If I had my wit

last Friday I was asked a good question. I had just come out of Gen Psych. however so I did not have me usual wit and eloquence. I therefore mumbled something cryptic and moved on. I now wish to amended this error. The question was

"If you were a youth pastor, and a teen came to you and told you that he was thinking about going into the ministry, what would you say?".

I should have said this:

"First I would sit the boy down in my office and tell him what the ministry life is like. I would tell him that ministry is the sacrifice of all privacy. It is living in a glass house. It is trying to teach your people the Word of God, when all they want to do is practice politics in the Church, backbite, and gossip. living in a parsonage that has leeks in the roof and the basement.

Turning the other cheek. Taking a stand when all others stand down. Being unable to buy your family nice things, new clothes, or nice cars. Living without the comfort of a daily rut. Working more than forty hours a week, but having your people tell you that you don't have a real job.

Being on call 24/7. Staying awake late into the night praying for your congregation. Being awakened at 3 in the morning to go to the hospital. Ending a vacation early to preach the funeral of a dear loved one. heading to your study, bone-tired from working on the construction project, to polish your message for the next day.

Sacrifice, loss, contempt, that is the ministry. I would paint the most horrible, bleak, nasty, tiring, dark picture I could for this young man.

Then I would look at the young man sitting in my office, and ask him is that what you want? For that is the price of ministry. That is some of what you will feel in the ministry. It may be true, it may not, but you will feel like that at times in the ministry.

You may ask why would you say that? Why would you tell that young man such a bleak story? Because who else would? In Joshua 24 he told the children of Israel what God commanded of them, and what would happen if they disobeyed, and what would happen if they obeyed. Then he said "Ye cannot serve the LORD" he did this not to discourage them but to harden their decision. To make it a firm resolution in their hearts.

I am able to tell what the ministry is like because I have lived with my parents for the last 19 years. I had no choice as to whether I was going to be there or not. I did have a choice as to whether I would go into the ministry myself, but through all the trials God showed me that it was worth it all. I made my choice, that is what I want, but it was an informed choice. But I would not stop there in telling him about the ministry.

Then around that horrible picture of misery, I would frame, with gold, the blessings of ministry. The joy of knowing you are right where God wants you, the happiness of contentment with what God has given you, the peace that God will sustain you, the love of the Father filling you. Watching your congregation grow. Watching those that you have poured your life into serve God with theirs. Watching new Christians being born into a new life. Watching God provide for every need.

Being able to teach what God has given to you, after much study and close communion with Him. The joy of knowing that those dear loved ones that you are preaching the funeral for are in heaven. Being able to help a brother in Christ come back to God. Preaching weddings, of two young'ns that you watched grow up in the youth group, and "big church".

Being able to take a stand for what is right, saying as for me and my house we will serve the Lord, then watching your children grow up and take that same stand, not because it is what you did, but because it was what God told you, and them, was right. . . Hearing God say well done thou good and faithful servant.

Then I would look at the young man sitting in my office, and ask him is that what you want? For that is the blessing of ministry. That is some of what you will feel, if you are faithful in the ministry."

That is what I would say.

An old thought. One more time

The following was an e-mail from myself last semester. You may not have seen it, so I thought I should share.

"Today was not a happy day! I got a D on my paper rough draft, an e-mail saying that 1 of my classes was full and that I could not 2 more because I had not taken New Testament, and I got a C+ on my last speech.

The rough draft I can see, It was not good. it was unhappy. there were comma splices and stuff. I deserved a D.

The class that was full I can see. it is a Dr. Radford class and with him leaving next year they are in high demand.

The two classes that I don't have the prerequisite for I can't see. Maybe if it was Name of Bible course 1 is a prerequisite for name of Bible class 2. that i could see. but T.N. survey is a requirement for EVERYTHING!!! I can't take more than 4 Bible credits next semester! OH well I will be talking with Mr. Komis tomorrow about it. he should be able to make heads or tails of it.

Then I went to the mailbox and got my speech grade. a C+. A C+!!! OK OK settle down what is it for? well I went over again but only by .28 seconds so that can't be it. what is it? AHAHH!!! He only counted one source? Was he deaf? I used 5. well you heard it hear, Microsoft, Paul Ballard (The independent Computer Statistics annalist), Eric Von Hipple (one of the pioneers of modern programming), the Czech and U.S. Post offices, the U.S. Army and the governments of Venezuela and Mexico, are not reliable sources. Why? because Mr. Vector has never seen where Microsoft states that uninstalling the OEM OS is illegal (it is in the EULA which you are supposed to read and agree to, and on their website), Because I did not state who Paul Ballard (The INDEPENDANT Computer Statistics annalist) works for, and because press realizes are generally not to be believed I guess.

And I did not get a nap. stink!

then I had to go to play practice, and not work on the two papers for English.

I had a bad attitude. Plain and simple. the world was out to get me and I could do nothing about it. OH WHOA IS MEEEEEE! POOP! *Stomps about*

And it was raining.

and then I had to go to work.

But then, something happened the world did not intend.

It started snowing... It started... snowing!

now to most people snow is a bad thing or at least a neutral thing, but to me snow is life. I have lived all my life in the snow. I have had it in abundance and in dearth. I have seen it fall like stars onto a cold barren world, and I have seen it fly like a bullet from the sky. I have skied on it, played on it, rolled in it, molded it, thrown it, shoveled it, and eaten it. but most of all I have seen it... I love to watch it.

And so there I stand. On a Bible campus, in the cold, irate at the world, needing to write PAPERS!... and what captivates my attention and brings my life into sharp focus? What is God's messenger for me in this dark hour of my frustration?... frozen water crystallized around a speck
of dirt. God grabbed my attention with snow and showed me these things...

Snow cleans the world and makes it white. God even uses it as an example of salvation.
Isaiah 1:18:
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

When snow falls it does not make the ground perfect it makes the ground look perfect. when God's grace flows onto a wretched sinner it does not make the sinner perfect, but it makes the sinner look perfect before God. it makes the sinner pure. we still have corruption in our lives. we still sin, but when we do God's grace will still be able to cover us and our sins.

The God in heaven sent His Son to die for me, and to forgive me, to save me who has only caused Him pain, and I stand there angry at the inconveniences of temporal life.

So what really happened today? God gave me another day. God helped me through classes. God helped me pass the Personal evangelism quiz so I will not need to take the final. God showed me a weakness in my speeches and how to fix them. God showed me I am not all that, but yet in this lesson I will still be able to pass both classes that I did badly in. God took my "Perfect Schedule" and told me it was not. God showed me I needed to change my path for the next semester. God broke my heart. God did this, and it is marvelous in my eyes.

Your heart will not hold bitterness when it is broken before the Lord. I know because mine can't.

Jason,"

Liberals, the lot of them!

AHHHHH!!!! The Maranatha campus has been invaded by liberals!
there are no more standards! The student body has gone insane!

They turned the TV back on, but turned it to MSNBC A far more liberal station than FoxNews (And the MS in MSNBC stands for MicroSoft, which is demonic in its very nature, I am shure), But then they banned on the "Girls must wear skirts" rule. AHHH! There are girls in the dining hall wearing PANTS!

The apocalypse is coming!!

AHHHHH!!!!

You don't need to read this

Well another week has passed. Not much has happened. I figured out how to make the text "Disappear" in my powerpoint G-Party game. Took 3 tests (Aced the Gen. Pych. test, the others we are not talking about). We had our last practice for the play, it went well. Now the fun part, in the next three days we have 4 performances. 4 times the fun, 4 times the heart-ache, 4 times the laughs. etc... 4 times the tiredness.

But college is fun. lots of stuff to do and people to see, never any boredom unless you are a slacker or something. and we all know I am not one of those. ;)

Well got to go clean tolits, or at least pretend to do so.

The TV

Ok in the Maranatha cafeteria we have had a TV since the building opened, but it has never been on. The reason? Stupid people! Yes, that is right some stupid people at the cable company had fits when Maranatha told them we wanted another TV on campus. So letters, e-mail, hot words, and mabey some lawering were flying back and forth, from Maranatha to the cable company, until Watertown passed a law(This is what I heard at least) that required the cable company to comply. (Some free flow of information to places of higher learning, thing I am sure)

So it is two weeks into the semester, right?, and finaly the cable company comes out and hooks up the TV. A loud chear, and some tears of joy, erupt in the cafeteria. "We can get out of the bubble and know what is happening in the world!" is the thought, but alas, soon thereafter the TV is found silent. More stupid people have come, but this time from INSIDE the school, and they have "complained" about the TV. So now there it sits, silent, alone, nobody watches it. Just sad.

So I need one of these: I won't use it AT ALL! :)

My Costume. . .

Well I got my costume for the play today, and boy oh boy, I am sort of nostalgic for the 9' tall hoop skirt and stilts, or the painted suit that was to small for me, chains, and leg braces of last year. Not because it is hard to walk in or noisy, or has the possibility of me falling from a inexorable height, but because it is. . . Um. . . how do I say this? The shirt has. . . Ruffles.

AHHHH! And not just little cloth flaps but huge flowing bunches of cloth protruding from the shirt. If I went on a plane I would need to buy another ticket!

Oh well, at least I get a cool hat.

What's the "word on the street?"

Are you tired of your "plane jane" Bible?
Are you bored with the Wither's and the Wherefore's?
Do you ever wish that the Bible were more colorful?
Do you want your Bible to sound like it is being exegeted by a stoned brit?

. . .Neither do I.

But if you were wondering what the result would be if some megalomaniac decided to do this. . . I have found the answer. It is called the "Word on the street". Yeah. . . Here it is. The word on the street

You can even read a part of it. Not that I would suggest it. . . But my favorite part is their description of it when they say

" - Experience the Bible as performance art
- Straight from the streets of the UK
- For those who'’ve never read the Bible, and for those who'’ve read it "“too much"”"

AAAANNyyWAAAAAYY. Later.