Monday, July 31, 2006

The Importance of Members in the Body

A Nugget of Truth:
The past week I have had some trouble with my right eye. At first I thought it was just a small problem and that it would go away if I washed it out real well. The second day I noticed that this “small” problem was actually something that I could see in the mirror. My eyelid had a small bump in it. The third day I woke up and I saw that my eye lid (all the way across my eye) was extremely swollen. I went to urgent care in Southern California. The doc. gave me some pills, told me to put a hot rag on it a few times a day, and I was off knowing that my eye problem was soon to get better. Well to make a long story short, three days later, my eye was much, much bigger. My eye was in so much pain that I was taking anywhere from 2400mg-3600mg of I B prophin per day for the pain. My work performance slowed down dramatically, and I could not be as efficient or as effective as I wanted to be due to the impaired eye that was almost fully closed. I would haft to say that I appreciate my right eye more now than ever. Over the past few weeks I have been randomly thinking about the importance of being involved in ministry and being involved in a church body. If one of the members in a church body is not doing well, it will affect the rest of the body (just like my eye). When I was blind out of one eye for a day, my left eye had to do all the seeing for me. My legs could not move as fast because I never knew what was right next to me on my right side. My body had to make adjustments because one of my members where down. It is important that all Christians be part of a body (church) of Christ. Otherwise you are just like an eye walking around not using your talents and abilities as effectively as you could be.
I Corinthians 12:12-ff

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Serving

Nugget of Truth:

I have learned a great deal this summer working for Chick-fil-A. The most valuable take-away would be the importance of servant leadership. Servant leadership is obviously found in the Scripture; however, I did not think about it much until this summer. Often times I would read over simple verses about Christians being servants (i.e. Philippians 1:1). And sometimes you here in church, “Serve God with all your heart!” Which that is defiantly true, but I never thought about actually SERVING God. Matthew 4:11 records angels ministering to Jesus while he was on the mountain after he was tempted.

With that being said, how can I SERVE God? At Chick-fil-A, one of my jobs sometimes is to serve the guest, whether that is fulfilling an order or taking trash from the table. I often tell the guests “If there is anything else I can do for you, just let me know.” Do I whole heartily tell God, “If there is anything else I can do for you, just let me know?” Sometimes when I get involved in ministry I get my eyes off God, and on me. It should be that when I minister to others, I should be doing it as a service to God.

Ephesians 6 looks at the relationship of a slave and a master. I think this portion of Scripture gives a good definition of what a servant of Christ is—doing the will of God from the heart and not looking to men for recognition to please him, but to please the Lord (6-7). (Above: Adriene (San Diego Team Member) SERVING a guest at CFA)
Happenings:

A lot has happened here in California over the past few weeks. One weekend the Orange Country team meet up with the San Diego team and we went to the Santa Monica pier. That was a lot of fun. The rides on the pier were kind of lame; however, when you got the 15 of us together, we made it fun!! (Left: One of the Santa Monica pier rides)

Tijuana, Mexico was cool. One of the unit CFA employees in S. California took us to his house over the boarder. We did some walking around, bought some stuff from the merchants, and ate real Mexican food (I like Taco Bell betterJ). As a team we felt it was necessary to fit 10 people in a Chevy Talhoe. We got pulled over by a couple of the Tijuana cops for having too many people in the car. I found out later the driver had to actually pay the cop off so he could get out of a ticket. What a corrupt police department (Right: Some of the team in the Talhoe going to Mexico).

The next week, a few other CFA employees and most of my team and I went to Las Vegas. It was probably the hottest environment I have ever been in. It felt like someone was holding heaters right over our head with a fan blowing the hot air at us. The lights on the strip were really cool, and we went to a show called “La Reve.” That was pretty intense. There were talented people do acrobatic crazy stuff. It was cool. We staying in the J.W. Marriot for the couple of days. The suite was about 2000 square feet, with 2 full and 2 half bathrooms. This was the nicest hotel room I have ever been in—and it was free because one of my friends has a mother load of Marriot reward points. (Above: Le Reve in Las Vegas)

Soon I will be leaving CA and be on a plane to NY for a missions outreach. I am looking forward to that opportunity to SERVE Christ in NY!