I wanted to write a short post about my recent conversation with an Atheist. Sometimes I think Christians are intimidated to talk with someone that believes that there is no God. However I had the privilege to do just that and trust me I am not all that intellectual if you know me you know this is true ha. This guy had his phd in Micro Biology I believe it was so trust me I was way out of my league I know little about biology. However I greatly enjoyed our conversation and my opportunity to learn why he believed what he believed.

I would like to say that many times Christianity gets lumped into just being another religion. However when I stopped him and said I am not part of a religion and that I can never get to God but that my faith is about God coming to me he stopped for a moment and said well it is all semantics. When I confronted him that it is not all semantics but rather there is a large difference he agreed with me. It is good to have conversation without arguing. The fact is I will never argue someone into heaven and I wil never be argued out of my belief that God exists. There are people alot smarter than I scientifically that believe in Jesus Christ.

I must say I really wrote this to say this. In my conversation this man relayed to me that the most hatred that he has seen from people have come from those that profess to be followers of Christ. He then said that he had friends that were Christians but when they found out he was an Atheist they wanted nothing to do with him. Isn’t this a sad commentary on our faith. How often do we do this to others just because they believe differently than us. These are the very people we find Christ hanging out with and if someone who does not believe in God does not see God lived out in us then we have a major problem.

I guess what bothers me the most is that we are notorious for making excuses we say things like “they are not interested in following Christ so it does not matter” or I have heard one pastor say “if they really want to grow they will grow” I have said similar things at times we so often excuse our failures and even sins as no big deal.  This is just not acceptable.  We must show Christ to the unbeliever.  I hope in some small way I showed Christ to this man.  When he left he thanked me for talking with him and told me it was good to meet me I told him the same.  

I am thankful that on that day I had a conversation with someone that did not believe like me. 

God Bless.

I remember hearing about this story but this is the first time I have seen video of it.  This story is such a great story and very moving.  Watch the video.

Amazing Softball Story - Watch today’s top amazing videos here

Please take time to read whole Story. So powerful.

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.

It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team’s fans?

They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, “Go Tornadoes!” Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.

It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on by name.

“I never in my life thought I’d hear people cheering for us to hit their kids,” recalls Gainesville’s QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. “I wouldn’t expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!”

And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he’d just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.

But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five handcuffs ready in their back pockets and marched them to the team bus. That’s because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.

Please Read the Whole Story here.

I believe this video speaks for itself.  You may recognize him from Pen and Teller fame.  The video should really cause us to rethink our evangelistic efforts.

I happen to like president Bush and I know that is hard for some to believe especially living in a world where he seems to be hated by so many people.  When I saw this clip on the news I was not surprised by the guy throwing his shoes I was surprised by how fast President Bush was able to get out of the way.  Not only that I was surprised that the President kept a smile on his face the whole time.  Well here it is.

The phone rang at about 7:35 this morning and my wife woke me up and said it was a school wanting me to sub.  As I answered the phone and was asked if I could come in an sub this morning I agreed and then asked what class i was subbing for.  The response Kindergarden.  I have greatly enjoyed my time in the classroom and my time substitute however I have not subbed for elementary in a long time much less I have never subbed for Kindergarden.  Suddenly I had vision of the Movie Kindergarden cop and I wondered how in the world will I deal with 21 Kindergardeners.  

I arrived to the classroom and immediately had two teachers helping me out and showing me the ropes.  A day that I thought might turn out to be a day that I definitely would loose my last few hairs turned out to be a day that was awesome and a day that God used to teach me more about acceptance than anything.  I walked into the class with some preconceived ideas but I left with not only a greater appreciation for Kindergarden teachers everywhere but with a realization of how we can influence such young children.

Granted my day was filled with alot of tattle tailing, whining, and crying but that is not what the day was about.  The day was bout the kids that accepted me as their substitute and how they listened and most of all about all of the hugs I received from these little children and how they would tell me how much they liked me and even tell me they loved me.  Now we might say that is just the way these kids are but in them I saw Gods wonderful creation today.  I could not help but wonder what if we accepted others the same way these children accepted me.  What if we hugged on one another and let others know we loved them and we really did care about them.  What if we took the time to love on those that we barely even our acquaintances.  many times in the church we find it difficult to love those we know well this way much less those we barley know.  What would it look like if we only learned from these little kindergarden students.  I wonder.

Yesterday was a busy day for me.  I spent the day seeing patients for the first time and spent the day with several people.  I had a good day it was fun to spend time with some people yet at the same time difficult knowing that these people are in the last days of their lives. 

I enjoyed my time with one patient in particular.  We took time to look at an old car magazine together and I read to him about some of the cars.  We looked at the prices of some of the cars when they first came out and I shared with him what the horsepower was.  Even though he could not speak well enough fro me to understand him I could see in his expression and in his eyes that he liked the fact that I took the time to be with him.  It saddened me to know that perhaps this guy had a very little interaction with men now that he was in a nursing home and more then likely he was lonely and wanted a man to just show some interest in him and who he was.  I knew he liked cars because he had a picture of an old car hanging on his board.  My time with him was valuable.

However, this got me to thinking.  What would it be like to talk to someone and to know that they can not understand you.  I know his mind works but it must be difficult to know you can not communicate in a way that people understand you.  For some reason my thoughts turned to forgiveness.  What would it be like to want to say to someone “I forgive you yet not be able to”.  How difficult that must be.

My thoughts have turned to my father.  My father was alcoholic and that is really all I knew him as.  In fact it was a rare moment that my father was sober.  I remember the yelling and the screaming I remember the violent way he behaved when he was drunk.  I could not stand it.  I wanted an escape a way out.  Eventually my mother and father were divorced and I rarely saw my dad.  It got to the point where I never say him and in fact did not even know where he was.  I remember when my dad first found where I was and I m in that first letter he wrote and asked if I would ever be able to forgive him.  My response was “dad I forgave you long ago”  It was barely a year later that my father was murdered on the street of Arizona for a measly 11 dollars.  But what if I had never had the opportunity to tell him I forgave him and what I he never had the opportunity to ask.

This has been on my mind.  Forgiveness can be a powerful thing and I am so thankful that I have been forgiven by Jesus Christ.  I am so thankful for the grace that is experienced through the blood of Jesus Christ.  It took me a long time to get to the point where have forgiven some in my old congregation and how things were handled.  In fact if I am honest bitterness began to take root in me.  Do I agree with how things were handled?  The answer is a resounding no.  Do I forgive how things were handled the answer is yes.  I did not want to forgive but God began to break me and I got to the point where I knew without forgiveness my life would eventually be useless in the hands of the potter.  Now perhaps there are those that think they have done nothing wrong but regardless of the fact I forgive, and have forgiven those that have hurt me.  I pray God’s grace may abound.

I also know that in my life I am not so naive to think that I do not need forgiveness.  I know I have screwed up many times and many times my errors have hurt others maybe those I have hurt will forgive me.  This I know without forgiveness we are not following Christ.  It would be a terrible thing to want to tell someone you forgive them and not be able to say a thing.  

Tomorrow I will spend some time with a man that will most likely be dead very soon I am responsible for his spiritual care.  What would it be like to pass away without forgiving I pray I never know.

This is a great video

During these lasts weeks of much prayer and much seeking the Lord I have tried to be sensitive to where God is leading in my life.  I have gone through phone interviews with churches some very larger churches, some small churches, and some in between.  I have had personal interviews with churches as well.  However I kept struggling with what I should do in the meantime.  In addition I have struggled with the question of what should I be looking for in a church.  Many times churches know what they are looking for in a Youth Pastor but what do I want in a church that hires me.  Sadly there are many churches that I have submitted too that once I have gone further into the process with I have realized I would not want to work there and there are some churches I have turned down.  

During this time I was asked to consider being a chaplain for hospice.  To be honest this kind of scared me.  I mean I am a Youth Pastor I love dealing with teens I love hanging out with teens and just being with them.  Currently I am involved in the Youth Ministry at FBC Macon and am enjoying it greatly.  I love interacting with the teens and just hanging out with them in addition I have had the opportunity to speak on a few different occasions and have enjoyed that as well.  It has been cool to have students come up to me after a message and ask me about what I spoke on or to get an email of encouragement.  So how would any of this lead me into being a chaplain for Hospice.  In addition to this when I left my last church there were things said to me that would certainly make me think that I was far from being qualified to be Hospice Chaplain but fortunately God is bigger.

In my search I have had conversation after conversation with pastor lay people and staff.  Many times when I have completed my time with these people they have thanked me but they have usually gone beyond just saying thank you.  They have taken the time to specifically speak to my integrity, or to speak to my caring, or to speak to many other qualities that indeed I was beating myself up for because I was told to be lacking in many areas.  I had some of the most vile things said to me whether it be in letter form or in word from other Christians that no one should have to sit through.  Many times I could have returned with vile conversation myself but I did not.  All this to say why would God call me to deal with people that are terminal?  To deal with people that may be dead in a month.  This I do not know?

I do know this that in my course of interviews for the position those that interviewed me wanted me to come on board and they made it clear.  They felt I was qualified for the job and everyone told me how much they enjoyed there time with me.  God was beginning to make it clear that he was leading me in this direction.  However once I looked at the pay which was not bad at all I did not know whether it would work.  So I shot back an offer and it was accepted.  I do not know what God has in store but this I know I praise Him that even “In Dark Valley’s” there is always light.  Praise be to Him.  I am officially a Hospice Chaplain.

I recently read Eric Redmond’s reflections on the election of Barak Obama to the American presidency. It’s the wonderful articulation of the election of Barak Obama I would encourage you to read it.