Hammer Time

As a part of my job, i get the wonderful opportunity to do some amazing things. One of them is occasionally I get to spend all day operating a compressed air jack hammer. I know, I know, you are all thinking, "you lucky dog you.", but it is not quite as glamorous as it may sound. Sure, on the back ache and pain reliever commercials it looks great, but you can't believe everything you see on T.V. It really is quite tasking. Despite its apparent technical difficulty, when you spend as much time as I do operating one, it takes very little mental capacity to bust concrete into small pieces. As a result, my mind usually tends to wander. I find myself contemplating life's small mysteries like, "I wonder what is for supper tonight, why do some people say supper and others dinner, chowder is a funny word, if ants could talk would they still call their father's sister Aunt, Is that something shinny, wasn't Jack Nicholson in The Shinning?" you get the idea, not a whole lot going on in the upper room of the Rikel cranium.

Today, however, was different. The concrete I was pulverizing was being replaced because the people who originally poured it, poured it on mud. The most important part of constructing with concrete and almost everything else is a good solid foundation. So, concrete is usually poured on a good base of compacted aggregate. Now I am no engineer, but I learned enough about mud as a kid trying to catch tadpoles in our farm pond to know that something that will squish between your toes is probably not a solid foundation, although it is good for grossing out your older sister.

As i continued to hammer away at the concrete, I was reminded of Jesus talking about the wise man who built his house upon a rock and it stood against the storms and waves, and how the foolish man built his on sand and it came crumbling down. I am sure from the outside, both houses looked pretty much the same, but it was what was underneath that made the difference. i think that is the way we are a lot of times. People can look like they are as solid as concrete on the surface, but that is just a facade. Underneath their foundation is not built upon their relationship with Jesus. It is built on Pride, Materialism, Greed, Selfishness, and when things hit us we begin to crumble. I know there has been times when my foundation has not been made of what it needed to be and God took His jack hammer and pounded away what seemed to be a good surface until he got to my foundation and replaced it with "The Rock" a is in the process of building the man He desires me to be. One set upon the rock. And just like the concrete I will pour onto that solid base tomorrow, I may get run over, beat on, stormed on, but I will not be moved.

Crazy Man

About 10 years ago I was walking down the street in Nashville Tennessee after just coming out of a Promise Keepers event. I had just had an incredible experience with the presence of God. As we walked out of the arena, we were faced with the usual protesteors and demonstrators on the sidewalks. Feminist, Pro-Choice, pro-life, save the ameoba, all sorts of people trying to shout out what they thought I needed to hear. I however breezed right by them all and continued my stroll back to the van. As we walked past a Bar and grill with a little live country music spilling out into the evening air. I looked through the window at the people dinning and socializing and I thought, I wish all these people could experience what I had just experienced. So distracted by what I was thinking, I forgot to look ahead at where I was walking and quickly found myself about to run face first into someone. thanks to perifial vision, I was able to stop just in time to prevent knocking some unsuspecting soul to the concrete. As i looked up at my near victim, I saw a man standing on a crate with a bible in his hand. As if that was not enough to make me do a double take, the guy looked just like the crazy old Parson on one of the Poltergiest sequals. He was wearing a plain brown suit with one of those little string neck ties with some kind of big coin looking buckle around his neck. (Never understood those little things) He wore one of those" Little House on the Prairie" flat rim western hat, with kind of gumball machine center. (Not quite a Hawse Cartwright 10 galloon, but similar) He had long skinny teeth with a noticable gap between his front two, only to be highlighted by the fact that one of them was half missing. He looked at me with one eye, mainly because he had one of those crazy Marty Feldman eyes that just sort of revolved around like it had a mind of its own. He raise a bony finger toward my face and said "You will never be able to keep any promises (Going with the whole Promise Keepers theme) unless you Repent and Believe. Repent I say and be truly saved." I remember thinking "what a wacko" and just proceeding with my trek back to the van. Something about that man has always stuck in my mind. I remember thinking that he was over the top and no one could everpossibly take him seriously.
Now fast forward to present day. I was doing a little reading the other day about John the Baptist, and how he was quite the ecentric. the whole camel hair wardrobe, diet of locust and honey, living in the wilderness preaching "repent and be baptized." Who could ever take him seriously. Then I got to thinking about Paul. Whipped repeatedly, beaten, stoned, snakebit, shipwrecked, imprisoned, and the list goes on. I wonder if anyone ever had a near collision with him on the streets of Jerusalem and thought "What a wacko. Matthew - Tax collector, Peter - Fisherman, Elijah - taking on all the prophets of Baal and talking trash, running from Jezebel, being fed by Ravens, drought causing, dead child raising bonifide wacko. Noah - boat builder on dry land, flood predicter in a time that had never seen rain, STRANGE!
It seems all these guys in the Bible who were used by God to do great things, all seemed to have one thing in common. They probably looked off their rocker to the people around them. Despite being odd however, they all spoke the truth of God in their lives and God used them to fullfill a purpose. The funny thing is, I find myself wanting to be a lot more like the guy standing on the crate in Nasville, who at least was telling people how to experiencing God by repenting and believing than the guy walking down the street wishing people could experience God and doing nothing about it. I have become uncomfortable being the "run- of- the- mill Christian."mainly because I dont belive such a thing should exist. i no longer will be satisfied with not doing something about it. I think that following God will make you look like a crazy man. i believe it will make you be outside of the box, that you may actually end up standing on it shouting "Repent and Believe!"
So if you see me in the coming days and years doing something and you think "Paul has finally gone off the deep end." you are probably right, but thats ok. I would rather be nut from the tree of life, than a fungus on the trunk that just sits there and leeaches off the tree.
I guess I am just a crazy man

Hope and Change

Well the long Presidential campaign is over and not a minute too soon. There is no doubt that this years election brought to the forefront some of the problems that our great country faces. At least one hurdle has been cleared and that is the election of an African American to the highest office in the land. What a day to be proud of. I must say many of the things that Barrack Obama campaigned on, I am in favor of: Health care, education, helping the middle class and the poor, making our country strong, being good stewards of our environment. I only differ in the way that these things should be handled and is why I could not vote for him. However now that he will be president and is going to try to empliment his policies I have a suggestion, here it is. "Oprah, if we are going to start this whole redistibution of wealth thing, I would like to encourage you to go ahead and get a headstart, and I would like to even cut out the middle man and allow you to just send me a check for some of that wealth you have that needs to be spread around. I know I haven't worked for it, earned it, or deserve it, but i believe that if you would just send me about $100,000.00 it would give me the HOPE I need to make a CHANGE in my life and stop having to break my back everyday for a measly $32,000 per year. Seems FAIR doesn't it?"
"HOPE and CHANGE". That used to mean to me "I HOPE I can find enough CHANGE in my couch cushions to buy a Soda." Now it means what people are looking for in a President. (I wonder how many twins will be born in the next few years that will be named HOPE and CHANGE.) I just want to go on the record as saying if you are looking for HOPE or CHANGE in any man, you are looking in the wrong place. Our HOPE should be in God. Our HOPE should be in His Glory, His Salvation, and His unfathomable love for us. His promises that He will never leave us or forsake us, that if we seek His Kingdom and His righteousness all the stuff we tend to worry about will be taken care of. And the only true CHANGE is the CHANGE that comes from allowing Jesus into your life and create in you a new creature. The CHANGE that America needs is for His children to allow Him to transform them and start not just saying I am a Christian, but start living that way and knowing His word and obeying it. I can say all day long that i am a conservative, but am I living according to those principles and showing that they work? In the Same way, I can say I am a Christian, go to church, attend Sunday School, give to the Church, but if I ain't livin' what it's teaching, No one in their right mind would believe it is real.
Where does your HOPE lie? I Know my King will always be on His throne and His plans and policies are perfect and he will never fce re-election. The CHANGE I am looking for is the transformation in my life and others as I allow God to form me into the person He created me to be, so that I may be effective in bringing His HOPE and CHANGE to a lost world.

I Left My Heart In Zambia

This is worship in a small village called Nashoongo. I think its cool. I had the honor to preach in this little mud hut church, as well as present them 2 Bibles from our church to theirs. 1 for the men and 1 for the women. They had began this church, had begun meeting, and even formed a choir, yet had no idea of who Jesus really was and what salvation really is. We taught them several stories from the Bible like Nicodemis, Parable of the sower, Good Samaritan and others to explain who Jesus is and what it means to be a Christian. They were so open to the Gospel and eager to learn. There were 7 who accepted Christ this day and many have since and have been Baptized. Pray that they will continue to grow strong in the Lord.

What Was I Thinking?

As I write this this blog post I keep asking myself "What were you thinking?". Earlier today, My family attended a Sunday School party at the lake, where we had fun and frolicking in a couple of boats on the water. Now for some people this would be no big deal, however for me and my infinite lack of wisdom and discernment, this was a time of being drug through the water on a giant inner tube at 35 mph. Actually, the being pulled through the water is not the bad part, it is the being thrown off the tube at just under the speed of sound and skipping across the water like a 240lb halibut on acid. At the time I was having a blast, and of course all that man ego stuff kicks in and you feel it necessary to conquer what ever the tube of doom can throw at you. You say things like "Faster, sharper turns, and I think I can stay on no matter what." I think about it now and wonder why? I feel like I went over Niagara Falls in a barrel filled with anvils, only to be pulled to shore by a 7 foot physical therapist named Helga and twisted into a pretzel as she repeats in a heavy Scandinavian accent "Yoga is good, no?" I feel like I was eaten by wolves and crapped over a cliff. I feel like the only surviving member of the parachuteless sky diving club.
You know that is the way sin is also. You think "This is a blast", and you are really not thinking about the consequences. Things like pride, ego, or selfishness kick in and before you know it, you are making poor choices. But eventually your sins catch up with you and you pay the price and inevitably ask yourself "What was I thinking?"

Air Guitar

This afternoon we were watching a highlight video from McKinley's baseball team, and the parent who put it together, put music to the video. One of the songs was by Van Halen, and as Eddie Van Halen played his face melting solo, I pulled out my trusty old air guitar and played along quite masterfully I thought. I was quickly pulled back down to earth by the cutting words of my 13 year old son, "Dad, Quit being lame!". It is official. I am no longer cool. I guess it is time to retire the ol' air guitar and start driving 10 miles per hour under the speed limit and start saying things like "Maybe I just need more fiber in my diet."
On a side note. The other day i saw a short story on the news about the Air Guitar national championships. I had no idea there was such a thing. I couldn't help but wonder if people actually took air guitar lessons, or go to an air guitar store. Can you imagine being backstage at such an event and hearing "Mr. Smith you are up next." and a guy dressed like the lead singer of Loverboy saying "Oh my gosh, I cant find my air guitar. I sat it down somewhere over here and now its gone!" I wonder if the winner got an air trophy or the real deal.
I think maybe sometimes we have air guitar worship. We can go through the motions and really think we are doing something, but in reality we are just being lame. There is no real substance. Just like an air guitar makes no noise, neither does empty worship. When we worship it should be as beautiful and genuine to God as Mr. Van Halen's ax grinding is to me. It is pouring yourself out before God. Giving Him your very best. Realizing who He is and what He has done for you and His everlasting love for us. Only then do we set down that air guitar and pick up that Fender Strat and start making a joyful noise.

Hell is in the Bible Grandma

I worked with a new temporary employee for the city on Friday. As I talked with him, I mentioned something about my time in Zambia (There is a real shocker:). He told me he was always scared of a preacher man. I wasn't for sure how to take that, but he went on to say he could probably handle it now that he was trying to get his ducks in a row. I proceeded to tell him how I chased ducks for a long time and could never get them in a line until I found Jesus and that any duck rows I had were all being held together by God and not me. He said that his grandmother was the only person of faith and source of religion in his family.He said she was practically her own church. He told me he used to aggravate her by saying "Hey granny Hell is in the Bible." "Did you know the word Hell was in the Bible Granny?" "I can say hell because it is in the Bible." He said she would finally say "Boy, you better shut yo mouth, you just wantin' to cuss!" She told him "Ass was in the Bible too, and he was acting like one."
I just happened to think later that there are a lot of things in the Bible that we just like to say, because it sounds good, or we know it is what we are suppose to say. Sometimes we are not too unlike a young child just saying things out of the Bible because we can, yet we have no more impact on our walk with God than saying "Hell" and then snickering. How about, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Oh we can spout that off in Sunday School like a kindergarten kid who just mastered his ABC's, but do we really mean it or better yet practice it. I will confess that loving my neighbor as myself is a real challenge to me. I am not talking about the people next door, they are fine people, and it is not that I am overly in love with myself.(Although who could blame me.) It is just that we all tend to focus more on self, than on God and others, so we can quote that verse all day long, and it will not make a hill of beans difference unless we realize what that verse means, and act upon it. The Bible is full of great quotes and warm fuzzy feel good stuff, and we can quote them all day long, but if we are not putting it into practice, we are doing nothing more than saying "Hell is in the Bible, Grandma."