Quote of the Week 10/23

He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart

C.S. Lewis, British scholar and novelist. 1898-1963

Fat Man Walkin'

I have come to an undeniable conclusion… I am not as young as I once was. It is fact that after a certain age (which I have passed), if nothing about your lifestyle changes, you start to gain weight. Not that I have become grossly obese but I am starting to feel the gravitational pull that only one too many Krispy Kremes can bestow. I fear that if nothing changes I will need to start carrying an emergency stick of Butter Flavored Crisco in the event I need to perform an emergency extrication from a door that until that moment I was able to pass unhindered.

As a preemptive strike (before greasing up becomes necessary) I have started to walk. I bought a pedometer and have started to count my steps. According to Shape Up America 10,000 steps (about 5 miles) a day are required to maintain. My first week I had two days less than 2000.

My goal is to increase my daily average steps five percent each week until everyday I am doing 12,000 steps. So far (I am in the third week) I am meeting my goals. The issue that is rapidly approaching will be the days I don’t work. While I am active (I have two small children) my house just isn’t that big and with the weather rapidly changing, going outside could prove challenging.

My ultimate goal is; when my children are teenagers and want to go out and participate in outdoor activities that I don’t resemble Jabba the Hut and I can join them.

"Noah, Kaara is that your dad with the BBQ pork rinds and the Diet Coke? I think he has fallen down"… What a proud day that would be.

The encouraging thing is I have already started to see progress. While I have not lost any significant weight, I have lost 1% body fat.

Quote of the Week 10/16

"Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates"


Mark Twain

Quote of the Week 10/9

I many no longer depend on pleasant impulses to bring me before the Lord. I must rather response to principles I know to be right, whether I feel them to be enjoyable or not.

Jim Elliot

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Children of the Corn

I attended the First Baptist Church of Hammond Indiana (http://www.baptist-city.com/) pastored by Jack Hyles once.

I had recently graduated from Boot Camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center and was going to Basic Electricity school at NTC. One Saturday morning I was headed to the galley for breakfast when I was approached by a clean cut individual who struck up a conversation with me. I grew up in an Evangelical church, knew the Four Spiritual Laws, attended sharing your faith seminars and recognized what was happening. I practically knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?" he asked.
"Yes, I have been a Christian since I was six years old", was my response.
"How do you know?" at which point I told him about my testimony. He then told me about a sailor ministry their church ran (http://www.hookpublications.com/ministry.htm) and invited me to attend.

I was young, bored, poor, lonely and far from home (like most sailors at NTC Great Lakes). I was ripe to be recruited into a cult.

On the bus ride to Hammond the same guy asked me again if I was a Christian. I guess he was concerned about my salvation. It turned out he was really REALLY concerned about my salvation since he would ask me a total of six times over the course of the weekend.

Once we got there we got some preaching and an altar call. I have seen many alter calls over the course of my life so this was not new to me. I was asked if I was a Christian (3 for those keeping score) and did I want to go forward? My response… "Yes I am and NO I don’t". After the altar call we were all told we needed to be spending time in The Word and we needed to get ourselves a "Good King James Bible". At this point I slid my NIV into my backpack out of fear I might be exposed. I didn’t know what they would do to me and I didn’t want to know.

After the meeting we were housed with a family of the church. On the way to the home, you guessed it, "are you a Christian (4)?"

That evening we had a lively debate over the King James Bible versus the less holy bibles.
At this point I need to make something clear. I like the King James Bible. Not until I was 10 or 11 years old did my family go to a church that used the NIV. I know find I am most comfortable with the NKJV for my personal use. The thing is since I don’t read Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic I must use a translation. The fact that the translators of the KJV threw out their quill every time they wrote the name of God does not make it "The Holy Bible" (this was the actual argument the guy gave me as to why the KJV was superior to all other translations). If that were the case that would mean that non-English speaking people would not have access to God’s word. There is no real King James Mandarin for example.

I went to bed confused and more than a little pissed off. Tomorrow would be a better day.

"Why are the ushers carrying assault rifles?"
"Because Brother Hyles has had death threats."
"Uh-huh."

It didn’t look like my experience was going to improve.

I have gone to church my entire life and have sat through hundreds if not thousands of "3 point" sermons. That Sunday’s sermon is the only one where I remember all three points.

1. You are saved through faith.
   
2. Faith without action (works) is dead.
   
3. Tithing is your works.
   Conclusion: Unless you tithe you are not saved.
   Then they passed the plate.
   

There was an altar call for anybody who wanted to be saved or baptized. Wait for it…
"Do you want to go forward (5)?"
"No, I’m already a Christian."
"How about to be baptized?"
"No thank you, I have been baptized."
"You know just being baptized doesn’t make you a Christian."
"YES I KNOW I BECAME A CHRISTIAN WHEN I WAS 6 YEARS OLD I WAS BAPTIZED AT 16!"

On the way home I made the mistake of questioning the theology of the sermon. I received a firm rebuke. "We don’t question Pastor Hyles". At this point I decided I should probably not say anything more and just try to survive until I got back to NTC.

Those who know me now could probably imagine me being very confrontational but remember I was only 18 and away from home for the first time. My questions were real, not argumentative. I was very confused. I had been in the church my whole life and NEVER had an experience like this.

On the bus trip back to NTC I was asked for the final time if I wanted to become a Christian (6). I also got yelled at for not paying attention to the gospel presentation going on in the front of the bus. But, I did make it home.

I like religion, I am comfortable with it. But, it is not who I am nor does it provide me a route to salvation. I am so glad that my Dad taught me to "test everything"

Don't suppress the Spirit, and don't stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don't be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what's good. Throw out anything tainted with evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 (The Message)

I have learned much about the First Baptist Church of Hammond since then (I won't go into it here but you can do a google serch and learn more). I have learned that my experience was not that unusual. I don’t believe that they started out bad. One of Satan’s best techniques is to twist the truth just enough to make it a lie but it still appears to be the truth. I think there are many, many people at FBC who are deceived by a counterfeit truth. I think that Pastor Hyles was. And the ministry he was charged with became a cult, good people are suffering because of it.

Had it not been for the lessons of my Dad I might have been sucked into this cult. I was looking for something, someplace to belong. Thankfully God was watching out for me.

Small Claims Part Deux

Shortly after I was married my new wife found a dead crow in our driveway. I joked with her that, “If you ignore a problem long enough the problem will go away”. After she went to work I got dressed to go out to clean up the bird—it was gone. It was a bit disturbing. Dead crows don’t simply fly away.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4 (NIV)

I believe God gives us small battles to fight so we are prepared when the day of evil comes. I am not saying that every conflict that arises is from God. But I do think that in our culture we have gotten soft and He allows conflicts to arise to mature us. When difficult situations arise it is far too common to run and hide. We ignore issues and hope they go away.

This is how I viewed my recent conflict with the collection agency. In fact over the last several months I prayed that God would “make it go away”. Whenever I would think about it my stomach would be in knots.

God didn’t make it go away. I believe He intended for me to stand and fight.

My wife saw this months ago and was at peace with it. I, however, had no peace until about ten minutes into the court proceedings.

I went into the court convinced that I would lose, at best the case would be thrown out. The woman that the collection agency sent was the same woman that attempted (and succeeded) to intimidate me last June at the court assigned mediation. I knew win or lose I had to stand in and fight. What the collection agency was doing may have been legal but it was wrong. After stating my case the collection agent started talking and I knew I had won. Ten minutes later the judge ruled in my favor.

I could have paid the debt. The money, although allot, was available and the problem would have gone away. That would have been the easy way and not the way God had intended. This would have been the path I would have taken if it had not been for my wife and her encouragement last June.

Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 3:6 (NKJV)

Collection Agencies

Collection agencies provide a valuable service that, unfortunately, is necessary. I do think they step their bounds. Should you find yourself dealing with one I have the following suggestions:

1. If you owe the money—pay it. I don’t want to oversimplify this because I know there are allot of difficult situations. The only right way to get out of a bad situation is to take responsibility for it.

Fulfill your obligations as a citizen. Pay your taxes, pay your bills, respect your leaders. Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code--don't sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, and any other "don't" you can think of--finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. Romans 13:7-9 (The Message)

2. Check your credit reports often. You are entitled to receive a free one every year. Get it.

3. If a collection agency says you owe money and you don’t; DON”T PAY THEM! Try to work it out with them but if they wont release you from the debt you are going to go to small claims court. There is no enforcement agency for fair debt collection in Oregon beyond the court. Let the court decide if you owe the money. Don’t be tempted to just pay them to make it go away even if it is a relatively small amount of Money. I believe to many people do this and collection agencies take advantage of it. To you it may only be a couple hundred dollars but if they do it to a many people it doesn’t take long to add up.

4. When signing a contract, understand what you are signing and get everything in writing. My problems started because I was told something and I believed it

I hope you never find yourself in this situation. If you do be encouraged and fight it, DON’T IGNOR IT HOPING IT WILL GO AWAY.

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Quote of the Week 10/2

Just get up off the ground, that's all I ask. Get up there with that lady that's up on top of this Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something. And you won't just see scenery; you'll see the whole parade of what Man's carved out for himself, after centuries of fighting. Fighting for something better than just jungle law, fighting so's he can stand on his own two feet, free and decent, like he was created, no matter what his race, color, or creed. That's what you'd see. There's no place out there for graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties. And, uh, if that's what the grownups have done with this world that was given to them, then we'd better get those boys' camps started fast and see what the kids can do. And it's not too late, because this country is bigger than the Taylors, or you, or me, or anything else. Great principles don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here; you just have to see them again!

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Small Claims Court

This week I will be going to small claims court.

In my life I have been in a courtroom once. Then I was only there as an observer. I have never even been to traffic court.

I am suing a collection agency that says I owe a debt that clearly I do not owe. I have documentation that says I don't owe the money yet the collection agency has failed to remove me from the debt. So, off to court.

Did you know that there is no regulating agency for collection agencies in the state of Oregon? They have to be licensed by the state but there is no enforcement agency. So, off to court.

The thing is, I am very nervous about it. I feel like a criminal (even though I am the one doing the suing). Whenever I think about it my stomach is in knots. I wish I knew why I felt this way. It's not about the money. I have the money and relatively speaking it's not very much. I just feel stupid for being in this situation even though there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. The good thing is, on Tuesday it will be over one way or the other.