe. They said that the girl they had talked to was pregnant and her husband had been missing - she thought he was in jail in the States. One of our groups had visited her the day before and had prayed for the lady and her husband. He came home that night. When we showed up, she was ready to accept Christ as her savior and her grandmother was too. Praise God!
We continued walking and got to the house of the person they were looking for. She wasn't there. They talked with her young son - he was 12-14 - and, as we were leaving, I saw Trinity slip him some cash.
We turned a corner and saw a woman carrying a baby who was wearing red shoes. Some of the group started talking with her while about four others from our group went to the next house and started witnessing. The lady with the baby was a Jehovah's Witness. They gave her a tract and a Bible and left her alone after talking with her for a while. I wish I remembered what happened at the other house, but I don't.
As we were leaving, someone came out of that house and went to the bus stop. One of our girls, one who had not said a single word voluntarily the whole time we were out, took Trinity and the pastor's wife and went and talked with the girl at the bus stop. She told me later that she felt a strong push from the Holy Spirit to talk to the girl and she said to God, "If you want me to talk with her, you're going to have to make her come to me." When she looked up, the girl was walking straight at her. Is that cool or what?
It was time to head back, so we headed towards the VBS site, keeping the three people at the bus stop in sight. We stopped at a corner and someone saw a bunch (3) of people wearing yellow shirts standing across from a blue car. They shouted at me, 'Hey, look, there they are.' Meaning, the man in the yellow shirt thing mentioned earlier. I pointed out that none of the people wearing yellow shirts were, technically, male and therefore did not fit the criteria. They acknowledged this and went to talk with them anyway. What the heck, it was what we were there for.
I stayed on the corner so I could keep an eye on both groups. When the group of three left the bus stop, I directed them across the street to the yellow shirts.
I'll never forget what happened next. It was like I was watching a movie that I was also in...does that make sense? I saw a man in a yellow shirt walk by the blue car. I watched Trinity, the pastor's wife, and the junior high girl turn their heads and see the man in the yellow shirt. They headed towards him and he just kept on moving, around the corner and out of the picture. The three of them went to the house behind the blue car and led the father and the daughter to the Lord. Woo Hoo!
I found out later that the blue car had a shamrock hanging from the mirror and the thing that caught the eyes of the three girls was a water truck that drove by with a boat on it.
Why does stuff happen like this? I don't know. Does God do this kind of stuff here in the States? Yes. So what?
If someone is actually reading this, please comment on what you've read. I'd love to know what you think.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
More ATL Stuff
The second ATL I did in Matamoros was a miserable failure. No one shared what God had shown them with any confidence. We didn't know where to go. We didn't find a single thing that we thought God was telling us.
Is that what made it a failure? No. What made it a failure was that I didn't really talk about it with them in the debrief.
So, here's what happened.
I talked with them - they were all boys, with the exception of one female leader - about what we were doing and why. I gave them the verses that have become my staple, Rev 3:20 and John 14:21, and sent them off to pray. They came back and had nothing. No one shared anything except for 'a red arrow.' During our discussion, one of the kids said that he wasn't convinced that God was real...what to do? I sent them off again and this time they came back with a little bit more information. They saw pink. Pink!
I felt a disaster coming on.
We started off in some random direction with Tori leading the way. We would get to an intersection and I would ask them which way we should go. No one would answer. Except for Tori. She got really frustrated with their inaction and ended up leading them around, starting conversations with people (through a translator) and trying to get these boys to do what they should be doing. She was unsuccessful.
We eventually gave up and headed back to the church. No one was saved. We didn't really talk to anyone except for some kids - they may have come to VBS, but I don't know for sure. When we got back, I tried to talk with them about what happened, but it just didn't seem to click. I did talk about whether or not we had heard the voice of God and how we apparently had not, but...it was just weird.
I did two more ATL's on that trip, both with two different teams from Georgia. They were from a different church than the boys mentioned above. On each of those trips, we saw EVERYTHING that God revealed. Why were they so different?
I think that God did reveal things to the boys in my second group and they, for whatever reason, were reluctant to share what it was. I say this for a number, 3, of reasons. 1) In all the ATLs I have done (somewhere around 12), God has always shown things to the people in the group - with the exception of this one group. 2) They were all junior high boys and appeared to be extremely concerned about what everyone thought about them. 3) The church they were from didn't seem to have an open spirit about this kind of thing. By this, I mean that it didn't appear that one could say something like, 'I saw something Irish' as a man did in one ATL I did, without worrying about rejection or condemnation. The other two churches on this trip were eager to see what God was doing while the people from this church stood to the side and sort of just watched. Not that there is anything wrong with watching, but they didn't really participate in most of the out-of-the-box stuff on the trip. At the end of the trip, I did see a definite change of heart in their youth leader. Maybe next year will be different.
Was it really a disaster? I guess it wasn't, at least for me. I learned that I need to make them comfortable with sharing. That I need to NOT take the responsibilty of the ATL's success on me.
The next day, I got to lead two more ATLs and saw God work in powerful ways.
Is that what made it a failure? No. What made it a failure was that I didn't really talk about it with them in the debrief.
So, here's what happened.
I talked with them - they were all boys, with the exception of one female leader - about what we were doing and why. I gave them the verses that have become my staple, Rev 3:20 and John 14:21, and sent them off to pray. They came back and had nothing. No one shared anything except for 'a red arrow.' During our discussion, one of the kids said that he wasn't convinced that God was real...what to do? I sent them off again and this time they came back with a little bit more information. They saw pink. Pink!
I felt a disaster coming on.
We started off in some random direction with Tori leading the way. We would get to an intersection and I would ask them which way we should go. No one would answer. Except for Tori. She got really frustrated with their inaction and ended up leading them around, starting conversations with people (through a translator) and trying to get these boys to do what they should be doing. She was unsuccessful.
We eventually gave up and headed back to the church. No one was saved. We didn't really talk to anyone except for some kids - they may have come to VBS, but I don't know for sure. When we got back, I tried to talk with them about what happened, but it just didn't seem to click. I did talk about whether or not we had heard the voice of God and how we apparently had not, but...it was just weird.
I did two more ATL's on that trip, both with two different teams from Georgia. They were from a different church than the boys mentioned above. On each of those trips, we saw EVERYTHING that God revealed. Why were they so different?
I think that God did reveal things to the boys in my second group and they, for whatever reason, were reluctant to share what it was. I say this for a number, 3, of reasons. 1) In all the ATLs I have done (somewhere around 12), God has always shown things to the people in the group - with the exception of this one group. 2) They were all junior high boys and appeared to be extremely concerned about what everyone thought about them. 3) The church they were from didn't seem to have an open spirit about this kind of thing. By this, I mean that it didn't appear that one could say something like, 'I saw something Irish' as a man did in one ATL I did, without worrying about rejection or condemnation. The other two churches on this trip were eager to see what God was doing while the people from this church stood to the side and sort of just watched. Not that there is anything wrong with watching, but they didn't really participate in most of the out-of-the-box stuff on the trip. At the end of the trip, I did see a definite change of heart in their youth leader. Maybe next year will be different.
Was it really a disaster? I guess it wasn't, at least for me. I learned that I need to make them comfortable with sharing. That I need to NOT take the responsibilty of the ATL's success on me.
The next day, I got to lead two more ATLs and saw God work in powerful ways.
Missionary or Mission Field?
So, I was in Fresno, CA, doing some video taping for Champions For Life (Bill Glass Ministries). Wendell Tyler, former running back for the 49ers, was speaking at one of the banquets and, as he left, he said, 'Remember, you're either a missionary or a mission field.'
For me, it was one of those 'hhhmmmm' moments. You know, when you sort of react and then you freeze, thinking about whatever was just said? Could it be true? Or is this one of those puesdo-profound statements that one reads on church signs?
So, I started thinking. It sounded reasonable. Which one was I? What about the people I go to church with? I mean, it's easy to apply this to the masses of people who don't go to church, but what about those of us who go to church? Am I a mission field? Are my friends a mission field? What about the kids in my sunday school class?
Ok, on some level, we're all a mission field. Everyone needs work at something. No one's perfect.
Having said that, I started to view the people around me in a totally different light. Now, just about everyone I meet or have any contact with, I ask the question, 'are they a missionary or a mission field?'
What, exactly, is a missionary? How does one determine if another person is a missionary or a mission field? I'm glad you asked.
I think that a missionary is someone who shares their faith verbally and with their works.
Does someone share their faith verbally? No? Mission field. Do they go out of their way to share their faith with their works? No? Mission field.
Does this mean that someone who isn't a missionary isn't a good Christian? I don't think that's the point. I think that someone who isn't a missionary just hasn't moved there yet - for whatever reason. I am talking here about small 'm' missionary. Not big 'M'-move-to-Africa-for-the-rest-of-your-life Missionary. I think that everyone is called to be a missionary (see two previous links and Matthew 4:19).
I started looking at my sunday school class as a mission field. Instead of seeing them as little Christians, I started to view them as a mission field and as people who needed to be taught how to be missionaries. While in SS, I presented the gospel whenever I could. I told them stories of the cool stuff that happened to me on my mission trips. I prayed for them (not as much as I should have). Kind of like when I was a teacher and I figured out that the seniors I had looked like adults, but still didn't know how to act like it. I made it my goal to show them how to behave like adults and it paid off.
Well, when I came back from a mission trip in Harlan, KY, the LABC kids had just returned from their mission trip in Matamoros. They were talking about it in SS large group and Caleb stated that he and some of the others in his group had prayed and asked God to show them something. Caleb said that he and a few others got a picture of an old woman that they had seen a day or two before. They found the lady again, talked to her, and she came to faith in Christ!
What does this have to do with our theme today? I asked Caleb about it and he said that he prayed because of the ATL I told him about. He moved from being a mission field to being a missionary. Way cool.
When Carla and I were in Harlan, we started to pray for the salvation of some of the kids on the mission trip. It was apparent that some of them weren't very strong in their faith and that others weren't even saved. By the end of the week, two of them had come to faith in Christ. We viewed them as a mission field, instead of missionaries.
What about you? Are you a missionary or a mission field? If you don't pick...you're a mission field. However, the cool thing is, you get to pick.
For me, it was one of those 'hhhmmmm' moments. You know, when you sort of react and then you freeze, thinking about whatever was just said? Could it be true? Or is this one of those puesdo-profound statements that one reads on church signs?
So, I started thinking. It sounded reasonable. Which one was I? What about the people I go to church with? I mean, it's easy to apply this to the masses of people who don't go to church, but what about those of us who go to church? Am I a mission field? Are my friends a mission field? What about the kids in my sunday school class?
Ok, on some level, we're all a mission field. Everyone needs work at something. No one's perfect.
Having said that, I started to view the people around me in a totally different light. Now, just about everyone I meet or have any contact with, I ask the question, 'are they a missionary or a mission field?'
What, exactly, is a missionary? How does one determine if another person is a missionary or a mission field? I'm glad you asked.
I think that a missionary is someone who shares their faith verbally and with their works.
Does someone share their faith verbally? No? Mission field. Do they go out of their way to share their faith with their works? No? Mission field.
Does this mean that someone who isn't a missionary isn't a good Christian? I don't think that's the point. I think that someone who isn't a missionary just hasn't moved there yet - for whatever reason. I am talking here about small 'm' missionary. Not big 'M'-move-to-Africa-for-the-rest-of-your-life Missionary. I think that everyone is called to be a missionary (see two previous links and Matthew 4:19).
I started looking at my sunday school class as a mission field. Instead of seeing them as little Christians, I started to view them as a mission field and as people who needed to be taught how to be missionaries. While in SS, I presented the gospel whenever I could. I told them stories of the cool stuff that happened to me on my mission trips. I prayed for them (not as much as I should have). Kind of like when I was a teacher and I figured out that the seniors I had looked like adults, but still didn't know how to act like it. I made it my goal to show them how to behave like adults and it paid off.
Well, when I came back from a mission trip in Harlan, KY, the LABC kids had just returned from their mission trip in Matamoros. They were talking about it in SS large group and Caleb stated that he and some of the others in his group had prayed and asked God to show them something. Caleb said that he and a few others got a picture of an old woman that they had seen a day or two before. They found the lady again, talked to her, and she came to faith in Christ!
What does this have to do with our theme today? I asked Caleb about it and he said that he prayed because of the ATL I told him about. He moved from being a mission field to being a missionary. Way cool.
When Carla and I were in Harlan, we started to pray for the salvation of some of the kids on the mission trip. It was apparent that some of them weren't very strong in their faith and that others weren't even saved. By the end of the week, two of them had come to faith in Christ. We viewed them as a mission field, instead of missionaries.
What about you? Are you a missionary or a mission field? If you don't pick...you're a mission field. However, the cool thing is, you get to pick.
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