chaoticSoul

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to realize our true blessings. The things we are thankful for can be a variety of things. For example, if you are in my shoes I am thankful for my supportive family and the various expressions of support. I am thankful for my friends. They are few but the ones I have are very dear to me and we share a love that reaches beyond mere friendship. I am thankful for my church. For my congregation that is supportive and God seeking. Their hunger for the Gospel strengthens me. I am thankful for all my kids at the church who never fail to surprise me with new and exciting ways of sometimes getting in trouble. I am thankful for my dear friends William and Zac and their families who are my partners in ministry and my support group. I am thankful for my dog because living alone is hard and having a companion even though he doesn't talk is helpful. And then I am thankful for my education, car, food, etc... I know all this seems sappy and not relevant to you the reader but I can not stress the importance of this next part enough. Of all these things that I am thankful for I would rather lose all of it than ever be without my faith, hope, and love in Christ. Paul puts it this way:

"We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!
I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."
If we are to boast then let us boast in the cross and in things of God. Let our preferences die with our worldly selves. Let our immaturity dissipate with the morning fog. Let our anger be checked and our hate be replaced with love. But most of all, let our pride and our boasts wither away like a branch removed from a vine.

Now that the election has passed us for almost two weeks I am reflecting on the day of and days leading up to it. If you are like most Americans it wasn't hard to find people out on the street corner or on the steps of a city hall holding up a sign proclaiming their support for a prospective official. Some would even go so far to make their sign about a foot bigger than the opposing supporter's sign. Let's face it.. we live in a culture that loves a good fight. The sad part about it is that elections occur almost every year and you will see people standing outside in every sort of weather protesting and proclaiming who they think will do the best in an elected office. They will yell, scream, dance, wave, make cookies that for some reason resemble the official they plan to vote for, and even shave their heads with only the candidates name remaining just to get the word out.
Yet we live every day with a daily knowledge that Christ is alive and working and wants to be everyone's King and Savior and we keep it to ourselves. The greatest truth and the most powerful message is less likely to be heard than a political ad or colorful sign. We hide it.. "let the church handle that".. we encounter soo many people every day whether it is in a hallway or an aisle at the grocery store and we pass on the opportunity of showing our sign.
So where's your sign at? Do they know who you support? Are you telling people that Christ is alive and is in the business of saving people? Where is the sign that proclaims that the only true HOPE resides in the cross of Christ Jesus our God? Where's your sign?

“Many hearers lose much blessing through criticizing too much, and meditating too little; and many more incur great sin by calumniating those who live for the good of others. True pastors have enough of care and travail without being burdened by undeserved and useless fault-finding. We have something better to do than to be for ever answering every malignant or frivolous slander which is set afloat to injure us….there are tender, loving spirits who feel the trial very keenly, and are sadly hindered in brave service by cruel assaults. The rougher and stronger among us laugh at those who ridicule us, but upon others the effect is very sorrowful…

As ministers we are very far from being perfect, but many of us are doing our best, and we are grieved that the minds of our people should be more directed to our personal imperfections than to our divine message….

Filled with the same spirit of contrariety, the men of this world still depreciate the ministers whom God sends them and profess that they would gladly listen if different preachers could be found. Nothing can please them, their cavils are dealt out with heedless universality. Cephas is too blunt, Apollos is too flowery, Paul is too argumentative, Timothy is too young, James is too severe, John is too gentle…

Well then, let each servant of God tell his message in his own way. To his own Master he shall stand or fall…

Judge the preacher if you like, but do remember that there is something better to be done than that, namely, to get all the good you can out of him, and pray his Master to put more good into him.” -Charles Spurgeon

I’m going to take the next couple of posts to talk about and hopefully discuss flawed theology.

Let’s start with the theology behind P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Something Happens). Now for those of us that thrive on acronyms, at first look this would be a great starting point for a theology based on prayer. However, what happens when nothing happens? How do we show content when our basis for prayer is that something should happen if we continue to pray for it? Realizing that here are some people and maybe a lot of people who have their hearts and their minds in tune with God’s will that are actually praying for the right things, I am speaking of those of us who continue to pray for the Porsche that is supposed to be parked in the driveway when we wake up or the extra million dollars that is supposed to manifest itself in our bank accounts over the weekend. All great things that yours truly would not complain about happening and things that certainly God can accomplish but what would He gain from it? Where’s the glory going?

How about praying for a disease to go away? When that disease doesn’t go away are we shocked and walk away from the faith and from God? Yeah sometimes we do. Sometimes we blame ourselves for not praying loud enough and most of the time we blame God for not answering. “Where is God?” Maybe you’ve heard this.. “Well if God is soo good…” Maybe just maybe there is a greater purpose behind things that we just don’t see. This is easy to say in a time of peace but when hardship falls on us our grief and despair can easily cloud the “big picture”. Remember that God doesn’t cause sickness and illness but He can and most of the time does work through it.

P.U.S.H. is a flawed theology because nothing happening is just as common of an answer as something happening. It probably should be P.U. T.W.E.A.C.R. (Pray Until The World Ends And Christ Returns) but it’s hard to fit that on a bracelet.

Sometimes the Devil just knows when to kick, claw, punch, and throw you off the cliff at the exact moment you are most vulnerable and it hits hard. Lately I have been having those moments and I have tried to resist the best I can but I continue to fall short of comfort and freedom. I know that what has been happening is not any one individual attacking me but the Evil One distracting and bringing me down. All I ask is for your prayers as I continue to seek my Father through this and call on Him to defeat him that comes against me.

The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. - 2 Timothy 4:18

Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant. - Galatians 1:10

When is the appropriate place in time that we start to be more than echoes of who we are meant to be? One of many definitions of an echo is a repetition or imitation. Maybe taking the other definition is more appropriate.. a remnant. But to say that we are an echo would insist that we were once the people that we should be or made to be. But that is just not so.. we have fallen short of the glory and the original mold.
On the other hand, maybe we are all echoes of the people we were when we first believed. When we first saw the Light and embraced Him. When we first forsook all that we had and claimed to be for the great journey. Somewhere between the pages of time and existence we forgot how we felt when Christ entered our lives and the Holy Spirit began that incredible transformation in us. I can faintly remember feeling The Spirit's embrace and change. The point where the old had disappeared and the new person emerged victorious because of the cross.
What happened? Have I gone so far only to realize that I am but an echo and a shadow of my self? It is the human problem. Correction... one of the human problems! Sin of course is THE human problem but beyond that it is the urge and desire to be more and if relying on ourselves we only turn to find out that we have fallen again.
The father of lies is here to distract and accuse and also lead us to believe that we have to be more than an echo of who we were or trying to be...
Galatians 3:10-14
But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.” So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.”
But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.

We don't have to be more. It is because Christ has redeemed us and saved us from the evil one and his deception that we can let go of this relentless feeling of self loathing and finally be rid of being an echo of ourselves but in turn be an echo of Christ Jesus.

To be a Christian is to be His echoes...

I have written about a Gospel of strength and passion, conviction and justification. A Gospel that offends and changes. This type of writing is meant to wake up the sleeping and the weak. Hopefully giving strength and vision for change. But now I turn to the desperate and the despondent. Those without hope and a clear vision for the future. Our Savior and our God is a God of love and hope and grace and mercy. The Scripture is full of examples of times when the Gospel was tough and convicting. But there are also times and examples of God's love and mercy. He has come to seek and save that which was lost. See all of us were lost. We all turned out backs on God. We broke communication and treated Him as though we didn't need Him. Only to realize the truth later in life.. that the goal and the journey and the pursuit of happiness is not only to find God but to find Him and still be searching for Him.
That is paradise.
I think that we all at times are ourselves despondent.. that is we feel without hope. At times even we who are Believers can get that way but only because we tend to forget that it is not our dreams and desires or especially our plans that fail that cause us to lose hope but it is more like our tendency to forget that God has a better way and a better plan for us that causes us to give up on hope. However, hope is not a frailty or a sense of comfort only in times of trouble. Hope is an neverending, everlasting, life-affirming gift. A gift that if we choose to accept it, lasts in the good times and in the not-so-good times. Hope stems from this Gospel that we speak of. Hope stems from the promise of a Savior. Hope grows with the anticipation of salvation. Hope is synonymous with the cross. It is the thread of the Gospel of Christ. Salvation that springs up from the ground with the resurrection of our Lord and Savior! This Gospel is a Gospel of Love - a Gospel of Peace.

Philippians's 2:9-11 says this,
"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

For years the church has been afraid and dreading the phone call of a parishioner who was offended by something that was spoken from the pulpit. This has in turn caused many preachers and teachers to refrain from the hard truths and teachings because it is not the popular thing to say. Most churches today are handing out the sugar-coated Bible lesson and leaving people with what they want to hear in order to make them feel better. It is a truth that is both unfortunate and devastating. Another problem is that those preachers who are teaching and proclaiming the truths that are hard to hear for some are being fired or shunned.
So where in lies the problem? Who is to be blamed for this common thread?
All of us is the answer you are looking for. That is right.. all of us.
The pastors for allowing ourselves to be compromised and content with pleasing people instead of God. (Galatians 1:10) Newsflash... Hell is a real place and people will go there unless there is a belief and relationship with Jesus Christ... HELL IS REAL but so is Heaven! Do not allow yourself to be brought down by fear and anxiety over a job or popularity. We have a message and we can not back down, give up, or let up in its proclamation.
Now for everyone else.. have you noticed a popular trend in the ranks of the clergy? There less of us everyday. More and more members of the clergy are being fired and beaten down by those in the church who get offended by the truth of the Gospel. Newsflash.. The Gospel is offensive... its design is to be offended in a way that will bring those who are lost back into the graces of God our Father. The name of Jesus is offensive. It is probably the most..sorry.. it IS the most offensive name in the world. It is at the name of Jesus that sinners shudder and demons flee. It is at the name of Jesus that people find refuge and rest and change.
I am reminded of the passage in John 6 verses 53 -69. Jesus is teaching and he knows and hears some grumbling by his disciples (all of them not just the Twelve). He turns and says "Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe." At that point many of His disciples turned and left Him and Jesus turns to the Twelve and says, "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Then Simon Peter speaks, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."
Jesus spoke words that were offensive to even those who were following Him. His Word is truth and in that truth is eternal life. We can not afford to sugar coat it anymore. We can't back down and we dare not let up.
I am thankful for those in our churches that truly desire life-change and believe the Word of God. I am truly thankful for the church that supports and encourages its pastors, like my church.

For the past several years I have been studying extensively the dynamics of the local church. What makes people walk off the street and into the well-known, mostly doubled, doors of the local sanctuary. Those doors are a symbol of hope and peace and comfort and love for most people who walk through them but for others it is a constant reminder of failure and despise and a feeling of not being "good enough". Why is that do you suppose? Why would a stranger to the church view the opening doors to God's house a symbol of rejection? Your church may be a loving and caring church with God-fearing individuals and that probably has nothing to do with the perception of a stranger to the church. There are probably many reasons for this but I just want to focus on one.

What is your perception of Jesus?


Yes I'm sure you are sitting there thinking that this is a simple question and you are thumbing through your book full of Sunday School answers written by a 1960's southern baptist preacher but take into consideration that many believers have failed to fully realize who Jesus Christ actually is. In fact, stats show that some believers are uncertain as to Christ's divinity. I would venture out to say that more than half of Christian Believers are uncertain as to the divine nature of Jesus Christ. That is to say that they don't fully believe that Jesus was, is, and will always be God. Is this their fault? No, not really. Those who I would blame are those who educate in the manner of Christianity. People like pastors, and Sunday school teachers. People like Christian professors and Christian activists. People like me. I feel like we have failed our people. For what seems like centuries, we have bypassed the nature of Christ because it seems too complicated. For that I am sorry. Deeply sorry and troubled. The first century church knew who this Jesus is. They knew Him, saw Him, and believed Him. He was their King. Well nothing has changed folks. We still preach and teach and pray and worship to the same God as our forefathers did. But sometimes the Jesus we see is the Jesus that we all saw hanging on the wall of our Sunday School room with the long flowing hair and rich blue eyes with not a blemish or stain on His face. Beginning to see that image again? Mark Driscoll, the author of Vintage Jesus, proclaims that image as the lobotomized Lord. Not meaning to be sacrilegious or offensive in anyway to our Savior but rather to wake us up. Our King was not the pretty boy walking down the road with a lamb in His arms every day. No, He was the man who probably wore cut-off sleeved shirts with mud and clay and wood chips carrying a toolbox. He was probably muscular and dirty with BROWN EYES. Crazy gesture.. I know.. But my King was and is a powerful King. He was righteous and holy. When He spoke He spoke with power and demand. So much that even at the whisper of His name demons shook in fear and trepidation. Even the elements obeyed His command. He was, is, and will always be God. That is my King. So why do we have the tendency to turn away strangers from our doors? When we as Believers in the Way, Truth, and Life finally grasp a hold of who Jesus is we shed our unwillingness and our the light that shines through us will be addicting and relentless and that light will grab a hold of those on the outside and beckon them inside.
To know Him and find Him and yet still be looking for Him is everything.

Tonight we as a community of Believers in Christ's Church join together and mourn the tragedy of the loss of little Maria Chapman. It is very likely that this post will never reach the eyes of the Chapman family but my personal thoughts and prayers are with you all. My words are feeble and mere but the arms of the Father are strong enough. We love you and may our God comfort you.

I have now opened comments to everyone. You may now comment on any post you would like to. Please keep them respectful and clean. Thank you and happy blogging!

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" Mark 4: 37-41

I must have read these words hundreds of times and they bring new meaning to me still. How amazing to be witness to the power and majesty of the King of Creation. Even the elements hang onto His every breath. The winds move at His command and the rains flow at His thought. When each furious squall builds up and threatens to plunge us into an abyss of sorrow and darkness and we find ourselves enveloped in over our heads, something happens. The King stands up and with three words calms the storm. But the other lesson here is faith-based. Even when the storm was at it's peak, Jesus was still asleep in the boat. It was when the disciples feared themselves to be at the point of death did they forget who was on the same boat. We will never be in a situation that we will ever need to fear... anything. Now that is a lot to just say. But who is this King that even the winds and the waves obey Him?

So this is going to be a weird post. It is Tuesday night at 10:49 pm. Today I have finished my last full-time semester of college. I registered for my last 8 hours which will conclude in July and forever be the end of my bachelor's education. Now I am sitting at home thinking... and all that can come to my mind is an old song...

I've dealt with my ghosts and I've faced all my demons
Finally content with a past I regret
I've found you find strength in your moments of weakness
For once I'm at peace with myself
I've been burdened with blame, trapped in the past for too long
I'm movin' on
I'm movin' on
At last I can see life has been patiently waiting for me
And I know there's no guarantees, but I'm not alone
There comes a time in everyone's life
When all you can see are the years passing by
And I have made up my mind that those days are gone

weird mood

It goes on and on and on. It never sleeps, never dies, never slows, never hides, never contradicts. It never has conditions, never expects anything in return, and never fails. This is not an ordinary love that might fade away into the hate that this world so cruelly offers. No, this love is an everlasting love. It is a sacrificial love. It always shies through the darkness, always comforts, always perseveres, always wins, always stands in the midst of corruption, and always breathes life back into the hurting. I refuse to believe that this love can not be be shown by you and me. I refuse to believe that we can not learn from it or learn how to apply it or use it. The love that has been ever so lavished upon us as children of an Almighty God who sees all and hears all and knows all and yet still loves you and me is abounding and is the forever kind of love. This is not an ordinary love. It is not something that we always see from each other. But we should. There is no reason why we should not mimic the love that is shown to us daily. In that love there is mercy and grace and forgiveness and righteousness. In that love there is healing for the hurt and it is the antidote for the sick. No this certainly is not an ordinary love.

Sometimes I feel incredibly lonely. The feeling of loneliness is a powerful and sorrowful emotion and can be a dangerous place to be. Although I have moved around 600 miles from my nearest family member this emotion is not caused by that. Rather sometimes I feel like this because I allow myself to dwell on being single and living alone. Truth is I love living alone and yes I can't wait to be with the one God has set before me but it is not top priority in my life. I have made some awesome friends down here in Port A - people that I respect and hold in high esteem - people that I trust. The title of this post is "Your Love is Strong". Reason being is that although we may feel far away and apart and lonely sometimes we can rest and know that God loves us and that love is strong. If you are lonely and I mean really lonely then please talk to someone about it. Freedom from the pain of loneliness is found in the strong arms of God who loves each of us.

If you checked your news this morning you might see an article of an Indian baby girl who was born with craniofacial duplication. Now if you look at those words carefully it isn't hard to see what it means. The baby's name is Lali. Except for her ears, all of Lali's facial features are duplicated -- she has two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes. She appears to be a healthy infant otherwise. Reading the story and watching video footage I was reminded by God how we too tend to have two faces. Now we don't literally have any facial deformities but in the sense of who we are it is not that uncommon for a Christian believer to be one person in church and around other believers and then a totally different person elsewhere. Now please understand I am not using this baby's deformity as a platform or anything but seeing the symbolism there.

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. - John 15:19

Read this verse carefully. Now ask yourself these questions:

1. Does the world hate me?
2. Do I act like the world when I am in the world and then act differently when I am with Believers?
3. Am I afraid of being hated?

Jesus talks about his a few times and He even tells us to not be fearful of the world because He has overcome it already. Another verse I leave you with today is this:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12:2

So I have literally been terrified of that button that says "New Post" for the past few weeks! I suppose a part of me just didn't want to click the button for fear of visibility. What do I mean by visibility? Well I think I will save that for a different post.
So for the past two weeks I have started umpiring for the little league baseball and softball. Tonight I had two games back to back and I am exhausted from it. The last game was a girls softball game for the older girls and I have to tell you, I thought that I might need to run to my truck after it was over in total fear of the losing team's fan base! SOOO... this post will be about losing.
As a Burch I hate losing. I hate it soo much that if I had the choice of giving up food for 40 days or losing in a game, I would starve. But of course if I starved from my food ban I would be losing pounds and there you have losing again! In ministry you don't always win. When I say "win" I mean that sometimes you fail at doing ministry. And you know what... it's ok! Losing has a funny way of bringing out the worst in us and it is how we handle ourselves that shows our true character on and off the field. So regardless if you are in ministry or something with your work doesn't go as planned or maybe you are in disagreement with the head umpire in a little league softball game, handle your attitude and demeanor with dignity.

More "Confessions..." coming soon.

I Have a Pathetic Prayer Life.

And so it begins...
Wondering how to start this whole series on this blog I couldn't figure out how to start. I suppose the best way to do it is like taking off a band-aid... slow and painful! From the beginning of my Christian walk I have always been told that my prayer life has to be strong and what's worse is that I believed the people that told me that. Truth is God doesn't care how great your prayers are just that you do communicate with Him. I often catch myself going into shallow and hollow prayers and I have to stop and remind myself that God deserves better. One of the things that I have been challenged by in the past few weeks is to make my prayers true and from the heart. As church goers we have learned how to cover up what we truly feel with ritualistic words. If you actually listened to yourself pray most of us would find that we use words that we would never use in our conversations with others. What I have been doing lately is telling God how I actually feel in the words that I am thinking of. I originally had that sense that God needed to hear the "holy words" when in all actuality He can take what I really mean to say. He invites me to be honest in my prayers. For the past (some odd) years of my life I have turned myself into a pharisee on the street corner, praying as if I was praying to the people around me and not to the God who loves and cares for me enough that He wants my words and my feelings and my heart felt emotions in my conversations with Him. We need to stop putting emphasis on religious praying and start telling people that God desires the truth when we pray. We don't have to doctor up our words because we think God will hear them better that way. We have to stop thinking about prayer as a ritualistic event that we do. Stop being afraid of prayer. Stop being afraid of saying the wrong things or asking for the wrong things. I honestly can say that the first time I actually prayed a truthful and honest prayer was when one of my best friends in the world was suffering from a tumor. I stopped and I prayed to God and honestly asked Him why and told Him that I think it was unfair. I confessed that I loved Him deeply and that I know I could never understand His ways and thoughts but I just wanted her to feel better. Being honest in prayer makes prayer worth doing. I am not saying that God doesn't listen to every prayer or that He answers or doesn't answer based on a grade scale of prayers but I am saying that if you want a meaningful prayer life then be creative and open and honest with the God who loves you. Remember that prayer is communicating with God and like all great conversations there is a time to speak and a time to listen. From one amateur pray-er to another... happy praying.

So after being pressured about my writing and the need to read it I have decided (on my own) to write again. For the past couple of weeks I have been reading through Craig Groeschel's book Confessions of a Pastor and I have to say that I relate to him on so many levels and with so many of his points. Being in ministry is one of the toughest jobs and responsibilities that a person will have. I know that sounds ridiculous but to be responsible for helping someone on their journey through the Christian faith is a heavy burden to have. Ministers as a whole are subject to more criticism and hatefulness than a lot of other professions. We all have to face the challenge that everyone is different and everyone has an opinion and everyone wants to tell you their opinion! Starting out in ministry as a boy on a guitar playing music for a youth group I can remember not wanting to even hear anyone's opinion on what I was doing. I was doing it and I was doing it my way! Six years later I find myself wanting to revert back to that mentality but I know that I am not doing this my way and if I ever find myself doing this "my way" then I know that have failed or fallen off that beaten path. For the next few post I will be making some of my own confessions and going through those on here. Reading last week I stumbled on a passage that Craig had written down and I will leave you with us until my next post.
"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." Galatians 1:10