Here you go Audra

This post is a response to a question I was asked by a friend on facebook, since I'm long winded it wouldn't fit there so I'm posting it here

Audra- Let me start by saying that your dad is much wiser than I am, so believe him. Secondly, since your friend isn’t a follower of Christ, his opinion about what Christ supports or not is like asking a vegetarian what pizza chain has the best meat lover’s pizza. Not a slight toward your friend, but if he isn’t someone who follows Christ, he really doesn’t know who Christ is or what he stands for. Because he isn’t a Christian and I’m assuming that he is like me when I wasn’t a believer, I’m doing the best I can to not quote the Bible a bunch since it doesn’t hold much weight with people who don’t believe it. If you want something with more chapter and verse notations, let me know and I’ll work on that. Since you asked my opinion on the subject, here is my brief response:

I think that Jesus gives a thumbs-up to capitalism. And I think that being an imperfect system developed by imperfect people, He would offer some suggestions for improvement if we would take the time to listen and actually apply what He taught.

Here is the long answer:

He is all for retaining people’s dignity when sorting through governments and systems and looking for what ones to put His stamp on. In its simplest form I believe capitalism does that. I would ask your friend if he believes that people should have individual rights and in those rights they have the right to be compensated for their time or products in a free and open market. I believe that Jesus supports that. If your friend says that he is willing to give up his rights, demand that he give you his shoes, car and that he pay whatever bills you have that you don’t want to be responsible for :)

The idea that Jesus would be pro Communist, in its current meaning, is funny to me- Jesus People USA style Communism I think He’s given a couple of thumbs up to but that isn’t what Communism means when people talk about it today. When you look at what Communism (especially in the last couple hundred years or so) really is you should be able to easily understand why Jesus or anyone else who cares about others at all wouldn’t really be all that gung-ho about Communism. On paper Communism can look great, problem is in the practice, rather than everyone being on equal footing as a community, you have a populace that is forced to give up their rights of individual ownership and they are robbed of their dignity and they struggle while the ruling class over them that is made rich and profits off of the commoners. That is something that Jesus isn’t for at all. Additionally in modern Communism there is the central idea that there is no God, I don’t think JC is very excited about that. There are ideas expressed in Communism that Jesus supports but only when it is a free choice of the people acting as a community, not when an elite class subjugates others into it. I think that only happens on a local level and would be so difficult to apply on a national level that honestly I don’t think it can occur without Jesus coming back and setting up a throne physically here to keep us from screwing it up.

Capitalism isn’t a political system solely, though politicians will solely use anything that will give them more power/money. There are political systems that allow more capitalistic markets and others that don’t at all. Our current system that was designed to be a Republic that is expressed as a representative democracy. In that it allows the freest of markets in all the political setups that I’m aware of. Unfortunately over time it has moved from what it was intended to be to a system ruled by special interests and those with wallets big enough to buy off those making decisions. That is something that grieves Jesus. It isn’t limited to Capitalism or our current system though. Still we have a level of freedom in our nation, system and form of capitalism that is great still today.

For those who are very idealistic (which I’m guilty of many times) our current system is not what it can and should be in all areas. It could be that it is in this type of idealism your friend thinks Jesus wouldn’t approve of capitalism. I believe the areas we fall short are rooted in greed. Jesus never said that money was evil, though many say he did. He did say that the love of money, aka greed, was at the root of all evil. Money is great, I like it and like most others would like and can use more…Greed is something Jesus spoke out against many times and I would agree with Jesus and your friend if this was his point of division. I’m not willing to dump the whole thing because there are some that abuse it and are selfish though, the pro’s simply outweigh the con’s. Just because a situation allows for someone to mess up doesn’t mean that Jesus is against it, see his first miracle and what he did for a group of people who if they continued to drink could be in sin. With all the potential for greed, and with all the problems that exist in our current setup we, being one of the wealthiest nations, are also one of the best nations (if not the greatest) in freely giving to others. Why wouldn’t Jesus be supportive of a system that has been used to help so many? Sure we have room to improve but the improvement doesn’t include being forced to give up what we’ve worked hard for so that others can share in it. Though there are legislators on all sides that are working hard to make you and I do that today, see the bailout last year and be sure to check the voting record of your favorite politicians. Unfortunately last year beltway politics took over and Republicans and Democrats forced us in a big way to move towards giving up what we have worked for when they pushed the bailout through, that has nothing to do with capitalism, has everything to do with a system that we perpetuate when we forget that politicians lie, and that the Democrats and Republicans were once all one party, and aren’t all that different today…they just have adopted certain hot button issues into their platform to ensure they keep a certain group of people voting for them.

As for government systems, Jesus is all about one Monarchy- He talked about his Father’s kingdom all the time. However Jesus’ method of expanding it isn’t the same that other monarchies or other groups have employed and I think that confuses people. He didn’t destroy the system that oppressed the Jews in His days on earth and yet he provided a way into the Kingdom by conquering our hearts and allowing them dual citizenship, whether their earthly geopolitical system approved and is compatible or not.

To those that would still say that Communism is what Jesus prefers over a free market, while I think they are wrong, I will acknowledge that there is a call to those who have entered into the Father’s Kingdom to be a community. Community and communism are not the same thing however. Within the context of community, and even extended neighbors that may not be fellow members of His Kingdom, Christ calls us to echo in His Love to others (friend, enemy, whoever) which many times on a tangible level translates into giving to others at a self cost with no expectation of something in return. That is community in its truest form and will not work if it is forced upon a group of people by a ruling class. It only works when people are propelled and empowered by the kind of love that Jesus shared and calls us to have and do.

I hope this helps and that it answers your question.

cls

I've debated on whether or not to start blogging again. when I started this thing, my desire was to chronicle what life was like so that someday our kids could go back and see what life was like in their early days. not sure if I accomplished that here or not. either way, I find myself writing more and more and this is a medium that I've been thinking of using as a means of trying to arrange my thoughts a little.

as I read through old posts, part of me wants to just clear the screen (in dos the command 'cls' does that) and another part of me wants to keep them there, we'll see what happens.

So to Ros, Noah and Jordan- in 15 years when you are reading this, you’ll know that your dad has always been crazy :)

test

:)

still here

still alive

and well :)

umm, Hi

so life is good mostly. It is really cold here in Dallas, considering the fact that we were just near 80 (78 by the mini van's report) near the end of last week and right now it is a nice 28 outside, it is a little difficult to get use to.

those that know me, know that I am crazy (my wife is probably more so for marrying me). Many times crazy is what we do best. We have almost perfected it...adding to the list that shows our crazyness, yesterday, I won an auction on eBay. you may say to yourself, that isn't all that crazy, and it isn't, the crazy stuff is that the auction was for a car...in Florida. Next Saturday we fly out to the Fort Lauderdale area and drive my new car back. should be interesting. I hope to have pictures soon of the car and any interesting point along the way back.

anyways, we are well. still up to crazy stuff, jut finding that life is pretty busy. I wish I could retire from my job next week and start working on all the things that I want to do instead but that doesn't look like it is happening. until then, i guess I will have to live with what I have.

I've started working with college aged kids at church (in all honesty I have worked with many of them for a while, they were just younger then) and what I feel the Lord telling me to share with them and direct them in is 'Identity' or that their identity should be rooted in Christ, which is very somple in many ways but it is also so difficult. what is funny in preaching that, studying that and talking with people about our identity being in Christ, is that we soon figure out that when the focus is no longer on us but on Him, we start to realize more (at least I do) that:

#1- I am just a part of the body of Christ
#2- the body of Christ is larger than I could have ever imagined
#3- I play an important role in the body, and as long as I accept my role, doing my part and helping others do theirs isn't that difficult
#4- I am just starting to learn about God, His plans for my life and I still have more questions than answers
#- i am selfish and need ot get over it, God has way too many things planned to allow my ego to get in the way and if I hold on to "ME" and "MY", I've missed out on so much that God wants to share

When we take the focus off of ourselves, we actually start seeing others, and many times can care about others in a way that we are compelled to do something rather than stare in wonder. I believe that one of the bigest reasons followers of American Chruchianity don't want to make changes is that they are comfy in their apathy and are afraid that if they actually dig into what God is calling them to do, if they seek their identiy in Christ, they might have to reach out and be involved in other people's lives. they might actually get dirty in the process...I know this because as much as I hate to admit it, as much as I try to stay away from it, I have bought into many of the ways of Churchianity. the good news is that there is a Cure, his name is Jesus and He is a prayer away from being able to redirecting your path, cleansing and healing you from your strays and always standing there with Love, mercy and grace enough to help you along life's difficult road.

Blessings to you all

the wonder of prayer

this year has been an interesting one of prayer for Kelly and I. I think we have learned a bunch about it, yet there is so much more to know, so much I doubt that I could live long enough to ever get it all. Prayers are answered yet something that I've noticed that is even greater than that is it seems that when we really get into prayer, when we get beyond the reading off the wish list to God, we are given hints about stuff. I guess sometimes it is to let us know what to pray for?!? but also I think to make it so that we aren't so blown away when our prayers get answered. in the last couple of weeks, Kelly and I have seen prayer answered in big ways for two couples that we have been praying for and this weekend I shared with a friend that Kelly and I had been praying for him in a particular area and felt that this year we would see something big come out of it, his response was 'that is confirmation for me, there is no way you could know about this unless God shared that with you, thank you'. What perplexes me the most is that in it all, I'm not doing anything...it is all God, yet for some reason he chooses to include us in it. I'm not worthy, and I could think of others who are better qualified and would make better vehicles for this stuff. Not all prayers are answered the way we want, and sometimes it feels as if they never are but when I look at my life I can’t honestly say that God has ignored my requests or me. even in the times that what I wanted, what I thought the end result should be was much different than the way things panned out...like cancer, but that is for another post.

Prayer. It is so simple yet the effects are so overreaching, not only can prayer change things, it can change us. Bringing us closer to God the whole time. If you have never done it, it as simple as asking God to be in your life and if you are a pro you know that getting back to basics is often the most advanced thing you can do. Wherever you are in life’s journey, I pray that God would bless you immensely and that His purpose would be done in your life.

linkage

I've just realized that many links on my site, including for family pics are outdated or flat out wrong...I should do something to fix that. until that happens, slide on over to my brother in-law's blog by clicking on Nate to the right and check out the SNL Jesus cartoon, we found it when he was showing me one of the greatest inventions on the web ever. enjoy

-

Currently life is pretty darn good, Kelly's health is great (more on that later), the kids are wonderful, there realy isn't anything I can complain about currently. if there is anyone reading this, have a very Merry Christmas and I pray that God showers you with His love, mercy and grace.

the skinny on phatty

So I’m a bit lighter than I’ve been…more on that later.

To catch everyone up- Kelly and I got married back in 1996. 3 weeks before the big day, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and she had her thyroid removed. Over the years the tests came back good, we grew in our marriage. Life was good.

All was good in phattyland until last year, when we found out that the cancer had come back. Many of you, I am so thankful, were very much there for us, praying, encouraging, loving as our Christian brothers and sisters should. Surgery was in the spring, radiation was in the summer and I almost lost my job on a revolving basis for what seemed to be an eternity. 2004 sucked hard.

Toward the end of it all, the tests and signs were all starting to point to the cancer being gone and the possibility of life getting back to normal- whatever that means with 2 active kids that are 18 months apart. Life is always crazy now a days.

Late December or early January, it all started to crash again. It wasn’t gone. February we got the news that the cancer was not gone.

Suckage again.

Then the soul searching started. We thought that the first time we searched, and we did. We thought that the second time, 8 years later we searched, and we did. This time it was different though. The doctors are pretty hopeless at this point. Not that the cancer is terminal and that I was going to be a widower before 30 with 2 very young children, they didn’t though I’ve had the fleeting thought. The hopelessness is that we may never be able to totally overcome the cancer; Kelly may have to have surgeries and radiation on a semi-regular basis for the rest of her life they told us.

That doesn’t line up with God’s message. Hope, Joy, Salvation, Healing…so we made a decision. We say that we trust God for this and that. In the past we even prayed when we heard the cancer word. We never sat at His feet and allowed Him to direct us, comfort us, hold us and heal us.

I was in Houston on a business trip when Kelly got the results back in February. I drove to the airport, told God that I was pissed off that we had to go back in and fight this. Told Him I was tired and asked Him to take care of it. I took the next day off from work so we could spend time in prayer, be together and try to make sense of it all.

The kids actually took a nap, we got to spend great time in prayer. We took a stand, basically that this wasn’t our fight, that God is our salvation, our healer, our source. And that we were going to trust him to direct us. It was funny, a couple of weeks earlier, a student in our youth group asked us in Sunday school “what do you do when you know God can do something but don’t know if He will?” my response was “I struggle with this, my suggestion is that you expect God to do what you know He can do, and ask Him to change your heart if He isn’t going to” So there we were. We knew that God could touch Kelly right then and there and take any and all cancer, so we asked. We had decided that we went to the Doctors, did their thing twice, we were thankful for all that modern medicine has to offer but we also know that we needed to be thankful for all that God had to offer even more, and we need to trust Him more than anything. We prayed, “Lord Heal Kelly miraculously or change our hearts and lead us to how you are going to heal her.”

We got real bold then. We asked that he do it, and that he provide a sign letting us know. Since we were standing there with this boldness, we asked for a specific sign- last year, as a result of Kelly’s surgery, she had lost all feeling in the left side of her neck and shoulder. We asked that God restore feeling to the neck. We prayed some more. Then we took a nap.

I woke up to Kelly proclaiming “I can feel on my neck!” it wasn’t a 100% but it was feeling. We took this as a sign from our heavenly father.

The funny thing is that even with everything the bible says; even with the sign- it can still be difficult. Doubt is an enemy that comes scouting for the army of fear often.

One morning Rosalyn was in our room when I was getting ready for work. She had heard Kelly and I talking about it all, she remembered what happened last year and told Kelly “I don’t want the doctors to cut your neck”. Kelly responded, “they won’t have to if God heals me”. The next words I heard from my daughter will always be with me, they are genuine, true, unadulterated faith. She put her little hand on Kelly’s leg, closed her eyes and declared “No more cutting mommy’s neck, AMEN!!”

The doctors wanted to run more tests. They always do. So they did. An interesting thing happened that day, as Kelly parked the car at the hospital, she felt burning on the right side of her neck.

The test results came back, and we went to talk to the surgeon who performed last years operation. The two scans showed pretty much the same thing. The first showed 7 areas, 5 on the left, 2 on the right. The second showed about 5 on the left. “Woohoo!! That burning must have been God touching Kelly and taking the tumors from the right side.” we thought. Then the depressing talk about the fact that this will probably be an ongoing thing, the cancer will come back and they will continue to cut it out.

From our time in prayer, and the sign that God gave us we had great faith, so much that Kelly was telling anyone in her family who doesn’t believe in God about it. Her reasoning was, if God is going to heal me, I want to let people know before I have all the results backing it up, there isn’t any faith there. So we had wondered and discussed how we would handle our Dr., Especially if he wanted to recommend surgery. At that meeting he recommended the surgery and we told him that we were just needing time. That we had asked God to take it all and we just basically needed time to process everything. He was amazingly receptive and told us he saw no need to rush, that we could come back in a few months, retest and reassess and go from there.

In all this time, God was silent. He showed up, responded to us but was silent. I’m always amazed to hear details about other people’s relationship with the King of Kings. Since Kelly is my wife, I get to see on a regular basis the fruit of that relationship and get to hear the intimate details in our discussion about God. One thing that God does with my wife, that I think is really cool is that he will give Kelly a scripture verse or reference that is very appropriate for the situation at hand. But when you get use to it, and it doesn’t happen for a while, it can become uncomfortable. That happened. Kelly was so desperate for God to talk to her like he has done for almost her entire life. Then it broke.

Our church is a wonderful place. Tuesday nights is corporate prayer, which is a misnomer since we have a couple thousand in attendance weekly at the church but probably less than 20 that show up for corporate prayer. None the less it is powerful, God shows up and prayers are answered. We decided that Kelly was sick and we needed to go before the elders to have her head anointed and prayed for. It is in scripture, and I am learning that things are in the bible for a reason, I may not know why. My job is just to be obedient. So we went.

Praise and warship was great, intimate. A single leader with an acoustic guitar singing songs that God had given him probably 30 years ago. It was in the middle of one of those songs, titled Emmanuel, that he paused, asked us to come forward and asked for everyone else to pray. Dr. Fletcher, an amazing man of God, the pastor who heads up the prayer ministry for our church anointed Kelly and prayed while everyone else stood around praying. Then he was done, there was more prayer and a pause, then it was back to the normal service program. I could tell that God was there, He always is, but this was different. There were no fireworks, just worship and prayer but there was something different.

As we left, on the way to pickup our children from the babysitters (ironically the babysitters are the daughters of the worship leader for the prayer meeting, not that you care but I’m the writer and I decide what I write) we talked. Kelly asked who had prayed for her after Dr. Fletcher had finished, my response was, “everyone”. She came back with “no, who was invading my personal space, they came up, put their hands on the side of my face/neck and prayed, standing a little too close for comfort??” I didn’t see anyone. And I would notice if someone did that to my wife. The words to the song we were singing before and after we went up for prayer were simply:

Emmanuel, Emmanuel
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
Your presence is life
Your presence is life
Your presence is life to me!

It truly is, and I believe that Emmanuel, God with us, was with us then and He was that person who stood too close to my wife, His presence is life. We talked about it more and Kelly said “I had my eyes closed when doc Fletcher was praying for me, and then that person came up almost immediately after. I was kind of bothered and thought, I’m going to see who this is. So I opened my eyes but two huge tears formed in the center of each eye, blinding me so I closed my eyes satisfied that I was here to get prayed for, and I was getting prayed for. All I know is that it was a guy and He was taller than me”

That is not all, when we were finished with our time of prayer and up front, after the worship there was a quiet time. Kelly told me that she heard God speak to her, He said “Hi Kelly, I’m going to heal you because I love you”, her response was “where have you been?” he responded “I’ve been testing you. If I heal you, will you fulfill my purpose in your life?”

I am constantly amazed at how I, someone who made it a point to be an enemy of God for so long, can stand in his presence and request things without getting smited. Much less get my prayers answered.

This has been a difficult time, but over the years we have learned that there is no point in wallowing in the bad times, life is going to happen and we need to make the most of it. So we have also sought God in gaining wisdom. Wisdom on how we can take better care of these tents he has given us to travel our earthly lives in, wisdom on how to better serve him. Wisdom on how to know His will for our lives more. In the same ways he has shown up and shared wisdom with us.

Without going into too much detail, we overhauled our diet. For 2 reasons initially, first we wanted to spend time in prayer and fasting but needed to continue being productive members of society, so drinking water for 40 days wasn’t going to do it, but we could restrict what we ate for a period of time and fast that way. Second, as your basic Americans, we eat crap. The stuff that 95% of us eat on a regular basis is either trying to kill us, or is working against the processes God has designed in us to keep us healthy and allowing other things to kill us. Initially we became vegans sort of that also ate yogurt and sometime fish. We focused on whole grains, legumes, nuts, fruits and vegetables. Gone (forever) is table sugar. We got creative, putting my culinary skills and love to the test and ate like kings for 20 days. We got a juicer. We ate food we normally wouldn’t have thought to. At the end of the 20 days I was 20 pounds lighter.

I’d love to go into all the details of what we have learned about food, and the changes we have made but that isn’t the point of this, though at a later date there are things I want to share.

God has been so real, He has given us so much hope and I believe that about 2000 years ago, Jesus hung on a cross and died, then rose again 3 days later. Shortly after that He ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father. When he did that, He healed my wife. He has been revealing that healing to us over the last few months to us and I believe that in May, when we go for more tests, the results will back it all up. To God be the glory, forever and ever, amen!



On a less important note, I mentioned my job at the beginning of this, it has been rough. As of May 9th I will be working in a new position for my current company. In this new position, I think I will be better aligned to match my skills and desires and also I will no longer report to my current boss whom I have had problems with and have in the past felt victim of their attack. God is awesome, he delivered me through trials and is now rewarding me for sticking with it when it was really rough.

Kelly and I always appreciate your prayers. We also hope that you would know God, His power, healing and grace not only through stories like this but through your everyday walk with Him.

...

So I am a published writer now. Yippee for me!

I've been wondering lately- why does U-Haul have sales? There is a U-haul that I drive by everyday and each week on their sign they have different 'specials' posted. Does someone really say, "hey honey, I know that our life is pretty good right now and we are settling in, but I noticed that uhaul is having a special to Tampa, only $260, and I figure what the heck, lets pack up and move this weekend"? I'm no marketing genius but do specials like these really do anything for the demographic that uhaul is trying to reach?

life around the zoo has been good lately. I just finished a class, have just over 30 hours left till my degree is complete. 13 years for a bachelors degree, I could have done worse. though I could have done better but there is no use living in the past.

I pray that all is well in your life, and that the reality of God and His grace, mercy and love are greater than any other reality that exists in your world.