You can always expect the Lord to speak
So I found a podcast for the Village Church a few weeks ago and I’ve been listening to quite a few of the sermons. I finished up their series on singleness. Two things stood out from that series. The first is that singleness and marriage are both gifts from God. The word used in 1 Cor 7 is the same used for spiritual gifts. So God gives us a grace gift regardless of the situation in which we find ourselves. The other concept is that as a single I need to quit whining and get up and walk. I need to walk in the situation in which Christ called me. Also during this time I need to allow Christ to continue to work on my character. This pastor mentioned specifically selfish, communication and conflict resolution.
The other series I’m listening to now is on loneliness. This one on the surface looks like it would tie in with the singleness series and it does to a point yet loneliness is something experienced by everyone regardless of marital status, economic status or educational background. The main point I brought away from the series so far is that being more social is not going to fix loneliness. Loneliness stems from the fact that we are sinful and broken people. On the upside however, it is in these times of loneliness that the Lord comes in meets with us in deep, intimate fellowship. The pastor used a great quote from C.S. Lewis,
“We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities, and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. A bad man, happy, is a man without the least inkling that his actions do not ‘answer,’ that they are not in accord with the laws of the universe.”
So that is my prayer now that during this time that I feel lonely that God would meet with me and change me.
If you are interested in checking out the podcast from the Flower Mound Campus – Village Church. They also have transcripts of most of the sermons as well.
![[Slashdot]](http://www.codeoffaith.com/wp-content/plugins/slashdigglicious/img/slashdot.ico){kind=small}
![[Digg]](http://www.codeoffaith.com/wp-content/plugins/slashdigglicious/img/digg.ico){kind=small}
![[Reddit]](http://www.codeoffaith.com/wp-content/plugins/slashdigglicious/img/reddit.ico){kind=small}
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.codeoffaith.com/wp-content/plugins/slashdigglicious/img/delicious.ico){kind=small}
![[Facebook]](http://www.codeoffaith.com/wp-content/plugins/slashdigglicious/img/facebook.ico){kind=small}
![[Technorati]](http://www.codeoffaith.com/wp-content/plugins/slashdigglicious/img/technorati.ico){kind=small}
![[Google]](http://www.codeoffaith.com/wp-content/plugins/slashdigglicious/img/google.ico){kind=small}
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.codeoffaith.com/wp-content/plugins/slashdigglicious/img/stumbleupon.ico){kind=small}
When people spit on your faith
So last Friday night I was getting ready to leave work and I decided I would show off the video ability of my new iPod to my shift manager. So I fired up one of the sermons from the iGod series at Fielder Road and showed it to my boss and some of the other employees. I started telling them that it was part of the iGod series. The guy that was holding my iPod almost dropped it. He began to tell me of his disgust for God and how he lived a life that was polar opposite to God's command. He told me that if he went to church he would burst into flames. I think he was being a bit melodramatic.
He then proceeded to tell me of his disgust with the church and their belief that homosexuals were destroying the American family. He expressed his theory of what is actually harming the modern family. He said that everyone has to work 2-3 jobs to make ends meet. He went on to state that he hadn't seen his kids in over a week because he had been working so much. He again stated his distaste for Christians and acted as if to spit on Christianity.
My coworkers distaste of Christians didn't really bother me that much. What really got to me was the need and hurt in his life. I felt burdened by the Lord right then to find a way to minister to him. So I'm praying about how I can help my coworker get home and see his kids. Should I just take part of my paycheck and give it to him and tell him to take off and go see his kids? Would he take my gift?
So this is one of those situations where I'm going to have to show him love before he will listen to what I have to say about Christ. So he can continue to spit and I'll just continue to give him a cup of cold water in Jesus's name.
iPods are fun.
We got our iPods in at Fielder on Tuesday. They bought these for "testing" purposes. I didn't get much work done Tuesday afternoon because I was uploading podcasts and just figuring out the menus. It's a video iPod so I downloaded Strong Bad Emails to watch later. Work at Pizza Hut the last two nights just flew by. I listened to TWiT and sermons by Chuck Swindoll. I didn't think about how tired I was or that I wanted to go home. I also didn't harass my supervisor about going home early.
My one purchase for this thing is going to be the iPocketBible. I will be able to have the text and the audio of the entire bible.
When you least expect it
I was speaking with my shift supervisor at work last night and she asked me how I could afford my new iPod. I told her that it belonged to the church I work for and I'm working two jobs right now. She asked me what I do for Fielder Road and then asked me what I wanted to do when I graduate. I told her that I wasn't sure. Apparently that was the catalyst that started our conversation. She told me that she felt like she hasn't accomplished anything in her life. She's only 20 by the way. So I told her of how I've worked for various employers in various fields and I didn't find fulfillment in any of these jobs. I shared with her how God used the last five years to change my way of thinking.
She really opened up and shared with me about her trepidation about having a child. She is several months pregnant and didn't think she wanted children in the past. What was interesting about all this is that she usually comes off kind of gruff. But last night I saw a person that was friendly and open.
It's amazing that when you least expect it God will drop an opportunity right in your lap.
Optimus Prime in China
This is just funny. The guys write up is pretty good.
http://www.karateparty.org/content/view/387/37/
Podcasts to check out
So I have to make a couple shameless plugs. First is Fielder Road podcasts. Partly because I helped get them set up distributing the content they already had as a podcast. Second is Faith Factor Radio . This is a site run by my church, Travis Avenue. They are projecting to begin offering podcasts in the next couple of months. There are mp3 downloads available of the last few months of sermons.
Update – 1/27/2010: I left Fielder Road in Feb 2009 and we were in the process of moving from WordPress to DotNetNuke. Apparently they didn’t port the RSS functionality to DotNetNuke.
