Sunday, April 25, 2010

"I am known as Ed"

The man who is know as Ed is a strange fellow. We have seen him around a good bit over the past 4 months, and have ministered to him when opportunities arose. Marion asked his name one time, and he told Marion "he was known as Ed". Funny! Ed is easy to recognize because he his always wearing these white rubber boots.

Ed was one of our last stop's of the day yesterday. We were looking for Bones, and spotted Ed in the alley behind the Downtown Shreve Memorial Library. We stopped and brought him coffee and a breakfast burrito, and started up a conversation with him. He railed against the Republicans and the people of First United Methodist (who like to be in the spot light). He told us we are not like those people at First United Methodist, who just want to be in front of the camera helping the homeless. He informed us we were "Christians". I'm not sure where he got that idea. I never told him. He told us he had been on the streets for a little over 18 and a half years. Right now he is living on the back porch of a print shop downtown. He said the owner trusts him because he does not smoke, use alcohol, or drugs. I would love to sit down with him and dialog for a few hours. He is interesting, but peculiar (but aren't we all). As we were leaving and saying our goodbyes, all of the guys shook hands with Ed. Tina went to hug him, as usual for her and Lorie, and I thought he was going to have a stroke. He stiffened up and stuck out his hand to her, but she hugged him anyhow. Ha! Poor guy has been without affection for so long he don't know how to accept it. That's kind of the way I am with trying to accept Father's affections for me though.

Bones on Wheels

Yesterday, as we talked to the "guys under the bridge" we found out that Wheels' (see previous blog) actual street name is "Bones". His name was confirmed again later as we were talking w/ Evelyn. I asked her if she knew the guy in the wheelchair, who was a dumpster diver, that we called Richard. She told us she didn't know Richard, that his name was Bones, and that he had been on the streets a long time. She knew him to be a very nice man.

I will probably still call him Wheels, but not to his face. I'm glad I know his street name now. Somehow, it just makes a difference to me.

I wonder how he got the name Bones. It's kind of a creepy name. On the bright side, maybe he is a great dominos player.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Do what He does

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of Himself to us. Love like that.

Don't allow love to turn into lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed. Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, those who follow Jesus have better uses for language than that. Don't talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn't fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect.

You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them—the usual variations on idolatry—will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God.

Don't let yourselves get taken in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with Him. Don't even hang around people like that.

You groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You're out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain. So no more stumbling around. Get on with it! The good, the right, the true—these are the actions appropriate for daylight hours. Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.

Eph 5:1-10 (The Message)

Monday, April 19, 2010

Priceless Moment

Sorry, Jeff, I just have to share this. Jeff came up with a great "priceless" moment this past Saturday.

10 biscuits and 2 large coffees = $14.50
Fill-up vehicle with gas = $30.00
Find a homeless friend standing in a dumpster
& offer him breakfast = Priceless

"Wheels"

What a joy it was to find him in the dumpster! Okay, not so much that he was in a dumpster, just the fact that we found him. "Wheels", as I call him, but not to his face, is one of the homeless guys we have found downtown. The first time I saw him was about a month ago. We were going up the street behind the Shreveport Courthouse, and out of the corner of my eye, I see a man in a wheel chair, digging in a trashcan. He had no legs below the knees. I literally was nearly sick about it. I just knew he must be starving. It made me sad, and I wanted to find him, and attempt to be Jesus to him. I believe it was later that morning we found him going around a corner. We stopped him, asked if he wanted coffee, and found out his name is Richard. We have run across him another time or two since then, and found out he gets in the trash cans looking for coke and beer cans. He sells them to get money. Lorie and Jeff are saving cans for him now. How cool is that! The fact that he was not looking for food made my heart feel better. This past Saturday we took several tours of downtown until we found him. Yep, there he was standing in a dumpster. How he got in there; I don't know. It was so cool to find him though, and offer him a cup of coffee and some breakfast while he was literally standing in the dumpster. What a Kodak moment! Now that gave me the joy of the Lord. It is such a priveledge and honor to ride along with my friends (who have been providing the goodies) and bless these homies. Thank you Jesus for blessing my heart! You are so good to me.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Our Trail of Crumbs

"What does our trail of crumbs look like? If someone asks if we are Christ-followers can we say, "Tell me what you see"? Is there enough evidence to prove that we are taking after the slaughtered Lamb? What if they ask the poor around us? What if they ask our enemies? Would they say that we love them? Christians haven't always looked like Jesus. Perhaps the greatest barrier to Christ has been Christians who pronounce Jesus so loudly with their lips and deny him so loudly with their lives." - Shaine Claiborne and Chris Haw, Jesus for President

Put on Jesus

"Clothe yourselves with Christ." (Col. 3:12-17)

"It is worth reiterating that the basis for living out the ethics of Jesus in this world is not that it works but that this is the way God is. We are not promised that everything is going to turn out perfect. Look at the cross. Look at how the story ends for the apostles. It is ugly. If there is anything we can learn from our history, as writer C. K. Chesterton says, it's that we are to be "completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble." And in the end, love wins." - Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, Jesus for President

Friday, April 9, 2010

Truth from an atheist

A self proclaimed atheist had the following to say when asked, “What do you think Jesus really taught?”  He said:  “I think Jesus taught us that we have a Father who loves us more than we know and if we could sort that out, we would know how to treat each other.”  WOW!!  Close to the mark, if not dead on!  A follow on question of why he was a self proclaimed atheist begged to be asked.  His response:  “Because I’ve never seen it lived out or followed.”  How then, shall we live…
(From “Sharing in the Father’s Affection” by Wayne Jacobsen)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Living Life

The following is from a book Jim loaned me -- Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers (Thanks, Jim. It's great!):

We are the masters of keeping people breathing, but we know very little about really being alive. No matter how well we live, life as we know it is a nonrenewable resource. But life as God knows it is renewable. God's life is eternal. It has no beginning. Which also means it has no end -- no future when it will be different than it always has been. So God's life is always here, always now, always with us , always complete. "Living Christ means a living cross. Everything else is a living death." (Ghandi)... To live the glory of God with Jesus is to give ourselves to one another, even as Jesus gave himself for those who betrayed him on the cross. It is a life that, admittedly, looks like dying.... To cling to the gift of life we've been given and scramble to protect our own interests is to cooperate in a culture of death that threatens to destroy us all. John 17 begins with a plea for eternal life that will save the world from such death. This is the eternal life that we do not have to die to find. It begins now with a new way of living -- and to it there is no end.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Relationship

The last thing this world needs is more people talking about relationship with God or better relationships among believers. What the world and believers alike are waiting for is people who will truly live it. My greatest prayer is that God will grace all who are willing to demonstrate what it is to love and trust him every day and to walk in relationships with other believers that demonstrate what an awesome family he is creating. - From the Lifestream website

Friday, April 2, 2010

Fasting for Father

I love this passage out of Isaiah 58. Father is looking at our hearts. He knows when we are just going through the motions. He wants us to put on Christ, and walk like Him, and do what He did. Give this kind of fast a try.

6-9"This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once.Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage.Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'

Relational Tithe

Weird ?