Giving Gifts

Winston and Shirley called yesterday afternoon and wanted to give gifts to some of the kids we minister to in Dallas. God had already placed one family on my heart. Driving to church yesterday, two of them told me about how they didn't get any gifts for Christmas. They were visibly disappointed. Winston and Shirley were able to account for gifts that would work for 5 of the 7 kids. "I'll come up with the gifts for the other two," I told them. The 'other two' were teenage girls. Thankfully, my friend Rachel helped me with selecting the gifts. Who knows what girls like and what's this word 'cute' I keep hearing? Don't know what it means. But I digress.

So I called the father last night and asked him what he thought about us delivering the gifts to his kids. "Yes, it's ok," he told me, but he also talked of his longing that he could afford to buy gifts for his kids also. He is a refugee from Africa and a father of 7 children- and unemployed. God help us to bless these kids without embarrassing their father!

So this evening, I met up with Winston and Shirley, their son Trevor, and their friend Carol. I devised a clever plan so that the father would give the gifts and receive the credit for them. When it came time to make the 'drop-off', he wasn't home like he said he would be. So we took the presents up to the kids ourselves. Merry Christmas!

Graduation Day

DRS Holiday Party

Disconnect

"Welcome to ministry in the real world," Jordan told me. I was getting ready to teach on the tower of Babel today, and praying for the kids to understand the lesson about man's sinful history- and nature- and God's redemptive plan. Then I realized there was a kid at Bible study that was challenging another kid to fight and involved in some potentially dangerous activity. And so this is one of the great challenges for us and for these kids- we can teach them about Jesus, and the Bible and how we are to love others. But when it comes time to practice it, it may or may not be there in their hearts. There's this potential disconnect between knowing truth in our heads, and having a desire to apply it and live it out. Perhaps this is one of the things that the Lord is talking about, when he says:

These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
Isaiah 29:13

I have a teenager that comes over to my house often. He memorized the bible verse (Colossians 3:13) that says 'Love others as Jesus loves you.' He can repeat the verse on cue, no problems, but then he'll turn around and slug a kid and try to beat him up if he interferes with him trying to play a game. This is one of our great challenges- that Jesus is more than a concept- he's a real Lord and following him requires real thought and life change.

Daniel

Even if these three men- Noah, Daniel, and Job- were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness.
Ezekiel 14:14

God points out three men as having exceptional righteousness... I want to study what made them righteous and how I might learn to be righteous like them. The second of the three mentioned by God in the book of Ezekiel is Daniel. One of the things that's great about Daniel is his exceptional work ethic in a secular environment. This gives me much wisdom, encouragement, and guidance as I journey through my own secular workplace. For example:

Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.
Daniel 6:3

They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.
Daniel 6:4

Daniel was also a man before God:

Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.
Daneil 6:10-11

Pop Culture

I had about a ten minute conversation tonight that reminded myself how little I know about pop culture. The teenager I was talking with was fairly disapointed that I didn't know anything about what sounded like fairly main-stream music and entertainment icons. I tried to hide behind the fact that I don't have cable television. She suggested I keep up on the internet. That would be a major undertaking for me. :) I'm not into the stuff. The Bible teaches me to be all things to all people so that some might be saved (1 Corinthians 9:22). I suppose learning about who Beyonce is dating or whatever about Chris Brown is something I can wrestle with when I'm done with school... and have more time to play around with. :)

Job

Even if these three men- Noah, Daniel, and Job- were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness.
Ezekiel 14:14

God points out three men as having exceptional righteousness... I want to study what made them righteous and how I might learn to be righteous like them. The third of the three mentioned by God in the book of Ezekiel is Job. Job seemed appropriate to study this past few weeks as I went through some light physical afflictions.

The Bible tells us that Job was 'blameless and upright' in the first verse (Job 1:1). In fact, how about this for a righteous 'rap sheet':
-All had their fill of Job's meat as he fed strangers and friends alike good food (31:31)
-It was customary for him to invite in strangers that would otherwise spend the night in the street (31:32)
-He did not find security in wealth but instead his security was in God (31:24)
-Whoever heard of him spoke well of him because he rescued the poor and the fatherless who cried for help (29:11-12)
-He refused to rejoice at his enemy's misfortune (31:29)
-He was a father to the needy, taking up the case of the stranger (29:16)
-He made a covenant with his eyes not to look lustfully at women (31:1)
-He did not let the eyes of the widows grow weary (31:16)

And perhaps my favorite (1:5)-

Early in the morning [Job] would sacrifice a burnt offering for each [of his children], thinking, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's regular custom.

I think an important verse is Job 1:22 where the Bible tells us that while very difficult trials and hardships were going on around him (his children killed, animals, fortune gone, etc. almost simultaneously!), Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. That's challenging.

New Shoes

After church today, I took 5 of the refugee kids that came with me to McDonald's for lunch. They were very excited to go because they caught wind of the McDonald's 'monopoly' peel-off game. In particular, the top prize was $1,000,000 and they were talking about whether they were going to win the prize this week or have to wait until next week. I asked one of them what he would do with the million dollars. "Buy a new pair of shoes," he told me. 'Really?' I thought. Not a house, not a car or a motorcycle. He just wants a new pair of shoes.

He Was Without Sin

In John 8, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. Jesus tells them in verse 7:

"If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

Yet, Jesus himself was without sin (Hebrews 4:15)! I had never thought about that before. And of course he did not throw a stone at her either. He was qualified- yet refused.

"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
John 8:11

Noah

Even if these three men- Noah, Daniel, and Job- were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness.
Ezekiel 14:14

God points out three men as having exceptional righteousness... I want to study what made them righteous and how I might learn to be righteous like them. The first of the three mentioned by God in the book of Ezekiel is Noah.

God to Noah:
I have found you righteous in this generation. Genesis 7:1

So what made Noah righteous?

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Genesis 6:9

So the Bible tells us that Noah walked with God and did everything just as God commanded him (Genesis 6:22, Genesis 7:5).

And Noah was a man that pleased God:

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis 6:8

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. Genesis 8:20 (Potentially the first thing he does after coming out of the ark.) And it was a pleasing aroma to God (verse 21).

It's interesting to note that the Bible also includes a short story about how Noah gets drunk and nude in Genesis 9:20-21. Perhaps much like the story about David (who God calls 'a man after my own heart') or Abraham (who has his own issues) or Peter, God looks past the slip-ups and makes some sort of heart determination.

Like Pulling Teeth

I had a junior high school age boy over to my apartment yesterday. I threw him for a loop when I suggested we talk for a few minutes instead of me allowing him to immediately play one of my games at the house. "What do your parents do for a job?" "I don't know." "Tell me, what are they like- your parents?" "You mean, what do they like to eat?" "No, what do they enjoy doing? How about your brother?" "I don't know." All I know about his brother is that he is apparently messy and needs to clean up his own messes. Later, we went for a drive over to Burger King. I had a few more questions- "Do you have a best friend at school?" "Yes." "What's his name?" "I don't remember." I couldn't believe that one! "What do you mean you don't remember?" "Well, we are best friends at school, but you know, it stays there. He knows my name." I thought I had a good question next: "What's on your mind?" (If you don't want to answer these questions, just tell me anything!) "Have you ever been to CiCi's pizza? That place is good." So I told all this to my friend April, and I think we both agreed that many to most boys this age talk like this. And I talked like this when I was that age- so I should understand. ;)

Beltway

At 7 in the morning, the kids woke me up, and we were off to Abilene. It was a drive that took over 3 hours- so we had plenty of time to chat. When I told the kids we will make it in time for the service, one of the younger ones exclaimed, "Oooh!! Service?!??!!! I am so hungry!" He was thinking it was a service like a hotel room service- when in actuality, we were going to the church service. He got momentarily confused :) This summer, a group from Beltway Baptist church in Abilene came to Dallas to do a summer camp for the kids of Town Center. They formed such good friendships, that the kids have been asking me each week to drive them to Abilene to see their friends. Finally, I agreed. We arrived at their church just in time. We met up with some of their friends who bought us lunch after church.

When it was time to go, one of the kids asked to stay behind in Abilene. When I told him that we had to get back for two of the other kids' soccer game, he proposed that I leave him in Abilene, take the others home, then drive back to Abilene and pick him up. Surprisingly, I declined- as it would have been an extra 7 hours of driving to do that. Yeah, nice try! ;)