Monday, March 8, 2010

Do you feel broken or unclean?

For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine (Romans 1:11-12).
I am continually encouraged by the faith and teaching of Mark Driscoll, and I was greatly encouraged by these two videos, and I hope they encourage you as well.  Why was I encouraged?  He reminds of who Jesus is and what He's done for me.  Is there anything better to be reminded of?  Is there anything more encouraging?
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:1-2).



Monday, March 1, 2010

On My Shoulders


Last Monday I went to a home Bible study.  Tuesday, I went to Krispy Kreme to catch up and spend some time with Tim.  Besides fellowship and good times, both had another thing in common.
Monday, Sarah (the wife of the Bible study host) made some great pound cake.  Tuesday, well, I was at Krispy Kreme (see a similarity yet?).  I had two slices of pound cake at the Bible study – delicious.  However, I decided to have a third post-Bible study...bad call.  Tuesday, I had already snacked for far too long on pita chips and spicy hummus (also tasty).  A fresh Krispy Kreme donut and large, 99¢ decaf coffee, though delicious, was also a bad call.
You see, I have this unfortunate tendency to listen to my tongue (taste buds?) over the advice of my stomach.  My tongue is selfish, and it’s a liar.  Many a time I will have thoroughly enjoyed this or that meal or dessert or snack, and I’ve reached the quite content place we’ve all reached after eating something quite tasty or that hit the spot just right, or both.  In that place of contentment my tongue will speak up, “That tasted so good, didn’t it?”  “Why, yes it did,” I reply.  “You know you want more.”  “What?”  “Oh yeah, of course you want more.”  “I’m actually pretty content right now.”  “No, you’re not.”  This continues for a bit until I begin to doubt my meal contentment, to question the contentment’s sincerity.
At this point the third voice enters, “Hey, it’s your stomach.  Don’t listen to him.  He doesn’t care about you.  Think about me.  You know how I’m feeling?  Fine, really content actually.  So, don’t take another bite.  We've been through this before.  You don’t really want another slice/piece, and you know it.”  Well, needless to say my tongue is quite disapproving of all that nonsense (nonsense to him at least) and continues on lying about how I’ll be just fine and my stomach won’t be upset later and in fact, I will probably feel better (Don’t forget what I said earlier.  My tongue is a selfish liar.  Also, if you’re having trouble picturing this whole discussion, think of it as a shoulder angel vs. a shoulder devil.).



I’m getting better at heeding the voice of wisdom – my stomach (the shoulder angel) – but I am far from error free (seeing as how I ate that third piece of pound cake and ate a fresh, glazed Krispy Kreme and tried to down a large decaf (only made it half way through the coffee though) on an already not super happy stomach).
Again, remember, my tongue is also very selfish because he does not really care about me at all.  My stomach does, and we all know our stomach always get the last word.  “That tasted great!”  Too bad I’ll be regretting it in a bit (upset stomach induced moans on the way).  And you know what, I never regret not eating that third piece or trying to eat another this or drink another that.  It’s pretty much contentment with no discomfort versus overindulgence and frustration and discomfort later.  Seems like a no-brainer, right?  But that overindulgence part is always so tempting isn’t it?

One of the many aspects of foolishness is knowing the negative consequences and deciding to go forward with the actions anyway (line inspired by statements made by Steve Phillips).  Praise God for His patience, His forgiveness, and great books of the Bible like Proverbs.