Lovin’ the Journey

Okay, so I did my testimony on Sunday.  I have to admit that I’m glad that it’s over, although it wasn’t as difficult as I had imagined it to be. 

First, I shared the story about what got me to do it (see prior post; “Holy Spirit”) and then I went on to say the following:

“I didn’t say anything to Paul about the dream at first, I just told him that I’d think about doing it and would get back to him.  I still planned to turn him down.  However, by this time, I wouldn’t have been turning down Paul, I would have clearly been turning down God.  So I thought about it a bit and I figured….so what if I stood up and turned all red-faced, tripped on stage, passed out, etc.  So, what!  It just wouldn’t be worth turning down God for.

So I shared this story with a few people, and jokingly said that I’d agreed to do it because I was actually afraid that I’d be struck down by lightening if I didn’t.  But, you see….I wouldn’t have been struck by lightening.  Because of God’s Grace, He’d continue to look just as favorably on me even if I had of turned Him.

Do I believe that New Orleans was washed-out because it was plagued with sin?  Absolutely not!  You see, if I believed that, I wouldn’t truely believe in Grace.  Do I believe that AIDS is God’s curse for homosexuals?  Absolutely not!  Again, if I believed that, I wouldn’t truely believe in Grace.

I was saved a little over 20 years ago when I was 10 years old.  I knew then that I was saved by Grace.  ….And I’ve always understood what Grace means…at least in my mind anyway.  But, you see, it hasn’t been until the last couple of years that I’ve truely began to grasp in my heart what Grace means.  I think a lot of that has to do with being a new father.  I’ve got a 3 year old, Andrew, and a seven week old, Matthew.  My 3 year old, Andrew, can really test me sometimes….he can really make me mad, and he can really dissappoint me.  But I know that I will always love him.  And, deep down, I really have a ‘he can’t do wrong mentality’.  You see, I think that’s the mentality that God has towards us….through his Grace he looks at us like we can’t do wrong.

I’ll leave you today with one final thought.  It says a lot about how I view God’s Grace towards others.  Several months ago I heard an interview of a state legislator…a Democrat.  The person doing the inteview said, ‘You’re a Christian, how can you justify calling yourself a Democrat in today’s political environment with the Democratic Party’s stance on social issues?’  The legislator said, “That’s easy, my philosophy is this:  I strive to be as conservative as the Bible in my own life, yet as liberal as the Grace of God in my views toward others.’  Wow, I’m not a Democrat, but that was very powerful to me.

 Thank you.”

Paul Wiegert, our Outreach Director at GMV UMC, recently asked me to give my testimony during the month of August.   At our 9:45 a.m. service, this means speaking in front of approximately 300 people!  Wow…no way…not me I said.  People remind me all the time that I’m a lawyer and shouldn’t have a problem with public speaking.  Well, it’s not exactly easy for me.  So, my initial response to Paul was, “no, you can find someone else.”  Then he went on to try and convince me saying that “it’s only 3 minutes” and “you can talk about anything”.  He also went on to say that I could simply talk about GRACE since Rudy’s sermon series during August is on GRACE. 

GRACE….he had to drop that word.  When he did, I got goosebumps.  You see, about 6 months ago, I had a dream that I was in front of the Church talking about GRACE in my life.  Wow!

Coincidence?  I don’t think so.  My friends, that is the nudging of the Holy Spirit.  I’m still not entirely happy about it, but I want to be obedient.  I’m signed-up to do my testimony on Sunday the 26th.

Wow!  The past 12 months or so have been such a whirlwind for me.  Looking back on it, it amazing just how many blessings God has given me over this period of time.  I told somebody the other day that I’ve had so many congratulatory remarks over the past year – and so many things that I’m thankful for – that I often have to ask what someone is congratulating me for.  Anyway, here’s a list of some of my recent blessings.  I want to praise God for these blessings!

• Baby Matthew – July 4, 2007
• First 5k run
• First half marathon
• First triathlon
• New job
• Promotion (after 8 months on new job)
• Passed the Alabama State Bar
• Lots of spiritual growth
• Family and friends

Today’s Upper Room devotional (www.upperroom.org) was titled “Good Soil”.  It talked about good soil being soft and paralleled that to how our hearts also need to be soft. 

 If you’ve ever planted anything before, you know that good soil is not only rich in nutrients, it is also soft.  When we plant a new greenfield at the farm, it often takes a couple of years ‘working’ the soil (plowing it, fertilizing it, liming it, etc.) before it get’s to where it needs to be.  And it doesn’t matter how good your seed is, bad soil won’t grow much.

I liked this devotional because our hearts are in fact a lot like soil.  It forms the basis for what we are and what we ‘can grow’.  Our hearts, i.e., faith, get better with time spent in prayer and in the Word.  The Word is like fertilizer, it enriches our faith!

I recently received an e-mail from a fellow brother-in-Christ who was forwarding an e-mail from the “American Family Association”.  The title of the e-mail read:  ”A bill in Congress makes it a crime for pastors and churches to speak against homosexuality”.  Attention grabber, huh?  I mean, come on, although I’m not exactly a proponent of the “fire and brimstone” style of preaching, I certainly don’t want pulpit speech restricted.  Also, “American Family Association” sounds like a wholesome enough outfit to me.

Well, read on fellow believer…  The e-mail went on to say that a bill before the U.S. Senate (House Bill 1592 and Senate Bill 1105) would make it a hate crime, punishable by fines and/or prison time, for anyone to call homosexuality a sin.  It also specifically said the proposed law would make it a crime to preach on Romans Chapter 1 or I Chorinthians Chapter 6. 

The point of the whole e-mail was to pitch a request for the reader to click on a link that would allow them to sign a petition against the proposed legislation.  I hate to speculate on how many folks read the e-mail and blindly signed the petition.  My curiousity got the best of me…  A quick visit to www.thomas.gov quickly opened my eyes.  Turns out, neither the bill passed in the House nor the bill introduced into the Senate were what AFA described them to be.  This legislation does involve hate crimes though.  The whole purpose of the bill is to provide state and local grant money for the enhanced enforcement of hate crime laws.  It also does in fact make provisions for fines and/or up to 10 years in prison for anyone that causes bodily injury to another person based solely on their gender, race, national origin, religious preference or sexual orientation (yes, if you beat the crap out of a gay person simply because they’re gay, this bill would stiffen the penalty).  That’s bodily injury though…nothing…nada…not a word, nor anything that could be interpreted as a word about speech toward homosexuality.  Especially not within the confines of the Church.

Unfortunately, there’s no other way to put it…  The AFA has distributed a lie.  Pure propaganda.  I don’t know much about the AFA, nor do I know what their true agenda might be (a list of those introducing the bill does lend a clue though…they’re all democrats).  I just know that there is no way to get what they get from this bill.  Also, regardless of who introduced this bill, it looks like good legislation to me.  Good legislation…I can respect one’s debate of that, but there’s one thing for certain….there is no way to call it what the AFA has called it.  Read it, it is what it is.

You see, I’m so fed-up with so-called “conservative christian” outfits playing on the heartstrings of Christians (primarily Evangelical Christians).  As a conservative Evangelical Christian myself, it’s very insulting and ultimately hinders God’s Great Commission.

Folks, CAREFUL WHAT YOU BELIEVE.  Don’t believe everything you read without putting your own mind forward.