Scammed by a Shoe Shinner

I'm sitting in my hotel room in San Francisco. Today I had a meeting with the CSM folks.  They are the organization we are working with on our mission trip this summer (www.csm.org).  After the meeting my wife and I headed for an afternoon at Fisherman's Warf.  It was a blast.  The street performers were great.  The dancers, spray painters, and musicians were great.  There were two particular guys who really stood out.  Guy #1 you see in the picture to the left.  We'll call him Scare Tactics Guy.  His basic method for making money was scaring everyone who walked by.  He got both Christa (my wife)  and I.  You might look at the picture and think, "how could he scare people sitting on a bucket with just a few branches in front of him?"  I thought the same thing, but my wife and I sat and watched him scare person after person.  Ninety percent of the people who walked by didn't notice him until he grawled at them and moved the branches.  We watched and laughed as this guy scared person after person.  He provided us some great entertainment, so we tipped him.  He also taught me a lesson.  It is amazing what can sneak up on you if your paying attention to the wrong things!!

This isn't just about people on the streets, this is true in our spiritual lives as well.  Beliefes that are unbiblical often sneak up on us when we are focusing on good things, but not really focusing on God and His word.  We might be looking right over the top of some dangerous lies about God, us, or His word.  If we are not careful Satan will sneak up on us and we will not recognize those lies until it is too late.  The thing about Satan is this, he doesn't want to just scare us, he will bite and destroy us if he gets the chance.

There was another guy, this shoe shine guy.  He was pretty slick.  As we walked by he offered to shine my shoes.  I of course said no.  He then told me, "Let me see your shoes and I can tell you where you got your shoes."  I was intrigued.  The conversation went on and after a minute he was bending over to look closer and as he put his shoe shine liquid on my shoes he said, "you got your shoes on the bottom of your feet."  of course he was right and I had been taken.  I let him finish shinning my shoes and listened to him lecture me about not listening to my mom when she told me not to talk to strangers.  I then gave him five bucks and laughed at myself (my wife laughed at me too) for about an hour.  There is another spiritual lesson in this, don't get sucked in by smooth talkers.  He didn't have good grammer (actually it was terrible), but he has learned some tricks regarding working people.  This guy was a fun guy to talk to, and I would love to be his friend.  He is not evil in any way, he is just trying to make some money.  

Still Satan works in a similar way some times.  He will use people who can deliver a message in an attractive way and lower peoples defenses to decieve us.  Keep your gaurd up, don't recieve spiritual advice from people who are not strong in their Christian faith.  Always consider the source.  You wouldn't take advice about relationships from a person who has always had bad relationships, so don't take advice about morality, life decisions, or spiritual things from a person who does not know and understand God's word.  

What is evangelism?

Last night we promoted the "Each On Reach One" campaign we are doing at the Rock. Some students were excited and some were...well, they were annoyed. Still some were indifferent. The question is, "what is evangelism?" I think evangelism has been misunderstood. Reaching someone for Jesus doesn't mean you have to grab a blow horn and head to a street corner. It doesn't mean being confrontational and mean. Nor does it mean correcting every little detail of someones theology.

One student I spoke with said they didn't want to try and convert their best friend because they didn't want to lose the friendship. They also told me that they often have spiritual conversations discussing what they believe. I have to tell you I was floored in a positive way. Simply having a conversation is half the battle. Evangelism isn't trying to convince someone to believe in a cause we ourselves don't believe in, it is an attempt to share with others what we ourselves have come to know and experience. It is about helping others experience the grace and love of Jesus.

Evangelism isn't something that should be forced, it is something that flows out of who we are as Christians, as lovers of Jesus.

Let's all be evangelists!!!! Let's love our friends no matter what they believe, but let's love them enough to speak truth to them. One of the saying we have here at the Rock is Jesus loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way!!! let's love our friends in the same way.

The Dating Game

Dating, it's fun and exciting...it's nerves and excitement all in one! The thing is, it isn't a game. As long as I can remember there have been game shows about dating. Really it is sad to let some game show host decide what your love life will be like. I imagine those kinds of shows are exciting for the people on them, but my guess is they are rarely effective.

When you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend you feel loved and accepted, maybe in a way that you don't at any other time. That is what marriage is like in some ways, only marriage is much better. You are loved and accepted in the context of a life long commitment. Unconditional love can only be truly experienced in that context. If it is love you are seeking (and we all are) then you should start by making sure you have developed a good relationship with the one who is most committed to you...Jesus! His commitment was completely sacrificial and He is committed to your well being more than anyone ever will be. In the story of Ruth she gets here relationship with God right before she ever meets Boaz.

In the end dating isn't about feeling loved for a moment, a day, a week, a month, or even a year. Dating is about finding that person with the right character and values. Dating is about finding a person who will be comitted to loving you for the rest of your life, not a person who "falls" in love with you and might just as easily "fall" out of love with you. Boaz went to great lengths to make sure that Ruth was taken care of, he was committed to her for as long as they lived. He wasn't the kind of guy that was going to give up and go away nor was he the kind of guy that would later turn his back on a commitment he made. Ruth was the same way she was in it for th long haul. That's what dating is about. As soon as you realize that the person you are dating is not that kind of person...end the dating relationship. The longer you put it off, the harder it gets to end it. If your not careful you will end up married to someone you should never have married.

One last thing. A couple of people have asked me how you go about asking a girls dad if you can date her. Let me give you a couple of ideas:

• First, you may want to go on 1 or 2 dates to make sure she is interested. Going on one or two dates is not a relationship. On those dates I would highly recommend not even holding hands. Holding someones hand only tells you the temperature of their body which is probably close to 98.6 degrees (mine is closer to 97.6...must be Minnesota blood).
• Second, if there seems to be a desire on your part and her part to actually have a relationship, then it is time to go and talk to dad. If it is possible do this in person
• Third, her mom and dad are always "Mr." and "Mrs." Be respectful and honest.
  
• Fourth, let dad know your commitment to his daughter is honorable and that you take a dating relationship seriously. Because of that you are committed to being honest and forthright in the relationship.
• Fifth, make a commitment to yourself, your girlfriend, and you her parents to stay pure...but make sure you follow through on it. As a dad who has a daughter who will one day be dating I can assure you that if that commitment was made to me I would want to do everything I can to help the couple accomplish it and I would be very upset if that commitment was broken. That doesn't mean there wouldn't be grace and forgiveness, but I might have to go off by myself and cry for a couple days.

I am going to do another post later this week about how far is too far.

Twilight

Usually when you see a movie involving vampires you expect to see a lot of violence, gore, and blood. In the case of Twilight there is some violence and blood, but in reality it is very mild considering the fact that it is a vampire movie. Instead we find a romance surrounded by all kinds of different relationships. There are relationships with parents, with friends, and with those who are...different.
At Rock student ministries we are beginning a series based on the book of Ruth. This book has a lot of similarities with Twilight the movie. There is a romance, relationships with parent, friends, a those who are...different. As we go through this series I am going to be blogging about the topics we cover each week. Relationships are difficult and the decisions we make in regards to these relationships often impact us for the rest of our lives in ways we may not even be aware of.
Check out the blog every week for some added insight in regards to relationships.