Grocery List

A sister at work posted this.

Louise Redden, a poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked into a grocery store.

She approached the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would let her charge a few groceries.

She softly explained that her husband was very ill and unable to work, they had seven children and they needed food.

John Longhouse, the grocer, scoffed at her and requested that she leave his store at once.

Visualizing the family needs, she said: 'Please, sir! I will bring you the money just as soon as I can.'

John told her he could not give her credit, since she did not have a charge account at his store.

Standing beside the counter was a customer who overheard the conversation between the two The customer walked forward and told the grocer that he would stand good for whatever she needed for her family. The grocer said in a very reluctant voice, 'Do you have a grocery list?'

Louise replied, 'Yes sir.' 'O.K' he said, 'Fine....put your grocery list on the scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that amount in groceries.'

Louise hesitated a moment with a bowed head, then she reached into her purse and took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. She then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head still bowed.

The eyes of the grocer and the customer showed amazement when the scales went down and stayed down..

The grocer, staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly, 'I can't believe it.'

The customer smiled and the grocer started putting the groceries on the other side of the scales. The scale did not balance so he continued to put more and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more.

The grocer stood there in utter disgust. Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with greater amazement.

It was not a grocery list, it was a prayer, which said:

'Dear Lord, you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands.'

The grocer gave her the groceries that he had gathered and stood in stunned silence.

Louise thanked him and left the store. The other customer handed a fifty-dollar bill to the grocer and said; 'It was worth every penny of it. Only God Knows how much a prayer weighs.'

So dear heart, trust God to heal the sick, provide food for the hungry, clothes and shelter for those that don't have as we do.

I will also add to it this -- be the answer to someone's prayers.

Whose Way

Sometimes God does big amazing things in our life, and it is right to give him credit. Sometimes God does little amazing things in our life, and it is also right to give him credit. I'm such a bonehead I too often steal it for myself. I try not to, but I surely do. I do remember giving him proper credit for that 200+ bowling game I prayed for that one time. I do remember giving him proper credit for stopping the rain just long enough to make my run that one time, when I was on that whole "I'm going to dunk a basketball" kick. I do remember giving him proper credit for helping me fix broken hardware at work and get moving again.

These are not things that are important by the standards of eternity. They have nothing to do with my salvation, building myself or others up, or surviving in this broken world. They're just little gifts God throws at me, and all of us who ask, perhaps just to say "I'm still here, I still love you, and I touch every aspect of your life. Don't forget it."

I haven't.

Even when I go into my escape from reality in the form of Halo: Reach, I often, not always, remember to give God credit for those "can't believe that happened" victories. It's a rarity for me to see a Cutting Crew, Buck Wild, Extermination, or Perfection, but I do see them -- nice gifts from my dad in the game I enjoy playing.

Then there's those times in game that I see one such gift ahead of me, with the path all laid out, and I take it upon myself to get greedy and hurry it up and wreck the whole thing. The one I remember most vividly was when I had a 19 kill 0 death spree going with on Countdown. Our team was about to win the game. Perfection, in the bag. Didn't happen. Why not? Greed. Sinful, selfish, greed. I didn't just want the Perfection, I wanted the Rampage you get with 20 kills straight. So I chase some guy with a sword up a ramp way too far -- no way I can reach him before he riddles me full of bullets, but I try anyway, knowing in the back of my head I'm a dead man.

Moron.

All I had to do was play it the same way I had for the rest of the game. But at the last minute I decide that what's been working isn't good enough. What I have isn't good enough. I want more, and I want it faster. So I take matters into my own hands and the whole thing self-destructs.

Isn't that what we are prone to do in life sometimes?

God's got the plan and us in the palm of his hand. He's in control, we've nothing to worry about -- we just need to go along for the ride listening to his voice. But, oh no, we want more, and we want it faster. God's way sucks -- time to do it our way.

For the record, just so you know, Our Way sucks. It's the road Neo stared down in The Matrix, and it ends in the same place for all of us -- Big Fat Mess, Nowhere. It's not where we want to be. Just get in the car and let God drive.

Grace and Peace

A Tale Of Two Gangsters

Today I want to talk about some gangsters. Yeah, gangsters. Two of them in particular.

The first is Mikey Cohen. More than a half century ago, Cohen was involved in all kinds of bad stuff and hung around all kinds of bad people. But then later in his life he met Billy Graham at one of his gatherings. He made a public confession of Jesus Christ there. Awesome! But wait. He kept being involved in all kinds of bad stuff and still hung around all kinds of bad people.

What's up with that?

Some Christians confronted him about this. He responded that no one told him he had to change his lifestyle -- there's Christians football players and Christian politicians, so why not Christian gangsters? If he had to give up his lifestyle, he was out, fuhget-about-it!

I think he missed something big there.

Fast forward a couple of decades to our second gangster, Michael Franzeese. Talk about a Saul to Paul story! He went from big shot in the Colombo family -- making more money for a crime family since Al Capone -- to born-again Christian and motivational speaker. It wasn't a big tent revivial that God used here, but a dancer named Camille Garcia. He goes around today sharing his transformation with church congregations and also speaks to professional and student athletes about the dangers of gambling. I've seen his testimony on a DVD from when he came to speak at a church here in San Diego, and what a story he has to tell.

Maybe that doesn't sound like much, but consider that a big wig in the mafia breaking with the family usually has nasty side effects -- death, for example. He risked his life to put away the only lifestyle he knew for something greater, service to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Clearly Mike #2 had a much different encounter with Christ than Mike #1.

Again, what's up with that?

I can't answer anything about why one person was truly changed and one was not, but I can make this observation:

When you are really saved, really born again, really a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, guess what? You're changed. Completely. From the inside out. The Bible calls you a new creation, for the is exactly what you are.

So what can we learn from this?

First, I think it says something about the superficial and the emotional. Yeah, sure, man, I don't want to go to hell! Sign me up for the Jesus bus! Okay, but how's your walk with the Lord 10 years later? 5 years? 1 year? 1 month?

Second, I think it says something about evidence of faith. When we have real faith in Christ, we put him first. He's "Lord" not "Some dude". If our lifestyle is more important than serving Christ, we've got a problem. If anything has wrapped around our hearts and taken over our lives, it has become our god. We have to guard against that. I know this first hand. There are things in this life I enjoy that I get really really into -- I must be wary not to let them become idols in my life.

Finally, I think it says something about the power of God. But don't get me wrong here, I'm not knocking Billy Graham and his methods. I'm not knocking anyone's methods. My point is that no matter how much enthusiasm and money is piped into something, no matter how good the intellectual arguments are, no matter how much Christians love a program or an event -- nothing, absolutely nothing, takes the place of the Spirit of God working in the heart and mind of the unsaved person.

God has to do the work from inside to effect real change on the outside -- anything that starts from the outside in is bound to fail, period.

Praise God for salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ and his Spirit living in all believers!

Grace and Peace friends.

What Has God Done For You?

In Jesus' earthly ministry, there was an incident where he came upon a demon possessed man. The demons begged Jesus not to cast them into the abyss, but rather to send them into a herd of pigs. Jesus did this, and then the pigs ran off the edge of a cliff. I guess they should have thought their request through a little more.

The man who was possessed was sitting up and in his right mind after that. The people nearby were scared -- except for the no longer possessed man who thought that was pretty awesome and wanted to go with Jesus. Jesus wouldn't let him but instead told him to go tell people what God had done for him.

For followers of Jesus Christ, those words might as well have been spoken today. Go brothers and sisters and tell people what God has done for you, because the testimony of an individual is a powerful thing indeed! Its more than just head knowledge of the Bible -- its an actual person's account of the transformation that has occurred in his/her life.

What God has done for me is that he opened my eyes to the reality of sin in this world and how messed up it is, that one day the world will be judged, that Jesus is the son of the living God, that his atoning sacrifice on the cross paid the price for my sins, and that I desperately needed to turn away from sin to Jesus -- accepting him as savior and making him lord of my life.

What God has done for me is cast out the demons of pornography addiction, video game addiction, and anxiety and smashed the false idols of children, spouse, sex, work, control, car, entitlement, and so many more. What God has done for me is transform my heart and mind from the inside out, and he did it overnight the day I got on my knees and cried out to Jesus to save me, a hopeless sinner.

Praise God for his work in my life!

Through Jesus Christ, what has God done for you? What demons has he removed? Alcoholism? Drug addiction? Sex addiction? Food addiction? Self pity? Pride? Depression? Anger? What relationships has he restored? Marriage? Kids? Family? Friends? What has he healed you from? What has he given to you? In what specific way has he delivered you from bondage to give you a fuller, more abundant life?

The answers across the body of believers number as many as the stars in the sky, but the instruction to all is the same -- now go, and tell what God has done for you.

Grace and Peace

Stupid Cookie

We had a message on integrity recently at church, plus I've been writing a bit on integrity at home. Its funny how the Lord drops things into our lives to show us the disconnect between our head knowledge and our hearts at just the right moments in just the right way to make the point stick.

Today he did that with a cookie. That's right, a cookie taught me something today -- probably a couple of things in reality. Sometimes we're a little dense and need something as clever as a dessert snack to impart knowledge and bring growth. The main lesson brought through one stupid cookie? Don't even leave the door open a tiny crack for your integrity to be compromised. I did, and it grieved me.

Here's what went down. I went out to lunch with the family today. The girls wanted cookies. I wanted a cookie. They got two cookies with their meals, total. I got zero cookies. So I went to the bakery counter and ordered three cookies and asked how much the third one would be. "Seventy one cents" replied the nice woman behind the counter. Then she handed me my cookies and said don't worry about that last one.

Uh oh.

At the time I reacted in a fairly stupid way. "Are you sure that's okay?" "Yes." "Really?" "Yes." "Thank you, have a good day."

That's where I went wrong. I got back to the table and said to Jamie "You think its okay for her to give these away?" "Probably not." D'oh. Now I had a situation on my hands. My natural man tried to rationalize it. Because I was allowed to give things away when I worked in the deli, maybe she was allowed to give cookies away. That wouldn't do. I was the night manager. She wasn't the manager. She didn't have authority in the place.

So what did I end up doing? Not wanted to embarrass her -- or at least that's what I told myself, the truth of that may be suspect given our deceptive hearts -- I went back inside and asked the manager if it was okay for her to do that. Even then I screwed up the story. The way I said it sounded like she gave me the third cookie without asking for three! He briefly double checked what I was asking and said that's fine, but his eyes told a different story. I can't read people very well, but either he thought I was insane, or it really wasn't okay and this lady's going to get in trouble.

Not a good situation either way. Maybe the woman gets in trouble at work. Maybe I look like a bad witness to the manager for even accepting the stolen goods, especially after talking to him about the Lord not a half an hour before! I definitely didn't enjoy the cookie as I should have with a clean conscience. It was a completely rotten event that's been bothering me until now. But since all things do work for good for those of us who love God and are called according to his purpose, it sure gives me a way for me to remember in the future not to even open the door up a tiny smidge when dishonesty knocks.

And all this over a stupid cookie.

But then, its not really about the cookie, is it?

Grace and Peace

God Working Through What's Broken

Something popped into my head, which I will write about in a minute. But first, some background. God often uses broken people to accomplish his purposes. Any doubt? Look in the pages of his word. Moses. Rahab. Jacob. David. Matthew. Paul. Where these people not used by God? They were certainly far from perfect. Murderer. Prostitute. Trickster. Adulterer/murderer. Tax collector. Persecutor. Look around in different churches at people who had a lot of sin in their lives or were victims of tragedy -- God uses such people all the time to bring help and healing to both the ensnared and the hurting.

There is no doubt that God uses broken people.

Another phrase popped into my head regarding what someone said regarding their non-christian church: "The people aren't perfect, but the church is". Bunk. Bunk for that church, bunk for any local Christian church. Period.

We're in a broken world filled with broken people, and from that come a lot of broken churches. True, there is really only one church made from the body of believers in Jesus Christ. Some of the members of Christ's church attend a Lutheran church, a Methodist church, a Baptist church, a Pentecostal church, and so on. No doubt some of the members of Christ's church even attend a Catholic church, a Mormon church, a Jehovah's Witness church, etc. Yes I realize what I just said. Calm down. We don't know the hearts of all people all around the world. I said some.

My point is we're one church yet we don't seem to function that way. We've got new zealous spirit filled believers off in the weeds and they don't even know it yet. We've got solid Christ followers across many different denominations whose leaders foolishly quarrel over disputable matters. We've got new converts in parts of the world that just first heard about Jesus and don't know about all this division (how fortunate for them!).

We're one church, one body, united with one purpose, spread across a broken mess.

Yet God can use that. He's God. He's pretty good with the whole "take the mess you silly men have made and pull something good out of it" thing.

There's probably a believer in every church denomination/style/flavor/whatever that has genuinely come to Christ through God's work in them through that particular church. You can't put God in a box and say he only works through A, B, or C. Its about individuals and God, not some particular man-made group and God.

There are those who have been saved while stoned and listening to songs about giving their souls to the devil (realizing that's a bad idea and they don't really want to do that!). There are those who have been saved through the false preaching of bona fide heretics on television. There are those who have been saved through their immense efforts trying to prove Christianity false and realizing its not.

Don't tell me God isn't big enough to work through whatever mess we've made of things to draw us to him.

Grace and Peace

Saved!

I heard a great account on the radio today from K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia. I will retell it to the best of my recollection.

There was a village where none of the residents had ever heard about Jesus. They were mostly or all Hindu. One family went to the temple priest to inquire about some struggle or another. The temple priest told them that they were being punished for wrongs in past lives. To take care of the problem they should sacrifice their 4 year old daughter.

They agreed and set a date.

Then a Christian missionary came to the area and by the grace of God the temple priest came to Christ. Together they were able to stop the family from carrying out the previously planned atrocity. Instead some or all of the family came to Christ as well and the village was able to hear the gospel for the first time.

Hallelujah!

The Power Of Prayer

My daughters and the Lord taught me something again today. I was shown quite clearly that sometimes I don't give enough credit to the power of prayer.

Now, I do pray. I will tell you what I pray about, but I do that only to share and provide context, not to try to look good to whoever may read this.

I thank God for the many blessings in our lives. I thank him for the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. I thank him for adopting us into his family. I ask him to make me an instrument and do good through me. I ask him to help me always know and speak the truth, stand up for what is right, and tell other people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I ask him to show me the sin in my life and help me stamp it out more and more. I ask him to forgive me when I give in to sin. I ask him to help me know his will and do it, and to show me when I am in the wrong about what his will for me is. I ask that his will be done.

Those are the most common more abstract things I say to the Lord in prayer. I also sometimes ask for help with specific things throughout the day. Not always and probably not often enough.

I can say with absolute certainty that the Lord has demonstrated his faithfulness to me and has responded to every single one of the things I have listed above, and some things I did not list. There is no doubt in my mind that he responds to the prayers of his children.

However, tonight, and other times, I glossed over the power of prayer. I heard on the radio a pastor talking about helping missionaries in various parts of the world by praying for them. I admit, shamefully, that I thought at the time "what's that going to do?" Our church has held gatherings, related to specific events we were engaged in, for people to come in and pray together. I admit, shamefully again, that I thought at the time "I'd rather show up at the thing where we DO something." Tonight I did it again with a very small thing, but the Lord opened up my eyes to my attitude in a very big way, which I did not before realize.

My laptop power supply had died. The new one arrived today. I plugged it in. I didn't work. Trinity said she would pray for me that it would start to work. Novalee joined her. My girls are awesome, but I admit, very shamefully now, that I thought "that's not going to do anything, it's just broken." Then I wiggled the cable and it started to work. Soon after I realized the problem was part of the connector was too big and it wasn't going in all the way; sandpaper fixed it straight away and its working great now.

Thank you girls; you're faith at such a young age impresses me. They get it. When you're in a bind, don't get all bent out of shape and give up -- turn to God in prayer.

Thank you Father, for using such a small incident to show me a big flaw in my attitude toward prayer, especially with so much evidence of its effectiveness in my own life.

As I wrote this I realized one more great proof of its effectiveness comes from my brother in Christ David. Thank you David for praying so long that God would make himself real to me. He has in so many ways and I am so thankful for it. The evidence from prayer about me needs to go to the top of the list.

Grace to you and peace my brothers and sisters. I pray that you do not doubt the effectiveness of prayer like I did, and, if you do, I pray that it is shown to you as clearly as it has been shown to me.

Can't Make Christians

I've argued with all kinds of people and in the past came to the conclusion that I can't make Christians. I kind of knew that would happen up front, but I'm a little slow sometimes. My buddy David told me that (that I can't do it, not that I'm slow :-)). Duncan said it I think. It makes sense. Only God can make Christians really.

It bummed me out a little until tonight though. Not a lot. Not something I think about that often. Just pops into my head when I'm arguing, debating, discussing, whatever, and getting nowhere.

I had a thought that I'd actually be in a terrible mess if I COULD make Christians.

One aspect of it would be really cool. I could work some evangelistic mojo and *poof* my family member, friend, or co-worker is instantly converted. Awesome. Bear with me and ignore the whole me-centered aspect of what I just said, I promise this is going somewhere.

Now let's think about it for a minute. That dude in the Spiderman movie said "With great power comes great responsibility." I don't have a reason to argue against that. So, crap. I'd have one heck of a burden on my shoulders. If I can make Christians, now I gotta save EVERYBODY!

Paul talked about the gospel advancing even when he didn't mention any conversions. That's it in a nutshell. Our bit is to tell people the truth; God's bit is to do the transformation from the inside out.

So thank God that he made me a Christian. Thank God for his word and boldness to share it with people (though I need a lot more of that boldness thing!). Thank God that he's got the other end of it, or I'd go [more] insane. :-)

There Are No Pockets In A Shroud

Wow, its been a while. We've been busy packing, moving to a new apartment, and unpacking.

I heard this phrase from David Jeremiah on one of his broadcasts and thought it was a very fine way of remembering what to focus our time, treasure, and talent on.

This past weekend I lost that focus entirely. I was so determined to get the whole place unpacked before I went back to work on Monday, that I ignored my wife, my kids and God doing my part to get it done. You know what happened? What had started out as a reasonable good intentioned effort that I felt good about turned into a self-centered obsession that left me feeling annoyed and angry, until I realized I was feeling that way and why.

As I write this, what I find interesting is that all too often I take something fine and wreck it, which is quite the opposite of what God does. He often takes something wrecked and broken that was intended for evil and pulls some good out of it in amazing ways.

As a baby Christian, I have seen evidence of this so often many times in my walk with the Lord so far. When I stumble, I don't realize it until I hit the ground. Then I moan and groan for a while. Then I see that He is right there to dust me off and show me the stick that I tripped over. I asked Him to do that (not in those exact words), and He has, proving His faithfulness to me at the same time He helps me in other ways. What an awesome God we have!

This time, what the Lord has shown me is something that, quite truthfully, He has shown me already on more than one occasion -- that the things of this world are just that -- of this world. We shouldn't get wrapped up in them. Rust destroys. Moths eat. Burglars steal. Fire burns.

What's more important? That the pictures on the wall of my family are hung, or that we have such a great close family to take pictures? That the girls' toys are put away neatly in there place, or that we enjoy our time together playing with them? That the books are on their shelves, or that we dig in to the Word of God?

I know what's more important. I just forget it sometimes. I'm glad I have that spirit thing to remind me. We can send heavenly treasure ahead of us, but we can't take earthly treasure with us -- after all, there are no pockets in a shroud.

Christian Hedonism

A couple times when I was talking with David, the term "Christian Hedonism" (along with John Piper who coined the term) came up. I finally took a cursory look myself at the concept tonight.

John Piper's short and sweet summary is that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. That didn't help me a whole lot, but these did:

"Obeying God is the only route to final and lasting happiness."

"Don't do good deeds for worldly advantage; rather do them for spiritual, heavenly benefits."

That last one just summed up something that has been on my mind as of late, especially after watching one of Duncan's talks on storing up your treasure in heaven. I was wrestling lately with these two approaches to doing good deeds: 1) do good deeds solely to please God without thinking about any future heavenly reward or 2) do good deeds because you're seeking to build up your treasure in heaven. Piper answers this very clearly for me, showing that we are in fact commanded to do #2.

I have yet to read Piper's book (Desiring God) or explore the Bible verses he quotes myself, but this was just the answer to the big question running around in my head tonight -- yes it is definitely okay to seek opportunity to build up my treasure in heaven and find joy in it -- in fact, that's what we're supposed to do!

My big problem now is working on finding the joy more and more often, rather than taking a more duty-driven approach; I suspect it will be easier now. :-)

Here is the great article about Christian Hedonism is:

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/2006/1797_We_Want_You_to_Be_a_Christian_Hedonist/

Become Less

Trinity asked me what the shirt today I was wearing meant. I gave her a halfway okay answer, maybe, I think, but I wasn't sure it was completely correct. I don't even remember what the answer was now. I'll be able to give her a better one next time, because its kind of cool that it was the focus of today's message at church (even though the verse on my shirt wasn't mentioned): "He must become greater; I must become less." (John 3:30).

The message today started talking about complacent Christians who lost that hunger to really know God and His will, caring more about what the world thinks than what God thinks. Instead of making God big and us small, we make us big and God small. Then it switched up to a great Biblical example of someone who got it dead on: Noah.

Noah must not have cared much what the world thought. He was building an ark for a crazy long time. The nearest body of water was very far away. It hadn't rained yet, ever. People must have thought he was nuts. A good guy, yeah, but nuts! That must not have mattered to Noah; what mattered to him was what God wanted him to do, and he did it. God was number one to Noah.

I get the meaning of the verse better now. It fits in with the pretty common theme of "you know, its really not all about YOU".

Stand Up For Jesus

First I have to throw out some lyrics from the Newsboys:

---

Living for Jesus is the way I will go
I’ll follow Him always, don’t care what men say
I’ve been on both sides and I know where I’ll stay
The light He has shown me will not fade away

Stand up, stand up, stand up for Jesus
Oh can’t you hear me, He’s the way
Stand up, stand up, stand up for Jesus
Oh can’t you hear me, He’s the way

Where are you standing if you were to fall
Religion won’t help you if He calls on you now
Stand up and be counted say I’m for the Lord
Don’t keep so quiet, go forth and be bold

---

I think that song is just great. I was listening to Duncan again today and paid some attention when he was talking about preaching the gospel and being the light. Matthew 5:14-15 for example: "You are the world's light; it is impossible to hide a town built on top of a hill. Men do not light a lamp and put it under a bucket. They put it on a lampstand, and it gives light for everybody in the house."

The above song came to mind as he was talking.

Later in the day, something else came to mind. There was another Trinity in Trinity's kindergarten class last year. I remember ONE thing that she ever did on work I saw all year long. It was an assignment to write about yourself to the class (I think), and her sentences started something like "My name is Trinity. I'm a Christian. And...".

We sure can learn a lot from kids. This 5 year old girl stood up proudly for Jesus. If she can do it, so can anyone else. I pray that I don't dim or hide my light.

Bob Dutko

I listen to the Bob Dutko show most of the time when I'm driving home between 5 and 6. In fact I listened to his show before I accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior and considered myself a Christian. His show played some part in my journey I'm sure, and its interesting how I came across it in the first place.

About a year ago, a friend of mine happened to mention the John and Ken show (which I don't listen to much any more) which is at 640AM. About six months ago I started listening to that show fairly regularly; however, there were a lot of commercials, so I found that at 760AM there was another show that was equally interesting. I think it was the Savage Nation, but I'm not 100% on that. Now since these two were so close together, I'd often just hit the seek button to flip between the two when one would go to commercial.

After a bit of time at that, I noticed that on this station between the two, 740AM, there was this guy Bob Dutko who had a show where he would defend Christianity using logic and science, and he would actually have discussions with his guests, many of whom shared completely opposite viewpoints (as opposed to screaming like a lunatic at the guests like...I don't know...politically oriented shows on Fox).

After I while I got tired of the other shows and just left it at 740AM and got a dose of great information -- all starting with a 5 second comment about some loudmouth guys on the radio a year ago. That's pretty cool.

Serving Others

I came across the card ministry link under the volunteer section on our church's website last night. I'll have to admit, I didn't get it, and I thought "What kind of good work is that, putting together cards? That seems pretty trivial."

So on the radio this morning I heard part of a sermon from Pastor Jeremiah at Shadow Mountain where he talked about how at the last supper, Jesus' disciples were arguing about who was to be the greatest when Jesus, their leader, got down and washed their feet, which turns out was one of the most menial tasks in that culture, given to the lowliest of servants.

Jamie mentioned to me later in the day that she was thinking of helping with the card ministry and explained what it was in more detail. In fact, I didn't connect the two events above until she mentioned it.

If Jesus can wash the feet of his disciples, who am I to say that "I'm above "?