It's Shower Time

Yesterday, the ladies of my church threw an absolutely incredible wedding shower for Meli and I. We weren't sure what to expect when we got there, but the ladies totally outdid themselves and really helped us out for when we get married. Mel had her car loaded down to where we could barely get her bags in, because of all the stuff.

It's hard to believe that we're finally in the season where people are beginning to throw us showers. I mean, a year ago, we were talking about how awful it was that we were waiting so long from the engagement day to get married. Now, it's so close.

People keep asking me if I'm ready for the wedding. Well, I'm not sure about that, but I know this...

I'm absolutely ready to be married to her. Anyways, here are some pictures.

Melissa's neice took a liking to that flower at once.

Opening the gifts

Check out the haul!

She made the skirt herself! Doesn't it look great?

I'm Back

TypePad was nice, but I've got to save every penny I can before my wedding :)

Thoughts from the Fajitas

This message was originally printed in my student newsletter in February.

So I'm at the local Mexican restaurant with my computer and I start thinking. Of course the first thing I realize is that trying to type while eating fajitas is not a good idea. So after five paper towels and a prayer over my keyboard later, I'm back and I'm still thinking.

In case you haven't ever been to a Mexican restaurant, or been living in a cave outside of Broaddus, you have experienced the most wonderful phenomenon when someone orders a fajita plate in a good restaurant...

the sizzling plate.

It calls to you. It says, "hey Bro. Daron, I'm here to fill you up and you are going to love me." It calls to me like when I drive past a Starbucks logo. The sound fills the room and lets everyone else know that a fajita has been ordered. Then you start hearing other people say, "mmmm, that smells good," and "I'll have one too."

Recently, on a TV show that I won't name on the grounds that it may incriminate me into loads of teasing from all of you, someone referred to a performance as being "All sizzle with no steak." Meaning that it had a lot of spice and difficult things, but the meat was not there.

What would have happened if today, I heard that wonderful sound as the waitress came to me, only to find nothing on the plate but sizzling onions?

Paul, the best-selling author of half of the New Testament, warned us about things like this. No, he wasn't a food critic, but he warned us about making a lot of noise in our lives but not acting like it.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." (I Corinthians 13:1-3)

People all around me know who I am here in town. I am watched because I am a pastor and people expect certain things out of me. But that is how it should be with every Christian, not just those with three letters in front of their names. People will look to all of us to see what God looks like in our lives. If we say we are Christians but then live as if we weren't, we are like a sizzling plate with no fajitas. We need to show the love of God with the way we live each day (our steak), not just with our words (our sizzle).

P.S. Try the shrimp mmmmmmm -D

Beacon Article March 2006

Pastor Erwin McManus, from one of the largest churches in Los Angeles, tells a story of the first time somebody refused a gift that he had given. He was having a conversation with this man, and at the end of it, McManus offered the gentleman a copy of his latest book. The man looked at the book and asked "is this a Christian book?"

The tone in the man's voice was enough to make the point. Eventually, Pastor McManus realized that this man had been hurt in church as a child and wanted nothing to do with church. One line from McManus has stuck with me all week, "We have to work 10 times harder because of people who hurt people with their actions in and out of the church."

It's kind of like the guy at my college who would come by every Friday and start yelling at the students who were passing by that they were all (despite not knowing them) going to Hell. No doubt, some of them were, but because of his attitude and condescending words, I believe he may have sent many people there himself. One student who came to visit the college ministry I went to told me that he didn't want to be "like that guy [at the fountain]," and never came back.

Jesus spent most of his time on Earth challenging the religious customs and traditions of the day. If the commands of the rabbis got in the way of loving people, he always chose love. We have opportunities every day to do the same. There are people hurting all over San Augustine and the surrounding area. Many of them have been hurt by things or people in their past. Are we, as a church, willing to work the 10 times harder it will take to bring them to the unconditional, saving love of Christ?

A Great Kind of Faith

I’ll bet you, there is one in almost every church in the nation. It’s that one person that everybody else stares at because they are very different than everyone else. As much as you try not to have a prejudice against it, you find yourself focusing on the differences instead of noticing the person. It’s the reason we take a second look when somebody handicapped rolls by in the wheelchair, or exaggerate lip movements when talking to a deaf person who can read lips just fine if you talk normal.

I have one of those people that amazes me more and more every Sunday morning. A brain injury left her physical body nearly shut down. It seems to talk all of her concentration to move her hand off the armrest just to greet me with the same smile I get every week that she feels well enough to be at church. Her mind is still working perfectly, but the body is not willing to go. Sort of a “my spirit is willing but the flesh is so weak” coming to life.

Yet last Sunday, as I was singing the hymn on the stage, I heard something coming from the front row. She can’t hold a hymnal, but when it’s a song she remembers, you can’t stop her from singing out. Sure the words were about a line behind where I was, but it was filled with such passion. It was true, uninhibited worship, despite the circumstances.

I have to admit, there are times where I don’t think that I would have that same kind of spirit about me. I think to myself, “How can I not feel like praising Him today?” I need to take a life lesson from a wonderful lady living in a long-term care facility.