Rain, sunshine and Rust Buckets

Thinking that life is full of storms.  Sometimes storms come right after another and there is no break in sight.  Some places, in stormy seasons, go months without seeing the sun.  I imagine that could be a little gloomy.  Living in AZ I get a little sunshine almost everyday.  However life's STORMS sometimes go days without letting up.  Sometimes storms upon storms pile upon each other without a break..  Relationships are challenged.  Finances are drained.  Promises are broken.  Lead become dead ends.  And then...  more storms.

Being a God fearing man I cry out at the Great Sustainer of all things and scream, "Really God!"  Shouting out the deep felt feelings, "I can't take this anymore."   Then, another storm booms.  Scary sounding thunder shouts down at me.  Then frightening lighting flashes it power across the horizon.  Do not forget the treacherous wind that howls its echoing attack.  Then comes the rain.  Inches upon inches.  When you think you can take no more..  more rain.

Then I cry.
I cry some more.
Then some more shouting.  "Please can I get some SONshine here."

Proverbs 20:24, "Man's steps are ordained by the Lord.  HOW THEN can man understand his way?"

Hmmm?  This is the answer in the middle of the storm?   One friend encourages me in the midst of this storm with these words, "I've seen so much rain in 64 years, I've got tinges of rust to remind me that God eventually brought the light."

So... standing in the midst of this storm  I know my God is okay with the rain.  The storm and even storms upon storms are part of His plan and it is not my place to even understand WHY.  To the Great Sustainer, I surrender.  Letting Him hold me in the storm.  And when the rain is over and the Son shines upon it all, if I am left with only  a RUST BUCKET?  Well then this rust bucket will praise HIM.  But for now I am learning to praise Him in the RAIN.

nit pickin gnats and camel swallowin

Have you seen the pompous ones?   You know the ones, they trample on the heads of others as they climb the tower of self righteousness?  They raise high their Look-at-how-good-I-am flag, by pointing out the faults of others.  These are the ones Jesus said, "you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence."  (mt 2:25).     He further declared their piggish ways when he stated, "You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel." (vs24).

Perhaps the pompous pigs have pointed their hooves at you?  They nit pick about our littlest short comings:  OOOOhh, I heard him swear."  They tattle, "Look at him, he just did x, y or z!"  (sorry little last letter variables to represent our missdoing)  These pigs point out the fault and failures of others as they self righteously ignore their own pride and arrogance.  They have pushed people away from the kingdom of God for far too long.   Pushing away the hurting is perhaps a much larger shortcoming.  Stinkin' CAMEL swallowers.  They eat their camels and cry about our little gnats.

Maybe you have been at the "shut out" side, where the self righteous ones declare, "You do not fit."  They say, "You're not good enough for us."  They proclaim rules and limits that "shut out" the hurting and exalt themselves.  The truth is:  the way to a right relationship with God was made through Jesus, you are good enough, you fit in and the arms of God are open wide for you.

To the pompous ones, Jesus said, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces." (vs 13)  The way to the kingdom of God has been made possible for all.  If you have felt shut out, come on in.  Welcome!  He paid the price for all to come in.  He made the way and declared the price paid when He cried out, "It is finished!"  Don't let the gnat nit pickin' camel swallowin' pigs push you away from His incredible love and grace.

If you have been nit pickin the little gnats of others and sitting back swallowin your big camel....   Woe!  Don't be pig!

THUMP a local PIG right on the snout!

Jesus said, "do not cast your pearls before swine!"  But the pigs in reference are seemingly everywhere.  Self righteous pharisees who trample on others to glorify themselves can be found in many "religious" circles.  We need to protect our precious ones, our "pearls", from the pain that comes in the presence of such pigs.  The pigs lash out there judgement, pointing out shortcomings of others in pursuit of self promotion.  They trample on hurting others.  They run over our children with there Pharisaical pride. I say THUMP A PIG!

When Jesus said, "don't cast your pearls before swine,"  do you think it implies we could cast the swine before a bus..? a train..? a firing squad?  If you're like me and want to THUMP a pig, then love on the unloving.  Encourage the hurting with words of grace and love.  Let every sinner know that they are loved and not judged, lifted up and not trampled on, embraced not evicted.  We need to love one another, that is what Jesus did to the woman at His feet, the woman at the well, Simon the tax collector, Saul the persecutor, John the CreighZ pig disliker and You!   He loves you and me right where we are.   So love one another and in so doing... THUMP A PIG!

GREEN STAMPS and LIES

Do you remember green stamps? Or was that just a small home town thing for me? I remember going to the green-stamp-redemption-center type place, a place where you exchanged a book full collection of licked and stuck little green postage like stamps for stuff... some good stuff too! There was a catalog of some good things to save up for, good things you could get for "free" if you had enough stamps to "cash in." I do not remember now how you got those "green stamps" back in the day, but the concept reminds me of kids at chuckycheese or a pipery pizza place, exchanging a collection of cheep stuff for more stuff.

What are you cashing in or exchanging today???

When we buy the lies the mirrors, spoons or fun house reflections shout at us, we exchange the "truth of God," for a lie. When we buy the echoing lies to rent the space between our ears, shouting accusations of worthlessness or feelings of unworthiness. Lies shouting "guilty." Lies shouting... "failure." God say's you are "fearfully and wonderfully made." He goes on to say the works of the Lord are "WONDERFUL." He made you and thinks you're WONDERFUL!!!! (Psalms 139). Cash in the cheap lies and false accusations. Trade in the book-full of overlicked lies for something really good today... God loves YOU and thinks You are wonderful!!!!

"(insert your name here) is WONDERFUL!"- God.

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FEAR FREEZES FAITH

Fear is the factor that freezes faith... this I know. I have struggled with fear a great deal of my life. I realize fear of financial security, fear of approval of others and fear of rejection are just a few little fears that have often become giants in my land taunting me and my desires. These so called "giants" freeze forward motion... FEAR FREEZES FAITH!

This week I had a chance to face a fear as I was moving out my recycle bin and saw a large scorpion move on the ground near my flip flopped vulnerable feet. After moving away quickly, I returned slowly, this time I was armed for battle. I looked intently upon this creature. The scorpion was 4" long and it's tail was now curled up ready to strike. HOWEVER, being armed for battle, I dropped a 4" X 4" X 8" brick on the huge scorpion. Wounded from the first drop the scorpion moved slowly away, the second drop of the brick rendered my opponent motionless.

I became in the moment a fierce victorious warrior, John E. B. Scorpion Slayer Creigh Z. I placed the motionless dead victim into a container and sent it immediately to my friends via the social network, as fast as I could. I wanted others to see the battle I faced and rejoice with me in my victory.

What fear in your life is freezing your foward motion? What have you allowed to become a giant taunting you and your desires? The answer that leads to victory is in the arming for battle. For David and his giant it was five smooth stones. For me and my scorpion it was one little brick. Gear up for your battles, armed for battle with what God has given you. Soon with great joy you will post quickly among your friends the joy of victory. Fight fears freezing power with the fire from the Lord. When we set our faith in motion and our fears will flee!

What's that say....?

I recently asked a few questions to my facebook friends in regards to their favorite T-shirt, song or rear car window decal... the question was: What does it say about you? The thing is we are constantly portraying an image to others of what we are. We wear a shirt representing our favorite sport and label ourselves and X, Y or Z "fan." Keep in mind the X,Y and Z are simply factors representing team's names or logos, not that there are many of us running around with jerseys declaring our love and dedication to the last three capital letters in our alphabet. But we do declare to others our support of stuff and often do so boldly.

What declaration of you or portrait of yourself are you giving others. Perhaps you have a shiny chrome symbol of a curvy shaped woman on your mud-flap... would that tell others that is what you are... or that is what you are looking for? What does it say if you have a silhouette sticker of curvy female with a wings and a halo opposite a equally curvy silhouette with horns and a pitchfork??? Does it mean you are good and bad or you want to be good or bad??? Does a "my child is..." x, y or z sticker (again factors not indicating any children of being good little y's) declare a parent proud of their child's accomplishments or a arrogant parent telling others that they are way better because their child is X, Y or Z. Think about it! What are you trying to say or portray?

What does the name brand on your SUV declare of who you are? Does the brand of purse or sunglasses paint a portrait of who you are? What does your profile picture say about you? What does your status bar say about you? The image we want others to see is sometime real and sometimes fantasy. Sometimes we want everyone to think we have it all together when the world is falling apart all around us.

What would a truthful rear window decal declare? What would are real sticker look like? Broken hurting driver inside? Angry frustrate failure behind the wheel? Pompous arrogant ignoramus? Maybe the real us should never be seen at all, perhaps mask, wishful stickers and fake status statements should prevail?

Personally my back window decal shouts out the name of my 12 year old boy's football team... Go Muddogs! My favorite T-shirt has a armless legless black night shouting, "It's just a flesh wound" and my status bar sometimes makes no sense at all. I have some close friends I share some deep dark painful junk in my life with. With those few friends I expose the real me and we grow stronger in our relationship with Christ as we share our struggles openly in these safe relationships. To the rest of the world that sees me, I hope they see in my words and actions that I may be a little crazy, but I am trying to be more like Christ in what I do and say. I do not have it all together and I hope to never act like I do. And when everything is falling apart I have a few friends I lean on and one Great Savior I can always go to... I hope my status bar points to me less and to Him more.

Pig posers

While traveling these past few days I have seen some crazy things. Many of these crazy things have come from right inside the cab of the no pig rig I drive. I saw a guy walk into a rest area with two hats on his head. I saw a guy staring at those who passed by through a scope made from a nearly full roll of toilet paper. I have seen deer in the fields and some smashed on the road. I have seen remains of smashed road things, that I have no idea what they once were. I have seen a lot of twigs, stones and signs that were pretending to be deer, until I got close enough to see they were no deer at all.

But one thing I continue to see nearly everywhere I go is pigs dressed up in non pig clothes. Pig's posing, pretending to be not pigs at all. I seen an army pig. An apron wearing wiggly pig. A super hero pig. I even seen a punk rock pig. The more I see of these posing pigs the more I wonder why pigs keep pretending to be something else. Is it their sneaky little way to pry into our lives by looking so cute and friendly?? Pig posing... hmmm? Maybe they are ashamed of their piggish ways. Well it is time to say to these posing pigs, "you are not fooling me." We know your pigs, so make a choice: A. Stop being a pig. or B. Wallow in your sty.

Bessie crys: "cow power" "freedom is Mooooo...ving!"

Freedom Mooooo...vement!

Rolling down the I 40 wondering if it really is my forty? Like the US 60 is our 60 Arizona, cross a state line on any side and it must become THEM 60 right? I decide. So the rolling no pig rig is in motion. Along the way a six inch stuffed pig stares back at me and I laugh. You got nothing on me, little piggy I am forgiven, it is forgotten, I have let go of guilt and shame, so "HA" little piggy stare and point if you want. I know what I got... FREEDOM!

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.... Smear that on your gold ringed snout.

Painted lip pigs?

Creigh Z Rantingz #1. It has been said by A Fue Furrends and Sum Uthers, that I should blog. I thought, "who would want to tend and ear or eye to my crazy rantings?" So my friends win and I begin. Here goes the first random blogging. Just be forewarned it was Sum and A Fue's idea anyway.

We just got the first shipment of Coffee Shop Theology from a Twisted Mind, Book One, No Pigs Allowed! The No Pig Cry is beginning to gain momentum and many have no clue what it is they are crying for. Who are the Pigs? What is the point of all the pigs? Why does John dislike pigs? Why are you yelling? Who's yelling? What is fuchsia? Why is that weird colored word so hard to spell? What was the question again? Oh, Pigs, yeah.

The pigs in my twisted mind are the pompous self righteous folks who spend so much time looking at others and pointing out the failures of others that they can't see their own self righteous shortcomings. The pigs decorate their snouts with jewelry and their lips with red smear, but the fact is they are still pigs. Pigs are pigs and they will always be pigs, even if they get all dressed up in Jones' clothes, slam his whiskey and get up and walk. Still... Pigs.

Jesus said, don't give your good stuff to the pigs. The filthy mud waddlers will just make a mess of it anyway. These self righteous often religious leaders think making a muddy mess display of a hurting world is a way to increase pig power. It looks a little bit like this: The painted lipped, golden ringed snout pot bellied mud waddler, pushes aside his ginormous beam and shouts about Sum Uthers' little spec. Stinking pigs ought to keep their snouts out 0f Uthers' stuff. No Pigs Allowed! Pass it on!