The Pedal to the Metal

Sunday, March 5th, 2006

The Pedal to the Metal

Romans 13:1-7
1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4 For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

This is a convicting scripture to me. Yes, I do drive the speed limit on the highway and stop at red lights and stop signs… but guess what? My plates are out… and until tomorrow, I have no insurance on my vehicles. BAD! BAD! BAD! And also, I must admit it; I don’t really like George W. much. I was cool with him all the way until it came out that he was openly spying on the good old USA. But it says “if respect, the respect…” and I feel that not only did I not like the guy, it really boiled down to me having feelings of anger (and possibly even hatred). My father-in-law told me this great story today, that actually ties into this scripture quiet well. “Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.” You see, Johnny Depp (actor from such films as Pirates of the Caribbean and Edward Scissorhands) was on a TV show called 21 Jump Street… but after the second season, Depp began to generate tons of movie offers. JD felt a responsibility to the show and wasn’t going to cut his contract. His word meant too much to him. He went to the director and talked to him about the offers and that he would very much like to do them should the show not be renewed for the third season. He said that he signed a contract and he would abide by that contract. And before the third season, Depp’s contract was released simply because he was a man of integrity. Depp had no fear of authority simply because he did what was right. He was willing to give to Caesar what was Caesar’s… and was rewarded for doing the right thing.

Related Scriptures
Genesis 4:6-7
6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

Matthew 22:21 Then he said to them, "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders. Put yourselves under their authority. They keep watch over you. They know they are accountable to God for everything they do. Obey them so that their work will be a joy. If you make their work a heavy load, it won't do you any good.

The Joy of Loss - Edition #5

Saturday, March 4th, 2006

The Joy of Loss – Edition #5

So, today my wife gets her hair cut, and then we head to search for a strange, cool, unusual, and manly gift for my brother’s wedding present. Tonight, we head off to White Rock Lake to see the closing of a friend of mine’s Art Show. It’s at the Bath House Cultural Center… we will hit there early and leave early since Mr. Mack will be with.

2nd Peter 2:1-22
1 But there were also false prophets among the people. In the same way there will be false teachers among you. In secret they will bring in teachings that will destroy you. They will even turn against the Lord and Master who died to save them. His death paid for their sins. They will quickly destroy themselves. 2 Many people will follow their shameful ways. They will give the way of truth a bad name.

3 Those teachers are never satisfied. They want to get something out of you. So they make up stories to take advantage of you. They have been under a sentence of death for a long time. The One who will destroy them has not been sleeping.

4 God did not spare angels when they sinned. Instead, he sent them to hell. He put them in dark prisons. He will keep them there until he judges them. 5 God did not spare the world's ungodly people long ago. He brought the flood on them. But Noah preached about the right way to live. God kept him safe. He also saved seven others. 6 God judged the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He burned them to ashes. He made them an example of what is going to happen to ungodly people.

7 God saved Lot. He was a man who did what was right. He was shocked by the dirty, sinful lives of people who didn't obey God's laws. 8 That good man lived among them day after day. He saw and heard the evil things they were doing. They were breaking God's laws. And his godly spirit was deeply troubled.

9 So the Lord knows how to keep godly people safe in times of testing. He also knows how to keep ungodly people under guard until the day they will be judged. In the meantime, he continues to punish them. 10 Most of all, this is true of people who follow the evil longings of their sinful natures. They hate to be under authority.

Those false prophets are bold and proud. They aren't afraid to speak evil things against heavenly beings. 11 Angels are stronger and more powerful than those people. But even angels don't bring to the Lord evil charges against heavenly beings.

12 Those people speak evil about things they don't understand. They are like wild animals. They do what comes naturally to them. They are born only to be caught and destroyed. Just like animals, they too will die.

13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to have wild parties in the middle of the day. They are like spots and stains. They enjoy their sinful pleasures while they eat with you. 14 They stare at women who are not their wives. They want to have sex with them. They never stop sinning. They trap those who are not firm in their faith. They have mastered the art of getting what they want. God has placed them under his curse.

15 They have left God's way. They have wandered off. They follow the way of Balaam, son of Beor. He loved to get paid for doing his evil work. 16 But a donkey corrected him for the wrong he did. Animals don't speak. But the donkey spoke with a human voice. It tried to stop the prophet from doing a very dumb thing.

17 Those false prophets are like springs without water. They are like mists driven by a storm. The blackest darkness is reserved for them.

18 They speak empty, bragging words. They make their appeal to the earthly longings of people's sinful nature. They tempt new believers who are just escaping from the company of sinful people. 19 They promise to give freedom to the new believers. But they themselves are slaves to sinful living. A person is a slave to anything that controls him.

20 They may have escaped the sin of the world. They may have come to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But what if they are once again caught up in sin? And what if it has become their master? Then they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

21 What if they had not known the way of godliness? That would have been better than to have known it and then to have turned their backs on it. The way of godliness is the sacred command that was passed on to them.

22 What the proverbs say about them is true. "A dog returns to where it has thrown up." And, "A pig that is washed goes back to rolling in the mud."

Now, I am an artist… not practicing much these days, but I will be painting the inside of my fence soon to look like that of a baseball field. I figure since I will be here for a couple of more years, might as well. And tonight, as I go to the art show, I thought I would check out the word art in the bible. It would seem I have lost the joy of doing art over the years, and it is starting to come back to me, to want to paint and draw and create pictures pleasing to the eye. I don’t see that becoming a master artist with the paint brush is wrong as even the slightest… but mastering the art of getting what I want… well it doesn’t look good in the eyes of God. Verse 14 scares me… lusting after women, staring them down into submission within their mind. And the word “never” is a long, long time. They squish the will of weak Christians… and use words and speech to get their desires… and because they do these things, God places them under a curse. How far am I from this? This is what is scary: I don’t see myself far from at all. I sometimes check my tongue in the morning to see if it is forked. I can wonder off and still be here… and I wonder if my cat is going to talk and correct me someday. You see, in verse 19 it says “a person is a slave to anything that controls him.” And the word control means to exercise authoritative or dominating influence over; direct. And if the sinful nature is in control, then it has the dominating influence over me. It directs me in the way I go… and not God. I don’t think I have shared this, but my anger is trying to take this control. I have been short tempered of late and it is by simple frustration over the “little things” in life. And I have found unusual things to bring me at ease… taking walks, driving down 360 and watch people pass me as I go the speed limit (which is weird because I used to be so angry at everyone else for passing me), and checking out sports (fantasy sports of all things). But something caught me weird a few weeks ago. I was coming home from midweek and on 360, the Ten Commandments passed me by… zipping on down the highway, speeding of all things. I don’t know who was driving that vehicle… but something should be said to them. Anyway, please pray for my anger, temper, and frustrations, that they may be eased in a righteous fashion. Have a great weekend, Johnny Out.

The Joy of Loss - Edition #4

Friday, March 3rd, 2006

The Joy of Loss – Edition #4

I have been busy today… tackling different tasks and whatnot… some would say doing good things or righteous things. I don’t know if I would necessarily call it that, but I have been doing the things I am supposed to do. Obedient, I guess you could call it. I’m not perfect, though. To make a diamond, intense pressure needs to be applied. And it takes pressure over an extended period of time to make a great diamond. The thing that has the pressure applied to it has to be of the right material. To take clay and apply the pressure will not make a diamond but it takes coal. But wait, it takes the right contents of metal within the coal and the genetics have to be right to make a really good looking diamond. So what am I? Am I clay or coal?

2nd Corinthians 4:1-18
1 Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

13 It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2nd Samuel 14:5-7
5 She said, "I am indeed a widow; my husband is dead. 6 I your servant had two sons. They got into a fight with each other in the field, and no one was there to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. 7 Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant; they say, 'Hand over the one who struck his brother down, so that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed; then we will get rid of the heir as well.' They would put out the only burning coal I have left, leaving my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth."

So many times, I want to be a diamond, shining and sparkling for the world to see… there have been times where I desire the spotlight but when faced with a crowd, fear and uncertainty set within my conscience. I tend to perform well in those situations, at least in most cases. But with coals, they are lit and can burn out. Clay is moldable. In fact, there exists clay that will not dry out… period. Moldable forever, as they say… that is the clay I want to be, not coal that gets snuffed out. Better a cup clean on the inside than a diamond locked in a closet.

The Joy of Loss - Edition #3

Thursday, March 2nd, 2006

An interesting day this has already been… I have been having some leg pain now for well over a year. I checked webMD.com just a while a go, and come to find out, the possibilities that popped up concerned me… I did not know that prostate cancer could cause leg pain, nor blood clots… although I wasn’t really surprised about the blood clots. The prostate cancer was a huge surprise, though. I once had polyps on my prostate in middle school and I know my prostate is enlarged… I seriously have to talk to my doctor about that. WOW! And today, preseason starts officially for the Rangers. The preseason in the majors opened yesterday, with Chicago taking a loss from Colorado. And tonight is a night of all games in Basketball… the winner of the Mavs/Spurs game will have first place in the west and the loser will rest in fourth place in the playoff bracket. In a matter of 9 days, my brother will be married, knocking off the last of my parents’ children.

The Joy of Loss – Edition #3

Good night, I am not in the mood to have one today… I haven’t missed one this year… I took my pain medication and it’s not doing squat.

Psalm 69:29-30
29 I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me. 30 I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.

I have a friend who is going through a similar ordeal… my Aunt is ill with cancer as well… and of course, my leg is unbearable. Looking at Psalm 69, I think the best thing to pray for in all three of our situations is to pray for God’s protection… and in turn, I for one, will be singing the praise of my Lord, whether the other two do or not, that is for them to decide, but pray for all three of us, all the same.

Luke 15:4-7
4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

I have found something this morning that struck me… I thought of this scripture… with loss, I thought, comes searching. Now, over time with the death of my cousin, I searched… within my mind and heart and I couldn’t find any answers on my own. Despair sat in and then one day I met Jenny and became a disciple… and even through all these good things, the pain and loss of my cousin still haunted me. And I kept telling myself life is good, life is better, blah-blah-blah… all the things we tell ourselves to make the hurt and pain go away over such a loss… and this scripture hit me. Through the pain of it all, I realized that I hadn’t searched in the right place. I had lost the sheep and I was in distress over not finding it. In this case, God granted me closure. He let me find the sheep and take it home forever… albeit, this particular sheep was actually seeing that eventful tombstone and most importantly the date on it. I am somewhat struggling even still by the calendar… I remember last year, I struggled with getting sad and becoming depressed by March. I did get that way, but it wasn’t as bad as previous years. This year, the struggle begins a little today… the course of routine… you do it for a good chunk of you life, turning it around overnight isn’t really all that easy.

Turning it around, me being the sheep, I want to come back to the shepherd… I call out in the brush, being lost and wanting to be found. What sheep really wants to be lost in the wilderness, susceptible to the elements and predators? There are lions, bears, and evil-mean-bad-and-nasty things out there! I want the shepherd to help me, and when I am found, do you not know that I will rejoice right there with you?

Now, if this is the lost, they are stuck in the brush, predators all around waiting to feast on the poor sheep, who is screaming and bleating for its shepherd… what am I waiting for? I need to pick up my slingshot and a bunch of rocks and get busy! There is a loss out there waiting for me to find them and if I don’t, someone else will… Johnny Out.

The Joy of Loss - Edition #2

Wednesday, March 1st, 2006

A dawn of a new month… it is such a great thing. My brother is getting next week, Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up, and my birthday – it’s all this month. I also go check out a school, my heart is going to be tested for a heart attack, and some friends move down to Houston. It’s a busy month, a busy month indeed.

So, today is National Pig Day… and what the heck that means, I don’t know… Yesterday was Mardi Gras, which I for one do not like… people celebrate the idea of fasting by sinning before hand… and not simply just sin… abundant amounts of sin. It doesn’t make any sense to me, but I guess that is the way of the world.

Anyway…

The Joy of Loss – Edition #2

March has generally been a hard time for me over the years… simply because of my birthday. I have lived the life of a lie for a terribly long time. I believed that my cousin had committed suicide on my birthday long ago… it messed me up for many years… and then my aunt passed a couple of years ago and I got to see he grave stone. He died 5 days after my birthday. And I stopped lying to myself. But with that time… I was able to connect in such a way and allow release. And each year, it has been a better time for me on my birthday. And I am grateful… for the loss of my cousin and the coming to terms with it has been a renewing of my spirit.

Genesis 22:1-12
1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"

"Here I am," he replied.

2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"

"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.

"The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.

9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"

"Here I am," he replied.

12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

Hebrews 11:17-19
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." 19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

God asked of Abraham what God himself was going to do. God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, but no-one stopped God. I can’t imagine God asking me to do something like this… to kill my son. And the thing is that Abraham didn’t question God. I am sure in his mind, in his thoughts, he was grieved for having to do it, but the thing is, his faith was followed through by action. Whether he didn’t agree with it, whether he was upset internally, I may never know… and when I get to heaven, I am sure I will be completely busy with having fun with my God to bother Abe about such petty questions. Abe more than likely was feeling loss in his heart for having to do such a task. There may be questions asked by people in this world, “If you love me, you will…” And that is all great and wonderful. Sometimes, it can conflict with what God says, and then it becomes a question of, “Do you love God or me more?” And that shouldn’t even have to generate a response. Am I willing to suffer loss on Earth for gain in heaven? I came so close to suicide myself for many years over the lie of my cousin’s death. As a child, I know that things get twisted, thoughts get turned around, and one simple thing becomes a purple monkey dishwasher. I don’t rake myself over the coals for my thought pattern. And why should I? It led me here. And for that, I find the joy.