Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.
– Sir Francis Drake
who sailed in 1577.
Sent to me from Austin, Texas
by Roy H. Williams, aka "The Wizard of Ads."
Sent to him from a war-torn country
by Susan Ryan, an alumna from Roy's school, Wizard Academy.
Susan once told Roy and his wife, Pennie, "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."
Showing posts with label Jesus Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus Christ. Show all posts
Monday, December 7, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Man Boasts He Went as Jesus Christ for Halloween
While we were on the road during a recent cross-country motorcycle run with a small group of Azusa StreetRiders from West Virginia, one of our four bikes was found to have a serious problem. Its final drive pulley was bent. We located a dealership of the correct brand, and put it in to get repairs.
While we waited (in a customer waiting area) for the right part to be obtained, we could not help but hear some frustrating conversations by some dealership employees. The conversations were downright annoying in fact. These employees were coming to the reception area for the coffee and donuts that were seemingly mutual domain of both customers and workers.
In one conversation, an older male worker, who was obviously rather perverted, forced a dirty “joke” upon a younger female employee. She suffered it with what seemed to be mild disdain. The joke teller was impervious to any reluctance on her part. After telling the joke, he demanded to have her affirm that, “Wasn’t that a great joke!?” She seemed to mumble whatever she had to in order to get past him and back to her post.
In another, even more alarming conversation a young male employee boasted that he “went” as Jesus Christ for Halloween the prior year. I sat nearby, amazed and disgusted, as the young man boasted to his co-worker,
Because I was wearing my Azusa StreetRiders back patch, which plainly displays the name of Jesus Christ, I realized their conversation may have been a deliberate attempt to bait me. Part of me wanted to rise up in noble indignation and ask, ‘What is the purpose of such disrespect? Are you aware that is my King you are mocking? Have you no fear of God?’ But another part of me remembered certain Scriptures, including “turn the other cheek,” and I also pondered the distinct possibility that a protest on my part would do nothing to deter the young man, let along change him, and that his judgment could and should be left in the hands of the merciful King that he was determined to mock.
Instead of engaging him in public debate about his disrespect, I determined to boldly tell someone in the dealership about Jesus, my Lord and God. As mentioned, I was already wearing a back patch that publicly displayed the name of Jesus Christ, along with an important Bible verse reference (*Acts 2:38) for all to see. But I determined to do more than that. I soon struck up a conversation with a fellow customer, and witnessed to him about the Lord Jesus, by telling him of a great miracle during which the Lord spared me from a very serious bike crash. If worldly people can be bold in publicly mocking our Lord and King, we can and ought to be bold in publicly proclaiming Him.
The Azusa StreetRiders motorcycle ministry actively seeks to help define and provide a godly sense of masculine identity in the face of many ungodly efforts to pervert what it means to “be a man” in today’s wayward culture. Godly men, discover for yourself the power behind the ASR patch, at www.azusastreetriders.com.
Azusa StreetRiders: Apostolic Motorcycle Ministry of Jesus Christ.
*“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (The Holy Bible, Book of Acts 2:38).
While we waited (in a customer waiting area) for the right part to be obtained, we could not help but hear some frustrating conversations by some dealership employees. The conversations were downright annoying in fact. These employees were coming to the reception area for the coffee and donuts that were seemingly mutual domain of both customers and workers.
In one conversation, an older male worker, who was obviously rather perverted, forced a dirty “joke” upon a younger female employee. She suffered it with what seemed to be mild disdain. The joke teller was impervious to any reluctance on her part. After telling the joke, he demanded to have her affirm that, “Wasn’t that a great joke!?” She seemed to mumble whatever she had to in order to get past him and back to her post.
In another, even more alarming conversation a young male employee boasted that he “went” as Jesus Christ for Halloween the prior year. I sat nearby, amazed and disgusted, as the young man boasted to his co-worker,
“Yep, did you not see my get-up last year? I went as Jesus Christ. I rode my bike as Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior, nailed to a big cross. As I went by, when people stared, I would reach out and bless them with the sign of the cross.”
Because I was wearing my Azusa StreetRiders back patch, which plainly displays the name of Jesus Christ, I realized their conversation may have been a deliberate attempt to bait me. Part of me wanted to rise up in noble indignation and ask, ‘What is the purpose of such disrespect? Are you aware that is my King you are mocking? Have you no fear of God?’ But another part of me remembered certain Scriptures, including “turn the other cheek,” and I also pondered the distinct possibility that a protest on my part would do nothing to deter the young man, let along change him, and that his judgment could and should be left in the hands of the merciful King that he was determined to mock.Instead of engaging him in public debate about his disrespect, I determined to boldly tell someone in the dealership about Jesus, my Lord and God. As mentioned, I was already wearing a back patch that publicly displayed the name of Jesus Christ, along with an important Bible verse reference (*Acts 2:38) for all to see. But I determined to do more than that. I soon struck up a conversation with a fellow customer, and witnessed to him about the Lord Jesus, by telling him of a great miracle during which the Lord spared me from a very serious bike crash. If worldly people can be bold in publicly mocking our Lord and King, we can and ought to be bold in publicly proclaiming Him.
The Azusa StreetRiders motorcycle ministry actively seeks to help define and provide a godly sense of masculine identity in the face of many ungodly efforts to pervert what it means to “be a man” in today’s wayward culture. Godly men, discover for yourself the power behind the ASR patch, at www.azusastreetriders.com.
Azusa StreetRiders: Apostolic Motorcycle Ministry of Jesus Christ.
*“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (The Holy Bible, Book of Acts 2:38).
Monday, September 21, 2009
Don't Knock Door-Knocking?
I'm just thinking out loud here. (Dangerous, I know.)
Americans are, by and large, a fairly astute lot when it comes to being highly skeptical of anything being told them by some total stranger who knocked on their door out of the blue. I think that whenever someone tries to cram "religion" down people's throats, being a total stranger (while doing the cramming) is like adding insult to injury.
It seems to this writer that Americans are not actually opposed to a personal dialog about faith and spiritual pursuit of truth. Rather, they do seem to be opposed to the aforementioned throat-cramming, which almost never works, really. The key thing is that the dialog must be personal. They just want to get to know you first, as a friend, and decide that they respect you enough (as a person) to be curious about your faith. They just want to know how much you care, before they care how much you know.
Now, here's the rub. You can call it a double standard if you want, but even after them basically declaring (in an unspoken way) that door-to-door, cold-call type evangelism is off limits for them and won't work, they also (even after getting to know you) will wonder whether you're truly sincere about all this heaven-or-hell, eternal-life-versus-eternal-damnation stuff, if you don't act as serious about it as it warrants, e.g. by going to door to door like the apartment building really is on fire (spiritual speaking) and people really need to be warned.
It's like they really want to believe the "door knocker guy", but only so long as he's not knocking on their door, and only so long as they get to know him first in a non-confrontational friendship.
Keeping up a rather futile door knocking ministry is tough for several reasons. I mentioned that it is rather futile. That's major. Because it is hard to get Christians to be the "door knocker guy" whenever they see practically no results. And that's before we factor in the scarcity of family time, and how hectic life is. There's also the problem of people's shyness. People who are shy just fear any possibility of confrontation, whether they're behind the door or in front of it.
One idea that is working elsewhere, and which we'd like to try here, is to just go about leaving door hangers (which avoids a lot of the fear of confrontation), inviting people to a "block party" (a type of community day). Free food, music, and making friends. The spiritual stuff can come in due time. What do you say?
Americans are, by and large, a fairly astute lot when it comes to being highly skeptical of anything being told them by some total stranger who knocked on their door out of the blue. I think that whenever someone tries to cram "religion" down people's throats, being a total stranger (while doing the cramming) is like adding insult to injury.
It seems to this writer that Americans are not actually opposed to a personal dialog about faith and spiritual pursuit of truth. Rather, they do seem to be opposed to the aforementioned throat-cramming, which almost never works, really. The key thing is that the dialog must be personal. They just want to get to know you first, as a friend, and decide that they respect you enough (as a person) to be curious about your faith. They just want to know how much you care, before they care how much you know.
Now, here's the rub. You can call it a double standard if you want, but even after them basically declaring (in an unspoken way) that door-to-door, cold-call type evangelism is off limits for them and won't work, they also (even after getting to know you) will wonder whether you're truly sincere about all this heaven-or-hell, eternal-life-versus-eternal-damnation stuff, if you don't act as serious about it as it warrants, e.g. by going to door to door like the apartment building really is on fire (spiritual speaking) and people really need to be warned.
It's like they really want to believe the "door knocker guy", but only so long as he's not knocking on their door, and only so long as they get to know him first in a non-confrontational friendship.
Keeping up a rather futile door knocking ministry is tough for several reasons. I mentioned that it is rather futile. That's major. Because it is hard to get Christians to be the "door knocker guy" whenever they see practically no results. And that's before we factor in the scarcity of family time, and how hectic life is. There's also the problem of people's shyness. People who are shy just fear any possibility of confrontation, whether they're behind the door or in front of it.
One idea that is working elsewhere, and which we'd like to try here, is to just go about leaving door hangers (which avoids a lot of the fear of confrontation), inviting people to a "block party" (a type of community day). Free food, music, and making friends. The spiritual stuff can come in due time. What do you say?
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