He-Man and the Holy Spirit

2 Corinthians 1:3-11 (English Standard Version)

God of All Comfort

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. ⁶ If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. ⁷Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

⁸For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. ⁹Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. ¹⁰ He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. ¹¹ You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

I have really been pondering a few words over the last couple years. They are synonym pairs. Meaning they sound alike but have different meanings. Wholly and Holy is one pair. Rain and Reign is another. In my journal I wrote out (after reading the above passage) that God uses rain in your life so that he can reign your life. You must become wholly God's before you can become holy. It has to rain before you give yourself wholly, and He must reign before you become holy.

Did I just confuse you? How does that make you feel? Do you agree or disagree?

Lately the sin of pride has taken over my life. If you ask anyone that knows me they will likely say I am not a prideful person. See, but I have stopped reaching out and asking for help. I still find it hard. I even thought I needed to handle some stuff on my own that no human can handle. I needed to surrender to the cross, but my pride wouldn't let me. I so wanted to fix it on my own. Or, I wanted my husband to fix it. Or I wanted someone else to fix it. Not God. He was too busy, and we need to do our work.

Oye, Shelley don't you remember that it is by grace we have been saved through faith, not by works so that none may boast?

I need to let that grace rain down into my life. I need to let that grace reign my life. (Todd Agnew in my head) I need to let Jesus reign my life. I surrender ALL. I desire to be wholly yours God. (David Crowder now runs in that space... I am holy, holy, wholly yours)

Why do I keep trying to grab the reigns back from God. Why can't I just let go and let Jesus take the wheel? (Carrie Underwood running in my head now) What is stopping me? Pride. (silence.)

Seriously God, I need you right now more than ever. Now and again I seem to forget that I am only dust. Now and again I seem to think I have the power, when in reality I am powerless. In reality, I am a dweeb like prince Eric and it is only by the power of your Holy Spirit that I can become He-Man (not the power of Greyskull.) You are the only one who can give me this strength. (don't tell me you are putting a sword above your head saying "by the power of Jesus!" in your head right now, because I am and that is just too funny.) I am trying to be serious. I am serious. I need you.

I need you Jesus
to come to my rescue
where else can I go?
There's no other name by
which I am saved
capture me with grace
and I will follow you...

this world has nothing for me...

US magazine, Baseball Cards and Pokemon

Everyone has their obsession.

Do you need to check the score of the game? Do you need to watch the game? Do you follow a team? Do you follow certain players? Do you collect their cards, books, or movies?

How about celebrities? Do you need that new issue of People, InTouch or US Weekly? I know some people really do care about Michael Jackson's kids, or Brangelina Pitt, but I could care less. They are normal people like you and me, and if you quit following them around with a camera, they might have a chance at not screwing up their lives so much.

Kids collect everything having to do with their favorite character. Spiderman underpants, t-shirts, video games, movies, books, towels, soap, socks, sheets and .... oh yeah action figures. Or how about Pokemon? I don't know too much about it, its a Japanese cartoon based on a card game, or vice versa, where the object is "gotta catch em all!"

Well, I have been trying to get through this "pastor" obsession that I have. Then it hit me just the other day. My love for other churches and pastors is no different for how some people follow baseball teams and celebrities. I get kinda star struck when the name "Perry Noble" gets mentioned. To be honest, if given a choice between meeting Perry or Brad Pitt, I would pick Pastor P without any hesitation. I love his sermons, I love his preaching, I love his honesty, I love his blog. He would be an awesome guy to sit down and chat with.

"Dave Ferguson" is another name that I love. He is my local celebrity pastor whom I love, pray for him and his family, read his blog and root for. He also happens to be one of the guys that started the church I attend. Here's the kicker: he knows who I am, he knows my name, by sight. That overwhelms me sometimes, but then I get hit in the forehead by my own hand.

Jesus is the most Famous One of them all. He knows your name, he knows the very number of hairs on your head, in fact, he knit you together in your mother's womb. The creator of the universe, He knows you and loves you and wants a relationship with you. If you wanna start dropping names, start and end with that one.

Okay, so I still wonder if my fondness for pastors isn't weird, but at least every once and a while I can be thankful that Jesus loves us no matter how screwed up we are. If I am gonna have my home team be the Jesus team, the Jesus mission, then so be it. Winner every time, guaranteed.