Weekend Reflections

One thing I have learned this weekend is...I am no longer designed to do the splits! After slipping in my garage, doing the splits, hurting my back and then kicking the hearth of our fireplace and probably breaking my little toe, it has definately been an interesting weekend.

I then began to think back to last weekend and realized I was speaking about the Holy Spirit. I know that there is a spiritual battle taking place in the heavenlies and that the enemy of our soul doesn't want anyone to tap into the Spirit's power. So, I stood up this morning with a heartbeat in my toe and said, "Satan, that's the best you have? I am still standing!"

We were able to take a trip through the Old Testament and see the workings of the Holy Spirit. I found it interesting that the Holy Spirit rested on people for specific purposes in the Old Testament. Now, the Holy Spirit is for all believers.

As I am preaching through this series, I want the Holy Spirit to lead me, protect me, provide me with wisdom and empower me to serve God's purposes more each day.

TOMS Shoes, Facebook & Christianity

My daughter recently asked if she could have a pair of TOMS shoes. I immediately went to my closet and started to grab her a pair of my shoes. That is when she told me what they were. She told me about this company and how they give one pair of shoes to a person in need with every pair purchased. I then asked her to let me see the shoes. We went to the website and looked at them. I thought...Meh...

She pleaded with me...its for a good cause. Sure they were more than I wanted to pay for THOSE shoes...but the purpose was a good one.

I then saw their advertisement on Facebook and quickly realized how big this project was. There are 175 million people that log in to Facebook everyday. That is incredible! TOMS shoes is now taking their purpose, their cause, their core value that everyone should have at least one pair of shoes to the world of Facebook.

I had to ask...what if the church...what if my church, my denomination...the Assemblies of God...what if I...took up the cause of Christ like TOMS Shoes has taken their cause?

We spend a lot of our lives trying to find happiness. Helen Keller said,

"Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."

I can think of no more worthy of a purpose that the cause of Christ...what will you do?

The Holy Spirit and "Unisex" Clothing

I know you are probably wondering about the title...pretty catchy huh? I hate to admit this, but after finding that my predominate spiritual gift is the gift of putting my foot in my mouth...not sure on the Scripture reference. Anyway, the whole 'unisex' clothing, cologne, names and pretty much whatever else you can think of, really is not a good thing for people like me.

A few months back, I went back to my hometown to visit. We were out and about and I ran into a friend that I attended High School with. After making the courteous restaurant table visit and catch up that is so much expected in the Deep South, the conversation turned to what we are doing now and how many kids we have. I, being the excellent father that I am, had a picture of my 2 kids(that was BK...before Katie). Then my friend announced that she had just had a child and just so happened to have the baby in the car seat on the floor beside her. This is when business picked up. I could feel it...my spiritual gift welling up inside and about to be exposed to the world.

The proud mother grabbe the handle of the car carrier and showed me her most cherished newborn. Now, to be fair to me, all newborns look alike! All of the them are kind of crinkly, red and slobbery. What sets some apart is that some have more hair than others. I know what you are thinking..."You didn't tell her she had an ugly baby." No, that was a different lady. Anyway, one of the first things I noticed was the UNISEX color of the carseat, the UNISEX color of the baby's blanket and matching beanie. So, what do I do now? No clues yet as to if it is a boy or girl. So, I reach in and kind of pull the blanket down to get a peek of the baby's clothes...guess what...the color is ambiguous. I have no clue what I am looking at other than it is a baby and a proud momma.

So, here comes the moment my spiritual gift is getting closer to public demonstration. I ask, "What is the baby's name?" The mom said, "We name the baby Terri/Terry. I know both men and women named Terri/Terry. Come on God, I need some help here...throw me a bone! So, I said to my friend and proud mother, "It sure is cute!" That was the moment you have been waiting for.

My friend, was incredibly upset at my choice of pronoun I used to describe her baby. She said idignantly, "IT! I will have you know that you do not need to call my DAUGHTER...IT."

So, I did what any good person would do...I tried to explain myself. However, I soon realized that you can't explain your way out of this type of thing and what was intended to be a very cordial moment with an old friend that I had not seen in years was now victim to me in all my glory. So, I apologized and quietly walked to my table with those in my party just shaking their heads in disbelief as to what happened. I even think I heard a random "Bless his heart" by some onlookers like they were on the midway watching the maneating chicken.

Then I thought, what if God has the same reaction to us when we call the Holy Spirit it. I wonder if He just shakes His head and looks at Jesus and says, "These people, they just do understand who He is."

The Holy Spirit wants to have a relationship with us, counsel us, give us divine wisdom, protect us and give us supernatural love, joy and peace. We just don't know what we have in the third person in the Trinity.

So, with that, pursue a relationship with the Holy Spirit...He will change everything.