The Perception of a Christian

I have this perception of a Christian and I have pretty high standards for Christians, it’s pretty much perfection. And maybe I need to work on that. We are going to make mistakes, we are not perfect, sometimes we may say a curse word (under our breath), we may overreact to a situation, or we may even get a ticket as long as we realize our shortcomings and work on changing them. It’s like having weaknesses. I have many. When you are in a job interview and are asked what are your weaknesses. I think the best thing is to state them (one of two, don’t offer up too many.) It shows that your cognizant of your weaknesses, you have identified your weaknesses and you are working on them to change them from weaknesses to strengths.

As a Christian, I believe in Christ. I am saved and I have asked God to forgive me of my sins. I believe (faith) when I die, I will live eternally in Heaven. I will strive to be a better person each day with strong morals and ethics. That’s the best we can do as Christians.

What is your perception of a Christian?

Lend a Helping Hand

Last Sunday, I got a phone call from my Cousin and she said that my Uncle was stranded on Oklahoma. His foot was swollen and he wasn’t able to drive back from a family reunion he was attending. She wanted to know if me or my wife could drive her up there and she would drive his car back.

I guess the devil was in my ear, but I didn’t really want to help, part of me wanted to push it off on my wife, but I changed clothes and went to pick up my Cousin so we could get my Uncle back home.

We drove to Clayton, Oklahoma and it was such a beautiful God-given day. We got a chance to talk and visit with each other. When we got there my Uncle had a flat tire on his car. Now, I’m really glad I went on this trip so I could not only get Allen back but I could change the tire on the car. I’m sure Allen’s brother and my wife could have changed the tire, but it wasn’t a problem for me to get the donut out of the car and change it.

I’m not trying to brag, but I think I had that tire changed in about 10 minutes or less. I followed them back and we took the Talihena drive back it was so beautiful and majestic. I’m really glad I didn’t listen to the devil and shirk this task off to my wife. I’m glad I went and lent a helping hand. I felt so good on the way back knowing I helped someone that needed me. I felt good for a couple of days.

The intent of this article is not to brag, but to remind you to help others out when given the opportunity. It was a special day for me and I made sure I didn’t forget how to change a tire.

The Power of Prayer

On Thursday, my wife called me and told me that a tornado was spotted in Mena and it was headed our way to take cover, so I got in the safest place I know in the house, the bath tub and I started praying for not only my safety, but our safety. The kids were at Church camp and my wife wasn’t home yet.

Another friend of mine, on Facebook, said that it took a few seconds for it to register, that it wasn’t noon on Wednesday, when she heard the sirens warning people in Mena.

I’m not going to lie, I was somewhat afraid, but I also knew that God had my back. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to me, unless it was time to call me home to heaven and that did comfort me.

God heard my prayer and the tornado didn’t fully develop. It could have been much worse than it was. I truly believe God heard me and possibly others praying and his hand was on that cloud. There definitely is strength in prayer.

https://www.fox16.com/news/local-news/watch-possible-tornado-caught-on-camera-near-mena/2059209529

Love

Our Church set up it’s slide in a nearby park, it was open to the public. We wanted to spread love around, meet new people and try the new slide out, before kids camp starts this week.

You should have seen how much fun the kids and grown-ups had on that slide. We had a great time fellowshipping, eating and meeting new people, some of the older members even tried out the slide. We need to do more things like this in our communities to break bread and fellowship with one another.

We made our rounds around the park looking for new people to “love on” as one of our church-members said. We got to meet some new people and some new people showed up to Church this week. I’d call that a success.

Instead of fighting, and politicking, we need more love in the world we live in now. I could certainly do a better job of loving my family, my wife, my kids, my Aunt and Uncle, Step-Mom, friends and even my enemies. Can we really ever love someone enough? We could all probably do a better job of showing people we love them.

Join me, and tell someone that you love, just how much they mean to you while we still have the chance.

Commissioning Invocation

I am blessed to have the opportunity to assist young college students become leaders and Officers in the United States Army via the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps)program at Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University. We had the pleasure to commission eight young men and women yesterday, May 10 2019.

One of our Cadets blessed us with two invocations and I wanted to share them with you.

“Please pray with me. Dear God, You are holy and righteous indeed. We thank you for the Cadets today who will commission into the United States Army as Officers. Thank you for the physical discipline and mental toughness that you have given these young men and women in order to complete their journey. Thank you for the new journey they are about to begin and all that comes with it. God, give these young men and women courage and wisdom like no other. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

“Please pray with me. Dear God, I praise you for what has been accomplished today. We pray that these young Officers would live lives of daring, of goodness, and of faith as we send them out into their ranks to impact the world. When they are wrong, make them willing to change. When they are right, make them easy to live with. So, Lord, strengthen them, that the power of their example will far exceed the authority of their rank. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

The Cadet ‘s wisdom is beyond his years. I especially liked when he said “When they are right, make them easy to live with.” Most of the time when we are right, we don’t think much of it, we are supposed to succeed, we are supposed to be right, but his insightfulness was profound giving the commissioning Officers advice to not let their success go to their heads, to be able to work with or in his words “to be able to live with them.” This young man is going to be a great Officer and will go on to do great things.


Breakthrough

Last night, my wife and I found someone to watch the kids while we had a “date night”. Our Church posted that the movie Breakthrough was playing at the local movie theater, so we decided to go watch it. We don’t typically go out much these days, we have a five year old and a three year old, so we stay at home with them most of the time, but I have a cousin that was gracious enough to come take care of them for a couple of hours. It was certainly nice to get out and see some of our Church congregation. We had a pretty good turn out of about 2o people for the first showing and there were more standing in line, when our showing was done.

So how was the movie? I absolutely LOVED it. It was amazing, however, if you watch the trailer, you can pretty much figure out what is going to happen. But I think there is a bigger picture to the movie beyond the obvious story with John, the boy that falls though the ice. I think there is another story line with Mike Colter’s character “Tommy”. You see Tommy heard a voice telling him not to stop looking for John and exactly where to look for him in the lake. But there is one problem, Tommy doesn’t believe in God, so I think a possible outcome of the true story is that Tommy finds God and becomes saved, at least that is what I hope happened.

Not only is this movie based on a true story, it is a faith based film, it also has some sports in it and the executive producer of the movie is Stephen Curry. It’s truly a great movie. I encourage you all to go and see it. I have embedded the trailer movie here and an interview with Stephen Curry stating why he wanted to be involved in the movie.

I’m sorry I haven’t written more. I’ll try to do better, enjoy the trailers.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Characters+in+Breakthrogh+&view=detail&mid=F5B8F1B46AF421DB2F3EF5B8F1B46AF421DB2F3E&FORM=VIRE0&mmscn=tpvh&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dCharacters%2bin%2bBreakthrogh%2b%26form%3dEDNTHT%26mkt%3den-us%26httpsmsn%3d1%26refig%3de90982d154734e7ae71a61cd3769241f%26PC%3dASTS%26sp%3d-1%26pq%3dcharacters%2bin%2bbreakthro%26sc%3d0-23%26qs%3dn%26sk%3d%26cvid%3de90982d154734e7ae71a61cd3769241f

God ‘Can Do Miracles’: Steph Curry on Why He Produced ‘Breakthrough’
God ‘Can Do Miracles’: Steph Curry on Why He Produced ‘Breakthrough’

Carrying Your Load

Carry the Load is a spiritual blog that I have been wanting to start for some time. I want to take you on a journey with me. Hopefully you will follow along with me through this journey called life.

I was watching TV today and I came across a very good “teaching pastor” named Kyle Idleman and he inspired me to finally get started on this blog. I am captivated by a great story telling-speaker and I wish I was a great story teller.


Kyle’s message, which I missed part of, was about carrying a load. He went on to say sometimes we need help carrying our load, or our box. Sometimes our box or load requires more than one person to carry. It may be a two-person lift and at times we may be too stubborn to ask for help. He stated that God is there to help us along the way and to ask for help when we need it.


He also said that we can help each other out by assisting others in need. He went on to tell an uplifting story about someone that donated their serviceable vehicle to someone that didn’t have one and the gesture helped them get to and from work and to run errands. That is just one example of helping someone lighten their load.


I want to use this blog as a way to share not only my life but others lives and to relate it spiritually. I’m not a famous person. I’m not an ordained preacher, just a Christian that likes to write. I look forward to sharing more about myself with you and hopefully taking you on a journey.