Like that video from the Black Keys? You didn’t know I had the moves, huh? All things really are possible. Apparently I got darker too. Don’t really mind the drastic weight loss.
One of the biggest lessons I learned since I started on a new path in life a year and a half ago is that Virgin Mobile has got to be the worst name for a company. This is especially true if you are divorced, went through a breakup, or a teenager getting your first cell phone. What is this company trying to do? Inspire people to go out and get laid? Or just start a little blackbook on your cell phone. Speaking of mobile phones, I am done with smart phones. I came to a point where I admit I am powerless over technology. The apps are great but you get to use them for an hour and then they take about three to six months to charge back up. On top of all that, when I was charging my laptop and had my dumb phone plugged into the laptop with a data cable and listening to my Stitcher App with a pair of headphones, you would have thought I was on life support with all of the wires coming out of me.
Yes, I got my start as a devotional writer but writing on the same thing every day burned me out, especially trying to make a living as a freelance writer. Although it did get me interested in a career in Web Developing which may involve getting my bachelor’s at University of Phoenix. Hopefully I will do better than my attempts at being an accountant. As anal as I am I’m not anal enough to be a CPA.
Now I have a part-time job in a grocery store which even at top pay I can still make the same as a full-timer on minimum wage-sad, eh? Even more sad is the fact that stock clerks started at $9 in grocery back in 1979 and now they start at minimum wage. The federal minimum wage was $3.35 back then and stockers have been getting paid the same thing now since the minimum wage was $4.25. If you think that’s bad, imagine starting off a new job at $7.25 an hour and with the high turnover rate because no one wants to work hard, you get promoted to lead stocker. Being this doesn’t involve a raise (much of one anyway), you are still making not much more than $7.25 and possibly supervising clerks that may make more than you if they hire in with more experience.
So here I am sitting in a brand new coffee shop that just opened up and reading a help wanted sign (yes, some places still have those; that’s how you know it’s a small business). I may apply for a job here. In good with the manager already. Prayers would be appreciated on that one. This would be a dream to become a Professional Barista/Freelance Web Developer/Content Writer someday.
Blessings & Peace,
E Bishop Wooten
Staggered by the odd goodness of God: Kingdom Mathematics don’t always add up
Well, as much as I hate using an old address to sell plasma to pay for my rent at the Bunkhouse (hopefully someone at the plasma center won’t read this), I seem to be blessed financially anyway. For example, I have $4.57 in my account, I stop at McD’s for some dollar menu items that cost $4.08. Why does my account balance equal $2.49 the next day? Shouldn’t it be .49? Then a day or two later I get some chicken on the dollar menu at Church’s which should zero out that account. Today I check it and it’s $3.49. I could ask God for a full direct deposit but something tells me that would be putting God to the test. His blessings aren’t that obvious. You actually have to be quite anal(ytical) to catch them. And by the way, the last thing you want to do is make sense of God’s blessings!
Now I may get to be a part-time stock clerk at a local grocery store (with my experience that’s, n/m, none of your business. . .j/k 
Either way if I was offered the chance to be a store manager or a syndicated columnist with a content writing service, you would think it would be a no-brainer since being a retail manager would be nights, weekends, and Sundays. But after two years of scrounging a living as a freelance writer (not as bad as hard construction day labor) I pretty much decided this lifestyle sucks and isn’t consistent enough. I’m ready for full-time work again. But I probably need to finish my Bachelor’s (probably at University of Phoenix). My work though Elance has caused me to get into Web Development and it’s practical so I can probably pass the classes. and get a grant + scholarships since I haven’t worked much the last two years.
The plasma story reminds me of when Jesus said something to the religious zealots of His day about neglecting the latter for the former; i.e., focusing so much on the keeping of God’s law that you neglect a brother in need. Even Rahab lied to protect spies. Besides if you try to be completely honest at any job you would be fired. If you have that kind of faith, go for it. I know when I was a Department Manager the team stocking guide I filled out gave me 1.5-2 days to finish the job and I only had eight hours. Truck drivers can only drive so many hours but have to go over due to traffic. If they are honest about that they would still be canned for violating company policy. That would be called playing the game. The only alternative would be living on the streets and being a leech on society. Would anybody listen to someone share the gospel if they looked and dressed like a veteran hobo? I met a lot of “godly” people on the streets. Sadly I cannot tell who is real or just psychotic. I don’t think all the meds in the world would pull some of those people who have lived on the streets since the ’80′s back to reality. It’s really sad visiting that neigborhood. I know if I had to live there again I would probably be needing drug and alcohol rehab. However when it comes to drugs & alcohol and antipsychotic medicine, it’s a tossup which one is worse for you in the long run.
Who Will Stop The Rain?
I heard a classic song from the late ’60′s by the legendary Creedence Clearwater Revival. You may know them simply as CCR ; they had such hits as “Proud Mary” and “Bad Moon Rising” (as a kid I though he was singing ‘there’s the bathroom on the right’. It’s before my time but I follow rock from the ’60′s through ’90′s and some contemporary. While staying at the Bunkhouse Men’s Dorm in South Fort Worth, I heard the song “Who will stop the rain?” I heard at the time it was mainly about the Vietnam War, but it could apply to today and does not necessarily have to do with war. Yeshua HaMashiach/Jesus Christ prophesied there would be wars and rumors of wars. Sometimes I think the worst kinds of wars are those that don’t involve military weapons. Sometimes the biggest weapon of mass destruction is our own mouths (James Chapter 3).
Who will stop the rain? As far back as history can go there have been wars; wars between nations, families, individuals, etc. These can be physical, with or without weapons, or emotional/mental. Of course for those that don’t study history, then just read the paper because we will continue to relive “the old days” if we don’t learn anything from our past. So, the answer to “who will stop the rain?” The answer is obvious to those that follow the teachings of Judeo-Christianity. The promised Messiah of Israel. Christians on the other hand know the identity of the Messiah and the only thing you can do to prove that He is still living is receive Him into your life (salvation does not stop there by the way).
Now, I’m finished preaching so I’ll upload the video of a 1969(?) classic.
In the words of the late Jimi Hendrix, “there must be some kind of way outta here.”
Sometimes I wonder if Lenny Kravitz is Jimi Hendrix reincarnated.
Fear of getting old? Or something greater?
Now that I am in my mid-thirties and pushing 40, I notice many of my high school friends that I reconnected with through the amazing power of Facebook comment on how they are getting old. Some are just joking but some actually do have a fear of old age. My dad always taught me that you are only as old as you feel and that life is only as hard as you make it. Life is only hard when we make decisions that are out of step with the will of God which is laid out in scripture; of course any devotional or inspirational that focused on Yeshua as the Messiah and if anointed by the Holy Spirit can be divine inspiration.
When you live right, i.e. focus on God, life seems easier because we are supernaturally regenerated. The healthcare system may think we are “manic” and try to medicate it. I believe one hippie biker Jesus-freak referred to that as the “Jesus High”. Also, our bodies seem to supernaturally balance itself out and even the medical professionals in the Orient say that sickness only happens when our bodies are out of balance. I could recommend a book by Dr. Wayne Dyer called “Being in Balance.” I don’t know what Dr. Dyer believes about Jesus but I notice he is the most charismatic new age teacher and he quotes the New Testament and Jesus Christ a lot. I also notice how amazed I am when I hear someone who looks like they should be in college tell me that they are approaching senior citizenship as fast as they can.
This goes with a story of someone that was close to me seeing a strand of gray hair and insisting that it was blond. I am not colorblind, I have my own gray strands on the sides (they are just overshadowed by the dumbo ears). Anyway, sometimes I have to wonder if the fear of gray hair, fear of getting old, or whatever you call it is related to something much deeper that the Bible talks about.
It’s called the fear of death. No true believer in the Living God and His Messiah will fear death because the presence of the Holy Spirit in their life will assure them of righteousness and peace. It will also give them joy which in God-terminology is true happiness and transcends one’s circumstances. The real assurance that you are a child of God is that you are led by the Holy Spirit. Many evangelists say you can have assurance and peace if you believe (or trust) in Jesus, say the sinner’s prayer, and walk down an aisle to get baptized.
You can do all those above things and not have a genuine assurance of your salvation if you are not led by the Holy Spirit! The Bible, or Jesus the real Word of God, teaches that many will be deceived. Many will come to Him when He returns expecting Him to let them into heaven because they think they knew Him; only to have Him tell them to depart from them workers of iniquity. (Matthew 7:21-scariest verse in the Bible).
Do you fear getting old? If you don’t know the Father and the Son and experienced the supernatural filling of the Holy Spirit then you will likely have the crap scared out of you when you read the book of Revelation. In which case you will probably need an immodium at the first sign of gray hair.
Rolling in my 3.0
This is sort of a humor article on something I heard through the Alpha Course yet is an awesome testimony. First off, the Alpha Course is led by a British pastor, Nicky Gumbel. A lot of people love listening to him just for his accent. From listening to him, you can hear the wisdom. I have been studying the Bible for about twelve years consistently and can’t find anything wrong with his doctrine myself. Although my theological views tend to lead more to the Charismatic/Pentecostal; if for no other reason than the mainline denominations appear to lean toward fundamentalist/calvinism which depresses me.
Naturally if you google Alpha Course, you probably won’t find that much positive talk about it. Most people think charisma is just manipulation to get money out of people. Granted there are some ministries that do go to that extreme. The Apostle Paul even talked about some preachers back in his day who preached the Messiah for profit. Therefore, nothing new is under the sun.
It almost makes you wonder sometime what many of these legalists, uh, I mean fundamentalists would think of Yeshua/Jesus when He comes back. Many people will probably expect somebody who is all serious and judges you for anything you do if it doesn’t involve reading the Bible, praying, and going to church.
One of the Alpha Course lessons talked about why we should read the Bible. A lot of people think it’s just a rule book. I almost imagine some people think the reason God gave us commandments was because He likes to lord His control over us which means we don’t practice sin because “God said so and there doesn’t have to be a reason.”
That goes back to my previous post on a quote from Pastor Ted Garner in Colorado regarding which tree we are in-the tree of life or the tree of knowledge of good & evil. Jesus Himself said “by their fruit you will know them.” Who has more fruit? Those that tell us how wicked we are and preach a Once Saved, Always Saved faith-alone doctrine which goes against the Book of James? Or those that believe in perseverance of the saints/progressive sanctification? That we have to continually seek after God in order to keep from sliding back into our old ways and separating ourselves from Him again? The Word of God teaches that if you fall from grace the last state will be worst than the first and it would be better to have not known God than to know Him and turn away. Although anyone who truly loves God won’t want to turn away from the Living God.
On the Alpha Course video we saw today, Pastor Nicky (that reminds me of an Adam Sandler movie only not as creepy with the name) told about a man who used the Bible for rolling papers for his weed; that is until he came to the book of John and found he no longer needed marijuana anymore when he found the Messiah Yeshua/Christ.
Talk about rolling your way through the Bible. Sadly, he probably rolled his way through the Word more than many people who went to church. In the end he received more out of it once he came to the book of John. Hence the title of this post. I’m sure you can figure out where the 3,0 came from.
Blessings & Peace,
Shabat Shalom,
E Bishop
Which tree are you climbing?
I once saw a quote by a charismatic pastor named Ted Garner in Colorado about how each individual is in one of two trees-the tree of life or the tree of knowledge of good & evil. For a little background, Ted Garner was a charismatic pastor for over twenty years until a scandal came out in 2006 about a homosexual encounter that he had. While I learn more towards charismatic beliefs than doom & gloom hell-fire and brimstone, I don’t know if I agree with pastors that have six figures in salaries and millions in assets; although Pastor Rick Warren was quoted on CNN’s Piers Morgan show as saying he increased his giving every year and was now up to 90%. So technically you could make seven figures a year and only keep 10% and still have six figures in assets. Makes sense since you can’t outgive God. Pastor Warren was quoted as saying that it’s not a sin to be rich, it is only a sin to die rich.
Back to Pastor Ted in Colorado. Aside from his sexual encounters (I might add that if you search hard enough you can find skeletons in the closet of any renowned spirit-filled evangelist), Garner was quoted as saying we are either in the Tree of Life or the Tree of Knowledge of good & evil. Those in the tree of life hate sin because of the damage that it does to those who are enslaved to it. Pastor Ted used the example of an abortion clinic. The protester who is in the tree of life would be protesting the abortion out of concern and compassion for the mother and her family while the other protester who was in the other tree merely protested because they saw abortion as evil.
To sum it up, you either avoid sin because it is evil, meaning you are probably keeping a mental checklist of “good & evil” and becoming frustrated in your walk with God; all the while exalting yourself over those that appear to be enslaved to the evil in their lives and serving God out of fear. If you are in the tree of life, you serve God out of love which leads to a desire to want to obey His commandments and hate evil because of what it does to those enslaved to it.
Which one do you think is truly abiding in Christ? I John 4:18 says “perfect love casts out fear”. Do you subconsciously judge those who practice evil or lovingly encourage to seek God so they can be healed of the underlying issues by the MIghty Counselor and the Balm of Gilead? It’s safe to note that the Cross is a tree and Jesus the Messiah is the way, the truth, and the life; aka Tree of Life-get it? I think I just answered my own question. Those in the tree of knowledge of good & evil have head knowledge about God and are merely pursuing religion rather than a relationship with the Living God and His Messiah.
