Murderer to minister

Transformations are beautiful. I love shows like the Biggest Loser, because it shows changed life. Every person who tries and listens to what they do on the show changes their life for the better. I think it’s the reason health pills focuses so much on people who lose great amounts of weight. Why they showed Jared wearing the huge pants he used to fit into is a huge change video. Christianity is about transformation.

Paul was once a murderer of Christians and now he is one. Paul used to be called Saul and Saul was one of the people known for trying to stop the church from going, he was one of the people that persecuted the church. For people following Christ he had them thrown into jail. He did not approve of Christians and what they stood for. He was one who witnessed Steven being stoned to death. He was not a good person towards Christians and was looked as one if not the main enemies of Christianity.

1 Corinthians 15:9…

“For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”

Paul realizes the wrong things he did, but he changed. Verse 10…”But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not with effect. No, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

Now Paul is not gloating here. This dude traveled more, suffered a ton more opposition, wrote a ton of the New Testament and created more churches. He knew it wasn’t him but God that caused all this to happen.

A murderer to a missionary. What an amazing story. All the time it’s amazing to see the transformation of Christ. At Central Michigan University, there was a guy that was a standout guy. He was an awesome person someone who everyone in the class just enjoyed. On the outside it seemed like this guy would be the party of the campus. Then we talked about faith and I told him I was a Christian. He said that was awesome and he was too! He said he owes the rest of his life to God. He went on to tell me his life story.

He went through high school and the start of college as a big partier. It got to the point he started hitting harder drugs on a consistent basis and it was starting to destroy his life. It was while he was getting high as he realized he was starting to get addicted to this. He said he never prayed and was at a point while getting high that he prayed. He said God I need you to take this from me otherwise I am going down a road I can’t travel back from. At that point he felt the presence of God with him and it changed him forever. He no longer had the desire to get high anymore. He started attending church and the reason he is still here today and doing well is nothing short then the grace of God.

God can transform. Jesus gives us grace to overcome what once held us down. I have seen God transform some of the most vilest/worst people and give them a second chance. God turned Paul from a murderer of Christians to an amazing apostle of Jesus. God can transform us when we give our lives over to him.

Faith is powerful and can change us for the better. If you need a fresh start, another chance at life or the opportunity to make a difference in your life or others, Jesus gives us that chance.

Jesus transformed me and can do the same for you. Have a great day.

Watching a police raid from your house

It’s fun to watch the TV show Cops, it’s even better in person. Hailee and I lived in a questionable area in Lansing, MI. While it would be classified as a bad area, there were mostly good people with just a few bad apples that ruined it. One of the bad apples lived across the street. It wasn’t even the family, it was a relative. This was when the fun began.

I arrived home to see a SWAT vehicle parked across the street. This was better than what I was doing so I stopped and watched Cops from my front porch. They got the guy arrested and a whole bunch of SWAT members were walking around with semi-automatic guns and rifles. I should have grabbed some popcorn because this show was awesome. I even got to witness the slowest get away possible.

As the situation died, another began. As the cops were talking and the front driveway was blocked by a couple of officers. A person walked right out the front door unnoticed and into a car in the driveway. Once the car was started, the officers noticed the car starting to move and one blocked the car from leaving and the other knocked on the window to get the person to stop. The car started edging away slowly and ignored the cops. Finally the cop knocked with the gun they had. The person stopped and got out, it was a 70+ year old women. Man, that was the slowest get away in the world. You can’t make this stuff up. The relative of hers was into selling drugs among other things. The family and neighbor needed help, what could I do?

Ignoring situations don’t prevent bad things from happening. Watching this was fun and interesting yet sad. They were a family in which one got into a bad situation and lived their lives selling drugs, how can I help with that? Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)…

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

We can either watch lives get ruined or do something to change lives. I look back at that situation in that neighborhood, I could have tried helping my neighbors or get to know them better instead of just watching. You can talk bad about this generation or you can do something to help.

Everyone can help even an 80 year old lady in a Mexico prison. A lady who grew up in Beverly Hills went to one of the most dangerous prisons in Mexico. She started serving and loving the inmates in a very dangerous situation. She even broke up a riot.

http://www.catalystspace.com/catablog/full/renegade_nun_a_walking_gift_of_love/

She could have thought she couldn’t help the situation, but God did. God puts people in your life for a reason, some for friendship, some for love, some for you to love. We aren’t going to get along with everyone we meet, but we can still show them love. We aren’t supposed to live life for the American dream. We are called to help others out when they are down.

God brings the best out of us. Jesus gave us the ability to show love to other people because he showed love to us. I wonder what would happen if I showed love to the people around me in Lansing? While you can’t go back, you can go forward, who can you help in your life today? Who can you serve and encourage today? God gave you his best in his son Jesus for your sins, one of the best ways to help others out is to serve them the way God served us. Who can you help today?

Have a great day.

Laying in a hospital bed over winter break

Laid up in a hospital bed is not how I like to start my winter break. Several years ago, this was the case, stomach pains sent me to be admitted. I shared a room with someone I have never seen before. His name doesn’t ring a bell, but he is a guy I will never forget. Having intense stomach pains I was admitted to the hospital where I found out I had a roommate, over the next couple of days I got to know him better.

He was a guy from the Lansing area I would have never run across. There was something that was off about him but I could never figure out what was wrong with him. He was a nice guy, had a great personality, he cracked me up and seemed to be loved by his visitors. I found out this guy got wrapped into stuff he shouldn’t have been in. Now he was living in a tent behind a store in the Michigan winter.

This is what put him in the hospital. He didn’t notice it at the time but from living out of a tent in the middle of the winter he ended up with some form of frostbite and lost a couple of his toes. Now he sat here in the hospital waiting on what they were going to do. The doctor came in and told him all his toes would be removed from his foot they would be replace with synthetic (I vaguely remember). They were doing other things to help with the infection and improve that.

This guy had a great attitude and desire for life, with his remaining toes on his right foot he would often say, “Hey look, the peace symbol!” He cracked me up. Soon it wasn’t as funny.

He didn’t have insurance and would be sent away. What was going to be a couple of days of procedures and recovery was changed to some antibiotics and a boot out the door. For the life of me I could figure out why this guy couldn’t get insurance at all. It ends up he was heavily into drugs and even his visitors were family that tried to help him out from time to time but he never improved. The help he needed wasn’t from medical hospital but from a rehab place.

This guy’s life was wrecked because of drugs and his ability not to get help. What’s different between us and him? Not much. We are in the same boat, we are sinners and full of mistakes. Yet God gives us another chance, Romans 3:23-24…

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

This guy fell short of the glory of God and so do we. We are not mistakes but we make a ton of mistakes. God values each and every life and values your life so much. God loves you and you are free because Jesus gave us grace. Through all our sins Jesus washed them all away. Laying in the hospital bed next to my roommate, we came from different paths, had different struggles and yet we were in the hospital both seeking help.

We all need help from time to time. Whether it’s our marriages, our family, our friends, a physical problem or a bad habit like drugs or alcohol, help can be there for us. Don’t be afraid to seek help with issues going on in your life. If you had a broken leg, you go to a doctor, if something was wrong with your head mentality, you would go to a doctor too.

We serve a God that is loving and just. He wants us to be able to conquer those issues going on in our lives. I think about my former roommate from time to time and pray that he was able to get the help needed and kick the bad habit. God is love and is forgiving to those who seek forgiveness. If you need help, please seek someone to help you.

Have a great day.