Religion/Spirituality
Murphy v. God - God Wins!!!
photo by: arriba
This just happened to be one of those months were Murphy decided he wanted to visit our family. We had over $1900 in additional costs that came up this last month. Shannon had to get a crown on her tooth, the water pump had to be replaced on the car, we had some additional travel expenses come up, we owe money on our taxes, and various other little things that were not planned for popped up this month.
Now we don’t have a lot of money saved up for rainy days. Shannon and I had no idea how we were going to pay for all these added expenses, but the reality was that God had things already planned out. Within the last 5 days we have received two checks totaling over $1100.
We had an idea that we might be getting one of the checks (but even the amount of that one was a surprise), but the other one came totally unexpected. For the past few days, we had been worrying about how we were going to make ends meet. We were going to have to dip into our emergency fund, until Shannon checked our mail on yesterday. Shannon came to me with tears running down her face as she held a check for over $500.
We can worry all we want, but in the end God provides for his children. God ran into Murphy in dark alley this week, and God kicked Murphy’s @##.
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I wish this was an April Fool’s joke
I just have to say…I didn’t know that Benny Hinn knew martial arts. I know I wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley (or would I). This is just a crazy video.
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NM AIDS Walk 2008
This is just a little somethin’ somethin’ I put together to remember yesterday’s AIDS Walk. We had about 30 (Shannon says 40-50) people show up from our church to walk, hand out water, and pray with people. It was an awesome experience and I can’t wait to do it again.
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I’m going on a Big Trip
Hey I’m about to head out to Silver City, Las Cruces, Alamagorda, Roswell, and Clovis this week for UPS. Thought I would give a quick post though through video. Enjoy!
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Amen
I just watched this video thanks to mxbx.wordpress.com and dustindkk.com. I must say the John Piper is right on the money. The prosperity gospel is not the gospel. Any gospel that makes us focus on anything more than Jesus is nothing short of heresy. What hit home the most with me is how much I live the prosperity gospel. I could easily point fingers at others, but I realize that I’m the worst of all sinners in this area. How often is my life filled with the pursuit of stuff.
Forgive me God and give me the strength to make you my highest pursuit.
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I’m Tired
A video update of the weekend.
Go here more information on Redeember Lubbock Church.
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I’m the worst of all sinners!
photo by: laughlin
No I’m not going to confess some horrible crime that I’ve committed. But I must say that I learned something the other day from a good friend that opened my eyes. On Saturday I had breakfast with a few of my friends and one of the things that came up was the realization of our sins.
Now I grew up with an understanding that as you grew in Christ you sinned less and therefore you noticed less sin in your life (can you say run-on sentence). But my friend Paul Ford pointed out that is only half true. Yes we grow closer to Christ and become more like Him, but we only grow in the realization of how sinful we are. Everyday we grow closer to Jesus, we see how much more of sinner we are.
Paul pointed out how in the Apostle Paul’s writing’s the apostle grew in his recognition of his own sin. Early in his ministry Paul says he’s a sinner. Later he says he is the worst of the twelve, and late in his ministry he tells Timothy that he is the worst of all (or chief for you KJV people out there). This comes from the guy who wrote a huge chunk of the Bible.
I think we need to rewrite the books (I don’t know what books…just the books). The reality is that we as we grow closer to Jesus we only see how dirty we really are. But the great thing is that He is faithful to forgive us and clean us up. The answer is not to ignore our sin…but to ask daily for it to be revealed and then to rest in the grace, mercy and love our our heavenly Father.
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At least God knows what He’s doing… Part 5
The following is part 5 of a 5 part series. Go here for Part 1
I started to head to the security check point that I came through the first time about 500 feet down the hallway. My mind was racing.
I remember putting it in my back pocket. Maybe it fell out when I sat down at Starbucks. Maybe it’s in the men’s restroom. How the hell am I going to get it back? Their not going to let me in and I’m going to be stuck in Seattle for ever. I don’t want to be stuck in Seattle I just want to home and see Shannon.
“Excuse me sir…I think I might have left my driver’s license here when I came through security the first time.”
“We have a driver’s license that we found. What’s your name?”
“Greg Qualls”
“Let me go look.”
Why the hell did I go get Diego’s Bible? They could have mailed it to him. If I had just stayed in the airport I wouldn’t be dealing with all this right now. God why didn’t you just have Diego not forget his Bible in the van…I would be probably sipping on some coffee right now still reading my book…
But I wouldn’t have realized that I didn’t have my driver’s license…then I would have to go through all the crap to get a new driver’s license. And I would have to pay the money for the new driver’s license. And I would have to deal with the DMV.
So I guess it is a good thing that I did go and get it. Thanks God for having Diego forget his Bible in the van…wait a second. God why didn’t you just make sure that Diego didn’t forget his Bible and make sure that I didn’t loose my driver’s license. I would still be sitting in Starbucks reading my book.
“Here you go sir…just sign hear and print your name her.”
“Thank you sir.”
As I walked to the TSA agent and finally handed him my driver’s license and boarding pass for the second time in the last hour, I began to think to myself…God really does work in mysterious ways.
And I heard in the quiet of my heart, “Yes I do…and I’m good.” I don’t know why God had me go through this little adventure. There could be several reasons. All I know was that, in the end, I felt the hand of God working through all of it. I felt His plan being worked out in my life and I felt drawn closer to Him.
At least He knows what He’s doing, because the majority of the time I don’t have a clue.
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At least God knows what He’s doing… Part 4
The following is part 4 of a 5 part series. Go here for Part 1
So I broke camp and headed to the Budget Rental car desk. One security exit, two escalators, one air bridge and one elevator later I was waiting for the lady at the desk to get done with her customer. She finished with her customer and proceeded to give me the “what do you want” look.
“My friend left his Bible in one of your cars.”
“Oh yeah. Here.”
One elevator, one air bridge, and one escalator later, I was weaving through the labyrinth of security ropes heading towards the initial check point before taking off half my clothes and walking through the metal detector to make sure I was not carrying a gun in my rectum (”Ohhhh How did that get there?).
I pulled my boarding pass out of my back pocket and handed it to the TSA agent. Then I pulled out my wallet and opened it up to give the guy my driver’s license. But it wasn’t there.
Oh yeah I put it in my back pocket….um maybe I put it in my jacket pockets…ok maybe it’s in my front pockets. Did I put it in my book that I was reading? Maybe it’s in my leather jacket pockets? Did I put it in my suit case? Ok maybe it’s in my satchel?
As I continued to wave people past me one after another,I continued to do a pat down on myself that any police officer would be proud of. A slow feeling of panic started to rush through my mind.
“Will my UPS ID work?”
“No it has to be a government issued ID.”
CRAP! Where the hell did I put it. I went through all my pockets again. I know that I had it. I just got through security with it only an hour ago. SECURITY!
“I think it might be at the other security check point. I’ll go look there.”
“Ok”
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At least God knows what He’s doing… Part 3
The following is part 3 of a 5 part series. Go here for Part 1
I sat down in a comfortable oversized plush seat. Enjoying the wonderful smell of fresh espresso and pastries, I leaned back and opened up my book for what I thought would be a nice extended reading period. But about one paragraph in, my phone began to ring. Looking at the caller ID, I didn’t recognize the phone number. I had an internal dilemma at this point…to answer or to not. Everything in me wanted to ignore it and just go back to my reading…but curiosity won out and I decided to answer.
“Hello this is Greg.” (my standard greeting for unknown numbers that might be from someone at UPS)
“Hello Mr. Qualls. This is _____ with Budget.”
“Yes”
“One of your coworkers was just here looking for his Bible.”
“Yes”
“Well we found his Bible but he said he had to leave or he was going to miss his flight. He left just 30 seconds ago and if he comes back right now he can get it. If not we can mail it back to him and charge it to your card.”
“Ohh ok. Well I’ll try calling him. If not I might just come and get it. Thank you.”
“Yes sir. Good bye.”
“Good bye.”
I tried calling Diego, but there was no answer on his phone. Having two hours until my flight was supposed to come and being really cheap, I decided I was going to have to break camp and go get Diego’s Bible. I needed the walk anyways and it would be a simple trip to the rental car desk and back.
But God had other plans.
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