Patience and Contentment

I graduated college in May of 2015, over a year ago. I’ve been looking for a job ever since. While looking for a job I worked part time (one day a week) filming high school and community college sports across Mississippi for 11 months. I’m not that big into sports, but I know how to work a camera and needed the money. It was not fun, but the money was good. Overall, It has a difficult year. The main lesson I learned was to trust in the Lord. I never doubted that He had a job somewhere for me, so that gave me hope for the future and that helped me stay content. During that year, I learned patience the hard way. Patience and contentment were the biggest things I learned.  A lot of my days were spent at Starbucks on my computer looking online for jobs. I must have applied for over 100 jobs, and out of those, I only heard anything back from about 25% of them, and out of that 25%, only about 10% seemed interested, and out of that 10% only about 5% called me in for an interview. The wait and the negative responses I got made it easy to get depressed and feel bad about myself, but instead of having a pity party, I redirected that to my hope in the Lord. Every time I submitted my resume or applied for an application I prayed “Lord, if this isn’t the job for me, please close the door in my face. If it is for me, please open the door. Not my will, but yours.”

As I mentioned, during this time, I spent a lot of time sitting in Starbucks. There I got to know the Baristas and other regular customers fairly well. I was able to help encourage people and talk about God to people. One of my professors who quickly became my friend, asked me “What if you are unemployed because there is one person that God wants you to talk to?” This made me think. If the Lord could use me to give a word of encouragement that changed their life, or share the gospel to at least one person, me being unemployed would be totally worth it. I got to talk with and encourage many people, as well as share the gospel with an atheist Australian street performer in New Orleans. I also got to know a regular at Starbucks named Jamal. Jamal is a Muslim Saudi Arabian who is working on his PhD at Mississippi State University. English is not his first language, so he would always bring me his laptop and have me proof-read his papers for school. In addition to helping him with his papers, over the year we didn’t exchange much more than basic pleasantries and greetings. Every time I talked to him I kept feeling like I needed to share the gospel with him. But sadly , our conversations never went in that direction. Well, finally, in mid June of 2016, he and I were talking about life and how people act, and the door was opened for me to share the gospel with him. I was able to share with him the simple truths of what Jesus did and the concept of God’s grace and how there is nothing that we need to do in order to be saved, just simply believe. It was a very organic conversation that fell in line with what we were talking about and wasn’t forced. I didn’t see him convert on the spot, I simply planted a seed, a pebble in his shoe that hopefully he will take out and further examine in the future. A week after that, I was offered a job at a locally owned and operated online store. Maybe Jamal was the reason the Lord had me to be unemployed for so long: so I could build a relationship with him and eventually share the gospel with him. I guess I’ll find out in eternity.

I write this to encourage people in similar situations that no matter where you find yourself in life, no matter what you may be going through, no matter what the future looks like, TRUST THE LORD! Romans 8:28 says “He works everything together for the good of those who love Him.” This has been a comforting verse to me for many years, and it shows me that no matter what happens, whether we think it is good, or whether we think it is bad, the Lord uses those situations to help build and better us. We need only to trust Him. As long as we are trusting Him, He will provide for us and lead us to where He wants us.

A song that encouraged me a lot through this past year, was “Finish What He Started” by Steven Curtis Chapman. One set of lyrics really sticks out to me:

And it may feel like 40 long days in a hard driving rain

Or 40 years in a dry desert sand

But when He’s finished we will SEE

A beautiful tapestry

And know that nothing has been wasted in the end

Oh, and God will, He will finish what He started

No thread will be unwoven

Nothing will be left undone

Every plan and every purpose

That He has will be accomplished

And God will finish what He’s begun

And we’ll stand as the ones completed

By the miracle of His love

Stay strong, my brothers and sisters, trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding, although in our hearts we try to plan our course, it is the Lord that establishes our steps.

Missing the Counsel of my Friend

Last night while driving home I started thinking about some things that my mentor and good friend Butch Simmons taught me about how to deal with people who don't teach a clear presentation of the gospel, which is extremely common in the "church" today.

It frustrates me so much to hear people say the gospel in one sentence, "to be saved you must believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and rose again." But then turn around a few minutes later and add works to the simple faith by saying, "if you are doing certain sins, haven't turned from sins, or if you don't see yourself doing good works, you were never saved at all." This is the works-based false gospel that is rampant in our society. Should we do good works and turn from sin? ABSOLUTELY! But that is all part of our Christian life, walking in fellowship with God, which is what we do after we are saved. It is the next phase of our life, which lasts until the day we die physically and go to be with the Lord. It is important to do good works and to confess and turn from sin, but those have nothing to do with our initial salvation (justification) which is by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. No works can be added to that faith, or it ceases to be the gospel (Ephesians 2:8-9, John 3:16, Acts 16:30-31, Romans 11:6). 

For the past four years I have intensely studied the theologies that teach that false gospel to better understand where they are coming from in order for me to know how to share the true message of the gospel with those who follow it (Ephesians 2:8-9, John 3:16, Acts 16:30-31). Upon studying those beliefs I come across well known pastors and authors that teach this stuff. To a new believer, lay Christian/normal church goer, or one who has not studied the differences in those teachings and contrasted the to scripture, these dynamic speakers and pastors seem great and spot on. And I admit, I once really liked some of them. And most of them are great brilliant people who know the word of God, yet they have been led astray by man-made theologies and are not clear on the gospel. I have lost count of all the people who follow these well known pastors and authors. We would talk about the gospel and I would share the essential verses of the gospel to them (Ephesians 2:8-9, John 3:16, Acts 16:30-31) and these people would say, "simply believing isn't enough. Thats too easy. There has to be more to it". It saddens me to hear people say that, to hear that so many people have been taught that the simple gospel of God's grace wasn't enough. They were led to believe that there had to be something that they contributed, whether it be a contract/commitment or certain works to add to it. They miss the simple concept that Christ paid it all on the cross. He did every good thing for us, he paid for all our sins, and he tells us that if we simply believe in Him that we will have eternal life. Once we are saved, we are then called to live a life that glorifies Him.

What does this have to do with Butch?

I get very angry and frustrated when I hear the gospel being resented unclearly or when people add works to it. I want to call out those well known pastors and tell people that even though those pastors are solid on most of scripture, they do not teach God's grace, they instead teach a gospel of works. I always look to Paul's letter to the Galatians. The church of Galatia, though they were saved, they started adding works onto salvation, saying that to be saved you needed to do good works as well. Paul very harshly reprimands them. He especially calls out those who taught them those things, calling them (Galatians 1:6-10). I would always find myself calling out those well known pastors and authors.

I would always express my concerns to Butch about this. He agreed with me on those things and about those pastors but I never once heard him call those people out or point fingers. Even though he thought the same as I did, he would always quote Ephesians 6:12 to me. 

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms". 

He would tell me that the anger that I felt about those teachings was "righteous anger", meaning I had every right to be angry about things that contradicted scripture, but he was quick to quote that verse and he reminded me that my anger and frustration should not be with those pastors, because they have been led astray and do not know it. My anger and frustration should be with the forces that led them astray, the deceptive theologies that distort the gospel are from satan. He would tell me that even though he disagreed with them on soteriology(study of salvation), he wouldn't call them out by name.  He would tell me that by calling those people out, it would only cause arguments with other believers. We should speak the truth of the gospel. Calling people out isn't always profitable.

Last night I had an argument with a fellow believer and he didn't think that the pastors and authors were teaching anything contrary to scripture. I know him and we both agree that salvation is by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, not by works. He just didn't think that they taught that stuff. I tried to explain their beliefs that I studied for the past four years but, as usual, it didn't come out clear when I tried to explain it. He thought I was talking about something else entirely. He went on to tell me that I shouldn't point fingers at pastors. 
After I got in my car, I was immediately reminded of those wise words Butch used to tell me every time I got upset. The truth and conviction hit me and I realized just how much I missed Butch. He has ben a big part of my life for about a decade now. For the past 2 years he had been meeting up with me every week for one on one discipleship/mentoring. 

A little over three weeks ago Butch went into the hospital for a routine surgery for a hiatal (stomach) hernia. The surgery went well but 3 days after the surgery he started having complications and they had to rush him to the Critical Care Unit for emergency surgery. When they opened him up they found that the top half of his stomach had not been getting any blood pumped to it since the surgery and that it was dead.  He was also septic. They removed that top section of his stomach but because of that, his esophagus was no longer connected to his stomach. For about a week the doctors didn't think he would make it. But here we are 3 weeks later and he is still with us and is slowly improving. The doctors say that if he continues to do better, in about six months they will do surgery on him again to reattach his esophagus to his stomach.

I started crying when I thought about the last time I saw Butch. When I saw him last, he was wide awake and looking around, but it was like he was trapped in his own body. It was pitiful. Seeing a man who was so in love with the Lord who lived literally day to day to serve the Lord, the strongest most dedicated man of God that I had ever met, so helpless and trapped. I just broke down. I know that I shouldn't worry because the lord will work everything out in His will. And I know that regardless of the circumstance Butch is trusting Him too. But I just can't see how having one of his faithful servants who served him diligently every day for decades who still has plenty of life left to live, trapped and confined to a room not being able to communicate is profitable. How is his current state bringing glory to God when he could be out there serving God?  I know the Lord has a plan, but in the moment I have so many questions and am so depressed about the situation. 

I guess the only thing to do in the moment is to trust the Lord and his promises, and know that God knows what he is doing. He has a purpose and reason for everything that happens to us. And He reminds us that everything works together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). 

Butch doing karate "back in the day"

This is one of the most impressive
pictures of him! HA

Butch with the MSU Egg Bowl trophy!

2013 A Year In Review

      Wow, 2013 is over already?! That was fast! A lot has happened in this year in my life. Some good and some bad. But overall it was an amazing year. I have grown so close to The Lord and have found what my spiritual gifts are. So without further ado, I am going to give a somewhat brief overview of my year. Not everything will be on chronological order though.


One of the great things that happened this year was in my Students For Life Group. By the end of the spring semester of 2013 the only people still devoted to our group were me, my amazing Vice President, Robby, and our Friend Assanti. We needed more members and we needed more females. Standing up for equal rights for all human beings doesn't matter on the gender, but the liberal prochoice people and the people in the fence about the issue all see it as a woman's issue. So in order to have them listen to the truth, we needed to get to their level and speak to them through ways that they liked. So throughout the summer Robby and I prayed not only for more members, but especially for female members. 

So when September rolled around we attended the Students For Life Mississippi Regional Leadership Summit. All of the SFL college groups in MS attended and we listened to several amazing speakers. I was blessed to have been asked to be the Master of Ceremonies for the conference and got to introduce all the speakers. That was really neat and fun!  To me the most amazing part of it all was hearing the personal testimonies of women who have been doing sidewalk counseling outside of the lone abortion clinic in MS. Some of these women have been doing it for over 20 years. They talk to the young women going into the clinic to get abortions and they redirect them to a pregnancy center that offers free testing and loving care and counseling all free of charge. Since 2009, these women and the other folks with Pro Life Mississippi have saved over 650 lives by talking to the mothers who were considering abortion. And more than 10 times that many heard the truth about abortion. These women who do sidewalk counseling in Jackson are hands down the bravest people who I have ever met! They have been threatened, harassed, physically abused, arrested without given a reason, and have even been victims if police brutality. Their stance for Life is nothing less than a selfless act of love and dedication to The Lord. Not only have these insane actions against them affected them, but it also has affected their families. One woman's husband was actually demoted simply because of his wife's peaceful selfless passion to try to save lives. This goes to show you how much Satan is corrupting our world. One of these women that I met was the first abortionist in the State of Mississippi, but after several years of killing innocent children, she stopped and converted to being prolife. I will never forget these women and their bravery! 

Oh, back to the part about our group members at the conference we gained 2 new members! Both were female and were extremely passionate about the group! It was an answered prayer! We later gained 3 more female members, officially making the females the dominate sex of the group! Since then we have picked up traction and have accomplished a lot. We were awarded the Student Group of the Month for September from the National group Students For Life of America. We were one of only two in the country to be awarded this! We also held a bake sale to raise money for our activities since we hardly had any funds, and we raised over $200 in one day! This is truly amazing! Me, Robby, and Anja(our archivist that we met at the conference) attended 12 hours of training to be volunteers at the new Starkville Pregnancy Care Center that opened in December. We learned how to talk to people considering abortion, counseling them, providing them with hope and options, and many other great skills. We will start volunteering this year. I just recently finished making a commercial for the Center that will play at the movie Theatre in Starkville for the next year! That is exciting as well! The center is run by an amazing staff and I love all of them! They are sweet, loving, helpful, prayerful, godly women! There couldn't be a better set of staff to work there! This place is a Godsend will offer hope and save lives! Starkville is no longer the only town in the SEC without a Pregnancy Center. Praise God! all glory to Him! 


One of the biggest realizations I had this year was how much I am thankful for my breakup that I went through 2 years ago.  Because of the relationship and the breakup, I have grown closer to God than ever in my life. And had she not been in my life, there is no telling where I'd be now. So thank you God for letting me experience this trial and for delivering me from it and making me a better and more Godly man than before. And thank you Katherine for the year an a half of happiness and spiritual encouragement and for breaking my heart. Through the good and bad that you did, know this: because of you, I am now a better man and a more God-focused man! I forgive you Freckles and Im thankful for all of it.

Over the summer I worked at a camp called Ikthoos. It was started over 50 years ago by my church patriarch Dr Nap Clark. He passed away the previous summer while at camp. This 83 year old man of God shared the gospel one last time at the last night session and went to bed and went to be with The Lord. Mr Nap was a very inspiring man who wasn't afraid to share the gospel and did so for over 50 years and shared the gospel with thousands of people. This summer was my first time working there and it was amazing! Unlike the theatre camp I worked at previously, all the people were accepting, nonjudgmental, loving, and most of all, they all believed in the Gospel. I was a counselor at the camp and me and my good friend Andy mentored a group of about 8 high school boys. We also learned a lot from the speakers that were there. It was a fun and amazing experience to grow in The Lord! I will definitely be working there again! 


Now, I think the best thing that happened in my life in 2013 was my friendship with my new best friend, Erin. We had met the previous semester (fall 2012) in an incredibly boring and confusing Philosophy class. When I saw her in class, something about her stuck out,of all the people in the class, she stuck out. I couldn't figure out what it was. I soon found out that she too was a believer when her and I were the only ones who stayed after class to talk to the professor about the existence of God. We talked after class a few times that semester, but that was all. Well after I attended the Passion Conference in January,  I made it my New Years resolution to read through the whole New Testament in a year(I accomplished this goal in a slow pace at the beginning of December). So with 2 hours in between classes that semester, I would spend it sitting in Einstein Bros. Bagels reading my bible. In early January we ran into each other in there and she happened to be going through the same passages as I was. She then suggested that we meet up and talk about what we had read. So that's where the friendship began. We started meeting up at least once a week to get to know each other and discuss scripture. I found out that she had only been a believer for a few years and was still growing in her walk with him. So by the direction of the Holy Spirit I set out to help her grow. We discussed the gospel, controversial scripture passages, and how to grow in our relationship with Christ. In explaining some of the controversial passages, such as James 2, she caught on and understood faster and better than anyone I've ever discussed it with! As we continued in the friendship we became  a lot closer and felt comfortable sharing things with each other that we were struggling with and were able to help hold each other accountable. Com summer she worked the whole summer at a Christian camp where she changed the lives of many young kids! I have never been so proud of someone before! I know it is ultimately the Holy Spirit doing all the things through her, but the fact that she opened up herself for it to work through her was what I was proud of. I've had the privilege of watching her grow and become more mature in her walk with The Lord and it is one of the most rewarding and exciting experiences of my life! As I said, I set out with the intentions of helping and encouraging her in her walk with The Lord, but I never expected that I would benefit so much from the friendship. Seeing her grow encouraged me to do more, and she helped me through numerous trials and struggles that I have gone through. It is amazing! I've never had a friend like this that helped me so much and brought me so close to The Lord. 

One of the other things that I realized through my amazing friendship with my sister in Christ is what exactly my spiritual gifts were. I have come to realize through her and several other situations with people that my spiritual gifts are encouragement and faith. And both go hand in hand when helping people. I am able to always encourage people and point them to The Lord in any circumstance and I am also able to maintain my faith as my solid rock foundation. No matter what happens in life, when all else has failed me, my faith and trust in Christ always remains. And The Lord always is faithful in helping me in those situations. 

All my life I've thought that I needed to lead someone to Christ. But I've never been good at evangelizing to random people. People like Nap Clark had a gift for doing that, and in his 60 some years of doing so, he only had one person refuse to listen to to it. While we are called to do this by The Lord, it doesn't always come easy. I have realized that I am not gifted at all at sharing the gospel with random people, but I have been able to successfully share the gospel while in conversation with people.

I had an old high school friend of mine bring up the topic of my "religious beliefs" as he called them and he praised me on my dedication, and that opened up an opportunity for me to share the gospel with him. And I wasn't nervous or scared, The Lord opened the door for me and I walked through it with ease. The funny thing with that particular instance is that I had been praying before hand that he wouldn't come in the bagel shop and bug me.  Haha! But after I prayed that is realized that it was selfish of me to pray that, so I rayed again "Lord, if it is your will for him to come in here, please give me an opportunity to share your word with him" and by golly that's exactly what happened! God is amazing like that. 

Anywho, back to the original point. I have found that although I am not gifted at random evangelizing, God has given me the gift of encouragement, as I mentioned before. He has shown me that encouraging other believers and helping them understand the bible better is a very important thing to as well. I realize that The Lord has gifted me in that area and that I am able to do that a lot better than random evangelizing. But as I shared, he also presents me with plenty of opportunities to share the gospel. We all act with the gifts he has given to us and we all work together to further the kingdom, the body of believers, the Church, the Bride of Christ. Each member does their part.

Another great experience I had over the summer was being able to convert a prochoice liberal over to being a prolife advocate. You can find more info on this incident in one of my previous posts from June 10th titled "An analytical response to a Pro-Choice Progressive" and it's follow up post from July 28th titled "One Won Over for Life". This goes to show that great things can come about through peacefully and lovingly debating with people. 

One last thing that happened this year, I see as very little of a thing compared to all else that has happened, is that I have lost some weight. I used to drink soft drinks all the time. So one day I randomly decided that I was going to go a week without drinking any. So I did. Instead I drank sugar free lemonade and sugar free grape juice. As a result, in the first week I had lost 5 pounds! I was shocked! Still used to not drinking soft drinks, I went another week without drinking them, and in 2 weeks I had lost over 7 pounds! Seeing the difference on that scale was such a good feeling! 

Overall this year has been amazing! It has had it's ups and downs, but overall, it has been a major up compared to previous years. The most important lesson I've learned this year is to completely turn things over to God and trust Him. Meditating in prayer a lot has helped tremendously! I urge you all to do the same. Here's to an even better year!

Happy 2014!