Christian Blog Site

Testimony

A bunch of my friends and i went to the beach yesterday in St Augustine, Fl and had a blast! i really dislike the beach too sticky, sandy, and salty.  But my wife really enjoyed herself and that makes it all worth it.  So after the beach we went to a restaurant.  We had a 45 minute wait, so we decided to look around.  We found this really sweet art gallery.  The gallery only had work from one artist: Barry Barnett. We talked with the artist for a while, our first impression was that he was a solid guy.  We found out that just the prints(high quality photocopies) of his work can sell for as high as $85,000.  My wife, Jenny, is an artist and likes to paint(hobby), and he gave her some inspirational and uplifting words.  Later, i remarked to Jenny that if i ever met an angel in disguise i would imagine him to have an attitude and words similar to Mr. Barnett.  So we roamed around a bit then ended up back at Mr. Barnett’s store.  He was painting at this time and told us that at the moment the piece of work was worth about $25,000 but he was in the process of adding a few brush strokes within minutes that would bring it’s value to $300,000.  We were blown away.  So we began to ask about his other work hoping the conversation would lead to Jesus somehow and a salvation message.  Turns out this Barry Barnett guy is a solid Christian, too.  When we found out we promptly praised God and told him we were all from a Gainesville Church and lived for Jesus, too.  So he showed us a print(high quality photocopy) of a horse that was very intricate and detailed and showed us how he would hide crosses within the artwork.  We liked it.  He, then, said that he would be honored if we would take this piece of art back to Gainesville and present it as a gift to our church.  Our mouths dropped.    Then he proceeded to offer to sign it making it a bona fide Artist’s Proof, which made it one of only 3 in the world and which gave it a value of $65,000.  That rocked our socks off!!  We could hardly speak.  We were stoked.  We pulled the church van around as soon as we could, praised God the whole way, jumped around, smiles bigger than our faces.  It was good.  This morning we presented it to the church and everyone loved it.

Teaching

There is a law that the world follows called the law of discontentment.  You may have heard it stated as the grass is always greener on the other side.  People in the world are never satisfied with what they have; they always want something bigger, better, or faster.  i remember when i was in the world and lived by this law.  When i got my first car i was blessed to get it brand new from my parents, and it was sweet with all the upgrades i wanted.  i loved it.  It was fast, it was loud, and it was fun.  Until one day i was driving and there was a guy next to me whose car was faster, louder, and more fun.  So i had to have what he had.  i got my car souped up a little, got a better stereo system, and even had neon lights installed.  i was king of the road again.  i was faster, louder, and more fun than i’d ever been before.  But then it began to wear away.  And once again the other guy’s was better.  So i wanted more.  And so on.  Those that follow this law always fall into two categories.  Either they are cursed with an aweful curse in which they are always chasing that dream of being bigger, better, and faster; then they die. Or they are cursed with a much worse curse of achieving their goal and being the biggest, the best, and the fastest.  We see this with the rich and famous.  They’ve achieved the american dream and have everything.  And yet they aren’t one bit more fulfilled than they were when they had nothing.  One of three things happen at this point.  They either drown their sorrows in alcohol and drugs, commit suicide, or become spiritual.  Sadly, many false religions have the ability to give a false hope in which you no longer feel completely dissatisfied at which point the rich and famous believe they’ve attained salvation.  

Truth We are not yet perfect.

Truth On this earth, we will likely never be perfect.

Truth Though we may try hard not to, we carry some elements of our worldliness over into our Kingdom living.

A Revelation

We often treat God’s blessings as the new toy we got and flaunt it around until we get bored and pray for a new blessing.  By flaunt it around, I don’t mean we directly say look at me I’m so cool cause I have this.  But instead we give testimonies and praise reports to our friends and we run around praising and thanking God like crazy…for a day maybe two.  Then more often than not we are right back to where we started.  Dissatisfied, discontent, and praying for something (get this) bigger, better, or faster.  Sound Familiar?  Maybe a little worldly?  No, extremely worldly.  Just cause we put a spiritual twist of prayer and a thank you in the mix we think we are acting Godly.  Now here’s the real kicker.  Just about all the time, God ignores that disgusting worldly, sinful, spirit in our lives and continues to bless us anyways with stuff that it bigger, better, and faster. That’s the work of an amazing grace that only a loving Father could give.  It IS His will that we be blessed and have life more abundant, but it’s also His will that we be content.

There are only 4 words or phrases besides names in the entire english language that are always capitalized.    They are God, Holy Spirit(phrase), Jesus, and I.  This capitalization is done in order to show respect and to give importance to the capitalized word. Remember those aptitude tests in elementary school?  Do you remember the type of question where you had to pick the word or phrase that didn’t fit in a group?  Well out of the group God, Holy Spirit, Jesus and I, which doesn’t fit?  It’s I. Apparently, some genius thought it was a good idea to give the same respect to me as to God by capitalizing the word I.  The Bible calls that sin and pride.  I call it stupidity.  It also happens to be the single act that changed Lucifer(God’s most beautiful and exalted angel) into satan(the scum of the earth).  Man has had this thing ever since the Garden of Eden when Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil(because he wanted to be like God)(and yes I said Adam, though Eve ate first, death did not enter until Adam ate; this will be explained another day) where he hasn’t learned his lesson; he still wants to be like God.  At the tower of babel men tried to build a tower that would reach the heavens in order to challenge God.  God won.  satan said to God I will exalt my throne above your stars.  God won.  Goliath tried to murder David.  God won. satan working through Jezebel tried to murder Elijah.  God won.  satan tried to capture Jesus in hell for eternity. God won.  satan tried to keep me in a dead religion my entire life, kill me, keep me in bondage to sin, and make me miserable.  God won.  In the future, satan will try to bring an entire army against Jesus.  I’ve read the back of the book and surprise, surprise God wins.  It’s the strangest thing…it’s almost as if God is ominpotent and His will, will always be done.  So in an effort to eliminate sin and pride from my life I will not longer be blogging with my i’s capitalized.  From now on i am an i, not an I. 

Disclaimer: This is not meant to put anyone into a bondage of legalism.  i consider it entirely impractical and unwise to not capitalize the word i during normal daily activities in the world.  i only intend to do this in my blogging and other select writings in order to prove a point.  Students should not do this within school papers as you will likely fail.  Lawyers should not do this within legal documents because you will lose credibility.  Jesus should continue to capitalize His own I’s because He is worthy. Batteries not included.