The Unlikely Missionary

As I was writing the Myth Busters post it occurred to me how much the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus mirrored our current society. Even the man that currently sits in the White House. If you missed the Myth Busters post check it out below. Read: Myth Busters: You Can Go to Heaven and Come Back The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is found in Luke 16:18-31 In a nutshell the Rich Man lived a life of excess to the point of being obnoxious and Lazarus was a beggar who lived his days with dogs licking the sores on his body and hoping to get some scraps from the Rich Man's table. In today's society we see many - our current president and many congress members included - who live their days, as Eugene Patterson put it, in  conspicuous consumption. The dictionary defines it as expenditure on or consumption of luxuries on a lavish scale in an attempt to enhance one's prestige. Did you just get goosebumps like I did, because doesn't that describe them to a t...

NO YOU CAN'T We seem to be fascinated with death and wanting to know what it is and where we go and can we barter with God to get into heaven. We even have movies and books of people claiming that they went to heaven. But that's really impossible. The Bible tells us why in the parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus. (Not that Lazarus, another one. It was a popular name back in the day) You can read the story in Luke 16:19-31 . In this story we have a beggar, Lazarus and this Rich Man. As is true even today this Rich Man treated the beggar incredibly poorly. Meanwhile Lazarus just wanted the scraps from the man's table while dogs licked his sore covered body. Then both men died. The beggar ended up in heaven at Abraham's side and the Rich Man ended up in Hell. Side Note : Even as I type this a new post is coming to me so stay tuned. The Rich Man in hell looks up and sees Lazarus chilling in heaven and asks Abraham if he could send Lazarus to dip his finger in...

I am a worrier. I wish I wasn't but I am. And my worry can then become overwhelming. Worrying that I'm not good enough, worrying that I'll be rejected, worried that people are talking about me behind their back, worried that I won't have enough money, worried that my life will fall apart if I make a wrong moved, worried that if I dream that when they don't come true (notice I didn't say if) the disappointment will be devastating. Worrying... It can be incredibly crippling. Each an everyday it is a fight for me to not let my worrying about what ifs destroy my present and future. Worry is useless. Worry saps our strength and steals our focus. It causes us to be more awestruck and dumbfounded by storms than by the one who silences storms with a word. — Judah Smith (@judahsmith) March 11, 2019 But each and everyday is a what if. Life is a big what if because its a series of choices and each choice has a consequence, good or bad. What I have to remem...

It's March and if you didn't know its my birthday month. Whenever birthdays come around and you get older you get more introspective. In writing this blog I find that i have been looking at my life a lot and where I've been and how the things I've experienced have affected my today. And although I knew this its become clearer to me over time that I wore a lot of masks. While some people may call it fake I call it the hazard of growing up churched. You learn all the rules and the things to say at church and in front of church folks but then you separate that from the other elements of your day to day life. In my case I grew up feeling invisible. And it was a blessing and a curse. When you are invisible you can observe a lot while being unnoticed and therefore you learn a lot but it is a very lonely place to be at times. We are meant to do life with people but when you are made to feel small or insignificant you then diminish yourself even further. They call i...