Admiration

After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father's house. And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
– 1 Samuel 18:1-4

“Respect and warm approval.” That is the definition of admiration by the Oxford American Dictionary.

Have you ever had someone that you look up to greatly? Perhaps it was famous politician or religious leader, or maybe a rock star or a teacher you had.

Well, there are two guys to whom I look up to that are not famous and world-renowned... yet.

The first of the two that I would like to talk about is Eric Schulze. Although I am a college student and he is a high school student, I respect him and admire him more that most college people I know. Eric’s attitude towards things that happen to him, people, and just life in general are something that I strive for. For those of you who know Eric, you know that he is a rather quiet guy but a very intelligent guy. When so one rags on him or something bad happens to him, he is not one to open is his mouth and curse someone or something. Rather he is extremely self-controlled. For example, as we were playing soccer tonight, we collided and all of my weight came down on his hand, which wouldn’t have been so bad, had I not been wearing cleats. He did not say a word.

It reminded me of when Christ was being beaten and crucified and yet utter not a word, like a sheep silent before the slaughter. The way Schulze doesn’t retaliate, but rather forgives and always shows love is incredible to me. I lived with this man for two weeks in New Orleans and quickly learned how strong his faith was. Many of us, including me, preach on being like Christ and loving and yet change nothing about the way we live around non-Christians, but it is evident to me that this is one area that Schulze takes very seriously.
The verse in the Bible that talks about how blessing and cursing cannot flow from the same mouth can be seen in Eric. I thank God for letting me get to know Eric better to show me the way I should be in my life. His passion for people is awesome. I could not ask for a better brother in Christ to encourage me than Eric, even though he probably isn’t aware that he does.

The second gentleman is a good friend of mine whom I have went to school with since 7th grade. The reason I admire him is his studiousness. His desire to read as much as he can and to learn about God is incredible. I have his webpage marked as one of my favorites so I can learn from him in his studies, not only religiously, but also about anything in this world.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, it is Caleb Joseph [Brown]. Like Schulze, Caleb pushes me to be a better person and a more faithful Christian whether he knows it or not.

My prayer to God tonight was to give me the self-control, forgiveness, and gentleness that he has shown me through Eric, and the studiousness and discipline he has shown through Caleb.

If either of you reads this, I want you to know that your lives have made a difference, whether you realize it or not. The way both of you act have shown Christ to me and made me aware of things that I need to work on in my own life. Thank you and keep him first.

To anyone else who reads this, may you seek these qualities of these two great guys in your own life. Also, may God plant people like Eric and Caleb in your life to build you up and make you more in Him.

The Rest of my Mortal Life

This right here is a big step for me. I never really put down in writing what I want to do with my life, and for good reason. I usually end up changing my mind about it and pull a 180 or something.

I know that a major part of my life, if not my entire life is going to be doing mission work. Not mission work in the conventional sense of go and evangelize. I want to go to a people with a trade or a skill that I can use to better their life and show Christ's love while teaching them about God's grace and mercy.
Now here comes the tentative part. The trade I want to take with me is the skill of English. I want to go into countries and teach the people the English language. Which is why I am majorly considering secondary education as my major with my emphasis in English Literature. Which is also a good major for me since I love to read and to write as many of you have probably noticed. As a missionary, I want to give to the people in more than just one way as I said before, and English would allow me to do that. It would also make it easier for me to get into otherwise hard to reach countries because most countries will admit people who are willing to teach them to speak, read or write the English language.

Over the past two years, God has changed my heart and in these past few months my attitude towards people. I just sympathize with people so much more now than ever, I think a lot of this has to do with going to New Orleans and helping the people down there. When I see someone in need I can not help but drop what I am doing and help, and if I don't help I feel guilty for not doing what I could have. I hope that if the call of servant hood has not been put on your heart yet, that you would pray to God for it because serving others is one of the greatest things one can do and one of the most joy filling things as well. I want everyone, no matter what they have done, who they have offended, who they were, who they are, no matter what, to experience the love of Jesus Christ. It is the strongest power in this world. I have experienced it I want it to overflow from my life in to the life of others I meet. I love this quote by John Andrew Holmes -

"There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up."

That is so true. I know for me that when I see that I have impacted someone for the better, it makes me feel so good. Even if I am not for sure that they were impacted for Christ and even if it was just a quick helping hand to someone, it makes me feel so good to know that one day they might look back at my good deed and see Christ. I believe that when we humble ourselves and serve others with the right heart, we are in one of the closest states with Christ that we can be. His heart was love. When we make our heart into love, we are imitating Him. If the Son of the Creator of the universe, who said "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me...." had the power to do anything that He wanted to do would lower himself to the position of a servant, then shouldn't we, who are already lower that Him being that we are mere mortals, do in his likeness and serve as he served? If you continue with the rest of what Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20 you will see that the command to serve and be a disciple unto the entire earth was right there, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I also don't believe that you have to go to a far away land to serve and be a missionary. You can be a missionary in this very land, in your own community even. There are so many needs around here and so many unreached people that help is needed everywhere. I was just asked this morning by Crossing Christian Church to start up a local mission program for their church that would allow them to get out into the community and serve. I am not just going to limit this to their church though, this local mission group is open anytime to anyone who wants to serve. The tentative name I have decided to go with for the group is Phoenix Missions. I am really in love with the mythological animal of the Phoenix. Merriam Webster defines a phoenix as: a legendary bird which according to one account lived 500 years, burned itself to ashes on a pyre, and rose alive from the ashes to live another period; also : a person or thing likened to the phoenix. A phoenix often represents immortality or reborn hope. The band Kids In The Way have a song called "Phoenix with a Heartache" and in this song, they describe Jesus as the phoenix who died and came out of the ashes to hold us and protect us.

You rose from the ashes
Like a phoenix with a heartache.
Now you're taking me away with you tonight and I know that I can't fly.
But when I'm in your arms, I'm holding up the sky.

I believe that Christ is like a phoenix, dying to save us, going to the grave, and then rising to prove our salvation. This entire mission group is going to be based on the saving power Christ's death and resurrection. Since he died and rose to save us, we owe him our lives. We ought to live as servants to Him, which is living as servants to man.

I am not only working here, I also have a huge passion to work in other countries for my mission work. And as I travel, anyone is welcome to join me in my travels (if spots on the trips I take are available), but I would also love to see PM start out as a local mission, but grow to the point where we have a group that passionately wants to spreads Christ love by occasionally travel out of our "comfort zone." I don't want to always rely on a mission agency to send me out, and tell me where to go. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I would just love to start something, something real, something personal, something passionate. Get people involved who never thought they would be involved. So, early in Phoenix Missions, I don't want to get carried away and try to go to Uzbekistan right away. Now, if that is what God calls me to do right away, then by all means send us out! I just don't want to try and go big and fast and burn out.

May God bless any missionary whether local or international, and may He guide my college life and decisions I make towards the rest of my life. Pray that he will guide you and send you where He needs you.




P.S. Those kids in the picture above were some of my kids that I taught at V.B.S. in Guyana.

College Life

Well, ever since I started college, I have been a pretty happy guy. I love it. I love school, I like my job, and I have the best friends in the world. I get kinda bored with my classes sometimes though. Music is cool because it is interactive. Logic is kinda boring and complicated. Public Speaking is to much work, just let me talk. And English is cool because all we do is talk and write.

One thing that kinda sucks, as you might be able to tell, is that I like to stay up late. I am a night owl. So, on days when I don't work, I have school so I don't really get too much sleep and am tired all the time. But, at least I am having fun.

One really awkward thing happened this past week in my English class. The teacher asked us what we thought as a class were some morals that most of the class agreed on. The comments people started making were morals given to us from the Bible, which I thought was quite interesting. Our teacher also said, "Yeah, what about the 10 commandments?" And the class all agreed. Wierd.

One cool thing that did happen the week before that, was that as I was sitting in encounter (Northside's college age worship service), I looked over and saw a kid from my English class. It was a big encouragment to me to see that I wasn't alone in my faith in my class as I had thought I was.

This past Tuesday at Encounter as Jim Veihl was giving the message, he asked us to break up into small groups and talk about the "perfect" Christian that we wanted to be/make our selves into, how we were to go about doing that, and how far along the road we were. I was in a group with Phillip Miller, Phil Turner, and two people I had ever met, James and Amanda. That 15 minutes that we spent talking was such an encouragment as well. I felt that I got to open my faith and see what I wanted to do with my life and who I wanted to be.

Apart from sleep depravity, I love my life.