August 26, 2009

This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)

My blogging friend Joe (JR) from “More than Cake” gave me permission to publish his blog post “Some things are more important than your plans” as part of this series. Here is Joe’s post:

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Ready to give my final sales pitch of the day, I walked up to the long driveway hoping I could pull the day out of the dumpster and set one good lead. The door was open, so I knocked on the old brown screen door.

An older man come to the door asking, “who are you?”

“My name is Joe, how are you today sir?”

“Not so good.” he said with a surprising honesty. “My wife of 70 years just died on August 8th. We celebrated our 70th anniversary on July 8th.”

The man suddenly seemed older and more tired then when he first appeared at the door.

“I am sorry to hear of your loss.” I said.

The man asked, “What are you selling?”

I had a sudden and keen awareness that what I was selling had no meaning compared to the loss and grief this man was experiencing. “Nothing of importance, sir.” I paused for a moment and added, “May I pray for you instead?”

“Yes, please come in.”

The old man seemed glad for the company and walked with a bit more energy as he led me into his living room. We sat and talked for quite some time as my partner waited outside wondering where I had gone.

Gene was a kindly gentleman. He talked about his wife, his kids and how his life had changed since the death of his beloved wife. More than once, Gene’s eyes filled with tears as he looked off into the distance at nothing and contemplated moving on without Helen.

“I need to go, but can I pray with you now?” I asked.

Gene gladly accepted. I walked to his chair and took his cold hand in mine. I uttered what few words would come to mind… words of healing… words of hope… words of Jesus’ love for Gene and his departed wife Helen.

My conversation with Gene reminded me that there are many things more important than setting one more lead and earning a few more dollars.

What are the most valuable things in your life?

Do your daily choices reflect your values?

August 19, 2009

This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)

A reader named John sent me this story:

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I intern at a church here in Oregon and was recently sitting inside the church when a young man came up to the door. He asked if we had a phone he could use and I pointed him towards it. The young man proceeded to make several calls to different people, telling them how he would not be seeing them for awhile, and asking them if they would take care of his things while he was gone, and if he could stay with them after awhile. Overhearing all of this I began to realize what the young man was going through. He had recently been kicked out of his house arrest from his mother’s house, and was on his way to turn himself at the county jail for a warrant he knew he had on him. He

I texted one of the pastors of the church who lived near by, and asked them to come over. I figured if this guy was going to turn himself in we might as well drive him over together, and truthfully I did not want to do this by myself. The pastor came to the church quickly and we talked to the young man. He was apprehensive about going to the jail because it was the weekend, which meant he would probably end up in the drunk-tank (a large collection room for people arrested over the weekend and waiting for the court to open on Monday). He talked to us about his situation, how he had been kicked out of his house arrest at home for getting drunk, had been living on the streets for several days at this point, and wanted to just get to the jail and relieve the stress he was in. We told him the smart thing to do was just get it over with before he is caught out on the street or gets into worse trouble. He was still apprehensive though, if he went in tonight he wouldn’t eat till the morning, and wouldn’t sleep at all.

Realizing he was hungry we offered to stop by any fast-food place of his choice on the way. This was the ticket. We all piled in my pastor friend’s car and were off for burgers, some sweet tea, and then the jail. The young man was less anxious as he ate, and was intaked finally at the jail for a warrant he had as a juvenile. The pastor friend and I have vowed to get reconnected with him, take a book or two to him (he learned to lvoe reading the last time he was in jail), and just try and be there for him as he gets out.

If you could ask your readers to be praying for the young man that would be great. His name is Josh and after he is released he will hopefully be going to live with his father in a different and better environment.

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If you would like for me to include your story in this series, please send me an email at aknox [at] sebts [dot] edu.

August 12, 2009

This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)

Alan Cross (from “DownshoreDrift“) gave me permission to publish his post “Getting to See Community Transformation” as part of my stories series. This is his story:

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I got a call last night from the president of the Brighton Homeowner’s Association, the neighborhood of over 800 homes right behind our church. She asked me to come speak at their night out against crime event tonight. She told me that since we got involved in their neighborhood last year, crime has gone down and the neighbors are very happy. She said that she was speaking with a young man who was considering joining a gang last year. He said that after he started coming to the church and playing basketball and being around positive people, he didn’t want to do that anymore. He wanted to join the military now and make something out of his life. I don’t even know who the boy is. We might never know. He might just be one of the guys that comes and plays and prays with us when we get a chance. We have no idea what God is doing in answer to prayer and with just a little sacrifice on our part.

Several guys have gotten saved and others are growing in the Lord. I talked with one on Sunday who had been away for a few weeks. He said he had to get back to church and that he missed me. He said he missed all of us. I told him that I missed him too. Last week, two guys that we have been ministering to and that have come to Christ were leaving town for a couple of months. I didn’t realize that they were going to be gone that long. We had been playing basketball and there were a lot of people around, but I told them that I was going to miss them. They said that they were going to miss us too. I then told them that we loved them and that if they needed anything while they were gone to let us know. They said that they loved us too. We then prayed with one another before they left.

Each Monday and Thursday night, about 60-70 guys show up to play basketball. These are mostly all black teenagers. Many of them come from difficult backgrounds. Last week, when we went to pray before the games, there was a real since of sincerity about it. They keep coming back again and again. Something is changing.

I got a call a few weeks ago from a guy who needed help. We helped him. We are still helping him and I have been bringing him to church each week. God is working in his life little by little.

This afternoon, I got a call from a lady who was passing through town. The brakes went out on their car and they need brake pads. It costs $15. I’m leaving the church to bring her the brake pads that I’m about to go buy from Carquest. She called some other churches, even one who had a community ministry center, and they said they couldn’t help her. How do you tell someone who needs $15 brake pads to get home that you can’t help them?

I am not trying to say, “Look at what we are doing.” Not at all. I am just trying to say that seeing people’s lives change and ministering to people is no great mystery. You just do it. The hard part is in the deciding that you aren’t going to go do something else instead of help someone. That’s where surrender comes in and where we have to lay down our lives. That is where we believe Christ.

It seems that God presents us with a lot of opportunities to trust Him and serve others. We are often too busy or distracted to notice, however. Maybe that is why we aren’t impacting our communities.

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If you would like for me to include your story in this series, please send me an email at aknox [at] sebts [dot] edu.

July 29, 2009

This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)

As most of my regular readers know, my family spends time with some people in “The Neighborhood” – a government assisted housing project. Not only has this given us the opportunity to get to know and to serve some wonderful people, it has also given us the opportunity to help others serve.

For example, on most Saturdays when we go to the Neighborhood, one or two people go with us. Sometimes, these friends will end up spending alot of time in the Neighborhood. Sometimes, they’ll only go with us once or twice. Either way, we are able to help them learn to serve others and to help them learn how God wants them to serve.

Also, recently, several families that we know have started giving us vegetables to take to our friends in the Neighborhood. When we started going last Summer, we would buy fresh produce from a roadside produce stand. We divided the produce into small bags and gave a bag to each family that we talk to in the Neighborhood.

Starting last month, three different families have started giving us produce from their own gardens to take to our friends on Saturday. They’ve given us cucumbers, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and peppers. Plus another family has offered to give us more vegetables, but our schedules haven’t worked out yet.

We’re grateful not only for the free vegetables to give to our friends, but we’re grateful that others are learning to think about how to serve others. Giving away part of the blessings that God has given to us is a great way to serve!

Finally, we have been completely surprised the last couple of weeks. When we went to our local produce stand, the lady that runs the stand offered us some baskets to deliver our produce in! This was great! The baskets are much better than the plastic grocery bags we’ve been using. Plus, she gave us some banana peppers to give away.

The next week, once again, she gave us some baskets, plus several cantaloupes and watermelons. In fact, we think she gave us more produce than we bought last Saturday.

We do not know the people who run the produce stand very well – not yet anyway – but we’re excited that they are also serving others through us. Plus, our friends in the Neighborhood have been very excited about the baskets. We also have the joy of telling them that our friends and the people who run the produce stand helped provide the fruit and vegetables.

So, when you are serving others, think about ways that you can include friends in your service. Allow your service to be a time for discipleship as well as service.

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If you would like for me to include your story in this series, please send me an email at aknox [at] sebts [dot] edu.

July 22, 2009

This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)

My friend J. is a great example of making friends with and loving those who appear to be difficult to love. I’ve written about J. before in my posts “Pastor of a Restaurant?” and “stories: Gospel and community and pizza.”

J. works at a local Italian restaurant, and he’s become friends with many of his coworkers, even those that are (in his words) “a little rough.” They are not believers. He spends time with many of the young men, and even helps out when there are deaths or sicknesses in their families.

Recently, J. married R. He said that he was a little concerned about how she would handle his “rough” friends. He said they are the kind of friends who will come into the house without knocking.

He told the story of one young man who came into their house one afternoon after changing the oil in his car. As you can imagine his hands and clothes were covered in oil. When he came into the house, he left the door open and let in a few flies. R. was trying to kill the flies, and the young man decided to help. Instead, he left an oil streak smeared down the wall. R. thanked him for his help, then ushered him into their bathroom for a shower. J. said this is just the kind of love that this young man needed.

A few days later, the same young man and his girlfriend came to J. and R.’s house for a cookout. The girlfriend was just as rough as the young man, and her language was probably rougher. The young man told the girlfriend not to talk that way, because J. and R. were Christians. (Neither J. nor R. had ever told the young man to stop using certain words because they were Christians, so they were surprised.) The girlfriend became very quiet and withdrawn after the young man’s rebuke.

J. took the young man out back to finish grilling and left R. alone in the house with the girlfriend. By the time J. returned, R. had made the girl feel at home and welcomed. They were talking and laughing and enjoying one another’s company. When the young man and his girlfriend left that evening, the girlfriend hugged R. like that were longtime friends.

J. and R. are great examples of accepting and welcoming people into our homes who may be “rougher” than we would like. They are great examples of loving people and teaching them things they need to know (like when to take a shower). Plus, knowing J. and R., this young man and his girlfriend not only saw a great demonstrate of Jesus’ love and acceptance, they heard about Jesus as well.

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If you would like for me to include your story in this series, please send me an email at aknox [at] sebts [dot] edu.

July 15, 2009

This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)

Last week, I wrote about my friend Maël (pronounced like Ishmael without the Ish) from “The Adventures of Maël and Cindy.” Maël and Cindy are great servants and great examples to the church. Our family has learned alot from them over the last several years.

Three years ago, they bought a foreclosure house. To say it needed alot of work would be an understatement. So, they began to work on it slowly while Maël was in school and worked. Not long ago, they made the decision to move to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Now, they need to finish their house in a very short period of time.

Several times, people gathered together at their house on Saturdays to help them work on the house. Others brought meals so the workers would not have to stop to prepare food.

On one of the days that friends were helping Maël and Cindy work on their house, one of their neighbors moved. The realtor came over to see what was going on. He was surprised that a church would spend so much time and effort on a Saturday to help out someone like that.

As I wrote last week, in a post called “stories: Maël’s grandmother,” Maël and Cindy had to go to Europe unexpectedly for two weeks because of the death of his grandfather and grandmother. Now that they’ve returned, they are even more pressed for time to finish their house.

Several people have volunteered to take them meals every day until the work is finished or until they move. Other people are coming over almost every day to help them work on their house. One of the groups that meets on Wednesdays for fellowship and Bible study have canceled their get togethers in order to go to Maël and Cindy’s house to help.

Now, this may sound strange. We are not excited that Maël and Cindy are moving. But, we are very excited about the way people are serving them. And, they are not just serving a little – this is hard, sweaty, tiring work. But, we love Maël and Cindy.

Do you know someone who is a servant? What better way to show your appreciation for their service and example than to serve them or to serve others?

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If you would like for me to include your story in this series, please send me an email at aknox [at] sebts [dot] edu.

July 8, 2009

This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)

Maël (pronounced like Ishmael without the Ish) from “The Adventures of Maël and Cindy” is one of my best friends, and has been for over six years now. We both have engineering backgrounds, and we both went to college at Ga Tech, although we went at different times.

Our family has spent alot of time with Maël and Cindy, and they are like close family to us. Since we’ve known them, Maël has asked us to pray for his family back in Europe. You see, Maël is French, but he was born and raised in Italy. He is the only believer in his family. He only heard and receieved the gospel after moving to the United States for college.

In the last couple of years, Maël has especially and urgently asked us to pray for his grandparents. They were both in bad health. He has had several times to talk to them, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to them, and to implore them to follow Christ. While his grandmother seemed interested at times, she would never move beyond interest.

A few weeks ago, we heard the bad news that Maël’s grandfather had passed away. Maël and Cindy’s passports had expired, so they were not able to travel to France for the funeral. The family asked Maël if he would write the funeral. He did, and someone read his words expressing his desire to see his family understand and accept the gospel.

After the funeral, Maël and Cindy received their renewed passports and flew to France to spend time with his grandmother. She was not doing well after her husband passed away, and the family did not think she would live much longer.

A few days after their flight, we received this email update from Maël:

We have some encouraging news. We had several opportunities to talk to my grandmother. I asked her if she was ready to die, and she answered that she was ready, meaning she wanted to, but when I asked her, she was not sure if she was in a right relationship with God. So, I shared the gospel with her yet again. We talked about having a relationship with God and being adopted by the Father. I asked her to think about it.

The next day, I asked her if she had thought about it, and she said that she had and she thinks that she believes what I believe. So I asked her if she wanted to have a relationship with God and be adopted by the
Father. She smiled and said yes. We then prayed with her to receive Christ as her Lord and Savior.

At her age, and with her physical and mental condition, I pray that it was a sincere desire. I made sure that she understood this was not about pleasing me, but about her relationship with God, and that God knew if she really believed it in her heart. I have come to learn from my European brothers and sisters, that in this culture, we have to put much faith in God as to the outcomes of the sharing of the Gospel; whereas this is true anywhere, the reality of it and the need to draw comfort from that fact is much more striking here.

Maël told us that he and Cindy planned to fly back to the United States the next day. However, when they got to the airport, their flight was full, and they were not able to leave. That evening – the day after Maël’s grandmother had expressed interest in “having a relationship with God and being adopted by the Father” – we received another email from Maël:

My Grandmother just went to be with her new found Lord.

Yes, Maël’s grandmother had died the very next day. We don’t always understand God’s timing. But, I’m thankful for his patience, and I’m thankful to have a friend like Maël who was always loving and consistent in his proclamation and demonstration of the good news of Jesus Christ to his family.

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If you would like for me to include your story in this series, please send me an email at aknox [at] sebts [dot] edu.

July 1, 2009

This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)

In this series, I usually write about ways that I serve other people. Today, I want to do something a little different. I’m going to tell about how some friends served me, my family, and some other friends recently. It may seem insignificant to some, but it was very significant to us and our friends.

Last week, our family traveled to Alabama and Georgia to spend time with our family. Some friends of ours (the H. family) volunteered to take care of our house and our dogs while we were gone. It was very hot, so they said one or more members of their family would stay at our house so they could let our dogs go outside and come inside regularly during the day.

The week before we were planning to leave, Maël’s (pronounced like Ishmael without the Ish) grandfather passed away. Maël’s family lives in Italy. He was not able to travel back for the funeral, but he wanted to go back the week after the funeral in order to spend time with his grandmother.

This means that Maël and Cindy would be away from home the same week that we were away from home. They also have two dogs. So, our friends, (the H. family), offered to take care of their dogs and their house while they were gone as well.

The four members of the H. family traveled back and forth between our house and Maël and Cindy’s house and their house. Each night, some of them would sleep in each house. They were willing to spend time away from one another for a week so that they could care for their friends and their friends’ dogs.

Why would they do this? I’m convinced they were willing to spend their week traveling back and forth between houses to let our dogs in and out of the house, and spend their week sleeping in different houses because they love us and because they love Maël and Cindy.

Demonstrating love is not always about doing the great things (although this was a very great things for us)! Many times, demonstrating love is simply about knowing the people and serving them in the way they need and desire to be served.

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If you would like for me to include your story in this series, please send me an email at aknox [at] sebts [dot] edu.

June 24, 2009

This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)

Ms. Jennie has had a rough time lately. She is the 85 year old lady from New York who lives in a local nursing home and who my family spends time with each week. About a month ago, she developed pneumonia. She had not been sick, but she woke up in the middle of the night unable to breathe. She has been on oxygen off and on for the last several weeks.

She’s also had hip problems. Her hip has been hurting her alot, and she’s been taking pain medicine that makes her groggy. She has to shift positions often because of her hip.

During the last few weeks, when we’ve visited her, we’ve been unable to stay for very long because of her breathing problems, or because her hip was hurting, or because she became groggy from her pain medicine.

But, the last time that I visited with her, she was back to her normal self. Her breathing was back to normal, and they had taken the oxygen tanks out of her room. She had had a few physical therapy sessions, and her hip was feeling much better.

When I walked in the room she smiled at me and immediately began talking. She talked about things that had happened over the last few weeks – things she had not been able to talk about before because of her breathing and her hip.

She also wanted to talk about “religious things”. This is always somewhat funny to me, because she starts by saying that she does not talk “religion” with anyone but me. She says that she tells people, “If I want to talk about religious things then I’ll talk to Alan.” I asked her why she talks with me but not with other people, and she says, “Because I know you care about me”.

While we were talking about God, she started talking about her children again. She’s angry with God because “he took” her sons in separate automobile accidents when they were both twenty-one. She also has a daughter, but her daughter is not “good” like her sons, at least according to Ms. Jennie.

She was almost in tears when she told me that her daughter once threw hot coffee in her face and yelled at her, “I hate you! I wish you were dead!”

I told her that I can’t imagine the pain that that caused. I told her that I could imagine Miranda telling me that. It would break my heart.

Then I said, “I know that I can’t make up for what your daughter did and said to you. I don’t want to try to make up for it. But, I want you to know that I love you, and I’m glad that you’re not dead”. She smiled again in spite of the pain that her memories had caused.

I don’t know why God has chosen me to love Ms. Jennie. I pray that God will use my relationship with her and my words to her to bring Ms. Jennie to himself. Only he can do that. All I can do is make myself available to him and to her.

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If you would like for me to include your story in this series, please send me an email at aknox [at] sebts [dot] edu.

June 17, 2009

This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)

The following story comes from the blog of Dave Black. I mentioned Dave and Becky Lynn Black a few months ago in my post “stories: Loving and serving Ethiopians“. A few days ago, the Blacks returned from a three week trip to Ethiopia. They have already started writing about their trip. This is one of his stories (from Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 7:15 a.m.):

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To travel to Ethiopia is to be plunged headlong into more deprivation and hunger than most of us have ever witnessed. In my experience, only India comes close. I am very much aware that there are so many needs and so little I can do about them. This morning I would like to tell you the story of two forgotten people with whom I share this finite planet.

Zemete is a married woman in Alaba and the mother of 3 children.

When I first met her 5 years ago, she was in desperate need of fistula surgery. She could control neither her bladder nor her bowel movements. She was totally ostracized from her family and friends in her small village of Kuke. Becky and I were to able see that she got to Addis and into the excellent fistula hospital there, where she had a successful operation. That is not the end of the story, however. Upon returning to her home her husband forced himself upon her even though he knew he had to refrain from all intimacy with her for a period of several months. Since that time, the fistula has tragically reappeared. I met with Zemete two weeks ago. I am eager to have her return to the capital for another operation. But it would be senseless to do so without first getting her husband’s agreement that he will cooperate this time. He claims to be a follower of Jesus, but this is quite impossible in my mind. No man who treats his wife in that manner can be a true Christian. The elders are even now talking with him.

The other woman I want you to meet is Fatima Mohammed. She is a recent convert to Christianity. She lives in the hillside village of Galaye.

[S]he is blind in her left eye and partially blind in her right. I think Fatima is 15 years old, but most villagers have no idea when their birthday is. Last year she lost her parents to starvation. She now lives with her older brother, a simple farmer.

As I think of such suffering, my theologian brain tries to make sense of it all. On one level, all of this is the consequence of the fall. And, since God is absolutely sovereign, He controls the situation completely. That’s true of every person in this world. Nothing takes Him by surprise, including our illnesses and diseases. Whenever I go to Ethiopia I consistently realize the impact of sin in this world. But not only in Africa. There are no boundaries when it comes to heartache and grief. Life hurts!

On another level, however, I know that suffering has a purpose. At the very least, it is God calling me to get involved in the lives of others. He wants me to be like Jesus who left comfort behind to serve the lepers in society. In Ethiopian society, both Zemete and Fatima are absolute NOBODIES. But in God’s eyes they are huge SOMEBODIES. So, while there’s sadness and pain in joining in the sufferings of other people, there is also the joy of knowing that the God of all comfort, the Father of compassion, is right there with us all.

Why I am sharing this with you? I don’t really know. Maybe it’s because I’m feeling the post-trip blues. Maybe it’s because I just need to jangle. I think mostly it’s because I just want you to pray. Pray for your sisters in Christ, Zemete and Fatima. Missions is hugely demanding. The joyous frustration is constant and irrevocable. Personally, I wouldn’t want to live any other way.

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If you would like for me to include your story in this series, please send me an email at aknox [at] sebts [dot] edu.