Food for Thought: Missing Sunday morning worship

When we miss (literally) church, do we miss (emotionally) church?????

How important is your Sunday morning worship to you?

One of my biggest sins...

Most people think I'm a humble man. But, one of my deepest weaknesses and sins is pride. It is only by God's grace that He is even able to use me despite how tremendous my pride can be sometimes.

Spurgeon speaks beautifully about the pitfalls of pride.
"Pride is most likely to meet with destruction, because it is too tall to walk upright. It is most likely to tumble down, because it is always looking upward in its ambition, and never looks to its feet. There only needs to be a pitfall in the way, or even a stone, and down it goes."

I can't express how true this quote is for my own pride.

Can you relate to this type of pitfall for any of your sins in your life?

God teaching me a lesson with Green Traffic Lights

(Image from concept.blogspot.com)

As I was driving down Route 1 to Chipotle, light-after-light-after-light was green. I couldn't believe my stupendous luck. This had never happened to me on this road... not like this. As I was speeding down the road, I thanked God for these cool, easy-breezy green lights. During that moment, my conscience spoke to me and reminded me to not speed as I was going 55mph on a 35mph road. I prayed to God and asked Him to remind me to not speed and abuse the green lights.

Then and there, a police car was at the intersection of yet another green light. In that second, I gasped as my heart choked with realization at what was happening. I had sped past the cop at 55mph but he didn't stop me. I was dumbfounded.

After regaining my wits, I could not express my thankfulness to the Lord at that moment for not pulling me over. I deserved no less than a ticket, a fine, a rebuke from my parents, shame in my heart, and God's severe discipline.

Why didn't the cop pull me over?
Because God was undoubtedly merciful in that moment.
And, also maybe because He knew I had learned a meaningful lesson.
I didn't deserve either mercy or lesson.

Was it really my conscience speaking to me?
More than that, it was the Holy Spirit kindly reminding me of right and wrong.
"Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God" (1 Corinthians 2:12).



How often have I gone through my life abusing all sorts of gifts God has given me?
He's given me gifts to appreciate Him, the Giver, more than the gifts.
He's given me gifts in hope that I would use them for good, not for bad, not for selfish reasons.
He's given me gifts that I may know I deserve none of them let alone any part of Him.

God, You are so much more than I know or deserve. What can I say? Teach me how to be a good son of yours.


When have you ever been given a gift from God or anyone and just plainly, flat-out used them for your own selfish purpose?
(I know I have... plenty of times.)





Curious to learn more about God and more about you,
Brendon

Injustice: Exxon

In 1989, an Exxon oil tanker spilled 10.8 million gallons of oil in Alaska. The result was the destruction of marine wildlife and all fishing opportunities in the area.

Exxon's profit for the year = 40 billion dollars
They were asked to pay = 2.5 billion dollars
They ended up paying = 500 million dollars.

What does this mean?
It means that every fisherman was reimbursed $15,000. This is ALL they have to support themselves and their families for the rest of their lives. Their source of income, fishing, was decimated. Since 1989, 20% of the claimants (fishermen) have died.
Instead of finding fish in this previous sea of plenty, they now find oil on their hands. How can they feed their families like this?
What will these thousands of fishermen do now?...........


Why blog on this?
Because you should be outraged and reminded of the injustice that occurs on every part of the world map.

What're you doing about the injustice in this world with your life?
That's something only you can personally answer.


Brother from another mother,
B-Wunit

References:
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/66647/
NY Times section on the issue
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7473968.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/24/newsid_4231000/4231971.stm

Laconic: A Challenge in Itself

Today's dictionary.com's "word of the day" is...

laconic \luh-KON-ik\, adjective:
Using or marked by the use of a minimum of words; brief and pithy; brusque.

• Readers' reports range from the laconic to the verbose.
  -- Bernard Stamler, "A Brooklyncentric View of Life", New York Times, February 28, 1999
• In the laconic language of the sheriff department's report,there was "no visible sign of life."
  -- David Wise, Cassidy's Run
• There was one tiny photograph of him at a YMCA camp plus a few laconic and uninformative entries in a soldier's log from the war year, 1917-18.
  -- Edward W. Said, Out of Place: A Memoir

Laconic comes, via Latin, from Greek Lakonikos, "of or relating to a Laconian or Spartan," hence "terse," in the manner of the Laconians.

~~~~~~~~~~

Why does this word pose a challenge to me? Because I'm a verbose man in far too many things. I love to ramble and ramble is what I do as a job sometimes. It's bad not because people don't get what I'm saying or because wasting energy, but because the way I communicate could be better. In life, when you see a way to do something that is better, you take on this challenge.

My wish is to communicate more messages with clarity, conciseness, and creativity. It's not about the quantity of words one uses, but the quality of words. It's not about the display, but about the punch.

How good is your punch?



Brendon